Temptation (20 page)

“What's that?” Jay cried.

Billy jumped. He heard Lynette gasp.

The sky suddenly filled with noise. Flapping. Fluttering. Above them. In front of them. Behind them.

“Look!” Nate shouted, pointing toward the jetty.

Billy saw them. Bats. Dozens of them, flying low over the stone jetty.

A chill slid down Billy's spine. He stared at the bats. So many of them, he thought. How can there be so many?

“Awesome,” Jay whispered.

Lynette squeezed past Billy and hid behind Nate.

The bats fluttered up, blocking the moonlight, darkening the beach. Then they flew out to sea and disappeared.

“Where did they go?” Lynette asked in a tiny voice.

“To the island,” Billy answered. “There's an island close to shore. Nobody lives there anymore. The bats use the abandoned houses.”

“Bat island,” Jay said. “Sounds like a place in a horror movie.”

“The local people call it Vampire Island,” Nate corrected him. “It's covered with burned-out houses. That's why no one lives there.”

Jay laughed. “
Vampire
Island? Give me a break!”

“Some people say vampires lived there—in the abandoned houses,” Billy explained. “Some high school kids went out there after a graduation party. They dared one another to find the vampires and destroy them. Two kids found a coffin and set it on fire.”

Lynette shivered. She moved closer to Nate.

“The fire killed the vampire,” Billy continued. “But when the kids tried to leave the island, other vampires followed them. The kids tried to set them on fire, too. All the houses burned, and none of the kids ever came back from the island.

“Some people say they died in the fire with the vampires. But other people believe that the vampires got them. So now nobody ever goes there.”

“How many kids were there?” Lynette asked.

“Six. I heard that three of them tried to row away. But the vampires changed into bats and flew to the boat and killed them.”

Nate laughed. “What a dumb story. Does anyone really believe it?”

“A lot of people do,” Billy replied softly.

They stood silently, staring at the rock jetty.

Finally Billy turned away from the rolling, dark ocean. “Let's go back to town,” he suggested, shivering.

His friends immediately agreed. Billy knew they had been spooked by the bats—and by his story. Lynette grabbed Nate's sleeve and wouldn't let go.

“How am I going to meet any girls with my little sister always tagging along?” Nate grumbled.

“If you don't want me here, go home,” Lynette declared.

“No!” Nate cried. “No way.”

“Why not?”

“Because Mom will
kill
me.”

“Buy me an ice cream, or I'll tell Mom you tried to lose me!”

“But that's blackmail!” Nate protested.

Billy chuckled. “She's got you, Nate.”

“I'd buy her the ice-cream cone if I were you,” Jay told him.

Nate gave in. “Okay. Okay. Ice cream.”

Billy had to laugh. Nate was a big, tough-looking guy. And his little sister knew exactly how to push him around.

They walked along the beach in silence. But as Billy stepped onto the stairs leading up to the boardwalk, Lynette let out a piercing scream.

“No!” she wailed. “Let him go! Let him go! Nooo!”

Billy gasped as he saw why Lynette was screaming.

Down the beach, two enormous bats attacked a small black dog. Terrified, the dog spun in circles, snapping at them.

But the bats attacked viciously. Swooping from the sky, screeching and snapping their jaws.

One flapping bat landed on the dog's back. It sank its teeth into the little dog's flesh.

The dog let out a yelp of pain.

The other bat swooped onto the dog's neck, biting deeply.

Billy watched, stunned, as the bats gripped the dog in their jaws and began flapping their wings frantically.

The dog twisted helplessly, letting out cry after cry.

This is impossible,
Billy thought.
Bats can't do this.

Their wings beat the air furiously. They lifted the yelping dog off the ground.

The animal struggled, twisting one way, then the other. But the bats held on.

Slowly they lifted the dog.

A foot off the beach.

Two feet.

Still higher.

Flapping hard, they moved toward the ocean.

Billy felt rooted to the sand, unable to move. Unable to take his eyes off the horrifying sight.

