Monster High: Season of the Witch

17. Wrong Place, Worse Time

Beatrix's boots hit the pavement. Buildings towered around her and a drizzle rained down.

"This way!" Orion shouted, his wolf nose sniffing the air. Orion was tracking where Holt had gone, and judging by the eagerness in his voice, they were nearly there.

Guillermo was a block behind them due to his stout legs, but Beatrix couldn't slow down.

Adrenaline pumped through her. She couldn't believe her plan had worked.

She'd doused Johannah and Mr. Gore's water with her sleeping elixir and muttered the book's siren song.

Johannah and Mr. Gore were immediately knocked out cold.

When she followed traditional witchcraft recipes, Beatrix had consistently failed at making a sleeping elixir. Even experienced witches couldn't make someone fall asleep so quickly.

Luring Johannah and Mr. Gore to sleep with a mermaid lullaby was more effective than Beatrix could've imagined.

While she'd slipped Johannah out the back door, the boys had slumped Mr. Gore over their shoulders and pretended like the teacher was too drunk to walk by himself. They'd placed them in the parked Monster High shuttle.

"Here!" Orion stood at the back entrance to a nightclub. Music pulsed on the other side.

Beatrix tugged on the handle. Locked.

Orion puffed his chest. "My time to shine."

Orion's canines flared as he exerted his full werewolf strength.

The door didn't budge.

"I bet... Clawd..." Guillermo heaved when he reached them. "... could open that easily..."

Orion's pupils shrunk to pinpoints. "You're saying I'm weaker than Clawd?"

"Abso...lutely."

"Could Clawd do this?" Orion snarled, tugging the handle again. Veins protruded from his forearms and Orion's beanie fell off, revealing his wolf ears.

This time, he yanked the door from its hinges.

EDM beats blasted at them and Beatrix had to shout to be heard. "Nice work! Let's split up to look for Holt."

Beatrix entered and edged along the back wall.

She would've been worried about someone noticing Orion's ears if it wasn't for the fact that every human in the club was dressed in Halloween costumes.

"Give it up for DJ Hyde!" someone yelled over a microphone.

Humans jumped in anticipation.

"You normies ready to par-tay?" Holt screeched.

Through a break in the crowd, Beatrix beheld Holt at the DJ booth, bobbing his head.

Next to the booth, Guillermo waved to get Beatrix's attention.

Beatrix snaked around the crowd to him.

"We need to get Holt and leave!" Beatrix yelled.

"Holt won't budge! And Orion's no help!" Guillermo yelled back.

Orion was in the middle of a dance circle, showing off moves from Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

Beatrix didn't know how much time they had until the sleeping elixir wore off. She was about ready to yank Holt from the DJ booth herself, however, she knew that Holt was too strong to bend to her will.

"Hey! I know those guys!" Guillermo shouted, referring to two vampire boys in the crowd, each with a human girl on their arm. "That's Bram and Vilhelm. They're juniors at Monster High! They'll help us!"

Guillermo followed them.

"Wait!" Beatrix chased Guillermo. He walked out the same door Orion had broken into.

Beatrix reached out to grab Guillermo. "Don't get others involved! And why are there other students off campus—"

Beatrix stopped.

Behind the nightclub, the street lights had gone out and a relentless rain poured down.

Guillermo stared, motionless, at two shadowy figures hunched in the dark outside.

A lightning strike lit up the backstreet, revealing the two vampires.

They were biting into the necks of the humans they were with.

Beatrix watched in horror as the closest vampire drained his victim's blood. The girl's face grew pale, eyes losing focus as fangs sunk into her flesh.

Pieces of a puzzle Beatrix wasn't even aware of came together.

The bags of blood lining the creepateria's refrigerators. Greta the lunch lady telling Beatrix that only one vampire at Monster High was vegetarian.

Orion loathing Guillermo's loyalty to bloodsuckers.

Clawdeen saying the woods around the school were most dangerous at night.

And Draculaura's warning. Not everyone plays by the rules here.

During Beatrix's first MSS meeting, Grey had been convinced that Gilda Goldstag was murdered.

Now Beatrix was convinced too.

Beatrix hoped the rainfall would cover any sound they made as they fled.

But all hopes of escape were cut short when Guillermo whimpered, "That's against school rules."

The vampires snapped their attention to them. The two girls crumpled to the floor.

Beatrix grabbed Guillermo by the wrist and dragged him back into the nightclub. "Orion! Holt!" Beatrix shrieked, muffled by the storm and music.

Hip hop blasted. Beatrix dodged dancing bodies on all sides of her, tugging Guillermo along, refusing to ditch him despite how slow he was.

They'd made it to the center of the dance floor when she realized that walls of humans surrounded them.

A hand yanked Beatrix's head back by the hair.

"Leaving so soon?" a vile voice taunted in her ear.

Beatrix couldn't pull away.

But the vampire let her go, and another hand, stronger, pulled her in the opposite direction, holding onto her upper arm as hard as an iron trap.

Grey towered above her.

His inky eyes were on the vampire, fierce and stone cold.

In his other hand, Grey wielded a long black staff; the one he usually kept retracted at his belt loop.

Grey aimed the staff towards the vampire, threatening to swing.

The vampire boy and Grey stared each other down for what felt like eternity.

Finally, the vampire vanished into the crowd.

Every muscle in Grey's body was rigid. His sullen eyes watched Beatrix's.

Beatrix noticed Guillermo, panting and red faced, hiding behind Grey.

"There you are!" Orion walked up in high spirits. "Oh... Hey, Grey. We were just—"

"The shuttle. Now," Grey said, sending a shiver up Beatrix's spine.

Orion and Guillermo didn't waste any time exiting the club. Beatrix hurried after and kept her eyes on the floor, not daring to look back as Grey pulled Holt off the stage.