Read Online Vampire Brat by Angie Sage - Free Book Online Page A

I used to spend a lot of time trying to pick the lock. I wondered if maybe Max had a key! Maybe the turret was stuffed full of vampires and he hadn’t really come to stay with us at all—he had come to stay with them .
    Max wandered around another corner in the corridor, and I tried to make Wanda speed up a bit. She was dragging her rabbit slippersand was not exactly the enthusiastic assistant a vampire hunter needs. So I was not surprised that when we eventually got around the next corner, Max was gone.
    I could see the steps leading to the locked turret and the big cobwebby door at the top of them—but no Max. Not a good sign. I rushed up the steps and tried the door, but it was locked as usual, and I could tell it had not been opened as it was covered in very old and dusty spiders that looked like they had not moved in years.
    It was weird. Vampire Max had completely disappeared—just like in the movie where the vampire suddenly falls through a trapdoor into the river below and dissolves . But as much as I hoped that Max had fallen through a trapdoor and dissolved, I knew he couldn’t have.I know where all the trapdoors are in Spookie House, and there definitely was not one in the twisty corridor to the locked turret.
    So where was he?
    And then I remembered. The locked turret has a fire escape chute! Underneath the steps is a little red door, just like the one that goes into Uncle Drac’s bat turret—except this door leads to a big tube that runs all the way around the locked turret and takes you right down to the basement. I hadn’t gone down it since I was little because Aunt Tabby had told me not to, and despite what you may think, I do sometimes take notice of what Aunt Tabby says. She also told me that a scary monster lived inside it, so that put me off a bit too. But now I was big enough to know that Aunt Tabby was fibbing about the monster.
    Wanda did not want to go down the fire escape chute—and especially not when I opened the little door and shone my flashlight into it, for it was stuffed full of spiderwebs.
    â€œI am not going down there, Araminta,” she said. “No way.”
    I could tell from the way she said it she would not change her mind, so I pushed her in and jumped in after her. It was great . Wanda screamed a bit but that was okay, as all the spiderwebs muffled the sound. We rocketed down, around and around, but I didn’t get a bit dizzy, and in no time we shot out into an old larder in the basement.
    Wanda did not appreciate it. Especially when I landed right on top of her. She jumped up and I could see she was about to yell at me,so I put my hand over her mouth and hissed, “Shh!”

    I switched on my flashlight. Wanda looked really funny; she was covered in cobwebs, dust, and spiders. I was not as bad since Wanda had acted like a chimney sweep’s brush, so I only had a few spiders wandering around my hair, which was okay.
    I was surprised that Wanda was not making more of a fuss, like she usually does, but she was staring at the floor. “Araminta,” she whispered, “there’s…werewolf stuff.”
    For a moment I did not want to look, as I thought it might be something really gross, like werewolf poop, but I did. A trapper of werewolves has to face these things. But it was worse than werewolf poop—it was werewolf footprints . There were tons of them. They went roundand round in circles inside the larder and then they zigzagged out the door and disappeared along the corridor. The werewolf had gone back to its lair.
    I wasn’t quite as pleased about this as I should have been.
    â€œYou’re shaking,” said Wanda.
    â€œNo I’m not,” I said. “Your eyes must be going funny.”
    Now we had to set the werewolf trap. I had already worked out the perfect place for it—a tall, thin cupboard just past the bat poo hatch where Uncle Drac used to store his shovels. I knew there was enough