The turned had arrived.
They filed into the bigger drawing room and found seats on the couches and chairs. I wondered where that fancy Council desk had gone.
“Good morning, everyone,” I said cheerfully. Everyone except Renard looked anything but cheerful. Renard was busy making moon eyes at Olivier. “Today’s lesson is staying with the times.” A very soft groan went around the room. “It’s important that we stay active in learning about-“ More groans. “-modern technology and lingo-“ Groan. “I’m sorry, is there somewhere else you’d rather be?”
“Not here?” someone suggested, earning a round of laughter from the rest of them.
“I’m sorry this isn’t fun, but it’s not supposed to be fun. Everything we’re teaching you is important.”
The turned that had spoken looked somewhere between a vagabond and a rock star. He had long brown curls, a very short beard, and clothes that might not have been brown when he bought them. But as much as he looked like a homeless person, he had an air to him that meant he thought very highly of himself. He was clearly demonstrating that right now, with his dirty shoes resting on a table that was older than his grandmother.
“Tell me something, sister,” he said with a disrespectful grin. “Did you just wake up one day and decide to be boring, or were you always like that?”
Olivier’s hackles rose and her fingernails started growing into claws. “You watch your tone, Randall.” I waved to her to get her to calm down. I had no doubt that was how she’d been handling them in my absence. Though, I applauded that none of them were dead yet, so she hadn’t done all bad.
“Randall, is it?” I addressed him. “You misunderstand something. We instruct you in everything we’ve learned over centuries of life, so you can live centuries more.”
“Blah blah blah, boring. I don’t want to learn how to play nicey nice with the villagers. I want to go live my immortal life however I want.”
“So, what exactly were you expecting when you came here? That we’d turn you and let you go on your merry way? It doesn’t work like that.”
He stood up, his height towering over me. “I didn’t sign up for this to be babied and controlled. That may be your idea of what being a vampire is, but it’s not mine.” He turned and left the room, followed by the rest of the group, except for Renard and Cameron.
“I should go bite his head off,” Olivier grumbled.
I doubted that would help. Something was seriously wrong with the turned, and it was my job to fix it.
CHAPTER 10
THE TURNED STOPPED COMING TO their lessons. I could tell the Hunters wished they could stop coming to theirs, but they liked being Hunters too much to risk being kicked from the group, so they endured everything we taught them without too much grumbling.
“Hello, my name is Sally Sue. I sure like shopping at the supermarket,” I said cheerfully. It was Hunter class, and we were going over how to feed from a human without them knowing. I was wearing a fluffy ruffled apron and had my hair in pigtails as part of the role play. Arthur stood next to me, his arms crossed over his chest, staring at me like he wanted to drop kick me out the window. “Arthur,” I encouraged in my character’s high pitched voice. “You’re supposed to respond.”
“You look stupid,” was his answer. I waited, glaring at him with my hands on my fluffy ruffled hips. Finally, he sighed and dropped his arms. “I knock Sally Sue out. And drag her into an alleyway.”
I made a buzzing noise. “EHHH! Wrong.”
He rolled his eyes. “I wait until Sally Sue is near a dark corner, then I knock her out gently, feed from a spot she won’t notice, and leave her somewhere comfortable until she wakes up.”
I clapped, the fluffy apron sleeves bouncing up and down. “Yay! Arthur has passed discreet feeding!” No one clapped with me.
“Can we go now?” one of the Hunters groaned. I’d barely nodded before everyone piled out of the smaller drawing room.
“It seems no one appreciates my teaching methods,” I said to Olivier. She was biting her lip, trying not to laugh at my appearance. “It’s okay, you can laugh. This apron is ridiculous.”
“Where did you find that?” she asked while I took it off. “I need a picture.” I tossed the apron in her direction so she couldn’t snap a photo of me, and then I noticed Arthur was still in the room.
“Arthur,” I said to him. “Do you need anything?”
“I’ve heard whispers that the turned are being difficult. Is this a normal occurrence?” he asked.
“They always have grumbles,” Olivier answered. “But it’s never been on this scale.”
“Oddities are rare for us. I hope this doesn’t escalate,” he said thoughtfully.
“We have it under control,” I assured him, though that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He still offered his services to assist us before he left, which was much more unsettling than what the turned were doing.
A party was in order, given everything that was going on, and Olivier decided it should be a baby shower. At first, I wanted it to be just friends and in my suite, but then I remembered what Othello had said. I’d isolated myself in my own home. I couldn’t keep excluding the rest of the Order. I didn’t even know all of their names.
Party in the bigger drawing room!
We set the date, sent out invitations, and bought decorations. Benjamin and Alfred grudgingly assisted the decorating part, as did Olivier’s new companion, a tiny young woman named Arabella. She was apparently a relative of Renard’s, and only spoke French. Cameron kept giving her side glances while he helped me hang streamers from the chandelier.
“Arabella is pretty,” I said to him casually.
“Mmm,” Cameron mumbled. He met my eyes with a look I understood. Companions were on the ‘no dating’ list. It was very much so forbidden. If a romance was discovered, the human would be sent away and the vampire reprimanded. Renard and Olivier had been in love for thirty years, but kept it absolutely on the friend level for that very reason.
