"Sorry," she says. "Sometimes I forget how fragile you humans are."

He scowls at her, his muscles contracting as he tries to break his own chains. "I don't need your help, vampire," he snarls.

"Oh relax, Mortal One." Rachel smiles sweetly at him. "I don't bite." Then she laughs. "Well, okay, that's not exactly true, but in your case, I promise to make an exception."

"Come on, Corbin," I beg. "We need to get out of here. Rachel's the only hope we have."

He lets out a long breath. "Fine," he says through gritted teeth. "Do what you have to do."

"Such grat.i.tude," she muses out loud. "No wonder you guys remain at the bottom of the food chain." She cuts through the shackles and they clatter to the ground. "Now, try not to stake me while I continue to save your life, okay?"

"I don't make promises to vampires," Corbin mutters as he staggers to his feet.

"Come on, you two," I cry. "Less bickering, more getting the h.e.l.l out of here." I make a dash for the open door.

"Wait! You've got to-!" Rachel cries out after me. I stop, turning to question ...

... and an alarm starts blaring through the building.

Uh-oh. Did I do that?

"You've got to watch for the infrareds," Rachel says with a sigh. "Or, you know, not."

"Too late now," Corbin cries. "We need to get out of here, fast!" He runs out the door and down the darkened hallway, which flashes with red lights, pulsing in time with the siren. We reach a set of double doors and push them open, bursting into the same laboratory I woke up in. At the end of the room, a large, bright exit sign is illuminated. We rush toward it, but Corbin stops short, forcing Rachel and I to slam into him. A few beakers fall from the table and shatter with a loud sound. Corbin puts a finger to his lips.

We listen. From below we can hear shouts, footsteps pounding on the stairs, doors slamming. "We can't go this way," Corbin says. "We'll run right into them. Go back the way we came!"

So we head back through the double doors and into the red flashing hallway. This time we take a left and shoot down another dark corridor.

"In here," Rachel says, pointing to an unmarked door. We push through, entering a large, high-ceilinged room, filled with ... beds?

"What the ... ?" Corbin looks down in horror at the bed nearest him, his face whitening and his mouth opening into a scream. Rachel catches it just in time, covering his mouth with her hand.

"Shhh!" she commands him. "Don't give us away."

He manages to close his mouth and Rachel removes her hand. He points at the bed with a shaky finger. I look down at the figure lying upon it. A boy, probably about eighteen. Blond hair, pale skin, eyes closed. He looks almost dead, but I can see the slow pulse at his neck. Coma, perhaps?

"Parker ... ?" Corbin whispers hoa.r.s.ely, staggering backward. Rachel catches him and holds him up until he can regain his balance.

"Who's Parker?" I ask curiously, grabbing the chart off the end of the bed. Sure enough the paperwork identifies him as Parker Anderson. "Injected with nine milliliters of vampire blood," I read. "Current condition: comatose."

Corbin shakes his head in horror. "No ..." he whispers.

"This is what I've been trying to tell you," I say gently, believing he's finally ready to hear the truth. "The Alpha program? They're trying to turn you all into vampires-so you can fight as soldiers in their war to take over the world. But evidently they haven't gotten their formula quite right yet." Thank goodness, too, or we'd be in even more trouble than we are already.

"Trinity, Taylor, Conner, Julian-all of Riverdale's former Alphas are here," Corbin says, going from bed to bed. "I thought ... I thought they were ..."

"James Bonding out there in the otherworld?" Rachel says wryly. "Yeah, not so much."

Before anyone can answer, we hear a door open and what sounds like a hundred footsteps clomping just outside. Rachel dives for the door, locking it behind us. "We need to get up to the roof," she says. "To the helicopter."

"Um, can anyone here actually fly a helicopter?" I venture as we run through the room and to the back door. Behind us, I can hear them banging on the door, trying to break it open.

"I can," Corbin says, his distraught face thankfully morphing into a determined one.

Rachel looks at him skeptically. "A real one, or are you talking video game simulation?"

He scowls. "Well, unless you've got your pilot's license, honey, I'm the best chance we've got."

"Less fighting, more running," I call breathlessly up at them.

I lose track of floors as we run up flight after flight. After what seems a million years, we finally reach a door at the top. I wrap my fingers around it and turn.

Locked.

"Great. Now what?" Corbin asks angrily. "You vampires have advanced lock-picking powers, maybe?"

"Nope, but I've got super strength," Rachel says with a smile. She slams her body against the door. The wood creaks and moans, but doesn't give way.

"Might want to turn up the 'super' a little," Corbin suggests, unhelpfully.

Below, the voices are getting louder. "Up here! They've gone to the roof!"

