A Vampire's Life Book 3

Chapter Fifteen - Lucas

There was a whirlwind of activity as the maids scurried around the castle, doing something that my grandmother had requested. The rain had ceased and the sun had broken through the clouds, slowly making its descent behind the mountain. The grounds around the castle were beginning to dry, it was only a little shower but it was enough to soak the ground quiet well. Whilst the maids were doing god only knows what, my grandmother suggested the three of us take a walk around the rose garden, well the stem garden now. I could tell my grandmother was itching to find out what happened to my mother's prized rose garden, wondering why the entire plot of land looked like someone had taken to it with a chainsaw. She stayed with us, which I am pretty sure it was because Scarlett was still very uneasy around me. My grandmother asked Scarlett dozens of questions about her life, what life was like today for a young woman. She was curious of her music, having never heard of it before.

"Lucas has my entire collection." Scarlett says with a slight amusement.

My grandmother looked at me strangely. I knew Scarlett's music wasn't what I would normally listen to and she knew it too. In fact, everything about Scarlett wasn't normal for me. Research I whispered in her mind. She nodded in acknowledgement and then stated that she would like to listen to it.

"You can watch it on the big screen if you like, he has videos too."

"Big screen? Videos?" my grandmother says confused.

"Yeah. C'mon." Scarlett said with more happiness in her face than I had ever seen.

Zach fiddled with the buttons on the television, then the DVD player.

"Finally." he mutters under his breath. "Grandma, I give you, the one and only Scarlett Marconi."

The tone of his voice was like he was more proud of her work then she was, I knew he thought the world of her and me upsetting her like that pissed him off. My name was mud. We sat there for about an hour watching videos of Scarlett's music, the look on my grandmother's face was priceless. It was nothing like the music that she had listened to in her life. There was a quiet knock at the door and Angelique clearing her throat.

"The room has been prepared."

"Thank you Angelique." my grandmother nodded to her.

Angelique quickly curtsied when she knew that Scarlett wasn't looking and scurried from the room.

"Well that was very interesting Scarlett, you have a wonderful voice."

"That's very diplomatic of you Lou, considering that you were pulling a multitude of faces."

I could hear Zach sniggering and then stopping suddenly as he looked behind us.

"Scarlett." she turns to Gabriella standing in the doorway. "Come with me."

I had wondered what my grandmother's intentions for the evening were, the maids were bustling around the place, Scarlett had disappeared somewhere into the castle with Gabriella and I was ordered into a suit and to be waiting outside the formal dining room. Scarlett walked down the stairs, looking more beautiful than I had ever seen. The soft black dress floated around her as she walked. She saw me waiting by the door and stopped on the stairs. It seemed like she hesitated for a moment but she continued on to me. Charles appeared out of nowhere like he usually does and opened the doors for us, my grandmother waiting on the other side.

"Dinner for two." she hummed with amusement as she closed the doors behind her.

Charles held the chair out for Scarlett and then scurried out of the room, soon returning with dinner. Her gaze was down to her meal; she was quiet for the entire ten minutes it took for her to eat it. She was well behaved, not up to her usual antics of trying to annoy me. That in itself was far more frustrating. I would rather she flicked one of the peas at me, at least then I would know that she was ok with me. But she's not. She's quiet, she has eaten every single thing on her plate including the broccoli which I know she thoroughly detests. I struggled not to enter her mind, but I wanted to know what she was thinking. I was only at the very edge of her mind and found it blocked. She looked at me almost like she knew what I was doing and then I knew it was true when two words rattled through the outer edge. Get out. She upended the wine in one gulp and looked at me, as Charles entered the room to collect the plates she rose from the table.

"Charles, thank the chef, the meal was lovely."

"Of course Miss Marconi."

She flittered out of the room, leaving me a little gobsmacked and Charles unsure of what to do. The plates clinked together as my grandmother and my father entered the room.

"Well?"

Charles quickly fled the room, I wished I could too.

"She ate her dinner, said nothing except to Charles."

"Which was?" my father grunted.

"To thank the chef for a lovely meal."

My grandmother slumps into the chair with a huff. My father rubbed his forehead. Scarlett being polite, quiet and extremely well behaved. It was a new Scarlett that we were dealing with and none of us knew what to do.

"What went wrong?"

"He tried to enter her mind." Zach stands at the doorway, his eyes still teetering in between black and their usual colour.

"Lucas, really?" my father wipes his face with desperation.

"She was quiet, she said nothing to me. I had to know."

"Why didn't you ask her what she was thinking?"

I shrugged, not really knowing why I didn't just ask her. It made more sense now that I thought about it, but at the time it seemed the only option.

After everyone had retired for the evening, I stood by the wall that connected her room to mine. I could hear her, it sounded like she was writing music. The pen scratched across the paper as she spoke the words, reading out what she had written. Occasionally I would hear her sniff, knowing she wasn't sick, I knew there was only one other cause, she was crying and yet again I was the reason. I could see easily now that my actions were stupid, I should have spoken to her, something, anything. But instead I tried to enter her mind, thinking that helping myself to her thoughts would be the ideal thing to do. I pressed my head to the wall, wishing for an easy path to everything in my life. Wishing that Oliver and Annabella walked in the door right now, wishing I didn't have the grand council breathing down my neck about Scarlett and her becoming a vampire, wishing I could find a path to her, to her love. Instead of screwing it up. I am a screw up. I've failed Oliver and Annabella, I've failed Scarlett.