Dead Is a Battlefield (Dead Is, 6)

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. CHAPTER ONE I took a deep breath before I pushed open the door of Slim’s Diner. My best friend followed me in. The smell of frying burgers wafted through the restaurant and my stomach gurgled. "Jessica, I don’t know why you don’t like this place," Eva said. "Everyone comes here." "It’s my brother’s hangout," I replied. "At least, it was before he left for college. And besides, the jukebox would always play ‘The Warrior’ every time I came near it." If there was one description that didn’t apply to me, it was the title of that old song. We both glanced in the corner where the jukebox was. It was just a regular old jukebox now. I didn’t want to admit it, but I kind of missed the random selections it used to play. "What’s the story?" Eva asked. "What happened to it?" I shrugged. "Who knows? This is Nightshade. Anything’s possible." "I heard that Daisy Giordano trashed it." "What? Daisy would never do that," I said. As much as I envied my next-door neighbor, I wasn’t going to spread rumors about her, even though Ryan Mendez, my first crush, was in love with her. "I heard she beat up her best friend’s dad on Grad Night," Eva continued. "And burned down the Black Opal." "That’s not true," I said. "I was there." The all-ages club had burned down on Grad Night, but it hadn’t been Daisy’s fault. Her best friend, Samantha Devereaux, happened to be my brother’s girlfriend. Sam’s dad, Professor Devereaux, had been arrested for the murder of Chief Mendez. Things were complicated here in our little town of Nightshade, California. "Well, something strange happened," Eva said. "Maybe it was like Revenge of the Pod People, or something. I can’t believe I missed it and you won’t even tell me what really happened." I didn’t want to talk about the strangeness of my brother’s Grad Night. Or exactly how well my one selfdefense class had worked, enabling me to kick butt. Or the weird tattoo-like mark that had mysteriously appeared on my upper arm one day. It wasn’t exactly a tattoo, since it actually moved sometimes, but I didn’t know what else to call the swirling black ink. I’d managed to hide it all summer, which meant no cute camis or tiny bikinis. I’d spent my days at the beach sweltering in a cover-up instead of showing off my bod like all the other girls. There was only one other person I knew with a mark like this. I scanned the restaurant and spotted her sitting at the counter. Flo used to be my favorite waitress, but I’d been avoiding her since Grad Night, when, among other things, I noticed (a) a similar tattoo on her arm and (b) her fighting abilities. Flo was awesome. She had almost as big a crush on Ryan Mendez as I did. That is, until Ryan started dating Daisy and I finally realized exactly how hopeless my crush truly was. I was finally a Nightshade freshman and I’d let go of my little fantasy about my brother’s best friend. Now I just wanted to find someone who would look at me the way Ryan looked at Daisy. Eva was still talking about the Black Opal as we sat down at a table. "They’re finally reopening the place," she said. "I think we should go check it out tonight." "I thought the fire caused too much damage for them to ever reopen." I didn’t mention the explosion that started the fire. "The owner is reopening the club right here in Nightshade," Eva said. "Remember when that enormous big-box store at the edge of town closed down a few years ago? She’s relocated the club there. They’ve been working on it all summer. One of Bethany’s crushes worked on the construction. He says it’s really cool-looking now." "How would we get there?" I asked. "My parents are taking my little sisters to some kiddie play tonight." "Bethany is going," Eva replied. "She has a thing for the lead singer of this band that’s playing there tonight. Maybe she’ll give us a ride." I wasn’t holding my breath. Eva’s sister, Bethany, was a junior and didn’t have time for freshmen. Flo came over to take our ord