Ten, p.42
Ten, page 42
Paige looked over her shoulder at the few vampires still milling around Merlin and the altar. Lorcan gave her a slight nod as he caught her gaze.
“So, um, Steve, what kind of ceremony did Lord and Lady Pendragon have?” Paige dared to ask.
“Well, there are many theories, but since it happened in India and the only living witness is none other than Merlin, no one really knows for sure. There is one thing I know though,” Steve said.
Both Paige and Georgia leaned in to partake of his wisdom.
Steve made certain that they were a safe distance away and that there were no nosy eavesdroppers. Finally, he muttered, “There is no way in hell that those two promised to love each other or they’d both be dead as oath-breakers now.”
30
“YOU KNOW, when I heard that it was an under the sea dance, I was half expecting Mina to actually flood the place,” Georgia said.
She smiled at the plastic corals and shells strewn around the ballroom, while hidden projectors painted the walls with blue watery effects. The stage overflowed with mist, while phantom figures moved an enormous white and red cake to the center of the platform.
“It was Dame Corazon’s request,” Steve said as he took her hand. “She says it’s because of all the beautiful coastlines in Honduras, but I really think she’s just a Back to the Future fan.”
“Ah, the good old enchantment under the sea dance. Will there be a vampire from the future here to make sure we kiss?” Georgia asked with a little wink.
Steve clutched his chest and staggered for effect. “If I had only known you were a fan—” he muttered as Georgia ran off to explore more of the aquatic paradise.
She giggled as the mist poured over the edge of the stage and swirled around her pumps. She twirled her shimmery white skirt until she could make a tiny tornado on the dance floor; the inflatable sharks around the columns made them both burst out laughing.
Steve grabbed one of the smaller ones and tried his best to reenact a cheesy science fiction fest, while other vampires simply sighed and shook their heads.
“Children,” Georgia heard. She shrugged and kept twirling until she finally got too dizzy to stay upright. Steve quickly scooped her up and kept her from toppling.
“Why are you so bubbly?” he asked.
“You mean other than the three glasses of champagne while we waited for the hall to open?” Georgia asked right back. Her face fell a little. “I need to stay silly, OK? If I stop for even a second, I’ll remember just who I originally wanted to show this dress off to—”
“Well, it is a cute little dress,” Steve said as he sized her up.
“You have no idea what Nicolette did, do you?” Georgia asked.
She slipped her hand along her shoulder and pressed the switch sewn under her arm. “Her show is called It’s Electric, after all.”
Steve’s jaw dropped as hundreds of tiny lights burst to life in Georgia’s Disney princess skirt. She twirled one more time to give the full jellyfish effect. In the dim blue lighting of the ballroom, she shone brighter than all the girls at the dance. Her vampire escort bowed to her.
“You ready for one dance then? I don’t know if I can get our song, but I can sure as hell try,” Steve said.
“Somehow I don’t think hair metal quite fits in with the theme, but I really don’t want to stand around, so do your worst,” she sighed.
“Who are you, and what have you done with the real Georgia?”
Steve asked. He led her to a corner of the dance floor where they could shimmy and sashay to the music. She kept her composure for a few songs until the tempo slowed down and she had to lean her head on Steve’s shoulder. She kept her face turned so she could focus on a googly-eyed starfish. She saw an aquamarine sequined skirt out of the corner of her eye.
“Don’t stare, but my sister took the theme rather literally,” Steve whispered in her ear.
“Seashell bra?” Georgia whispered.
“Oh, yes.”
Georgia peeked over her date’s shoulder. Sure enough, the sequined fishtail skirt belonged to a Teutonic mermaid with her long blonde locks slicked back in a permanent wet look.
“You know, I guessed Mina would do that,” she muttered.
She nodded as Mr. Lambley swept by. In his fancy new suit and white tie, he cut a surprisingly dashing figure. He smiled and gave an over enthusiastic grin to Steve as they drifted near one another.
“Are you some sort of jellyfish?” Minerva asked with a raised brow.