"After them!"

"Come on, Rachel!" I urge. "You can do it!"

Rachel slams the door again. And again.

"Hang on," Corbin says after her fourth attempt. "Allow me." He backs up and charges the door, throwing his full weight upon it. The wood gives way and Corbin crashes through.

He grins mockingly at Rachel. "After you, vampire."

Rachel gives him a grudging nod of respect, then dashes through the hole that used to be the door. I follow directly behind, out onto the roof. It's nighttime and the wind whips through my hair as we make a mad run for the small chopper sitting on the helipad. Corbin takes the driver's seat and starts fumbling with the controls. The propellers begin to slowly whirl and a moment later we're hovering a few feet off the ground.

"Let's go!" I cry.

"Hang on," Corbin says, madly working the gears. "This is supposed to just be a two-person helicopter," he says. "We need to throw some stuff off." He grabs a parachute case and tosses it to the ground.

"No, wait! You barely know how to fly this thing. You're going to need those," Rachel reminds him, jumping off to throw the case back in, then boosting herself back up.

"I know, but ..." Corbin looks around frantically for other possible discards. At that moment, the rooftop swarms with guardians spilling through the shattered doorway, armed with stakes and crossbows.

"Get off the helicopter," one of them commands into a megaphone. "You're under arrest."

The three of us look at one another. Then Rachel shoves an unfolded map in my hands. "The Blood Coven is waiting for you here," she says, pointing to an X on the map. "Good luck!"

"Wait, what are you-?" I start to say, but before I can get out the words, she's jumped off the 'copter and is running toward the slayers. "Come and get me, b.i.t.c.hes!" she cries.

"Rachel, no!" Corbin and I cry in unison.

But it's too late. The guardians turn on her and let loose their crossbows. As the stakes pierce her body, she instantly poofs into nothingness-as if she were never there at all.

"Corbin, go!" I cry, b.l.o.o.d.y tears flooding my face. "Go now!"

Corbin slams the gear and the helicopter jerks upward, rising over the guardians. They try to shoot, but the wooden stakes bounce harmlessly off the bottom of the 'copter and rain back on the ground below.

I lean my head against the side of the helicopter, trying to catch my breath. "She didn't have to do that," I moan, mostly to myself.

"Actually, she did," Corbin says simply, staring out the front window, steering the 'copter toward our destination. "It just surprised me that she did it."

21.

"Rayne!" I whirl around, my heart leaping to my throat as my eyes fall on Jareth-beautiful, sweet, adoring, wonderful, boyfriend Jareth-pushing through the cafe door and running toward me with all abandon. A moment later, I'm in his cool, vampiric embrace, his arms wrapped around me, squeezing me tight. I bury my face in his shoulder, b.l.o.o.d.y tears of relief raining down on his Batman T-shirt.

"Oh, Rayne," he murmurs. "I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead and I didn't know what to-"

"Shh," I comfort, looking up at him. He's got b.l.o.o.d.y tears in his eyes, too, and the love that radiates from them scorches me down to my core. I've missed him so much. More than I even realized. Because this is love. Real, honest, deep love between two people who trust each other more than anything in the world. Not some cheap, dirty l.u.s.t brought on by a craving for blood. He lowers his head to brush his lips against my own and- Corbin clears his throat. Ugh. Speaking of ...

I reluctantly break free from Jareth's hug and turn back to see the Alpha has come up behind me. Guilt slashes through me as I catch sight of his agonized face. I guess all residue of the vampire scent has not deteriorated as I'd hoped. He hates me and yet he can't help but love me. He's fighting it, but it's a brutal battle. And it's all my fault.

"I'm Jareth," my boyfriend greets, stepping up to Corbin and putting out his hand. "Thank you for helping Rayne escape from Riverdale. I am forever in your debt."

Corbin scowls, refusing to take Jareth's hand. He turns to me. "I just came to tell you that they brought over your b.l.o.o.d.y Mary. Though sadly for you, I don't think they used real blood," he snarks bitterly.

I give him an apologetic look. After Rachel sacrificed her vampire life for us, we used her map, along with the helicopter's on-board GPS, to find the nearest town and started heading in that direction. Luckily, Corbin's virtual experience made him a pretty good real-life flyer, with the exception of a rather b.u.mpy landing I'm sure I got bruises from. (But considering the alternative, I'll take them!) From there, I purchased a pre-paid phone card and called Jareth on his cell to let him know we'd arrived.

Corbin slinks back over to the table, his shoulders hunched miserably. Jareth turns to look at me with questions in his eyes.

"Uh, sorry," I say. "Let's just say Corbin here isn't the biggest fan of vampires."

