‘Wow,’ Olivia whispered, in obvious awe. ‘I really need to work on my Stern Voice.’
Ivy crossed her arms, focusing on her father. ‘I met someone new recently,’ she said. ‘Someone who had a very interesting story to tell . . . about Carla Daniels.’
‘What?’ Charles gave a full-body start – and the triptych fell from his hands.
Without his vampire reflexes, it would have smashed on the marble floor. As it was, he caught it just in time. Then he walked over to the closest display case and placed it back inside with visibly trembling fingers.
‘Right,’ he said, turning back to his daughters. His pale face was tight, looking strained as he stripped off his gloves. He needed two attempts to get them off.
Ivy wasn’t sure she’d ever seen her father so nervous – this wasn’t helping her own nerves!
‘We’d better all go to the break room,’ he said, ‘for safety’s sake. I have a feeling that, if we’re not careful, this conversation could cost millions of dollars’ worth of damage.’
Even after they’d retreated to the staff’s upstairs break room, filled with ancient couches and tables, Charles still looked as stunned as if Ivy had hit him with one of his heaviest artefacts. He handed both of the girls glasses of blood-orange juice as he joined them at a small round table, but his hands were trembling so hard the glasses clinked dangerously against the table.
‘Dad?’ Ivy stared at him as she took her glass. ‘I don’t understand. Why is this such a big deal? I mean, come on – we are talking about vegetables, right?’
Charles sighed as he sank down on to his chair. ‘It sounds absurd now, I admit, but times were different then. Of course, I wasn’t even living in Franklin Grove when it all happened, but Marc told me the story after I came here.’
Ivy traded a look with Olivia. How many other secrets have the grown-ups been hiding from us?
‘You girls have to understand,’ Charles said, ‘the vampire community is a global community, with many far-flung smaller groups throughout the world. These small groups have always had to develop ways of blending in with the ordinary humans around them – but it’s also been the responsibility of the Transylvanian vampires to figure out ways to watch over our kind, even from great distances. One way to do this . . . well . . .’ He paused.
Fresh from her conversation with Pierre, it was easy for Ivy to fill in the blanks. ‘The Laws of the Night,’ she said.
Charles nodded. ‘The Laws were developed to make sure that vampires all over the world shared a common set of rules and values.’
‘I understand how important safety is,’ Ivy said, ‘but come on. The Twenty-First Law is a bit ridiculous, don’t you think? I mean, who cares whether anyone eats vegetables on a full moon?’
Charles sighed. ‘I don’t disagree with you,’ he said. ‘But you have to remember, the vampire community is rather a superstitious one. The Twenty-First Law was not set down because some vampire higher up simply had it in for veggies. It was probably based on a genuine belief that eating vegetables when the moon was full would bring bad luck to one’s family.’
‘That’s . . .’ Olivia began. Then she stopped, flushing.
‘. . . Crazy,’ Ivy finished bluntly.
Charles grimaced. ‘Well, now that I’m explaining out loud, I must say that I can see that some of the Laws are quite odd by any standards. There are a couple of later amendments from the thirties that we all break every day. Perhaps they do need revising.’
Ivy snorted. ‘Definitely they need revising. I mean, after all, you and I have both broken the First Law by telling humans that vampires are real.’
Charles nodded. ‘You’re right. Perhaps I’ll talk to my parents and suggest that the issue be raised in Transylvania with Queen Stefania.’
‘Really?’ Ivy jumped up and threw her arms around him. ‘Oh, this is fantastic! Can I go to Brendan’s and tell him the good news?’
‘Wait!’ Charles shook his head even as he patted her lightly on the back. ‘Remember, this isn’t “good news” yet. Even if my parents raise the issue with the Queen, it will take some time before there is any formal change to the Laws, and I can’t promise –’
‘I know, I know. But thank you!’ Ivy gave him one last squeeze before she finally let him go.
She was practically dancing as she and Olivia left the museum five minutes later. ‘I can’t wait to tell Brendan!’ she shouted, leaping down the steps.
Olivia giggled, poking her in the arm. ‘Look at you. That last move was practically a cheerleading high-jump.’
