Heart of the Vampire (Vanderlind Castle) (16 page)

Chapter 24

Two hour
s later, I was bursting from my corset. I had tasted and described my way through every dish that was presented to me. The vampires gave me their rapt attention, calling out for me to take a second bite of a dish that had been their particular favorite. Some of them were even taking notes on my reactions. They all appeared quite excited by the experience. Only Jessie and Vilma viewed my meal with any type of reserve. Jessie nodded and smiled in my direction, sometimes encouraging me with, “Don’t eat any more if you don’t want to,” only to be shouted down by the other vampires. Vilma sulked at the far end of the table, yawning and rolling her eyes.

At the end of the meal, the Duke cried out, “And now for the port!” but I simply had to refuse. I had managed my way through numerous dishes, without staining my gown, and I just wasn’t willing to indulge them anymore. I was excessively grateful that I had forgotten to follow Margaret’s instructions
to fill up before the meal. That would have been awful; the vampires would have been so disappointed.

I felt ridiculously full and incredibly drowsy, but there was no way I could l
ie down in my elaborate costume. And getting out of it and back in again would leave me looking mussed. Still, my head began to bob, and I just couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open, which is saying something in a room filled with the undead.

“My dear,” I heard Madame Csorbo and felt her hand on my shoulder. “We should
n’t have pressed you so hard to eat. But thank you so much. I had promised my guests, and I do appreciate you making them happy.”

“Of course,” I murmured. “Thank you for letting me stay here.”

“Come with me, my girl,” she said, taking me by the hand and leading me from the room. We crossed over to a large sitting room and beyond that a smaller room with just a few chairs and loveseats piled with pillows. “Sit here,” she said, clearing some pillows off a loveseat. When I was about to protest about my dress she said, “Don’t worry. You’re not my first guest to overeat.”

I followed her command, too drowsy to be alarmed by the thought of what her guests usually gorged on. Madame tucked a pillow behind the small of my back and then placed a tall, rather firm pillow in my lap. “You can lean forward and balance your chin on the pillow like a wedge,” she instructed me. “This way you won’t crumple your dress or flatten your hair.”

I tried it, and it worked remarkably well. “Thank you,” I mumbled. “I just need to close my eyes for a moment.”

“That’s fine, my girl. Take all the time you need,” she told me. “I’ll send the maid in an hour to spruce you up and have her bring some...”
She paused, muttering to herself. “Oh, what is it you humans drink to wake up? I’m getting so forgetful this century.” Then she thought of it. “Coffee! I’ll have the maid come in with some coffee.”

The next thing I knew, Margaret was wheeling in a cart with coffee and cakes. “Mademoiselle
Colette, are you awake?” she asked in a soft voice.

I coughed, jerking up from where I had slumped over on the pillow. “What time is it?” I asked.

“Nearly midnight,” she told me. Then, seeing my alarmed face, she said, “Don’t worry. The ball has just started. And the Csorbos prefer to be fashionably late.”

“Oh, okay
, good,” I said, relaxing back onto the cushion.

“Shall I pour you some coffee?” Margaret asked.

“Please,” I told her. “But are they kidding with the cake? They just about killed me with how much food they made me eat at dinner.”

“I’m so sorry I told you to eat something before the meal,” she said as she filled a bone china coffee cup. “It’s just... It’s just that’s not the way they usually eat when they don’t have a human guest.”

“I can imagine,” I said, gratefully reaching for the coffee. It was not my favorite taste, but I loved the smell, and I needed the caffeine.

As I drank a second and third serving from the dainty cup, Margaret buzzed around me like a bumblebee, fluffing my hair, powdering my nose, reapplying my lipstick
, and straightening my gown. “Good as new,” she said as she finished up.

There was a knock on the door
, and Jessie stuck his head in. “About ready for the ball, princess?” he asked.

I couldn’t help but giggle. I felt delightfully refreshed, caffeinated
, and ready to go. Jessie crooked his elbow in my direction, and I hurried over to link my arm with his. “Have a wonderful night,” Margaret whispered as I sailed past.

The opening Gloria and I
had used to enter the villa was not the main entrance. It was grand and it was beautiful, but it paled in comparison to the enormous door that Jessie led me out onto an expansive porch. The vampires were all outside, still discussing the ridiculous meal they had made me eat. A few of them smiled at me in a friendly way. I guess they felt like I had done them a favor somehow, and they were appreciative.

