"I won't if we are together," I argued.
"I don't want you to think you have to change who you are to be with me," he said earnestly.
"I know that," I assured him.
"Or ask that you change."
"That's why you left Dullsville," I realized out loud. "You were afraid I'd want to become a vampire."
"Yes. But there was a more imminent danger presiding. A vampire with white hair."
"Jagger."
He nodded.
"Then why did you go to Hipsterville?"
"Hipsterville?" he asked, confused.
"That's what I call it," I confessed with a grin.
"Of course," he said with a laugh. "I got word from my parents that Jagger had found an apartment in ‘Hipsterville’ and was searching cemeteries in neighboring communities for my grandmother's monument. Once he'd found it, he would know which town I was living in."
"That was what the note meant," I remembered. "A warning that Jagger was on his way to find you. To seek revenge."
"What note?" he asked, confused.
"In your room," I confessed.
"You snuck into the Mansion after I left?"
I flashed him a cheesy grin.
"I should have known," he said, and smiled back. Then his playful tone turned serious. "But more important than finding me, he may have found you."
"Well, he did, but that was my own fault."
"I was going to head him off at the pass before he came to Dullsville—confront him before he confronted me. Jameson and I found an abandoned manor house so we could hide while I made my plan. But I didn't plan on one thing."
"I'd follow you?"
"I saw the most beautiful girl climbing down the backyard tree."
"That was you in the attic window?"
"Yes."
"So why didn't you—"
"I kept a close eye on you. I had to, didn't I?"
"So why is Jagger out to get you?"
A sharp howl came from the screen, distracting Alexander from my question.
"We need to get you to the cemetery—to sacred ground," Vladimir warned. The handsome professor led her through the dark, marshy woods, riddled with fog. Vladimir held Jenny close as the howling sounds grew louder.
Alexander and I were fixed on the movie.
"How can we be together," Jenny asked, "if I'm not a vampire?"
Suddenly the TV screen went black. Alexander placed the remote he was holding on the coffee table.
He stood up and held his hand out for me.
"How can we be together?" I asked, rising.
"How can we not be?" he reassured me. Alexander grabbed my hand, and I reluctantly followed him out of the Mansion and toward my house. I felt like a kid at Disney World at closing time.
The night air in Dullsville felt fresher than ever, the dark sky clearer, the wet grass crisper. "So why was Jagger seeking revenge?" I asked.
"It's a long story," he said, with a yawn.
Alexander seemed so content forgetting the past, our hands entwined as we walked side by side. But I wouldn't rest until I knew.
"I have all night. And you have 'til sunrise."
"You're right," he said, as we walked down the street. "It was about a promise I never made."
"A promise?" I asked.
"To take a girl for all of eternity."
"What girl?"
"Jagger's twin sister, Luna."
"He has a twin?"
Alexander nodded.
"Well, who made the promise?" I questioned aloud.
"My family did the year the three of us were born."
“Like an arranged marriage?"