‘Bite your tongue!’ Ivy scowled – for about three seconds, before her happy smile returned. Maybe Brendan’s family situation couldn’t be fixed immediately, but now that her dad was taking the issue all the way to the top, a happy ending was definitely possible!
Unfortunately, as soon as she approached Brendan’s house, Ivy could tell that his family wasn’t in a celebratory mood.
Raised voices drifted down the street – or rather, one raised voice . . . and it belonged to Marc Daniels.
‘How dare you sneak around behind my back?’ he roared.
Oh, no. Ivy raced towards the house, forcing herself to keep to a human speed instead of a full vampire blur.
If she’d needed any more proof that Mr Daniels was too angry to think straight, the sight of the front door standing ajar would have been enough. Ivy hesitated for a moment on the porch before walking inside and closing the door behind her. I have to help!
She found the two of them in the living room, where Mr Daniels paced through the room, red-faced and shouting.
Brendan sat slumped on the couch. ‘I promise,’ he said quietly. ‘I didn’t go looking for family secrets. I couldn’t have, because I never even knew I had a cousin in the first place. Maya found me and told me the story.’
Ivy shifted in the doorway, and Mr Daniels’ head snapped around, his face darkening. ‘Were you in on this, too?’
‘Mr Daniels –’
Brendan’s dad didn’t pause to listen. ‘When you turned up last night, acting like you were going to dump my son, was that all just an act so you could help him sneak around behind my back?’
‘What?’ Brendan jerked around to stare at Ivy. ‘You were going to dump me?’
‘No!’ Ivy gasped. This is exactly why you should always knock before entering someone’s house. Even if the door is already open!
Drawing a deep breath, she turned to Mr Daniels. ‘I had no idea about any of this until after I’d come by last night. But I’ve just found out about the Twenty-First Law, and I have some good news.’ Her smile burst out despite the tension in the room around her. ‘My dad is going to talk to his parents and see if they can’t suggest to Queen Stefania that the Laws of the Night be updated to better reflect modern times.’
‘Oh, wow!’ Brendan jumped up. ‘Ivy, that’s fantastic!’
But Mr Daniels only stared at her, his eyes burning. ‘What have you done?’
‘What?’ Ivy blurted, feeling herself stepping backwards without meaning to. ‘Surely, you must want to speak to your sister again . . . don’t you? I mean,’ she licked her lips, trying to regain her smile, ‘a Caesar salad can’t be worth all this animosity, can it?’
‘You have no idea what you’re talking about.’ Mr Daniels swung around, turning his back on both of them. ‘You don’t understand the whole story.’
Brendan turned to his father. ‘Then help us understand.’
Mr Daniels growled out his words without looking at either of them. ‘Maybe you think the Twenty-First Law is silly, but my mother was a very superstitious vampire. Carla knew that Mother took the rules very seriously. That’s why she did it, even though she didn’t even like artichokes – and it was an artichoke, not a Caesar salad, by the way.’ He shook his head. ‘Carla was always rebellious, for no good reason. She broke that Law out of spite, just to show Mother she couldn’t make the rules.’
Ivy winced. ‘But still . . .’
‘No.
’ Brendan’s dad turned back to stare at them, his face grim. ‘Do you think I’d be so stubborn that I wouldn’t forgive my sister for eating an artichoke?’ He clenched his hands into fists. ‘No. What I couldn’t forgive was that she broke that Law purely to hurt our mother – who was the best person I ever knew. And if Carla is coming back to Franklin Grove after all these years, then I know one thing . . . I won’t be here to tell her to leave again.’
What? Ivy went blank with shock. Before she could think of a word to say, Mr Daniels turned and charged out of the living room.
Stunned, she and Brendan stared at each other.
‘Could he really do it?’ Ivy whispered. ‘Would he really take you away from Franklin Grove?’
Brendan didn’t answer her out loud. But she saw the horror in his eyes, and she knew – Mr Daniels was not kidding.
Ivy wrapped her arms around him, and he buried his face in her hair. ‘It’s going to be all right,’ she whispered.
But secretly, she thought: This is a total disaster.
Chapter Eight
Olivia looked around the dinner table the next night and sighed. This is the oddest dinner I’ve ever had at my bio-dad’s house . . . and that’s really saying something!
