10 Date with Destiny - My Sister the Vampire

by Sienna Mercer

  Olivia brought her lens round to the massive greenhouse with its clear glass walls. Sunshine flashed off the surface. Horatio must have needed truckloads of Spray ’n’ Shine to keep it that pristine. Inside, an older woman – probably a vampire judging by her paleness – was potting up flower bulbs. She wore a dark-green apron and canvas gloves, and her frizzy grey hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail.

  Something moved at the edge of the greenhouse. Olivia squinted. There was a tall figure lurking near the far wall. She peered through her camera, zooming in. Horatio came into focus, a forlorn look on his face as he stared through the glass at the gardener. Oh my goodness! Olivia had to stop herself from squealing. The puppy-dog eyes, the waiting around with his hands in his pockets – does Horatio have a crush?

  Olivia was wondering whether she should go over and talk to him. She didn’t exactly feel right squatting here spying on the butler. But suddenly she was slapped in the face by her own hair. She froze, her heart thudding in her chest. Alex’s story echoed in her head: . . . a fierce breeze will blow through the grounds, plucking a single rose from the meadow and stealing it away . . . Was she about to see the Free Rose?

  But as Olivia turned to stare back at the meadow, the wind slowly died. There was no floating rose-head. Which means, she thought, I still have no idea what the future holds . . .

  Chapter Four

  ‘Do you think you need a passport to visit the other end of this table?’ Ivy whispered to her sister. She was seated with Olivia near the end of the Lazar’s ridiculously long dining table. Sparkling chandeliers dripped crystal overhead, and white marble columns stretched to the ceiling. The table was covered with an ornate crimson cloth embroidered in gold, on top of which rows of candles flickered and cast a warm glow.

  Olivia almost choked on her water and Ivy patted her back, giggling. The twins, along with a dozen other vampires, were waiting to begin Tessa’s One Heart Celebration, but the princess-to-be was already fifteen minutes late. The wait wouldn’t have been so bad if there had been even a morsel of food on the table, but until the guest of honour herself arrived no festivities could begin, and that meant the servers would not bring out any food. Ivy’s mouth watered at the thought of mounds of buttered rolls and decadent chocolate-amaretto cake. The Lazars employed only the top graduates from the Transylvanian School of Culinary Arts, which meant they employed the best young vampire chefs in the whole world.

  ‘I hope everything’s all right,’ said Olivia once she’d recovered. She was watching the door for any sign of Tessa’s arrival. The other guests, frankly, seemed unconcerned. Around the table sat several other vamp girls, each with perfectly straightened hair and movie-set makeovers. ‘She’s going to miss her own you-know-what ceremony.’

  Ivy rolled her eyes.

  ‘What?’ Olivia rested her fists on her hips. She was wearing a hot-pink halter dress and a long strand of pearls that clinked together every time she moved. ‘You have to admit it’s an awful name for a ceremony. We have to come up with a better English translation. Lucky Heart . . . Happy Heart . . . Bride-to-be Bash . . . I don’t know! Seriously, though, where is she?’ Olivia turned in her chair, checking the room, as if Tessa might have snuck in without anyone noticing.

  Ivy glanced again at her watch. ‘Calm down, Miss I-Take-Two-Hours-To-Get-Ready. I’m sure she’ll be here any minute.’

  ‘I do not !’ Olivia gently swatted her sister then returned to twiddling her thumbs in her lap. Ivy was feeling restless too. She could practically feel the vamp girls judging her as they shot her looks in between twirling shiny strands of hair around their manicured talons. She hoped Tessa really would be there any minute. Nothing could have gone wrong, could it?

  Olivia leaned over. ‘Do you think we should try to get some work done while we wait? Georgia would flip if she thought that we were slacking on such an important magazine assignment. Maybe we could get a few sound bites from the others?’

  Ivy fiddled with the notepad in her lap. Their fellow guests were so standoffish and aloof. They were wearing sunglasses, despite the fact that the Banquet Hall was dim and candle-lit. They were so snooty they made Franklin Grove’s resident diva, Charlotte Brown, look down-to-earth! Ivy shuddered. Even Olivia – who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt – was starting to look unimpressed by the unwelcoming behaviour of the vampire girls.

