Immortal Hearts (Vampire Kisses #9) 1

Alexander and I had done our best to keep Billy and Stormy apart - but I felt responsible that they should be together again since their last time together ended abruptly. A few evenings later, Alexander texted to say that he'd pick me and Billy up to get ice cream at Shirley's Bakery with him and Stormy. Billy came into my room while I was getting ready for our outing.

"Don't you knock?" I asked.

"Did you know the picture of me and Stormy didn't turn out?" he asked.

"No," I lied. "That sucks. Are you just now looking at it?"

"I noticed it that night, but I was looking at it again this afternoon. You can't even take a picture right!" Billy argued.

"Don't worry," I said. "Alexander has - "

"But it's weird," he interjected. "She should have been in the photo."

"I guess I moved."

"No, that's not it."

"Then I guess she moved."

I'd used this excuse before on Becky, but my brother wasn't buying it.

"No, she didn't," Billy protested. "Henry and I enlarged it on the school computer. If you had moved, you wouldn't have gotten me in, either, or you would have gotten more of her. If she moved, it would have been blurry."

"Then I don't know what happened," I finally said.

"I think you do."

"I have no idea what you mean. What are you saying?"

"She didn't show up. The only explanation is that she's invisible on film."

I laughed. "Are you crazy?"

"No," he said. "It's scientific fact."

"Well, I didn't want to show you this. I wanted Alexander to give this to you himself. But now you've spoiled it!" I pulled the portrait of Billy and Stormy out of my closet. "Here - " I said, handing him the painting.

"This is so cool!" he exclaimed, gazing at the picture as if it were really her. "It looks like what the picture would have looked like."

"Yes, isn't that awesome?" I asked proudly.

"How did Alexander know that I'd want this?"

"I don't know. He just made it."

"He had to have known that the picture wouldn't turn out."

"He did not. Don't go all crazy conspiracy theorist on me."

"She's allergic to garlic and is afraid of mirrors," he said like a young Sherlock Holmes. "It's no coincidence, is it?"

"No," I said. "It's on purpose. Her parents purposefully altered her genes and personality to make her that way."

"That's why she doesn't have many friends," he deduced. "That's why she lives in isolation in Romania. That's why Valentine said she was different. He knows about her."

"Knows what?"

"That she's a vamp - "

The doorbell suddenly rang. And just in the nick of time. I raced down the stairs, and Billy chased after me.

Alexander and Stormy were waiting outside.

"Billy is asking a lot of questions about Stormy," I whispered to Alexander as I took his hand and hurried to the car.

"Like what?"

Billy caught up to me. "Hey, Alexander, Stormy."

The Sterling siblings greeted my brother.

"Thanks for the portrait of me and Stormy," Billy said to Alexander. "That was awesome!"

"What portrait?" Stormy asked.

"Alexander made a picture of you and me at the dance. The same one that Raven took of us. It didn't turn out, so I was really lucky you made this." He pulled out his phone. "I'd like to take another picture of us," Billy said. "And this time I'd like Alexander to take it. I bet he'll do a better job than you." We all froze. None of us knew what to do. Take the picture and have it not turn out again?

"We'll do that when we get home," I said, pushing my brother out the door. "We need to get to Shirley's before there's a line." I tried to talk as much as I could on the way to Shirley's Bakery. I didn't want my brother bringing up to Stormy that she was missing from his photo.

"So are you and Valentine good friends?" Billy asked after we got to Shirley's and ordered. We were walking along the downtown square and taking in the evening air.

"Yes, I've known him most of my life."

"Do you hang out a lot?"

"I don't have many friends at home. So I'd say yes, he's one. But since I came to this town, I have even more friends," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Maybe we could get together tomorrow," Billy said suddenly.

"Tomorrow?" she asked. "Maybe later... How about after sunset?"

"I was thinking before. We could hang outside. Henry has a tree house. It will be better to see it during the daylight hours."

"I think I have something planned with Alexander."

"Then how about the next afternoon?" he pressed.

"Don't you have school?" she asked.

"We could meet right afterward."

"I get tutored by Jameson."

"I could come and watch," he said.

"Don'tpanI you understand? I can't see you then. I want to, but I can't."

"Why not?" he urged.

"I have something planned every day!" she shouted.

"What's going on?" Alexander asked.

"Nothing." Stormy took a bite of her ice cream.

"I was just seeing if Stormy could hang out with me and Henry during the day," Billy said. "We always go out at night. I'd like us to hang out in the day sometime, instead."

"That's not possible," she said.

"Why?"

"Stormy will be going back to Romania soon," Alexander said flatly.

"I will?" Stormy said, surprised.

"She will?" Billy and I asked sadly, in unison.

"I'd like her to spend the days with me," Alexander said. "You know, to catch up before she leaves."

"I'm not ready to leave," she said.

"You can't stay here forever," Alexander replied.

"I want to stay here," she demanded, "with Billy and Henry and Valentine and Raven." I felt touched that she felt the need to be with me.

"We can talk about this later," Alexander said softly.

"No, we can discuss this now. I'm not going home!" Stormy was getting mad, and I wasn't sure what to say or do.

"Well, you have to sometime," Alexander said. "We'll talk about it when we get home."

"I don't have to leave now," she said. "And you can't make me."

Stormy hurried off and sat on a bench outside the bakery.

"I'm sorry - " Billy said to Alexander. "I shouldn't have brought all this up. We can hang out whenever it's convenient," he said. "Just as long as she can stay here."

My brother joined her, and the two sat on a park bench outside a coffee shop. I noticed Billy fiddling with something in his back pocket.

He pulled out the mirror he'd taken from Henry's telescope. I wasn't sure what he was going to do with it, but I had a pretty good idea.

"Don't you dare," I whispered to him.

"Why not?" he asked, faking naivete.

"Because I said so." I sat down next to him.

Stormy was busy licking the dripping ice cream off her cone.

"What will I see?" he asked. "Or not see?"

"If you do this, I'll break your fingers," I threatened in his ear. "You'll never play a video game again."

"What's going on?" Stormy asked.

"Just sibling talk," I said.

"Oh, I know how that is."

"Maybe you should go stand by Alexander," I tried to prompt her.

"I like it here," she said.

"I just wanted to see your reaction," Billy said. "I wanted to see if you already knew. But I sensed that you did."

"Knew what?" I asked.

"Look up there," he said.

He motioned to a mirror hanging on the corner of the building. The kind of mirror that is used to help cars see the pedestrians before they came out of the alley.

It was angled so that we could see the bench we were sitting on. I saw Billy and myself, but the seat next to Billy, where Stormy was now sitting, was empty.

My mouth dropped almost to the cement sidewalk below us.

My brother didn't say a word.

"I'm not leaving," we heard Stormy say. "My friends are here."

Billy gave me a knowing glance, then smiled sweetly at Stormy.

"I love this ice cream," she said. She held her cone out to Billy. "Want a bite?"

"A bite?" he asked, staring at me. "No, I don't think I do, but Raven? She might."