10 Date with Destiny - My Sister the Vampire (13 page)

Ivy and Olivia took a sharp breath at the same time.
His niece?
 
Everyone’s eyes were drawn to Tessa and guests began whispering to one another. Poor Tessa stared at the table, pink-faced.

Nobody said a word as Vincenzo stepped closer to the table. He bowed low, flourishing his black cape around him. ‘My dear Tessa,’ he said. ‘I just want to help you celebrate your big day.’ He lifted his chin, waiting for Tessa’s response.

The Queen glanced from Vincenzo to Tessa and then back to Vincenzo. Olivia thought the Queen looked as if she had just noticed a strand of hair floating in her soup.

Tessa’s eyes sparkled with tears. ‘There isn’t going to be a big day,’ she said, her voice quaking. ‘At least not as long as
you’re
 
around. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go.’ She pushed back from the table and everyone stood up as a mark of respect. Alex tried to reach for her, but she brushed him aside.

‘I’m sorry, Alex,’ she said. ‘I just need to be alone.’

Olivia heard a loud rip and saw that Tessa’s luxurious golden gown had got caught under the chair, tearing a large hole in the train. Tessa held the torn fabric limply in her hand and a single sob broke from her lips before she rushed for the door.

‘Tessa, wait!’ Prince Alex called after her. He seemed at a loss to know what to do – chase his bride or deal with the unwanted intruder.

Does this mean the wedding is off?
 
Olivia wondered.
How awful!

But then she discovered she had more pressing concerns – like why the floor of the Banquet Hall was rising up to meet her and why she was seeing doubles of Ivy! She toppled over just as blackness covered her vision.

One moment Olivia was standing next to her, and the next Ivy saw her begin to crumple to the floor. In an instant, Ivy shot her hands out and caught her sister’s limp body just before she fell flat on her face.

‘Olivia!’ she cried. Ivy’s heart thudded in her chest and it felt like she couldn’t get a breath of air into her lungs. ‘Olivia, Olivia! What’s going on?’ Ivy cradled her sister’s sagging body. Olivia’s eyes were wide and blank and her mouth hung open like a guppy fish. ‘Can somebody please help me?’ she asked, frantic.

Much to her surprise, instead of coming to her aid, Ivy saw Horatio sprint
out
 
of the room. Could he really be that squeamish when her sister needed help?

Her dad and Lillian rushed to her side. Lillian pressed the back of her hand to Olivia’s forehead. ‘She’s burning up,’ she said. ‘Do you think she’s come down with something? We should get her up to your bedchamber.’ She hooked one of Olivia’s arms over her shoulders and let Ivy support her on the other side.

Vincenzo’s face hovered over Ivy. ‘I can be of service,’ he said.

But Charles shot him a death-stare that Ivy would have had to practise for years to master. ‘I can take care of my daughter, thank you very much.’ His voice was icy. ‘Maybe you should worry about your niece . . . or, better yet, you can help by disappearing altogether. You ruined one wedding years ago – please don’t spoil a second one now.’

Vincenzo’s mouth worked to form words. ‘But . . . It wasn’t . . . It wasn’t my fault. You cannot besmirch my name like this. I have my honour to think of!’ He flung his cloak over one shoulder and began to march from the room, as though he had decided something. Then he stopped dead at the sight of Prince Alex, whose piercing eyes seemed to dare him to say another word.

Alex grabbed Vincenzo’s elbow and pulled him further away from the crowd surrounding Olivia. ‘I don’t know who you are, but you are clearly not welcome in this home.’

‘Don’t worry, my liege.’ The last word dripped with sarcasm. ‘I am already going.’

‘I’ve had enough of this,’ Charles muttered, overhearing the confrontation. With one glance back, the twins’ father scooped up Olivia and carried her out of the room, Ivy and Lillian close behind.

Ivy tried to keep her breathing under control.
Please let Olivia be OK . . .

Ivy sat cross-legged on the floor beside Olivia, who was spread out like a corpse on the floor. Lillian had taken Charles back downstairs, to find a cool drink for Olivia. Ivy held her sister’s cold, sweaty hand and kept repeating:
She’s going to be fine, she’s going to be fine, she’s going to be fine
, like one of Mr Abbott’s Zen mantras. Ivy realised that she and her twin had been using the word ‘fine’ a lot in the past few days – usually at times when they were very definitely
not
 
fine.

She tried to shake the thought from her head. Olivia was probably just run down from the flight – or suffering from some kind of allergy.
No biggie
. Ivy nearly choked as she mentally borrowed one of her sister’s phrases.

Olivia would be fixed up in no time. This was Transylvania, home of the vampires, they were supposed to be advanced in medicine.
They’ll have something special to help her . . .

Right?

Horatio hurried in with an older woman, carrying a black medical kit that would have looked sinister to Ivy if she weren’t relying on it to make her sister better. So
that
 
was why Horatio had rushed out of the room – to get help! By the way the two of them stood close together, Ivy guessed this must be Helga, the gardener Olivia had been telling her about – the one Horatio had a crush on.

Helga looked from Olivia to Ivy, shaking her head and clucking her tongue. ‘Now I see what the problem is.’ She kneeled down next to Olivia’s frail body, wringing her hands. ‘I had no idea that Miss Olivia was human!’

Are you kidding?
 
