by Gayla Twist
Madame Csorbo let out a trill of laughter and shook her head. “You poor, stupid girl.”
That’s when Jessie came over, leading Vilma by the hand. “Colette, I want to introduce you to a very good friend of mine.”
“I am Vilma. And you are Colette,” she said, making it a statement rather than an introduction. “Jessie has told me all about you.” I glanced over at Jessie, a little hurt, seeing that he’d said nothing about Vilma to me.
“Well, not everything,” he corrected her, trying to give me a reassuring look.
“I know she is human,” Vilma said. “I know you killed Viktor to save her. What else do I need to know?”
“Yeah, once you find out my favorite color, then that covers everything,” I said, feeling my anger level quickly rising.
Vilma dragged a judgmental eye over my dress. She obviously didn’t care for what she saw. “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your favorite color is blue,” she snarled. Turning to Jessie, she added, “Human’s are so predictable.”
“Actually,” Jessie said, clearing his throat. “I’m the one that designed her costume. I made some sketches for Madame Orzy. I’m the one that picked the color.”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” Vilma said with a quick inhale, sliding her eyes back over my gown, giving it a second appraisal. “It’s lovely. You’re so good at these things. Very talented.” She leaned into him and said in a low, sultry voice, “You really have to take my measurements sometime and design something for me.”
I don’t know how smart it is to try to scratch out the eyes of a vampiress, but I was getting pretty tempted. I think Madame Csorbo sensed what I was thinking because she interjected herself between Jessie and her daughter saying, “Come, my dear boy, let us introduce your lovely fiancée to the room.” She ushered the two of us toward the other vampires, leaving Vilma to make a sour face.
I was introduced to everyone but remembered no one’s name. Servants were passing through the room with goblets of what I had to assume was blood. Others served hors d'oeuvres of what looked like miniature kidneys skewered with toothpicks. The vampires were eagerly popping the organs in their mouths and sucking out all the juices then spitting the remains discretely into lace napkins. I tried not to shudder thinking of what creatures had provided such delicacies. Jessie did drink, but refrained from sampling any of these chewy treats, for which I was deeply grateful.
It was very unnerving being in a room full of vampires. Everyone kept looking at me intensely with their crazy vampire eyes and asking me very personal questions about my relationship with Jessie. I wanted to tell them all to go to hell, but I felt compelled to answer them every time when they stared at me with their magnetic eyes. It was irritating to the extreme, and I was just about to start clawing the walls when we were seated for dinner.
I was not seated anywhere near Jessie at the table. Madame Csorbo was at the head, and I was to her right, which I was pretty sure was an honor, but maybe she just wanted to keep an eye on me. The table was set for an elaborate meal with lots of forks and glassware and dishes. My stomach began to feel queasy as I dreaded watching the vampires eat. Numerous servants appeared, all dressed in their beige livery, carrying covered silver trays. I wondered if the serving pieces were actually silver or if they were all platinum or something crazy like that. I still didn’t know for sure if vampires had silver allergies. They sure did like the color, though.
Much to my surprise, the lead servant approached me first, pulling the lid off of a huge dish of pears and chicken. The vampires all stopped chatting to each other and observed me serving myself with the attention of medical students watching an intricate operation. “Thank you,” I said, after using the serving pieces he offered me to place a small bit of food on my plate.
I expected the servant to then proceed to Madame Csorbo and make his way around the table, but instead he headed out of the room. The next servant pulled the lid off his tray and offered me more food. The vampires all watched, eagerly, the ones at the far end of the table even stretching their necks to see what I would do. Aware of the long row of servants waiting to offer me various delicacies, I took an even smaller portion than I had from the first servant. This caused a bit of whispering among the vampires.
“Do you not care for broccoli Florentine?” Madame Csorbo asked. “I was so hoping you’d have some. It was one of my favorite dishes when I was a human.”
“No, it’s not that,” I said. “I’m sure it’s delicious.” I waved toward the long line of men with trays. “It’s just that there’s so much food.”
