Cryptic Cravings (19 page)

Luna was dressed in a fril y taffeta pink dress and black monster boots. Her baby pink hair cascaded over her naked shoulders.

“Happy birthday, Raven,” she said.

“Thanks, Luna.”

“And happy birthday, Alexander.” She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the cheek. “You’l soon find out what you’ve been missing,” I heard her say.

“I can see why you’re dying to have a covenant ceremony with Luna,” I said to Sebastian. “She does look like an angel.”

“She’s a beauty,” he said with a starry-eyed stare.

Becky came up to me and Alexander. She stared at him like she was seeing him for the first time.

She reached out to touch his arm as if she was trying to see if he was real.

“What’s up?” Alexander said.

“Happy birthday,” she said in a whisper. “But are you real y eighteen?”

“Yes,” he answered, confused.

“You’re not real y one hundred and eighteen?”

“No,” Alexander insisted. “What are you talking about?”

She stepped back, then raced to Matt’s side.

“What’s wrong with her?” Alexander asked.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tel you. Becky found—”

Just then Jagger motioned us over to a giant cake sitting on a table. “Time to make a wish.”

The cake was a long sheet cake with black flowers and tiny tombstones on it. In blood-red letters it read, “Happy Birthday, Alexander and Raven.”

It was real y sweet that Jagger had taken the time to decorate this room, get us this cake, and arrange for this party.

Two candles were burning like tiny torches.

Alexander and I looked at each other. We both made our separate wishes and blew out the candles.

“Thanks, Jagger,” I said. I gave him a big hug. He was taken aback by my affection but seemed grateful for it.

We each took a piece of cake and then headed for the smal dance floor.

“So it’s just us?” Becky said. “Who are not . . . ?”

“You, me, Matt, and Trevor. But I stil think Trevor is one, deep down,” I teased.

“Scarlet and Onyx?”

“Oh yeah,” I said as I danced.

“Are we in danger?”

“No—I carry garlic, just in case.”

“You do?”

I shook my head. “You are safe tonight. Nothing is going to happen.”

Just then Sebastian took a swig from a bottle. His mouth was stained with red liquid that he wiped off with the back of his hand.

“Is that wine?” Becky asked.

“I’m afraid not.”

We continued to dance, and my friend tried to absorb her new reality without passing out.

It was then she spotted two marks on Luna’s neck.

“I think I have to go to the bathroom,” Becky said.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, starting for the door.

“I’l go with you,” I said, and fol owed her up the stairs and into the girl’s bathroom.

She splashed water on her face. “When did you know?” she asked.

“After Alexander’s Welcome to the Neighborhood party. I was using Ruby’s compact and he didn’t show up in the reflection.”

“That was months ago.”

“I know.”

“And you held this secret inside you for that long?”

“I had to. For everyone’s sake.”

“Who else knows?”

“No one. It’s so important that no one else know.”

“I’m not going to tel anyone. Who’d believe me? But I have to tel Matt.”

“He’l have to swear to secrecy.”

“He wil ,” she assured me.

She dotted her face and neck with a paper towel. “I know this is a dream come true for you. But for me—”

“A nightmare?”

“Pretty much. Your boyfriend and al these people I’ve come to know are vampires.”

“Can you believe it?”

“And they sleep here?”

“Yes, isn’t that cool?” I said with a smile.

“In coffins?”

“Yes, you want to see?”

“You are joking.”

“No, I’m not.”

We left the restroom and I pushed through the crowd of clubsters, Becky trailing close behind.

“I’m not sure I’m ready for this,” she said when we reached the spiral staircase. “I almost fainted once. And these stairs are spooky enough.”

“It’s just down here.”

“Besides, don’t you want to get back to the party? Matt is by himself.”

“Alexander is with him.” I’m not sure if that was comforting to Becky anymore. I, too, wanted to return to the party.

I’d been waiting to celebrate for days, and in such a cool vampire way. But I’d also been waiting to share this secret with someone—anyone, especial y my best friend—for so long now, it was comforting being able to reveal the load I’d been carrying alone.

“Al right,” I said. “I can show you later.”

Just then Scarlet arrived behind us. “What are you girls up to?”