  ‘Do we have to?’ Ivy muttered. One of the vampire’s heads snapped up and Ivy winced. She had spent so much time with humans back in Franklin Grove that she’d forgotten everyone here would have super vamp hearing. She tried to give an apologetic smile but the girl flipped her hair and turned away.

  Was this ‘polite’ vampire society? And, worse, did these girls go to school at Wallachia Academy? Ivy cleared her throat, suddenly determined. They might not be the best interviewees in the world, but she had a job to do and was determined to be a professional for her first real reporting gig.

  ‘Excuse me.’ She craned round to smile at the vampire nearest her, opening her notepad to a blank page. If it weren’t for the diamond-encrusted sunglasses, the girl would have looked totally goth gorgeous in her blood-red evening dress and tasteful silver necklace. ‘I’m Ivy Vega and I was wondering if you might be kind enough to answer a few questions for me. See, I’m writing an article for VAMP magazine and my sister and I are covering the entire Vampire Royal Wedding. Would you mind?’

  The girl shrugged and coolly lifted her perfectly arched eyebrows. ‘If you must.’

  ‘Great!’ Ivy’s voice came out squeaky. She noticed the heads of the other vampires tilt in the direction of the conversation, but they all pretended not to listen. They really should drop the unfriendly act, Ivy thought. It doesn’t look good on them. ‘Right,’ she started. ‘Firstly, what’s your name?’

  ‘Ivana. Pleased to meet you.’ She extended her fingers. Ivy awkwardly grasped Ivana’s fingers and gave them a little shake.

  The vamp next to her, dressed in a sequined cocktail dress, gasped as if Ivy had made a huge faux-pas.

  ‘Pleasure,’ said Ivy as Ivana wiped her hand on her dress. ‘How long have you been friends with Tessa?’ She uncapped her pen.

  ‘We’ve never met,’ Ivana drawled in a husky voice.

  Ivy bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows. ‘I’m not sure I understand. If you’re not friends, why are you here?’

  ‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Ivana twirled a strand of hair around her finger. ‘Because Tessa will one day be queen, of course. It’s a good idea to become her friend, no?’

  Ivy shot Olivia a covert glance and she could tell her sister was thinking the same thing – yuck! How many of the other guests didn’t know Tessa at all? Surely they weren’t all just a bunch of social climbers?

  ‘Um, well, thanks for that.’ She closed her notepad. ‘That was really . . . fascinating.’

  Ivy nudged Olivia and gestured to the vampire nearest her. Olivia took one look at the girl, who was busy studying her manicure, and turned back to Ivy.

  No way, she mouthed, eyes wide.

  The vamp girl was tall and a bit of a Glamazon. OK, so she was actually quite scary. Ivy nodded at Olivia, as if to say she understood her sister’s hesitation.

  Then Ivy gave Olivia a harder nudge, so that she bumped into the Glamazon girl.

  ‘Sorry!’ Olivia yelped and shot Ivy a deadly glare.

  ‘Oops!’ Ivy batted her eyelashes and prepared to take notes.

  The Glamazon looked at Olivia like she was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of her stiletto.

  ‘Hi!’ Olivia waved, even though she was right under the vamp girl’s nose. ‘I’m Olivia. How are you and, um –’ she wiggled herself back on to her own chair – ‘how do you know Tessa?’

  The Glamazon scooted her chair back a little. ‘My name is Arabella, and who is this Tessa person that you speak of? I’ve never heard of her.’

  Ivy knew it was bad manners, but she couldn’t help it. She put her elbows on the table and leaned across
Olivia. ‘Tessa . . . the girl who is going to marry Prince Alex . . . Any of this ring a bell?’

  Arabella shrugged and turned her face away. ‘Not really.’

  Ivy flipped her notepad shut. Getting appropriate sound bites here was not going to be easy. I wonder if VAMP magazine would like a feature on the impossible levels of snootiness among posh vampires? Because I could write a whole book about that!

  The Banquet Hall doors swung open and Horatio stepped out, looking dapper in a sleek black tuxedo. ‘Announcing the arrival of Petra Tarasov, Anastasia Gorya, Nastya Petrov and Kristina Kazimir.’ More vampires? Oh great – the snootiness factor has just gone up by fifty per cent.

  But, maybe not – these girls were sporting evening wear that was a little less rigid and much more vintage. Plus, they weren’t wearing sunglasses. Even better – they were actually smiling.

