The Dark Heroine: Dinner with a Vampire

THIRTEEN

Violet

Hours merged into days, every day as insignificant as the next, time passing in a blur, nothing standing out.

I spent almost all of my time cooped up in my room, amusing myself as best I could. It had been a week exactly since that short phone call, and it still troubled my thoughts. I had hoped that I would be able to call my family again, but had given up on that. Nobody talked to me, apart from the occasional, brief exchange.

I sighed, and looked back down at my drawing. I wasn’t much of an artist; I had only just scraped along in Art at school. But the ovals I had sketched resembled a pair of narrow eyes and I knew if I had colouring pencils that they would be emerald green. Beside them was the outline of another pair, rounder yet sunken. Blue. A smaller pair, scribbled in the corner, awake and alive. Violet.

My fingers closed around the sheet and scrunched it into a ball.

It would be my birthday in thirteen days. I would turn eighteen a hostage. My fingers tightened into a ball as I felt a familiar lurch in my stomach and my throat closed up.

A brisk knock at the door interrupted my thoughts and I quickly wiped my eyes, just in case they looked teary. Without waiting for a reply, the person entered as I was standing up. To my surprise, it was not Fabian, who seemed to be the only one interested in me, but Sky.

He cleared his throat, filling the room with a definite awkwardness. I shifted from one foot to the other. ‘You’re wanted downstairs. Now.’

‘Why?’

As he left, his gaze glided up and down my body, taking in my attire – a scruffy pair of Lyla’s old pyjamas. ‘You have two minutes.’

His deliberate avoiding of the question unnerved me, but I was already in the wardrobe when I heard the bedroom door close. I grabbed something a little less inappropriate and changed.

I left the room, wondering what the great urgency was. I had never been requested to be ‘seen’ in the fifteen days I had been here and Sky had never spoken directly to me.

The eldest Varn child was much older than the other five: a thousand, Fabian said, but he was not the heir to the throne. No, Kaspar was heir. Sky was married to Arabella, a few years his junior and they had two daughters. They lived in Romania mostly, as did Jag and Mary; I suspected it was my arrival that had prompted their visit.

The entrance hall was a frenzy of activity when I reached the top of the staircase. It seemed as though most of the household had gathered, all wearing long black cloaks, even tiny Thyme. Servants rushed about, passing various objects around, before hastily bowing and darting off to their next task. I spotted Annie, who gave me the smallest of smiles.

‘It’s like trying to get an army on the move,’ Fabian said, coming up to greet me, grimacing at the bickering of the Varn siblings below. Unlike the others, he wore normal clothes.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked, leaning over the banister.

He grimaced again. ‘It’s a hunt.’ My lips pursed and I swallowed back a gag, realizing why Sky had avoided my question a moment ago.

‘A hunt for what?’ He shot me a look that said, ‘As if you don’t know.’ I closed my eyes. ‘But what do I have to do with that?’

‘They’re going for the weekend, so I’m staying to keep an eye on you.’

Below, Kaspar and Cain snapped at each other, unbothered by what they were about to do. ‘I don’t need babysitting. What the hell would I do? It’s not as though I could go anywhere.’

He shrugged, heading down the stairs. ‘You tell me. But it could be worse. Kaspar could be staying.’ He gave me a knowing look.

That is true. I would be an idiot to trust Fabian, but he was a lesser of two evils when compared to Kaspar.

The King strode forward and, as he did so, the butler rushed forward, swinging both of the enormous doors open. He disappeared down them and one by one, the others filtered after him. Kaspar, however, hung back, waiting for Fabian at the base of the stairs. We both descended.

‘Don’t let her out of your sight.’ He jerked his thumb towards me and I dropped my gaze to the floor.

‘I am perfectly capable of looking after a human, Kaspar,’ Fabian replied testily.

‘Perhaps.’ He went to leave but I dived forward and grabbed his wrist in a sudden burst of energy as my heart leapt. The floor squealed beneath his boots as he swung back around; his cloak slung away from the loose linen shirt he wore underneath, revealing a coat of arms emblazoned on the breast: a black rose, dripping a drop of blood into a large ‘V’ below.

‘Please, don’t kill anyone,’ I whispered.

I thought I saw his eyes soften for a moment. But he tore his wrist from my grip like I was no more than a child, which I realized I must be to him. A child. He walked down the steps after the others, who were already halfway across the grounds, stopping once he reached the lawns, turning back towards me as I stood watching from the open doorway, inhaling the first fresh air in weeks.

