Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Fifty-Seven

Dinner was an elegant affair, everyone involved was dressed to the nines. Many of the women present, like myself wore evening gowns and various amounts of jewelry, and nearly all the males were wearing tuxes or suits or some sort. One man I spotted, an unfamiliar face, seemed to be wearing something that looked out of a Jane Austin novel.

"Come," said Damon, leading me gently away from the door and towards the tables. "We need to get seated, dinner is due to start soon."

"Alright," I replied, feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the finery and colors that surrounded us. This was certainly not the Cruor Luna and I was starting to feel slightly panicked. Now they wouldn't be judging Damon on his ability to plan his events, but his supposed table manners when it came to fine dining. And by extension mine as I was certain that the general population was going to assume he'd taken it upon himself to teach me the rules.

"Relax," Damon whispered, so close to me that his lips brushed my ear. Once again the contact sent a shiver through me. "It's going to be fine."

I belatedly remembered vampire super-hearing. My heart was beating at a furious rhythm and every undead being in the room knew it. Damn, I really hated that. The combination of Damon being so near me as well as my nerves only made that even worse and I felt my breath seize up a bit too. Oh hell! Like a gentlemen, Damon escorted me to our table and when he found my name card he pulled out of chair for me. I muttered a thanks and looked down at the cutlery before me. The plates appeared to be fine china, creamy white with blue willow patterns painted on, I saw many gleaming knives, forks and spoons and quickly tried to remember what Damon had told me when it came to using the correct one.

Soon, Damon and I were joined, by Jasper, Marilyn as well as their company for the evening, all of them dressed nicely as well.

Jasper, before sitting down, beamed at me and kissed my hand. The gesture was strange and I guessed that idea must have shown on my face because he started to howl with laughter. "I'm so sorry Ember," he laughed and I tried my best to smile. "I didn't mean you any harm, just to compliment you on how stunning you look tonight."

"Thank you," I said, feeling  an embarrassed flush cover my cheeks. "You just startled me is all, I didn't expect you to do that."

"Then you have my deepest apologies." Jasper said with a sweeping bow, the gesture was silly enough to make me laugh, for real this time. He looked over at Damon, clearly wanting to say more, but was interrupted as the first course, a soup of some kind was placed in front of us.

"Oh parsnips!" Adeline chimed, a look of happiness marking her features as she picked up her spoon. Thankful that I'd gotten a good look at it, I picked up my own and took a cautious sip. It was good, creamy and had a bite of pepper at the end, though I had a feeling that I would probably not order this if I had been given the chance. I still preferred broccoli cheese or chicken noddle over this.

"So Damon," asked Jasper after we'd all been eating quietly for a few minutes. "Have you heard about that new policy Richard is trying to put through at the court?"

This caught my interest as well, I set down my spoon and reached for my glass which had a lovely sort of white wine in it. Given that there was no hint of red or pink in it, I figured it was safe to assume it was blood-free. I took a sip and pretended to be interested in the taste as opposed to what Damon and Jasper were talking about.

"I did," replied Damon, dabbing at the corners of his mouth with his napkin. I spotted his fangs and concluded that his drink did indeed have blood mixed into it.

"Good," said Jasper. "And what do you think of it?"

I hoped this would be an instance where he'd go into more detail as to what this policy entailed. "I thought it would be obvious given the company I keep," Damon answered, flashing a meaningful look at me. The intensity of his gaze took my breath away. "I think he's too paranoid," he elaborated. "While I admit with the technologies that humanity has created over recent years could be modified to weaponized against us, I do not think that will happen."