“Uh . . . I had to get something in Jagger’s office,” I said.

I didn’t have to lie anymore, but I was so used to it, I wasn’t sure what to say. Besides, I wasn’t sure how Scarlet felt about Becky knowing she was a vampire.

“Cool. I have to go to our room, so we can walk together.” She stepped around us and we fol owed her down the hal . “I just need to grab some fresh lipstick. Trevor rubbed it al off.”

Becky hung back as Scarlet opened the door and popped inside.

“Do you guys mind if I take off?” Scarlet asked when she came back out. “I want to head back to the party.

Sebastian and Luna are going to have their mock covenant ceremony. You don’t want to miss it.”

“We’l only be a sec,” I said. “Are you feeling faint?” I said to Becky when Scarlet had gone.

“Sort of.”

“Then we’l stop.”

“I think this might be a dream,” she said. “Hopeful y I’l wake up any minute.”

“Okay, but don’t freak out if you don’t.” I opened the coffin room door wider so she could see in. There they were, five coffins in a row.

Becky screamed. Fortunately we were too far away from the Crypt for anyone to hear.

“That’s how they sleep?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“And Alexander, too?”

“His is black and it’s at the Mansion.”

Becky didn’t move but remained fixed in the hal way. It was as if she expected one of the coffins to open and a dead person to jump out.

“No one is in them,” I assured her. “They are al at the party.”

“They real y sleep here? Even Sebastian?” she wondered aloud.

“Yes, his is the one with stickers from different countries on it.”

“A vampire was interested in me?” It was too much for her to take in on one night.

“Yes, he was.”

“I feel woozy again.”

She began to get weak-kneed, so I pul ed her into Jagger’s office.

“A tarantula?” she said nervously. “And gravestone etchings on the wal s?”

“Maybe this wasn’t the best place for you to sit down. But you should real y catch your breath.”

It was then I spotted the blueprints for the Covenant lying out on the table. On closer inspection I noticed something I hadn’t seen before. These plans were old and weathered.

They were the original factory plans. In the margin, written in pencil, was a smal area that remained untouched.

When I looked closer, it said, “tomb.” Now I was ready to faint. It appeared to be a smal burial site for soldiers.

Part of the factory had been built over sacred ground—the part that Jagger now cal ed the Covenant.

And any minute, Sebastian and Luna were going to have a real covenant ceremony. And unbeknownst to Alexander’s best friend, it wasn’t going to be “just for fun.”

“Oh no!” I said.

“What?” Becky asked.

“We have to get upstairs!”

“I stil feel woozy.”

“Do you want me to leave you here?”

Becky recovered lightning fast. Before I could move, she was standing at the door.

I grabbed the original blueprints and we raced through the hal way and up the rickety spiral staircase. We squeezed through the crowd and scurried down the Covenant stairs.

When we reached the underground club, Sebastian and Luna were standing over a coffin on the covenant stage.

“Where were you?” Alexander said. “Sebastian and Luna are doing their ceremony. And we’re next.”

Trevor, Scarlet, Jagger, and Onyx were watching from the sidelines.

“I have to talk to you,” I whispered.

“Shh!” Jagger scolded.

Sebastian held up a goblet and recited some words I couldn’t understand.

“I have to talk to you—it can’t wait any longer!”

“It wil have to wait until after the ceremony,” Alexander said.

Then Luna repeated the same words and took a drink from her goblet.

“We are on sacred ground,” I said to Alexander.

“What?” he said.

Just then Sebastian turned to Luna. He held her hands and stared lovingly at her. He then took one hand and brushed her hair off of her neck. He smiled and leaned in.

I shoved the blueprints in front of Alexander and in my loudest voice declared, “We are on sacred ground!!!”

Sebastian stopped, and everyone in the club turned to me.

Alexander’s face turned white, but it was Sebastian’s face that was the most horrified. “What?”

I waved the blueprints. “We are over a real tomb. You are performing a real covenant ceremony!”

“I thought this was a joke. Just a game,” Sebastian said, stepping back. He looked at Luna, whose bright face fel .

Sebastian jumped off the stage and shook his head. Disgusted, he pushed past us and headed up the stairs.

Jagger’s face was red with anger.

