me. “I hope everything works out. We’re playing next Friday. My band’s
Low Key. I’ll introduce you to some smokin’ hot Valkyries. Oh, and”-I
brace against his hand, slapping my chest in what he probably
considers a friendly pat, and I consider a heavy beating-“bring some
of those sea princesses I heard were in town.”
As he strides back to his table with the confidence of a rock god,
two guys stand and give up their seats for him. Must be nice to be so
in command.
The Vampirettes look bored. “Well, the moon isn’t going to stay at
its peak forever. I think those stupid lights gave me a bit of a tan.
What do you think?”
“You look great, really icy pale,” I say, and she gives me a
girlish smile.
Frederik looks past my shoulder and, for a second, arches his
eyebrow. I never thought I’d meet someone with even less of an
emotional range than Kurt. He exchanges glances with Marty as Kurt
walks through the crowd holding on to a girl. From far away they look
like friends holding hands. Then you notice how white their fingers
are from him squeezing. That and the pallor that replaces her usually
blushed cheeks during class. She’s in a tight black dress with her
hair gathered all on one side. She does her best to keep her cool, but
even though I can’t seem to smell other supernatural beings, the fear
is in her eyes.
Marty leans in close to me to whisper, “You need to take this
outside, bro.”
“Ms. Pippen, I only want to talk.”
Her smile is hard, bitter. Not that I blame her. “Really? You
hardly ever talk in my class.”
The lead singer of the Vampirettes claps her hands. “The beach?”
Frederik walks past us slowly, casually. There’s something
soothing about his presence, considering he could drain you dry if he
wanted. I’d like to be that calm and collected during any situation.
He motions straight ahead, leading the way out. “The beach.”
Right, a man of few words.
I think you left Lisbit aching for you, bro,” Marty tells Kurt,
walking backward through Luna Park.
“She’s not my type,” Kurt says, leaving me to wonder what his type
could possibly be.
He holds on to Ms. Pippen’s arm as the Vampirettes frolic through
the Coney Island night with faces tilted toward the sliver of moon.
One takes a pink cotton candy from a cart and keeps walking. They tear
puffs in greedy bunches and let the sugar melt on their tongues.
Marty slings his arm around my shoulder. “Ooo, candied apples.” He
stops and pays for one and bites into the hard red shell. I wonder how
he can be so nonchalant all the time considering the things he knows,
the things he must see. Maybe his shifting isn’t just physical. Maybe
it applies to his feelings too, because I don’t see how he can walk
around eating candy at Luna Park as we take my English teacher
practically hostage. I hope one day I can learn to fix my feelings
like him and Kurt.
“The Vampirettes, they’re, like, housebroken, right?”
He takes a smaller bite, making yummy faces that rival the group
of little girls not too far from us eating chocolate-covered Oreos.
Suddenly I wish we hadn’t put him in this situation. “Technically, New
York is a safe zone. Once this is all over, and you’re Sea King, I’ll
have to explain it to you. Right now, you have to think about your
mission. If you’re worried about the vampires, don’t be. Frederik
doesn’t drink human blood. Well, not for, like, two hundred years.”
“What about the girls?”
“The girls might bite, but they don’t kill. Vampire killings are
easy to find, because after they feed on human blood they’re basically
euphoric and are pretty sloppy about cleaning up the bodies.”
“Good to know.”
We’re the last to follow down the ramp and onto the sand. Up ahead
the girls pull their polka-dot dresses over their heads and wave them
in the air like flags. They dip their toes in the cold water and
shriek. Frederik picks a spot where the tide won’t hit, sits, and then
leans back on his elbows.
I follow his stare at the speckles of stars. Suddenly I wonder,
“Aren’t you guys supposed to, like, sparkle or something?” And
immediately wish I hadn’t.
Frederik stands up so quickly that he doesn’t disturb the sand. He
grabs the front of my shirt and growls-his eyes are black as the night
sky along the horizon, and red veins fray against the white of his
eyes. His sharp canines are exposed.
“I. Don’t. Sparkle.”
He lets go of me and becomes regular bored Frederik again, no
fangs, no bloodshot eyes. Just a dude sitting on the beach at night.
Marty shakes his head all, Yeah, I should’ve warned you about
that.
“Tristan.” Kurt calls me. He holds my English teacher farther away
from us. I make my way to them, trying to slow my racing heartbeat.
He breaks his grip on her, but says, “I won’t go far.”
Ms. Pippen screams in frustration. The wind undoes her hair from
its neat little tie and blows it all around her. “What? What do you
want?”
“You mean you can’t see the answer to that?”
“Funny. You really are smarter than you look, Tristan. You never
talk in my class, so I had no idea what you are.”
“Welcome to my pretty exclusive club.”
“You know, isn’t it enough that I’m punished by having to teach in
that school for a human decade? I also have to get dragged out here by
your mermaid lackey?”
“It’s mer man , lady. And what do you mean by punished?”
She pushes her hair away from her face, the moonlight casting a
silvery light on her cheekbones.
“My grandfather, the Sea King, gave me a shiny, sharp present.
Don’t make me use it.”
She straightens her back and crosses her arms over her chest. I
look away. “You have to tell me what you want first.”
“I want you to tell me if there are any oracles in New York City.”
“If I don’t, are you going to kill me?”
I hadn’t thought about that. “I-”
“I don’t want to get involved in your politics.”
“You’re already involved.”
“You don’t get it.” She shakes her head. “You may be half fish,
but you’re still so human.”
“You sit in class making us read aloud and what do you do? You see
our futures. You keep those secrets to yourself. What else have you
seen that could make a difference?”
I don’t know if it’s the slight chill in the sea breeze, or if
she’s scared, but her lips tremble. “That’s the irony, right? I can
see, but I can’t say. That’s why I got in trouble. Things were pretty
bad for me a few years ago. I had two sisters and a brother to take
care of, because our parents got deported back to Romania.
“One day I read a man who was going to win the lotto. I played his
numbers. I changed his future, and he walked off the subway tracks.
It’s against the rules to use your powers for your own personal gain.
So they took my sisters from me. Then they put me up at Thorne Hill
High School, grading English papers.”
“That’s tough.”
“You’re telling me. What’s the point, Tristan? What’s the point of
having a power if I can’t even use it for the ones I love? The ones
who count . The Universe picked the wrong girl for this ‘gift,’
because me? I don’t care about the greater good. I just don’t get to
make the rules. I didn’t ask for this.”
“You think I did ?”
“Which is why you don’t have to do it.” She holds my hands in
hers, a gentle plea. “You don’t have to be the next Sea King. What’s