"Beth this is your room and home now, don’t apologise." He was trying to work out how to tell her to change, without letting on that half of New York was in his ball room, their ball room.
"I thought we would go out tonight you may be more comfortable in a dress." He couldn’t see a dress anywhere, but he also knew she would want to dress for the occasion and not for working. He felt ashamed at the negative feelings he had towards her, especially when he saw the look of disbelief cross her face.
"If you give me an hour…"
"I apologise but you have about thirty seconds before we need to leave."
He watched her eyes flit across the chaos that was her wardrobe, he should leave and allow her to dress alone, yet he didn’t. As she bent to retrieve a white silk dress with a high neck and no back, she turned to seek his approval. When he nodded unable to speak at the thought of her in the dress; her eyes challenged him to stay. What Beth didn’t realise was that he couldn’t have moved even if a tornado hit them at that exact moment.
She didn’t turn away from him; she didn’t stop looking at him as his eyes tracked her hands, watching as they unbuttoned each and every button on her blouse. When she slipped her arms out of the blouse and let it glide to the floor, he had to fight the urge to take her in his arms. Eight feet separated them no more; it would take barely a second to reach her.
The white half cup satin bra showed enough of her breasts to temp him, sorely tempt him, but not enough to satisfy his curiosity. Would her nipples be pink, rose coloured or a tanned brown colour? As her hands slipped her skirt off, she was left stood in front of him wearing nothing but the silk white bra, a matching thong and the black high heels.
Now she turned from him showing him the soft firm cheeks of a bottom that just begged for his hands. He was so focussed on her behind, that he almost missed her hands coming round to unclip her bra. He couldn’t move his eyes as her hands fell away allowing the bra to fall to the ground. His brain screamed 'turn around, turn around,' but instead she lifted the dress over her head, and the white silk slid down her luscious body, hooking over her neck.
"How is this?"
Shit he was meant to speak, say something.
"Good." Kicking himself he couldn’t believe that perfection stood in front of him and he said 'good,' and then it started again, this time with her brushing her hair. With the flick of a wrist her blond glossy hair dropped, falling and framing that beautiful face.
Finding his voice Vlad spoke. "Beth I want to apologise."
"What for?"
"For the good comment, you don’t look good you look stunning, beautiful." He was surprised to see Beth's disappointed glance as she led them out of the room.
"Thanks." Was all she said, she was acting as if he had upset her. They walked down the stairs together, when he saw Albert frowning at the foot of the stairs he took her arm, causing the frown to cease. There was complete silence, well until he heard Talia say.
“Hello there.” Followed by a thud and a small squeal, as someone encouraged her to stop talking. How they were keeping the silence he did not know.
As soon as they stepped over the threshold to the ball room 'surprise' exploded from all of the guests, causing Beth to nearly have a heart attack. He squeezed her hand in reassurance, her response was flawless. Her look was honest, and her smile at all of these people was genuine.
Following behind her, as she greeted their friends and family he had to admit Albert was right; she was the mistress of this house. She almost glided round the room, her smile never slipped even when her brothers would have bowled her over, had Vlad not caught her. Gifts were piled to one side, and he was touched. He had known many of these people for a long time, but had never once invited any bar a select few to his home. Yet they had dropped everything for him and Beth, more so for Beth he thought.
As they made their way to Lucky, he felt Talia approach them. "What is that woman doing here?" She whispered close to his ear, was that fear he heard in Talia's voice?
"What woman." He didn’t stop keeping up as Beth asked after people's families and friends.
"That Lucky bitch." With a smile he nodded at Lucky, just as Beth stopped and turned to them.
"Good evening Talia, I thought you had met my mother. Not to worry I will introduce you both just in case you have forgotten her. Oh and now I am Mistress of this beautiful home, I think it would be helpful to take you clothes shopping. It just wouldn’t do for you to continue bringing down the tone."
Vlad tried not to laugh as he watched Talia process the statement. "Helpful to whom?"
