Drink, Slay, Love

Chapter Nine

"You smell of humans," Mother said.

Pearl maneuvered through the stacks of books and papers in Mother's underground office toward the wingback chair. "It's given me a headache," she admitted. The stench was caught in her hair. She'd need a dozen showers with extra-strength soap plus a Brillo pad to scrub herself.

"Stand," Mother said as Pearl reached the chair. "I do not want the smell to seep into the upholstery." She added another name to a yellow legal pad.

Reading upside down, Pearl saw it was an invite list to the Fealty Ceremony. She envisioned a string of nights spent sealing envelopes and suppressed a sigh. "Aren't you worried that invites will fall into the wrong hands?"

Mother nodded at a stack of a hundred or so cards. "Look. Don't touch."

About to reach for one, Pearl froze. She clasped her hands behind her back and looked. The cream-colored cards looked like silk. In the centre was a single image: a twist of leaves in front of the crescent moon, the Family seal. Underneath it, there was a date.

"We will add a drop of Family blood to each one to prove its authenticity," Mother said. "As attendees arrive in our territory at sundown, we will escort them through the tunnels to the mansion's cellar. No one outside the Family will know the specific location until the night of the event."

Pearl closed her hands over her wrists. "Whose blood?" She didn't have any to spare right now.

Mother looked up sharply.

She should have kept her mouth shut. Perhaps it was a decent time to change the subject. "I have an address for you. One fifty Mount Grey Road. A girl named Ashlyn has told her parents to expect you and Daddy tonight. So you know, she thinks you'll be bringing a check to pay for a little car damage."

Mother raised her perfectly sculpted eyebrow. Pearl wished she could master that expression. Without a reflection, she couldn't practice in a mirror. "Very well," Mother said. She put down her pen and rose to her feet. "Daddy and I will leave now. It would be a shame to be late when we're expected. And speaking of late, you have a class with Minerva."

Seriously? After all day in human high school, she had to attend more classes? "But . . . ," Pearl began. She saw Mother's lips begin to press together, and she changed what she planned to say. "I'd hoped to accompany you and Daddy. I didn't have a chance to eat today, and Ashlyn—"

"You need the extra etiquette training most of all," Mother said. "We have to erase any bad habits you acquire through consorting with humans." She crossed her office to an ornate wardrobe decorated with Renaissance-like scenes that featured vampires feasting on corseted shepherdesses plus cupids with fiery hands in a shaft of sunlight—Mother's idea of art was not demure. She kept her "work" clothes here, the ones she wore to hunt. Opening the wardrobe, she selected a burgundy suit dress. "Any details I should know? Did you create any alibis we must uphold?"

Pearl shook her head. "Everyone seemed very interested in knowing me. No one seemed at all interested in knowing anything about me." Except for Evan and Bethany, she amended silently, but she'd told them nothing so it didn't count.

"Excellent," Mother said. "You have learned your lessons well." She held up a finger to forestall Pearl's reply. "Not that that excuses you from class tonight. Shower first. You smell of bathroom stalls and human trash."

Pearl opened her mouth to protest that this wasn't her fault. High school wasn't her idea. But then she saw Mother's expression—her lips curled as if she anticipated Pearl's response—and Pearl wisely didn't speak. Later, if Pearl could catch Daddy alone, she'd ask whether she truly had to attend every day. It seemed a bit overkill, no pun intended.