Cryptic Cravings
up and I couldn’t have investigated. We need to know what they are truly planning.”
    I took out the blueprint and unrol ed it on the antique dining-room table. I moved it far enough away from the several lit candelabras that wax wouldn’t drip on the paper.
    “I don’t see anything unusual here,” Alexander said, examining it like a professional. “It is the blueprint for the club.
    There’s the stage, there’s the bar. This is the dance floor. Over here is a door. Not sure where it goes.”
    “It seems real y cool,” I said, pining for the club that I wanted to have in Dul svil e.
    “But there was another set of blueprints,” I confessed. “It said ‘The Covenant,’ but I couldn’t get a photo of it in time.
    I think they are the plans for his secret vampire club. Would Jagger share everything with Sebastian?” I speculated, like Sherlock Holmes. “I don’t think so.”

    “There was another set?” Alexander asked.
    “Yes. I wanted to look it over—even take it—but I couldn’t. The sun was setting and I didn’t want to get caught.”
    “You shouldn’t have taken these—you shouldn’t have been in there in the first place.”
    “I know. But can we leave this to chance? Just wait until Jagger opens the club, when we both heard he plans to open it to vampires, too?”
    “I wouldn’t put it past him to do something. The Coffin Club was so successful, I can see why he’d want to open another one. But here? It’s too dangerous.”
    “That’s why we have to see those plans.”
    Alexander reluctantly agreed.
    “I want to party at the Crypt so badly,” I continued with a dreamy tone. “But we must stop this underground club and stop him from inviting more vampires to Dul svil e.”
    “Raven, we must return these immediately, before Jagger realizes they are missing. He and I have a truce. I don’t want anything to disrupt that.”
    I could see how important it was to Alexander to finally have the weight of the Maxwel s off his back. I didn’t mean to start trouble again. I was just trying to make sure that Jagger wasn’t up to anything nefarious. But maybe I was misjudging Jagger’s intentions, like people in Dul svil e misjudged mine.
    “And we have to examine the Covenant,” I said to Alexander as I careful y stuffed the Crypt blueprints in my backpack, “just to be sure. I think it holds the real key to Jagger’s plans.”
    Alexander shook his head again. He grabbed the keys to the Mercedes off the antique end table and we headed straight back to the factory.

Chapter 5
Sneaking In
    Alexander and I parked the Mercedes at a distance and traipsed through the darkness toward the factory. I would have felt like a scolded child, with Alexander dragging me back to return my stolen goods, but Alexander knew, too, that we had to double check Jagger’s intentions to make sure the club he was building was safe for Alexander’s life in town and for the mortal residents of Dul svil e.
    We had three options. One, we could boldly go into the factory and face Jagger and Luna with my questions and admit I had their plans. Two, we could hang out and act natural, and while Alexander was chatting with the guys I could return the blueprint. Or three, both Alexander and I could sneak in and, with Alexander’s nocturnal vampire vision, find our way to the office. The third was the riskiest, and thus, the most appealing to me. We both agreed that admitting that I’d taken the plans might be a cause for a broken truce, so we decided to attempt the ful sneakin.
    It was a cool, windy night, and the leaves rustled in the trees as we passed by them. When we reached the gravel road we both sighed with relief. The road was empty of al familiar vehicles.
    I showed Alexander the door I’d used to enter the factory and we quickly snuck in.
    The empty, hol ow factory rooms were just as I’d seen them a few hours earlier.
    I il uminated the way with my flashlight, though Alexander could make out objects

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