10 Date with Destiny - My Sister the Vampire (6 page)

Ivy squeezed Olivia’s arm. ‘You totally should! Look at this meadow. Your shots are going to be awesome.’

Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. Ivy knew exactly when her twin was looking for an exit strategy.
Super sister to the rescue!

As Tessa and Alex turned to walk back towards the mansion, Ivy murmured, ‘Are you sure you’ll be OK?’

‘I’m fine!’ Olivia insisted. She was starting to sound like a broken record.

‘All right, then.’ Ivy shrugged. ‘I guess I’ll see you back at the castle.’ She trotted after Prince Alex and Tessa, who were walking at least two feet apart. Even though she felt a pang of sadness, Olivia was quite touched by their effort to avoid rubbing their couple-ness in her face. Then she frowned. It was their wedding weekend, though, and she hoped they wouldn’t allow her situation to get in the way of what should be the most romantic time of their lives. Olivia shook herself. She really needed to pull herself out of this funk before she became a walking, talking mood-killer!

She made her way down the opposite side of the hill and crouched in the long grass. Focusing the lens, she pointed her camera at the roses. The early-morning Transylvanian sun washed the flowers with a warm glow – the view could have been straight out of a postcard. Olivia enjoyed the
click-click-click
 
of her snapping camera. She could get lost in the scenery and in capturing the perfect shot. It was such a relief! Birds trilled and squawked as the wind ruffled the grass.

Olivia brought her lens round to the massive greenhouse with its clear glass walls. Sunshine flashed off the surface. Horatio must have needed truckloads of Spray ’n’ Shine to keep it that pristine. Inside, an older woman – probably a vampire judging by her paleness – was potting up flower bulbs. She wore a dark-green apron and canvas gloves, and her frizzy grey hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.

Something moved at the edge of the greenhouse. Olivia squinted. There was a tall figure lurking near the far wall. She peered through her camera, zooming in. Horatio came into focus, a forlorn look on his face as he stared through the glass at the gardener.
Oh my goodness!
 
Olivia had to stop herself from squealing. The puppy-dog eyes, the waiting around with his hands in his pockets –
does Horatio have a crush?

Olivia was wondering whether she should go over and talk to him. She didn’t exactly feel right squatting here spying on the butler. But suddenly she was slapped in the face by her own hair. She froze, her heart thudding in her chest. Alex’s story echoed in her head:
. . . a fierce breeze will blow through the grounds, plucking a single rose from the meadow and stealing it away . . .
 
Was she about to see the Free Rose?

But as Olivia turned to stare back at the meadow, the wind slowly died. There was no floating rose-head.
Which means
, she thought,
I still have no idea what the future holds . . .

‘D
o you think you need a passport to visit the other end of this table?’ Ivy whispered to her sister. She was seated with Olivia near the end of the Lazar’s ridiculously long dining table. Sparkling chandeliers dripped crystal overhead, and white marble columns stretched to the ceiling. The table was covered with an ornate crimson cloth embroidered in gold, on top of which rows of candles flickered and cast a warm glow.

Olivia almost choked on her water and Ivy patted her back, giggling. The twins, along with a dozen other vampires, were waiting to begin Tessa’s One Heart Celebration, but the princess-to-be was already fifteen minutes late. The wait wouldn’t have been so bad if there had been even a morsel of food on the table, but until the guest of honour herself arrived no festivities could begin, and that meant the servers would not bring out any food. Ivy’s mouth watered at the thought of mounds of buttered rolls and decadent chocolate-amaretto cake. The Lazars employed only the top graduates from the Transylvanian School of Culinary Arts, which meant they employed the best young vampire chefs in the whole world.

‘I hope everything’s all right,’ said Olivia once she’d recovered. She was watching the door for any sign of Tessa’s arrival. The other guests, frankly, seemed unconcerned. Around the table sat several other vamp girls, each with perfectly straightened hair and movie-set makeovers. ‘She’s going to miss her own you-know-what ceremony.’

Ivy rolled her eyes.

‘What?’ Olivia rested her fists on her hips. She was wearing a hot-pink halter dress and a long strand of pearls that clinked together every time she moved. ‘You have to admit it’s an awful name for a ceremony. We have to come up with a better English translation. Lucky Heart . . . Happy Heart . . . Bride-to-be Bash . . . I don’t know! Seriously, though, where
is
 
she?’ Olivia turned in her chair, checking the room, as if Tessa might have snuck in without anyone noticing.

Ivy glanced again at her watch. ‘Calm down, Miss I-Take-Two-Hours-To-Get-Ready. I’m sure she’ll be here any minute.’

‘I do
not
 
!’ Olivia gently swatted her sister then returned to twiddling her thumbs in her lap. Ivy was feeling restless too. She could practically feel the vamp girls judging her as they shot her looks in between twirling shiny strands of hair around their manicured talons. She hoped Tessa really would be there any minute.
Nothing could have gone wrong, could it?

Olivia leaned over. ‘Do you think we should try to get some work done while we wait? Georgia would flip if she thought that we were slacking on such an important magazine assignment. Maybe we could get a few sound bites from the others?’

Ivy fiddled with the notepad in her lap. Their fellow guests were so standoffish and aloof. They were wearing sunglasses, despite the fact that the Banquet Hall was dim and candle-lit. They were so snooty they made Franklin Grove’s resident diva, Charlotte Brown, look down-to-earth! Ivy shuddered. Even Olivia – who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt – was starting to look unimpressed by the unwelcoming behaviour of the vampire girls.