“Be careful,” I told Cameron while I twisted some tape around a streamer. “That’s all I’ll say to you.”
“Me be careful? You’re standing on a ladder with me and you’re four months pregnant. Why are you up here? Get down, I can finish it.”
“I’m pregnant, not infirmed. Even if I fell, my body would take the punishment, not the baby. That’s how our bodies work. Or so the doctor says.” He was the only person I could ask for advice. Well, the only one I wanted to ask.
“There,” Olivier announced. “We managed to turn a hunter green room into a pastel palace. Why is this room so green? Everything is green in here. No one likes green this much.”
“The cunning and ambitious do,” I commented as I stepped down the ladder steps.
“There’s a difference between emerald green and hunter green. One of them is pleasant. The other is not.” I stuck my tongue out at her. She was right, though. This room looked awful, like old man country club awful. But now it was awash with pastels and smelled like butter mints, so that made it a little better.
Olivier checked her wrist watch. “Five minutes left. They should start arriving soon.”
Benjamin and Alfred started walking towards the door, leaving.
“Wait,” I shouted, and caught up to them. “You can stay. It’s not a vampire only party. You should be here.” I smiled encouragingly at them. I didn’t like their anti-social behavior. If I couldn’t be anti-social, then neither could they.
“Is that an order,” Alfred asked.
“No?” He left without another word. Benjamin stayed, and smiled apologetically.
“He doesn’t like you very much,” he explained.
That hurt.
“But I’ve been so nice to him,” I said with a pout.
Benjamin dropped his head and said quietly, “He thinks you are a demon. That’s why he won’t tell you his name, he thinks it will give you power over him.”
“Then why did he sign up to be a
companion?”
“He needed the money. His family is very poor and his mother is very sick. One year of service to the devil, and they’ll be fixed for life.”
I scrunched my lips together at being called the devil. I was sure his superstitions came from wherever his family lived. There were legends about us all over the world. Most were incredibly unflattering and would make devil sound like a pet name. While the western world had mostly forgotten those types of horror stories, other parts of the world kept them alive and thriving.
“You’ll stay?” I asked Benjamin. He nodded.
CHAPTER 11
All of the Born showed up at my party. Even ones we hadn’t invited.
I could say it was because vampires like parties, which was true, but everyone had a different reason for being there, and very few had the reason of liking me. Some wanted food. Some wanted gossip material. Some thought I was an oddity, the vampire no one really knew, and were eager to see what I was like.
No matter their reason, all of them eyed my belly with a wary glance.
I had a slight fear that Marie had shared Castilla’s baby reading, and everyone thought my baby was a dangerous half-werewolf or something, but Olivier assured me she hadn’t heard anyone mention Castilla’s words. Either way, my baby shower wasn’t turning out quite like I’d hoped.
My age counted for something in the respect department though, so everyone had at least brought a gift. While my guests nibbled on buttery cake and gossiped about the hostess’s private life, I opened gifts fit for a royal baby. Silken embroidered baby gowns with golden buttons. Silver rattles, silver spoons, silver cups. Hand painted trays of children playing.
Nothing was modern. Everything was based on traditions we had known centuries ago. A wooden cradle, a wooden toy horse. Teddy bears. Bonnets and booties. Cloth diapers. Someone had even given me a handmade papoose, to carry my baby on my back.
I highly doubted that any of the handmade things had been made by the givers, but they’d put thought into what they gave me, and it warmed my heart despite the general detachment of the guests. Maybe being involved would be much easier than I thought.
Halfway through the party, the turned arrived.
They came in through the hallway door, Randall at the lead. We’d closed the drapes to accommodate Renard and Cameron, so Randall safely walked up to me where I sat in the middle of the room opening gifts.
“Randall,” Olivier said. “What brings you here?”
“We heard there’s a party, and we weren’t invited. Well, some of us were.” He nodded to Cameron and Renard with a significant glance.
“I didn’t think you’d be interested,” I said honestly. They had made it very clear they didn’t like me. Why would I invite them to my party?
“Why not? We love parties.” He grabbed a bowl of nuts and chomped on a few of them. The turned didn’t need food, but they enjoyed snacks like the rest of us. “Mmm. Now those are some high-quality almonds.” Othello approached Randall and grabbed the nut bowl from him.
“Excuse me,” Othello said sharply. “You and the turned were not invited. Please return to the dormitory.” I got up and tried to warn Othello that that wasn’t a good idea, but the damage had been done.
“Oh, I see. We’re not good enough for your party, is that it?” Randall shouted, purposefully trying to draw everyone’s attention to our conversation, which wasn’t hard to do. “It may have escaped your notice, but we’re vampires, same as you.”
“I said, the turned were not invited,” Othello repeated in a huff.
“Then what are Renard and Cameron doing here?” Randall challenged. He glanced at me and grinned, and I understood. That was why he crashed the party. He had something up his sleeve, and it involved singling Renard and Cameron out.
