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but I could hear them shuffling around in their coffin room.
    “It’s blood,” I heard a voice say. I couldn’t tel if it was Sebastian or Jagger.
    “It must be from the bottle in your office. You left it there last night,” Onyx said.
    “I finished it,” Jagger said.
    “It’s human,” I heard a female voice say. “Definitely not an animal.”
    “Yes, it’s mortal. I could smel that a mile away.”
    “But why would anyone be here?” I recognized Sebastian’s voice.
    “It could be a homeless person,” Jagger said. “I can’t keep track of every nook and cranny of this vast place.”
    The voices were so close; I knew they had to be standing only a few feet away.
    I pul ed my sleeve over my fist and pressed it to the crease of my mouth.
    Alexander’s escape would be easy and painless and take only seconds. In bat form, he could easily fly through the sky-high ceiling and out the crack in the window. I, on the other hand, had only two legs and a very impatient nature. Without someone to guide me out, I had only the help of my flashlight.
    “I’m not leaving you here,” Alexander said as if he was reading my thoughts.
    “That handle gets stuck,” I said. “Maybe that could ward them off for a few minutes. Push the door closed.”
    “There’s no other way to escape,” he said.
    I could only hope they would let me be—but with such a temptation as my blood looming before them, now wasn’t the time to find out. It was one thing for me to be in the company of Alexander. But it wasn’t a good idea to be in the company of other, more impulsive vampires.
    Alexander peered through the crack of the doorway. “They’re in their room. Now is our only chance!”
    He grabbed my hand and yanked me out of the room and toward the staircase. It was rickety and dangerous at best, but the elevator would be creaky and loud if it stil worked. Not only would it draw attention to us—it could trap us in a cryptic cage.
    We had just reached the stairs when the voices and footsteps emerged from the other end of the hal way. There was no time for a dash up and out. Alexander drew me behind the circular stairs and we stood close together in the shadows.
    “Maybe I should tel Alexander I’m stil here,” Sebastian said. “What if he stumbles upon us, dude? He’d be, like, double mad knowing I hadn’t told him I didn’t leave.”
    “Why are we talking about this now?” Jagger said. “We might have an intruder.”
    “Because this is just as important.”
    “Why don’t you wait until the club is up and running?” Jagger asked. “Then you can invite him. Wouldn’t that be cool?”
    “So, I just wait for months?” Sebastian said. “That’s not cool, dude. Not cool at al . I have to face him again.”
    Just then Sebastian stepped away from Jagger. He was standing in plain view of me. I held my breath. My combat boot was sticking out clearly in his sight line. Sebastian eyed it for what seemed like forever. Our cover was blown. I was unsure what he was going to do next.
    “That’s it—” Sebastian declared. He turned his attention away from my boot and stared in Jagger’s direction. “I’m going to the Mansion.”
    “Now?” Jagger asked. “But we have to find out who—”
    “You said it yourself. It could be anyone. We can make a clean sweep of this place later tonight. But right now I have to talk to Alexander.”
    Sebastian started to go.
    “Hey, hold on,” Jagger said, grabbing his arm.
    I continued to breathe as shal owly as possible.
    “If you go—we’l al go,” Jagger said. “I don’t want you to be the only good guy in this situation.”
    “A trip to the Mansion?” I heard Scarlet say.
    I heard more giggles and voices as they went up the steps and out of the factory, then car doors shutting and two engines starting. When we heard the cars drive out over gravel, Alexander and I tiptoed up the steps and peered out of a window to make sure they had real y left and this wasn’t a