  ‘Hi, girls!’ One of the new guests pulled out a chair and plopped down between Ivy and Olivia. ‘I’m Petra.’ She wore a black shift with a funky lace hem. ‘So sorry we’re late.’ Ivy caught traces of various European accents – totally different to the Transylvanian one shared by the girls who had stonewalled her. ‘We had this assembly at the Academy that ran a little late. You know what a bore teachers can be.’ Her eyes flicked to the ceiling. ‘I’m sure we’re all capable of waiting until Monday to hear our millionth lecture on the importance of eating a balanced red-blood-cell diet.’

  Ivy felt as if a fist had clenched around her stomach. Did she say ‘the Academy’? As in ‘Wallachia Academy’? Ivy sat up straighter. This was going to be her first glimpse of the kind of people she might, maybe, possibly be studying with, and they seemed much cooler than the snooty Snobzillas who had been cold-shouldering her and Olivia so far tonight.

  ‘Hey!’ Petra’s eyes lit up. ‘You ladies are the American twins writing that VAMP magazine article, aren’t you? I have to talk to you two later.’ Her tone was hushed and excited, like she was asking Ivy to share a particularly juicy piece of gossip. ‘I want to know everything about America. Like why do you call those yummy potato things “French fries”?’

  Ivy and Olivia laughed for the first time that evening. Maybe this party wouldn’t be a total flop after all.

  Petra looked around. ‘Where is Tessa, anyway?’ she asked the other guests at the table, but nobody bothered to answer. The new girls’ presence had done nothing to thaw their ice-queen acts.

  ‘We’re not sure,’ Olivia chimed in, shifting in her seat. ‘I’m starting to get worr–’

  ‘I’m here! I’m here!’ Tessa rushed into the Banquet Hall before Horatio could properly announce her arrival. She skidded to a stop at the head of the dining table where the snooty vamp girls were staring open-mouthed.

  She looked beautiful, but a little ragged. Her navy-blue dress hung unevenly and her up-do wasn’t as sleek as it could be. Whoa, thought Ivy, where did that come from? Since when was I a serving member of the Fashion Police? Clearly, Olivia had been rubbing off on her.

  ‘I’m late. Oh goodness, I know, I’m so late.’ Tessa smoothed her hair, tucking a hairgrip back into place.

  Horatio nodded to the waiting servants and they swooped in with shiny platters of bite-sized appetisers: blood-sausage links wrapped in crescent rolls; miniature slivers of toast with pâté; and small vials of blood smoothie.

  Tessa stood apart from the group and looked like she didn’t know how to proceed. Gone were the confidence and movie-star poise Ivy had seen earlier that day. In fact, she looked like the same shy serving girl Ivy had first met. She should have been commanding the room, not cowering in it. After all, it wouldn’t be long until she was Princess Tessa.

  All eyes were on the bride-to-be, the silence more awkward than any Ivy had ever experienced. Tessa parted her lips and then seemed to think better of saying anything more. She even looked uncertain about whether or not she should take a seat!

  ‘Perhaps we should kick things off with a game,’ suggested Petra.

  ‘Great idea!’ Olivia clapped.

  Ivy grinned to herself – not just at the sight of her twin’s excitement about party games, but because it was a Wallachia girl who had come to the rescue! She was starting to warm to Petra already. Maybe the famous school was not going to be full of stuck-up vamp girls, after all.

  ‘How about Secrets and Lies?’ A sly smile formed on Petra’s lips.

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Ivy and Olivia at the same time. They immediately both cringed. It was a little too creepily twin-tastic when they did the whole talk-in-unison thing. ‘Sorry,’ they both said. Not again!

  Petra just giggled. ‘It’s this cool vampire game where one person is asked a series of very direct, very personal questions.’ She drummed her fingertips together mischievously. ‘And the person being asked is supposed to tell the truth. It’s almost impossible to lie, since vampire sensitivity and super-hearing make us experts at knowing when people are lying. We can catch all the giveaways like subtleties in voice, tone – even the most minor change in heartbeat. One teensy untruth and we’ll call the liar out!’

  Ivy glanced nervously at Olivia. She didn’t want her to feel left out since she was the only non-vampire in the room, but Olivia was leaning in, her elbows propped on the table. ‘Really?’ she asked excitedly. ‘You can tell just from listening to people talk?’