He heard Lynette's sobs. Saw her run after the squirming, howling dog.

“Lynette—come back!” Billy cried. He sprinted after her. Over the sound of his own breathing, Billy heard Nate and Jay running close behind him. Their footsteps sounded hollow on the damp sand.

Billy quickly overtook Lynette. He was gaining on the bats. They seemed to be having trouble carrying such a heavy load. Flapping furiously, they moved slowly along the shore.

The dog kicked its legs and howled.

Billy ran harder. Nate and Jay beside him now.

“Stop them!” Lynette screamed.

From the corner of his eye, Billy saw Jay stumble. Jay toppled facefirst into the sand.

Billy didn't slow down. Nate still ran beside him. They were close to the bats.

The dog wailed in fright. Blood poured from where the bats had ripped its throat.

The bats beat the air with their wings.

Billy ran until he was directly underneath them. He reached up. Tried to grab the dog. Missed by a couple of inches.

Nate jumped too. And missed.

Got to jump higher, Billy thought.

He leaped again. Missed again.

The bats flapped furiously.

Flying faster now.

Pulling away from Billy.

Billy ran as fast as he could. Nate chugged along beside him.

Something cold and wet grabbed Billy's legs. Swept him off balance.

Billy glanced down. He had run into the ocean. A tall wave splashed over him, pushing him back, startling him with its cold.

Billy saw Nate splashing in knee-deep water, still chasing the bats. A moment later, Nate began bobbing with the waves as they rolled in to shore. Nate's feet, Billy realized, were no longer touching bottom.

“Nate!” Billy shouted. “Come back! There's nothing we can do!”

Nate swam to Billy's side. They watched as the bats and dog became a ghastly silhouette against the moon. Growing smaller and smaller. Until they disappeared.

They're taking the dog to the island, Billy thought. Taking it home to feed on it. Sickened, he stared out toward the island. Feelings of horror and disgust filled him.

Just wait, he thought bitterly. I know you're not really bats. I know what you are. And I'll destroy you. I promise, before summer is over, I'll destroy you all.

Lynette no longer felt like having ice cream. She just wanted to go home.

Billy, Jay, and Nate led the way along the path that led to the summer condos their families had rented. They talked quietly among themselves. They didn't want to frighten Lynette more.

“Those were vampires,” Billy murmured.

“Vampire bats?” Jay asked. “I never knew they were so strong.”

“Not vampire bats,” Billy corrected him. “Vampires who turn into bats.”

Jay snorted.

“Yeah, right,” Nate muttered. “And Frankenstein rents the beach house next to mine.”

“You saw what they did,” Billy whispered. “You really think ordinary bats could do that?”

Lynette began to bawl again. “Are they going to kill the dog?” she wailed. She had been listening after all.

“Nice job, Billy,” Nate muttered. He tried to comfort his sister.

“Look, I'm sorry, but it's true,” Billy replied. “You have to believe me. Those were not ordinary bats.”

“I don't believe in vampires,” Jay declared. “Because they're a pain in the neck!” He roared at his own joke.

“It's not funny,” Lynette cried. “It's scary!”

“She's right,” Billy said. “And if you don't listen to me, you could be in a lot of danger.”

“From vampires?” Jay rolled his eyes.

“From vampires,” Billy repeated. He stared hard at Jay, trying to convince his best friend that he was serious.

Jay frowned. “Umm, Billy, it's kind of hard to believe that vampires really exist.”

He thinks I'm messed up, Billy realized. He gazed at the troubled faces of his friends. Noticed the glances they exchanged.

They both think I'm crazy, he thought. But I can't blame them. I would have thought the same thing . . . before last summer.

The memory tortured Billy even now.

But he was here to put an end to the evil in Sandy Hollow. If his friends were going to help him, they had to know the truth about last summer.

The truth about Sandy Hollow.

“I had a girlfriend last summer,” Billy explained. “Her name was Joelle. I met her the first week I was here, and we spent the whole summer together.”

“What happened?” Jay asked. His eyes shone with interest.