“You have no cloak?” Madame Csorbo asked, shooting Jessie a look of censure. “You’ll catch cold. Vampires never think of these things.”

“I’m afraid I just forgot,” Jessie admitted, a bit shame faced.

The vampiress snapped her fin
gers at one of the servants waiting outside. “Bring my opera cloak,” she instructed him. “Quickly. The coaches are almost here.”

“Coaches?” I turned to look at my escort
, who had not felt the need to clue me in about anything apparently.

“It’s popular to arrive at a ball in a carriage,” he said with a small shrug.

“Um... doesn’t that kind of attract the attention of the local Budapest population?” The Vanderlinds always tried to keep a low profile back in Ohio.

“But it keeps so many people employed,” he replied. “Groomsmen, wheelwrights, blacksmiths
; the Csorbos are keeping craftsmanship alive. Plus,” he added after a moment, “they rent the carriages out for movies and parades and things. If people benefit enough then they usually turn a blind eye to any strange behaviors of the family.”

The servant reappeared
carrying a lovely black velvet cape with a light blue lining. Jessie took it from him and hung it about my shoulders. “Do you think this will keep you warm enough?” he asked, leaning forward to whisper in my ear. His breath licking at my skin caused me to shiver all over but also created an intense heat in the very center of my soul.

“Yes,” I told him, never wanting to be more than an inch away from him for the rest of my life. “I feel warmer already.”

We needed a surprising amount of carriages for not that big of a dinner party, but almost all the women were in the double-wide dresses, so that took up a lot of extra space. Jessie and I were at the back of the line, and all that was left besides us was Madame Csorbo, the Duke, and Vilma.

“Why don’t the three of us go together
, and my mom and her consort can take the last carriage?” Vilma suggested, slinking her hand around Jessie’s free arm.

“Don’t be absurd,” Madame Csorbo said, extricating Jessie from her daughter’s grasp. “They’re affianced; they want some privacy. You can ride with the Duke and me.”

The next carriage rolled to a stop in front of us. It was Cinderella perfect with gold trim and lacquered panels covered in paintings of cupids and roses. A man in beige livery stepped forward to get the door and help me in. “I’ll take it from here,” Jessie said, taking my hand and using his other arm to encircle my waist.

It’s not really obvious when watching a movie, but riding in a carriage is very cramped and actually really slow. There was only so close Jessie could sit next to me due to my zeppelin
-sized skirt, but he was able to still hold my hand. “Did you enjoy your dinner?” he asked.

“I enjoyed that the other guests enjoyed it,” I said, hedging. “Why was everyone so excited?”

“Most humans don’t realize it, but the enjoyment of food is such a huge part of existence. We vampires end up missing it a lot more than we think we’re going to after we’ve turned.”

His words made me think of something. “Why did you put an avocado in the bag you left me?”

Jessie’s eyes widened and then narrowed with concern. “Don’t you like avocados?”

“Sure,” I told him. “Who doesn’t? But that doesn’t explain what it was doing in your bag.”

“I don’t know.” He looked down, obviously a little embarrassed. “I’ve never had one, you know, and people are always talking about them. They just sound so delicious. I thought you’d enjoy one on the plane.”

“People aren’t always talking about avocados,” I exclaimed, trying to stifle a laugh.

“Sure they do,” he insisted. “And they’re in everything now. Salads, on hamburgers, guacamole. When we get back to Tiburon, pay attention. People talk about avocados more than you think.”

He was probably right; I wasn’t going to keep arguing with him. I guess I had been taking my avocado consumption for granted.

“Where are we going?” I asked, mostly to change the conversation. I’d had enough food talk for one evening.

“It’s an old ballroom that one of the families bought when the world economy went bad,” he said in a very offhanded manner.

“We’re going to a vampire ball in a ballroom?”

“Sure,” he said with a smile, his gray eyes twinkling. “Where else would we have one?”

I thought about it. “I guess I thought we’d be headed to an old cathedral or crumbling castle or something.”

“Those are all good locations as far as atmosphere,” Jessie agreed. “But actually more hassle than they’re worth.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there’s always some neighbor the next crumbling castle over complaining about the noise or people protesting that we’re not being respectful of their religion. It goes on and on. This way people are actually happy that a historic building has been saved. And if they want, they can rent it out for their own events like weddings or whatever. All they have to do is book it online.”

There was definitely a business side to being a vampire that I had never considered. Being around for hundreds of years probably made you savvier than the average investor.

