Dinner With a Vampire (25 page)

Thyme darted forward, but not before I grabbed her hand, shaking my head. Yet as she turned to me, her petite mouth opened to reveal her pinprick, thorn-like fangs. She sniffed at the air, tugging on my hand as she tried to edge towards the carnage before us. Suddenly, she whipped back around and plunged her fangs into my palm. I yelped and yanked my hand back, nursing the two tiny incisions. She flew outside, dress trailing behind, whipping at her ankles, coming to a halt beside the body of her nanny.

She stared at it for a moment before taking a hand in her own, raising it to her lips as though to give her one final kiss goodbye. Instead, she pierced the flesh, sucking her nanny of blood via the wrist, slurping it down like a baby would milk.

This time I was unable to control myself and I doubled over as bile poured from my mouth, causing my throat to burn and my eyes to sting as tears continued to fall.

I had wanted Ilta dead, but never like this.

My gut clenched one final time and I gingerly wiped my mouth, still gagging – but my stomach was empty.

My eyes rose to see Kaspar throwing what was Ilta, now just flesh clinging to bone, aside, unwanted organs littered about in a pool of darkening blood. The chests of his accomplices had been ripped open and the nanny’s corpse was being raided for organs that might still contain the precious blood vampires worshipped.

‘You never did deserve the name of vampire, Ilta Crimson.’

Ilta’s bones clattered as they fell to the red-stained dust and gravel of the drive and I looked on through the double doors of the mansion called Varnley, paralyzed and horrified. Kaspar looked up, his shirt bloodstained and torn, tainted at the hands of the vampires he had just declared did not deserve the name.

My gaze locked with his, as he brushed blood-matted hair from his brow, his chest rising and falling rapidly, not even a drop of sweat falling. Thin black plumes of smoke drifted into the stinking air, as they burnt the remains of the four corpses.

A single drop of blood slivered from one of his fangs and I wavered, unsteady. My eyes flickered and I just caught the concerned face of Kaspar before they closed. I was sent plummeting to the floor to land in a pool of my own vomit, my consciousness spiralling away from the scene, reminded of the true atrocity of the creature called vampire.

‘Stop! Stop!’

‘Vampires are not gentle, loving creatures. It is not in their nature to change, or to adapt, to accept others. Their love is not what humans would call love, and lust consumes them on a level we will never understand. They do not grow old as we do, but age as stone does: they gradually weather, slowly perish, so slowly it is unnoticeable. But in the end, stone is a fixture forever, as are they.’

‘Don’t come near me.’

My words pierced the silence as several pairs of eyes followed me as I folded myself into the ledge of the window. I felt as though I was under interrogation – incidentally it was not I who had committed the crime.

‘Why are you acting like this?’

I exhaled loudly, caught between a laugh and a sigh. ‘It was a shock, seeing that. Don’t get me wrong, I remember Trafalgar Square … I just didn’t expect you to be able to do that to your own kind. And now for you all to seem so unbothered by it … it’s unnatural.’

‘We drink the blood of our own kind. Violet, Ilta deserved everything he got. But I admit we lost it. I don’t really know what happened.’ Fabian glanced over his shoulder at the two Varn siblings behind him, both with their arms folded, perceiving me through sceptic eyes. He started to walk towards me, but my eyes met with Lyla’s cold gaze and my breath caught.

But stood right next to Lyla was Kaspar, his eyes flickering between the three of us with blissful ignorance.

Fabian took yet another step towards me and I closed my eyes and turned my head away, holding back stinging tears.
‘I said, don’t come near me, Fabian.’

He must have paused, because the air around me remained warm. I took a deep breath. ‘Stay away. Stay away from me.’

‘What?

‘Just do it.’

I buried my head in my arms, refusing to look. There was swift movement, and silence. I cautiously raised my head a little, peering through the curtain of hair. Lyla stood with a comforting arm on Fabian’s shoulder murmuring something into his ear. Her face was masterfully plastered with fake concern, shaking her head disapprovingly in my direction as she steered him from the room. Yet as she passed my bed she glanced back, the tiniest hint of a smug, satisfied smile on her lips. I quickly lowered my head, not wanting her to see me looking. The door slammed shut and the forced indifference I had maintained since I had woken from unconsciousness not an hour ago loosened. I fell onto my knees, curling up on the cold sill.

