Dead Is a Battlefield (12 page)

“I’m out of my perfume,” Eva said. “Do you want to come to The Look of Love with me?”

“Okay,” I said reluctantly. If that was the only way I could spend time with my best friend, I supposed it would have to do.

On the walk down Main Street, I confided to her how I felt about Dominic. “I’ve never been jealous before,” I said.

“You never had any reason to be,” Eva pointed out.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you always get what you want. Things come easily to you.”

My best friend made me sound like an awful person. “Is that who you think I am? A spoiled brat who gets everything handed to me?”

“That’s not what I meant,” she protested.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “What did you mean?”

“You’ve certainly never crushed on someone as much as Dominic.”

“I’ve had crushes before,” I said.

“Not like this,” she replied. “Now you have something to lose and you’re wigging out a little.”

“You make me sound crazed,” I finally said. I laughed, a little nervously.

She smiled at me and her dimples flashed. “No, I like it,” she said breezily. “It’s nice that you show it sometimes.”

“We’ve been spending way too much time talking about me,” I said. “What’s new with you and Edgar?”

“Things are going very well, indeed,” she replied.

“That’s great.” She gave me a sharp look to let me know my bland tone wasn’t fooling her. She knew I didn’t like Edgar.

“I just need to get some new perfume, and then things will be perfect,” Eva said.

“What’s that have to do with—” I started, but Eva cut me off.

“Hey, there’s Jaci,” she said. “What is she doing?”

I looked to where Eva had pointed. Jaci was standing still in the middle of a busy sidewalk.

“It looks like she’s sniffing the air,” I said.

“Let’s go talk to her,” Eva said. “I think something’s wrong with her.”

As we approached Jaci, she growled. “Hey, Jaci,” Eva called out to her.

Jaci growled again and then galloped off, but not before I noticed she had been eyeing Eva like the last rib at a barbecue. I also noticed she was drenched in that same perfume that Eva wore.

“Do you think we should follow her?” I asked.

“She’ll be okay,” Eva said, but she didn’t sound like she believed it, either.

“Do you know her mom’s number?”

Eva nodded and whipped out her cell phone.

“Voice mail,” she said.

“Jaci’s long gone, anyway,” I said. “That girl is fast.”

I stared in the direction Jaci had gone.

Eva tugged on my arm. “C’mon, I need to stop by The Look of Love.”

When we walked in, the bell above the door tinkled, but no one came to greet us. It looked like the store was empty, but we could hear raised voices coming from the back room.

“And I told you I’m not going to do it!” Edgar’s voice carried clearly through the heavy velvet curtain.

His mother’s words were equally distinct. “You’ll do it or else.”

Eva and I looked at each other and started to inch toward the door, but another customer came in behind us and the bell above the door tinkled again. This time they must have heard it as the argument ceased abruptly.

Ms. Love hurried out. She had pasted a fake smile on her face, but I could tell she was upset about something. Her hands were shaking.

“How may I help you?” she asked.

“Uh, they were here before me,” a boy’s voice said. It sounded familiar and when I turned around, I saw Wolfgang Paxton. My day was getting better and better.

Ms. Love’s smile faltered. “How can I help you?”

“Do you have any more of the special perfume?” Eva asked eagerly.

Ms. Love’s smile reappeared. “I’m afraid a new batch won’t be available to the general public for a few more days,” she said.

“Oh,” Eva said. “Not even for a special friend of Edgar’s?”

Ms. Love leaned forward conspiratorially. “My dear, the fragrance is extremely expensive. I’m not one to discourage a customer, but are you sure you can afford it?”

“I need that perfume,” Eva said stubbornly. “I have all my baby-sitting money saved up. I can afford it.”

My jaw dropped. She had been saving up for a trip to a monster museum for over six months. Her parents had promised to take her, as long as she saved half of the money for the trip.

Ms. Love shrugged. “I’ll see what I can do.” She went to the back room.

“Eva, what about your trip?” I reminded her.

But she wasn’t focused on me. She’d zeroed in on the velvet curtains, waiting like a statue for Ms. Love to return.

After making us wait for at least twenty minutes, Ms. Love came back with a raven bottle with a gleaming silver beak.

