Rise of the wrecking cre.., p.1
Rise of the Wrecking Crew, page 1
Remember, vampires can be vanquished by sunlight and silver, and have an aversion to garlic.
BY KALYNN BAYRON
For older readers
Cinderella Is Dead
Sleep Like Death
This Poison Heart
This Wicked Fate
You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight
For younger readers
The Vanquishers
The Vanquishers: Secret of the Reaping
The Vanquishers: Rise of the Wrecking Crew
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER 1
Natalia Graves is alive.
Well, technically, she’s undead. Natalia, also known as Nightside, former member of the Vanquishers—the deadliest group of vampire slayers the world has ever known—is now a vampire herself.
’Lita can’t seem to get her head around it as she stands beside Natalia’s empty coffin.
“Just because she’s not here doesn’t mean she’s a vampire, right?” Cedrick asks.
“I saw her,” ’Lita says in a whisper. “She was there.”
’Lita knew Natalia’s final resting place would be empty because, apparently, she’d gotten a glimpse of Natalia as we fled our block, trying to escape the horde of bloodsuckers who attacked my house. Casey, former member of the Wrecking Crew and somebody ’Lita thought she could trust, was working with this new hive and the shadowy organization called DOVA the entire time. Nothing is the way we thought it was, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it feels like the whole world has been turned upside down.
’Lita sighs and rests her hands on the edge of the coffin. “This is all my fault.”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “No, ’Lita. It’s not. Please don’t do that. Don’t blame yourself.”
I hate seeing ’Lita upset. She has tried so hard to keep us all safe for so long, and I can tell that she feels like she’s failing us, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
My mom steps to ’Lita’s side. “Boog’s right. This isn’t any one person’s fault.” Her shoulders slump and she bites at her bottom lip. “There had to be signs we all missed, or maybe … signs that we didn’t want to see.”
Mr. Alex, who is a vampire now, too, twitches as a rat scurries between his feet and out the door. Mr. Ethan grasps his hand, and they exchange a worried glance.
“We should get going,” my dad says. “We need to get to a safe place where we can regroup and make a plan.”
I pile into my dad’s SUV behind Cedrick and Jules, and we start the long drive into the hills of west Texas.
“I just don’t understand,” ’Lita says, dabbing at her eyes and leaning her forehead against the window. “How could Natalia do this to us? After everything we’ve been through together, how could she lead an attack on us?”
No one answers her, but my dad grips the steering wheel like his life depends on it. I don’t think any of us has a good answer. From what I’ve been told, Natalia was loved and trusted by every single member of the Vanquishers. To think that she’s now one of the creatures the Vanquishers are sworn to vanquish, that she’s now hunting us … It just doesn’t make sense.
“How did she even become a vampire in the first place?” I ask. “I thought she—well—everybody thought she was …”
’Lita sighs. “Dead. Everybody thought she was gone.”
“We saw her,” my dad says. “We saw her body.”
A shudder runs through me. I don’t know all the details about what happened, just that Natalia was killed at the last battle of the Reaping and that my parents had been heartbroken by her passing.
We saw her body.
How is that even possible? I have a million questions, but now isn’t the right time, and besides, I don’t think anyone even has an answer.
My dad steers us through downtown San Antonio in the dead of night and finally out onto the open roads that wind between rolling hills under a blanket of shining stars. It’s hard to believe that something so pretty could exist after everything we’ve just been through.
The new vampire horde attacked us at home. They hit us where we thought we were safe and they proved us wrong. I can’t stop thinking about how scary it all was. I can still see Cedrick’s and Jules’s terrified faces as we dodged vamps left and right, Aaron fighting to help keep us safe. And the vampires, the ones from Natalia’s new hive, they were monsters. Real-deal, bloodsucking monsters who were trying to make a meal out of all of us. And even though we escaped, we didn’t get away unscathed.
Cedrick is devastated. He keeps looking at his dad like he can’t believe what has happened. Mr. Alex seems just as sad as Ced. Everything will change for them now that Mr. Alex is one of the undead, and it breaks my heart. Mr. Alex didn’t ask for this. Neither did my friend Aaron, who was turned into a vampire a few months ago. It isn’t fair.
Me, Cedrick, Jules, and Aaron are crammed into two seats in the very back of my dad’s SUV, and none of us really feel like talking. Mr. Rupert is next to us, his head pressed into his hands. He’s unusually quiet, which is fine by me. Now isn’t a good time for one of his grumpy old man rants.
Miss Kim, Miss Celia, and ’Lita are in the middle row of seats wedged next to each other and Mr. Alex is crouched on the floorboards at Mr. Ethan’s feet. My dad is driving and my mom is navigating from the passenger seat, and we are headed west of San Antonio to a training facility once used by the Vanquishers and their network of other slayers. My mom says we’ll be safe there. According to my dad, we have three hours of driving before we arrive.
“We’ll need to stop soon,” my mom says. She glances at her phone, checking the FangTime app. “The sun will be up in forty-two minutes. We need to get Aaron and Alex under some blankets or something.”
