Paranormal Realities Box Set (31 page)

“I’m not joking.” I crossed to the bed,
sat down and began to pull off my shoes.

“If you get Juliette killed, I’ll
strangle you, Taylor.” Billy held both hands toward me as if to put them around
my neck.

“Cease threatening Kizzy else you will be
the one — ” Rom warned, his face reddening.

“Rom,” I pleaded. “Don’t.”

After standing, I took a moment to
luxuriate in how much better my feet felt no longer trapped in those tennis
shoes.

"Have you seen Juliette?” I asked.

“No.” Billy 's face contorted for a
moment before he brought it back to neutral. “I keep asking, but the prince
refuses.”

Walking over to the wardrobe, I then
opened it and found a particularly gorgeous lavender ball gown with pearls sewn
into the bodice.

“Perhaps we should all get ready for this
ball or whatever tonight, ” I examined the matching lavender silk shoes sat on
a shelf above the dress. "The party’s the thing wherein to catch the
conscience of the prince,” I paraphrased Hamlet.

“Huh?” Billy grunted. “I don’t think that
guy has a conscience.”

“Never mind, douchebag,” Rom said.

My honey's American English really had
improved
, I thought.

The ballroom at the foot of the grand
staircase glistened under the twinkling lights of three enormous crystal chandeliers.
Musicians at the far end of the room played a waltz while elegantly clad
couples twirled, as if floating, on the dance floor. Other partygoers lined the
perimeter, chatting to each other in clustered groups.

A quick scan of the room failed to produce
the sight I most wanted to see: Juliette.

Having dressed in the lavender ball gown,
I’d tamed my wild hair into an upsweep that took roughly fifty bobby pins to
achieve.
I
looked pretty good
, I thought. Rom was typically gorgeous in a tuxedo with
black bow tie.

Taking Rom’s arm, we descended the
red-carpeted treads of the staircase. Abruptly, the music stopped mid-tune. The
dancers jerked to a halt. The groups ceased chatting and their heads pivoted in
our direction. Every eye in the room stared up at us. The expressions on their
faces swiftly went from placid interest, or perhaps minor boredom, to what
could only be described as hungry. One hundred pairs of eyes reddened and
gleamed. One hundred sets of lips curled back to reveal elongated, sharp
incisors. Vampires. A ballroomful of vampires.

Rom and I stopped our descent.

A hiss began with one guest at the back
of the ballroom. The sound spread until they all seemed to quiver, like cats
eyeing a bird. Obviously, it was just like that, except we were the birds. At
any second I expected them to break and run at us. If they did, we’d be torn
limb from limb and drained dry.

The wigged butler at the double doors to
the ballroom knocked his six foot gilded staff against the floor.

“His Royal Highness, the Prince Leopold,”
he announced.

The double doors swung open allowing the
prince, clad in a tuxedo that fit him like a second skin, to sweep in with
Eugene scurrying after him. The prince glanced about the room taking in the
tableau. His serene smile quickly fell into a scowl.

“What is this?” he bellowed. “These are
our honored guests.” He marched forward and stood between his subjects and us.
“Disrespect for my guests shows disrespect for me. And disrespect for your
sovereign is treason.”

The prince wound his way among the
guests, glaring at each until their teeth disappeared out of sight and a
civilized veneer dropped into place.

Several guests visibly backed away,
bowing.

“That is better,” the prince pronounced
with a smile. “Music,” he commanded and the waltz resumed.

Once the dancing began again, the prince
proceeded to the foot of the stairs. Rom and I descended to join him. When we
reached the bottom, I curtsied. Or at least the best curtsy I could perform.

This seemed to please the prince.

“Excellent,” he exclaimed glancing from
me to Rom. “You both are quite elegant tonight.”

The prince held out his hand. I placed my
hand in his and he brought the back to his lips for a kiss.

“I am so happy you finally accepted my
invitation, Kizzy. We shall play chess later. This time in person.”

“Your highness. Where’s Juliette?” I
asked.

“Oh come now, dear Kizzy.” The prince
placed my arm through his before walking me further into the ballroom.

Over my shoulder I saw Rom scowling.

“You must be patient. All in good time,”
the prince continued.

Billy appeared from a corner of the room,
nervously jerking at the sleeves of his tux.

“Ah, but here is your other friend,”
Prince Leopold said.

“Still haven’t got him to produce Juliette?”
Billy tugged at his collar. “You’re such a loser, Taylor.”

The prince's brows converged in a vee.
“Your antics have somewhat amused me since your arrival," Prince Leopold
said to Billy. "But that amusement wears thin. And tonight you behave as
an ill-mannered oaf. I do not think I will make you a baronet after all.”

The prince leaned in. "Take care or
I shall remove more than just the possibility of a title."

Billy flushed but, for once, had the good
sense to remain quiet.

“Nevertheless, you are wrong. I will show
Kizzy her stepsister.” The prince inclined his head to a guard and the
uniformed ghoul crossed the ballroom and then exited.

In short order the double doors opened
wide and a flatbed gilded cart rolled in.

The music stopped and the vampire
partygoers fell into silence as they parted to make way. The ogres pulling the
cart brought it to a halt in the center of the room.

Positioned atop the flatbed was something
that resembled a giant ice cube. Inside the cube stood Juliette, her hands pressed
flat against the surface. Her mouth moved, but no sound escaped her enclosure.

“Juliette,” Billy cried.

Out of the corner of my eye I caught
sight of two ghoul guards holding him back. However, no one stopped me. Running
as fast as I could in the high-heeled dress shoes, I pulled the hem of the
dress up so as not to trip.

Who cared if I was showing my legs to
every Tom, Dick and Vlad in the place?