“Yup, squishy and dangerous,” Georgia said.
Much to Georgia’s surprise, Minerva gave her a sly grin in return.
The vampire flipped her hair and tipped Mr. Lambley’s chin over, so he had to stare right between the scallops. “Remember who you came in with, schatzi,” Minnie cooed. She then turned to Steve.
“Take care of zee Berliner, mien bruder. She’s attracting all zee attention.”
Once Georgia and Steve were safely out of earshot, Georgia dared to whisper, “Is it just me, or was Minerva being. . . nice?”
“Definitely strange. What is that word you use, um, hinky?” he asked.
“Yeah, something is definitely hinky,” Georgia said. “Speaking of that, the weird guy is looking at me again.”
Steve looked over her shoulder. He spun her around, so she could get a good, hard look at a large young man wearing a plain black suit and a bright purple ribbon. Once she had turned back around, she gave a pointed look at her dance partner.
“I don’t think he’s into you,” Steve said. “In fact, I’m really sure he’s with someone else—”
“Yeah, he’s with Lord Pendragon’s date. I know that, but he keeps staring at me, and then when I look over, he acts all coy and stuff. I mean, there is just something really off—”
She trailed off as they had sashayed closer to the stage and the cake. Georgia gawked as a guest approached the confection and a moment later, the icing stretched and extended into a hand. The vampire sunk her teeth into the wrist. A moment later, a leg extended from the bottom layer, so another guest could feed.
“Oh, that is not buttercream and genoise, is it?” she asked.
The cake writhed and twisted as each painted section could offer a little taste to the crowd. Every once in a while, an eye would open to offer a pop of color, rather like grotesque sprinkles.
“Well, it’s probably closer to red velvet,” Steve muttered. He slid his arm around her waist and led her back to the corner with the friendly inflatable sea life.
“Do I want to know what they are painted with?” she finally asked.
Steve shook his head. She swayed against him for another song until she finally pushed his chest and pointed at the rows of chairs tucked behind the columns.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve hit my limit,” she said.
Steve led her to a chair far away from both the speakers and the few entertainers who seemed more content gabbing with themselves rather than working the crowd. Georgia flipped the switch on her dress again, and did her best to fade into the mist, and the water projected on the walls. Her date slumped next to her, tapping his toes as he watched the other couples dance.
“You don’t have to sit and stew with me, you know,” she sighed.
“What kind of date would I be if I left you to be gawked at by that guy?” Steve said as he pointed to the still obvious Awkward Morgan hovering in the corner. “Plus, if I leave a girl as pretty as you just lying around, Sweetheart, I’m sure you’d be swept off your feet in seconds.”
“Only you, Steve, could manage to be quite so adorable and terrible in a single sentence,” Georgia sighed.
“I try,” he said. “Look, I know—”
“I really can’t have any sort of serious conversation with you right now,” Georgia said. “Not in a room full of undead mermaids and breathing cake.”
“We could go up to the gardens and pretend to be fictitious Industrial Age nobility,” he offered. “Come on, I just want to tell you something. . . something important.”
“Steve,” she said. He gave her his most desperate, pleading puppy eyes. Finally, she pushed right back to her feet and extended her hand. “Just for a little while, and this had better not be some sort of cheap pick-up tactic.”
“Please, but to be fair, since I’m now broke, I only have cheap pick-up tactics at my disposal.”
“Do you ever have a bad feeling about something?” Paige asked as she eyed her great-grandfather slipping out the ballroom doors with Georgia in tow. “Lorcan? Lorcan are you even listening to me?”
She turned to see her date grabbing a mug from one of the more attractive young entertainers. The moment she smelled the fresh, warm blood in the cup, Paige gagged. Lorcan gave her a confused look.
“I haven’t eaten all night,” he said flatly. “Paige, what is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” she asked huffily. “I’m not the one drinking blood!”
“I’m a vampire, Paige,” Lorcan snapped.