Beth wasn’t that gracious thank god. "Helpful to me of course, clearly I do not need lessons in how to dress my age, but I am more than willing to assist you in learning. Seeing all of these people and then you, brought to mind, a blot on a beautiful landscape. Don’t worry it will be a big challenge, but I think I can improve you."
With that, she turned to greet the next guests leaving Talia dumbstruck and then furious. Vlad was proud of his new bride's poise and grace.
Chapter 26
Beth was astounded at how much Albert and her family had done in such a short space of time, the party was lovely and now in full swing. People were dancing and drinking, and generally having a lovely time. Beth was smiling on the inside and outside and had been for most of the party. She had a momentary lapse of jealousy when Talia first approached Vlad, until she saw how much Vlad despised her.
The only thing missing was May; apparently she rushed off this morning although no-one knew why. Her mom had said to expect her at some point in the evening. Seeing her little brothers conferring in the corner she headed over to them, only to see Liza and Lewis huddled with them.
"And what are you little terrors plotting?" Liza and Lewis were Theo's half siblings. As very rare born vampires, Liza and Lewis would grow to be incredibly strong. Because of this they were well protected, many vampires would either see them as a threat and kill them, or see them as an asset and manipulate or hurt them.
Ethan stood to face her; he was a born Alpha, strong, dominant, kind and protective. "We don’t like the black demon." Looking around for a black demon she returned her gaze the children.
"What black demon?"
"The vampire lady, who has ugly inside of her?" Logan's gaze was trailing Talia. He was the sensitive one out of the group; already he was showing tremendous mystical powers. He could see what others couldn’t see, the hidden things. So when her mom's friend Mitch came to visit, who just happened to be a Warrior for the Gods, Logan could see the wings that returned to him when he returned to the heavens.
Sitting on the floor next to them, they included her in their huddle. "I agree, she does have ugly inside of her, and just because of that I want you all to stay together and keep away from her."
Oliver and Lewis stood sticking their chests out waiting for her attention, it was Lewis who answered.
"We can't do that, she is bad and we need to take her out, so she can't hurt anyone." Oh dear they were in trouble. Lewis had protected his sister Liza from their insane mother for years before Theo found out about their existence. He was a born Warrior, with a strong sense of right and wrong, Vlad had been helping Lewis and Liza hone their skills and channel their emotions.
Unable to see Imogen or Theo, she motioned to Vlad who was talking to a leprechaun.
"Good evening gentlemen and the lovely Liza of course." All giggled at his formal greeting and bow, he greeted them like this whenever he met with them.
"I see you have stolen my bride." Ethan stood, with Oliver and Logan flanking him.
"She was our sister before your….What did Vlad call you Beth?"
She couldn’t speak, if she did the laugh would fall from her mouth, and Ethan would be insulted.
"I apologise kind sirs, I meant no disrespect." The boys let themselves breathe out as they relaxed; she nodded to Lewis who was continuing to track Talia. Beth hadn’t missed the spear on his back, the one given to him
by the goddess of War during the battles against his mother. Lewis rarely went anywhere without it, but right now it made him slightly dangerous, he might be young but he was already a fantastic fighter.
"Well master Lewis, how are we all tonight?" Vlad followed Lewis' gaze. "Ah I see."
Turning to Logan, Vlad asked the question. "What do you see when you look at her Logan?"
Logan tried not to look at her. "It's black inside, and lots of it. She isn’t very nice; the black gets bigger when she looks at Beth."
Oliver was quickly becoming bored. "So we have a plan, she is not looking at our Bethie anymore. Liza is going to defract her."
Liza nudged him whispering into his ear. "Sorry distract her. Ethan is going to sneak up on her left, Logan on her right, I am going to run her down (Oliver was a mass of strength and could run her down), and then we will all grab her while Lewis stakes her. Then we can go eat."
Vlads face made her a little anxious; he looked as if he was thinking about their plan. "I think that is a great plan, but I do see a problem."
