The Housekeeper (Ruby Rose/Terra Juana fanfic)

TEN

Holding the platter with the leftovers of the roast lamb on one hand and the potatoes platter on the other one, I walked in the kitchen opening the door with my hip: both platters were almost empty and all the vampires were happy with the dinner... except for the side salad, I was the only one eating that. It was pretty obvious that vampires hated veggies and I almost felt sorry for Aren, he must be swallowing a ginger and spinach smoothie at that very moment with a fake smile on his lips: he was spending a lot of hours around Vera since he'd found out she was his mate, although she wasn't aware of that, and he'd decided not to attend that dinner with us. That left Ruby, Terra and me as hostesses and everything was going okay so far.

Guests had been led to their rooms and Ruby had given them a tour around the house while I gave the last touches to the dinner and Terra put flower arrangements on the dining room table. The vampire was still worried about me and never left my sight to make sure none of our guests went too far or talked about an awkward subject in front of me. To be honest, I thought she was behaving like a drama queen, they all were being extremely polite and from the moment I served an appetizer to the moment I brought the platter with lamb, I only heard praises about how good cook I was, how beautiful the flowers were and how clean the house looked.

Dominique and Marianne were a lovely couple not only because they were beautiful, he was tall and dark-haired and she was petite and blonde, but because of their manners and intelligent conversation. They seemed genuinely happy to share a dinner with us and didn't care about my curious questions. Marianne was the daughter of a Breton noble and had survived the French Revolution by a whisker, she'd been turned shortly after that by a vampire who was saving young aristocrats from Robespierre's Reign of Terror. Dominique was from Provence and lived a happy childhood till he was called up at the beginning of WWI. There, in the middle of a trench with mud to his knees and breathing poisonous gas, he was wounded on a leg and was taken to a field hospital where Marianne was a nurse. According to her, taking care of wounded soldiers was the simplest way to feed... I admit I got goose bumps with disgust when hearing her talking so casually about it, as if finishing off dying soldiers was a natural thing and letting the remains of their blood getting lost an unforgivable waste, but I swallowed my nausea and kept eating my dinner. Terra was watching me, ready to take me in her arms and drag me out of that room if I showed any sign of anxiety and I didn't want to ruin the party.

As for our third guest, Giulio... I shook my head pensively while putting some lime and meringue mini pies on a tray along with some small glasses of sweet liquor.

"May I know what the hell is wrong with you?" Terra had walked in the kitchen quietly and was whispering in my ear so the guests couldn't hear her. "You've been humming Toccata and fuga in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach in your mind all night long. I like baroque music, you know. But you've passed it on Ruby and now I have you both playing the organ in my brain and can't hear anything else."

"I'm sorry, it was the first song that came to my mind... it seemed appropriate for the situation. Would you have preferred Lady Gaga?"

"This isn't the Phantom of the Opera," she answered rolling her eyes. "Actually, I'd rather know what's wrong with you."

"Vampires can read humans' thoughts, can't they?" I looked at her, worried.

"Well, not all of them, some are unable to get clear thoughts and only understand your mood in general but yes, I guess you could say that we all perceive what's in your mind, more or less. So what?"

"It doesn't matter when you get on well with vampires like Marianne and Dominique because you think kindly of them but when vampires are stupid like Giulio, it's pretty difficult to control yourself and not send him to hell in your mind... and he's going to know."