Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Twenty-Eight

After the dinner plates were cleared away the tables were cleared by various members of the Robur coven and half of the room became a dance floor. I stuck to my seat however, this was nothing like the high school dances I'd gone to. Everyone here (or most of them I assumed) were from a time very different than this one. Back when dancing was actually a series of specific set of steps instead of grinding your hips and jumping up and down with no regard for rhythm.

The band was playing an upbeat-jazzy tune and people were dancing in a way I'd never seen outside of movies. I thought it might have been swing, given that it reminded me of Hello Dolly! Either way, regardless of what it was, my eighth grade gym class didn't cover those moves during the dance unit. So I contented myself with swaying a bit in my seat and humming. It wasn't a terrible experience, gave me a good chance to people watch. I watched as Damon glided across the floor with various women, probably from different covens. When I noticed he chatted at length with any of them I wondered if perhaps they held power in their respective covens. From what I'd noticed when I'd been planning for Cruor Luna, there had been nearly half of the leaders male, half female. The fellas outnumbered them only by one. Damon did need allies and it didn't help by putting on a good showing on such a special night.

I sipped a little more at my champagne, which had gone flat now, but it seemed a shame to waste something so nice.

"Having fun?" Ife slipped into the seat next to me and I jumped a little. Goodness gracious I knew vampires couldn't make themselves invisible but I was starting to wonder if Ife was the exception.

"God stop sneaking up on me like that!" I gasped and Ife merely laughed.

"Sounds like someone got religious!" she joked. "So, are you having fun?"

"Yeah," I said with a shrug as my heartrate slowed back to it's usual rate. I wondered if the vampires in the room had heard the spike. "This is nice."

"Ever been to a party like this before? Well excluding the fact that all the guests are the undead of course," she giggled.

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Do you ever run out of vampire jokes?"

Ife smiled and her fangs slid from her gums. "Of course not, vampire jokes never get old!" Ife howled with laughter and I giggled a little as well. Between her and Doc I was certain they could have written an entire joke book.

"You are hilarious," I commented. "But why aren't you dancing?"

"I just got done with that actually," she said toying with one of her braids. "Doc and I were out there, didn't you see us?"

"No, sorry," I said shrugging. "I wasn't looking around so much as listening to the music."

Ife raised an eyebrow at me. "Oh certainly, so I didn't just see you looking at Damon just now?"

"No!" I exclaimed but the blood rushing to my face gave away my lie.

"Oh I thought not," Ife said, her words slow and dripping with sarcasm. "Why aren't you out dancing?" she asked. "I haven't seen you leave your seat since dinner. I'm sure anyone here would be happy to be your dance partner." She reached out and tucked a bit of loose hair behind my ear. The slight brush of her fingers against my cheek rose goosebumps on my skin. While most parties I'd attended had been warm due to a bunch of people being packed in one room, this place did not have that issue. The only warm-blooded creature in this room was me. "I mean no disrespect, but you are quite a novelty. A human attacked at random by a vampire," she uttered the lie I assumed to cover up the truth from unwelcome ears. "Saved by a vampire out running errands who just happens to be the next leader of the Robur coven and now you're here at the manor, part of the celebration. Things like that don't happen often."

"I'd hope not," I said and I absentmindedly traced my comma-shaped bite mark-bite scar, whatever the was called on my wrist. "It's a very frightening experience."

"Are you so frightened of us?" Ife asked, frowning and her eyes shining. Quickly I realized what my words might have meant to her.

"Not all of you," I clarified. "Just the ones that are-that attacked me," 'I corrected myself halfway through, mentally cursing myself for that slip of the tongue. "They scare me, I don't know why they did it. If they're still out there, biding their time to try again." That wasn't the truth, at least not all of it. I knew partly why they were after me, because of Damon saving my life when I was an infant, though I wasn't sure why they hadn't figured out yet that Damon and I have no connection except that. I knew they were still out there too, waiting to try again after their first two failed attempts. It was a little hard to relax knowing that, so I'd actually been thankful for the chaos and stress of planning Cruor Luna, it took my mind off it.

Ife patted my hand. "Don't worry, you'll be safe with us."

I tried to return her smile but I felt how fake it was. They'd told me that the night they brought me here and I'd almost been shot two weeks later. Of course I wasn't going to say that out loud, it hadn't been their fault. How where they supposed to know the vampires would hire some humans? "Thank you Ife," I said squeezing her chilly fingers in mine.

"You're a wonderful friend." And I meant that, Ife was always kind to me, and despite being the sole human in a manor filled with over five-hundred vampires, I never felt like an outsider around her.She beamed at me and jumped up to give me a hug. I returned it, but stiffened under her cool touch. She let go quickly and I gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry," I said rubbing at the goosebumps on my arm. "Human thing."

"I understand," she said. "I was human once too."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, I wasn't sure if she seemed sad or just was caught up in her fond memories. I felt a tap on my shouldered and I turned around to see Keith.

"You know," he informed me. "If you're cold, physical activity increases your heartrate and by extension your internal temperature."

"I'm aware," I replied, toying with the garnet stone on the necklace Ife lent me. "Why are you bringing it up?"

"Because I'd like to dance with you," and he held out his hand to me.

"Thank you," I said, blushing and feeling rather stupid for not picking up on that sooner. "But I don't know how to dance," I tilted my head towards the crowd of dancers, I recognized the music to be polka but I didn't know the steps for the dance either.

Keith smiled at me. "Don't worry about it, you can step on my toes all you like, please, come dance with me." An internal war between my pride and my desire to get up out of this chair and do something raged on in my head. I didn't want to go out onto the dance floor and make a complete fool of myself but my wallflower routine was getting old.

"Alright," I blurted out before I could convince myself it was a bad idea. I accepted Keith's outstretched hand and allowed myself to be lead onto the dance floor.

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Okay this was a bit of a shorter chapter but I still hope you guys enjoyed it! I liked writing the interaction between Ife and Ember! Dang that girl can disappear and reappear at will can't she? =P

Please don't forget to COMMENT and VOTE if you enjoyed what you read!

Write on! =D