I struggled to get myself dislodged from the metal gutter, but the more I tried, the more stuck I seemed to get. I needed to get back down to the pizzeria. The vampire librarian was down there, and my friends were woefully outclassed. Hell, I was outclassed, considering how easily she sent me flying up onto a neighboring roof.

I wriggled, I tried to puff myself out a bit—which seriously didn’t work. I wasn’t even sure I could puff myself out. I was pushing back with my shoulders and elbows when something dark and furry flew up onto the roof beside me.

“Gaaah!” I cried out like a little girl.

Whatever it was, it was surely going to try and eat me. I really didn’t want to get gobbled up and swallowed, having to work my way through something’s digestive tract and coming out its ass-end.

The dark, furry creature surged up to me… and I saw that it was that creepy gray cat of Georgina’s. I cried out even louder as it’s glowing yellow eyes bore straight into me.

Not my proudest moment.

But then it cocked its head and then smacked me in the chest with its right paw. I cringed, though it didn’t hurt at all, it surprised and terrified me. Well, yeah, I was scared shitless of the oddly petite cat, but that was probably an extension to my terror of Georgina.

The cat seemed to be looking me over, purring with its creepy coo-of-a-dove as it cocked its head this way and that, as if trying to figure out a math problem. And then the cat’s eyes went wide, and those shadowy tentacles sprang from its back, snapping at the air. I flinched again as they all seemed to join the cat as it stared at me with unnerving fascination. And then the tentacles flew at me, making me scream for a third time in the last minute. I’d closed my eyes, apparently, because I had to open them now, looking to see what the cat’s tentacles were doing.

They were all wedged under me, between me and the metal roof gutter. The cat’s eyes were slits as the tentacles worked their way even further under me.

What… the… fuck?

And then, just as it dawned on me what was going to happen, I was abruptly launched up, up, up into the air, and right off the roof.

I screamed again as I plummeted to the ground like a freaking stone.

Slam…

I felt my terracotta body vibrate like a bell as I struggled to push myself up from the ground. I blinked and realized I was now in the side yard we’d found Travis D’s body, only a house away from Ellie’s. That cat had really sent me flying.

I got up, staggered a couple steps, but then got my legs under me as I ran over to Ellie’s house and through her side yard, and then around to the front of the pizzeria.

I felt like my head was going to explode when I saw Miss Biddle holding Teddy to the ground with one hand, her other pointing a shiny dagger at Wood and Ellie.

They were outside the pizzeria. All my friends were at the vampire’s mercy.

“I don’t know how you all think this is going to go… but you don’t have any choice here, I’ve…” She trailed off, her expression changing from confidence to sudden fear. I even saw her gulp.

Stalking out of the shadows, Georgina walked between and past Ellie and Wood, her mulberry colored lips giving Wood a little smile. But then her eyes bored into the vampire. Her tentacles were out, slowly undulating as she moved step by step, closer and closer to the vampire.

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“You’ve changed,” Miss Biddle said, letting Teddy go as she moved off him with blurry speed.

Georgina kept moving forward, one steady step at a time. “So have you. It suits you.”

Miss Biddle let out a ragged laugh. “Love the tentacles. Bet they hurt.”

Georgina’s tentacles snapped at the air, and a reptilian chuffing reverberate from all around. “They do.”

Miss Biddle backed away from Georgina a couple more steps. “That’s okay, I’ll come back later.”

Georgina shook her head, her eyes going all rapturous. “Leaving so soon?” Shadows lashed out of nowhere, snapping from all around as they grabbed hold of the vampire, holding her in place even as she thrashed and whipped herself this way and that, trying to get free.

The shadows dragged the struggling vampire toward Georgina.

“Get your filthy… things off me!” Miss Biddle screeched. “I’m going to rip you to pieces!”

A shadowy blade speared right up through the vampire’s stomach, her blood splattering out into the air as she writhed in pain.

“Like that?” Georgina asked, her dark lips curving into a wicked smile.

“Don't kill her…” Teddy said, trying to push himself up off the ground, but finding it hard. I went over to help him, which almost worked. I had the strength to help pick him up, but not the height. Luckily, Wood came straight over and helped to pick his brother off the ground.

Georgina chuckled. “What? Do you want me to take her home and train her up as one of my minions?” She glanced over at us, rolling her eyes. “I already have plenty of minions, and I didn't have to train them at all.”

“It's not her fault what's… happened to her,” Teddy said.

“Okay,” Georgia said, “option two: I drag her off somewhere really far away and release her like a rescued animal into the wild.” She turned her head as she looked Miss Biddle up and down, from the blood still pouring out of her stomach, and the blood leaking out of her mouth. “I bet it won't take her even a day before she's back here, picking you all off one by one.”

I could tell by the looks on Wood and Ellie's faces that Georgina was making a lot of sense to them. But it wasn't like she was just some monster the aliens created for the game. Miss Biddle had been a person, and a part of our life in a way. “We've got to give her another chance,” I said.

Georgina just looked over at me, her eyebrows lowering into a scowl.

But it was Ellie who asked, “Why?”

“Because she's like me,” Oz said, limping out of the shadows behind the pizzeria. He was bruised, and had cuts all over him. And a really big, bloody wound at his stomach.

Shit!

“Oz!” Ellie ran over to grab hold of him.

I ignored that she kissed him, and concentrated on the fact that whatever had caused the wound in his stomach was almost completely healed.

It was good to be a vampire.

“I'll be fine,” he said to her. “She could have just killed me, but she didn't.”

“Believe me,” Miss Biddle hissed, blood still dripping from her mouth. “I'm kicking myself over it.”

“Let me talk to her,” Teddy said.

“Because that worked out so well the first time?” Georgina said in a sing-song voice.

“She's got a point,” Ellie said. “Plus she's way stronger than any of us, and I don't think we’ll be able to… change her mind unless we can keep her… well, leashed in some way.”

We were all silent for a few beats.

“Well,” Georgina said, “I'm going to fix that.” And in the next heartbeat she walked forward, raised her hand, and a seed appeared between her fingers. Before the vampire could even hiss, Georgina stabbed that seed right into the side of her eye, all the way, as far as her finger could go.

Miss Biddle screamed in agony. Georgina kept her finger in there, pushing even further up into Miss Biddle's brain.

Jesus…

Georgina had her eyes closed, and had her tongue clutched between her two front teeth. Miss Biddle’s cries of agony trailed off as if she was being deflated.

Two things happened simultaneously: the shadows that speared through Miss Biddle’s guts disappeared, and Georgina's finger slid out of her eye socket. The vampire librarian crumpled to the ground at Georgina's feet. Georgina held up her blood coated finger and gave it a dainty lick.

There was a chorus of groans, most of us pretty grossed out by everything we'd just seen. But Georgina just shrugged. “I thought it would taste… better, you know?” She looked over to Wood and gave him a fetching smile. Wood beamed back at her.

Yuck…

“There you go,” she said, brushing her hands off, the blood on her fingers evaporating into the air. “One neutered—or would it be spayed?—vampire. Appropriate for all occasions, including weddings, funerals, children's birthday parties…”

“What do you mean spayed? Ellie I asked. “Do you mean she can't reproduce or something?”

“What did that bitch do to me?!?!” Miss Biddle shrieked, scrambling back on the ground, trying to get as far away from Georgina as she could.