"Okay," she said reluctantly. "But be quick. He's busy, and he doesn't like anything taking his time away from this club. Not even romance."
I pulled the string from around my neck and we raced to the door, monster boots slapping the Masonite floor. I took a deep breath. I pushed the key in and it went in all the way. We both looked at each other and smiled.
Then I turned the key. And it clicked, unlatching the lock. We silently screamed in excitement. I turned the knob and opened the door.
"It worked. It worked!" "What's going on?" a male voice said from behind us. We both jumped and screamed. I pulled the key back out and slunk it into my pocket. Sebastian was back, along with Alexander. "I missed you," Alexander said. "Where have you been?" "With Trevor," Scarlet said proudly. "Trevor?" he said. "That's the last time I leave you alone."
"This is the door I've been telling you about," I whispered to Alexander. "The key I have opens the door, and a workman was here building something down there. Jagger has been keeping this a secret. I have to get down there."
Just then Jagger and Onyx entered the main room. "So do you like it here so far?" he asked. "Yes, it looks great." I exclaimed with a smile as bright as his white hair.
"What about this?" Alexander said, pulling on the unlocked door handle and opening the door. "Where does it go to?" Alexander said, peeking in.
Jagger stepped in between and shut and locked the door. "Nothing now," he said. Then Jagger turned on headbanging music and we all danced for a few hours. When we were all close to exhaustion, Jagger handed us some sodas from behind the bar.
"Now," he said. "I want everyone out. The Crypt is closed for the night." "Where are we going to stay?" Scarlet asked. "Here, but I have some things I need to finish - alone."
It made me wonder what he was doing that he wouldn't let us be involved in. And did it have to do with what was behind the locked door and down the stairs?
"Sure. I'll just get my things," I said. I'd put my backpack in the massive room filled with coffins when I arrived a few hours ago.
I had one chance to check the plans again. While Jagger tended to the last touches of the main dance floor, I tiptoed from the coffin room across the dank hallway into his office. The blueprints weren't lying out on his desk as they had been the last time.
I opened a metal filing case and in the drawer were the blueprints. I unraveled them as quickly as I could and peeked at the ones marked "Covenant." I wanted to see what might have been if he had opened the vampire club.
I scanned it for any hidden clues. There was a rectangular box in the middle of the western wall. "Stage" was scrolled on it in pencil, and at the opposite end was another box marked "Covenant Altar." Jagger was a master of cryptic design, and I knew that this underground club would be different but just as exciting as the Coffin Club's Dungeon.
Just like the coffins, tombstones, and skeleton decorations in the Crypt, Jagger intended to have a covenant altar for decoration in the Covenant. How awesome! I imagined dead vines around a cast-iron trestle. A coffin with goblets of juice on it to give the underground club the spice the torture chamber gave the Coffin Club. Spooky and cool at the same time.
The night we confronted Jagger about the crop circles, he had insisted the Crypt would be mortal only. But with that workman I spotted and the sounds of hammering that were coming from behind the locked door, I was still skeptical that the Covenant part of the club was going to remain closed on opening night.
Chapter 13 - Midnight Madness
Alexander and I had a midnight date at the cemetery. We hadn't seen each other alone in days and were both missing each other incredibly.
When I finally reached the back of the cemetery, Alexander hadn't arrived. Then I saw a figure lurking in the shadows. I raced to him, until I noticed blonde hair.
Trevor took my arm. "It's okay," he said. "No one will notice." "But I'm in love withAlexander," I told him firmly. "And I'm in love with . . . you." "You are not." His stare was riveting. "But you know that I am." He was right. I'd felt it for years. Trevor stepped even closer to me. "Are you going to punish me for the rest of my life? Because I wear khakis and don't listen to that rancid music?" His green eyes bore through me to the bottom of my combat boots. "I'm not punishing you. I don't love you. I love Alex - " I tried to step back, but he still held my arm.
Then he leaned in so close I thought our lips would touch. "But what if you hadn't met him?" he whispered. "And I came to you, like I did tonight. Just us. No one ever knowing."
I didn't turn away. "I don't know . . . I'd probably feel the same way I do now." "But maybe you wouldn't," he urged in his sexy, almost breathless tone. "Are you really being true to yourself? We've known each other since we were kids. Not evenAlexander can say that." His fingers slid down my sleeve so they reached my hand. "We're not all that different. I've been saying that for years." He paused.
I was slightly afraid of what he'd do next.
His fingers slid down between mine. Trevor Mitchell was holding my hand. His grip was powerful, like that of a handsome athlete. He'd crossed a line. I was holding someone else's hand. This hand wasn't Alexander's, but it felt good, too. Like I was supposed to have held his hand and touched him. As if I'd been waiting all my life.
Trevor had grabbed me before but this was different. It didn't feel like he was trying to get back at me or put a notch on his headboard. It felt as if he was doing it because he wanted to more than anything else.
"It's okay," he said. He drew my hair back from my face. "This is about you and me now. Not anyone else. They can't keep us apart any longer. You can't keep us apart. This is meant to be." His movements were tender and his voice soft and sincere.
He pulled me to him so our chests were touching and he wrapped his arms around my waist. We stood face-to face. He smiled his gorgeous smile.
No one was around. I wasn't scared. His hands were strong, and I felt a power from him. He smelled sweet, and his muscular body was warm. His eyes shined like the moonlight.
Before I could pull away, he leaned in and kissed me. His lips were magnetic and tender. I wasn't sure why I wasn't mad. For a moment, I was lost in his kiss.
I could feel his hands on my back pockets as he pulled me closer to him. It took all my strength to turn away from him. For some reason I found his lips as riveting as his gaze. "I can't," I said. "I came here for Alexander, not you." "But you stayed for me." His tone was as sincere as his kiss. It was then that he stepped back.