“But you are going to save room for dessert,” a portly man called from the far end of the table. “There’s going to be baked Alaska, and you wouldn’t want to miss that.”
“There’s lobster for the main course,” a vampiress with an ample bosom told me. “I’m sure you’ll want some of that.”
“Lobster is just one of the main courses,” Madame Csorbo corrected her. “There is also beef wellington. I’m sure that’s something you’d like to eat.”
I had no idea what was going on. They all seemed so tense and eager. I helped myself to a modest portion from the third tray. “For the love of God, please taste something,” the vampire to my right said. He was wearing a military style coat full of medals, and I was pretty sure he had been introduced to me as a duke. “We’re all waiting.”
I cut a small piece of the broccoli, knowing the lady of the house particularly liked the dish, and placed it in my mouth.
“Describe it please,” the Duke said. I saw that both his hands were tightly clutching the table edge. “No detail is too small.”
Chapter 24
Two hours later, I was bursting from my corset. I had tasted and described my way through every dish that was presented to me. The vampires gave me their rapt attention, calling out for me to take a second bite of a dish that had been their particular favorite. Some of them were even taking notes on my reactions. They all appeared quite excited by the experience. Only Jessie and Vilma viewed my meal with any type of reserve. Jessie nodded and smiled in my direction, sometimes encouraging me with, “Don’t eat any more if you don’t want to,” only to be shouted down by the other vampires. Vilma sulked at the far end of the table, yawning and rolling her eyes.
At the end of the meal, the Duke cried out, “And now for the port!” but I simply had to refuse. I had managed my way through numerous dishes, without staining my gown, and I just wasn’t willing to indulge them anymore. I was excessively grateful that I had forgotten to follow Margaret’s instructions to fill up before the meal. That would have been awful; the vampires would have been so disappointed.
I felt ridiculously full and incredibly drowsy, but there was no way I could lie down in my elaborate costume. And getting out of it and back in again would leave me looking mussed. Still, my head began to bob, and I just couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open, which is saying something in a room filled with the undead.
“My dear,” I heard Madame Csorbo and felt her hand on my shoulder. “We shouldn’t have pressed you so hard to eat. But thank you so much. I had promised my guests, and I do appreciate you making them happy.”
“Of course,” I murmured. “Thank you for letting me stay here.”
“Come with me, my girl,” she said, taking me by the hand and leading me from the room. We crossed over to a large sitting room and beyond that a smaller room with just a few chairs and loveseats piled with pillows. “Sit here,” she said, clearing some pillows off a loveseat. When I was about to protest about my dress she said, “Don’t worry. You’re not my first guest to overeat.”
I followed her command, too drowsy to be alarmed by the thought of what her guests usually gorged on. Madame tucked a pillow behind the small of my back and then placed a tall, rather firm pillow in my lap. “You can lean forward and balance your chin on the pillow like a wedge,” she instructed me. “This way you won’t crumple your dress or flatten your hair.”
I tried it
, and it worked remarkably well. “Thank you,” I mumbled. “I just need to close my eyes for a moment.”
“That’s fine, my girl. Take all the time you need,” she told me. “I’ll send the maid in an hour to spruce you up and have her bring some...” She paused, muttering to herself. “Oh, what is it you humans drink to wake up? I’m getting so forgetful this century.” Then she thought of it. “Coffee! I’ll have the maid come in with some coffee.”
The next thing I knew, Margaret was wheeling in a cart with coffee and cakes. “Mademoiselle Colette, are you awake?” she asked in a soft voice.
I coughed, jerking up from where I had slumped over on the pillow. “What time is it?” I asked.
“Nearly midnight,” she told me. Then, seeing my alarmed face, she said, “Don’t worry. The ball has just started. And the Csorbos prefer to be fashionably late.”
“Oh, okay, good,” I said, relaxing back onto the cushion.
“Shall I pour you some coffee?” Margaret asked.
