“Raven,” I heard a sweet voice call. “Are you two on a date?”
It was Becky, the last person, besides Trevor, I wanted Sebastian to see.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you’d be at school, cheering for Matt.”
“I’m on my way. Where’s Alexander?”
“He has an interview with the Gazette. So I was being the tour guide—only Sebastian’s already seen everything in town.”
“I know one thing you haven’t seen: Our school’s winning soccer team. Wanna come?”
“We can’t,” I said.
“Have you ever seen a soccer game?” Becky asked naively.
“Yes—” Sebastian replied.
“Well, you haven’t seen Matt play.”
“True,” he said, “but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. We’re supposed to meet Alexander in an hour.”
Even Sebastian tried to put off my best friend.
“Don’t be a stick-in-the-mud. I can bring you back here in time.”
“You know how I feel about soccer,” I said, trying to be diplomatic. “And especially going to school when I don’t have to.”
“Oh, it will be fun. There aren’t any tombstones, but you’re sure to see a killer match.”
Before I knew it, Becky was playfully leading Sebastian toward her truck. He looked to me for help. He was struggling with her touching him, and he was doing his best not to make eye contact with her.
She opened the passenger door and Sebastian reluctantly began to get in.
“No—I’ll sit in the middle,” I insisted, squeezing in before Sebastian had the chance to sit down.
I didn’t want Sebastian to be too close to Becky. He’d tasted her blood. That meant Sebastian felt even more of a draw to Becky than he had originally. I could see him wrestling with his inner vampire.
Sebastian stared out the window. Becky did her best to engage him in conversation, and he did his best to be polite but remain uninterested.
“Don’t leave me alone with her,” Sebastian pleaded as he and I sat on the bleachers. Becky was at the refreshment stand while we held a seat for her. “Alexander will kill me if he finds out I’m seeing her again. You know I didn’t plan this.”
“I know—neither did I. We could both get in trouble.”
Becky returned with some chips and a container holding three drinks. She handed the tray to me, and as I reached for it, she sat down in between us. Sebastian scooted away.
He took out his cell phone and began texting.
“Want some chips?” she asked him.
He fiercely shook his head.
“Who are you texting?”
“Just some girls,” he said.
Becky dismissed him and took her drink and chips.
There was a time-out in the game.
I received a text again from an unavailable number.
I know where you are…
“Who’s texting you?” Becky asked. “I’m here, and I’m the only one who you text.”
“I’m not sure. I think they have the wrong number.”
The soccer snobs returned to the field.
“How long is this going to be?” Sebastian asked with an obnoxiously audible yawn.
“What’s wrong with him?” Becky whispered to me. “He’s acting very strangely.”
“I’m not sure….”
Just then Trevor scored a goal and the fans erupted in cheers. Sebastian rose to see what was going on.
“We’re winning,” she said.
Sebastian and Becky locked gazes. They both sat down, and he put away his phone.
Before long, Sebastian had lowered his guard. He was into the game, rooting for Matt, and glowing at Becky.
He took out his cell phone and began snapping pictures of the action. Then he focused it on Becky, who began to get caught up in Sebastian’s enthusiasm. She posed while I sat as inert as a tombstone.
“C’mon, Rave—” she said, placing her arm around me.
“Yes, Raven, I’d like some of you, too,” Sebastian suggested.
I couldn’t even muster a fake smile.
“Now let me take one of you,” Becky said, retrieving her phone.
“No—I hate being photographed.” Sebastian shielded his face with the drink tray.
“Weird. Alexander does, too,” Becky said. “Must be something in the water in Romania.”
“Must be,” I said.
“Then how am I going to remember you when you leave?” she asked, snatching the tray from him.
Sebastian froze. His soft, lovelorn eyes melted even more. Becky’s comments had pierced his already aching heart.
“All right,” he said.
He gazed into the camera intently. He smiled adoringly at Becky. She snapped her camera and the flash went off. He winced as if he’d been struck by a soccer ball.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“I got something in my eye…,” he said, recovering his composure.
She tucked her phone into her purse and turned her attention back to the game, unaware that she had unwittingly broken his heart. She could never possess his image and he could never possess her love.
Becky waved wildly to Matt just as the buzzer went off.
“Final quarter,” she said.
“We have to meet Alexander,” I said. “We need to go.”
Off in the distance, a shadowy figure emerged over the horizon and began strolling down the grassy hill toward us.
Even from a distance, his presence was intense. A figure like no other. My own breath escaped me and I felt a magnetic and magical connection. For a moment, words eluded me.
Handsome, charismatic, and truly alluring. Alexander Sterling, the perfect vampire.
13
Paper Chase
I stumbled into the kitchen, my vision blurry from lack of sleep and caked-on eyeliner that had smeared like a chocolate bar in the summer heat.
I was greeted by my overly chipper parents, nursing their coffee and tea before making their way to work.
“I bet this will wake you up,” my mom said, finding me bumping into the counter as I reached for a mug.
“Alexander’s in the paper!”
My eyelids shot open like a rocket.
“Where is it?” I scoured the countertop and dinette. “Do you have it?”
“I think Billy read it last.”
“Billy? You let Billy touch it?” I was horrified. “How could you! I know he got his snotty paws all over it!
He probably mangled the whole thing!”
“Calm down,” my father said.
I stormed upstairs to find my brother’s door locked. I banged so hard, my fist pulsed with pain.
“It’ll cost you,” I heard him yell back.
“It will cost you—an arm and a leg!”
The door slowly opened and I pushed myself inside. Billy was nowhere to be found. I jerked open his closet door, then heard his nerdy little voice from behind me.
“He says he sleeps in a coffin!” he teased.
“What?”
I spun around. Billy was standing at his door with the Gazette in his smarmy little hand.
I’m not sure who took off first. We both tore down the stairs as Billy cried, “Mom, she’s trying to kill me!”
“Nerd Boy—” I screeched, as I’d done all his life.
I hadn’t called him that name in months, but in my anger it just naturally rang out.
I tackled him before he reached the kitchen. I tried to wrangle the paper out of his hand as he pleaded with my parents for help.
It had been a while since we had a major sibling blowout bodyslam event, and he had grown stronger. It took all my might to hold him at bay.
“Raven, get off him,” my dad shouted.
“Billy, give your sister the paper!” my mom ordered.
“She’s sitting on my chest!” Billy hollered.