When she’d stopped by the house that evening, she’d hoped to grab a private moment with her stepmom to finally figure out what was going on. She’d arrived just as dinner was ready, though, so now there were four people sitting at the dining table . . . and three of them seemed to be in another world entirely.
Charles had a notepad open in his lap, which he never looked away from even as he forked steak into his mouth. Ivy looked glum as she picked at her sweet potato, obviously lost in her worries over Brendan. Lillian – who looked dressed for a royal banquet, rather than an ordinary dinner at home – seemed to have no appetite at all.
Weirder still, Lillian’s smartphone chirped in her handbag every few minutes. Charles didn’t even notice, and Lillian never moved to answer it – but her perfectly made-up face twitched every time it made a noise.
I can’t take this any more. It wasn’t just curiosity or nosiness for Olivia now. If someone didn’t tell her what was going on soon, she might actually explode!
Taking a deep breath, she set down her salad fork. ‘Lillian,’ she said. ‘How was your day?’
‘What?’ Lillian blinked, her mascaraed eyelashes dark against her pale skin. One hand moved to fidget with the emerald necklace around her neck. ‘Oh. Ah. Fine.’
Then she went straight back to pushing her uneaten steak around her plate, gold-and-silver bracelets rattling against each other on her wrist.
Time for Plan B: make Lillian and Charles talk to each other!
‘So, Dad,’ Olivia said brightly. ‘Has Lillian been to the museum yet? What did she think of the exhibit?’
‘Mmm?’ Charles didn’t even look up from his notepad, where he was busily scribbling notes even as he continued to eat.
Lillian’s words came out in a mumble. ‘Looking forward to Saturday, just like everyone else.’
Olivia forced extra peppiness into her smile. ‘But aren’t you impatient? Don’t you want a sneak peek?’
Lillian didn’t even look up. ‘I hate spoilers.’
Drat. Olivia’s shoulders slumped. A dinner table with a fabulous meal was just not the right setting for any kind of confrontation.
‘Sorry. Did you ask me a question, Olivia?’ Charles shook himself, as if he were shaking off a trance. ‘This is very rude of me, isn’t it?’ He grimaced as he held up his notepad. ‘I beg your pardon, everyone. Why don’t I take my food into my study so I can get some more work done without being impolite?’
‘Dad . . .’ Olivia rolled her eyes. ‘I saw the museum yesterday, remember? I think you’re done! Seriously, it looks as good as it needs to. Doesn’t it, Ivy?’
‘Wha–?’ Ivy’s voice sounded bleary. Clearly, she had no idea what the others had been talking about.
‘Ivy agrees,’ Olivia said firmly to their father. ‘You’ve done a great job, so stop worrying about it!’
‘Why, thank you, Olivia.’ Charles smiled at her. ‘I appreciate the kind words. However, this isn’t about this weekend’s exhibit. It’s about what I might do with the South Wing of the museum if it is, indeed, entrusted to me afterwards.’
‘What?’ Olivia stared at him. ‘But you’ve been working so hard on the exhibit. Can’t you give yourself a little break?’ Or some time to pay attention to your wife? she added silently. Can’t you see how weird Lillian’s acting?
But Charles was already standing up. ‘I’m afraid not, my dear. There’s no time to be lost. I want to do something spectacular – but more than that, it needs to be worthwhile.’
He headed out of the room, leaving Olivia staring helplessly after him. At the table, Ivy was still busy using her fork to turn her sweet potato into mangled, not-so-sweet mashed potato, while Lillian seemed to have turned into stone.
As Olivia watched Charles disappear through the door, irritation flashed through her, tightening her chest. How can such a smart man be so oblivious to how his own family feels right now?
Looking again at Lillian’s mask-like face, where all expression had been carefully hidden, Olivia released her tension in a sigh.
‘I like your dress, Lillian,’ Olivia offered. ‘It’s very . . .’ Formal, she finished in her head. Who wore a black silk evening gown to a family dinner at home? ‘. . . elegant,’ she finished out loud. ‘Where did you –?’
‘Sorry!’ Lillian’s head whipped to the side as her smartphone chirped yet again. She lunged for her handbag. ‘Excuse me. I just have to see who’s trying to contact me – they seem rather insistent.’
