Dinner With a Vampire

  ‘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.

  ‘Bye, Kaspar.’

  I went rigid. ‘Catherine.’

  Slam went the door.

  ‘Well, spit it out then! I don’t have all day.’

  ‘Stop being such a jealous over-possessive cow of a sister. Get over yourself and Fabian, stop putting me on the line and don’t drag Violet into this.’

  She spun around, eyes full of venom. ‘What the hell did you just say?’

  ‘Let me paraphrase it for you. Stop being such a bitch.’

  ‘I know what you said, idiot. I just want to know why the hell you said it!’ She practically shouted, seething. I raised an eyebrow. So she is going to play innocent?

  ‘You threatened Violet. If she goes near Fabian, you will expose the fact I took her blood, humiliating both her and I—’

  ‘Took her blood with her consent—’

  ‘So you admit it then? Threatening us?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But then how could you know I took her blood with consent? Nobody knew that but me and Violet. She wouldn’t tell and neither would I. So, tell me, wise big sister, how could you know?’

  She didn’t answer, retreating into her wardrobe and pulling more clothes down from the rack, which she held up to herself, silently pairing them together.

  ‘You read her mind,’ I said, cutting in on her browsing. ‘Most likely when she was flustered and her barriers were weak; found out about the kiss, stumbled across what I had done and decided you were going to keep Fabian for yourself, despite him clearly not having the same feelings you have for him. Not to mention the fact you scratched Violet.’

  Her mouth was hanging open, but as I paused for breath, she abruptly shut it again and began talking.

  ‘Fine, I did. But so what? What can you do about it? Even you know it is for Fabian’s own good. He can’t get close to her, they are way too different. A vampire and a human don’t go together.’

  ‘They are different. But that isn’t to say a relationship couldn’t work between a vampire and a human. Look at Marie-Claire and John,’ I retorted, leaning against the post of her bed, as she moved on to busying herself by clearing her desk, something she wouldn’t normally do.

  ‘John is turning in a few weeks anyway.’ She turned to me and gave me one of her most contemptuous looks. I shrugged my shoulders.

  ‘But he has been human for the entire, what, four years of their relationship? That has to say something.’

  ‘Kaspar, shut up. It wouldn’t work between Violet and Fabian and everyone knows it. And when he does wake up and realize what he has been wasting his time on—’

  I cut in, interrupting her. ‘You plan to be the one he goes running to.’

  ‘Precisely. If Violet ignores him, he will just realize quicker. And then I get him quicker.’

  To think I’m related to this.

  ‘And you are going to do that at the cost of Violet’s sanity?’ I asked, scowling.

  She snorted, lining her perfume bottles up in order of size. ‘Stop being so melodramatic. She’ll be fine.’

  ‘Lyla, she needs Fabian like she needs air. He stops her going mad in this place. By all means, get Fabian. But if you snatch him away from her, who is going to win her around to turning? You are putting the whole Kingdom at risk. Remember that.’

  She froze for a moment, before straightening up and turning to face me.

  ‘You say that, Kaspar James Vladimir Eztli Varn.’ I scowled at her use of my full name. ‘But what about what you are doing? What about how you risk everything? You’re heir, but you’re the one who brought her here. You’re the one who tries to force himself on her. And Fabian will kill her with his bloody kindness. If he’d never invited her to the ball, she never would have been attacked. You two are the ones putting her in danger and if anything happens to her, you know what Michael Lee will do.’ She raised her hand to her neck and made a slicing motion.

  I rolled my eyes at her me
lodrama. ‘Come on, like he will have enough men to actually get to us.’

  She had turned back to her desk, downing the rest of her customary vodka and blood. ‘With slayers? Rogues?’

  I shook it off. ‘This isn’t the point. The point is you’re not going to humiliate me or Violet by telling anyone that I took her blood. Neither are you going to stop Fabian from going near her.’

  ‘Aren’t I?’ she challenged.

  I folded my arms carefully across my chest. ‘You could if you wanted, but if you do, I will tell father that you lost your virginity to a rogue when you were fourteen. Seem fair?’

  She gasped as her mouth fell open, her eyes tingeing pink ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Met the guy. Now do we have a deal, darling big sister?’ Grudgingly, she held out her hand and shook mine, the anger clear in her strong grip.

