Fred raised an eyebrow and relaxed just slightly. I glanced behind us. What had Riley been looking at?
Nothing had changed - just some family pictures of dead people, a smal mirror, and a cuckoo clock. Hmm. Was he checking the time? Maybe our creator had given him a deadline, too.
"'Kay, guys, I'm going out," Riley said. "You don't have to be afraid today, I promise."
The light burst into the basement through the open door, magnified - as only I knew - by Riley's skin. I could see the bright reflections dance on the wal .
Hissing and snarling, my coven backed into the corner opposite from Fred's. Kristie was in the very back. It looked like she was trying to use her gang as a kind of shield.
"Relax, everybody," Riley cal ed down to us. "I am absolutely fine. No pain, no burn. Come and see. C'mon!"
No one moved closer to the door. Fred was crouched against the wal beside me, eyeing the light with panic. I waved my hand a tiny bit to get his attention. He looked up at me and measured my total calm for a second. Slowly he straightened up next to me. I smiled encouragingly.
Everyone else was waiting for the burn to start. I wondered if I had looked that sil y to Diego.
"You know," Riley mused from above, "I'm curious to see who is the bravest one of you. I have a good idea who the first person through that door is going to be, but I've been wrong before."
I rol ed my eyes. Subtle, Riley.
But of course it worked. Raoul started inching his way toward the stairs almost immediately. For once, Kristie was in no hurry to compete with him for Riley's approval. Raoul snapped his fingers at Kevin, and both he and the Spider-Man kid reluctantly moved to flank him.
"You can hear me. You know I'm not fried. Don't be a bunch of babies! You're vampires. Act like it."
Stil, Raoul and his buddies couldn't get farther than the foot of the stairs. None of the others moved. After a few minutes, Riley came back. In the indirect light from the front door, he shimmered just a tiny bit in the doorway.
"Look at me - I'm fine. Seriously! I'm embarrassed for you. C'mere, Raoul!"
In the end, Riley had to grab Kevin - Raoul ducked out of the way as soon as he could see what Riley was thinking - and drag him upstairs by force. I saw the moment when they made it into the sun, when the light brightened from their reflections.
"Tel them, Kevin," Riley ordered.
"I'm okay, Raoul!" Kevin cal ed down. "Whoa. I'm al ... shiny. This is crazy!" He laughed.
"Wel done, Kevin," Riley said loudly.
That did it for Raoul. He gritted his teeth and marched up the stairs. He didn't move fast, but soon he was up there sparkling and laughing with Kevin.
Even from then on, the process took longer than I would have predicted. It was stil a one-by-one thing. Riley got impatient. It was more threats than encouragement now. Fred shot me a look that said, You knew this?
Yes, I mouthed.
He nodded and started up the stairs. There were stil about ten people, mostly Kristie's group, huddled against the wal . I went with Fred. Better to come out right in the middle. Let Riley read into that what he would.
We could see the shining, disco-bal vampires in the front yard, staring at their hands and each other's faces with rapt expressions. Fred moved into the light without slowing, which I thought was pretty brave, al things considered. Kristie was a better example of how wel Riley had indoctrinated us. She clung to what she knew regardless of the evidence in front of her.
Fred and I stood a little space from the others. He examined himself careful y, then looked me over, then stared at the others. It struck me that Fred, though real y quiet, was very observant and almost scientific in the way he examined evidence. He'd been evaluating Riley's words and actions al along. How much had he figured out?
Riley had to force Kristie up the stairs, and her gang came with her. Final y we al were out in the sun, most people enjoying how very pretty they were. Riley rounded everyone up for one more quick practice session - mostly, I thought, to get them to focus again. It took them a minute, but everyone started to realize that this was it, and they got quieter and more fierce. I could see that the idea of a real fight - of being not only al owed but encouraged to rip and burn - was almost as exciting as hunting. It appealed to people like Raoul and Jen and Sara. Riley focused on a strategy he'd been trying to dril into them for the last few days - once we'd pinpointed the yel oweyes' scent, we were going to divide in two and flank them. Raoul would charge them head-on while Kristie attacked from the side. The plan suited both their styles, though I wasn't sure if they were going to be able to fol ow this strategy in the heat of the hunt.
When Riley cal ed everyone together after an hour of practice, Fred immediately started walking backward toward the north; Riley had the others facing south. I stayed close, though I had no idea what he was doing. Fred stopped when we were a good hundred yards away, in the shade of the spruce trees on the fringe of the forest. No one watched us move away. Fred was eyeing Riley, as if waiting to see if he would notice our retreat.
Riley began speaking. "We leave now. You're strong and you're ready. And you're thirsty for it, aren't you? You can feel the burn. You're ready for dessert."
He was right. Al that blood hadn't slowed the return of the thirst at al . In fact, I wasn't sure, but I thought it might be coming back faster and harder than usual. Maybe overfeeding was counterproductive in some ways.
"The yel ow-eyes are coming in slowly from the south, feeding along the way, trying to get stronger," Riley said. "She's been monitoring them, so I know where to find them. She's going to meet us there, with Diego" - he cast a significant glance toward where I'd just been standing, and then a quick frown that disappeared just as quickly - "and we wil hit them like a tsunami. We wil overwhelm them easily. And then we wil celebrate." He smiled. "Someone's going to get a jump on the celebration. Raoul - give me that." Riley held out his hand imperiously. Raoul reluctantly tossed him the bag with the shirt. It seemed like Raoul was trying to lay claim to the girl by hogging her scent.
"Take another whiff, everybody. Let's get focused!"
Focused on the girl? Or the fight?
Riley himself walked the shirt around this time, almost like he wanted to make sure everyone was thirsty. And I could see from the reactions that, like me, the burn was back for them al . The scent of the shirt made them scowl and snarl. It wasn't necessary to give us the scent again; we forgot nothing. So this was probably just a test. Just thinking about the girl's scent had venom pooling in my mouth.
"Are you with me?" Riley bel owed.
Everyone screamed his or her assent.
"Let's take them down, kids!"