Эллен Шрайбер - Cryptic Cravings

“Rumors are spreading that there are vampires living in Dullsville!”

— Becky Miller

I had to admit it, Dullsville was no longer dull.

In fact, for me, Raven Madison, the morbidly monotonous town I’d grown up in had finally become the most exciting place on earth.

Not only was I madly in love with my vampire boyfriend, Alexander Sterling, but I’d witnessed for the first time in my vampire-obsessed existence an actual vampire bite. The only problem was that it wasn’t my neck being bitten.

This wouldn’t have been such a tragedy for me if the recipient of the bite had been Onyx or Scarlet, the superfabulous Underworldy friends I’d met at the Coffin Club, but the bite was given to my own vampire adversary, a real vampire and gothic beauty, Luna Maxwell.

I’d been waiting almost a year to be bitten, since I’d met Alexander, not to mention my entire life of immortal dreaming, but for Luna it happened within hours of meeting another vampire. That night, on Alexander’s lawn, there had been an amazing group of partygoers — a handful of vampires mixing with the mortal local students. It was something I’d never thought would happen. While playing spin the bloody bottle, Luna and Sebastian, Alexander’s handsome and hapless best friend, had locked eyes and gone in for more than a juicy lip-lock. His fangs pierced the soft flesh of her swanlike neck. Luna had stared up at me, her eyes dreamy, as if she were some hippie tripping at Woodstock. She glowed even more radiantly than she normally did as a morbid fairy girl fashionista. Most of the partyers missed the action, but those who saw the bite passed it off as a macabre prank.

Sebastian had since moved out of the Mansion, and the rest of the vampires were perhaps back in Romania, or haunting the Coffin Club several towns away in Hipsterville. We hadn’t gotten word of their whereabouts, and I hadn’t seen any signs of them at Dullsville’s cemetery.

For the week following the love bite, I tried my best to get Alexander’s mind off his disappointment. He was suffering because his best friend’s impulsive behavior had put not only himself and Luna but even Alexander’s secret in possible jeopardy. Happily, tonight Alexander was finally obliging.

We were lying in the grass on a hilltop that overlooked Dullsville. From there we were able to see the glamorous sites of Hipsterville, such as the graveyard, but I didn’t notice them because I was lost in Alexander’s lips.

I hadn’t broached the tender subject of receiving my own love bite with Alexander in a while. But I saw this evening, alone with him and without distractions, as my chance for another try.

Fiddling with a link chain hanging from his black leather belt, I asked, “Do you think it’s easier for Sebastian to fall for a girl and to take her blood?”

Alexander furrowed his brow.

“Or was it easy to do what he did at the party,” I continued, “because Luna is already a vampire?”

“I can’t speak for someone else.”

“But I want to know what you think.”

Alexander paused. “Then yes, I think it’s easier for him. He is very impulsive.” His tone was clear and matter-offact.

I sighed.

Alexander reached for me and guided my hair back from my face with his fingers. “It means more to me than that,” he said directly.

“Me too,” I said, touching his shoulder. “But what if I were already a vampire?” I asked thoughtfully. “What if someone else turns me — not on sacred ground — so I won’t be bonded to them forever. But—” Alexander withdrew his arm. “That’s what you want?” he asked, his voice almost cracking. “To be turned — by anyone? Sebastian? Or Jagger?”

“I was just thinking out loud,” I quickly refuted. I didn’t realize I’d hurt him.

“It would be that easy to have someone turn you? Just like that?”

When Alexander posed it to me like that, my fantastical solution didn’t seem so romantic or practical in its reality.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Are you so sure? You’d have my best friend bite you? Or worse, my longtime enemy?”

“But now you are friends with Jagger,” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

“That’s not the point.”

“Of course not — I only want you. . I was just trying to take the pressure off of you. I was just thinking out loud.”

Alexander didn’t seem pleased with my response and continued to stare off into the distance.

“Let’s be clear,” I said, turning his face toward me. “I want to be a vampire. But I want to be one with you.”

He barely broke a smile.

“I’m turning eighteen soon and you’ll be seventeen,” he finally said. “It’s something I think about, Raven. You. Me.

Our future. I want you to know that. But this is something that is life changing — especially for you.”

“I know.” I gazed up at my dreamy boyfriend’s eyes. His face was so handsome in the moonlight. “But will you really be eighteen? Or something else, in vampire years?”

“I will really be eighteen,” he said.

“And then the next year?”

“Uh. . nineteen,” he said as if I should have known.

“But you are immortal.”

“The aging process will slow down. But that’s many, many years from now. Is that what you are worried about? Us not being able to be together unless you are immortal, too?”

“I’ve always wanted to be a vampire, since I was born,” I said to him urgently. “But then when I met you, I wanted to be one — to be turned by you. To have the covenant ceremony that you didn’t have with Luna in Romania. A beautiful wrought-iron lace trellis with a coffin and two goblets, on sacred ground. I’d be dressed in a black corset dress and hold black roses. You’d be wearing a black suit and have a black rose in your jacket lapel. We’d say a few Romanian words and drink from each other’s glasses. Then, you’d turn me.”

“Wow!” he said with a laugh. “I guess you have thought about it, too.”

“But it’s not about me living forever. It’s about me being romantically bonded with you and experiencing the world as a vampire.” I stared up at him, the stars shining above him.

I waited for him to laugh, to think my ideas were childish and naive.

Instead he leaned into me and stared straight into my eyes, his chocolate ones dreamy and seductive. “There is a yearning that I have for you — that goes deeper than love,” he said. “It’s a desire that is palpable.” He took my hand and raised it, exposing the inside of my wrist. “This desire courses through my veins,” he said. He traced a prominent vein with his fingertip. “And yours. But I’d never put you before my own needs. What I struggle with isn’t something that you should have to as well. It’s a complicated life — more so than you realize.”

“I know it’s complicated. If you don’t want to talk about it. .” I figured it was best to drop the subject. I didn’t want to be a nagging girlfriend, and Alexander had been through so much already with Sebastian’s antics. Why couldn’t I be more patient and not spoil our pure quality time alone together?

“Well, you already know it’s complicated,” Alexander commented. “I’m not sure how I can keep convincing you.”

I smiled. “I like it when you try,” I teased. “But sometimes I worry that you’ll leave the Mansion and return to Romania. And I’ll be stuck here, alone for the rest of my life.”