"What?" Ethan had put his hands on his hips.
"Well I know that she normally lives in France, her boyfriend is the big boss there. If you don’t have a good enough reason for killing her, he would get mighty upset and come here for a fight."
Oliver and Lewis didn’t back down to anyone. "It's fine we can fight those Francey people, I will run them all down, and Lewis can stake them all."
"No, that won't work guys; we need to think of another plan." Ethan had already thought this through, and this was what made Ethan the born Alpha, his strategic skills and understanding, combined with solid decision making.
"If you would like we have a pool room here, it may help you think clearer to be away from all of these adults."
"Is there ice cream?" The trouble with having immense strength was the constant need to feed that strength, Oliver was always hungry.
"I will arrange for one of my men to stay with you."
Nicky's voice interrupted.
"Stay with them, where?" Holding his hand was little Charlie, well he wasn’t so little anymore and was soon to be an older brother.
"Ah Nicky, these little Warriors would like to play some pool whilst plotting Talia's demise."
With his sunny nature and relaxed attitude, Nicky was everyone's friend.
"Well in that case why don’t I stay with you, I may even be able to give you some ideas that I have already thought of." And then they were gone with Albert leading the way.
Beth didn’t actually realise that the background music had faded until it stopped; Louisa was wheeled to the side of the room, to the piano. She looked lovely in her pink gown; she was turned to face the audience.
"As a young woman I came into this house as a bride, as you can imagine I was somewhat overwhelmed by the lord and master of this house. Until the day, he caught me watching him play the piano. I was mesmerised by his gift, and the music that came from using that gift. So today I return the gift he gave me, when he taught me how to play by playing the first dance for him and his love, and just for today I will have a somewhat reluctant singer. Although after you have heard his voice, you will no doubt question the reluctance."
She turned to face the piano, and started to play. Vlad watched as Ice stepped up next to her; if Ice could have blushed he would have turned beetroot. Vlad had never heard the man sing and was not even sure how Louisa had managed to persuade him to join her.
But as the music started Vlad held out his hand to Beth, a tingle shooting through them both as he took her to the floor.
Chapter 27
She recognised the lovely tune, even before Ice opened his mouth to let out the most sensational sound she had ever heard. His voice was magic, soft and gentle, but loud and emotionally charged. As Vlad pulled her closer she looked up to him, as Ice sang the lyrics to, 'To Say I Do' by James Onohan, the words were beautiful and made her feel a fraud.
Vlad knew when Beth's emotions changed; he felt her tense slightly, although she continued to smile.
"Beth, what is it?"
"I feel a fraud, everyone is here to celebrate our wonderful union and yet we are worlds apart. It feels as if we are deceiving them, all of them."
He could see tears well in her eyes and it pained him. "Hush things have a way of working themselves out."
Right now he wanted to stop her pain still he couldn't take that step, that little voice in the back of his mind was throwing his past at him. The memories that reminded him of his promise, a promise to never let a woman remove his right to choose again.
With a sigh he nuzzled into her neck, drawn by her scent. "I am sorry I need time." He kissed her neck leaving Beth feel all quivery.
"I am not blaming you Vlad, I just don’t like this kind of deceit."
The smell of her skin, the sound of her pulse beating so close to him, was torture. A torture he wasn’t sure he could resist for long, so it was a good thing the music ended and the clapping commenced. They had truly done a marvellous job; so much so, he had wished it was only he and Beth in the room. His feelings conflicted within him, whether she was close to him or not, physically she made him boil, mentally she challenged and stimulated him, but it was the trust that bothered him, namely the lack of it.
Taking a glass of blood from one of the endless trays being carried, he discreetly stepped outside only to find that Talia had followed him.
"Well wasn’t that lovely, such a young woman too. It surprises me; I always thought you preferred the older more mature woman." She had stepped closer; he had to refrain from flinching away from her as she lifted her hand to stroke his face.
"Maybe sometimes you will need to feel the touch of a strong, sensual woman, just to keep you satisfied."
