Page 93 of Vampires and Violas

Or maybe he won’t be any help at all.

19

Perhaps it’sthe baby monster inside me, but I suddenly have the urge to kill my brother.

Okay, not literally.

Just…you know. Some pain.

Dad stares at Max, his expression growing more agitated by the second. “Excuse me?”

Max heads toward one of the couches, gesturing for us to follow him. As soon as he sits, he looks my way. I scowl at him, but he only responds with a “Don’t worry, I’ve got this” smirk.

He better have this.

“You know how Kevin was murdered, right?” Max says.

“What?” Mom exclaims, as stunned as you might expect.

“That’s not funny,” Dad growls.

“No, it wasn’t.” Max frowns at me. “You didn’t even tell them that?”

I give him a helpless look.

“It was all over social media,” he says to our parents, his tone slightly condescending. “If you’d signed up for an account like I suggested years ago?—”

“Max,” Dad warns.

“Okay, let me summarize,” my brother says, changing tactics. “Unbeknownst to us, Piper acquired a stalker. He found out Kevin was cheating on Piper, so he killed him and made it look like a suicide. Then the stalker guy took Piper out on a date and bit her?—”

“He did what?” Dad demands.

Let. Me. Die.

But Max bravely forges ahead. “Piper got sick and went to the doctor. They ran a blood test, and she tested positive for Vampiria B. We learned vampires are real, but don’t worry—she’s just in the first stage.

“Noah is a conservator—a baby vamp bodyguard, if you will. He got called in to protect Piper from the big, bad vampire. He moved in and saved her life a few times. We caught the vampire stalker, he went to jail, and now everything’s cool. Piper did freak out a bit when she found out Noah is a final-stage vampire, but I think she’s pretty much over that. Olivia informed me just this afternoon they’re dating now.” He looks at me, raising his eyebrows. “Did I miss anything?”

I hate you,I say silently.You are dead to me.

He smiles back, wicked. This is probably his revenge for how I broke the news to him.

Understandably, our parents stare at him like he’s lost his fool mind.

“You two have three seconds to tell us what’s actually going on here,” Dad says, his tone terrifyingly even.

He hasn’t used the three-second thing on us since high school. We never found out what happened at the end of it—we valued our lives.

“No, I’m serious,” Max insists. “There’s a prescription for blood in the fridge. If you don’t believe me, go look.”

“That’s not funny, Max,” Mom says quietly. “What’s actually going on?”

“Better get the pamphlets,” Max tells me. “Do you still have them?”

“I think they’re in my office.” I get up, feeling ill.

“Let’s say you’re not full of crap,” Dad says, not believing a word of it. He waves his hand toward Cassian. “Who’s this loser?”

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