Paige sniffed the air and bristled at the mix of blood, sweat, and mint. She wandered over to one of the diffusers but found nothing more suspicious than a bottle of aromatherapy essential oil. Her tail twitched under her skirt as she felt eyes boring into the back of her skull.
“What do you want?” she barked. She whirled around to see Morgan rather than Lorcan staring at her in disbelief.
“Are you OK?” he asked as this time he had to hide Paige’s claws from potential prying eyes.
“No, not OK,” Paige growled. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m some fragile little child,” Paige snapped. “Come on, there is fog everywhere, and we can’t smell a thing. Doesn’t this seem like a trap to you? You’re the paranoid one, Morgan. Start acting like it when it’s actually appropriate!”
Morgan took a few cautious sniffs. He picked up the tiny bottle by one of the vents and let out a low whistle. “That’s some serious, hard-core aromatherapy right there,” he said.
Paige raised a brow. Morgan’s normal crazy, twitching eyes seemed to have disappeared as he studied his would-be girlfriend
with concern. He took a deep breath and gave Paige a little squeeze on the shoulders.
“If I stop for even a second and think about where I am or who is around me, I will absolutely lose it, Paige; but I’m in a pretty good headspace right now. I’ve had about half a bottle of Scotch and two full English breakfasts too, so I can handle this. Have you eaten?”
“Are you really asking me if I’m hangry?” Paige snapped.
“I’m just saying—”
“Your sister just snuck out of here with my great-grandfather,”
Paige added. “Doesn’t that worry you in the slightest?”
“So, she’s getting away from the army of unknown bloodsuckers with one of the few of their kind that you vouch for, Paige. How is this a bad thing?” Morgan asked.
“You are way, way too reasonable and calm, Morgan,” Paige said. She stared deeply into his eyes and sniffed his breath. “How many shots did you take?”
“Do you want me to act like a lunatic and get found out by a literal army of vampires?” he asked. “Paige, you are the one acting crazy, not me. You look like you are about to kill someone. Just calm down
—”
“Something is wrong. I can feel it,” Paige hissed. “You just can’t see how weird you are acting. I mean, look over there.”
She pointed to a redheaded vampire dancing with a blonde mermaid. In the mist and the dim lights, their eyes flashed a menacing crimson. Morgan turned Paige away and dragged her into an alcove.
“Are you insane?” Morgan growled in her ear. “Why are you baiting me?”
“I’m not trying to bait you; I’m just trying to figure out how you are so damned calm!”
“Seriously, is there no way to please you?” he said.
“How did you escape from Long Beach?” she asked.
“What are you going on about now? I used an upstairs window, I told you this—”
Paige shook her head and started tapping her claw tips against the wall. Morgan finally began pacing and nodding with his familiar
twitches.
“You also told me that there were invisible vampires, Morgan,”
she growled. “If there were so many badasses in the room, how did you sneak past them? How did you get here so easily?”
“Vampires aren’t as infallible as they think. What, have you spent so much time around them that you trust them more than your own kind?” he snapped. “Seriously, I have made it my life to—”
She stormed away, still shaking her head. She stopped cold as she saw a few wayward eyes looking at her. She flinched as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“What you’re really saying is that you don’t think I could outsmart a bunch of bloodsuckers,” Morgan hissed in her ear. “What, are they controlling me too? Is this some sort of sick game they are playing?
Seriously, what the hell do you think they would accomplish by letting a crazy, vengeance-seeking vampire killer into their home? Does that seem like a sane plan?”
“No, it seems completely bat-shit crazy,” she acquiesced. “But aren’t vampires crazy too?”
“Do you want to say that a little louder so the whole ballroom can hear?” Morgan snapped.
“You know what, I’m sick of prancing around like some pretty princess for these people,” Paige growled. “I’m out of here.”
She made a beeline for the door and breathed a sigh of relief as no one dared follow her. She tried not to gawk at any of the guests enjoying a light meal in the halls. She did, however, take careful note of how blandly peaceful all the entertainment looked even if they were having their necks bitten. Rather than head back to the guest rooms, she slipped behind a spent entertainer and wandered off into the servant’s stairwell.