"I see." Jareth watches him for a moment. "Rayne, can I speak to you alone?" he says suddenly.

"Um ... sure." I follow Jareth out of the little town cafe and onto the cobblestone street. There aren't many people out and about in this predawn hour, but he pulls me into a dark corner anyway. Then he turns to me, accusation in his eyes.

"You've drunk from him."

My eyes widen in surprise and the familiar feeling of guilt slams through me once again. "Uh, how can you tell?"

"Because, my dear, it's painfully obvious," he replies, running a hand through his blond hair. "It's also, I might add, going to be a painful problem."

I cringe at his disapproval. This is so not how I wanted our reunion to go. "I couldn't help it!" I protest. "There was no Blood Synthetic on campus. At least none that I knew of at the time. And I was dying of thirst."

"You should have drunk from your sister then."

"I couldn't. She's got this Holy Grail c.r.a.p in her bloodstream," I remind him. "It's like vampire poison."

"Well, then what about an animal?"

"I tried to eat a few extra-rare hamburgers. I just threw them up." I screw up my face, remembering. "Anyway, I don't get it. What's the big freaking deal? You drink human blood every day."

"Yes, from donors who are contracted and well-paid for their services," Jareth clarifies. "In this day and age no one goes and glamours an unwilling victim, stealing their blood without permission. That's completely against the consortium's rules. You could be kicked out of the coven if anyone finds out what you did. After all, you're still on thin ice from that incident back in England."

I scowl. Those stupid idiot English vampires who flipped their lids when I pulled out my stake. "It wasn't like I was actually going to slay them," I protest. "I was just trying to scare them a little for being such jerks."

Jareth suddenly puts a finger to his lips and I turn to see Magnus, on approach. All talk of Rayne's bad behavior must cease in front of the master. "Rayne!" he cries, his face wild and frightened and his long brown hair tousled as he hurries toward me. "Are you okay?" He grabs me and pulls me into a big hug. Which is awkward, considering, on the whole, I don't think he likes me all that much. I'm too much of a troublemaker for a law-abiding vampire like him.

"Magnus, you're crushing me," I mention.

He releases me, looking sheepish. After all, this is no way for the master of one of the largest covens on the Eastern Seaboard to behave. "Tell me everything you know," he demands.

I do. I tell him about our parents' shocking news. About being brought to Riverdale. About Sunny being stolen away by the fairies and replaced by an evil changeling. About me being brought to Night School and Slayer Inc.'s evil plan to take over the otherworld.

I don't, however, mention the little Corbin detail. There'll be time for Rayne to get in trouble later. Or never. I'd be okay with never, too.

Magnus swears under his breath. "This is terrible news," he says. "I knew something was up there-that's why I sent Rachel in the first place-but I had no idea it was such a large-scale operation. And now that they've got your blood ..."

"We must launch an all-out attack against them," Jareth declares. Now that he's co-master of the Blood Coven with Magnus, he gets a say in these kinds of things. "They have to be stopped before they can perfect their formula and start creating these vampiric Sidhe."

"Indeed," Magnus says, nodding his head distractedly. "But first things first: We must rescue Sunny from the fairies." At Jareth's disapproving glance, he adds, "I made a promise to her in Vegas that she would always come first. And I intend to keep that promise."

I look at him with sudden admiration. If only Sunny were here to hear him say those words. The girl would be over the moon.

"That said," Magnus adds, "you're welcome to start gathering your troops. As soon as we free Sunny, we'll make Slayer Inc. our number one priority."

This seems to appease my boyfriend a bit. "Very well," he says. "But breaking into fairyland is going to be no easy task," he reminds Magnus. "They live at the edges of the world in another dimension beyond our own. To even get there, we'd need fairy magic to part the curtains between the worlds."

Magnus scratches his head. "Do we know any fairies?" he asks.

"h.e.l.lo?" I wave my hands in their faces. "I'm a fairy, remember?"

The two of them turn and look at me doubtfully. "So, how do you break into fairyland then?" Magnus asks.

"Well ... I don't know," I admit. "But I'm sure I can-"

"It's not something you can just go and Google, Rayne. These secrets have been kept by the fey folk for thousands of years."

"But I'm fairy royalty. Surely if I knock they'll open the door!" I suggest, knowing my answer sounds weak, even to my own ears. But still, I have to try. I mean, it's my sister that we're talking about here. I can't let her languish in fairyland, away from her true love.

"Well, then what about this?" I ask. "What if we at least head to Ireland-to the town closest to where Tir na nog is supposed to be? And then we can see about finding a fairy guide at the very least, if I, myself, can't figure out a way to do it."