Эллен Шрайбер - Vampireville

We hid behind some partygoers, standing a few feet from Alexander.

Then I saw Luna walking up the cemetery aisle, gravestones on either side of her, a dead bouquet in her hand.

Becky and Matt snuck in next to me.

"This is cool. It's like a creepy gothic wedding," the friendly witch said. "Maybe we can be next," she teased Matt.

I yanked the Angel of Death back. "I've tried to tell you all along," I said in a whisper. "You were right about the Sterlings. They are vampires. And so are Luna and Jagger. Please believe me. Before it's too late."

Alexander drank from the goblet.

Luna reached my Grim Reaper and drank from the goblet too. Then she said something inaudible.

"What did she say?" Becky asked.

"'To the king and queen of the graveyard,' " Matt repeated.

Luna turned to Alexander. She leaned in to him.

I gasped. The crowd cheered.

"No!" I shouted, lunging forward, but a cadaverous hand stopped me.

I turned to see the Angel of Death behind me.

Just then Alexander grabbed Luna's shoulders and held her at arm's length.

"What are you doing? Don't push me away!"

"Kiss her! Kiss her!" the crowd chanted.

But Alexander kept the vampiress at bay with one hand. He pulled off his reaper's hood.

"I'm not Trevor!" Alexander exclaimed. "Now you can stop your games."

"Why is Alexander there?" Matt said to Becky. "What's going on?"

Luna glared at my true love. She started to laugh. "It was never Trevor I wanted here. It was you!"

Alexander stepped back, confused. Luna grabbed his oversized sleeve. "Now I don't have to wait for you to take me. I can take you!"

I lunged forward, but the Angel of Death squeezed my shoulder.

"Get off!" I ordered.

Thank goodness Alexander was stronger than the waifish Luna. He held his scythe in one hand and the writhing vampiress at bay with the other.

On the far side of Luna a Grim Reaper pushed through the crowd toward the struggling vampires.

"Luna, what are you doing?" he yelled. "This wasn't the plan. You are not supposed to be with Alexander!"

The crowd cheered, "Fight! Fight!"

Alexander began to cough, letting go of Luna.

"This is who I've always wanted," Luna defended. "Alexander is who I've waited my life for." She coughed, too, and clung to the side of the coffin.

The hooded reaper yanked off his shroud. Blond hair flung down over his face. It wasn't Jagger. Standing in between Luna and Alexander was Trevor Mitchell.

I stepped back, shocked. If Trevor, Luna, and Alexander were struggling by the coffin, whose hand was on me?

I inched away and tried to release my hand. The Angel of Death only squeezed harder. Then he pulled me a few feet away from the ceremony.

I turned and tore off the reaper's black hood. Blue and green eyes stared back at me. It was Jagger.

"You aren't going anywhere, Monster Girl," he said with a seductive, menacing voice.

My vampire boyfriend grew red with rage as he saw Jagger by my side on sacred ground. "Raven!" Alexander called. He started to wheeze and began to stagger toward us.

Trevor glanced over, shocked and confused.

I tried to pull my hand away, but Jagger tightened his grip and started to cough.

Alexander was doubling over but was determined to reach me. "Jagger, let her go!" he warned.

With every step Alexander took forward, Jagger took one back.

The confused crowd started cheering. Some shouted, "Kiss! Kiss!" while others yelled, "Fight! Fight!"

Luna recoiled from the confused and rejected Trevor, her pasty complexion turning even paler.

Jagger's eyes began to tear. His breathing became labored.

What could be making all the vampires ill?

Then it hit me. The vampires began to get sick when Trevor showed up.

"What's wrong with Alexander?" I heard Becky ask Matt.

"Trevor's taken garlic pills!" I shouted to Alexander. "Take your antidote," I said, pointing to my leg.

Alexander wheezed but reached underneath his cloak and pulled out his serum.

Becky and Matt ran to his side while Alexander jammed the shot into his leg.

Jagger backed up, pulling me farther away from the crowd.

"Get off of me," I said wedging my boot between us.

"Not so fast," he said with hypnotic eyes. "Alexander made a fool of our family in Romania, and you were planning to do it again tonight?"

"Let me go—" "Where's your vampire bite, Raven?" he whispered.

"I told you, I can't show you."

"You were very convincing. Until Luna discovered a compact mirror in your purse. You led her on; you led us both on."

"I did not!"

"Then why aren't you wheezing now? And most important, what's this?" He reached underneath his cloak and pulled out a cell phone. He flipped the phone open and held it before me— a picture of a cheerleader and a soccer snob at school, taken by Trevor. And standing in back of them was a mortal Raven, reflecting back for all vampires to see.

"You have a cunning and crafty nature. You turned out to be more of a vampire than Alexander," Jagger said flatly.

Alexander pushed through the crowd toward us. Trevor followed close behind.

"What is Jagger doing with Raven?" Trevor asked.

"Back off!" Jagger shouted. "You will not make a fool of my family anymore."

"What's he talking about?" Trevor said, now standing by Alexander.

"Get back!" Jagger shouted to Trevor, coughing as he spoke. "You think you have it all with your sports and your pretty girls. But you were never like us and could never be good enough for my sister."

"You planned this all along?" Trevor asked Jagger. "Raven was right, trying to warn me about you for days. Why? Just because I was different?"

Trevor had picked on me all my life because I was the outsider. Now he faced the same ridicule.

"Go back to your soccer field," Jagger said. "This game is way out of your league."

I stared at my mortal nemesis, whose face was growing red with rage. For the first time in sixteen years, Trevor Mitchell had finally met a bigger bully than himself.

Trevor looked at Jagger as if he were a soccer ball that needed to be kicked into the opponent's goal.

"Get off," I said to Jagger. "You're hurting me!"

Alexander's eyes turned red. "Jagger. You have one second to let her go!

Otherwise, it's all over!"

Jagger's grip was so hard around my wrist I couldn't move.

"It'll feel like a pin prick," he said to me in a seductive voice. He gently stroked my hair away from my shoulders. He leaned toward me and flashed his fangs.

"No!" I cried.

And the world went black.

18 Cryptic Kryptonite

I awoke, lying flat on my back on the grass, the stars twinkling above me.

"Raven?" Becky asked, her hand outstretched. "Are you okay?

My world was dizzy. I grabbed my neck. "Am I a…?" I asked.

Becky helped me up. "I thought you were kidding when you said they were vampires. I think that Jagger guy really believed he was. He tried to bite you."

I felt my neck for wounds.

Suddenly the memory started to come back. I never thought it would happen. My nemesis and the love of my life, enraged for different reasons, both staring straight at me.

I had spent the last few days trying to save Trevor from the clutches of a vampire and now he, alongside Alexander, unknowingly saved me.

The impact of their tackling Jagger had sent me flying to the ground.

Becky and I now raced the few yards to the tombs, where a huge crowd had gathered. Alexander was standing over Jagger, who was coughing and wheezing. Luna was leaning against the covenant coffin.

Trevor had no idea that the garlic tablet was making them vulnerable. He thought it was his bravado.

The soccer snobs encircled Jagger and Luna.