Eva practically yanked it out of her hands, but Ms. Love only smiled and named a price that made me gasp.

Eva handed over the money without question.

Wolfgang was right behind me, so close that I could feel his breath on my neck. I stuck my elbow out and it connected with his rib cage. “Do you mind?”

“May I help you?” Ms. Love said.

“I’d like a bottle of that perfume,” he said. “For my girlfriend.” Eva had lost interest in hanging around now that she had what she wanted. She didn’t even want to wait for Edgar to come out of the back room, but I was intrigued.

Ms. Love seemed to be considering it. “And who is your girlfriend?”

“Claudia Dracul,” Wolfgang said proudly. I didn’t really understand what she saw in Wolfgang.

Ms. Love paled. “No, no,” she said. “I’m afraid we’re all out of the perfume.”

“But you just sold her a bottle,” he said. He pointed to Eva, who clutched the purple bag to her chest tightly.

“We are sold out,” Ms. Love said.

“But it’s a birthday present,” he said. He looked like he might cry.

For a minute, I felt sorry for him, but then the same old spoiled Wolfgang appeared.

“Give me that,” he told Eva. “I’ll pay you double.”

“No!” she cried.

He reached for his wallet and took out a bunch of hundreds and waved them in her face. “Triple.”

“No way,” she said. “I’m not selling my perfume to you for any amount of money. Let’s go, Jessica.”

I glanced at Ms. Love. She was watching the exchange with a carefully neutral expression, but I caught a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes.

Eva was already out the door, so I followed her and dismissed the incident from my mind. I was more worried about Jaci than my best friend’s new obsession.

Suddenly, something occurred to me.

“Eva,” I said. “Do you have that old bottle of perfume?”

She stopped and stared at me. “Why?” she asked.

“I just . . . like the bottle,” I lied.

Eva reached into her purse and handed me the old bottle. Just as I hoped, there was a single drop left in it.

As Eva busied herself dabbing the new perfume on her wrists and neck, I opened the bottle and took a whiff. I was curious to see if it still smelled like dirt as it had when I first smelled it on the day of the grand opening. It smelled like regular old perfume, nothing special, like spices, vanilla, and citrus, but there was a hint of something earthy in there, too.

“It’s nice,” I said. Lame, but what was I supposed to say? That it reminded me a little bit of wet dirt?

“Nice? That’s it?”

“What’s the problem?” I said. “I can’t afford it, anyway.”

“True,” she said. “I didn’t really like it that much when I first got it, either. But now I just can’t seem to get enough.”

Eva gave me a wave as she took the turn that led toward her house. I watched her receding figure and felt like she was slipping away from me. It was part of high school, I knew. People changed. I never thought my best friend would be one of those people, though.

I pondered my problem all the way home. There was a car in the drive at the Giordanos, so I rang their doorbell. Rose answered on the first ring, almost like she’d been waiting for me.

“Jessica, come in!” she said. “What’s up?”

“I’ve got a problem I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me with,” I said. “You’re a science major at UC Nightshade, right?”

Rose nodded.

“Have you ever heard of a perfume making people . . . sick?” I asked.

“Like an allergy?” she asked.

“It might be more than that,” I said. I pulled out the bottle I’d gotten from Eva. “There’s only a drop left.”

Rose took it and held it up to see. “That should be enough to analyze it,” she said.

“That would be great,” I said. “My best friend has been acting really strange ever since she started wearing it.”

“I’ll take it to the lab tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll call you as soon as I know anything.”

After I left the Giordanos, I went home and took a shower. I scrubbed every inch of my body over and over. The smell of the strange perfume seemed to have leaked into my pores, but I finally felt clean again.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Eva wasn’t in school
the next day, so I sat with Raven and Andy at lunch and told them about what had happened at The Look of Love.

“Zombies,” Andy pronounced through a mouth full of tacos.

Raven rolled her eyes when Andy wasn’t looking.

“Zombies? That’s your explanation?” I asked.

Andy shrugged. “It’s possible.”

“I’m so sick of hearing that word,” I said. “If it were zombies, wouldn’t there be a more widespread outbreak by now? Why do Edgar’s Lovelies seem to be the only ones affected?”

