Vamped by Lucienne Diver

anything to do with that glowy stone?” I asked.
    “Maybe, that and the prophecy.”
    “You mean the one that ought to come with a time stamp? That’s about you?”
    “Um, yeah, I think so. Haven’t I mentioned it?”
    “ No , I would have remembered.”
    A bang on the door made me jump, and I figured it was a warning that our time was running out.
    “I know it’s hard,” he continued, “but maybe we should give this thing a shot.”
    “What about Rick?” I asked, not liking the guy but not loving the idea of what Mellisande might do to him. I remembered Rick saying, “If you’re not one of hers, you’re no one.”
    Bobby shrugged. “He got himself into trouble. I guess he can get himself out. Anyway, I don’t see what we can do right now but watch and learn. Maybe we can figure out how to use our powers for good.”
    It was such a Bobby thing to say. And it was what I’d been thinking … more or less, anyway. But despite my resolve, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to hold my tongue or delay settling up with Hawkman over the little matter of my death.
    The office door slammed open and the two beefcake thugs from earlier stood in its place. Behind them was Connor, who seemed to be Melli’s right-hand man.
    “Time’s up,” Connor announced. “Bobby’s needed in training.”
    “What about me?” I asked, hand automatically going to a hip.
    “What about you?” he asked back.
    I wasn’t used to being the one ignored, and it was a crappy, crappy feeling. At school, half the girls had wanted to be me, and the guys mostly wanted my digits. I flung my hair, but nearly dry it was no longer the weapon it had been. “I was in the middle of something anyway.”
    “Take her,” Connor ordered.
    But before they could, I stretched up to give Bobby a kiss. His tongue darted between my lips, sending tingles all over, and then I was peeled away.
    Thing One and Thing Two dragged me right back down to general population and tossed me in.
    “Keep an eye on her,” Thing One ordered the room at large. “Team Alpha, you’re with us.”
    Half the room cleared out, pouring around me but not too close, like I might be contagious. Weirdly, they headed not toward the door but toward the back wall. The other kids cleared to the edges of the room, like someone had dripped soap into a greasy pot. I watched in disbelief as Things One and Two rapped out a little ditty on the floor, and the panel under their hands peeled back.
    It looked like something out of Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones . I’d never suspected for even a second there was a trap door in here. It was totally cool. I made a note to pay more attention to the ditty next time, just in case the walls ever started closing in on me and I needed to make a quick getaway.
    One by one, “Team Alpha” disappeared down the rabbit hole (Tina and Chaz thankfully among them), and I was left behind with a roomful of kids who were treating me like I had body odor or the plague or, like, terminally bad breath—Marcy among them. That was the one that twisted my gut.
    There was no one for me to ask what the whole “Team Alpha” business was about. Maybe they were getting fed. Maybe it was some kind of training, like Bobby was getting.
    Whatever, Thing One’s announcement had guaranteed that I’d be an outcast. I’d found some fragment of my old life, then lost it, all in one night.

10

    A n hour past sunset the next night I was ready to climb the walls. Everyone was avoiding looking at me, except when they thought I wasn’t looking. I identified about ten seniors in all, including another of Chaz’s wingmen (a forward or backward or whatever for the Mozulla Lemurs), Pam Raines and Vanessa Barrett (who had to have been taken together because I’d never seen them apart), Cassandra-the-cheerleader-Stiles (recovered from the hot-tubbing incident), and Trevor Larraby (an ROTC guy from his spit-shined shoes to his military bearing). There were probably twice that many