12 Stake Out - My Sister the Vampire (14 page)

Olivia bit her lip. She didn’t answer.

‘For example . . .’ Ivy leaned forwards. ‘Remember how she said she might be too shy to meet that author? But from the way she spoke to him at the book-signing – and the way he recognised her at first sight – it definitely looked as if that wasn’t their first chat.’

‘She was really upset at the end of it,’ Olivia said slowly. ‘And the author seemed so angry about something she’d done.’

Ivy frowned. ‘You know, you’re right. He didn’t just seem annoyed, the way he would be at a fan who was getting pushy. He looked almost
disappointed
angry.’ She paused, her frown deepening. ‘There was something about his expression that looked familiar to me at the time, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.’

‘What do you mean?’ Olivia asked. ‘Had you met him somewhere before?’

‘No,’ Ivy said. ‘But I’ve seen that expression a lot lately – on my
angry relatives
.’

Olivia sucked in a breath as the realisation rocketed through her. ‘Could that be it? She’s always talking about
Bare Throats at Sunset
. But if she was somehow related to the author, why wouldn’t she have said so? And what’s this got to do with the blog?’

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Ivy said.

‘You’re right.’ Olivia sighed. ‘It’s time to talk to Holly and find out the truth.’

She stood up, steeling herself. When she turned around, though, she saw the Countess standing in the doorway. The Count and their dad came to stand behind her.

‘There’s absolutely no reason for you girls to bother yourselves any more,’ their grandmother said warmly. ‘You’ve done a brilliant job investigating, but now we’ll deal with Holly.’

Olivia felt a ripple of uneasiness. ‘What do you mean “deal with Holly”?’

‘Oh, nothing to worry about.’ The Countess waved a hand through the air. ‘A mere case of . . . misdirecting her. We’ve been doing it for centuries. How else do you think we could have kept ourselves secret for so long?’

Behind her, the Count nodded sternly. Even Olivia’s bio-dad had a hard, business-like look on his face. She felt a flutter of nerves as she looked around the circle of faces.

No matter what her mistakes had been, Holly was Olivia’s friend. And now Olivia’s grandmother was talking about their way to ‘deal with’ their current problem?

‘The look on your face!’ The Countess began to laugh, raising one hand to her mouth. ‘Oh, Olivia, my dear, no, no,
no
 
! There’s not a thing for you to worry about, I promise.’

But still . . .

Ivy stepped up to Olivia’s side. ‘Can you just put things on hold for a few hours? The two of us might be able to handle this quietly.’

The Countess frowned. ‘My dears, this is a serious matter.’

‘We know that,’ Olivia said. ‘But we have a strategy we want to try out first. Isn’t that right, Ivy?’

She kept her gaze fixed on her grandmother’s face, but in the corner of her eye, she saw Ivy looking at her bug-eyed. She wasn’t surprised – she hadn’t had a chance to share the plan she was forming. But surely . . .

Yes
. Like the faithful twin she was, Ivy nodded in agreement, on Olivia’s side as always. ‘We do,’ Ivy confirmed. ‘Will you trust us enough to try it? Please?’

The Countess’s eyes flickered over to Ivy. Her face turned grim. ‘Can you promise me that you won’t let us down this time?’

Olivia winced. She knew her hot-tempered twin. How much needling could Ivy take before she finally lost her patience? If that happened, everything could be lost.

But when she turned to look at Ivy, she found her twin the picture of calm composure. Ivy looked straight into their grandmother’s eyes as she spoke, her voice clear and confident: ‘Grandma, I have never let you down before.’

‘Oh?’ The Countess arched one eyebrow, her face hardening. ‘Have you already forgotten Wallachia Academy? Did our wishes mean so little to you then?’

‘Never,’ Ivy repeated. ‘You and Grandpa will always be important to me – but I’ve always made the choices that were true to myself. Isn’t that what the best vampires do?’

For a moment, Olivia couldn’t breathe as she watched emotions flicker across their grandmother’s face – irritation, surprise and then finally acceptance.

The Countess nodded as graciously as a queen. ‘I understand,’ she said. Her face softened, and she reached out to lay one hand on Ivy’s shoulder. ‘Yes, girls. I trust you both. Do what you have to.’

‘Thank you!’ Olivia gasped. She traded a relieved glance with Ivy and hurried out of the kitchen.

‘Go on, then,’ the Countess called after them. ‘But if you can’t resolve this issue by dusk, we’ll have to do it
our
way.’

‘We understand,’ Ivy said.

Olivia pulled Ivy to a halt at the living-room door. Inside, her dad was glumly ordering ugly clothes online while wedding catalogues lay ignored at his feet.

‘Dad?’ Olivia said. ‘Can we invite a friend to your engagement party?’

‘Of course!’ His expression lightened for the first time that morning as he looked up at Olivia. ‘It’s nice to have someone remember what’s really important around here.’ With a guilty look towards the dining room, he nudged one of his wedding catalogues open with the toe of his shoe and took a quick peek inside.

‘What are you doing?’ Ivy whispered. ‘Why do you want to invite someone? You can’t –’

‘Don’t worry,’ Olivia whispered back, pulling her twin out through the front door. ‘I have a really good idea.’

The trip to Holly’s house was just long enough for Ivy to hear Olivia’s whole plan. Ivy was still feeling nervous about it as they walked up the front steps, but all it took was a glance at the pink corsage on Olivia’s shirt to remind her what was really important.

