I took a deep breath. I tried to rack my brain for a strategy. I couldn't leave the house with a vengeful vampire in my brother's bedroom. However, my parents would think I had inhaled glue if I ran downstairs and calmly explained to them that Billy Boy had mistakenly invited over a bloodthirsty descendant of Dracula instead of a new-to-town tween in need of a friend.
I'd have to face this problem head-on.
I found my mother in the kitchen placing a plastic tablecloth over our dinette table. "Mom, we need to talk. That friend of Billy Boy's—he can't stay."
"Why not?"
"Word on the street is he's trouble."
"Thank you for your concern, but I'm not worried about an eleven-year-old boy."
"We barely know this kid. He's a stranger."
"What's there to know? He seems delightful and very charming. I think it's good for Billy to widen his circle of friends. He's coming out of his shell."
Billy Boy would be coming out of more than just a shell if Valentine stayed. He could be coming out of a coffin.
"Do you mind setting the table?" she asked as she filled a plastic cup with ice from the door of the fridge.
I grabbed plastic silverware and paper plates from our pantry.
This game wasn't over. I wasn't ready to fold. I had no choice. I had to show my cards.
The ice maker roared thunderously as my mom filled another cup with ice. I put my hand on the granite countertop and leaned in to my mother. "Valentine thinks he is a vampire."
"What?" she asked, placing the cup on the countertop and beginning to fill another.
"Valentine thinks he's a vampire," I said louder.
"I can't hear you."
I placed my hand over the cup. A few cubes bounced off my knuckles and flew to the floor.
"Valentine has to leave. He thinks he's a vampire," I repeated.
My mom paused. Then she laughed, picked up the fallen cubes, and threw them into the sink.
"Then he should be friends with you, not Billy," she remarked playfully.
"I'm serious."
"Serious?" she asked. "Am I talking to the same person I raised, who at five years old wore a black cape around the house because you were imitating Count Dracula? Who at nine insisted on drinking only raspberry Kool-Aid because you thought it resembled blood? And who, just a few days ago, bought a prom dress that resembles a vampire's bridal outfit?"
My mouth dropped open. Touché. My mother's straight flush beat my full house.
"I think it's wonderful that Billy Boy is accepting someone who is different from himself," she continued. "Someone who reminds him of his sister. I'd think you would be flattered."
The doorbell rang.
My mom grabbed a twenty lying on the kitchen counter, and I followed her to the front door. "The pizzas are here!" she called upstairs.
Billy Boy raced down the stairs, Valentine slowly trailing after him like a ghostly shadow.
Valentine stood on the stairs, his black painted fingernails tapping against the wooden banister. He was intently fixated on me, grinning like a gothic Dennis the Menace. I glared back at the four-foot ten-inch vampire as Billy grabbed the pizzas and my mother paid the delivery woman.
Valentine deliberately brushed by me, sending an icy chill through my body as the two boys flew into the kitchen.
I grabbed a soda from the table and sat down next to my brother.
Billy Boy shot me an odd look. "What are you doing here? Don't you have a hot date?"
"If I did, I wouldn't tell you."
The boys each grabbed a slice of pizza, scarfing it down before it had time to hit their paper plates.
I rose and opened the refrigerator door. "Want some garlic with that?" I asked Valentine, holding up a clove.
It was as if all the blood had drained from Valentine's already pale face. He laid the crust on his plate and sat back in his chair. "Uh…no, thank you. I'm deathly allergic to garlic."
"Really? So is Raven's boyfriend," my mother said. "Raven, put that back!"
Reluctantly I returned the clove to the crisper and washed my hands in the kitchen sink.
Valentine glared at me as his morosely ashen complexion turned back to ghostly white.
"Here, take another slice," my mom said, kindly handing Valentine more pizza. He returned to wolfing down his dinner like he hadn't eaten in centuries.
