Vampire Kisses 9: Immortal Hearts (2 page)

“What can we do? If I leave Matt alone, she may try to come around again.”

“I’ll take care of that,” I said.

“What are you doing?” Scarlet asked as she caught up to us.

“Trying to find a soulmate for Luna,” I answered swiftly.

>

“Oh, good!” she said. “I’ll come with you! But can we leave her alone with our guys?”

“We can in a bit,” I replied to the bewildered girls.

I stormed over to the bar, where a member of Jagger’s security team was watching the dance floor. The burly guard was as wide as he was tall. And he was very tall.

“Can you make sure that that pink-haired girl,” I said, pointing to Luna, who was now dancing alone at the edge of the dance floor, “stays away from those three guys?” I gestured to our dates—Alexander and Sebastian, by the club’s entrance, and Matt, who was hanging out by a pool table with Trevor.

“Uh … isn’t she Jagger’s sister?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, he’s the boss.” He towered over me like a concrete building.

“And I’m the customer,” I insisted. “Isn’t the customer always right?”

But just like a concrete building, he didn’t budge.

I dug into my Hello Batty evening bag and pulled out a five. I waved it in front of him.

But the security guard didn’t even look. I slipped the money into his behemoth-sized palm.

He glared at me as if I’d handed him a penny.

“Here.” Becky reached into her purse and took out a few dollars. “Our love lives depend on it.”

The hulky guard couldn’t help but grin as he loomed over us.

“Yes,” Scarlet said, handing him another bill.

“Okay—” he finally said, “but this stays between us.”

“Of course,” we agreed.

“Tick a lock,” I said, winding a pretend key against my dark-stained lips.

I grabbed the girls’ hands and we tore through the crowd to the bar. It was impossible to find an empty stool and even harder to get Romeo’s attention.

I squeezed between a preppy couple, leaned over the bar, and scooted as close to Romeo as I could. I didn’t have any more money to wave. Instead I held up a white cocktail napkin. “Romeo, over here!” I called.

But Romeo was pouring and delivering as many drinks as humanly possible, even for a vampire. At this rate, we’d be waiting at the bar all night.

I couldn’t wait any longer.

As he passed me by, I reached over the bar and grabbed his tattooed wrist, causing him to spill one of the drinks.

“Hey! What’s going on?” he yelled.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I just need to speak with you.” I knew Romeo recognized me from our previous meetings at the Coffin Club.

Romeo was handsome and a great fit for Luna, I thought. He had a tattoo of Munch’s
Scream
on his bicep and Chinese characters on his wrists. His shaggy dark hair couldn’t hide the countless silver studs and hoop rings in his ears. He wore a Berlin T-shirt and ripped jeans.

“Can’t you see I’m busy?” He wiped off the bar and the back of his drink-soiled hand.

“It’s imperative I speak with you now,” I said urgently. “What do you think of Luna?” I asked him with a hopeful smile.

“Luna?” he said, half listening, as he served another drink.

“Luna Maxwell. Jagger’s sister.”

“I know who she is,” he said as if I was bothering him.

“Well, what do you think of her?”

He turned to face me. Romeo was cute with his dark, wavy hair and intense stare. “DDG,” he said.

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“Drop-dead gorgeous,” he replied.

I beamed. “Then why don’t you ask her out?” I asked.

“I dunno.”

“I think you should. Why don’t you?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Uh … she’s, like, sixteen.”

“No—she’s, like, eighteen. Maybe even nineteen.”

“Really?” He perked up.

“Yes. And she’s single.”

“That’s cool.” He bounced a bit as he wiped down the bar.

“You should ask her out,” I said.

“Maybe.”

“I think you should. Now.” I was getting impatient.

“Yes, you should,” Becky repeated.

“Ditto,” Scarlet added.

“Okay … maybe later,” he finally answered.

“Later?” I asked. “We don’t have time for later!”

“I can’t do it now,” he said as if I was crazy. “I’m working.”

“How about I help out?” Scarlet whisked around the bar and joined Romeo.

“You aren’t a bartender,” he scoffed.

“I am now,” she said.

“Who wants a cold one?” Scarlet shouted to the patrons.

Several hands raised high in the air.

But Romeo didn’t move. Instead he seemed distracted by the help that Scarlet was providing him.

