Fire maiden

Chapter 4

I awoke to a door being slammed. Sitting bolt upright, I stared around the room. No one was there. A clock ticked in the silence. Fully awake now, i was able to take in the true beauty of the suite we were in. Soft ornate furnishings, elaborate paintings hung from the walls, gold-encrusted edging around door frames. Everything was old but appeared very expensive. Noticing a clock next to the bed, it was 4pm. I had slept most of the day. I noticed my luggage had been fetched from our car. I walked over to it and pulled out my work-out clothes. I had enough time to have a quick workout before we were due at dinner at 6pm. I quickly changed into my workout clothes, placing the dirty ones in a laundry hamper. I noticed Malcom had removed my shoes while I slept. They were placed neatly placed next to the bed, making me smile to myself.

Positioning myself next to the widow sill, I started to do my usual warm up and stretches. Thinking while I worked out, up until 3 months ago, I had been a principal dancer in a ballet company in New York. I had to leave New York in a hurry when my Vampire clan had turned up. they had been estranged for sometime since my husband had died. Not that they have told me much but they had made a dangerous enemy and they did not want me to become a casualty of war or be used as a weapon against them. So I had to leave my life I had built for myself and begin my life in hiding with Malcom. Going through my usual training time passed, the sun slowly got lower in the sky.

Laying on the floor stretching, The door swung open, Malcom entered saw me on the floor and laughed.

"You could have at least had a shower first, here you are being a hot mess in the splits"

"Well I didn't think there was a point when I needed a work out to have a shower before and then after.

Im just trying to save water. It is a natural resource" I smiled back at him.

He came and sat in the lounge next to where I was on the floor. He had healed completely and looked back to his normal gorgeous self.

"You need to go get ready, we're going to be late. Its formal dress. Did you bring that red dress?

"Yes, I brought it.... Fine, I'm done anyway"

I jumped up and walked to the bathroom, grabbing the dress out of my bag as I went. Noticing Malcom staring at me as I walked away. Showering and doing my hair. I looked in the mirror. My long auburn hair hung in long waves down my back. I wiggled into the red velvet off the shoulder floor dress, Malcom had convinced me to bring. I put some red lipstick on, some green emerald dangling earings, which brought out the green in my eyes. My bracelet on my arm looked somewhat out of place with my outfit, but I was unable to take it off. I was fairly pleased with the way I scrubbed up after such a long few days on the road and our little encounter with the wolves. My tall 5'11 frame in this dress, hung on all my curves and accentuated my large breasts and hips just in the right way. My long hair looked even rider with the red of the dress. I smiled at myself, I had always been criticised for having breasts in ballet but it was just the way I was made and I looked pretty good in this dress. I walked out the door of the bathroom. Malcom had his back to me sitting on the lounge, he was going over some paper work. I walked over to my bag and fetched my heels. Placed them on and walked towards the door.

"Now who is going to make us late" I grinned over my shoulder at him on the lounge. His mouth had dropped and was staring at me taking in my body.

He ran up to me and pushed me up against the wall. His hands going around my waist, his face so close to mine.

"Can I kiss you?"

I smiled back, looking straight into his eyes, so close to mine. My lips gently grazing his, I circled his side of his face with my finger.

A loud bang on the door, made us both jump apart. He stepped back from me, opening the door next to us.

A man started talking to Malcom, he nodded in response and turned to me.

"Its time for us to go now" he motioned me to take his arm. As we went through the door down the corridor.

Large burly men were stationed along the corridors and at the windows as we passed.

"Whats with all the security?"

"We have our meetings in neutral territory, more often depending on the size of these meetings and type they are usually in werewolf territory. They police us in a way to ensure everyone behaves. This castle is owned and run by this community, we are paying guests here. They are providing us with a service, like a hotel with a conference pretty much, but except we require blood and we tend to have at lot of fights at these meetings. So the werewolves are here to keep us in line" he replied quietly as we walked. Passing the guards, some sidelong places at us as we passed.

We came upon large doors, which opened as we approached into a large ballroom full of loud music and people. I thanked the guards as we went through the doors, they did not respond back.

"What language do they speak here?"

"It's a dialect of Russian"

"You can understand it?"

"Yes" he said, nonchantly scanning the room. Pulling me up to talk to a nearby couple.

We made our way around the room, mingling talking with various vampire clan leaders. Malcom was in his prime, charismatically holding every conversation he had, talking eloquently about current issues he is trying to get through with the clan leaders. I noticed as we made our way around the room, guards continued to stare and whisper to each other in my presence. Noticing a guard looking at me up and down, I scoffed and grabbed the nearest glass of wine off a waiters tray as he passed. I took it out onto the patio off the ballroom. Looking out at the night, birds sung in the distance, things moved in the forest below the castle. A wind gust travelled through the trees whipping my hair off my face and travelling through the open doors behind me. Turning around to shelter myself from the wind, something caught my eye in the ballroom. A man was talking with the guard who had been gawking at me. There was something about him. The wind rushing past me into the ballroom, the man turned around and stared at me.