Free Cryptic Cravings by Ellen Schreiber

compliments. He rose, taking in his surrounding as if he was imagining the new club.
    “But there’s that whole thing about . . . vampires,” I said.
    “That bothers you?” He leaned over me, his hair hanging sexily over his eyes.
    “Yes.” I did my best to confront him. “I think this club should be for mortals only.”
    “I thought that a vampire club would be up your al ey.”
    I stood up. “Uh . . . it is,” I said sincerely.
    “You want to be one,” he said, stepping in closer.
    “I know,” I said, determined.
    “You are in love with one,” he said with a mischievous grin.
    “I know, but he’s different.”
    “From me?” Jagger brushed my hair away from my neck.
    I stepped back, bumping into my chair. “From the typical vampire,” I said sharply.
    Jagger laughed, having fun with his little game. “Well . . . you seemed to blend in with the Dungeon,” he said, confronting me again. “And that Phoenix guy.”
    I placed the chair between us, not saying anything. I didn’t like what he was insinuating, that I was attracted to Phoenix—someone other than my boyfriend—even though the reality was that Phoenix was Alexander.
    “How can you be in love with a vampire and not want to have a club where he can attend?”
    “You know I mean nefarious, unknown vampires.”
    “Do I real y? You think Alexander is the only benevolent vampire?”
    “Uh . . . no.”
    “Or are you afraid that if he spends enough time around his kind, he might prefer their company?” he asked, putting his foot on the chair and leaning in. “He might be reminded of what he is missing.”
    That was something I hadn’t imagined. I had only been thinking about two things—the potential danger of vampires mixing with unsuspecting mortals, and the risk of blowing the coffin lid off of the secret identity of my boyfriend, thus threatening his stay in Dul svil e.
    “Aren’t you jealous of Luna?” Jagger asked coldly. “Don’t you think it’s weird—Sebastian meets her and within an hour takes the extra plunge, so to speak? And Alexander has known you for how long now?”
    “It’s different, and you know that. I’m not a vampire. Luna is.”

    “So she is,” he said. “Lucky Luna. So what kind of vampire would you be? The Sebastian kind? Or the Alexander kind?”
    “I came here to help, not to discuss my boyfriend.”
    “For which club? The mortal one, or the vampire one?” he asked. “I find it curious—perhaps more than a coincidence—that Scarlet, Onyx, and Sebastian have been suggesting a mortals-only club. You didn’t happen to talk to them as wel , did you?”
    I wasn’t about to admit that I had. “But they’re right. This town is too smal for an increased vampire population.
    Gossip spreads so quickly here. If the mortal patrons know it is safe, they wil want to come. But if they get wind of anything nefarious, then they wil want to shut down your club completely.”
    “You don’t seem the type to worry about what others think.”
    “I worry about what their actions can do to my friends. More vampires in this town—ones not so benign, such as yourself—” I said for good measure “—can undermine or even threaten the existence of the ones who already live here.”
    “Alexander—”
    “And now you, Luna, Sebastian, Onyx, and Scarlet.”
    He stood up and thought for a moment as he put the chair back by the table. “But it seems to me that you would want this to be a place for you—to hang out with the ones you real y want to be with,” he said. “Real y want to be.”
    I fantasized for a moment, imagined myself immersed in a world of vampires, dancing and sipping blood-fil ed drinks. It was an eye into the Underworld that I wouldn’t get by attending Dul svil e High but only by partying with vampires and being accepted as one of their own.
    “I know . . . but a club ful of and attracting more vampires is not good for everyone else. My parents—my brother.
    The