“I can’t leave,” he told me. “I could get fired.”

Why did work have to come in the way of his love life—and mine? I couldn’t wait until the end of his shift to get Luna hitched.

“We have to get her over to the bar,” I said to Becky. At least with Scarlet helping out Romeo, he might have more time to talk to her.

“What are you doing?” Alexander asked me when he found us looking for Luna in the crowd. “I thought we were dancing.”

“I just need to fix something,” I said, scanning the crowd for pink pastel hair.

“Fix what?” Alexander shouted over the music. He drew me in to him. “Can’t you do it later? I wait all day to see you, and the nights that we have together are cut short by you having to go home. This is our time together.”

“I know,” I said, feeling pulled in two directions. I didn’t want to be apart from Alexander any more than was forced on us by the sun. “But you’ll have to trust me on this one.” If Luna wasn’t in a romantic relationship, then the time I was apart from Alexander would be even harder for me since I knew she’d still be after him.

>

I reached up and gave him a quick peck on his tender lips. “I won’t be but a moment. I promise.”

Alexander shook his head, and Sebastian asked, “What’s up?”

“Just Raven getting into another one of her messes, I’m sure,” Alexander said with a chuckle.

I spotted pink hair out among the blondes and brunettes; Becky, Onyx, and I raced over.

I took Luna aside while my friends hung behind me.

“I think Romeo wants to talk to you,” I said in as sweet a voice as I could to my adversary. “He said he really likes you.”

“Romeo?” she asked skeptically.

“Yes, don’t you think he’s hot?” I asked as if it were fact.

“He’s the bartender,” she said flatly.

“Yes. The
hot
bartender.”

Onyx and Becky nodded their heads enthusiastically.

“I guess.” Luna couldn’t be bothered with my small talk and tapped her fuchsia Mary Janes to the music.

“Haven’t you noticed him before?” I asked.

“Uh … yes. He works for Jagger.”

“I know. So what do you think of him?” I inquired eagerly.

She just shrugged her shoulders.

I didn’t know much about Romeo except that he was a bartender and that he was nice. In fact, I didn’t even know if he was a vampire, but I assumed that, because he worked at the Coffin Club and was in Jagger’s inner circle, he must be. I wasn’t sure what else to tell her, other than what I’d seen of him.

“He’s really worldly,” I said, recalling his T-shirt.

“How do you know that?” she asked.

“He’s been to Berlin. He loves to travel.”

“So? I’ve been there, too.”

“You have? See, you already have things in common. There aren’t many guys here who have been to Chicago, much less Berlin.”

“I guess that’s cool,” she said with halfhearted interest.

Becky and Onyx nodded again.

“And he loves art,” I added, remembering his tattoo. “He’ll take you to the greatest museums.”

“He’s an artist, too?”

“I think so,” I fibbed. “Maybe he can use you as a model for a painting,” I suggested.

“He sounds just like Alexander,” Becky interjected.

I was ready to stomp on my friend’s foot, but Luna’s sparkly pink-lashed eyes lit up like a crystal.

That was all Luna needed to know. She sailed over to the bar, and a guy offered her his stool.

She hopped on it, threw back her long pink hair, and leaned her elbows on the bar.

“What can I get you?” Romeo asked.

It was magic when their eyes locked.

“Well, that depends,” Luna said in a sultry voice. “What’s on the menu?”

“Romeo, I need your help!” Scarlet called. She was up to her elbows in drink orders.

Oh no! I’d finally made a love connection for Luna that didn’t involve any of my or my friends’ guys, and it was going to be messed up within seconds.

“Stay where you are!” I said to Romeo. “We’ll help her.”

Becky followed me as we raced behind the bar.

“I don’t know the first thing about making drinks,” Becky said, overwhelmed with our new mission.

“I don’t, either. But since there isn’t alcohol in them, it can’t be that hard.”

“I’m not so sure....” Becky whimpered.

“Just stick an umbrella in it,” I said. “It’s that easy.”

I found bartending wasn’t as easy as adding cute garnishes to frosted glasses. I had to take back as many drinks as I served, and Scarlet was taking in all the tips. Becky and I owed more than we came with, and I hadn’t had a chance yet to get back to Alexander.