Drawing the skirt up further, I climbed
onto the cart and placed my own palms against Juliette’s. The surface felt like
glass but was cold to the touch.

“Help,” Juliette mouthed.

“I will,” I mouthed back to her. Turning
to gaze over my shoulder at the prince, I asked, “What have you done to her?”

“Why nothing,” Prince Leopold replied.
“She is perfectly safe as you see.”

“Safe in what?”

“A universe of her very own." He
grinned. "When I discovered from my ghoul Stephan that you wished to send
him through the portal in order to obtain Juliette’s return, I of course took
action to prevent this.”

Stephan, dressed as a groomsman, bowed to
me from his position near one of the exits.

The prince motioned and a figure stepped
forward. The man, or whatever he was, wore a fez hat and an ill-fitting,
tattered brown smoking jacket over white dress shirt and black pants.

“The royal court’s wizard, Gethin,” the
prince said, pointing to the fez wearer. “He cast a spell removing Juliette
from the universe of the Dorcha so that she could not be pulled back into your
world when Stephan returned. Ingenious really.”

“Yeah,” I murmured. And just how were we
going to break this spell? I’d left my watch in the guestroom. Nevertheless I
knew pretty much what it said. We had less than seven hours to figure out a
way.

“Orchestra. More music,” the prince
ordered.

After a few random notes, another tune
began. Couples commenced dancing again, this time circling the cart.

“Come Kizzy.” The prince held his hand up
to help me climb from the cart and then he led me to the front of the room. “We
shall have a dance."

“Bitch!” Billy screamed from the
sidelines.

Prince Leopold turned a glare on Billy.
"I warned you." The prince snapped his fingers at a guard. "Take
him," he ordered.

 
As the guard dragged Billy away, I heard him call out, “I’m
gonna kill you, Taylor.”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. Billy was the
least of my worries. Although I, as one of the teens he'd tormented, would have
liked nothing more than for the prince to feed Billy to the nearest ghoul, I
felt obligated as a fellow human to step in.

"You're not going to have anything
permanent done to Billy are you?"

"In deference to you, dear
Kizzy," Prince Leopold replied. "I will merely have him taken to his
room and give him an opportunity to calm himself."

I nearly laughed. Billy had been sent for
a time out.

A snap of his fingers brought another
ghoul guard running to the prince's side. He whispered to the guard who nodded
and scurried away.

The prince put a hand to my waist and
whirled me into my first waltz ever. The last thing I wanted to do was dance,
but it didn’t seem like a good idea to deny the vicious vampire...particularly
when I wanted his cooperation.

Although I didn't know the steps to the
dance, I needn't have worried since my feet barely touched the floor. The ease
with which the prince handled me, spoke volumes about his supernatural
strength. We twirled around the room and each time we passed her, my eyes met
Juliette’s inside her cold prison.

After the dance was over, Rom claimed my
arm and led me away. Prince Leopold took the arm of a beautiful vampire and
returned to the dance floor.

“We shall not go near the refreshment
table,” Rom said as we walked “Punch bowls of human blood, eyeballs as
appetizers—”

“Enough,” I groaned. “I get the
nauseating picture.”

“We must escape.”

Obviously. But what do you suggest?”

He had no answer.

Somehow we ended up on the terrace. The
night air was refreshingly clean and brisk. Beyond, and partially hidden in the
shadows of the night, lay the gardens. We wandered down the stairs and made our
way to an illuminated fountain with a representation of some goddess and water
spitting from an urn. In the pond of the fountain enormous orange Koi swam
among the lily pads.

I sat down on the edge and Rom joined me.

“What are we going to do?” I gazed down
at my hands as they twisted in my lap. “There doesn’t seem any way out of this
mess. I told you it would be another fool’s errand. I’m a failure again and it
looks like we'll be stuck in this nightmare world forever.”

Rom stilled my hands with his. He placed
a finger on my jaw lifting my gaze to his. “You're not a failure. You have
found the poultice for my arm. You have found Juliette and Billy. The rest
shall come.”

“Do you still find me delightful?” I
asked jokingly.

“Even more so as you are dressed
tonight,” he said with seriousness in his tone and an earnest gaze.

Reaching a hand up I placed it at his
nape and drew Rom’s head toward mine. Our mouths met. This being only my second
French kiss I think I did a pretty good job of looping and twining my tongue
with his and not slobbering or anything.

Rom deepened the kiss and pulled me onto
his lap, on top of his strong thighs, so that we were chest to chest. My
breasts, made ample by the efforts of the bustier top of the dress, flattened
against his hard muscles. His hands caressed my bare shoulders and then down to
the small of my back. His touch sent sparks shooting off behind my closed eyes.
My hands clutched at his hair then over his shoulders.

I found forgetfulness and comfort in his
arms. And there were other feelings zipping inside me that I still wasn’t brave
enough to try to analyze. I would think of nothing but Rom’s mouth, his chest,
his thighs, his hands and…his lips.

“Ahem,” a voice came from somewhere
nearby, interrupting our interlude. “I’m sorry,” the voice said and I
recognized it belonged to Eugene.

Rom and I pulled apart and I jumped off
his lap. Standing, Rom placed an arm over my shoulder protectively.

“I hesitate to interrupt, but you should
be aware the fish in that fountain are carnivorous and have been known to jump.
So…”

“Thanks, for the warning. " I tried
not to sound embarrassed. After all why should I care that a ghoul saw me
kissing Rom. I took Rom’s hand. “We’ll just go back and, er, dance.”

In the ballroom, Rom proved he could
waltz almost as well as the prince. With my hand on his shoulder and his hand
around my waist, and our other hands tightly clasped, I almost lost myself in
the movement, the glitter of the room, and the music. However, I noticed the
cart carrying my stepsister had been removed from the ballroom.