“Ah, you are then truly home. What do you see?”
“I see one of the shoes I was trying on earlier. I don’t…” And then the light dawned. Madame Dupuy had set it up so that she would know whether I was lying when I called. “Never mind.”
“Bon,” she said. “I will wish you good night. Fais des beaux rêves.”
Sweet dreams. Dad used to tell me that when I was still little enough to want him to tuck me in. I hung up, took the chilly shoe out of the fridge, and carried it to my room, shaking my head in admiration. She knew the tricks, and she’d set an excellent trap. I wondered where she learned to do that.
Chapter 5
Eleven Weeks Ago
Madame Dupuy got to our apartment earlier than usual the next morning, rousted me out of bed, poured a cup of coffee into me, stuck a pain au chocolat in my hand, and handed memy backpack. “If I permit you to go to a club, Mademoiselle Tosh, you must repay me by going to class,” she said as she herded me toward the door.
“Just a minute, please.” I hurried into my room and retrieved her heart necklace. “Thank you so much for lending this to me.” I held it out to her, but she pushed my hand back gently.
“It is yours now. Please wear it every day. There was another attack last night, one street from the club where you were, and I would like you to be protected all the time.”
Unless the pendant shot stun rays, I didn’t see how it could protect me, but her concern felt like a hug. The radio babbled in the background, as it did every day. She’d insistedthat we set our sound system up so that it played the same boring news station in every room. You couldn’t escape.
“It is very helpful for learning French,” she’d told Dad. “France Info repeats the main news stories every hour. By the end of the day, even if you are not truly listening, you will have understood at least one news item. So you will know a little more French and a little more news every day.”
Dad embraced total immersion, but he had to listen for only an hour or so in the evenings, because I turned it off the moment Madame Dupuy left. I, on the other hand, had to listen whenever I was home, unless I was doing homework. She’d quiz me on the news stories, too. Some days immersion felt like drowning.
“This attack,” I said, slinging my pack onto my shoulder. “What happened?”
Madame Dupuy looked uncomfortable. I was about to ask her again when I recognized a word in the newscast. “Did they just say ‘vampire’ on the actual news? Like as a possible suspect?”
She nodded grimly. “That is the attack I was telling you about. The victim died.”
I winced. “But they don’t really think a ‘vampire’ did it, do they?”
“There are people who do.”
I remembered what she’d said about her great-grandma fighting off a vampire with the necklace I wore. “Doyouthink that?”
“I hope it is not true, but it is possible, yes.”
“That there’s a ‘vampire’ in Paris?” I made the air quotes with my fingers this time because I couldn’t believe I washaving this conversation with a certified adult. She nodded. Just, wow. “Listen, I love this necklace, and it’s so sweet of you to give it to me, but necklaces don’t protect against vampires, because vampires aren’t real.”
She gave me a look filled with sorrow, then said, very quietly, “Yes, they are.”
“No,” I scoffed. “I mean, maybe it’s someone who’s mentally ill, but blood-drinking folklore creatures? That’s just…stories.” How could we be having this conversation? Madame Dupuy lived in the twenty-first century. She was practical; she researched if Le Shopping was safe instead of, like, doing a protective incantation or making me carry garlic in my pockets. “If your great-grandma drove a vampire away with this necklace, it was because she lived in a time when vampires were realin people’s heads. If everybody believed silver repelled vampires, then the people who thought they were vampires would have believed they were repelled by it. It didn’t work because vampires existed; it worked because everybody thought it worked. It’s circular logic. And superstition. We know better than that now.”
“Where I come from,” Madame Dupuy said calmly, “vampires have always been real, and silver has always burned them.”
We stood, staring at each other. Then, with an effort I could see, Madame Dupuy hoisted a smile onto her face. “Bon, even if you do not believe me, what harm is there to wear it?” She looked at me almost pleadingly. “Do not ignore any solutions, even ones that seem impossible. You do not have to believe that it has any powers. You do not have tobelieve that there are vampires. But please believe that it would make me very happy to see you wearing it.”
I looked at the necklace in my hand. Her wanting me to wear it showed that I meant something to her. She meant something to me, too. So I could ignore the superstitious stuff and do this just because it made her happy. “Okay,” I said, fastening it around my neck.
She sighed, relieved. “It would please me if you would carry these as well.” She reached into her apron pocket and pulled out a handful of garlic cloves, still in their papery husks.
Just, no. I shook my head. “I’ll wear the necklace, but I’m not doing something out of a Dracula movie. Anyway, I have to go. I’m going to be late for class.”
—
My schoollooked like a mass conversion event when I got there. Girls wore everything from tiny crucifix pendants to enormous Gothic crosses. Professeur Joubert glowered at us as he walked to the front of the classroom. “Vampires do not exist,” he said flatly, enunciating every word in his measured way. “However, evil people do. We all hope that this person will be caught and punished. In the meantime, girls, be careful where you go and do not be alone. And,” he snapped, “save the crosses for church. They will not protect you from a predator. Furthermore, they are technically in contravention of the law, and I will not allow them in my classroom.” He folded his arms and scowled at us until everyone took themoff.
When Nick and I met after he got out of school to go see Le Bec’s piece, I was jumpy, worried about the attacks and about staying safe. I told him what Madame Dupuy had said to me. “I wonder if I should tell Dad she thinks vampires exist,” I said as we got on the Métro. “What if he fires her, though?” I sighed. “I really like her. And she did let me go clubbing on a school night.”