Luna stood alone on the stage. It was the second time she’d been stood up at a covenant ceremony. First by Alexander, and now by Sebastian. Even I didn’t wish that kind of rejection for her. I could see the horror and sadness in her face. One tiny pink tear fel down her porcelain white cheek.

“Luna—” I said, jumping up onstage to comfort her.

She gave me a kil er stare that made me shudder. Then she stormed off the stage and out of the club.

Alexander went after Sebastian. Jagger was nowhere in sight.

Matt held Becky in his arms.

While everyone was in chaos, I took a moment at the altar. I imagined Alexander and me standing together over the coffin. He’d recite foreign words and lift his goblet and drink. Then I’d do the same. We’d face each other and stare into each other’s eyes like a dream.

He’d take me in his arms and give me a lust-fil ed, passionate kiss, then slide his fangs up my shoulder until they met the nape of my neck.

“I’ve been waiting for this day for an eternity,” he’d say.

Then he’d take the final plunge.

I sighed, imagining how happy I’d feel.

I spun around to find no one else in the room but Trevor, who was staring straight at me.

“My turn?” he said with a coy smile. “I can be into freaky foreign customs, too.”

I grumbled and then stormed off the stage and out of the club.

So you think Trevor knows we’re vampires?” Alexander asked the next day when I met him at the Mansion.

“No, he thought it was just something weird you guys do. But Becky knows the truth.”

Alexander appeared worried. “Wel , someone was bound to find out, I guess. It’s funny. I came here to escape the Maxwel s and now I’ve brought them to your town.”

“You couldn’t have known,” I reassured him. “So is the feud back on?”

“It might be with Sebastian. But I think they were doing it to also get back at me.”

Just then we heard a knock from downstairs.

“Alexander, you have a visitor,” Jameson cal ed. We headed out of the attic room and met Sebastian outside the TV room.

“Thanks, Raven. I owe you one.” He leaned in and gave me a hug.

“I knew you liked her, but . . . ,” I tried.

“So how are you doing?” Alexander asked.

“Pretty good,” he said.

“What’s going to happen to the Crypt?” I asked.

“It wil remain open,” Sebastian said, “but Jagger’s losing a partner.”

“Are you leaving town?” I asked, not able to mask the sadness in my voice.

“For the first time there is nowhere else I want to go,” he said.

“Do you want to crash here?” Alexander asked.

“I don’t want to mess with your setup,” he said. “Besides, I need way more electricity than this Mansion can provide. I’ve found an apartment in town that’s cool.”

“You’re staying?” I asked excitedly.

“Yeah, for a little while.” He looked at his shoes as if he was trying to find the words. “I’ve always thought that Onyx was real y pretty. And I don’t like the way Jagger doesn’t pay attention to her. She needs to know what a real boyfriend is like.”

“And you’re just the man?” I asked, thril ed.

“Who knows, I might be. Anyway, I just wanted to stop over and say thanks. I have to set up my new place. You guys can come over tonight if you want.”

“That sounds great. I’l walk you out,” Alexander offered.

While I waited for him to return, I heard Alexander’s phone beeping from the table. It beeped. And beeped.

If I wasn’t cal ing him and neither was Sebastian, it might be his parents.

When I saw the cal er ID, my heart sank.

Stormy.

Who was Stormy?

After a few moments of emotional flatlining, my blood pressure soared.

What do I do now?

I couldn’t be that girlfriend—the kind who snoops in drawers and closets and invades emails and texts. Or could I?

When I saw the number’s prefix, it was definitely foreign. Not from Dul svil e or even the United States.

I looked at the message.

When are you coming back?

I miss you like crazy!

Luv,

Stormy.

Stormy! “Luv?”

My thoughts raced. Alexander had another girlfriend? It was the last thing I was intending to find. The number was foreign, so this girl obviously didn’t live in Dul sville or even in this country. I hadn’t imagined Alexander could be involved with someone else. Who was this “Stormy”? Was she pretty? Was she a vampire? And was Alexander in love with her, too?

I paced in my boyfriend’s room. I gazed out the window. I tried to act calmly.

“That’s cool that Sebastian wil be staying in town,” Alexander said when he reentered the room.