The windows on my dad’s SUV are tinted but that’s not gonna be enough to keep Aaron and Mr. Alex from burning up in the Texas sun.
“Do we have any of the serum left?” Miss Kim asks.
My mom shakes her head as a worried expression spreads across her face. We had to leave everything behind when we fled my house. We didn’t even think to bring more of the solution Miss Kim invented to allow Aaron to be out a little longer in the daytime. I glance at Aaron and his face is drawn tight.
“Don’t worry,” I say to him. “We’ll figure something out.”
I reach over and Aaron grabs my hand, squeezing it tight. Cedrick puts his hand on top of Aaron’s and Jules puts theirs on top of Ced’s. Cedrick’s eyes are glassy and his bottom lip begins to tremble, but he sits up straight and shakes himself a little.
“Mr. Wilson, pull over,” Cedrick says. “We’ll go into the woods and dig graves for Dad and Aaron right quick. We can’t let them be out in the daytime.”
“Do we even have a shovel?” Jules asks.
“That will work, right?” I ask. I don’t see why it wouldn’t but I’m not a hundred percent sure.
“Nobody’s going in a grave, Cedrick,” my mom says. “We’ll be able to keep them safe in the car. I promise.”
“Besides,” my dad says, “gravedigging isn’t something you do quickly.”
“And you know this because …?” Cedrick asks, his bushy brows pushing up.
“I’ve dug my fair share of graves,” my dad says. “Did you know that was almost my official Vanquisher name?”
“Huh?” I ask. “But I thought all of the Vanquishers’ names have been around for generations, and y’all just took over the names from the people who came before you.”
We all stare at my dad in the rearview mirror.
“I wanted a new name for myself at first,” my dad says. “Something to make me stand out.”
“I’m really glad you stuck with Threshold,” my mom says. “I was never gonna call you Gravedigger anyway.”
A few minutes later my dad pulls into a gas station and we pile out to stretch our legs and rearrange the seating to better protect Aaron and Mr. Alex. It’s still dark out, but the sky is starting to lighten a bit to the east.
A man in a black baseball cap and jorts is furiously fueling up his car at the pump next to us. Inside his car are a woman and a kid, maybe two years old. The kid is bouncing around in the back seat, peeking through the rear window at me. I stick my tongue out at him and a trail of slobber dribbles out of his mouth as he grins.
“Gross,” Cedrick says.
The woman glances back from the front seat. She looks terrified as she says something to the kid and he returns to his car seat. The woman scans the parking lot like she’s looking for something.
“Come on,” the man at the pump says under his breath as he jams his fist against the side of the car like he can force the gasoline to fill his tank faster by threatening it. “Hurry up.”
My dad glances at him and then at the kid in the back seat. “You should head west,” he says to the man. “Just drive as far as you can and try not to travel at night.”
The man startles and locks eyes with my dad. “You heard something too?” he asks. “Someth
My dad approaches the man, and he stiffens up like he’s scared. “If it’s about the undead,” my dad says, “it’s true. And you should get your family to safety until we—” He stops himself and clears his throat. “Until they figure something out.”
All the color drains away from the man’s face. He pulls the pump out of the car while gasoline is still trickling from it. “It’s true?” he asks. “How do you know for sure?”
My dad puts his hand on the man’s shoulder. “I have a friend who has some information that’s not being shared with the public. Please. Go now. Get as far away from the city as you can. Drive in the daytime, stay off the roads at night if you can help it.”
I can’t tell if the man is gonna cry or scream. He opens the door to his car and gets halfway in before pausing. “You think the Vanquishers will come back to help? They will, right?”
My dad effortlessly plays it off, like he’s not the stake-wielding, mask-wearing Threshold himself. “I hope so. I really do.”
The man gets the rest of the way in his car, kisses the woman in the seat next to him, and they take off, leaving us alone in the parking lot.
The gas station attendant peers out at us from the window. My mom glances at him, then hands me her debit card. “Why don’t y’all go inside and make sure the attendant isn’t paying attention while we move Aaron and Mr. Alex into the trunk.”
“The trunk?” I ask. Aaron and Mr. Alex are standing near the rear of the SUV as Miss Celia and Miss Kim unfold a large foil blanket they found in my dad’s roadside emergency kit. I don’t like it, but I guess it’s the only option we have.
“Come on,” I say to Jules and Ced.
We walk into the little store and a bell goes off. The man behind the counter glances at us and then back toward the SUV. The bell goes off again as ’Lita enters the store behind us.
“How are we supposed to distract him?” Cedrick asks in a hushed whisper.
I shrug as we move down an aisle filled with candy bars and chips. I grab a giant bag of Doritos and Jules picks up three packages of chocolate chip cookies. They snag a pack of gum, then quickly put it back on the shelf. “Man, I can’t wait to get my braces off,” they say. “I want some gum so bad.”
We make a right and move along the rear aisle, where Cedrick grabs two Gatorades and a giant can of Coke.
“Your teeth are going to rot,” ’Lita says as she suddenly appears from one of the aisles. I almost jump out of my skin.
“Geeze, ’Lita,” Jules says. “You can’t just pop up on us like that.”