“We’re here,” Jessie said, peeking out the carriage window as the horses slowed from their trot. “There’s a bit of a line in front of us
, so this might take a while.” He rolled his eyes. “Every vampire likes to make an entrance.” I remembered Madame Orzy’s instructions about pausing at the top of the stairs and had to suppress a giggle.

I leaned over to get a peek out of the window on my side, mindful of the hat perched high on my head. There was a long l
ine of cars and carriages in front of a rather large building. In the dark, I couldn’t make out much of the architectural details of the building beyond it was big. Most of the cars that were conveying guests to the ball were antiques. Beautifully preserved antiques, of course, but there was nothing more recent than sixty years ago would have been my guess. “Why all the old cars?” I asked.

Jessie squinted a bit as he thought about it. “I don’t know for sure. Vampires tend to get stuck in the time period from when they were human. At first you go along, changing with the modern world, but then after sixty or seventy years or so, you just don’t want to change anymore. You just want to go back to a time where you’re comfortable.

I thought about my grandmother and great grandmother both refusing to use the Internet. “I think that’s kind of a human thing too,” I told him.

Jessie squeezed my hand. “Let’s talk about the ball before we go in.”

“Okay,” I said, feeling a catch of nervousness.

“There’s no live feeding at our balls. Or, at least, at this kind of ball,” he corrected himself. “But that doesn’t mean people don’t slip up. Don’t go anywhere with anyone, no matter how friendly they seem. Vampires get hungry
, and you’re a tempting morsel.”

“Okay
.” I gulped.

I must have looked quite pale under all my powder because Jessie gave my hand another reassuring squeeze. “Just stay by me
, and everything will be fine. I wouldn’t take you here if I thought it was actually dangerous.”

Our carriage rolled forward a few more feet
, and the door was opened by a man in a fancy, ruffled uniform and a George Washington–style white wig. He said something in Hungarian, which I assumed was “Good evening” or something like that, and extended a hand to help us out of the carriage.

Heading into the ballroom on Jessie’s arm, I took a deep breath and tried to savor the moment. I felt just like Cinderella. But instead of losing a slipper, there was a chance I would be attack
ed by vampires and drained of all my blood.

Chapter 25

The music of a quintet greeted us as we entered the building’s foyer. The musicians were also wearing matching ruffled uniforms and white wigs. I didn’t know which famous classical composer they were playing, but it felt very appropriate for a room filled with aspiring Marie Antoinettes. Men were bowing; ladies were curtsying; fans were fluttering; and people were delighting over surprise encounters with someone they knew and had probably seen earlier in the week. There were a few people, beyond the servants, that I thought were still human. I sensed a certain nervous vitality about them that just wasn’t present in the undead guests, although the vampires were much more animated.

Jessie and I were arm in arm. He reached over and patted my hand after we checked my cloak. “Would you like a glass of champagne?”

“Um... What kind of champagne?” I asked.

He looked confused. “The kind with bubbles.”

“Yeah, but...” I lowered my voice. “Is it safe for me to drink?” The last time I drank champagne at a vampire party, Blossom ended up unconscious for the entire night, and I had to fight for our lives.

“Yes, it’s
quite safe,” Jessie assured me. “I wouldn’t take anything a stranger offers you, but the champagne served by the staff should be safe.”

“Okay, then. Yes
, please,” I told him, and Jessie flagged a passing waiter. Even without the possibility of being used as a snack, a vampire ball sounded more fraught with dangers than a wild party at a frat house.

I had no intention of getting anywhere close to tipsy, but a glass of champagne would definitely take the edge off. I knew I looked like one of the nervous humans rather than one of the vivacious undead. We walked through the crowded foyer admiring the elaborate costumes. People frequently greeted Jessie and asked to be introduce
d, saying things like, “So this is the little lady.” They made me feel about five years old, which I guess in vampire years, I was.

I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination, but all the reckless gaiety of the crowd felt a little strained to me, a little manufactured. It was like that famous party scene in
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
. All the guests are supposed to be so madcap and free spirited, but it always felt contrived. Like everyone was trying too hard. I always thought that scene must be what it’s like to live in San Francisco.

“What dances are we doing now?” Jessie asked one of these casual acquaintances drifting past. The man said something that I didn’t quite catch over the pulse of the crowd, but it made Jessie grin. “That sounds perfect.”

“What is it?” I asked him. “What’s the dance?”

“Not telling,” he said, but his eyes were twinkling with amusement. “But trust me; you’re going to love it.”