His eyes rose from the floor to meet mine. He held that gaze for a moment, before he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head, casting all into shadow, save for his glistening emerald eyes. His dark figure lingered for a little longer, until he swept around into the sunset that had bathed the world in pale gold. As he reached the other cloaked figures, they all sped up, becoming a dark blur on the landscape, running into the falling sun and on the hunt as they had been the first time I had set eyes upon their kind.

The moon soon replaced the sun and stars dotted the clear night sky, untainted by the orange glow of the built-up areas. Somewhere, a clock chimed, telling me it was getting on towards midnight.

‘There’s far more to this world than humans think, isn’t there?’ I asked, turning to face Fabian from my window seat.

His face was framed by the dancing fire, which roared in the hearth. It was eerie, watching the orange flames light up his pale skin, lapping at it as though it longed to burn his unnatural presence away.

‘Far more. This is just one royal family of many,’ he continued. ‘But you don’t want to know more. Ignorance is a blessing. Treasure it.’

I nodded. He’s right.

Unfolding my legs, I slipped off the seat and moved myself to one of the armchairs. He looked up in anticipation, by now used to my quizzing.

‘What happened to the Queen?’

I instantly regretted asking, because whatever it was, it had stirred some deep, forgotten emotion in him. He sank back into the chair and his blue eyes flashed to black, and then to grey, where they remained. They were pitiful, lost of all the life they usually contained. If colour could drain from his face, it would.

‘I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,’ I stammered. His eyes glazed over and he didn’t move. ‘Fabian?’

His head snapped up and the greyness in his eyes seemed to melt away, returning to their usual sky blue. His stiff body loosened and he ran a hand down the back of his head.

‘I’m sorry, but when you know someone that long … you …’ he trailed off. ‘I will tell you on the condition that you never speak a word of it to anyone but me.’

I didn’t hesitate. ‘I won’t say a thing.’

‘I will start from the very beginning. It’s a long story.’

I shifted a little, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible, never taking my eyes off his saddened face.

‘Vampires have been around for millions of years, roaming the Earth millennia before humans. Nobody knows how we came about. There are no theories. But we were a peaceful species, and for many centuries, we lived alongside nature without any conflict. We drank the blood of any animal we could lay our hands on, and in turn we were respected as the ultimate predator. We were primitive – but still far more advanced than any other animal at the time.’

He paused for a moment, thinking.

‘If the theory of evolution is indeed correct, then about two million years ago, the first ape-type creatures appeared and, for the first time, the vampires met an animal similar to themselves. But vampires treated them like they did any other: they continued to hunt them. But it all changed when you lot arrived.’

He stopped, looking me in the eye. You lot. Us.

‘These creatures were clever, resourceful and, most importantly, were able to adapt. For the first time ever, vampires had met their match. But they continued to feed from them as they had done with every other animal and quickly developed a taste for their blood. Within a couple of centuries, the only acceptable blood was human; the only blood that would quench their thirst. Most vampires still hunted animals, but it wasn’t the same. But what our ancestors didn’t realize is that they were creating a situation that would cause problems forever more.’

He stopped once more, allowing that to sink in.

‘How can you know this if it was so long ago?’ I asked.

‘Like I said, the oldest vampire is, well, old. He remembers a lot of our history and what he doesn’t know was passed down through his family,’ he answered, before carrying on. ‘As I was saying, the early humans eventually learnt to fight back, and the vampires realized their mistake. The most powerful vampire clan at the time ordered all vampires to go into hiding. They were told to try not to kill a human when they fed, and to hunt at night wherever possible. It was a drastic last minute attempt to prevent the destruction of both species. This powerful family continued to govern the vampires and they eventually became the first royal family. That family was the Varns.’

I nodded. ‘But I don’t get what this has to do with the Queen?’

‘It will all make sense in a moment. Humanity was growing, and fast. Forced by the humans’ relentless fighting, the Varns and a few hundred others fled to Romania – what is modern day Transylvania. The vampires – only a few hundred in number by this point, followed them. They hid in the mountains, ruling from there. They took advantage of the unsuspecting people of Eastern Europe, unaware of the threat living in their lands. Around the same time, it was discovered that humans could be turned and the Varns’ ancestors ordered a mass turning. Thousands became vampires in just one night. Stronger, more confident, they branched out.’

He paused for a breathy sigh, which I realized he hadn’t been taking.

