A Vampire's Life Book 3

Chapter Twenty-three - Scarlett

The formal reception room is full of people, vampires that make polite conversation with each other, drinking their pre-dinner drinks which I suspect isn't red wine. Lucas is beside me the whole time, his hand on the small of my back as he chats with people. I quietly hide behind my glass, occasionally letting it drop for a smile to be shown or to reply to someone that may have spoken to me. They all find it interesting that a human resides at the castle. Resides my mind huffs at the notion. Occasionally there is one that will ask me a question directly, which of course polite Scarlett answers, remembering to behave herself. Trying to sending the others away was difficult, they wanted to be my own personal torture team but I prevailed. Snippety and sarcastic Scarlett have been locked in the dungeon of my mind which was great because conservative Scarlett was getting a little bored down there by herself. Hopeful Scarlett was lost; defiant Scarlett was fading fast and I was beginning to suspect stubborn Scarlett was about to leave to look for hopeful Scarlett. Lucas looked at me with a raised eyebrow to which I frowned, squinting my eyes. Get out of my mind Lucas. He smirked and continued his conversation with Lord too-long-of-a-surname-to-remember from some unheard of bizarre sounding place. Hard to pronounce too captain obvious Scarlett said. Ad-wen-ist-mar-trich she tried to remember what he said, sounding it slowly. I had been really good at geography at school but I do not remember any country that sounded like that. Maybe it's a little country in Europe? she tried. After all, aren't vamps from Transylvania? Isn't that in Europe? Adwen Istmartrich is a vampiric kingdom in Wales. Lucas whispered to me in my mind. And yes, Transylvania or Romania as you may know it, is in Europe. Oh.

I look around at the men and women in this room, all the upper crust of the vampiric world, the men in tuxedos, the women in beautiful dresses and glittering jewellery. The room hums with the inane chatter of these people who talk of what someone did and the audacity of someone else. And did you hear that this person caught her husband in bed with that person? Vampiric gossip at its best my mind sniggered. Zach appears beside me, looking so much older than he usually does, he looks quite handsome. I can see his eyes making their way to places they shouldn't, when they look up at me I raise an eyebrow at him. He smirks and shrugs at me, almost saying that I should take it as a compliment.

Soon after, Henry calls for everyone to join him in the dining room. The dining room had been transformed, gone was the table that we usually ate at, replaced by a long thin table that spanned the entire length of the room. The glasses sat perfectly on the table, glistening in the light of the chandeliers. Lucas gently pulled on my elbow, guiding me to our seats. He smiled at me softly, obviously happy that I was behaving myself, for once. The place cards matched the menus, thick white card with the names embossed onto them. The plates white with a thick gold trim around the edges, the cutlery looked like it had been polished to perfection.

As the guests moved in, it seemed like they were in their hundred in numbers. Surely not. Just as Gabriella said, Lucas pulled the chair out for me, his father sat and put the napkin on his lap. I quickly put it on my lap as Lucas sat beside me. I noticed that on the opposite side was Gabriella and Lester, the not gay friend of Lucas. I watched a little gob smacked as he leaned into Gabriella's ear and whispered something to her. She must have liked what he said because the grin on her face was something that I had never seen on her, completely happy. Oh hello. When he sits upright he sees me watching them and winks at me with a cheeky grin. I swear I must go several shades of red, my cheeks feel like they are on fire. Caught watching an intimate moment, you pervert. Zach plonks himself beside me with a huff, flicking out the napkin. When I look around the table, I see the guests are mostly in couples, then there is Zach beside me, by himself. It dawns on me, Candy could have come to this, if I had turned like they wanted, she would be here, beside him.