‘OK,’ Olivia said. But she frowned as she saw Lillian race upstairs with full vampiric speed, obviously waiting to answer the phone until she was out of hearing range of everyone else. Why would she need that much privacy for her call, if she doesn’t even know who’s trying to talk to her?
‘Oh.’ Ivy sighed, emerging for the first time from her distraction. ‘That reminds me, I left my phone in my room. Brendan might need to call me. Maybe . . .’
‘I’ll get it for you,’ Olivia said. She gave a mock-serious face, pointing to the mangled mess on Ivy’s plate. ‘Just promise me you’ll put that poor food out of its misery!’
‘Will do.’ Ivy gave her a sad half-smile and a mock salute.
Olivia started up the stairs towards her sister’s room. As she walked past Charles and Lillian’s bedroom door, though, the sound of Lillian’s strained, unhappy voice stopped her in her tracks.
‘I’m really, really not sure about this,’ Lillian said softly.
‘Are you nuts?’ The crackly voice of Jacob Harker sounded through the phone so loudly that even Olivia could hear it in the hallway outside. ‘You would have to be, like, totally crazy to turn this down! It’ll give your career a massive boost.’
‘I know,’ Lillian said, ‘but –’
‘This director really wants you on the project. To prove it, he’s offered to produce your feature-length directorial debut after you wrap. He just wants you to help him out on this one shoot.’
There was a long, agonising pause. Olivia could almost feel her stepmom’s indecision vibrating through the air. She held her breath to keep from making any tell-tale noises.
But why is this such a hard decision? Olivia wondered. Why would she be so unsure about taking a new job on a movie? Yes, Lillian had moved to Franklin Grove, but she and Charles must have factored in that she would need to travel from time to time. After all, it was her movie career that had brought her to Franklin Grove in the first place, at the beginning of the year.
Finally, Lillian let out a heavy sigh. ‘I’ll think about it,’ she told Harker. ‘Now come in, please.’
What? Olivia’s eyebrows rose. Why would Lillian ask Jacob Harker – who was in another state – to come into the room?
. . . Oh, wait. She didn’t ask Harker. O
ops!
Olivia winced. After all the times the vampires around her had been caught off-guard in this past week, why did tonight have to be the night Lillian started hearing like a vampire again?
Bracing herself, Olivia opened the door.
Inside the bedroom, Lillian stood by a plush, ornate double-coffin in the shape of a heart. As Olivia stepped inside, Lillian placed her smartphone on the glossy wooden lid of the coffin and turned to give her stepdaughter a stern look.
‘Eavesdropping is never nice, Olivia. You’re old enough to know that by now.’
‘I’m sorry!’ Olivia rushed forwards across the thick, dark carpet. ‘I really didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t help it. Please don’t think of it as a betrayal! I just . . .’ She bit her lip, faltering just as she reached her stepmom’s side. ‘I got it in my head that you were getting ready to run away from Franklin Grove or something.’
Lillian stared at her. ‘Whatever gave you that idea?’
Olivia twisted her hands together. ‘I saw you,’ she whispered, ‘in the supermarket, picking up a travel guide. And you’ve not been yourself lately – it’s like you’re trying too hard to prove that you like Franklin Grove and you fit in here.’
‘Olivia . . .’ Lillian began.
Olivia couldn’t stop herself. ‘You’re trying too hard,’ she said, looking from her stepmother’s elaborately upswept hair to her evening gown and rich garnet necklace. ‘You’ve been trying so hard to convince someone that everything’s OK, that it’s becoming so obvious everything’s not OK.’
Lillian looked at her for a long moment without speaking. Then, slowly, she smiled. ‘Gosh, I didn’t think it would take you such a short time to be able to read my moods so well,’ she said. ‘If I’m not careful, you and Ivy are going to be able to twist me round your little fingers!’
Olivia laughed and walked across the room to her stepmom, wrapping her in a hug. ‘I’m right here if you need to talk,’ she promised.
Lillian raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘I’d like that. But . . .’ She flipped open the coffin and climbed inside, carefully arranging the skirts of her silk evening gown against the rich crimson velvet of the coffin’s lining. ‘I’m going to need to be really relaxed for this conversation.’
15 Secrets and Spies - My Sister the Vampire Page 8