‘But the old rules still stood and no vampire would dare hunt during the day; most rarely went out into the daylight. Unseen, the vampires were gradually forgotten, and stories told by fathers to sons turned into myths and legends. Vampires graced by the old, original ways, remained the top predator on Earth. No other creature lived as long, or possessed the same qualities, not even the...’ He stopped, seeing my panicked eyes, which were screaming for him not to tell me about what else was out there. He seemed flustered himself.

‘But there were always those who never forgot. Those who refused to stop believing. These are the humans who became the hunters and the slayers, and they vowed to protect humanity; to take revenge on vampires for their ruthless hunting, hundreds of thousands of years before. Indeed, they managed to drive most of the vampires from Transylvania about three hundred years ago. Most settled here, in England. A lot went to the Americas too, in search of the wealth it promised. Not that most of the vampires needed it,’ he muttered.

‘King Vladimir, the current king, has ruled for millennia now. But when he was just a Prince, he met a young vampire who lived in what is now Spain. She was called Carmen Eztli. Over time, they fell in love and with the blessing of both families, they married a century later. The match was perfect and together they ruled for almost ten thousand years and had six children.’

He rested his chin in his hands. ‘She was the perfect antidote to the King’s pessimism and temper and, in turn, he tamed her sharp tongue. You don’t find love like that every day.’

I couldn’t help but notice that he kept using ‘was’, but it seemed as though he was about to explain that.

‘Just over three years ago, a new human government came to power. Outwardly, they seemed more sympathetic to our cause, so the Queen, seeing an opportunity, quickly sought the passing of a new treaty to update what had already been signed. The government agreed on the condition that their slayer allies, the Pierre clan, would also sign it.’

He didn’t seem to notice me slipping onto the coffee table as I tried to catch his hushed words, which were becoming quieter and quieter.

‘The Queen went on a state visit to Romania to open up discussions. She went to the Pierre’s ancestral home in Romania, and before she could even … they had leapt on her …’ He was choking up, sobs escaping his lips but no tears falling. ‘They leapt on her, and pushed a stake through her heart!’

My hands flew to my mouth and I took in a sharp breath. ‘She was murdered?’ I didn’t know what I had expected, but it wasn’t that. I felt something wet drop into my lap and, astonished, found tears falling from my own eyes. I glided to his side and hovered beside the arm of the chair, hardly knowing what I was doing.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I whispered. ‘I shouldn’t have brought it up.’ He wrapped his arms around my waist and rested his head against my stomach. I tensed at the sudden contact but he didn’t seem to notice how uncomfortable he was making me.

‘It’s okay,’ he murmured back, ‘You couldn’t have known. It was two-and-a-half years ago now but for us that feels like yesterday. It ruined us. She was so loved. Thousands went to her funeral.’ His sentences were disjointed and clipped, his pain at recounting what had happened clear. ‘It was the worst day of my life. So many people cried and, Violet, vampires don’t give up their tears easily. But they did. It was awful. I’m used to people dying, but this … this was different. It was like I had lost a part of me, like half my heart had died.’

I nodded, knowing the exact feeling.

‘Afterwards, everything changed. Nobody was ever the same. The King moved out of the main bedroom and Kaspar had it instead. The King never smiles any more and locks himself up in his study most of the time. He hates royal events, and he will avoid them as much as he can. He died along with his wife.’

His eyes filled with more remorse; more pain; more regret.

‘There were mass killings at that time. Did you ever notice that?’

My eyes went wide. The newspaper article had compared Trafalgar Square to the Kent Bloodsuckers incident, which had happened around that time.

‘And Kaspar?’ I prompted.

‘He took it hard. Harder than the rest of us. He was so close to his mother. But it wasn’t just that. Only fourth and seventh children can inherit the throne, and her death means there will never be a seventh child and he is indefinitely heir.’

His eyes flashed a black-grey once more and his hold around me became unbearably tight. I let out a little whine as my ribcage felt like it was being crushed. He loosened his grip, but his fists remained clenched.

‘His grief changed him. He isn’t the Kaspar I used to consider as good as a brother any more.’ He laughed hollowly. ‘Sure he was a womanizer even then, but that was nothing compared to now. Now he uses and abuses his power, bedding everything that walks, and he thinks nothing of taking a life …’ he trailed off, too traumatized to carry on.

Yes, I knew that Kaspar. But somehow, through my loathing, through everything he had done to me, I felt pity. I knew how he felt. I knew how grief shaped and remoulded your life. I knew how it could make you hate the ones you love with such a passion. I knew how you would do anything just to ease the pain for a single moment.

‘I wish, Violet, that you could have seen us all before it happened. You would think of us differently then.’