  I left, feeling like a hypocrite the whole time. Because in truth, I was sure I was just as angry about the pair of them kissing as Lyla was. At least my sister can put a finger on why.

  THIRTY-SIX

  Violet

  The temperature had noticeably dropped in the month after Ilta’s death. In fact, as far as being kidnapped by vampires goes, things were pretty normal. Lyla apologized (I don’t know what Kaspar had said, but it must have been good) and dropped her threat. Fabian cooled off and didn’t try anything again, although it was still awkward to be around him as I tried to figure out what on Earth I had felt whilst kissing him. And Kaspar? Kaspar stayed away.

  I changed into a pair of trousers and a jumper, knowing after the experience of the last few nights that sealing myself between the many layers of sheets on the bed didn’t provide much warmth.

  With a groan, I dragged the curtains across the windows, shutting out the worsening weather – the whole mansion smelt damp and I was sure it was going to rain. Again. Never known a year like it, I thought. We haven’t had a single hot spell, and now it’s basically winter.

  I curled beneath the sheets, keeping as still as I could so the air would form its own warm blanket around me. Why can’t they just light the fires? Or get bloody central heating? But neither the warmth nor the cold could shelter me from the approaching dream.

  The stench of death drifted through the air, not even disguised by the rotting damp in the valley that night. His feet sank into the ground with an unsatisfying squelch, soaking the hem of his cloak. Not that he cared. He had more pressing matters to attend to, such as how the damp masked every scent. Why could the hunters not pick a dry night?

  Tonight, he was a true rogue. A feral smile appeared as he held onto that thread of thought. It was so liberating. Unrestrained by laws, morals and commitments, free to hunt when one liked, free to associate with whom one liked, free to enter Varnley and Romania; there were many, many benefits of relinquishing civility.

  But something always held him back. To lose one’s civility was to lose one’s dignity. Many of the rogues still remaining in the country had taken to the forest of Varnley, seeking the seclusion and isolation it brought, as well as the obvious advantage of the bustling hunting ground of London being less than an hour’s run away. But to live amongst the animals, as an animal was, well, drastic.

  He paused as something caught his gaze, this evening as sharp as a knife from the fresh blood he had just allowed himself to indulge upon. Perhaps a few hundred yards in front of him was a dark shadow, three in fact, hovering about the border to the estate. Throwing the hood of his cloak about his dripping hair, he continued on with caution.

  As he approached, he could hear hushed whispers, so softly spoken he could only make out every other sentence.

  ‘Giles, remember we need the rogues … if you want any chance of cocking a leg over this Lee bitch, then you’ll shut up!’

  His lips curled below his fangs in disgust at their crudeness, but he didn’t lose focus, tugging his hood tighter, ensuring his face was cast into shadow and reached into an inner pocket, producing a letter sealed with the rogues’ wax stamp.

  ‘Good evening, my friends.’ Startled, the three slayers reached into their own coats and he caught a glimpse of something silver and glinting. He rolled his eyes. ‘Put your stakes away, I am no foe.’

  ‘Then state your name and business, vampire,’ the middle man demanded, stepping forward until he teetered on the border. He did not withdraw his hand from his coat.

  ‘My name is of no consequence. My business is why you are standing here; I was sent in place of Finnian and Aleix, as they are indisposed.’ Yes, he indisposed of them yesterday, especially once he learned of this meeting they had planned. He walked forward, careful to keep his gaze averted slightly downward so his hood would not slip and handed the slayer the seal. The slayer allowed his gaze to flick downwards, before it bounced back up and then down again. Seeming satisfied, he placed the letter into his pocket, his hand withdrawing from his long coat.

  ‘Why has this meeting been requested, rogue? We have nothing of importance to share.’

  He backed away a few spaces, allowing his elbow to rest on a nearby tree. He had little concern that they could overpower him, but he certainly didn’t want a premature fight breaking out.

  ‘Quite sure about that, slayer?’

  ‘Of course we are sure!’

  The second man stepped forward, his accent considerably thicker than the accent of the first man. ‘Romania is a long way from Varnley, no? And yet we have come all this way to hear you ask for information we do not have.’