Valentine wiped his tomato-sauce-stained mouth with a napkin and guzzled a soda just like any mortal his age. It was odd to see a boy so young have the potential to be so dangerous. My eyes were glued to him, making sure all he bit into was the pizza.
"Are you visiting or did you move here?" my mom asked.
"Visiting. But I really like this town," he said, looking straight at me.
"Who are you visiting?"
"Uh…my aunt, but you wouldn't know her."
"In this town? We know everyone."
"Yes, who is she?" I questioned. "I'd love to meet her."
Valentine paused.
"Let us eat," Billy Boy said. "We're hungry."
"You're right, go ahead," my mother said in an apologetic voice.
The boys continued to shovel in their pizza while I observed their every bite. For once in my life, I was the one gawking.
"You are creeping me out," my brother finally said, scooting away from me.
"Raven, let's go in the other room," my mother instructed.
"But—"
She grabbed our plates of half-eaten pizza and we sat in the dining room. All the while I spied on Valentine, keeping my peripheral vision set on the pizza-partying vampire.
I hated that Billy Boy no longer wanted the Madison women hovering around him. He should have listened to me about Valentine. He was beginning to remind me of someone who didn't take orders, someone I knew very well—me.
Later that evening, while Mom and Dad were downstairs watching TV, I made believe I was folding towels in the hall closet while Valentine brushed his teeth.
The door finally opened and Valentine emerged. He was smiling, his green eyes sparkling, seemingly relaxed in his new environment, until he spotted me in the hallway. Then he glared up at me.
"Did you make sure to floss between your fangs?" I whispered.
"Go ahead, tell your parents," he challenged. "I'll tell them about Alexander," he whispered back, then disappeared into my brother's room.
I stepped into the bathroom. Mom's makeup mirror was facing the wall, and a lavender bath towel was haphazardly placed over the sink mirror.
I could hear my mother whistling as she ascended the stairs.
I quickly retrieved the towel and threw it into the wicker hamper.
"Lights out, boys," my mom ordered, holding a handful of catalogs.
"No, leave the lights on!" I shouted, running into my brother's room. I was hoping an illuminated bedroom would keep Valentine at a safe distance from my brother.
The two boys looked at me strangely.
"The other night, Billy Boy thought he saw a bat," I explained. "I want him to get a good night's rest."
My brother's nerdy white face turned bloodred. I almost felt sorry I'd embarrassed him in front of his friend.
"Mom, get her out!" he yelled.
My mom shooed me out of the room with her catalog collection and closed the door behind her.
I paced in my room, wondering what Valentine was going to do all night. He obviously wasn't going to sleep. I feared at any moment he might sink his fangs into my brother.
I had no choice. Valentine couldn't sleep here, especially when I knew he wouldn't be sleeping. I didn't have much time; Billy Boy would soon be defenseless. When my brother was a baby, he wailed throughout the night. Now that he was older, he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
I raced to my dresser drawer and stuck my container of garlic in the waistband of my skirt.
I crept over to Billy Boy's room. I took a deep breath and cracked his door open.
I wasn't prepared for wh
at I saw. Valentine, his eyes closed as if in a trance, was standing over my sleeping brother, his palm resting on my brother's neck!
"What are you doing?" I said sharply.
Valentine, startled, quickly pulled his hand away.
I gasped. "It was you in the cave," I managed to say.
Valentine remained in place, his fists now clenched.
"I know what you're thinking…," he said in a challenging voice. "I know all about you."
I was confused. "Know what about me? From Jagger and Luna? You can't trust what they say…"
He inched forward. "You are afraid."
"Of you?"
He snickered. "Of Alexander."
I folded my arms skeptically. "I love Alexander."
Then Valentine turned deadly serious. "You are afraid of becoming a vampire," he said.
I froze.
"Jagger and Luna didn't have to tell me," he continued. "I learned that from you."
"I don't know what you mean."
Valentine didn't seem to be threatened by my sleeping brother.
