New Life (Book 1)

Chapter 23 - Dinner and Dimitri

I walked down stairs, guided by Deli. She was very pretty, with green eyes and light brown hair.

"Why did you choose the life of maiding?" I asked. "You're pretty and educated, and you could have gotten a variety of other jobs."

"Well, my mother was a maid," she answered. "And I enjoy taking care of people."

"Hmm," I murmured. "I wish you luck with your maid experience."

"Thank you, Madame," she said, smiling. "We're here."

She gestured at a door, and I breathed out.

"Here we go," I say, pushing on the door. I saw my friends laughing, and eating delicious looking food. I glanced around the table, and saw the queen looking at me. She nodded at me.

"Oh, Terra!" shouted Dimitri. "You've arrived, beautiful as always. Come, come, sit down!"

I gave him a strange look, and he winked at me. I walked over to the table, and took a seat next to Dimitri. He pushed my chair in, and I giggled.

"What?" he murmured.

"You, being fancy," I giggled some more.

I served myself food, and ate, minding my table manners.

No elbows on the table, chew with mouth closed, pick right silverware, I can do this.

"So, Terra," started the queen. "How did this whole fiasco begin?"

"Um," I started.

"We've heard it from Dimitri, but not from you," said the king.

"Well, okay. I was coming home from a nasty day at school, I was bullied you see," I felt Dimitri tense next to me, and rested a hand on his arm. He relaxed. "And I got home, to my crappy and abusive family, and ran upstairs after my anger exploded and I yelled at my father."

"She really did have a shitty life," murmured the king to the queen. She nodded.

"So I finished my homework, took a shower, and went to bed. Later on in the night, I woke up because I was cold. I saw that my window was open, and reached up to close it. Then Dimitri spoke. He was talking about how someone with my family should be more careful about blocking off exits, yada yada. I didn't pay too much attention, because I was focusing on how to take him down if he attacked me."

"Did you succeed?" asked the queen.

"I took him down once, but then he beat my ass, so..." I answered.

"Pretty good for a non-vampire, though," Dimitri said pridefully. I smiled at him.

"And then?" the king implored.

"And then, he accidentally turned me because he smelled the scent of more vampires," I paused at the look the king and queen gave each other. "What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing dearie," answered the queen, smiling tightly. "We took care of that problem."

"Okay..." I said.

They're lying, and I don't like it.

"Please continue," said the king. I nodded.

"We went back to his underground fortress thing, and I completed my turning," I said. "Do you want me to continue?"

"Sure," answered the queen.

"Um, I fed, and rested. The next day, he attempted to teach me to fight. I already knew how, and I kicked his ass," I smiled at him again. He narrowed his eyes at me. I laughed. "And so that same day, he pissed me off to the point of no return, and that's how I got my power."