Cryptic Cravings Read Free Page B

piercing. “I can’t help it if Alexander’s more . . . restrained. He should have bitten Raven a long time ago. Why let it drag on?”
    Just then my foot slipped and I knocked over the empty soda can on the windowpane.
    “What was that?” I heard Jagger say.
    “I think someone is outside.”
    I held my breath. Alexander did, too.
    Alexander and I stood against the wal . A pigeon was walking along the window ledge.
    Alexander tossed a twig near the bird. Startled, it flapped its wings wildly and flew off past the window.
    “It’s just a pigeon,” I heard Sebastian say.
    Alexander cupped his hands and helped me up again.
    “You shouldn’t be on edge,” Jagger said. “Why are you so worried? It’s just a club.”
    Sebastian thought, then final y spoke. “But it’s a club with vampires—in a place that has been inhabited by only one. Alexander fights every day to be who he is and do the right thing. Just because you and I might be more alike? That doesn’t mean he’s the one that’s wrong.”
    Jagger now was the one riffling his fingers through his white locks.
    “I real y want to run this past him,” Sebastian said.
    “And what’s he going to say, yes? Besides, you can’t tel him you’ve been hanging out here with me and Luna.”
    Sebastian hung his head low.
    “Don’t despair,” Jagger said. “It’s going to be awesome. Music blasting, drinks flowing, dancing until dawn.
    Beautiful girls everywhere. What’s not to like?”
    Sebastian’s face lit up in the candlelight.
    The Crypt sounded like the kind of club I’d want to hang out in. Just like the Coffin Club—but only a few miles from my house. I bit my lavender lip in excitement.
    “I know he’s mad at me . . .” Sebastian said, “but I stil have his back.”
    “He’l see the club once it’s open,” Jagger said, rising. He put his arm around Sebastian. “It won’t be too long.
    We’l decorate at night. I have ways of getting these things settled very quickly.”
    Sebastian bit his black nails.
    “Just think it over,” Jagger said, slapping Sebastian on the back like a coach does to a footbal player. “You have a place to stay, a new best friend, and . . .”
    “A girlfriend,” a sweet, ethereal voice said.
    Just then pink hair bounced in from behind the shadows.
    Luna was dressed in a wickedly cool frock—a pink mini-dress with black spiderwebbed tights. Her perfectly straight baby pink hair appeared as soft as something out of a shampoo commercial.
    Sebastian shot up.
    She took his hand and pul ed him into her. They shared a kiss that probably would have gone on forever if Jagger hadn’t cleared his throat.
    “It’s Luna,” I whispered to Alexander. “Now we should go in—”
    Alexander helped me back to the ground and I told him what I’d heard. He shook his head. “We need to wait,” he said.
    “Real y?” I was surprised by Alexander’s sudden change in course.
    “Yes,” he said. “But not for too long. I’m always getting Sebastian out of predicaments. Maybe this time he needs to figure things out himself.”
    “But what about this new club?” I asked. “It wil be here, in Dul svil e.”
    “That we wil have to fix. But I don’t have to at this moment.”
    We heard the sound of a car driving over the gravel. Alexander pul ed me back into an alcove.
    A white Beetle painted to look like a skul drove past us and parked. Scarlet and Onyx hopped out of their car.
    “I think it wil be fun to hang with them here for a little while longer,” Onyx said.

    “That’s because you want to be next to Jagger at al times.”
    “I do not!” she declared.
    “It’s okay,” Scarlet reassured her. “I’d like to try to see that Trevor guy again.
    He’s such a prep—but I have to admit, I real y think that’s hot!”
    Onyx giggled.
    “Too bad I can’t bring him here,” Scarlet said. “Maybe I’l just show up at his school in his locker room.”
    The two girls giggled as Onyx opened the trunk.
    “But he