I said nothing. I couldn’t agree. That hate of vampires was embedded deep within me, passed from generation to generation, all the way back to those first humans, who had first learned to fear these powerful creatures.

‘And with her died any hope of peace with the humans and the slayers. Now the war is just getting worse.’ He squeezed me, as though I wasn’t on the opposite side of this so-called conflict. ‘It will destroy us, unless you’re one of those who believes in the Prophecy.’

I prised myself away and lowered onto the arm of the chair. ‘Prophecy?’

‘The Prophecy of the Heroines. Some eighth-century crackpot predicted that if nine ‘chosen heroines’ find each other and learn to work together, they could create a lasting peace between us and humanity. But why leave something so important to fate? Everyone believed that the Queen could do it … but now we have to wait for the impossible,’ he finished in a bitter undertone.

‘But do you know what the worst thing is, Violet?’ he asked after a long pause, which included the flexing of his fists. ‘It was planned. We had an anonymous tip that someone within your government ordered her murder. We don’t know who. But I swear, if I ever find out, I will drain someone they love, so they know what it is like to lose someone. So they can feel that pain too.’ He finished, growling, lips rolled back. His eyes were blood red, but flashing to black and back.

I drew back, scared of this side of Fabian I knew of, but had never seen. He looked down at me, his blond hair falling over his livid eyes. Immediately, his expression softened, and his eyes returned to their airy blue.

‘I’m sorry, Violet. You don’t want to know this,’ he murmured softly. He pulled me back to him and I sank onto the arm of the chair, letting the onslaught of information sink in, fitting its way around what I already knew. It made so much sense.

‘You need to go to bed,’ Fabian’s musical voice chimed in my ear. I nodded, my eyes dropping.

I felt him begin to lift me and, in seconds, I was being lowered onto soft sheets. My eyes were just about open when I saw him sweep down. For a moment, panic swept through me, but it faded as his lips, as cold as they would be on a winter’s day, brushed my cheek.

‘Sweet dreams, Violet.’

I heard a click and the lamps went out. Lazy thoughts drifted in and out of my mind, forming the beginnings of dreams.

My father had entered government just three years ago. He didn’t like vampires. My eyes flew open, and I sat bolt upright in bed.

He couldn’t have, could he?

It’s a coincidence, I told myself firmly. A coincidence. Anyone could have ordered her death. Desperate, I placed all thought of it into a box in my mind, locked it and chucked away the key. I would not think about it again.

I must have sat up all night, because before I knew it, the sun was seeping through the delicate voiles covering my window. My eyes blinked furiously, not used to the glaring light creeping its way across the room. I slipped the ruffled covers off myself and slid out of the bed, realizing I was still wearing my clothes from last night. I shuddered, disgusted. My top stuck to my stomach and beads of sweat ran down my back.

I walked towards the window, hoping that it might have unlocked itself. It hadn’t. I smacked the glass in frustration and my stomach knotted up, although that might be something to do with the stomach-ache that was beginning in my gut. I slid down the wall, as homesickness overtook me. Thoughts of my family rushed through my mind: my friends; my room; my home. As every image flashed through my mind, more and more sobs escaped my throat. I just wanted to go home. That isn’t too much to ask, is it?

Sighing, I felt the heartfelt longing ebb away. I hauled myself up and with some reluctance, headed for the shower.

When I got out some time later, I tripped over the rim and by the time I had got dressed, half the bottles on the sink had ended up on the floor too.

Butter fingers, I thought. I snatched them off the floor and placed them back upright. As I stood up, I had to grip the sink for balance as stars appeared in front of my eyes and my temples began to thump. When it had faded, I walked back into my bedroom and dropped onto my front, crawling under the bed to cross off another day on my makeshift calendar. I grabbed a pencil off the floor, and made a small mark on the wall. 16th August. That date rang a bell for some reason. I screwed my forehead up, trying to remember the significance.

Dropping things? Dizziness? Stomach cramps? Messed-up emotions? Panicking, I started counting twenty-eight days back. ‘Crap,’ I breathed.

***

Lyla was away. It was a Sunday, so the maids had the day off. That left Fabian. Great.

I searched most of the mansion – at least the parts I knew about – until I found him swimming lengths in the indoor pool. He broke the surface and seeing me standing there, he smiled, hoisting himself out. My mouth formed a large ‘O’. He was wearing nothing but swim shorts and his stomach was toned. Very toned. Droplets of water ran down his body, gliding over his smooth skin. His almost-white hair was plastered to his face, falling over his eyes and he jerked his head to the side, flicking it away. Oh man. It was like a cologne advert, right in front of my eyes.