The Coffin Club (Vampire Kisses 5)

If we reveal our true identity, Scarlet warned, then we obviously pose as much of a threat to mortals as they do to us.

Jagger is on a power trip. He wasn`t happy enough being the leader of the Dungeon. He doesn`t have our best interest in mind. He has his own.

What do you believe? What kind of vampire are you? Onyx asked with conviction.

I was taken aback. Two vampiresses, one flashing an onyx on her fang, were asking me what kind of vampire I was? I certainly couldn`t say that I was neither kind--and in fact, not a vampire at all.

We should remain private and pure, I answered emphatically. In the end, will mortals really accept us as we are? I think it`s best we remain true to ourselves so we don`t lose our identity. We are who we are for a reason. We don`t fit into their world, so why should we try?

I was talking as much about vampires as I was about myself.

The girls grinned in agreement.

We sensed someone listening to our conversation. We peered up and the two guys were standing behind us.

See, I said through a fake smile.

Do you mind if we sit down? the blond asked.

Of course not, Scarlet said.

It was then I spotted tousled dark purple hair in the chamber across from us.

Uh...I`m feeling dizzy, I admitted, referring to the revolving floor. I`ll be right back.

It was my chance to spy on Phoenix. I snuck out into the hall and hid in the shadows next to their lounge.

Phoenix, along with a gang of ominous-looking guys, was hovering around a stone table. Phoenix was quite popular. When he wasn`t slinking in the shadows, he was surrounded by club members. Jagger doesn`t know the true meaning of being a vampire, one said.

It`s time he steps down, added another.

And you are just the dude to take over, the first one said to Phoenix.

Yes, they all said in unison.

Tomorrow night, then, a voice declared.

I`ll meet him at the crop circle. It will be done, Phoenix finished.

I leaned back as far as I could into the shadows as Phoenix left the chamber and the menacing clubsters followed him. Phoenix was planning a revolt of his own. What would happen if he led the vampire club? Was he the kind of vampire who thought it necessary to lurk among the mortals? If he was planning to meet Jagger in the open, he was surely risking exposure himself.

I felt a vibration in my purse. I pulled out my cell. It was Aunt Libby.

Raven? Where are you? she asked, her voice concerned. I just checked the ghouls room and you weren`t there.

I took a wrong turn. I`m a few yards from the dance floor, I said truthfully, only it wasn`t the same dance floor she was thinking of.

I`m done with my reading. She said marriage is in the cards.

I`ll meet you at the tarot card booth.

I hung up. If the tarot card reader had been truly psychic, she would have informed my aunt of my real location. Fortunately her powers were really only good for taking other people`s money.

I returned to find the girls still immersed in cozy conversation with the martini guys.

Where did you go? Onyx said.

I got turned around. Even a ghost could get lost in these tombs. The blond beamed. A tiny drop of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. Onyx wiped it off with her martini napkin.

I really have to go.

So soon? Scarlet asked.

Yes, I have to get back.

You`ll have to join us tomorrow, Onyx said, entwined with the redheaded guy.

Yeah, you`ll have to join us, he repeated.

I set off on my quest to meet Aunt Libby. Once again, I was lost in the tombs. I didn`t remember which way Onyx, Scarlet, and I had entered or how far we`d walked. I couldn`t find the embedded skulls, or the clubsters hanging out in the hallowed graves. And there were dozens of girls in the labyrinth of tunnels with guys hanging from their necks.

I entered an alcove filled with gamers playing Medieval Morticians, another with members having black widow races, and still another playing Spin the Bloody Bottle. All were dead ends.

I was so lost I was ready to scream. I had to get back to Aunt Libby before she got worried and called the cops or, worse, my parents. At the end of one catacomb, I discovered a door. I hoped it led to the outside of the club and I`d head back through the main entrance. There wasn`t a knob anywhere to be found. In the darkness, I glided my hand along the unstained wood until I discovered a latch. I squeezed it and slid it open. The door didn`t exit into an alleyway but rather into someone`s apartment--a loft with dozens of medieval candelabras. For a moment I paused. Something looked familiar about it, and then I realized I`d been here before. It was Jagger`s apartment.

I snuck inside, wondering what insights I might gain this time from the threatening vampire.

The gray metal main door on the opposite side was open overhead. An aquarium, empty of water but filled with rocks and one deadly tarantula, remained near the radiator, as I`d remembered.

In the far corner of the loft lay a coffin, adorned with gothic band stickers, encircled by dirt. I noticed a wooden stake caked with mud and grass, a spool of rope, and several long boards--similar to the tools I`d seen on a TV show about making a homemade crop circle.

I sensed someone lingering at the door behind me. I slowly turned around.

It was Phoenix. His sunglasses cast a shadow on his pale face, making it difficult to see his expression.

What is it you are looking for? he asked in his thick Romanian accent.

I felt alarmed. I knew I wasn`t supposed to be nosing around Jagger`s apartment, or the Dungeon, for that matter. Phoenix appeared to be watching me, always in the background, showing up unexpectedly in a blanket of darkness. My not knowing his motives made him especially intriguing and suspicious.

You shouldn`t be snooping around. I can escort you out.

That won`t be necessary, I heard someone say from the other side of the room. Jagger was standing at the apartment`s main entrance. Raven is an old friend. And I`ve known her boyfriend for an eternity.

Both vampires were blocking the exits--the one that led back to the club and the one that led to a hallway. (I`d remembered coming down the dimly lit corridor when I first visited Jagger`s apartment.) The room was windowless and there were no other exits. I had no way to escape.

I didn`t know which vampire to side with. I wasn`t fast enough to whisk by them or strong enough to bulldoze through them. Either one could easily tear into my flesh with a single bite.

I did something I never thought I`d do. I tore off and hid behind Jagger Maxwell.

I chose the company of the nefarious but familiar Jagger to the foreign leather-clad stranger.

She has such good taste, he said brazenly to Phoenix. And with that Jagger shut the door to his apartment and to Phoenix.

I wasn`t sure why Jagger was being nice to me. Perhaps he felt he had an obligation to Alexander since he`d returned his sibling safely to him. But ultimately Jagger was untrustworthy. It was only a matter of time before Jagger flashed his fangs or verbally threatened me as I followed him down the dimly lit corridor to a freight elevator. But instead of challenging me, Jagger calmly led me through the desolate hallway, without incident, like a knight guarding its queen. I was shocked. He was honoring his truce with Alexander. Apparently their reconciliation was as meaningful to him as it had been to my boyfriend. I was almost disappointed when I got inside the elevator, alone, without having been confronted. I guess I had made the right choice after all. Still standing in the hallway, Jagger began to shut the rickety door. As it creaked closed, something swooped underneath and fluttered so close above my head, I had to duck.