“Please,” I told her. “But are they kidding with the cake? They just about killed me with how much food they made me eat at dinner.”
“I’m so sorry I told you to eat something before the meal,” she said as she filled a bone china coffee cup. “It’s just... It’s just that’s not the way they usually eat when they don’t have a human guest.”
“I can imagine,” I said, gratefully reaching for the coffee. It was not my favorite taste, but I loved the smell, and I needed the caffeine.
As I drank a second and third serving from the dainty cup, Margaret buzzed around me like a bumblebee, fluffing my hair, powdering my nose, reapplying my lipstick, and straightening my gown. “Good as new,” she said as she finished up.
There was a knock on the door, and Jessie stuck his head in. “About ready for the ball, princess?” he asked.
I couldn’t help but giggle. I felt delightfully refreshed, caffeinated, and ready to go. Jessie crooked his elbow in my direction, and I hurried over to link my arm with his. “Have a wonderful night,” Margaret whispered as I sailed past.
The opening Gloria and I had used to enter the villa was not the main entrance. It was grand and it was beautiful, but it paled in comparison to the enormous door that Jessie led me out onto an expansive porch. The vampires were all outside, still discussing the ridiculous meal they had made me eat. A few of them smiled at me in a friendly way. I guess they felt like I had done them a favor somehow, and they were appreciative.
“You have no cloak?” Madame Csorbo asked, shooting Jessie a look of censure. “You’ll catch cold. Vampires never think of these things.”
“I’m afraid I just forgot,” Jessie admitted, a bit shame faced.
The vampiress snapped her fingers at one of the servants waiting outside. “Bring my opera cloak,” she instructed him. “Quickly. The coaches are almost here.”
“Coaches?” I turned to look at my escort, who had not felt the need to clue me in about anything apparently.
“It’s popular to arrive at a ball in a carriage,” he said with a small shrug.
“Um... doesn’t that kind of attract the attention of the local Budapest population?” The Vanderlinds always tried to keep a low profile back in Ohio.
“But it keeps so many people employed,” he replied. “Groomsmen, wheelwrights, blacksmiths; the Csorbos are keeping craftsmanship alive. Plus,” he added after a moment, “they rent the carriages out for movies and parades and things. If people benefit enough then they usually turn a blind eye to any strange behaviors of the family.”
The servant reappeared carrying a lovely black velvet cape with a light blue lining. Jessie took it from him and hung it about my shoulders. “Do you think this will keep you warm enough?” he asked, leaning forward to whisper in my ear. His breath licking at my skin caused me to shiver all over but also created an intense heat in the very center of my soul.
“Yes,” I told him, never wanting to be more than an inch away from him for the rest of my life. “I feel warmer already.”
We needed a surprising amount of carriages for not that big of a dinner party, but almost all the women were in the double-wide dresses, so that took up a lot of extra space. Jessie and I were at the back of the line, and all that was left besides us was Madame Csorbo, the Duke, and Vilma.
“Why don’t the three of us go together, and my mom and her consort can take the last carriage?” Vilma suggested, slinking her hand around Jessie’s free arm.
“Don’t be absurd,” Madame Csorbo said, extricating Jessie from her daughter’s grasp. “They’re affianced; they want some privacy. You can ride with the Duke and me.”
The next carriage rolled to a stop in front of us. It was Cinderella perfect with gold trim and lacquered panels covered in paintings of cupids and roses. A man in beige livery stepped forward to get the door and help me in. “I’ll take it from here,” Jessie said, taking my hand and using his other arm to encircle my waist.
It’s not really obvious when watching a movie, but riding in a carriage is very cramped and actually really slow. There was only so close Jessie could sit next to me due to my zeppelin-sized skirt, but he was able to still hold my hand. “Did you enjoy your dinner?” he asked.
“I enjoyed that the other guests enjoyed it,” I said, hedging. “Why was everyone so excited?”
“Most humans don’t realize it, but the enjoyment of food is such a huge part of existence. We vampires end up missing it a lot more than we think we’re going to after we’ve turned.”
