I crept inside to find a table with a flickering candelabra on it and two champagne glasses filled with soda.
Alexander emerged from the shadows, dreamy and gorgeous. I was breathless. There wasn’t a place I’d rather be than in Alexander’s presence. I rushed to him and squeezed him with all my might. It seemed like ages since we had been alone, and I planned to take advantage of our solitude. My fingers begged to touch his skin, to feel my boyfriend close, sense his breath against mine. His strong hands grasped my smaller ones and he intently kissed them, as if he, too, had missed our moments together. I gently stroked his face and ran my fingers over his lips, my black nail polish in striking contrast to his alabaster skin and pale red mouth.
Alexander and I had only a short time for our date. Becky was in the safe company of Matt and the soccer snobs at a scrimmage, and Jameson was doing his best to keep Sebastian entertained with a newly purchased
Guitar Hero.
I curled up in Alexander’s arms. The electricity between the two of us seemed unbreakable. When he kissed my neck, I wondered if it was as much a torture for him as it was for me.
Alexander had the power at any moment to turn me—whether I wanted him to or not. Was he thinking what it would be like to pierce his fangs into me and take my blood into his? But Alexander was thoughtful and cautious. If I were in the arms of another kind of vampire, perhaps like Jagger or Sebastian, I might have blood dripping down my neck. I wondered and admired how he could be so different.
“I don’t know how you do it. Sebastian can’t.”
“It’s not easy. I’m sitting with the most gorgeous girl I’ve ever seen in my life and she wants to be a vampire.”
I melted at his compliment. “It seems easy to me….”
I couldn’t help but want to be bitten—if only to become a vampire before my best friend did.
A few pings of raindrops began to hit the roof of the bridge. A few moments later, it began to pour. It only added to our magically romantic night. I snuggled even closer to Alexander.
“Imagine it,” I began. “We’d live in the Mansion together. I’d make you smoothies, and if we ran out—then you’d have me.
“We’d have a beautiful coffin together,” I continued. “I’d decorate it with the most comfy pillows and blankets and tiny portraits that you’d paint of us. And we could wire it so we could listen to morbidly melodic music.”
“I could take you to Romania and you could see my home,” Alexander added. “We would dine outside on our balcony overlooking the twinkling city lights with my parents, and I’d take you into town and we’d dance until dawn.”
I was excited by Alexander’s enthusiasm. “You’d become a famous painter and I’d be an editor of a gothic magazine,” I continued. “We’d travel to Paris for your showings and we’d attend gothic fashion shows. We’d hang out all night long and sleep all day.”
“But you do that now,” he joked.
“By myself. But if I were like you…we’d never have to be apart again,” I said. “We’d be together, hidden away from the sunlight.”
“And holding hands in the moonlight,” he imagined.
“You’d never be alone. Not for a moment.”
“Not for one moment?” he asked coyly.
“Well, maybe one. If you wanted some space.”
“Forget it,” he assured me. “I’ve been waiting for you all my life.”
Alexander kissed me again.
“We wouldn’t only have stolen moments like tonight,” I urged. “We’d be together longer.”
Raindrops continued to fall against the roof as he kissed my wrist. My vein showed prominently. Alexander’s attention was drawn to my blue blood vessel.
“Are you ready?” I asked. “We’re not on sacred ground, but we could go to the cemetery. We could finally be together.”
Alexander paused. He stared deeply into my eyes, and so intently, I felt as if I were staring back into his soul.
Then suddenly he turned away.
“It’s not fair,” I said, clasping my hands. “Sebastian wants to turn Becky and you don’t want to turn me.”
Alexander sat up. “First of all, he doesn’t. He feels strongly for her—and now that he’s crossed the line he’s put all of us in jeopardy. He tasted her blood. He has a stronger pull to her than he already had.”
It was a mistake to have brought up Sebastian. Now I’d distracted Alexander from his thoughts about me.
“I know,” I said. “It’s just that sometimes—”
“Raven, it’s hard enough for me—with you, as we are right now.”
I couldn’t push him any further. I’d already spoiled his mood and the gorgeous night he’d created for me. I could tell he was just as concerned for Sebastian as he was for himself.
“I guess I shouldn’t have let him in,” he lamented.
“Are you kidding? He’s your best friend. Sebastian is a sweetie,” I reassured Alexander.
“He’s much more impulsive than I am. Kind of like someone else I know,” he said, lightening up.
“He’s just fallen for the wrong girl,” I said with a sigh.
“Then we have to find someone else for Sebastian to fall for,” Alexander thought aloud.
“That’s a great idea.”
“He hasn’t really had a steady girlfriend. Not only would this be helpful for Becky, but it would truly be helpful to him.”
I was so touched—not only that Alexander was concerned for the welfare of my best friend, but that he felt such responsibility and loyalty for his own.
“Another mortal?” I asked. I thought about the Dullsvillian girls who had plagued me all my life. “There’s a bunch of cheerleaders at school that I certainly wouldn’t miss,” I offered. “But on second thought, I refuse to let one of them be turned before I am.”
“No,” my boyfriend said. “She has to be a vampire.”
“I’m afraid I’m short on vampire girls here,” I said. But then I had a thought. “But in Hipsterville, there’s a whole club full!”
Alexander lit up.
“I know two very eligible ones. Onyx and Scarlet. One of them could be a perfect match!”
“How do we get them here?” he wondered aloud.
“That, I have no idea.”
“Let’s think….”
“They are party girls,” I said.
“Then we’ll have a party.”
“That’s awesome! I love parties. Though truth be told, I haven’t hosted many—or, in fact, any. No one would show up besides Becky.”
“It will be a small, intimate gathering.”
“Shall we have it at the cemetery?”
Alexander disagreed. “We’ll have it at the Mansion. That way it will be discreet and no one will find out about it.”
I gave Alexander a huge hug. I was excited to be hosting a party and thrilled at the prospect of seeing Scarlet and Onyx again.
“But how are we going to invite them?” he finally asked.
I reached into my purse and took out my cell phone. “I have them on speed dial.”
After a few minutes of canoodling, I strolled outside the covered bridge to get more light from the streetlamp. I avoided a few puddles, as the rain had ceased.
I scrolled to Scarlet’s contact number and pressed send. The line began to ring. And ring. And ring.
“Is she there?” Alexander asked impatiently.
I shook my head.
Just then, someone picked up. I could hear the pounding of loud music with overloaded bass in the background.
“Scarlet?” I said.
“Hello?” I barely heard her voice. “Hello?”
Then the phone went dead.
“I don’t think she wants to speak to me,” I said.