Her twin had chosen to trust her. Ivy couldn’t do any less for Olivia now.

She pushed the doorbell and fixed a smile on her face.
No more grumpy Ivy
, she promised herself.

‘Hey.’ Holly opened the door, looking from one twin to another. ‘What are you guys doing here? It’s kind of early for a visit.’

Olivia beamed, reminding Ivy what a good actress her sister really was. If the Hollywood industry strikes ever ended, her twin would become a true star. ‘Can we come in to talk for just a minute?’

‘Of course.’ Holly stepped aside to let them in. As usual, she was wearing her trademark hippy clothes: a tie-dyed T-shirt and jeans with flowers and suns embroidered all over them.
Not exactly
what I’d expect from a vampire hunter
, Ivy thought.

Then she stepped inside, and her eyes widened. The bookshelves in Holly’s front room were lined with rows and rows of
Bare Throats at Sunset.
‘Wow,’ she said. ‘You must
really
like that book!’

‘Yeah, well . . .’ Holly’s face coloured. Her long blonde hair fell over her eyes as she looked down at her feet. ‘You said you wanted to talk?’

‘We wanted to invite you to a party at our house this afternoon, at three o’clock,’ Olivia said brightly.

‘A
special
kind of party,’ Ivy added meaningfully.

‘Sorry?’ Holly frowned.

‘Lots of people are going to be there,’ Olivia said. ‘Lots of
different
kinds of people.’

‘That’s right.’ Ivy lowered her voice to a whisper. ‘It’s, um,
super-secret.
With a
very exclusive guest list.
That’s why we’re having to use a
special menu
.’

Come on
 
!
She urged Holly mentally.
Get the picture
 
!

Between her tone of voice and the thing she was doing with her eyebrows, it had to be obvious what she meant:
Vampires
 
!

Holly’s lips twitched. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘That does sound . . .
interesting
.’

Had they done it? Ivy felt her muscles tense up as she waited for Holly to continue.
Please let the plan work
 
!
It all depended on what Holly did next. Had she figured out that the twins knew she was behind the blog? Or would she remain under her deep cover of a normal girl of Franklin Grove?

Not that anyone in this town is normal anyway
, Ivy thought ruefully. Still, she held her breath as she waited for Holly to make up her mind.

Finally, Holly nodded, and Ivy let out her breath in a whoosh.

‘OK,’ Holly said. ‘I’d love to come!’

‘See you this afternoon!’ Ivy said.
Job well done
.

As soon as she and Olivia were safely out of sight of Holly’s home, they gave each other a high five – then they both started to run for the Vegas’ house.

They had a lot of work to do in the next few hours.

Chapter Ten

I
vy had never seen her dad look quite so happy. When she’d announced that the whole family would pitch in to get the house ready for the engagement party, she could have sworn she saw tears of joy in his eyes. Less than a minute later, he was in full Groomzilla mode, snapping orders and striding around the house with a bounce to his step and a determined gleam in his eye.

It was just what the twins needed.

By that afternoon, an enormous balloon arch surrounded the front door, bursting with colourful balloons that Olivia and the Count had inflated while the Countess had worked on the flower arrangements. Horatio had been cooking for hours, and the scent of delicious food filled the house.

Even Ivy had spent time in the kitchen, making special burgers to try to tempt Brendan into recovering his appetite. Remembering the last time she’d tried that, at the ill-fated baking party, she winced – then added more meat to the burgers.

At least there won’t be any garlic in these ones
 
!

As Mr Vega mixed some very special cocktails, the doorbell rang. Ivy took off her apron, gave her hands a quick wash, and smoothed down her boring sweatpants.
Let’s hope I never have to wear these again after today
 
!

Olivia was waiting for her in the hallway, her eyes bright with nervous anticipation. Together, the twins opened the door.

‘Hey,’ Brendan said.

Thank goodness, he was looking more like his normal self again, not so dangerously thin as he’d looked even a few days before. Ivy’s shoulders slumped in relief. Before she could say a word, though, he hurried into the house, looking nervously over his shoulder. He slammed the door behind himself as quickly as if he were trying to escape pursuit.

‘What’s going on out there?’ he said. ‘Did you know there’s a whole crowd of people outside your house? I had to shove my way through just to get here.’

‘Really?’ Ivy darted to the window, closely followed by Olivia. At the end of the driveway people were milling around, trying to look as casual as if they just happened to be hanging out . . . but there was no way that such a massive crowd would ever have gathered on the Vegas’ quiet street on a normal afternoon.

‘Wait,’ Olivia said. ‘I recognise that man – I saw him at the mall on the day of the book launch.’

Ivy followed her sister’s gaze to a blond man in a long trench coat. She shuddered. ‘I remember him. He was wearing a garlic necklace.’ She pointed. ‘And there’s that girl who was taking photos at the mall. Look – she’s taking a photo of the house down the street right now!’ Ivy gave Olivia a mischievous grin. ‘Should I lean out and wave to let her know she’s got the wrong address?’

‘No!’ Olivia yanked Ivy back and twitched the curtains shut. She couldn’t hide her grin, but her tone was stern. ‘You know the plan.’

‘I know,’ Ivy said, grinning back at her. ‘Let’s go find out how all those people knew to come here.’

Together with Brendan, the twins settled in front of Ivy’s computer. Ivy opened the vampire-hunting blog and frowned. ‘No update,’ she said. ‘So how did they find out?’

‘Try BirdChirp,’ Olivia said.