“He’s staying here?”
“For now. So I will, too.”
“For how long?” I asked.
“As long as it takes.”
“As long as what takes?”
She wasn’t about to answer. Luna had coyness down to a science.
“So, when do you think Alexander will turn you?” she said directly.
It was the one question that burned inside of me. I wasn’t about to tell her that. She already knew.
“Do you know — his grandmother was never bitten. You could become just like her. In that monument in the cemetery.”
I was thrown by her statement. It was so harsh and brutal that I was taken off guard. I was mad for me — but even more mad for Alexander’s grandmother.
But then I thought about what it meant — if that was my fate, too. And if it was, it wasn’t so bad. Many people live their entire lives never finding true love. Grandmother Sterling had loved and had a wonderful family. And I had found true love at sixteen.
“It’s a shame,” Luna continued, “his grandfather died before they could make that decision.”
“But if he was a vampire. .” I asked, surprised, “then how could he die?”
“There was a revolt. Decades ago. Vampires can die, too, you know. It’s hard, but they can. And it’s not a pleasant way to go.”
This was information I hadn’t heard from Alexander. There were rumors of a revolt in Romania and how that was the reason the baroness had built the Mansion on Benson Hill. But I thought it was just a rumor.
“She came here to protect her family,” Luna went on.
“Was it your family that started the revolt?” I asked cautiously.
“No. .” She laughed with a cute cackle. “It was mortals. They are far more destructive than vampires. I thought you would have figured that out by now.”
She drew a long sip from her strawberry-pink shake.
“But is that what you really want? To spend your life waiting? It seems so pathetic.”
Her sharp words pierced me more painfully than fangs.
“Well, I’ll be sure to invite you to our wedding,” she continued.
“Wedding?” I asked.
“Yes, when Sebastian and I get married.”
“You are getting married? But you just met. And you’re not even. .”
“I’m eighteen. Romeo and Juliet betrothed their love at sixteen. And no, we aren’t getting married today. But eventually. I’m sure Alexander is kicking himself, seeing all he could have had that his best friend has now. A partnership in a club. And a girl who isn’t afraid to be bitten.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not afraid.”
“Aren’t you? It seems like you are waiting an eternity — for eternity.”
“You don’t know anything about it,” I said through gritted teeth.
“So if you both are so serious and so in love, then when is your official date?”
She knew what Alexander was like. She knew he wasn’t going to turn me anytime soon, and she was shoving it in my face.
“We don’t need that to show how much we care for each other.”
“Those are just excuses. Commitment. That’s what it’s all about. Taking that covenant together. Bonding yourselves together for eternity. Isn’t that what we are all looking for? Maybe Alexander wasn’t ready to do that with me, but it’s obvious he isn’t ready to do that with you, either.”
Now I was boiling mad. I felt like dumping my shake on her head right in front of the whole town. Anger welled up in my boots all the way through my torn tights and raged up my spine.
“Eternity is forever, but marriage? That’s even longer,” she said with that cute girlie giggle.
“What if I told you that Alexander planned to turn me? On my twenty-first birthday. In the cemetery, in front of the whole town!”
“Then I’d tell you I think you’re making it up.”
I fumed inside.
“Besides, we can ask Alexander all about that turning at twenty-one when we get back.”
I was horrified at the thought of returning to the factory and Luna asking Alexander about something we hadn’t really discussed and I had just now made up.
“And I’ll ask Sebastian about your wedding, too,” I shot back.
Luna froze, frostier than her pink shake. It was then I knew I’d caught her, too.
“Well, for now, we’ll just consider our discussion a secret between friends.”
The waiter placed two large bags of food and a carton filled with shakes on the counter. Luna grabbed a handful of napkins and her shake and headed out the door and left me to struggle with the rest.
When we arrived back at the mill, I bolted out the car door, leaving Luna to carry the load. Only it backfired. No one was glad to see me. The vampires were hungry and she got the credit for the bounty.
Each ravenous vampire took his or her meal and tore into the food while I picked at mine, having eaten three times that day already.
It was very obvious that Sebastian was head-over — Doc Martens for Luna. He doted on her so much it made my stomach turn. I knew he was mesmerized by her, as she did have a hypnotic glow around her. However, if Alexander wasn’t interested in her, then I wondered why I was so jealous of her.
Scarlet also seemed preoccupied. I sensed a loneliness emanating from her. We all were coupled up. There were obviously three couples here — Luna and Sebastian, Alexander and me, Jagger and Onyx — and each couple was in a stage of romance, whether one had been bitten or not. And there was one single vampire girl. Scarlet, however, longed for a mortal just as I did for a vampire. She was pining for Trevor, a conservative mortal who was a player on and off the field. I knew Trevor wasn’t good for her, for so many reasons. And at the end of the day, if he was going to be with his antithesis girl, someone goth, it probably would have been me.
The advantage I had was the sunlight. Something Scarlet, oddly enough, longed for, and I detested.
Instead of giving me a good-night kiss at my front door, Alexander came inside. I think we both needed some private time together since all our nights were being consumed with the Crypt and being on the watch for the possible Covenant. Alexander didn’t hang out in my bedroom a lot. I preferred the Mansion, with its magnificent space and style, and it was also minus two doting parents and one pesky little brother.
But having Alexander in my room felt amazing. My little space didn’t seem so morbid after all. Alexander brought life to it. And having him there was exhilarating. The way he walked around, examining and touching everything on display, was like he was touching me. I watched him look closely at my knickknacks, books, and music as if he was trying to get to know me or see into my soul. I felt safe with him here. Nothing could bother me — not physically or emotionally. And as tough as I was, it was nice for a moment to let my guard down and feel safe because of someone else for a change.
Alexander sat on my bed, like a gentleman would, if it were acceptable for a gentleman to sit on a lady’s bed. But I pulled him over and made him lie beside me. I imagined what it would be like if he could cuddle with me as I fell asleep here, just as I did with him in his coffin. But that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon, especially when we’d often get interrupted by Billy Boy, looking for attention.
“Wow — I don’t know how you sleep like this. I worry about you all the time,” he said tenderly.
“What do you mean?”
“Open — exposed. Anyone — or anything — could come into your room. You aren’t hidden from danger.”
“What would come into my room?”
“I don’t even want to think about it. I’m miles away from you and. . it’s just not safe. Not from the sun, I mean. But from people. There are so many things that can happen if you’re not secured.”
“We have a security system.” I caressed his hair playfully, but Alexander was serious.
“I know. But don’t you feel strange looking up and knowing anyone could watch you sleeping? Especially since you can’t see in the dark.”
I thought about it for a moment. I’d contemplated many things from the vampire’s viewpoint, but this was something I hadn’t.