"In the cave," he continued. "Alexander wasn't going to bite you. But you thought he was—and you freaked out."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
Then Valentine drew closer, his green eyes locking on to mine in a strange hypnotic stare. "You'd imagined an elaborate and gloomy gothic covenant ceremony in the cemetery, underneath the moonlight, an antique candelabra and a pewter goblet atop a closed coffin."
I stood frozen as the boyish Nosferatu continued to recite the very thoughts and feelings I had had last night at the cave. “You expected to be holding a bouquet of dead roses and wearing a morbidly black sexy lace dress, which would flow behind you as you walked between the tombstones."
How did Valentine know what I had imagined? I could barely breathe as Valentine took another step toward me. I hadn't told anyone about my dream covenant. Valentine and Billy Boy must have rummaged through my journal— only I didn't even remember writing about my fantasy gothic underworld wedding.
"When you thought Alexander was ready to turn you, your blood ran cold," Valentine charged.
A chill ran from the top of my scalp down through my spine and over the back of my legs.
Valentine had read my thoughts as he stood over me in the cave holding my neck. Now, in Billy Boy's bedroom, he was doing the same thing to my brother. What was he after?
"It is time you leave this house and this town," I said, reaching for my container of garlic.
Like any pesky mortal kid, Valentine enjoyed our quarrel. "You act big with your black nail polish and lipstick, but you could never be one of us. You don't have what it takes," he continued. "And Alexander needs to know you aren't ready."
His words hit me like a lightning bolt. "You can't…use my thoughts against me," I warned.
"Or can I?" he asked with a wicked grin.
Billy Boy began to stir.
Valentine quickly retreated into the room's shadows.
I glanced at my brother, who remained sleeping. When I turned back, I noticed Billy Boy's window was open and Valentine was gone.
11 Blood Reader
Valentine's words haunted me as I futilely attempted to search through my Olivia Outcast journal for any covenant dream entries.
"Alexander needs to know you aren't ready," the mischievous vampire had said to me. Valentine was trying to threaten Billy Boy and at the same time destroy my relationship with Alexander.
I shivered, recalling Valentine's grasping my sleeping brother's neck. Although I was relieved the tween bloodsucker had escaped from our house, I was still distraught. I gazed out my window and imagined Valentine flying directly to the Mansion, squeezing his bat-shaped body through a breech in an attic window, then becoming a gothic boy again and confronting an unsuspecting Alexander with negative ideas about his vampire-wannabe girlfriend.
If Valentine betrayed my wandering thoughts and revealed them to my vampire-mate, what would this mean for my future relationship with Alexander? How dare Valentine tell me, much less anyone, that I was frightened of the one thing I'd always dreamed of becoming. On numerous occasions, Alexander made me aware of his disapproval of my joining his dark and dangerous world. My gentle vampire wanted to protect me from the underworld, but gradually, through our time together, he felt comfortable enough to share portions of it with me—the Mansion, the amulets, his coffin. If he knew I had hesitated or, worse, was afraid, he may have no choice but to bond eternally with a true vampire.
Right now, Valentine might be meeting Alexander. I'd sneak out—only I had no way of knowing to where…the Mansion, the cemetery, or the cave? I lay in bed, my eyes wide open. I was as restless not knowing where Valentine had flown off to as when the menacing vampire had appeared in Billy Boy's bedroom.
The next morning, I awoke to the sounds of Billy Boy's shrill voice rattling through the heating vents. I lifted up my groggy head from the pillow, grabbed my Malice in Wonderland slippers, and headed downstairs.
My parents were brunching on coffee and cantaloupe while reading the Dullsville Saturday newspaper.
"Valentine is gone," Billy Boy, still in sweats and an oversized T-shirt, ranted to my parents. "He wasn't here when I woke up. He didn't even say good-bye."
"Are you sure?" my mother asked. "Did you check the entire house?"
"I searched everywhere."
My parents looked concerned. "Did you call him at his house?"
"I don't have the number," Billy Boy replied.
