King of the Vampires

Chapter Twenty

Seraphina guided me to the ballroom that Xion had shown me before. Not the room with the massive fire in the middle. The formal, big ballroom. The one that was indeed safe for dancing.

I didn't know what to expect. People like me didn't frequent ballrooms of any kind. Certainly, less with royalty floating about. But it was all very...unroyal. Seraphina opened a door and allowed me to pass through. No one glanced towards me. For a very brief moment, it was as if I didn't exist. I was just a ghost floating through. Maybe I would actually remain unseen tonight and few would notice my presence at all.

Then an awful squawk filled the air. And all the chatter and the dancing immediately came to a low hush. Even my head jerked towards the noise.

And there was Xion, his perfectly shaped lips parted, dark eyes wide. His gaze was set only on me, the violin pressed against his shoulder seeming to be forgotten for a brief moment, the bow dangling precariously between his fingers. His chest rose with a harsh breath, like breaking the surface after an icy plunge in a spring creek.

I stared back, too many feelings whirling within me to be identified. The only thing I could understand was that he looked exquisite. Hair amess, eyes a little wild, but his clothes were impeccable. I felt like I couldn't breathe either, but I knew that the dress was not the problem.

Devlin, who sat with a cello between his legs, twisted his body just so, and stomped a foot down on Xion's. The king winced, jerked a little, then brought the bow back up to the violin in a smooth swing. The music rose once more and as it did, the conversations floating around resumed and dancing began again.

"Lark!" The voice that rose above the crowd belonged to Daisy; her dark skin as radiant as ever as she waved her hands dramatically.

I floated over to her. It wasn't like I had anyone else to see, anywhere else to go. Seraphina had found her place against the wall, watching the festivities like all the other guards. But unlike the other guards, she didn't have a cup filled with red liquid in her hand and her stoney expression remained glued to her features while the others were already starting to come undone.

"Everyone, this is Lark," Daisy introduced, grabbing my arm and tugging me into her circle of friends.

There was a chorus of hellos and gentle greetings. I did my best to smile and nod and not think too hard about what could possibly be in the glasses they were holding. Daisy was certainly the prettiest, as well as the most enthusiastic. Though, I doubted there were many rooms that she entered where she wasn't. They all introduced themselves politely, which was such a shame because I forgot their names almost instantly.

But in her little group of friends, there was a dashing young man with dark hair like Xion's, but skin pale and eyes a bright blue. A stormy redhead stood beside him, her smile was bright and beaming, though there was something unnerving about her. Or maybe I was just unnerved by the fluids that they all drank.

"Would you like some wine?" Daisy asked, her eyes following my gaze.

"Oh." I jerked back, a little startled. "Is everyone drinking wine?"

"Of course," the red haired girl said with a smirk. "What did you think it was?"

I faltered, my face flaming redder than her hair.

"Oh, don't tease her. It took so much coaxing to even get her here," Daisy pouted, already handing me my own glass of wine. Even knowing what it was, I had a hard time looking at it. "I just want to drink and dance. Is that too much to ask?"

"Can't we have a little fun?" the other girl argued. "It's so rare that we have one of her kind around. Especially one naive enough to think we would drink stale blood out of goblets at a party."