I was going to love it? What could possibly be the type of dancing that I was going to love? The waltz? Jessie was so strong, he could probably just hold me up and swing me around the room. I began to feel nervous about making an ass out of myself in front of the most fashionable vampires on the planet. “Jessie?” I said in a small voice.

“Yes?” He gave me his full attention.

“I think maybe I’ve twisted my ankle.”

“You haven’t twisted your ankle,” he told me. “You’ll be fine.” He scored another glass of champagne off a tray and handed it to me. “Here’s some liquid courage, but after this we’re going to dance.”

He was right; I was being a baby. So what if I made a goof out of myself. In the eyes of most the vampires, I was just a human anyway, so it really didn’t matter.

After I finished my glass of bubbly, Jessie wouldn’t be delayed any longer. “Come on,” he said, hooking a hand around my waist so I couldn’t get away. I knew of some guys that were willing to dance
, but I’d never known any guy that was eager to dance.

The dance floor was crowded with couples as we entered the room. A song was just ending, but it was too far at the tail end for me to identify what they were playing. I was definitely surprised there was a DJ and not an orchestra. The costumes in the foyer had been fanciful, but the ones in the ballroom were really over the top. There were people wearing monstrous hats and others walking on stilts. I was pleased to see that Vilma wasn’t the only vampiress to think of just wearing her underwear. Some dancers wore giant pap
ier-mâché heads while others were dressed quite simply with the minimum of finery.

The next song started
, and I could hear what sounded like a hunting bugle followed by the sound of drums or maybe horses hooves; I couldn’t tell. “What the hell?” I said mostly to myself.

“Stand and deliver!” Adam Ant commanded.

“What?” I exclaimed. Eighties music? That was what the vampires were dancing to at their fancy rococo ball? Eighties music? I knew the song well enough. My mom had grown up in the eighties, and she still loved the music.

The vampires started to shimmy and leap about. It seemed so bizarre that I couldn’t help but crack up. Soon Jessie was laughing
, too, and we started to dance. “I knew you would love it,” he shouted over the beat. He was right. It was time to relax and just plain have fun.

If I was to make a play list of all my favorite eighties dance music, the vampire DJ would have come pretty close. I could have done without the Love and Rockets. Having a hundred vampires surrounding me while howling, “I’m alive, so alive,” was a little unnerving. Even Jessie let loose and sang along with the rest of them. He held me close
, and I could hear his voice reverberating in his chest.

The next song was one of Blossom and my absolute favorites,
“Just Like Heaven” by The Cure. Freshman year, she would sleep over, and we’d have a dance party. Whenever we’d put that song on, we would fling our arms out wide, swing them around, and sway. I don’t know if we were birds or airplanes or what. But as Blossom always said, “When you dance to The Cure, you’ve got to dance free.”

I was feeling warm and happy. Jessie was smiling, his eyes sparkling every time he looked at me. I decide to say “the hell with it,” threw my arms out wide, closed my eyes
, and just enjoyed the moment.

Jessie had one arm around my waist, swaying with me to the music. I thought he was lost in the music as well, but about halfway through the song
, I heard him start to chuckle.

“What?” I asked, opening my eyes.

“Look,” he said, nodding toward the other dancers. “I think you’re a hit.”

It was true. Almost everyone in the ballroom had their arms spread wide, imitating my moves. It really was the perfect way to dance to the song. Still, I felt a wave of embarrassment that I was so noticeable on the dance floor and hid my face against Jessie’s vest. I could tell he was thoroughly enjoying laughing at me.

Eventually, the DJ put on a slow song. It was one that I didn’t recognize, but it had that eighties feel with an electric keyboard in the background. Jessie put his right arm around my waist and pulled me close, his left hand holding my right. I curled into him, allowing him to guide me, feeling every single cell in my body tingle.

I couldn’t pick up on most the lyrics, but Jessie was humming along. I could feel his words rumbling in my ear. The refrain went something like, “I promise you. I promise you
, I will.”

When I first met Jessie
, I ended up with his tuxedo jacket for several days. I knew it was childish, but every night I would wrap the cloth arms around me and pretend I was slow dancing with him. But that was nothing compared to actually being with him, moving with him, feeling his strong arms around me. I leaned closer and inhaled the clove-covered orange fragrance of him. There are few perfect moments in life, but I knew I was experiencing one of them.

