Free 3 Vampireville by Ellen Schreiber

lipsticks, and mud-colored glosses. I opened a small bottle of Cotton Candy nail polish. "So how do you like being a vampire?" I dropped the nail polish and quickly turned around. Jagger, wearing a white "Bite Me, I'm Transylvanian" T-shirt and black army fatigues, was standing before me. �What are you doing here?" I questioned. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?" he asked. His white hair hung in his face. "I was just leaving�" "I thought you'd be happy to see me. After all, haven't you been spending the last few days searching for me?" I stepped back and looked away from his blue and green hypnotic eyes. I didn't want to return to Dullsville's cemetery with him again. "Luna claimed she saw you reflected in the Fun House's Hall of Mirrors," he said, walking closer. I paused. I could barely breathe. I looked at the white-curtained window, planning to make my escape. "But I knew better," he continued. "You might fool her with those circus mirrors, but not me. I saw Alexander bite you and transform you right in front of my eyes. I regretted the day I didn't get to you first." I breathed again. But only for a moment as he inched toward me. "Isn't Sterling fulfilling your darkest needs?" he whispered. "I thought you got what you wanted." "I did." "Then you wouldn't be here, now would you? Sterling's not cut out for what you really desire, is he? That's why you are trying to find me." I paused. I stepped past him, but he grabbed my hand. He lifted it. "You have very long love veins," he said, running his finger along a skinny horizontal blue vein, his black painted fingernail in sharp contrast to my pasty skin. "See here, how it splinters off? As if you were pursuing a path with one love, but then you chose another." "I used to be crazy about Marilyn Manson. Now I love Alexander," I said sharply. He held my hand tighter. "We are the same now, you and I." "We never were, nor will we ever be, the same," I argued. Jagger didn't seem convinced. "How about we share a drink together?" he asked, lifting my wrist to his mouth. "Then we will be closer than ever." I quickly jerked my arm away. "Alexander quenches any thirst I have." "Is it everything you thought it would be? Being a princess of the night?" "Why don't you ask Luna." Then it hit me: If Jagger was here, where was his twin sister? I raced past him, out to the deck of the treehouse, and looked out to the yard. Alexander was searching the poolside grounds. A few yards from the treehouse, I thought I saw some long white hair poking out from behind one of the trees. I turned around, expecting to find Jagger mischievously grinning. But he was no longer standing behind me. Instead I saw Jagger and Luna darting from underneath the treehouse, through the backyard, toward my unsuspecting boyfriend. "Alexander!" I called. I was too far away to reach Alexander before they did. And what could I do against two real vampires, anyway? How could a mortal goth stop them? Then I remembered. "Alexander�cover yourself! With a towel! Now!" I shouted. He looked confused but snatched a folded beach towel from a lounge chair, crouched down, and enveloped himself with it. I pulled my hoodie over my head and drew the strings tightly shut. I grabbed the garage door opener from my pocket and pointed it at Henry's house. I took a deep breath and pressed my finger on the silver button as hard as I could. The lights burst on, illuminating the entire backyard, including Jagger and Luna. The two vampires stopped dead in their tracks. The sudden burst of bright light was like kryptonite. They shielded their pale faces with their skinny bleach white arms. They each hissed and fled into the darkness. I flew down the ladder and raced to the pool deck. Breathless, I finally reached Alexander, still covered, on a lounge chair. I aimed the garage door opener at the house again, pressed the silver button, and the once-illuminated backyard turned black. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. I could