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"Are you okay?" he asked me. My eyes were still puffy; I felt like "crybaby" was written all over my face.
"Yes."
"They got in a fight," Stormy blurted out. "And when I find him I'm going to read him the riot act."
"You do that," Sebastian said with a chuckle.
"Maybe he went to the Crypt. I was supposed to meet him there later tonight."
I sighed. Maybe Alexander was there. I wasn't looking forward to trying to reconcile in front of all the vampires of Dullsville, but I didn't have a choice. I wanted to make up regardless of how or where it happened.
"Off to the Crypt," Stormy said.
"Hey, wait up for me," Sebastian said, putting on a T-shirt and boots. "I don't want to miss a thing." Becky drove us to the Crypt, with Sebastian following closely behind.
When we arrived, I was anxious to find Alexander. We saw Onyx and Scarlet talking by the coffins.
"Is Alexander here?" Sebastian asked.
"We haven't seen him," Onyx said.
"We have to find him," Stormy explained. "It's very urgent."
"What's up?" Scarlet asked.
"I just need to read him the riot act," she said.
The girls laughed.
"He might be here somewhere," I suggested.
"I'm going to hang here, dudes," Sebastian said. He sidled up to Onyx, who appeared glad to see him. "I'll give you a buzz if he shows up." Becky, Stormy, and I headed into the Crypt, where we ran a younger clubster - Valentine. I wasn't sure if Stormy knew about Valentine and Billy's confrontation at our house. And I wasn't going to tell her about it now.
"Hey, Stormy!" Valentine said.
"Hi, Valentine. Have you seen Alexander?"
"No. Uh ... did Billy come with you guys?" he asked.
"No," she said. "We came to find Alexander."
"Great! While you're waiting for him to show, we can hang out."
"Uh, I really need to find him," she said.
"You have all night. We can hang out together. Want a drink?"
"I'm not thirsty." She was distracted, scanning the crowd for her brother.
"Well, I am," he teased. "And it's not for anything served at the bar."
It was odd to see Valentine flirt with Stormy.
"I'll go and look for him and catch up to you in a few," Becky said.
"Thank you," I mouthed to her. I, too, was scanning the crowd for Alexander, and I wasn't about to leave Stormy by herself in the club.
"Why don't we dance?" Valentine asked Stormy.
"Maybe we can later," she answered.
Valentine appeared disappointed, but that didn't stop him from trying other tactics. "Do you want to play pinball? My brother just got a cool machine in today."
"Not now," Stormy said. "We're on a mission."
"I'm glad it'll just be us hanging out from now on," he whispered to her.
"What do you mean?"
"Billy and Henry - " I overheard him say.
"What about them?"
"They're old news."
"What do you mean?"
"Ah, we don't really mix well together. After that night at Henry's. They could have really hurt us."
"But they didn't."
"Well, next time we might not be so lucky. Our kind needs to stick together."
"No, we don't. In fact, we need to branch out. And that's just what I am doing."
"No, we don't. In fact, we need to branch out. And that's just what I am doing."
"Are you going to tell him what you really are?" he asked.
"No."
"What if he finds out?" he continued to whisper. "Raven knows. You think he wants to be one of us?"
"I don't know."
"Of course you do. And how do you think he'll respond to taking a vampire to a dance?"
"Is that what this is about? My going to the dance with Billy?"
Valentine did appear hurt when Stormy reiterated that she had gone with my brother to the fall dance. "When he finds out about you, how do you think he'll really respond, Stormy?"
"He won't find out!" Stormy said.
"You have to be friends with our kind," he insisted.
She looked at me. "Raven isn't a vampire," she said. "And she's dating one. Plus her friends are vampires. I want to be like Raven. I am a vampire and have mortal friends."
She shot me a triumphant smile; I was so pleased to know that Stormy admired me in any way.
"Besides," she said strongly to Valentine, "you can't tell me who I can or can't be friends with. And if that's the way you're going to be - then you aren't a true friend."
She grabbed my arm. "We have to go find Alexander," she said, and led me through a group of dancers.
Just then Stormy spotted Luna standing by the bar.
"I need to talk to her," she said, storming over. I followed close behind.
"Hi, Stormy Girl!" Luna squealed when she noticed the young Sterling. She opened her arms for a warm embrace but Stormy faced her with her hands on her hips."I thought you were my friend," she charged.
"I am." Luna was overly sincere.
"But why did Jagger lure Raven onto the altar?" Stormy argued.
Luna laughed as if the event were as mundane as getting pizza. "You know my brother." Stormy wasn't softening. Instead she got angrier. "But you were there, too. Why didn't you stop him?"
"I don't know," she said. "It happened so fast."
"It did? It looked like it was something you both planned."
"Stormy," Luna said with an ultrasoft voice. "This wasn't about you."
"But it was. Alexander's my brother. And Raven? She is like my older sister."
Luna's blue eyes turned raging red. She quickly caught herself getting tense and tried to cover it up with a saccharine smile.
"Stormy," she began sweetly. "You don't understand. You're just a kid."
"I understand. Everyone says they don't trust you. And I have a sense of people not to trust. Jagger. Trevor. But you? I really missed the mark. You really let me down."
"I'm sorry, Stormy," she said as kind as she could. "I never meant to hurt you." I really thought Luna was telling her the truth, as if she hadn't thought out the ramifications of her actions that night.
Jagger noticed us talking, and Stormy's stance gave off the appearance of a girls' feud. "What's the commotion?" he asked.