“Have you ever even seen a zombie?” Raven asked.

Andy raised an eyebrow. “Fought one. Killed one,” she said succinctly.

“You killed someone?” Raven was horrified.

“It was trying to eat me,” Andy said defensively. “It’s not like I had a lot of choice.”

“
It
used to be a human,” Raven said.

“Look, newbie,” Andy said. “Don’t lecture me about how to fight. You don’t have the faintest idea what it’s like out there.”

Raven glanced around to see if anyone was listening, but the rest of the school seemed focused on their food. “For your information, I’m a pacifist,” she said.

“How can you be a virago, which by definition means you’re a warrior woman,
and
a pacifist?” I wondered out loud. “Not that I’m taking sides,” I added hastily, after I got a glare from Raven.

“I will not harm another living being,” Raven said stubbornly.

“What about in practice?” Andy said. “You clocked me a good one the other day.” She reached over and casually helped herself to Raven’s fries.

“That’s different,” Raven said. “We were practicing defensive maneuvers.”

“Does Flo know?” I asked. “And if not, can you warn us before you tell her? I don’t want to be anywhere near her when she finds out.”

“She already knows,” Raven said.

Andy spit out a mouthful of the milk she’d been drinking. “No way!”

“Andy, gross!” I said. I had raised my arms to block the liquid from getting all over me. “Didn’t your mom teach you any manners?”

By the look on her face, somehow I’d managed to put my foot in my mouth.

Without a word, she took her tray and left the table. I stared after her. “What did I say?” I asked Raven.

“Didn’t you know?” Raven replied. “Andy’s mom died a long time ago. She’s an only child. It’s just her and her dad. And he works all the time.”

“I didn’t know,” I said. I’d been spending all that time with Raven and Andy and I didn’t know something as major as this?

“Maybe I am as self-centered as Eva accused me of being,” I said. “I can’t believe I didn’t know that.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Raven said. “She never mentioned it to us. I happened to overhear Flo and Andy talking, or I wouldn’t have known, either.”

The lunch bell rang and I went to my next class, but I kept thinking of the look on Andy’s face when I mentioned her mom. I had to find a way to make it up to her somehow.

That evening, I told my mom I was meeting Raven at the Nightshade City Library to do some research. We did have a big project for History. I also wanted to look up witches and zombies, so I decided not to tell her everything I was researching.

“Research only,” Mom said sternly. “I don’t want you using that time to play computer games or update your Facebook status.” Like I had time for social networking these days. I could just see my status:
Battling a zombie horde, then lunch @ Slim’s.

She dropped me off at the library, which was packed. There were a bunch of my classmates there, probably trying to get a jump on homework, too.

I spotted Ramona, Raven, and Shannon, who were partners for the history project, and went to sit with them.

“Who do you think Edgar will ask out first?” Shannon asked Ramona. “You or me?”

“Or maybe all of the above.” Ramona giggled.

Raven and I exchanged glances. It was obvious they were enjoying their gossip session, but we needed to get some work done.

Raven and I left them whispering at our table and headed for the stacks. “It looks like we’re going to have to do all the research,” she whispered as she pointed back at our table. Shannon and Ramona were busy dabbing perfume on their wrists.

I shrugged. “It’s not like them to be so flaky. I’m sure they’ll pull their weight when the time comes.” But I wasn’t really that sure.

Raven and I went our separate ways and I found the books I was looking for. I added
Sorcery in Secret
to my stack of books to check out. I was absorbed in a newer book called
Nightshade Through the Ages
when someone came up behind me. I was so startled that I dropped the book on my foot.

I hopped around on one foot. “Ouch!”

“It’s me, Jessica,” Dominic said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You almost gave me a heart attack,” I replied.

“Sorry,” he apologized again. “Let me take a look at your foot.”

“It hurts,” I whined.

“It’s probably bruised,” he said. “Maybe you should stay off it for a while.”

“Not going to happen,” I said. I picked up the book on sorcery
and tried to hide it from him. I wasn’t ready to tell him my suspicions about Selena yet. Besides, if I did, he’d probably tell her what I said. Even though he had asked for my help, most of the time he acted like a love zombie.