They don't have a phone in the bat cave? I wanted to say.
"Maybe we should drive by his house," my dad offered.
"He said he was staying with his aunt, but I don't know where she lives," my brother confessed.
I had to put a stop to this before my parents involved the police, the PTA, and Dullsville's mayor.
"Why is there so much commotion?" I chimed in. "I saw Valentine get picked up last night after everyone went to sleep. I guess he was homesick. I thought you all knew."
"He didn't tell me—," Billy Boy said.
"Duh—he obviously was too embarrassed. He wants to impress you, not look like a fool."
"In elementary school," my mother began, "I had a friend who frequently came over with her sleeping bag, but always left by ten-thirty."
Billy Boy shrugged and said, "Maybe you're right." He grabbed a cup of juice and headed upstairs. I followed him to his room and stood outside the doorway.
"What were you doing on the computer last night?" I asked.
"What's it to you?"
"Don't be annoying. Hey, if it wasn't for me, you'd be searching the crawl space for your friend."
Billy Boy rolled his eyes, then sighed. "Okay. We were looking for tombstones."
"That sounds like something I'd do."
"Well, maybe we are more alike than you think."
I checked out my brother, who was sporting a Chess Club T-shirt. "That'll be the day. Why were you searching for tombstones?"
Billy pulled something out of his desk drawer. "Valentine had these," he said, revealing a weathered piece of paper.
Billy Boy showed me a cryptic gravestone etching— just like the ones Jagger used as grim artwork to decorate his hideouts.
"Valentine said these were his ancestors," Billy Boy continued. "These two are from Romania. We were searching for the last one when you burst in. Now I can't find it."
"Let me see them."
"No, I need to return these to Valentine when I see him again."
"When do you plan on meeting him?"
"None of your business."
"It is my business unless you want to find someone else to protect you from bats hanging on your windowsill," I threatened.
Billy Boy appeared aghast, recalling the wiry creature dangling just outside his bedroom.
"Monday at Oakley Park's fountain. After dinner."
"Let me see the etching!"
"No."
"Pretty please, wi
th bat wings on top?”
“We're going to put it with our vampire project." Billy Boy slammed the door before I could wedge my foot in. Then he bolted the door. Not only was Valentine becoming more brazen, so was my nerdy brother.
I opened my eyes to eternal darkness in Alexander's coffin. I'd been sound asleep for what seemed like centuries next to my vampire-mate. I could hear gentle breathing next to me. I stretched out my arms and hit the lid of the closed coffin. I wasn't entwined in Alexander's arms, but rather pressed against his back.
Unaware of the time, I gently nudged my sleeping vampire. I wanted to know how much longer we'd be entombed.
I heard my boyfriend stir.
"Alexander?"
I could feel his body turn over. His hand gently rested against my neck.
"Reading my thoughts?" I asked. "Hmm…I bet you can't guess what I'm thinking," I teased coyly.
Alexander didn't remove his hand. Instead he pressed harder.
My heart rate quickened. I became dizzy. I felt claustrophobic, like the already close coffin walls were closing in on us.
"Alexander—"
His hand only gripped me harder.
Then I realized, it wasn't Alexander's hand holding my neck. "Valentine," I cried. "Get off!"
I desperately reached for the coffin lid. I pushed and banged, but the lid must have been locked. I scrambled, clawing my nails into the wooden lid.
I called out again, "Alexander!" But there was no answer.
I tried breathing slowly, but that only made me gasp for air. I pounded on the coffin lid. I wedged my boots against the lid and pressed against it with all my might.
"Let me out!" I tried to say, but no words escaped me.
The lid flew open.
I squinted my eyes, trying to adjust to the light.
I wasn't prepared for what I saw—Valentine was standing above me next to the casket, a candelabra glowing behind him.
If Valentine was standing outside the coffin—who had been in the coffin with me?
Slowly, I turned back.
Billy Boy was resting on his arm. He grinned, flashing his newly formed fangs.
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