The next day, after last bell, I headed to my locker to find Trevor leaning against it.
“I bet it breaks your heart to have two of your friends pine for me the way they do,” he said proudly. “Luna. . and now Scarlet. They can’t keep their hands off of me.”
“It’s just because you are foreign to them. It’s like if they went to the zoo and stared at the monkeys. You are the monkey.”
Trevor broke a smile.
The more I pushed his buttons, the more he loved it. He stepped aside, but not without brushing against me. He peered over me as I unlocked my locker and opened its door.
“So what about that key?” I asked.
“I knew you’d be asking me about it sooner or later.” He pulled the cord out from underneath his shirt and dangled the key in front of me.
“What do you want for it?” I sneered. “Five dollars?”
“I don’t want money,” he said with a wicked grin.
“What does it go to?”
“A kiss will unlock more than this key will,” he whispered in my ear.
Steam burned inside me. Maybe the key didn’t even go to anything. Maybe it was just something Trevor made up.
And I would be the fool once again.
But what if I was wrong, and perhaps it was important. Maybe it was the key to unlocking something magical in the factory that held the answers Jagger was keeping secret.
“What’s going on?” Becky asked, puzzled by Trevor’s proximity to me.
“Raven and I were just having a chat. But it’s time to go. You know where you can find me,” Trevor said. “You have my number.”
“The hazmat crew removed it for me.”
Becky looked at me as Trevor walked away. “What was that all about?”
“Same bully, different bullying,” I said. Then I changed the topic to something more exciting. “I’ve been so busy but I wanted to talk about something with you. I want to get a present for Alexander’s birthday. Something really special.
But I don’t live in New York or L.A. What can I get him here that he’ll like?”
“He loves art,” she said.
“Yes. . but I can’t draw or paint. And I can’t afford anything worth having.”
“And you.”
“Aww. That’s so sweet!” I beamed at my best friend’s compliment. “But guys are so hard to buy for. We always get my dad golf or tennis stuff. But Alexander doesn’t play sports. And I don’t know what kind of supplies he needs.
Besides, that doesn’t seem fun.”
“I get Matt computer sports games. But I suppose Alexander’s not into that.”
“I was thinking about surprising him with a nice intimate dinner. Just us in his backyard. Or at the cemetery.”
“That sounds very romantic!”
But I wanted to give him something unique — after all, he was one of a kind. But what does one give to someone of the Underworld?
It was then I knew. My blood. In a vial. For a vampire, it was the ultimate gift.
“I have it!” But I couldn’t tell her. She’d freak, just as she should, if I told her I was going to give my boyfriend a vial of my blood. But in this case it wasn’t creepy. My boyfriend was a vampire.
“So what is it? What are you so excited about?”
“Uh. . a gargoyle!”
Becky’s eyes lit up. “That is the best gift for him! He will so love it! Wish I’d thought of it!”
“I’ll go to Annie’s Antiques to shop.”
“I’ll go with you. I might find a gargoyle for Matt, too.”
I shot her a puzzled expression. “Fine. I’d love to have the company.”
We headed to the antique store that I frequented and I immediately scanned the glass case for a vial. There were many crystals and gems, but at first glance I didn’t see a vial.
“A gargoyle isn’t going to be in the case, silly,” Becky said, standing by the outdoor figurines. “They’ll be over here.”
“Yes, I know.”
I glanced back at the case and saw a shiny vial. It was small, with a sterling silver serpent winding around it and a small hook. I could string some cord through it and it would be the ultimate gift for my vampire boyfriend.
I checked the price tag and I had enough money to buy it.
“Here’s one.” Becky pulled me away from the case and toward the gargoyle.
“That is cool,” I said. “But it’s out of my price range.”
I didn’t have enough for both the gargoyle and the present I most wanted to get. I wasn’t sure how to conceal that I wanted to get a vial.
“Oh, yes,” Becky said. “It is kind of steep.”
Instead I decided to make my gift choice known — but not the reason. “I want to buy this,” I said, returning to the case and pointing out the vial. “It’s really cool.”
“I thought you wanted a gargoyle,” she said, peering in the case. “What’s he going to do with a vial?”
“I could put something special in it.”
“A potion?” she teased.
“Yes, exactly. A love potion.”
“But he doesn’t need that — he already loves you. I think he’d like a gargoyle much better. But he’s your boyfriend.”
Annie placed the vial in a small gift box. “Would you like me to wrap it?”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I’ll do that at home.” I couldn’t tell her I still had to fill it with my blood.
Now I was just going to have to figure out how to fill it.
That evening I was rushing through dinner and scarfing down my food.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” my mom asked. “You’ve been MIA for the last several weeks.”
“I’m helping some friends with a project.”
“Friends? You have friends?” my brother teased.
“Yes, who are these people?” my dad asked.
“They’re some new kids. I’m just helping them out.”
“With a school project?” my brother asked. They all looked at me as if the situation was ridiculous.
“I’m so proud of you,” my mom gushed. “See, Alexander has been good for you. You get out more, go to dances, and now are helping new students with school projects.”
I couldn’t break their parental hearts at this point. They were so happy with the child they thought they had. It would have been cruel to reveal the truth — that I was actually helping vampires open a club.
“Did you hear about the crop circles?” Billy asked.
“What?” I put my dinner down. Crop circles could be a bad thing.
“They were discovered this morning. They showed up on Mr. Bateman’s farm.”
“Are you kidding?” I asked with interrogating eyes.
“Henry and I are going to see them after dinner.”
“Crop circles, here in town?” I pressed.
“Yes, aliens have arrived to take you home,” he said with an obnoxious laugh only a younger brother could make.
“Billy,” my dad warned in his authoritative voice.
“They’re just a prank,” my brother went on. “I saw how to do it on TV. It’s actually really simple. All it takes is a long board and a lot of rope.”
“Then maybe it was one of your nerdmates. A math club experiment,” I said. “Working with diameters and circumferences. You guys are totally into that stuff.”
“Me? Sneak onto someone else’s property?” he said. “You think I’d do that — or any one of my friends?
Trespassing — that’s your expertise, not mine. Maybe you did it.”
“Yes, I’m all about spending my evenings running around on a farm with a board and rope.”
“Now, if they showed up at the cemetery, maybe Raven would have done it,” my dad said with a chuckle. “I couldn’t resist,” he said, patting my hand.
I wasn’t as mad at being the butt of my family’s jokes as I was at Jagger’s actions. When I was in Hipsterville, Jagger used crop circles to signal to vampires that it was a safe haven for them in that town, thus publicizing the invite to the Coffin Club. He was warned not to invite vampires to Dullsville, and here he was signaling them. Soon the club would open and dozens of vampires could infiltrate the town.