The cold ones. Part 1, In two worlds

Chapter 15 - Tradition.

“You’re definitely not consuming as much food as you first did!” Talon noticed as he smirked, while we ate our lunch together in his quarters.

I swallowed my mouthful of cheese and biscuit before I could answer. “I think I ate more than I ever have in my life!” I grinned.

“Well, you look far healthier than you did when I saw you sitting all alone on the floor!” His smile grew as he cut off a slice of beef for himself.

“All alone?” I chuckled. “Course I was. I don’t think anyone would have wanted to join me, sitting on a hard cold floor!”.

“At least now, you have your very own chair to sit in, is it comfy enough?” He asked as he nodded over to the black velvet chair I'd come to spend most of my day in.

“My own chair?”

“Yes, I asked our Gerald, our maintenance guy, to bring one up for you…. Did you not notice that it wasn’t there before?”

“No, to be honest, I didn’t notice much when I first came in here. You had that brought up for me?”

“I did indeed, young Ellie. I want you to feel at home here…. Or at least as much as you can!”

“Wow!... well thank you, lord Talon, that is really, very kind of you”.

“You’re welcome”. He smiled. “Anyway, will you be joining us in our gathering tonight?”

“Gathering?”

“Yes. We have some old friends that will be coming this evening and staying the night. There’s music, food and wine… of course there will be wine meant for your kind and wine for mine”.

“Oh! Umm, I don’t know”. I replied, feeling very anxious at the thought of being around even more vampires, when I still wasn’t used to the ones that already lived here. As it was, I never stepped out of this room alone!

“How about you come as my guest? You can keep me company while I have to make my rounds and speak to everyone, and if you should decide it is too much for you, I’ll happily escort you back here, but I will have to go back to the party. I can’t be seen leaving too early”.

“Well, I don’t even have anything to wear… unless jeans and a top is the normal attire… which I’m guessing its not”.

“No” he chuckled. “It is suits and gowns…. Hmm, I think I may have something for you?”

“What, a gown?”

“Yes. My dear wife’s sister used to stay here all of the time; I know she still has a lot of her dresses here. We can take a look if you like and see if there is anything you’d want to wear!”

“Her sisters?...I … Oh I don’t know about that… it seems a bit… a bit well, intrusive”.

“Not at all, Cecilia was much like my dear wife. She wouldn’t mind one bit”.

I was actually warming to the idea… the thought of being able to dress up and get out of this room for a few hours and with Talon by my side, I could get to know the other vampires that live here without having to fear Lyra or anyone else that had ‘I want to kill you’ eyes! Then the thought of Kyan being there popped into my head, and I hesitated again.

“But Zekan and Lyra will be there and so will your other son. Wouldn’t they recognise a dress of hers? Wouldn’t it upset them?” At this point I was trying to come up with any excuse that clicked into my head fast enough.

“Well, for starters, Zekan definitely won’t and even if he did, it wouldn’t bother him. Lyra has no authority to speak of it if she has a problem and, as for Kyan, well he most likely won’t be there anyway. He’s out for a few hours and he’s never been a fan of the gatherings. I expect he’ll take to his room as soon as he’s back”.

“Mmmmm… maybe..”

“Ellie girl, you need to get out of this room eventually and if it makes you feel better, you have my word that I will not leave your side, so no one will say anything to you, ok?”

I nodded and breathed out an anxious breath. “Ok, yes, you’re right… I’ll go!”

“That’s the spirit. Now finish up and we’ll find you a dress”.

I bathed and curled the ends of my hair with a curler that Faye was happy to lend me. I stood in front of the full-length mirror in my bathroom and smoothed my hands down my dress. I was ecstatic when Talon took me to a large pink and white clean walk in wardrobe that held all of Cecilia’s clothes. She had so many beautiful dresses and I wanted to wear them all. I eventually chose to go with a strappy black silk gown that clung to my skin and was backless and with a long slit going down my left leg. Talon had even found a pair of her silver heels for me to wear with it. Faye had also leant me her makeup and for the first time in weeks, I felt like a woman, like the old me and not just a shell of who I am. I smiled at the mirror, loving the dress I had picked. If I ever get to meet Cecilia, I’ll definitely be complimenting her amazing taste in clothes and just from the feel of the fabric, I could tell it was expensive.

I walked out of my room to see Talon waiting for me. He was wearing a long black tailored jacket with a white shirt and a blue and black checked bow tie. He had his long hair neatly combed back into a low ponytail and his black trousers sat nicely on his polished black shoes.

“Young Ellie! You look beautiful and the dress really suits you”. He complimented with a soft smile.

