Alexander had the antidote in his hand.
"Can you breathe?" he asked her, himself breathless.
"Of course I can breathe!" She looked at her brother, bewildered.
"Did you eat garlic?" Alexander asked firmly.
"Uh ... no," she said, confused.
"Did it touch you?"
"No."
"Did it come close to you?"
"No, I didn"t even see any garlic," she answered, now frustrated.
"How about you?" my boyfriend asked Valentine.
"I"m fine," Valentine said.
"What are you talking about?" Stormy finally asked her brother.
"Billy said you ate garlic," Alexander told her.
"No-" she said. "And that was ages ago."
"What"s that?" Billy asked, seeing Alexander"s syringe in a plastic bag.
"Then what are you doing?" Alexander asked Stormy.
"Valentine"s reading my blood," Stormy answered brightly. This was a power the youngest Maxwell possessed. By pressing on someone"s vein, he was able to read their soul and innermost thoughts and feelings.
"I"m next," Billy offered.
"Billy spaou?"sent us a text," Alexander said. "I thought you were eating garlic."
"I told you I didn"t. We were playing a game," Stormy said.
"We were playing truth or dare," Billy said. "And Henry dared Stormy to eat a clove of garlic. Then she freaked out and ran up here."
"Don"t you know you are supposed to take the "truth" and not the "dare"?" I asked Stormy.
"She locked herself inside until we promised we weren"t going to make her," he continued.
"So what"s so wrong?" Henry asked. "She dared me to eat a jalapeno. My eyes are still tearing."
Stormy grinned mischievously.
"Stormy is allergic to garlic," I said.
"I knew Alexander was," Billy said. "But Stormy, too?"
They nodded.
"I didn"t know that," Henry said apologetically.
"I know," Alexander said. "She could have just told you without freaking out."
"And so is Valentine?" Henry said.
"Yes," Alexander answered.
"That"s odd. They aren"t even related."
I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"You didn"t have to come over," Stormy said, embarra.s.sed. "I handled this myself."
"Why didn"t you answer your phone?" I yelled at my brother.
"It was on vibrate. I didn"t hear it. It"s downstairs."
I stared at him with daggers. "You are grounded."
"You can"t ground me!"
"I can try," I said. "Where are your parents?" I asked Henry.
"They went out for dinner."
"Well, I think the party is over," Alexander said. "You should get off Henry"s bed now." He was glaring at Stormy.
"I don"t want to go!" she said defiantly. "We were just having fun. Valentine was reading my blood."
"Well, he can read it another time."
"I don"t want to leave." Stormy stayed on the bed. "I want to find out what my reading is. Then Billy"s and Henry"s."
"I"ll tell you what your reading is," Alexander announced. "And it"s not pretty."
"I"m not going," she said stubbornly. "It isn"t sunrise for another eight hours."
"Shall I have Jameson come and get you?" Alexander asked. "Or I can pick you up in front of everyone and carry you down to the car."
"You aren"t the boss of me!" she declared angrily. "You spoil everything."
She hopped off the bed and stormed out of the room.
Alexander shook his head. "I knew she"d be a handful."
Valentine caught up to her in the hallway, and I overheard them talking.
"You like Billy-" Valentine said.
"What?" she asked.
"I read it in your blood. You like Billy. I thought you liked me."
"Stormy likes you," Henry said to my brother.
"Who told you that?" Billy asked.
"I heard Valentine," Henry answered. Then Henry whis
pered to me, "I was hoping she"d like me."
"I thought we were friends," Valentine said to Stormy.
Then we peeked our heads out of Henry"s room.
"We are," she said. "But I have lots of friends now." She was as proud as she was sincere.
Valentine crossed his arms as Stormy headed down the staircase and out to the car.
"I don"t understand a girl who doesn"t like mirrors and is allergic to garlic," I heard Henry say to Billy. "I think I"m glad she likes you and not me."
m" width="0em" align="justify">.
14 Ghoul Talk.
Valentine left, and after we dropped Billy off at home, Alexander drove me and Stormy back to the Mansion. When we got inside, Alexander talked privately to Stormy in her room while I waited in the library. When they were finished, he went to get a drink and I found her hanging out on her chaise longue, cuddling Phantom. She wasn"t smiling.
"What"s wrong?" I asked.
"Alexander doesn"t want me to see your brother or Henry anymore."
"Well, I"ll talk to him."
"I keep letting Alexander down. I hate disappointing him."
"Me too. I think he brings that out in people."
"He"ll want to send me home if someone finds out about us. The garlic, the mirrors. Bringing blood to Hatsy"s Diner."
"I don"t think he"ll want you to go home so soon. Are you homesick?" I asked.
"No," she said. "Just the opposite. I want to stay here forever."
"I want you to stay, too," I said sincerely.
"You"d like that?"
"Yes."
"But I thought I was getting in the way of you and Alexander."
"No, I like doing stuff with all of us."
"You are just saying that."
"I am not, silly."
"But I know he"s really frustrated with me. We came so close to Billy and Henry finding out about Valentine and me. That"s why he wants me to stay away from them and only hang out with Valentine-because I can be myself with him."
"That"s not right," I said. "Besides, I don"t think my brother thinks you are a vampire," I rea.s.sured her.
"It"s one of the reasons my parents keep me at home and only let me spend time with other vampires. Everyone"s afraid I"ll spill the family secrets."
"Well, that"s no way to live."
"But if people find out about us, they will fear us and persecute us. Like they did when my grandmother moved here to this Mansion. And she was just a mortal married to a mat="0em"> "I don"t know," I said. "I was just born that way."
"I guess I was, too."
"It would be hard for me not to tell the world if I were a vampire," I said.
"Really? That"s how I feel!"
"Yes, I"d want to shout it from the rooftops."
"You would?" she asked. "I just want to be myself."
"I know that must be very difficult."
"I don"t like to hide away in our Mansion. I want to live and breathe. I want to explore the world and have friends."