“Yes, I can,” ’Lita says, smiling. But it’s all a show. There’s no happiness in her eyes at all, just worry and concern.
I step toward her and slip my hand into hers. “Love you, ’Lita.”
She touches the side of my face and her eyes mist over. “Love you, too, Boogie.”
She looks tired. I know we’ve been through a lot in the last few hours, but she seems even more exhausted by all of it than the rest of us. She’s tough. She always has been. She’s our rock and we all depend on her to show us the right way to handle vamps and DOVA and anything else that might come up, but I’m really worried about how all of this is affecting her.
Cedrick cranes his neck so he can see the clerk. “He’s still looking outside.” Ced clears his throat and takes a deep breath. “I gotta do what I gotta do.”
“Wait. What’s that mean?” I ask as the hot heat of secondhand embarrassment prepares to wash over me. This is gonna be bad. I already know it.
“Suavemente …,” Cedrick begins, singing so loud I’m actually shocked.
Jules’s brows push up as their eyes grow wide. “No. Way. Are you serious? Stop it right now.”
Cedrick mumbles the rest of the line and then stops. “I don’t really know the words. I just heard it at Jules’s house one time.”
’Lita smiles, genuinely this time. “That song is by Elvis—”
“Elvis knew Spanish?” Cedrick says. “I didn’t know that.”
“Not that Elvis,” ’Lita corrects. “Elvis Crespo. And that song came out before you were even born.”
“Oh,” Cedrick says, shrugging. “Well, Elvis knew what he was doing. I don’t even know all the words and it makes me wanna dance.”
I glance over at the clerk and at least Cedrick’s terrible singing has accomplished its goal—the guy is staring straight at us with a confused look on his face.
“Should I keep going or nah?” Cedrick asks.
“Absolutely not,” I say. “Not now. Never again either.”
Cedrick looks down at the floor. “Okay, dang.”
We take our snacks to the counter and Cedrick avoids making eye contact with the clerk. I use my mom’s card to pay, and when we get back to the SUV, Aaron and Mr. Alex are in the trunk space with the foil emergency blanket tucked around them and some heavier blankets piled on top. My dad is finishing pumping the gas when Miss Kim walks up to my mom and shows her something on her phone.
“All the districts in San Antonio and the surrounding areas are ending the school year early and pivoting to virtual,” Miss Kim says.
My mom shakes her head as Mr. Rupert and my dad join her to look at whatever’s on the screen. I take my own phone and go to the local news’s website.
“Look,” I say to Ced and Jules.
They huddle in and I scroll through a half dozen articles. Our school is shutting down early for the year and there’s a new citywide curfew in place. Shipments of vampire repellants will be distributed to neighborhoods in the greater San Antonio area and the addresses of the pickup sites are listed.
“They must’ve found out about the attack at my house last night,” I say. “That guy that was pumping gas when we got here was shook, too. This is really serious.”
“We kind of knew that already, right?” Jules asks. “Ever since Aaron was bitten and all that stuff with Mrs. Lambert, it’s been a mess.”
I’d been so caught up with the new vampire hive attacking our house I’d almost forgotten how we found out that Mrs. Lambert, my favorite teacher, is a familiar. She’s been working with a vampire the whole time! It makes me mad and upset all at once. I feel like I don’t know who to trust anymore.
“Things are going to get bad again,” I say. “Like before the Reaping.”
“What are we gonna do?” Cedrick asks. “Like, is there even anything we can do?”
I go over to my mom and show her the articles. She sighs and puts her arm around me. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get this figured out. Right now, we need to get back on the road.” She glances at the sky. “Let’s go.”
We pile into the SUV and pull back on the highway just as the sun comes up over the faraway hills. The light slices through my brain and I shut my eyes. I wish none of this was happening. I miss being bored to death at home where the biggest issue was whose house we were going to sleep over at or what kind of pizza we were going to order. Everything is different now.
I’m awake all of a sudden. I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, because now it’s bright as heck outside and our car has come to a slow crawl. Out my window, all I can see is forest. My dad carefully navigates a narrow dirt road that cuts through the trees.
“It’s been forever,” he says, gripping the steering wheel. “I don’t remember the last time I was here.”
“Where’s here?” I ask.
When my mom mentioned the training facility, I’d pictured something like the Alamodome—a big fancy building with lots of lights and maybe a sign or something. But now we’re in the middle of the woods and I’m starting to think of other possibilities.
“You said training camp,” Cedrick says, eyeing Mr. Ethan suspiciously. “Did you mean like a super-cool high-tech Batcave type thing, or is it like a Naked and Afraid kind of challenge?”
Mr. Ethan whips his head around to look at Cedrick. “What have you been watching? What’s Naked and Afraid?”
Cedrick presses his lips together. “It’s, umm, a show where people have to survive in the wilderness but their butt cheeks are out the whole time and they’re afraid. So, like, naked and afraid.”
“Please don’t let it be like that,” Jules says. “I don’t wanna have my butt cheeks out in the woods. There’s ticks out here.”
“And I don’t know how to make a fire or catch fish,” I say.
