ReVamped by Lucienne Diver Read Free Book Online

kids’ games based on drugs, sex, and language, as if we didn’t hear all that at school. It was amazing what they called news these days. Glorified infomercials.
    My sneer lasted until I hit the lobby and saw Lily and Bella in a huddle. Bella certainly looked a lot less bloody and more alert than I’d last seen her, but her cheek was still swollen, and now a vivid purple as well.
    “Oh, Gen,” Lily started as soon as she saw me. “It’s so awful—they took Byron and Gavin right out of homeroom.”
    “They?”
    “The cops,” Bella said, in that whispery voice of hers.
    Right, not everything is about vampires and juju .
    “Just for questioning,” Lily was quick to add. “But still, Byron and Gavin aren’t exactly their favorite all-American boys.”
    “So they haven’t come for you two or Ulric?” I asked, showing my firm grasp of the obvious.
    “Not yet,” she answered.
    “It’s all my fault. They were fighting over me ,” Bella moaned suddenly, her eyes huge in her pinched face. Her eyes were, in fact, the only things about her that could be called huge, unless it was her sense of drama. I seriously wanted to get the girl a Valium or a sandwich, whichever would do the most good. She looked like one of those ridiculous Manga girls you could snap in half as easily as a Twix bar. If she was praying to the porcelain god, as the gang seemed to think, she couldn’t be offering much in the way of tribute.
    “Bella, they were fighting for you,” Lily said, reading my mind. “There’s a difference. Anyway, it’s about time someone showed those guys they can’t just take whatever they want. They never even saw Gen coming!”
    I blushed, and wondered what that looked like on my bone-white face. That’s right , I thought, Geneva Belfry, Supergoth . I could picture the black bat-winged cape, the killer knee-high boots with three-inch titanium heels. The better to beat you with. Wouldn’t Bobby just love it?
    “It was the adrenaline,” I lied. “I probably couldn’t do it again in a million years.”
    For a second, Lily looked ancient and knowing, but she only said, “Whatever happened, I’m sure they’ll get to questioning us sooner or later. About last night, the missing kids—”
    “Missing?” Bella asked, her voice rising a whole octave. “Who’s missing? I haven’t heard a thing.”
    “They said something on the news,” Lily volunteered, “but they haven’t released the names.”
    The second bell rang and Bella nearly jumped out of her skin, which, now that I think about it, is a totally morbid expression.
    “Gotta go,” she squeaked, hurrying off like a mouse.
    Lily and I exchanged a look. “Don’t ask me,” she said. “Bella’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma.”
    “Huh?”
    “You know, weird.”
    Oh yeah, weird was something with which I had a close personal relationship.
    • • •
    Part of me wanted to head for the hospital, despite the fact that hospitals gave me hives—a polyester allergy, maybe, or an aversion to those cutesy scrubs with suns and moons and the dish running away with the spoon. It was kind of hard to trust the credentials of a nurse wearing the latest in Goodnight Moon .
    Anyway, it just seemed wrong to focus on stupid things like learning when so much real stuff going on—police interrogations, missing kids, Bram’s coma. And even wronger to be asked to focus without caffeine. I’d about kill for an espresso. Maybe I could insist that my next shipment of blood be tapped from the veins of a caffeine addict. Or maybe I could find a roommate to provide my blood hot and fresh every morning, like a Dunkin’ Donuts counter in my very own home. I wondered how I’d word that ad:
    Roommate wanted. Free rent in exchange for bloodletting. Apply with photo and sample.
    Hmm …
    It took a minute to realize that my whole homeroom was staring at me, and an extra second for reality to penetrate and my little fantasy to fade away. Mr. Richardson’s pug eyes made