Vamplayers Read Free

the clear door to her office slides open automatically.
    I follow her inside.
    The guts of her office are all shimmery and shiny and absolutely see-through, like something Willy Wonka might design for his chocolate factory. She has clear furnishings: desk, chair, and filing cabinets. I wonder for the first time if her employee bathroom has a clear toilet. I’ll have to ask the other Sisters when my evaluation is over.
    “I’m sorry.” She extends a hand across the desk.
    I unstrap the light but awkward Simulation Shield from around my chest and hand it over.
    “I can’t pass you this time. I’m certain you understand.”
    I make a clicking sound with my tongue. “No, frankly I don’t understand. How many times can I run the Simulation before we both say enough is enough? I mean, how can I be good enough to be a Sister but not good enough to be a Savior? I just don’t understand.”
    “No,” she says, sounding severe. “You don’t understand. Being a Sister is about preventing infestations. Being a Savior is about stopping them once they’ve started. It’s an entirely different psychology, and mastering this Simulation is your first step toward mastering the psychology.”
    Oh great. Now in addition to kicking butt and taking names, I have to be a psychologist. I slump in my clear plastic seat, wondering what my butt looks like from beneath. Stop, Lily. Focus. “This bites.”
    She finally sighs, licking the thick lips that hide her veteran fangs. “Metaphorically speaking, of course.” She smiles.
    I almost smile, to be polite, but it stops halfway to my lips.
    She sets down the clipboard, pushes herself back just a smidge from her big, intimidating desk, and crosses those long, luxurious legs. “You know I have nothing but respect for you and the other Sisters. But I’m sensing a certain, shall we say, reluctance to pass this Simulation. It’s like, I don’t know, all three of you are afraid to take the next step. As you know, there is no place for fear as a Savior.”
    “How can you say that?” I whine. “Every month we get dropped into some new high school and have to sniff out some dirty, sneaky, dangerous Vamplayer. Once he finds out our true identity, we have to battle him and anyone he may have turned. It’s exactly like being a Savior.”
    She shakes her head firmly. “That’s where you’re wrong, Lily. It’s but a taste of being a Savior. That’s all this Simulation is as well: a small taste.”
    I let her words sink in.
    Could she be right?
    Are Cara, Alice, and I too comfortable as Sisters to ever be Saviors? But how can that be when all we want is to wear those hip-hugging leather jumpsuits and carry around personal-sized crossbows?
    Dr. Haskins stands, signaling the abrupt end of our meeting.
    “I’m sorry.” I sigh, just like I have after failing the Simulation countless times before. “I’ll try harder next time. I promise.”
    ”I have no doubt you will. But Saviors don’t try, Lily. They do. They don’t promise. They achieve. Think about that as you train this week, and you’ll be better prepared when next we meet.”

Chapter 2
    O kay, seriously, this place now officially sucks.” Alice pushes away her plate of sautéed blood clots, her pale and pristine face a not-so-subtle mask of disgust. “Why ask me how I want them prepared if you’re going to overcook them anyway?”
    From across the table for four, Cara shoots me a here we go again look.
    I bite back a smile. “Why don’t you take them back if you don’t like them?”
    Alice sighs loudly, preferring to suffer out loud rather than be happy in silence. “No. They might spit in my food for spite.”
    Cara and I snicker.
    I scoop up the last of my blood consommé, my spoon clinking against the nearly empty bowl.
    Cara wraps her long, mocha-colored fingers around her plastic tumbler and finishes off the last of her type B smoothie. She smacks her lips and sets the empty cup on the faux wood cafeteria table.