His words made me think of something. “Why did you put an avocado in the bag you left me?”
Jessie’s eyes widened and then narrowed with concern. “Don’t you like avocados?”
“Sure,” I told him. “Who doesn’t? But that doesn’t explain what it was doing in your bag.”
“I don’t know.” He looked down, obviously a little embarrassed. “I’ve never had one, you know, and people are always talking about them. They just sound so delicious. I thought you’d enjoy one on the plane.”
“People aren’t always talking about avocados,” I exclaimed, trying to stifle a laugh.
“Sure they do,” he insisted. “And they’re in everything now. Salads, on hamburgers, guacamole. When we get back to Tiburon, pay attention. People talk about avocados more than you think.”
He was probably right; I wasn’t going to keep arguing with him. I guess I had been taking my avocado consumption for granted.
“Where are we going?” I asked, mostly to change the conversation. I’d had enough food talk for one evening.
“It’s an old ballroom that one of the families bought when the world economy went bad,” he said in a very offhanded manner.
“We’re going to a vampire ball in a ballroom?”
“Sure,” he said with a smile, his gray eyes twinkling. “Where else would we have one?”
I thought about it. “I guess I thought we’d be headed to an old cathedral or crumbling castle or something.”
“Those are all good locations as far as atmosphere,” Jessie agreed. “But actually more hassle than they’re worth.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean there’s always some neighbor the next crumbling castle over complaining about the noise or people protesting that we’re not being respectful of their religion. It goes on and on. This way people are actually happy that a historic building has been saved. And if they want, they can rent it out for their own events like weddings or whatever. All they have to do is book it online.”
There was definitely a business side to being a vampire that I had never considered. Being around for hundreds of years probably made you savvier than the average investor.
“We’re here,” Jessie said, peeking out the carriage window as the horses slowed from their trot. “There’s a bit of a line in front of us, so this might take a while.” He rolled his eyes. “Every vampire likes to make an entrance.” I remembered Madame Orzy’s instructions about pausing at the top of t
he stairs and had to suppress a giggle.
I leaned over to get a peek out of the window on my side, mindful of the hat perched high on my head. There was a long line of cars and carriages in front of a rather large building. In the dark, I couldn’t make out much of the architectural details of the building beyond it was big. Most of the cars that were conveying guests to the ball were antiques. Beautifully preserved antiques, of course, but there was nothing more recent than sixty years ago would have been my guess. “Why all the old cars?” I asked.
Jessie squinted a bit as he thought about it. “I don’t know for sure. Vampires tend to get stuck in the time period from when they were human. At first you go along, changing with the modern world, but then after sixty or seventy years or so, you just don’t want to change anymore. You just want to go back to a time where you’re comfortable.
I thought about my grandmother and great grandmother both refusing to use the Internet. “I think that’s kind of a human thing too,” I told him.
Jessie squeezed my hand. “Let’s talk about the ball before we go in.”
“Okay,” I said, feeling a catch of nervousness.
“There’s no live feeding at our balls. Or, at least, at this kind of ball,” he corrected himself. “But that doesn’t mean people don’t slip up. Don’t go anywhere with anyone, no matter how friendly they seem. Vampires get hungry, and you’re a tempting morsel.”
“Okay.” I gulped.
I must have looked quite pale under all my powder because Jessie gave my hand another reassuring squeeze. “Just stay by me, and everything will be fine. I wouldn’t take you here if I thought it was actually dangerous.”
Our carriage rolled forward a few more feet, and the door was opened by a man in a fancy, ruffled uniform and a George Washington–style white wig. He said something in Hungarian, which I assumed was “Good evening” or something like that, and extended a hand to help us out of the carriage.
Heading into the ballroom on Jessie’s arm, I took a deep breath and tried to savor the moment. I felt just like Cinderella. But instead of losing a slipper, there was a chance I would be attacked by vampires and drained of all my blood.