‘Do we have to?’ Ivy muttered. One of the vampire’s heads snapped up and Ivy winced. She had spent so much time with humans back in Franklin Grove that she’d forgotten everyone here would have super vamp hearing. She tried to give an apologetic smile but the girl flipped her hair and turned away.

Was this ‘polite’ vampire society? And, worse, did these girls go to school at Wallachia Academy? Ivy cleared her throat, suddenly determined. They might not be the best interviewees in the world, but she had a job to do and was determined to be a professional for her first real reporting gig.

‘Excuse me.’ She craned round to smile at the vampire nearest her, opening her notepad to a blank page. If it weren’t for the diamond-encrusted sunglasses, the girl would have looked totally goth gorgeous in her blood-red evening dress and tasteful silver necklace. ‘I’m Ivy Vega and I was wondering if you might be kind enough to answer a few questions for me. See, I’m writing an article for
VAMP
 
magazine and my sister and I are covering the entire Vampire Royal Wedding. Would you mind?’

The girl shrugged and coolly lifted her perfectly arched eyebrows. ‘If you must.’

‘Great!’ Ivy’s voice came out squeaky. She noticed the heads of the other vampires tilt in the direction of the conversation, but they all pretended not to listen.
They really should drop the unfriendly act
, Ivy thought.
It doesn’t look good on them
. ‘Right,’ she started. ‘Firstly, what’s your name?’

‘Ivana. Pleased to meet you.’ She extended her fingers. Ivy awkwardly grasped Ivana’s fingers and gave them a little shake.

The vamp next to her, dressed in a sequined cocktail dress, gasped as if Ivy had made a huge faux-pas.

‘Pleasure,’ said Ivy as Ivana wiped her hand on her dress. ‘How long have you been friends with Tessa?’ She uncapped her pen.

‘We’ve never met,’ Ivana drawled in a husky voice.

Ivy bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows. ‘I’m not sure I understand. If you’re not friends, why are you here?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Ivana twirled a strand of hair around her finger. ‘Because Tessa will one day be queen, of course. It’s a good idea to
become
 
her friend, no?’

Ivy shot Olivia a covert glance and she could tell her sister was thinking the same thing –
yuck!
 
How many of the other guests didn’t know Tessa at all? Surely they weren’t all just a bunch of social climbers?

‘Um, well, thanks for that.’ She closed her notepad. ‘That was really . . . fascinating.’

Ivy nudged Olivia and gestured to the vampire nearest her. Olivia took one look at the girl, who was busy studying her manicure, and turned back to Ivy.

No way
, she mouthed, eyes wide.

The vamp girl was tall and a bit of a Glamazon. OK, so she was actually quite scary. Ivy nodded at Olivia, as if to say she understood her sister’s hesitation.

Then Ivy gave Olivia a harder nudge, so that she bumped into the Glamazon girl.

‘Sorry!’ Olivia yelped and shot Ivy a deadly glare.

‘Oops!’ Ivy batted her eyelashes and prepared to take notes.

The Glamazon looked at Olivia like she was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of her stiletto.

‘Hi!’ Olivia waved, even though she was right under the vamp girl’s nose. ‘I’m Olivia. How are you and, um –’ she wiggled herself back on to her own chair – ‘how do you know Tessa?’

The Glamazon scooted her chair back a little. ‘My name is Arabella, and who is this Tessa person that you speak of? I’ve never heard of her.’

Ivy knew it was bad manners, but she couldn’t help it. She put her elbows on the table and leaned across Olivia. ‘Tessa . . . the girl who is going to marry Prince Alex . . . Any of this ring a bell?’

Arabella shrugged and turned her face away. ‘Not really.’

Ivy flipped her notepad shut. Getting appropriate sound bites here was not going to be easy.
I wonder if
 
VAMP
magazine would like a feature on the impossible levels of snootiness among posh vampires? Because I could write a whole book about that!

The Banquet Hall doors swung open and Horatio stepped out, looking dapper in a sleek black tuxedo. ‘Announcing the arrival of Petra Tarasov, Anastasia Gorya, Nastya Petrov and Kristina Kazimir.’
More vampires? Oh great – the snootiness factor has just gone up by fifty per cent
.

But, maybe not – these girls were sporting evening wear that was a little less rigid and much more vintage. Plus, they weren’t wearing sunglasses. Even better – they were actually
smiling
.

‘Hi, girls!’ One of the new guests pulled out a chair and plopped down between Ivy and Olivia. ‘I’m Petra.’ She wore a black shift with a funky lace hem. ‘So sorry we’re late.’ Ivy caught traces of various European accents – totally different to the Transylvanian one shared by the girls who had stonewalled her. ‘We had this assembly at the Academy that ran a little late. You know what a bore teachers can be.’ Her eyes flicked to the ceiling. ‘I’m sure we’re all capable of waiting until Monday to hear our millionth lecture on the importance of eating a balanced red-blood-cell diet.’

Ivy felt as if a fist had clenched around her stomach.
Did she say ‘the Academy’? As in ‘Wallachia Academy’?
 
Ivy sat up straighter. This was going to be her first glimpse of the kind of people she might, maybe,
possibly
 
be studying with, and they seemed much cooler than the snooty Snobzillas who had been cold-shouldering her and Olivia so far tonight.

‘Hey!’ Petra’s eyes lit up. ‘You ladies are the American twins writing that
VAMP
 
magazine article, aren’t you? I have to talk to you two later.’ Her tone was hushed and excited, like she was asking Ivy to share a particularly juicy piece of gossip. ‘I want to know everything about America. Like why do you call those yummy potato things “French fries”?’

Ivy and Olivia laughed for the first time that evening. Maybe this party wouldn’t be a total flop after all.