She skidded to a halt as she saw a giant of a man with a shaved head and deep coffee-colored skin standing guard in front of one of the doors. One whiff of the blood and miasma wafting off this gentleman made Paige shiver from head to toe.
He tilted his head and stared at Paige. Ritual scarification ringed his dark, piercing eyes. Paige couldn’t fight back her gulp as the
stranger pulled back his coat to reveal a stun gun and a baton on his hip.
“I don’t think you belong here, little one,” he said with a distinct Caribbean accent.
Paige froze. The stranger took a step forward. Before it could escalate further, the door behind him opened, and another powerful miasma assaulted Paige’s nose.
“Mr. Sugar, what is the matter?” a weak voice asked.
The giant took another step towards the cowering Paige. She gave a little laugh and tried her best to look innocent.
“I’m sorry, I got lost,” she said weakly.
Mr. Sugar pointed over her head. “The ball is that way, little one. I suggest you go back where you belong,” he said in a perfectly pleasant even tone, but his tense shoulders and hands made Paige bolt. It was only as she shot one tiny glance back that her blood ran cold.
For the briefest of moments, she caught sight of familiar amber eyes and long dark hair. The weakened, shaky voice belonged to none other than Lady Pendragon.
“It really does look like something out of the movies,” Georgia sighed as they walked along the garden paths.
“Technically it’s a television miniseries, but who’s being pedantic?” Steve asked. “I do have to wonder how many gardeners they have just trimming hedges from dawn until dusk.”
They wandered into a particularly formal section with brick paths and the shrubbery trimmed into various animal topiaries. Georgia pointed to a cluster of friendly boxwood bunnies.
“Aww, they look just like the little statues in our front garden,”
Georgia exclaimed. “Mr. Lambley would love these.”
“Yeah, those do look like Gingersnaps’ style. So, um, Georgia—”
“Wow, this must be serious,” she laughed. “When do you ever slip up and call me by my name?”
Steve chucked a little and scratched his head sheepishly. After a few more minutes of awkward shuffling and strolling, Georgia finally stopped and planted her hands on her hips. Somehow, the motion managed to activate the switch under her arm and her skirt erupted into twinkling lights.
“Wow, that is something,” Steve said appreciatively. He made a slight move for her hand, but Georgia slipped away.
“Please don’t tell me that this is just you hitting on me again,” she said. “I don’t want to lead you on—”
“No, no it’s nothing like that,” he said quickly. “I mean, I won’t lie, I’d love for it to be like that, but even I’m not that much of an asshole.”
“You’re not?” she asked, staring right through him.
“All right, I am that much of an asshole, but Ren was, um—”
“Ren is dead,” Georgia said as she started picking at one of the bunny ears. “He’s dead, and he’s never coming back, and I figured that you were going to tell me some earnest bullshit about how we have to move on, and that you’ll totally be my friend no matter what.
Then, of course, you’ll always be there for me, and when the time is right, you’ll take me out, I’ll have a few too many, and then, what, you’ll just happen to be there to fulfill my grieving needs?”
“Georgia, that’s not fair—”
“Is it untrue?”
“Of course, it’s true!” Steve snapped. “But I think you’re overestimating the fact that I’ll need to get you drunk. Fine, you want the brutal, honest truth, you can have it.”
“Oh, this I have to hear,” she said. “Go on.”
Steve paced around a trellis as she tried to summon the words.
Eventually, he made a terrible coughing sound and ended up stubbing his toe on the edge of the path. Finally, all the grunting and wheezing coalesced into something like, “let’s face it, we’re going to end up together.”
“What was that?” she said cupping her hand around her ear.
“Let’s face it, Sweetheart, we’re not going to do much better than each other,” he sighed. “I’m a laughingstock, and you’re damaged goods. We’re both a mess because we lost Ren—”