Without flinching and without hurting her, despite what he felt like doing he removed her hand preventing it from moving further south.
"Talia you forget, I moved away from you centuries ago."
"Ah but darling I know there will always be something between us, what we had was special."
"No what we had was unreal, dangerous and nasty. Until I met Beth, I had never wanted to be close to another woman after you. Beth is everything that is good, whereas you, well even the children can see the evil in you."
Rather than be discouraged, Talia leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips. Flinch be damned he was disgusted and pushed her backwards. He could still feel her cold lips on his, as she flounced away leaving her laughter ringing in his ears.
Beth had seen Vlad leaving the room heading outside. Inside she was confused, one minute she thought he hated her, yet in the next minute it seemed to Beth as if he felt something more than lust for her. It was only when Beth undressed in front of Vlad that she saw how much he did desire her. After their dance he just left and she wanted to know why.
Rather than following him out, she left via the door from the dining room; she didn’t want to be too obvious. Her plan was to stumble upon him whilst taking some air, a brilliant plan she thought. Until she rounded the corner and saw Talia run her hand down his cheek, she immediately replayed the scene from her dream in her head. Seeing the moment when Talia leaned forward and kissed him, exactly like now. She could bear no more and ran.
Running round to the front of the house, tears were streaming down Beth's face. Beth needed to get away, away from him and away from her. Hitting a wall stopped her, her eyes were blurred from her tears, she tried to move but an arm had her gripped.
"What the hell Beth, what happened?" The concern in Ice's tone increased her tears.
"Let go of me." She knew she was on the verge of hysteria.
"I can't do that until I know what happened." She had no intention in confiding in Ice, but the words just stumbled out.
"Son of a bitch, I will kill her." The 'her' in his statement stopped her tears, giving way to her anger.
"What about him, he let her." Beth didn’t do tears although she did do anger.
&n
bsp; "He hates her, Vlad wouldn’t have been happy with it." She could hear that Ice genuinely believed that.
"If he hates her why is she here? Why hasn’t he killed her? I know they were lovers maybe it’s a love, hate thing, oh god what have I done?" That had to be it; she had just worked it out too late.
"Of course they were lovers, don’t tell me that you were that naïve Beth. And he can't kill her if he does, he dies. She made him, so he is linked to her. On top of that she is involved with a psychopath of a Vampire; Edwardo leads the French Vampires and would not respond well to her death."
"Don’t tell me, you are all scared of one Vampire."
"No we are not; however, Edwardo would be a strong adversary. He is also a man with a lot of fingers in a lot of pies. When he first hooked up with super bitch, Edwardo came looking for Vlad. Vlad is the only person she sired that is still alive, and he does not like competition. But when he saw that Vlad could potentially take him out, albeit with a hell of a fight, he backed off and they came to an agreement. When Talia has a spat Vlad puts up with her, no funny business, no romance and when she is ready to go home Vlad sends her."
"That’s ridiculous."
"It is, I personally would have killed her a long time ago, but Vlad is the head for a reason. He can envisage the blood bath New York would face if Edwardo and his friends came looking for a fight. I personally think it is worth it; then again that is why I am the second. Now can you see why he wouldn’t have kissed her?" He did have a point; she knew he hated Talia, now at least she now knew why he tolerated her. So now she was pissed off.
"How do I get him to stop hating me Ice?" Why she was asking the man with a cold heart she didn’t know. Maybe she had been swayed by his angelic voice.
"Shit Beth I don’t know."
"What would help if you were Vlad?"
"Don’t go down that road Beth. Nothing would work." That wasn’t the answer she wanted, and she couldn’t stop the tears welling again. It seemed that all of the emotions she had felt over the last week had hit the surface at once.
"Crap, don’t cry please…Okay, it would drive me insane to see what I was missing, to have it close, but not close enough, be….I don’t know available, but unavailable."
Two Halves of a A Vampires Soul (The Silver Series) Page 15