Billy took a deep breath. “The vampires killed her. They flew
from the vampire island as bats. Then they returned to their human form and killed Joelle. They drank her blood until she died.”

His friends stared at him. Billy could see that they didn't believe him.

“I know it sounds insane,” Billy admitted. “But that's what happened. I saw the bite marks on Joelle's neck.”

“Maybe they were mosquito bites?” Jay asked.

“I know what a mosquito bite looks like,” Billy snapped. “These were different. Bigger and deeper.”

Nate rubbed his chin. “Was Joelle the girl they found on the beach?”

Billy nodded.

“They said she drowned,” Nate argued. “Nobody mentioned vampires.”

Billy could tell from the three faces staring at him that, no matter what he said, none of them would believe him. Nate wore a smug grin that seemed to say,
You don't really think I'm going to fall for this, do you?
Jay revealed no emotion at all.

Billy felt his anger rising. He forced himself to stay calm. “Jay, I didn't tell you the whole story about why I missed a year of school,” he continued. “The reason you couldn't visit me is because I wasn't in a regular hospital. It was a mental hospital.”

Billy lowered his eyes to the ground. Now they'll think I'm
totally
nuts, he thought.

He pressed on. “I was pretty messed up by what happened to Joelle. Shock trauma, they called it. I guess I—”

“Then I don't get it,” Jay interrupted. “Why did you come
back here? If something like that happened to me, I'd never want to see this place again.”

Billy took a deep breath. “I came back to find the vampires who killed Joelle—to hunt them down and destroy them.”

“Are there really vampires?” Lynette asked in a small voice.

“Yes,” Billy replied.

“No,” Nate declared.

“What about the dog?” Billy demanded.

“That was weird,” Jay admitted. “But all we know about bats is what we learned in biology. Maybe the bats they've got here are different. Maybe they fly off with dogs all the time.”

Nate chuckled.

“It's not funny!” Billy exploded. “You didn't see what happened to Joelle!”

He spun away from them and started to stalk away.

The others hurried to catch up with him. “Whoa. Calm down,” Jay urged. “We came here to party—remember?”

“Yeah, man,” Nate agreed. “We want to get some sun and meet some major babes.”

“It's too early to go home,” Jay protested. “Let's head back to Main Street. Check out the action.”

None of them believe me, Billy realized. But I'll make them believe if it's the last thing I do.

•   •   •   •   •

April Blair hid in the shadows. Waiting. Watching. Two bats landed on the soft sand a few feet from where she stood. Remaining perfectly still, she studied them.

They began to spin.

Faster and faster.

Until they became two whirling columns.

Stretching. Growing longer, higher.

Slowing, taking shape.

Developing shoulders, arms, legs.

Heads. Faces.

In seconds, two girls stood where the bats had whirled.

Awesome hair, April thought, gazing at the redheaded girl. So long and full. And it actually shimmers in the moonlight.

She turned her eyes to the other girl. A mass of golden curls framed her smooth, pale face. The curls swayed gently when she moved her head.

“I need human nectar,” the one with red hair moaned. “Dog nectar is too thin. It isn't satisfying. And the dog put up too much of a fight. Humans don't resist the way animals do.”

“Well, human nectar is in season,” the other declared. “The summer people are all arriving.”

“Just in time. I'm so hungry!”

It's time to show myself, April thought. She stepped from the shadows and moved toward the two vampires.

“Hey!” yelled the red-haired girl. The vampires advanced.

April waited for them. Met their eyes.

“We won't have to be hungry much longer,” the redheaded one declared. “The nectar came to us. Home delivery.”

April stopped. She watched the vampires' fangs slide down.
Needle-sharp points. Ready to penetrate her neck. The hunger made their breath come in rapid, excited hisses.

The redheaded girl reached for her.

“Don't be stupid,” April snapped. “Don't you recognize one of your own?”

They hesitated.

“I was here last summer,” April told them. “And I became one of you.”

“Who remembers the summer people?” the redheaded girl asked disdainfully. “They're all just food to me.”