Read Online Vamped by Lucienne Diver - Free Book Online Page B

her earlier shake-up with the mystery menace. “Let’s discuss these outrageous accusations. I would like to know who has been making such claims, so that I can face my accuser.”
    A new voice spoke—feminine, lilting. “Then you deny the claims?”
    “I do.”
    “Despite the fact that the mortality rate, particularly among teens, in your town has jumped since your return?”
    Take that, Melli-noma , I thought.
    “You blame me for the mortality rate among children ? They are fearless, reckless with their own lives—”
    “Malleable,” the male voice chimed in again, and I thought it was pretty clear he didn’t run in my circles if he thought we were all, like, totally suggestible. There’d be a lot fewer fashion disasters in this world if that were the case.
    But if that’s what Mellisande thought—that people would just pass off our deaths as due to reckless high spirits or something—then it made sense she’d be recruiting teens. And if she thought we were easily led … well, okay, maybe the Tina Carstairs of the world were, but most of the kids I knew lived to piss off rather than please authority.
    “Just so that I understand, what am I supposed to have done with these children?”
    There was silence, as if the council clique thought the quiet would break her. Or—
    “Franco, you know your mind tricks don’t work on me,” Melli scolded.
    He laughed, but it was dry and false. “So I’ve heard, but here you are trying to convince me that these accusations are without merit. I thought it worth the attempt, to separate fact from fiction.”
    “How about you? Will you test me too?” Melli asked Franco’s partner.
    “I’d rather talk about the boy,” the woman answered.
    Melli asked, “What boy?” but it didn’t come out as casually as she probably meant it to.
    “Come now,” the man barged in again. “We have our own pet psychic.”
    I thought about the totally creepy … thing … I’d come face-to-face with behind these very curtains. There was no way he was domesticated. Maybe a pet in the sense that he’d be thrilled to bite the hand that feeds, but beyond that … I shuddered.
    “I’m sure there are as many prophecies out there as there are prophets,” Melli answered. “But it so happens that I have heard of a boy. I’ve been working to procure him for you, and plan to turn him over to the council to show my fealty.”
    My head was spinning. After the psychic’s prophecy and the gemstone that lit up like a supernova around Bobby that first night, I was sure he must be “the boy.” But Melli claimed to still be looking … She had to be lying. But then, why admit to knowing about him at all? Why reveal that secret, and yet keep others? My brain hurt. I had the desperate urge to burst into the room and demand answers, but the few brain cells that weren’t tied up trying to make sense of the conversation held me back. The odds were against me. But if they actually tried to cart my boyfriend away, that would be a whole ’nother can of whup-ass.
    “If you’re harboring neither the boy nor your own pitiful army, then you won’t mind if we tour your facility,” the man’s slimy-sweet voice said.
    A jolt of fear went through me—not that I cared if they delivered smelly Melli a smackdown over her lies, but what would that mean for my classmates? For Bobby? I mean, Melli wasn’t exactly a laugh riot, but I didn’t know that these guys were any better. Melli could make anyone snarky, so I didn’t exactly hold that against them, but they seemed to have entire ten-foot poles stuck up their butts.
    Melli responded with, “Not at all,” still cool and unconcerned. Either she had some kind of crazy concealment mojo I hadn’t yet seen, or the boogeyman’s warning had given her time to be sure all her toys were put away. I couldn’t imagine where, but that was probably the point. “James and Roman will show you around. I will join you momentarily.”
    But-but-but , my brain