  He did not reply immediately, instead waiting and watching them squirm as he carefully chose his words.

  ‘Not a wasted journey though, is it, my friends? I’m sure the English weather is quite enjoyable.’ Careful to ensure his hood remained in place, he let his head roll skywards, where the stars were masked by swathes of clouds. He just needed to wait. Humans were so impatient – they let their secrets slip so easily.

  ‘You know as well as I that Lee is waiting for the Varns to make a mistake. He needs an excuse to gain the support of the British government.’

  The cloaked figure waved his hand dismissively. ‘The Varns don’t make mistakes.’

  ‘Maybe they don’t need to.’

  His hand clenched. ‘Must you speak in riddles, slayer? You just stated that Lee needs to wait for a mistake, and now you say the Varns don’t need to make one? What do you mean by it?’

  The slayers began to back away and the cloaked figure felt his eyes flash black. ‘That is all you will learn tonight, rogue. We will send instructions when the time is nigh.’

  ‘Of course,’ he replied, fighting hard to keep his voice from wavering as he prepared to leap. With a bow of the head from the one man, all three turned and made an exit, retreating away from the border.

  The cloaked figure forced air in and out of his lungs. There are three of them, he reminded himself. He couldn’t afford to blunder. Stepping around the tree to conceal himself, he silently counted to thirty before beginning his pursuit.

  Surprise was everything. He doubted the first slayer had time to register what was happening as he appeared as a shadow behind the largest of the three, placing his hands as softly as a lover would on either side of the man’s neck, fracturing it without so much as a moan from the man as he toppled face-first to the ground. His comrades took three or four steps before they even noticed what had occurred. When they did, a short, tapered stake materialized in the hand of the first man as he whipped around, thrusting the point in the direction of his assailant’s chest. The cloaked figure was faster; he had already anticipated the man’s move – slayers were so predictable – and stepped aside, leaving the weapon to strike thin air. The slayer stumbled and when the cloaked figure tore the stake from his hands, he toppled, landing at the feet of the dead slayer.

  The third man was not so foolish. He backed away, holding his stake close to his chest and allowing his eyes to jerk between his two fallen comrades and the vampire in front of him. In their flecked hazel, he could
see the reflection of the one slayer struggling to his feet, juxtaposed with the inner struggle of the third man as he battled between fight or flight.

  The cloaked figure did not have the time or patience to wait for him to make a decision. With a languid effort, he pitched the stake in the direction of the man’s chest, turning away to deal with the first slayer. He knew his aim was true when the scent of blood rose from the corpse, hanging like a heavy musk in the air between the trees.

  He stopped just short of the slayer, watching as he hoisted himself up, his nose dribbling blood. It was a pitiful sight. But as soon as the man had straightened, he was thrust against the tree as the cloaked figure’s hand clamped down on his throat.

  ‘What do you mean, they don’t need to make a mistake?’ he hissed in the trembling man’s ear. The slayer didn’t answer, instead throwing a ball of spit to the ground. The cloaked figure cringed. Filthy habit. He was disgusted, even, to bite such a filthy, grime-coated man and he toyed with the idea of using one of their stakes, but he dismissed it – he needed answers. So he sank his fangs into the neck, driving them in deep until his mouth was clamped around his throat. When he had quenched his mounting thirst, he withdrew, plugging each bite wound with a finger to prevent them from healing. Twisting them like a corkscrew, he worked his way through veins and sinew, earning cries of pain from the slayer.

  ‘You’re going to die, but there’s still time to make you suffer,’ the cloaked figure growled, plunging his fingers even deeper.

  ‘Who are you? Who do you serve? You don’t stink enough to be a rogue,’ the man groaned with surprising defiance considering his legs were beginning to buckle from under him.

  ‘I serve no one. Now why don’t they need to make a mistake?’ The cloaked figure raised his knee, pressing it into the other man’s crotch, watching as his eyes bulged. When no answer came, he jerked his knee up. It had the desired effect.

  ‘R-rumours,’ the slayer choked, trying to press his hands to his crotch as tears rolled down his cheeks.

  His heart leapt into his mouth. Rumours about Violet Lee’s attack? Could the slayers know? ‘Rumours about what?’ The cloaked figure only gave him a second to answer, before kneeing him in the crotch again.