"How did you get my info?"
"Jameson was supposed to return the tennis racket to you but gave it to a blond soccer player who said he was your boyfriend. I might have bought the story if I hadn"t seen you smack his hand and drive off without him."
"Well, you"re right, he"s not my boyfriend. He"s a totally lamoid jerk at school."
"But fortunately he also told Jameson your name and address to back up his story. That"s how I knew how to find you. I didn"t think I"d find you exploring the house again."
His dreamy eyes stared right through me.
"Well...I..."
Our laughter echoed in the Mansion.
"Where are your parents?" I asked.
"Romania."
"Romania? Isn"t Romania where Dracula lived?" I inquired, hinting.
"Yes."
My eyes lit up. "Are you related to Dracula?" I asked.
"He never came to a family reunion," he teased in an anxious voice. "You"re a wacky girl. You certainly give life to Dullsville."
"Dullsville? No way! That"s what I call this town!"
"Well, what else could we call it? There isn"t any nightlife here, is there? Not for people like me and you."
Nightlife. People like me and you. You mean vampires, I wanted to say.
"I preferred living in New York and London," he went on.
"I bet there"s a lot to do there at night. And a lot of night people." Just then Jameson came to take the goulash away and served us steak.
"I hope you"re not a vegetarian," he said.
I peered down at my dinner. The steak was medium rare, more on the rare side, as the juice spilled onto the plate and into the mashed potatoes.
He was so mysterious, and funnier than I could have imagined. I was under his spell as I peered at him through the flowers.
"I"m sure it"ll be delicious," I said. He watched as I took a bite. "Yum, once again."
Suddenly he looked at me with sad eyes. "Listen, do you mind-"
He picked up his plate and walked over to me. "All I can see are the wildflowers, and after all, you"re much prettier."
He set his plate next to mine and dragged his oak chair over. I thought I would faint. He sat smiling as we ate, his leg softly touching mine. My body was electrified. Alexander was funny, gorgeous, and awkward in a s.e.xy way. I wanted to know his whole life story. No matter how many years he had lived, seventeen or seventeen hundred.
"What do you do at night? Where else have you lived? Why don"t you go to school?" I rattled on suddenly.
"Slow down."
"Um...where were you born?"
"Romania."
"Then where"s your Romanian accent?"
"In Romania. We traveled constantly."
"Have you ever gone to school?"
"No, I"ve always had a private tutor."
"What"s your favorite color?"
"Black."
I remembered Mrs. Peevish. I paused and asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"You mean I"m not grown up?"
"That"s a question, not an answer," I said coyly.
"What do you want to be?" he asked.
I stared into his deep, dark mysterious eyes and whispered, "A vampire."
He stared at me curiously and seemed disturbed. And then he laughed. "You are a riot!" Then he looked at me sharply. "Raven, why did you sneak into the house?"
I looked away, embarra.s.sed.
Jameson wheeled over some pastry on a cart. He lit a match and flames rose around the dessert. "Flambe!" he announced. And just in time.
Alexander extinguished our desserts and told Jameson we would finish our dinner outside. "I hope you aren"t afraid of the dark," he said, leading me into the dilapidated gazebo.
"Afraid? I live for it!"
"Me, too," he said, smiling. "It"s really the only way to see the stars properly." He lit a half-melted candle on the ledge.
"Do you bring all your girlfriends here?" I asked, fingering the used candle.
"Yes." He laughed. "And I read to them by candlelight. What would you like?" he asked, pointing to a stack of textbooks on the floor. "Functions and Logarithms or Minority Group Cultures?"
I laughed.
"The moon is so beautiful tonight," he said, staring out the gazebo.
"Makes me think of werewolves. Do you think a man can change into an animal?"
"If he"s with the right girl," he said with a laugh.
I moved closer to him. The moonlight softly lit his face. He was beautiful. Kiss me, Alexander. Kiss me now! I thought, closing my eyes.
"But we have all of eternity," he suddenly said. "For now let"s enjoy the stars."
He placed his dessert bowl on the ledge and blew out the candle, and I quickly grabbed his hand. It wasn"t a Trevor hand or a skinny Billy Boy hand. He had the best hand in the whole world!
We lay down on the cold gra.s.s and gazed up at the stars, holding hands.
We relaxed in silence, our hands warming together. I could feel the p.r.i.c.kly legs of the spider ring.
I wanted to kiss. But he just stared up at the stars.
"Who are your friends?" I asked, turning to him.
"I keep to myself."
"I bet you met tons of cool girls before you moved here."
"Cool is one thing. The kind of girls who accept you for who you really are is another. I"d like something...lasting."
Lasting? For eternity? But I couldn"t ask that.
"I want a relationship I can finally sink my teeth into."
Really? Well, I"m your girl! I thought. But he didn"t turn toward me; instead, Alexander gazed at the sky.
"So you don"t have any friends here?" I asked, trying to pump him for more info.
"Just one."
"Jameson?"
"Someone who wears black lipstick."
We both stared up at the moon in silence. I beamed from his compliment.
"Who do you hang out with?" he finally asked.
"Becky is the only one who accepts me, and it"s because I"m the only one who doesn"t beat her up." We both laughed. "Everyone else thinks I"m weird."
"I don"t."
"Really?" No one had ever said that to me in my whole life. No one.
"You seem a lot like me," he said. "You don"t gawk at me like I"m a freak."
"I"ll kick anyone who does."
"I think you already did. Or at least smacked him with a racket."
We laughed in the moonlight, and I placed my free arm on his chest and hugged him, as my Gothic Mate softly stroked my arm.
"Could those be ravens?" I asked, pointing to a flurry of dark wings circling high above the Mansion.
"Those aren"t birds-they"re bats."
"Bats! I"ve never seen bats around here, until you moved in."
"Yeah, we found some hanging in the attic. Jameson set them free. I hope they don"t frighten you. They"re wonderful creatures."
"It takes one to know one, right?" I hinted.
"But don"t worry. They never swoop down and get tangled in jet-black hair like yours. Only in mall hair."
"They like hairspray?"
"They hate it. They know mall hair looks terrible!"
I laughed, and he began softly stroking my hair. His touch calmed me. I thought I was going to melt into the earth.
He was certainly taking much more time than Trevor had. I began stroking his hair, which was silky from his gel.
"Do bats like gel?" I asked.
"They love the way it looks with a silk Armani," he teased back.
I wriggled over him and pinned his arms down. He looked up at me with surprise and smiled. I waited for him to kiss me. But he didn"t move. Of course, he didn"t move-I was pinning him down! What was I thinking?
"Tell me your favorite thing about bats, Bat Girl," he asked, as I anxiously stared down at him.
"They can fly."
"You want to fly?"
I nodded.
He wrestled me over and pinned my arms down. Again I waited for him to kiss me, but he didn"t. He just stared into my eyes.
"So what"s your favorite thing about bats, Bat Boy?" I asked.
"I"d have to say," he began, thinking, "their vampire teeth."
I gasped, but it wasn"t because of Alexander"s comment. A mosquito had bitten my neck.
"Don"t be afraid," he said, squeezing my hand. "I won"t bite...yet." He laughed at his joke.