Ninth Grade Slays Read Free Page B

. .” Vlad retrieved another bag of blood from the refrigerator. As he was walking back into the living room, he let his fangs elongate—his hunger was pulsing beneath them. He bit through the bag and drained it, then let out a burp and wiped the excess from the corners of his mouth.
    Henry chuckled. “Pig.”
    Vlad snickered. “ ’Scuse me.”
    Henry bit his lip thoughtfully for a moment. His tone became careful and serious. “Do you think you’ll ever start feeding on people?”
    Vlad shook his head. “No way. Not in a million years.” He eyed Henry for a moment with his peripheral vision before facing him. “You actually think I’d do that?”
    â€œWell, you did bite me when we were eight.”
    Vlad flashed Henry an incredulous look. “Dude, we were eight . Besides, you told me to.”
    Henry pretended not to hear him. “And just now, before you bit into that bag, your eyes changed that weird iridescent purple the way they do when you touch a glyph.” Henry nodded to the strange symbol on the cover of the Encyclopedia Vampyrica and shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s possible. I mean, what if the bags and snack packs aren’t enough anymore?”
    Vlad shook his head and pressed his lips tightly together, tracing the glyphlike tattoo on the inside of his left wrist lightly. There was a long moment of silence before he spoke. “If they were good enough for my dad to live on, they’re good enough for me. Besides, the day I start feeding on people is the day I start beating you at video games.”
    Henry laughed and picked up his controller. “So you’re saying it’ll never happen.”

3
    BATHORY HIGH
    VLAD SHOVED TWO PENS into the front pocket of his backpack and zipped it closed. Henry had tried convincing him over the summer to buy a new bag, specifically a cool coffin-shaped one they’d seen at the mall in Stokerton, but Vlad preferred his old one. He wasn’t against the gag—in fact, he found it quite hilarious that he and Henry would make such obvious statements about his being a vampire and that everyone in the town of Bathory shrugged it off, presuming Vlad to be just another goth kid—but he and his backpack had been through two years together. It had been up the flagpole almost as many times as Vlad had been shoved against a locker. In a way, it was his friend. Like Henry.
    If he could strap Henry to his back and force him to carry his books.
    Vlad pinned a new button to his backpack and swung it over his shoulder. Seeing it in the store had sent him into a hysterical fit, so he knew Henry would love it. The pin read CAREFUL, I BITE.
    Aunt Nelly’s voice drifted up the stairs. “You’d better hurry or you’ll be late for your first day!”
    Vlad started to slip the small black cylinder into his back pocket and paused, then placed the Lucis on his dresser. He knew Otis and Nelly would freak out about him not carrying the vampire weapon for even a day, but he wasn’t exactly sure what effect it might have on humans, and the idea of carrying it into class made him feel a little queasy. Weapons, even vampire weapons, had no place at school.
    He took the stairs by two and flashed a smile at his aunt at the bottom.
    Nelly smiled back and handed him a snack pack, which he slurped down with glee. The blood was warm and gooey and slid down his throat with ease. The breakfast of champions, indeed.
    Vlad handed the plastic container back to Nelly and had just brushed the tips of his fingers against the doorknob when Nelly asked, “Did you remember to put your sunblock on?”
    Vlad chuckled, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “Why do you ask? Am I getting too tan?”
    Nelly shook her head, a bemused smile on her lips, and Vlad slipped out the door.
    Henry was standing on the sidewalk across the street, waiting. A bronze-skinned, good-looking kid stood next to