I would have been happy to keep dancing with Jessie forever, but eventually nature called
, and I needed to excuse myself for the ladies room. Jessie frowned. “I should go with you.”

“To the ladies room?” I cocked an eyebrow at him.

“I guess you’re right,” he said. “I’m sure you won’t find any vampires in there.”

He couldn’t have been more wrong. As soon as I walked in the door, I realized there
were at least a dozen vampiresses sitting in a little lounge area. I guess even undead women need a place to get away from men. Vilma was one of them, and she looked directly at me. I quickly walked through to the next room, where the sinks and toilets were, and did as nature intended. Then I took an extended period of time washing my hands in the hope that Vilma would be gone by the time I was ready to leave.

No such luck. When I turned away from the sink to dry my hands, Vilma was standing right behind me.

I let out a little, “Oh!” and then added, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” Vampires could be lightning quick.

She fixed
me with her piercing blue eyes. “Do you really think you’re the reincarnation of that dead girl? The one that Jessie was so hot for a hundred years ago?”

I wanted to tell her to go pound salt, but I found that I really couldn’t move. It was like my feet were glued to the tile. “I don’t know,” I felt compelled to say. “I feel connected to Jessie
, and I sometimes dream Colette’s memories, but I don’t know what that means.”

Vilma narrowed her eyes at me. “What do you mean by
connected
?”

She was being awfully nosey. I mentally tried to force my feet to walk around her and out the door but couldn’t get them to move. “I mean
, when I’m with him, I feel like we’re the only two people in the whole world. And when I’m not with him, I have an ache inside that can’t be filled.”

“Then why were you with that boy? The blond one. You were always smashing your face against his. That doesn’t sound like a girl who feels all hollow inside,” she snarled.

“I know,” I said, letting my shoulders slump. “I was trying to forget Jessie. He said it was too dangerous for us to be together. But it didn’t work. I didn’t stop loving him. I didn’t stop thinking about him every second of every day.” I felt tears starting to brim in my eyes, and I blinked furiously.

“Don’t do that,” Vilma snapped. “You’
ll ruin your makeup.”

“Sorry,” I sniffed, although I wasn’t sure why I was apologizing.

“And how do you feel about Jessie being a vampire?” she asked. I think my tears had unnerved her because her gaze became a little less intense. I felt slightly less frozen to the floor.

“He can’t change who he is,” I said with a shrug. “I love him
, and I have to accept that we are different.”

“Yes,” Vilma said, “
he
can’t change who he is.” She looked me over with a critical eye.

“Is there anything else you want to quiz me about, or can I get going?” I asked her, starting to feel more myself. “Jessie’s waiting for me.”

Grabbing me by the arm and jerking me closer, Vilma snarled, “You’ll leave when I tell you to leave.” Her eyes were blazing again, but I didn’t care as much. I was angry, and she was being a jerk. “You need to leave Jessie alone,” she said, putting as much intensity as she could into her words. “You’re going to go back home and forget that he even exists.” Her blue eyes were glowing purple with the intensity of her stare. “In fact, you are going to forget that vampires exist. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“Then tell me,” she commanded. “Tell me what you’re going to do?”

I started to feel a small ache in the back of my head. “You want me to forget about Jessie and leave him alone.”

“And that’s what you’re going to do?” she asked, arching one eyebrow.

I could feel her compelling me to say yes, but that wasn’t how I felt. I could sooner fly than stop loving Jessie. It took a
while for the word to form on my lips, but eventually I was able to say, “No.”

“What?” Vilma was surprised and more than a little outraged.

“No,” I repeated. It came easier the second time. “I can’t,” I insisted. “I know it would be easier. I know I would be safer and probably live a lot longer, but I don’t know...” I shook my head. “Every thread of my being tells me that being with Jessie is the right thing to do. Not like lust or some high school crush, but something deep in my soul. We are connected, and you glaring at me with your crazy vampire eyes isn’t going to change the way I feel.”

Vilma’s mouth fell open. She gaped at me for several seconds before tossing her head a little and saying, “Fine.” With that, she turned and stalked out of the room.

I felt dizzy, like all the blood had rushed from my head. Clutching for the sink to support me, I seriously considered either throwing up or passing out.

There was the sound of a toilet flushing
, and a woman exited one of the stalls. She was dressed in pink and green silk like a giant piece of candy. “Are you all right, honey?” she asked.

I looked up at her, my head clearing a bit. She was beautiful, but a little older than I expected. “What the hell was that about?” I asked.