“Thank you and you look very dashing yourself”. I replied as my hands started to tremble when Talon held out his arm for me to take and head out of his quarters. The getting dressed up part was fun. In fact, it was so fun I forgot what I was actually getting dressed up for! I had momentarily felt as if I was back at home getting ready to go out with my friends.

I looped my hand around his arm and breathed a shaky breath in and out, then Talon patted my hand with his free one in reassurance.

“It is safe, I promise”. He said softly.

“And you won’t leave my side, right?”

“You have my word”. He nodded. “Oh, we almost forgot our masks!”

“Masks? What masks?”

“Yes, Zekan and Lyra arranged for it to be a masked ball”.

“But I don’t have a mask!”

“Not to fret, young Ellie!”. He said as he put his hand in his inner jacket pocket and pulled out two black masks. His was a plain velvet black and mine was a velvet black but with pretty white lace patterned over it.

“Here, maybe having this on might actually make you feel more relaxed.” He said as he handed it to me. I put it on carefully so as not to smudge my eye makeup, which took me an hour to do.

“Ok, you ready?” He asked as he held out his arm once more.

“I’m ready”. I replied with a nervous smile.

We stepped out of the room and headed for the staircase that overlooked the entire main room. The table was moved to the far side of the room below the opposite staircase and was laid with candles in thick golden stands, all different types of food. I couldn’t tell from here exactly what it all was, but it definitely looked and smelt delicious. Many vampires were already mingling, drinking their mixed wine and blood, laughing and talking in groups and couples as cheerful classical music played in the background.

I could see Lyra at the top of the other staircase, her bright red hair giving her away and seemingly from here it clashed with her bright red dress as she wrapped her arm around Zekan’s back, laughing with the vampires they were talking to. I could only hope that with Talon next to me, Lyra would be on her best behaviour tonight, if we happened to come across one another.

As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, people immediately paid attention to Talon, wanting to greet him and shake his hand.

“Lord Talon, it’s such a pleasure to see you again!” One man said.

“I’m happy you could come Alec”. Talon told him politely

“Lord Talon, what a pleasure”. A woman told him as she bit her lip seductively and gave him a wide smile.

“Nice to see you, Sonya”. He replied and quickly moved onto the others that were waiting to speak with him.

“How can you tell who is who under their masks?” I whispered to him.

“I’ve known most of them for a very long time, but I’m sure there are some here that are newcomers”.

“There’s so many!” I exclaimed as I looked at the main entrance doors to see a whole line of more vampires coming in. “Do you think they know that I’m a human?”

Talon chuckled. “Ellie, of course they’ll know you are, but there are other humans here too, so it’s not abnormal for them to mingle with your kind”.

“Others? Are Melanie and Stuart here? And Faye and Duncan?”

“Yes, they’ll be around here somewhere, they always join in on our festivities. Not to mention the human mates”.

“Human mates?”

“Yes, those of your kind that have mated with those of mine!”

“Wait! That can happen?”

“Ellie!” He grinned. “How much of Emma’s journal have you read so far?”

“Oh, not much. Why?”

“No wonder you still have many questions unanswered. Here, this one is for you”. He said as he handed me a gold goblet filled with red wine. “Let’s make our way over to there so I can get myself a drink”.

I let him lead me to another small table dressed in a white silk tablecloth that had black goblets of gold like mine. I was literally squeezing onto his arm as we walked through the crowd of people. I tried looking at them all subtly under my mask to see if I could tell who was a vampire and who was human. But I was way too unknowledgeable to notice the difference with half of their faces covered.

As soon as Talon picked up a drink for himself, I watched as he looked up at the top of the staircase and nodded to Zekan who was looking down at us. Zekan motioned for us to join them and as soon as Talon started leading the way, my hands and legs started to shake even more. I quickly took a few gulps of wine as he took us up the stairs, hoping the drink would calm my nerves.

“Father, you have a guest with you tonight.” Zekan said with a calm smile as we approached them.

“Hmm shame it’s the servant girl”. Lyra added as her lips tucked up into a slight snarl.

“I see no servant girl actually Lyra, just this lovely young lady, I’m lucky enough to have on my arm”. Talon replied to her as he looked at me with a warm smile.

“She still looks like a servant to me, even with that dress on”.

“Lyra, enough now.” Zekan warned her with a stern look, already noticing that she was treading on thin ice with his father.

Others joined us and as they said hello to Talon I was surprised at how polite they were when they also happily greeted me, when he introduced me to them, and I noticed how gentle they were when they shook my hand.

I tried to ignore Lyra’s lingering stare as they told me their names, then started to relay how excited they were to be back here as everyone chimed in with cheerful conversation and I actually felt myself relaxing as I stood close to Talon and listened.