Blood Stain: Book Three of the Blood Type Series (complete)

Pulling Strings

Zach called the next evening. When his number popped up on the screen, I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself before answering. It's not that I didn't want to talk to my ex-boyfriend, but Zach wouldn't shut up about the holiday party my parents hosted every year, or how much he was looking forward to seeing me. As if he didn't see me every day at school. With the party little more than a week away, my mother was in full freak-out mode as she finalized plans for the big event. As always, she had recruited Zach, Olivia, and me to handle most of the grunt work. Still, I supposed talking to Zach was a welcome distraction to everything else going on in my life.

"Hey, Zach. What's up?"

"Blake?"

"Who else would it be?"

"She, uh . . . she told me I had to call you."

I had been giving Zach only half my attention, the other half reserved for analyzing a passage from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself that was due in English the next day. "You'll have to be more specific, Zach. You are you talking about?"

"Margaret Abernathy."

A nest of snakes came alive in the pit of my stomach. I pushed my computer off my lap and sat up straighter. "Are you with Margaret right now?"

In answer to my question, Margaret's voice piped up in the background. "Good evening, Blake Ehlert. I hope you are well."

I highly doubted she was at all concerned about my health. Pressing the phone closer to my mouth, I lowered my voice with the futile hope that Margaret's vampire-sharp ears wouldn't register my next words. "Listen to me carefully, Zach. Get as far away from her as you can. I don't care where you go, just go. Right now!"

"Nice try," Margaret said in the background.

"She said if you don't cooperate, she would do the same thing to me that she did to Olivia. I don't understand, Blake. What did she do to Olivia?"

My mind raced. I didn't doubt that Margaret would bite and infect Zach with vampire venom just to spite me, but I also didn't think her impulsivity would go unpunished yet a second time. According to Thomas, Josiah had given her a stern warning that she had better behave . . . or else. I didn't know what the "or else" was, but there was no way I would risk Zach's life just to find out.

"Put Margaret on the phone," I said.

Margaret's voice came over the line seconds later. "This would go a lot easier if only you would cooperate."

"I don't aim to make your life easy," I said. "Where do you get off making threats against Zach?"

"Still in love, are we? I wonder what John would have to say about that."

"We both know you're not going to hurt Zach," I said, refusing to let her manipulate me. "Not after what you did to Olivia. You might have gotten away with attacking her, but there's no way you'll get away with it again. Seriously, if Josiah—"

Margaret's low, sinister laugh cut through my monologue. "Oh, Blake. You would be shocked to learn how many times I have already, as you said, gotten away with it. When you're as old as I am, you must find ways to occupy your time."

The snakes in my stomach twisted and coiled. "Margaret, don't you dare—"

"If you insist on calling my bluff and putting your friend's life in danger," she said, "be my guest. Otherwise, meet us at the food court. Come within the next half hour, or Zach is as good as dead. I won't just bite him, Blake, I will drain him. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly."

"What is she talking about, draining me?" Zach said a moment later.

"Listen to me, Zach. You have to—"