  ‘Sure can,’ said Petra, lifting her chin.

  ‘You know, you guys would make killer spies!’ Olivia’s eyes were wide.

  ‘The game?’ reminded Ivy before Olivia went too far off-track.

  ‘Right,’ said Petra. ‘Maybe Tessa can start, since it’s her ceremony and all.’

  Tessa backed away, waving her hands in front of her. ‘No, that’s all right. Actually, I have to excuse myself. One moment.’ She held up a finger and Ivy noticed not only the sparkly engagement ring, but the way Tessa was trembling. ‘I’ll be right back.’

  Ivy watched her leave the room, her navy gown swirling behind her. Something was definitely up with Tessa, but what could it be?

  Ivana shook her head slowly. ‘Tsk, tsk. How rude. And she’s supposed to be a princess ?’ She jutted her chin and stared down her nose. ‘But that’s probably just an indication of her upbringing.’

  Arabella the Glamazon murmured her agreement.

  Ivy opened her mouth to speak, but Petra beat her to it. ‘Sorry, Ivana. Let me get this straight. You think Tessa is rude? Not so long ago she would have been waiting on the people in this room and now she’s supposed to be sitting at the head of the table. Of course she’s going to be nervous. And people like you judging her upbringing isn’t going to help. Give her a break.’ Petra leaned back in her chair, folding her arms.

  Ivy caught Petra’s eye and smiled. At least someone in this social circle was a little less uptight.

  Chapter Five

  Is it morning already?

  Shards of light shot through the blinds like laser beams on to Olivia’s face. She buried her head in the crook of her arm, still sleepy. Maybe she wasn’t cut out to be a jet-setter. These changes in time zone were killing her!

  Just as she was about to roll out of bed, Olivia stopped herself, feet dangling in mid air. In her exhausted state she had completely forgotten that she was on the top bunk of the custom-made bunk bed-and-coffin in their Transylvania bed chamber. She was so not in Franklin Grove any more.

  This time, more carefully, Olivia slid her toes to where she could rest them on Ivy’s closed coffin lid and stepped softly down. Their grandparents had imported a top-of-the-line Interna-3 coffin just like Ivy used at home. They really did want the girls to feel comfortable in Transylvania.

  Olivia rapped her knuckles on Ivy’s vampy version of a bed. ‘Hello? Anybody home?’ She cracked open the lid, but there was no Ivy. Was her sister up and about already? That was strange; Ivy loathed mornings. She always claimed to be allergic to ‘Before 9 a.m.’.

  Olivia pulled on a denim skirt and a pale-pink V-neck. With any luck, Horatio
would have a giant stack of pancakes ready and waiting. But just as her mouth was starting to water at the thought of melted butter and rich maple syrup, Olivia noticed the flickering yellow light of the desktop computer.

  Ivy had left it in sleep mode.

  She chewed her lip. It would be so easy to log on to the internet and check her emails. It would only take two minutes, tops. What could it hurt? Perhaps Jackson had sent her a message? I know we promised not to get in touch but . . . She couldn’t ignore the niggling ache in her heart whenever she imagined not speaking to him again. Who knew that love and romance would turn out to be so painful? Perhaps he’d been struggling too. After all, he found time to blog – wouldn’t he even be tempted to send her a message whilst he was on the computer? Or would it just make her all the more unhappy to find her inbox empty?

  That settled it. She shoved a tube of lipgloss in her pocket and marched to the door. It was time to quit obsessing. I have a life, you know! But at the doorway she stopped short, a worm of curiosity wiggling into her brain. OK, maybe for just a couple of minutes . . . max.

  Olivia sat down and tapped the keyboard, lighting up the screen. She held her breath as she logged on to her email. Her inbox popped up. There was an email from Camilla, one from Sophia and even one from her classmate Jenny, asking if she had any decorating tips for her cousin’s birthday party.

  But there was nothing from Jackson.

  She checked her junk mail – just in case. Still nothing. Her heart slid all the way down to her pink-varnished toes.

  Olivia drummed her fingertips on the desk. No biggie. He had been practically living on movie sets. What could she expect? Olivia knew what making films was like – she knew it was crazily busy and that Jackson was probably not getting a moment to himself. It’s not like I need him to check in every ten seconds, right?