‘Why?’ I whispered into the silence.

‘Why? You tell me.’

I jumped, surprised. With his upper arm casually pressed to the wall stood Kaspar, his forearms folded across his chest, covering the unbuttoned part of his shirt. Anger that didn’t reach his eyes was set upon his face.

‘You weren’t even in the slightest bit scared by what we did to Ilta, were you?’

I pulled my face into a grimace and shook my head. ‘Just disgusted.’ I nodded. ‘Your disgust is only partly why you won’t let Fabian near, isn’t it?’

I froze, sensing dangerous territory. ‘No.’

He sighed. ‘Why do you delight in lying to me, Violet?’ His arms remained folded and he jerked his head to the side, flicking his hair from his eyes.

It took a minute for me to grasp that I should reply and, not as defiantly as I would have liked, I retorted, ‘I’m not lying.’

I blinked and he was stood in front of me, yanking my hair until my left cheek was exposed to his eyes. I tried to turn back, but he placed one hand behind my head. Slowly, he traced the scratch on my cheek, already weaving itself together.

‘Then how do you explain that?’

‘It’s just a scratch. No big deal.’

His eyebrows lowered and wrinkles appeared along his brow, as he turned his head away slightly. He yanked my own head further over and I felt my neck strain until there was a click. ‘Now are you going to tell me how you got that, or do I have to use other means to gain the information I want?’

I pursed my lips tightly and looked down at the floor, saying nothing. I didn’t like the sound of ‘other means’, but neither was I going to tell him about Fabian’s kiss or Lyla’s threat.

He touched my lips gently with a single finger. I instantly recoiled from his cold and unusually soft touch.

‘So it will be by other means then?’

‘Why is it so important to you anyway?’ I snapped, pressing myself against the damp window, away from him.

He raised his eyes to the ceiling. ‘Let’s see. Perhaps I was just wondering why my sister, my best friend since birth and my hostage are all acting extremely weird.’

He took a step closer and pressed two fingers to my temple, tenderly at first and then more firmly. He closed his eyes. Mine widened, as I realized what he intended to do.

I hastily threw up mammoth barriers around my mind, hiding as much as I could from view, focusing on the coolness of the window and the condensation and the sound of the wind buffeting against the panes of glass; on his steady breathing, as he fought against my defences and his pained expression, his forehead wrinkling from concentration; his dark button-up shirt, only partly fastened, revealing smooth chest underneath.

Rattle, rattle.

My thoughts were interrupted as a sharp stabbing pain pulsated in my head, a thousand times worse than even the most painful migraine. My legs weakened and I clutched at my head desperately as it faded into nothing. Kaspar’s fingers left my temples and he looked down at me with contempt.

‘Privacy is a privilege I allow you, Girly, not something you maintain on your own. And I know I’m hot – you don’t need to stare.’

I scowled up at him. ‘But you can’t get into my mind, can you?’

He stooped down to my level. ‘Oh, I can.’ This time he didn’t bother to make any contact or even close his eyes. Pain shot through my head again, quickly subsiding, and I froze, unable to move as I concentrated on keeping what I knew my father had done and the fact I had dreams buried in their boxes.

The rest I sacrificed as images began to start flashing before my eyes, mainly of the past few weeks: learning to dance, the ball, Ilta, Kaspar taking my blood, Fabian …

‘You kissed.’

I stared at the rug on the floor, refusing to meet his gaze. A hand was placed under my chin and he tilted my head upwards until I could do nothing but meet his gaze.

‘You kissed,’ he repeated. Something about my expression must have been guilty, because he let go, his lips parting in disgust. ‘You stupid girl.’

At that point I did not even have the dignity to try to defend myself, so I just sat there, unseeing.

‘And Lyla is jealous and threatening to expose me?’

I tugged my lips into a grimace in reply. ‘If Father were to know,’ he muttered to himself, beginning to pace the room until he turned towards the door.

‘Where are you going?’

He stopped and wheeled around, eyes wide and accusing. ‘To sort this out! I’ll talk to Lyla, but Fabian is down to you.’ With that he left the room, leaving me sitting on the windowsill, unsure of what had just happened.