Ivy thought. What vamp would be caught dead wearing pink from head to toe and shimmery eyeshadow? She didn’t say any of this to Helga, though. Right now, she needed the herbologist to focus on fixing her twin.

‘How could I not realise?’ Helga’s lips were pressed into a thin line. ‘It’s just that I saw her doing a spectacular somersault and it seemed so quick and agile, I thought that she
must
 
be a vampire.’

‘What somersault?’ Ivy asked. She hadn’t heard a word about any impromptu acrobatics and, besides, they were a bit far removed from Olivia’s cheerleading practice for that sort of thing.

‘The one after she fell out of the tree. I think she was trying not to squish any of my plants.’ Helga shook her head. ‘But all I cared about was that she was all right.’

Falling out of a tree? Performing somersaults? Apparently Olivia’s day had been more eventful than she’d let on. Ivy smiled weakly. ‘That’s my sister for you.’

‘So when she got the allergic reaction to the Bloodbite Nettles, I gave her medicine meant for vampires instead of humans.
That’s
 
why she passed out.’

‘Oh no!’ Ivy felt a stab of worry. ‘That sounds serious. Can you help her?’ She knew that any remedy meant for a vampire was probably three times weaker than one intended for humans, because vampires had faster, stronger immune systems. Olivia would have felt OK for a while, but then her symptoms would have come back – much stronger.

‘You
have
 
to help her!’ Ivy wanted to reach out and shake Helga, but the gardener was already busy pulling instruments out of her big black bag. She lined up different shaped bottles and bags of herbs on the floor. A bitter smell wafted up from the mix of Helga’s ingredients. ‘Oh yes.’ Helga furrowed her brow and pressed her hand to Olivia’s forehead. ‘It can be fixed. I’m going to need some help doing it, that’s all. And Horatio has already helped carry in my bag for me.’ Her eyes flicked up to Horatio, who seemed to glow at the mention of his name.

‘Count me in,’ said Ivy, giving her sister’s hand a squeeze. But Olivia was still out cold. Her fingers lay limp and lifeless in Ivy’s grip.

Helga handed Ivy a small kettle and a warming plate. ‘First, we’ll need to create a hot poultice to apply to the site of the infection.’ She pointed to Olivia’s legs, which were red and bumpy. Ivy hadn’t noticed that in the dim candlelight downstairs!
Ouch!

Ivy used her closed coffin as a workstation, following Helga’s directions to mix sagebrush, crushed rose thorn and orchid petals with a spoonful of pine-tree sap. She stirred it, letting it warm on the hot plate. Then, as Helga instructed, she brushed the ointment on to a bandage that Helga pressed against Olivia’s legs.

‘I’m impressed.’ Helga nodded approvingly at Ivy’s work. ‘Have you done this before?’

Ivy shook her head as she helped secure the compress, careful to control her super-strength so that she wouldn’t hurt her sister. ‘No, I don’t know anything about vampire medicine.’

‘Even more impressive. You have
natural
 
instincts. You could be a vampire healer one day.’ Helga sniffed one of the medicine bottles before putting it away.

Horatio took a slight step forwards, leaning over Helga’s shoulder to check their progress. ‘Anything I can do?’ he asked.

Helga waved him back. ‘Not yet, not yet.’ There was no room for a Frankenstein’s monster-sized vampire in the mix; there was barely enough for Helga and Ivy.

Ivy helped the herbologist replace the caps on a set of silver bottles. ‘I didn’t know there even
were
 
vampire healers.’

‘I didn’t either.’ Helga passed Ivy a pestle and mortar and something that looked like catnip. ‘Until I found my calling at Wallachia.’

Ivy stopped crushing the catnip. ‘You went to Wallachia?’

Helga used a thermometer to check Olivia’s temperature, nodding. ‘It’s a great place to learn vocational skills and find your passion. At least, it worked for
me.
It’s not all pearls and snooty vamps, you know.’ Helga winked. ‘And even if you didn’t want to pursue healing, Wallachia offers courses of study in any subject imaginable – with the highest standards of teaching.’ She sat back on her heels, thinking. ‘I remember when I was your age – so many possibilities.’

Ivy took a deep breath. ‘Are you happy?’ She handed back the crushed herb.

Helga smiled. ‘It’s my
calling
.’ She sprinkled the herb on a fresh bandage. ‘And now for the final touch.’

Ivy helped Helga apply a new poultice to Olivia’s legs. As if by magic, the colour started coming back into Olivia’s cheeks and, seconds later, her eyelashes fluttered. Another moment passed and Olivia slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Ivy, who wanted to hold her hand as tightly as she could, but kept her grip gentle. Olivia was even more fragile than she’d thought!

‘Welcome back, Miss Olivia. You should have told me you were human,’ teased Helga. ‘You gave us quite a scare!’ She collected the rest of her bottles and ointments and stashed them back in her medicine bag.

‘Oh.’ Olivia looked confused. ‘I thought it was obvious.’ Ivy laughed.

‘I’ll give you two a moment,’ said Helga.

‘Thank you,’ said Ivy.

Helga nodded and quietly started to leave them, Horatio in tow, while Ivy turned her attention back to Olivia. ‘I’m so glad you’re OK,’ said Ivy, chipping at her Midnight Mauve nail varnish. ‘Um . . . you were really sick, so I didn’t know what you wanted me to do, but I was wondering . . . do you want me to call . . .
him
 
?’