Alexander finally found us at the bar, exhausted and spent.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, shocked. He and Sebastian sat down on two empty stools. I was pouring a cola from the soda gun; my hair was falling in my face and my charcoal-colored eyeliner was smearing in the heat.

“What would you like?” I asked him. “How about a Serial Killer?”

“We were looking everywhere for you,” he said, concerned. “You didn’t answer your phone.”

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t hear it ring,” I apologized. “It must be in my purse. I had no idea how hard this job can be. There are three of us here, and we still can’t keep up.”

“Why isn’t Romeo working?” Sebastian asked.

“He is. Look,” I said. Romeo and Luna were lost in each other’s gaze. “Isn’t that sweet?”

“That’s what this is all about?” Alexander said, scrutinizing them.

“I’m glad she has her fangs on someone else,” Sebastian said, his blond dreads bobbing as he turned her way. “That girl is cook-a-loo—!”

“She is not,” I chimed in. “Well, sort of. I mean, she wanted you,” I said to Alexander, “and then you,” I said to Sebastian. “And you both rejected her at the altar. How should she feel?”

Both guys thought for a moment before Alexander spoke. “What do you know about Romeo?” he asked me as I wiped off my hands with the bar rag.

“I know he isn’t you. And to me that’s all he has to be. Besides, why are you worried about who she dates?”

Alexander shot me a look. “I just want you to be matchmaking for the right reason.”

“I am,” I replied. “I want her to be happy so she doesn’t try to steal you away. I think that is the best reason one could have.”

“Why would she steal me away?” He leaned in close and took my hand. “Don’t I have a choice in this? Don’t you trust me?” he asked.

I trusted a lot of things—I was confident with my style, taste, and opinions. And I was secure with my relationship with Alexander. However, Luna, who was sneaky to say the least, had known Alexander before I did and had grown up with his family in Romania. And now that she was inhabiting Dullsville and living in the Crypt, which was only a few miles away from the Mansion, she was too close for comfort. I didn’t trust either her or her brother, and without Sebastian as the object of her romantic attentions she would surely aim her affection toward my true love, Alexander, once again.

nt size“I don’t trust
her
,” I said.

He pushed my sweaty hair away from my face and took the drink from my hand and placed it on the bar.

“You did all that so we could be together?” he asked, massaging my cola-sticky hand.

“Uh-huh.”

“That might be one of the sweetest things in the world,” he said. “But don’t worry—it will take more t
han pink eyelashes to keep me away from you.”

2
Believe It or Not

I
still can’t believe Alexander is a real vampire,” Becky said the following day at Evans Park. We met at the swings, our usual outdoor hangout. No one was around, and we could talk freely about the Underworld.

Becky had a revulsion to my favorite haunts—cemeteries—and the swings always brought back memories of childhood. And I loved that swinging as high as I could gave me the closest feeling I ever had to flying.

“It’s really hard to imagine that it is true,” she continued, trying to keep up with me.

“I know,” I shouted proudly. “And there’s more. Jagger and Luna. Scarlet and Onyx. And Romeo…”

“And Sebastian?” she asked.

“Yes. Cool, isn’t it? And to think they are all living here in Dullsville.”

“It is so overwhelming. But most of all, Alexander.”

Becky was full of questions about the Underworld. And even if I’d already answered them, she wanted me to tell her again.

Becky dragged her white Keds into the dirt, and I followed suit with my untied combat boots. “When did you know?” she asked as I caught my breath. “I mean really know, like I do now?”

“I suspected when I first met him—especially because the people around town were saying his family were vampires. But I didn’t really know for certain until I
didn’t
see his reflection in Ruby’s compact mirror.”

“And you didn’t tell me,” she said with a sad longing.

“I wanted to!” I responded sincerely.

“I know it must have been hard. I’d have to tell you something like that immediately.”

I’d always felt guilty that I hadn’t blabbed the vampire news to my friend then. But I also had an obligation to Alexander. And the more I grew to know him, the more the sense of obligation was stronger.

“I wanted to every time I saw you,” I defended. “I even tried once—”

“I know you did. I guess I just wasn’t ready to hear it.”

“And now you are,” I said.

“It’s hard for me not to want to tell everyone, too. My parents…”