Othello didn’t notice the look on Randall’s face. “You and the turned will leave immediately or I will employ Arthur and the Hunters to escort you out.”
Randall held his hands up disarmingly. “Alright, we’re leaving. Everyone have a nice time without us. Cameron. Renard.” He nodded to them and led the rest of the turned out of the room.
Needless to say, the party was pretty much over after that.
The room cleared out faster than it takes a pot to boil. Olivier and her group took down the room while Benjamin helped me carry my gifts upstairs. An hour later, I was busy sorting through everything when Olivier burst into my rooms without knocking.
“Is that important?” she asked, gasping for air.
“Not really,” I answered, setting a baby dress down.
“I need you.”
That was all she said, and all she needed to say. I instantly got up and followed her out the door.
“So, what’s going on?” I asked when we’d hit the first-floor landing.
“A fight in the dormitory,” was the answer.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, given the circumstances, but a fight in the dormitory was new. Logically, there’s only so many places insubordination can progress to. Fighting was one of them.
We went down the basement stairs and I started to hear the commotion the turned were making. Shouts, groans, and scraping. From the noise, I expected to find the dormitory completely trashed, but instead, there was just a pile of them in the middle of the room. A few were still hitting each other, most had given up and were lying in a puddle of their own blood.
“What do you think you’re doing in here?” I shouted. It was then I noticed the few turned still swinging were Renard, Randall, and Cameron. I should’ve guessed. “Everyone get up,” I barked out. I waited patiently while the pile separated and everyone got off the floor. I pointed to one of the turned that hadn’t been fighting. “You. What happened.”
She looked scared under the full force of my wrath, but managed to get out, “Someone said that Cameron and Renard were getting special treatment. They said it was because of you and Olivier, and said some… not very appropriate things.”
I turned back to the mass. “Who. Who said it.” Everyone motioned to someone in the thick of the group. It was Randall, as if I was surprised. He was missing skin on several parts of his body and looked like he could barely stand up. His face was a swollen bloody mess. I sent a side glare to Renard and Cameron, who didn’t look the least bit sorry. I motioned the bloodied Randall forward. “Speak,” I said when he was standing in front of me. He spat blood onto the floor, being careful to miss my shoes.
“They get special treatment,” he panted, his voice sounding like he had cotton in his cheeks. “You know it as well as I do.”
I let out a slow and even breath, because all I wanted to do was throttle him further. “Continue.”
“First, Othello approving them for a turning without having to wait for the next group.”
“Othello approved them because it was a special circumstance,” Olivier pointed out. “They’re former companions. They didn’t need as much training as you did. It’s like that for any companion who applies to be turned, not just them.” He had the nerve to roll his eyes at her, but he put his hands up in acknowledgement of her point.
“Then there’s the party you didn’t invite us to,” Randall continued. “You clearly didn’t think we were worth being there for it. And finally, a burning question.”
I stared him down. “And that is?”
“Will they get to live here after training is over? This is a Born-exclusive Order, and it has been that way since its inception, according to your boring lectures. Will you snooty Born make an exception because they’re your friends? Or will you kick them out like you will us?”
I was very careful to keep all the thoughts I was having off my face. He was right. Renard and Cameron would probably live here with special permission. I had the sway. I could make it happen. But there was something here amongst the turned that I’d been sensing for weeks. An undercurrent that was stronger than their initial grumbles. This was something they’d been discussing and complaining about for much longer
than today.
I tilted my head up and looked down at Randall in a display of dominance. “Renard will soon be bonded as a mate to a Born vampire. He will live here permanently. Cameron will leave with the rest of you.” Randall almost looked taken aback, but he managed to hide it under his smug grin. “I do not want to hear another word on this subject, is that understood?” He nodded. I looked up and around at everyone else. “I wasn’t talking to just him.”
Everyone chorused, “Yes, ma’am.”
It took every ounce of self-control to not meet Cameron’s eye. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to see the look of betrayal he probably had, though there was also that. I just couldn’t afford to show him favoritism. There were scales here, and I wasn’t sure what would tip them.
“Everyone is confined to the dormitory for a week as punishment for fighting,” I announced. They all complained, the loudest ones being those that hadn’t been in the midst of the brawl.
“But we weren’t fighting!” one of them said over the rest. A high-pitched noise from Olivier shut them up. I winced and pushed a finger to my ear to comfort it.
“I don’t care who was fighting,” I told them. “When one of you is in trouble, you’re all in trouble. That’s the rule of our species. Everything you do affects all of us. If I catch any of you breaking the rules again, you’ll wish my punishment was a week of dormitory confinement.”
I turned, taking so much care to not look at Cameron, and left the room.
CHAPTER 12
OLIVIER FOLLOWED ME, NOT SPEAKING, until I reached the empty kitchen. I grabbed an orange and angrily tore it in half with my hands.
“Well,” Olivier said once the kitchen door had swung closed. “Thanks for grounding my boyfriend.” She was only half complaining. She agreed with my punishment, though she hadn’t said so.
Child of the Outcast (Born Vampire Book 2) Page 6