The door slammed with a defiant boom behind me, separating me from the idiotic child sat on the windowsill. I leaned against the wall, taking several deep breaths.

She kissed Fabian.

I felt my eyes burn black and silently wondered why. Other than making things more complicated, what was so bad about it?
Why am I angry?

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts to the back of my head. There were more important matters to deal with. Walking down the hallway, I could hear muffled voices coming from Lyla’s bedroom and recognized the voice of one of my sister’s friends. I was about to knock, when Lyla spoke. I paused, hand midair, intrigued.

‘I just want to know what she has that I don’t!’ Lyla’s raised voice drifted through the door, anger and frustration evident. ‘I mean, I have the looks, the money and the status! And how can someone change their mind like that? He was all over me for what, twenty years? And then suddenly little Miss Living comes along, with her beating heart and seriously breakable
everything
, and suddenly it’s all, “Oh, Violet, can I sleep with you? Let me shag you, kiss you, take you to the ball!”’ she mocked, her voice peaking with resentment.

Her friend sighed. ‘I’m sure if you weren’t already committed to going to the ball with someone he would have asked you.’

‘Oh, please, Cathy. He was always going to ask her. I even heard him talking about it with Declan.’

Silence. I could imagine the cogs turning in her friend’s mind and I felt sorry for her. When Lyla decided something, changing her mind was impossible.

‘You don’t know that. I’m sure he likes you really. I mean she doesn’t have anything you don’t!’

‘How about rosy cheeks? Irresistible blood? Vulnerability? Humanity?’ Her voice rose in pitch and I heard exaggerated sighing, followed by what sounded like something being slammed onto a desk.

‘Do you think I should have my nails done black or red for Ad Infinitum?’ Cathy continued, oblivious to my sister’s mounting despair.

‘I mean, what the
hell
do they see in her? I am so much prettier and I know how to act in polite society!’

‘Or maybe I should just go for a classic French manicure. What do you think?’ There was a pause in the babble.

‘Black nails. And Kaspar is such a dick of a brother. Why the hell he is heir, I don’t know. I would do
such
a better job.’

I’d like to see you try,
I thought.

‘Because tradition says the fourth or seventh child is heir within the family,’ Cathy explained. ‘You’re the third child. Even I know that and I flunked Vampirs.’

Lyla sighed. ‘I wasn’t being serious, Cathy, of course I know why. And I thought you passed in the end?’

‘Daddy bribed the headmaster. Like I was going to pass,’ she scoffed, obviously finding her own stupidity hilarious.

‘Suit yourself. But don’t you think Kaspar is being a total manslut?’

Her friend paused. ‘I think it’s kind of hot.’

I raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh as several disgusted noises floated down the corridor.

‘Yuck! That is my little brother you’re talking about!’

‘Whatever. Anyway, I was thinking little black dress for the ball. What do you think?’

‘Cathy! I keep telling you: steer clear of the short dresses! They don’t do anything for your thighs. Go for an empire waist. Last time you wore a dress like that Felix totally went ditz!’

‘Lyla, he went ditz because he was hammered. He was probably high as well.’

‘I think he likes you.’

I think I need to talk to Felix.
I couldn’t take it any more. Not bothering to knock, I turned the handle and walked into the room. Both girls immediately spun around and Cathy curtseyed.

‘Hey, Kaspar,’ she said, with a roll of the tongue that I suspected I was meant to interpret as seductive.

I nodded in return. ‘Catherine.’

‘What happened to the knocking rule we established, Kaspar? How do you know I wasn’t naked or something?’ Lyla blurted out, hands on hips.

‘Lyla, you’re my sister. You were running around naked until you were two hundred years old,’ I responded, amused at her pink eyes as she squirmed in embarrassment.

‘No, I wasn’t! Why the hell are you here anyway? I have things to do, unlike you!’

‘What, other than bitch about everyone?’ I retorted, raising an eyebrow.

‘Perfectly amusing way to pass the time.’

I wasn’t there to discuss her backstabbing character and so cut to the chase. ‘Lyla, I want a word. In private.’ I deliberately turned to Cathy, who flustered, gathered her things
and left, but not before very deliberately brushing past me.