A Vampire's Life Book 5

Chapter 4

My mother was in seventh heaven in the days prior to the liberty ball, going shopping for gowns, accessories, she loved it. It was alright at first, she had picked a few dresses to try, being pregnant and finding a dress was difficult. But when she saw someone that she knew was going to the ball with exactly the same dress as one of the ones she had picked, my mother snapped. The dresses went back onto the racks and she dragged Natalie and I out of the store. There was no way that she would be caught in the same dress as someone and what was worse was the person that she saw was someone who was lower in aristocracy. To be seen in the same dress as someone lower in the vampiric world and in a store bought dress was a definite no-no. So we trudged up several floors to the high end shops, found a designer dress maker and had the poor thing make three original dresses within one week. Natalie was lucky that Elston had asked her, otherwise she would not have been going. An invitation had been sent to her parents and all of their adult children to attend the ball but Jeremy and Crystal weren't going because they were days away from having another child. Natalie could have gone but had chosen not to, mostly because she didn't want to be sitting on the side lines by herself. I thought she was just being ridiculous, she was so worried about going there by herself without a man to be draped over but never stopped to think that there might be someone there that she could dance with. Like Elston. And if she had actually thought about it, she would have realised that she could have walked in the doors with my parents and I so she wouldn't be on her own. She would have realised that I was going on my own, that until Jonah actually asked me, I was going to walk through the doors as a single woman. But that was Natalie, she didn't think things through.

It was the day before, Friday, that we had the final fitting, hopefully there would not be any issues. My mother's dress was amazing, the skirt of the dress hung from under her chest, hiding the belly from the front, only from the side could you see it. A soft black chiffon, floaty and perfect. Natalie looked gorgeous in a royal blue puff of a dress. The bodice was tight to her tiny body, beads that were scattered across her chest glinted in the light. The masses of tulle started at her hips and puffed out and floated gently to the floor. Natalie spun the skirt around as she giggled, completely happy. My dress was oh-so very different. A royal purple satin material for the bustier, sweetheart neckline with little glass bead embellishments. The material ruched to my hips, from there it ruffled out over the skirt to about halfway down my thighs. Under that was black tulle that puffed out to the floor. My mother was happy as a pig in mud. Three custom made dresses ready in time.

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As we stepped through the door to Jonah's place, he was waiting with several staff members. The women scurried over and took our bags and rushed into the house with them. Natalie had decided to wait at her house, Elston was going to bring her to the ball. My parents stand beside us, watching with amusement that they were trying to hide.

"Hello." Jonah smirks.

Damn he's cute. That smirk curls into one corner of his mouth, his eyes lower almost like he is having carnal thoughts. Don't stress Jonah, I am too.

"Hey."

"My parents send their apologies for not being here to greet you, my father had some urgent council business to attend to and mother is resting before the ball tonight."

"Is she going to be ok?"

"Yes, she has regained much of her energy, the rebirth cycle is coming to an end, so she will be good for tonight provided she rests now."

We begin to walk through the courtyard to the entry, the building dominates the courtyard in a u shape, to the left appears to be the ballroom, double storey in height, vast windows line the walls on both sides so that you can see straight through the room. The other two sections of the building are the same, two levels of building, stone façade with hundreds of windows. Plants grows along the bottom half of the building in various spots, creeping up to the second floor.