"Get that away from me, you freak."
Trevor didn't recoil like Alexander had when I accidentally exposed him to garlic powder. Instead, Trevor got madder.
I pulled out a pen and a Hello Batty paper pad. "Now," I said like a nurse filling out a patient's records, "have you kissed anyone in the past forty-eight hours?"
"What's it your business?"
"I have to fill out a communicable diseases questionnaire. You don't want your new girlfriend, Luna, to get your diseases, do you?"
"Why, are you jealous?"
"Of course not," I replied with a laugh.
"That's what this is really about," he said, his raspy tone suddenly brightening.
"Why you are here, in my house. In my room—," he said, stepping closer.
"Don't flatter yourself—" "You couldn't handle seeing me with Luna—," he said with a smile.
"Frankly, I can't handle seeing you at all."
"I knew it. I saw it in your eyes at the carnival," he said, taking another step toward me.
"That's not what you saw in my eyes."
I tried to get a quick glance at both sides of his neck. But he mistook the reason for my gaze. He stepped toward me and leaned in to kiss me.
I held him at bay with my pad of paper.
"Get off!"
"But I thought that's why you came—" I rolled my eyes. "I need to know—have you been bitten by anything or anyone?"
"Of course not. But I won't tell if you don't tell," he said with a clever grin.
"Then my work is complete," I said, racing for the door. "Now take two dog biscuits and don't call me in the morning."
Trevor stood still, weary and confused.
"And most important," I offered as I opened the door, "stay away from the cemetery."
"I'm sick," he said. "Not dead."
I hopped on my bike. Coasting back home, I was relieved that Trevor wasn't a vampire—for the town's sake and for mine.
As the sun set, I lay in bed under the covers.
"I hate to leave you again," my mom said, "but they are honoring your father at the country club. It's been such a busy day, I feel like I'm neglecting you."
"I feel tons better. I took a nap and I'm totally recovered."
"Well, Billy is over at Henry's. We'll pick him up after the ceremony."
As soon as I heard my dad's BMW pull out of the driveway, I jumped out of bed, fully dressed, and headed over to the Mansion.
I found Alexander in his attic room. He was staring pensively out the window.
When I tapped at his door, his mood quickly changed. He gave me a long hello kiss, and for a moment I forgot all about my childhood nemesis and a lurking vampiress named Luna.
"We have to do something," Alexander said suddenly. I was quickly pulled from a heavenly cloud nine and back into the threat of the Underworld.
"I can think of a few things. Shall we stay in here?" I teased coyly. "Or take our party to the gazebo?"
But Alexander didn't smile. "I'm serious," he said.
I missed Alexander so desperately during the day, I felt grateful to be with him now. Though I was excited by the adventures of the town I now called "Vampireville," I also resented that Jagger and Luna took romantic time away from Alexander and me.
"But now that we're together, it's hard for me to think of anything but you. I've been waiting all day to see you," I said.
"I know, me too," he said with a sigh. "But until Jagger and Luna are gone, we can't sit around. Did you see Trevor?"
"Yes," I began, sitting in his beat-up comfy chair. "He was sick today and stayed home from school."
"Sick?" he asked, worried. "Is it already too late?"
"No," I said. "Fortunately Luna hasn't sunk her fangs into him yet. He just has the flu."
"Great!" he said, relieved, and leaned on the arm of the chair. Then he turned serious. "If he was home sick, how did you see him?"
"Uh…," I stammered, turning away.
"You didn't," he said in a scornful voice.
"Well—" "You went to his house? Alone?" he asked, glaring down at me.
"No, the painter was there," I said, fiddling with a loose string from the fabric of the chair.
Alexander knelt down and took my hand. "Raven—I don't want you to be alone with him. If Trevor isn't a vampire, he is still a vulture."
"I know. You are right," I replied, his dark eyes melting me.
When my mom and dad were protective of me, it was annoying; when it came from Alexander, it was sexy.
"Promise me—" "I promise," I said.
"Well, if they didn't get to Trevor already, then they must be waiting for the right moment."