Dinner With a Vampire (The Dark Heroine #1)(118)
Author: Abigail Gibbs

Something inside me erupted as his eyes settled on me; I broke out from between Kaspar and the King, my duty forgotten as I rushed towards him. He wrenched away from the two vampires grasping him and pulled me into his arms, clutching me to his chest, even as he stumbled back a few paces because I hit him with such a force.

‘Violet,’ he muttered, repeating it over and over into my hair as he pressed scratchy kisses onto my forehead, his beard just beginning to grow back, greyer than I remembered it. I buried my head in his chest as we both struggled for balance. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the King placing a hand on Kaspar’s chest when he took a step forward, his lips moving as he mumbled something to his son. I closed my eyes, shutting off the scene, inhaling the scent of my father’s pale blue shirt. It smelt like home: of freshly washed clothes and burnt toast and the lavender perfume my mother always wore.

‘I am capable of walking, you know. But that doesn’t mean drop me, leech!’

I tore away from my father like he was a hot coal. I knew that voice: it was almost identical to my own, only slightly higher in pitch. I moved around my father.

‘What the hell is she doing here?’ I screeched, my jaw dropping to the floor where a girl with violet eyes was scrambling to her feet. Her skin was pale and gaunt, just like that of a vampire and there were dark purple circles under her eyes. A colourful orange and yellow scarf was wrapped around her head, tied in a knot at the front, and her eyebrows were very fair, like they had been bleached.

‘Lily? Is that you?’

She straightened up, assisted by the vampire who carried her in and very dramatically rolled her eyes.

‘No, Violet, I’m the Queen of England. Of course it’s bloody me.’

I took a few hesitant steps forward and then pulled her into an embrace too, pulling her head onto my shoulder. ‘You idiot,’ I groaned. ‘You stupid little girl. You shouldn’t have come. You’re ill!’

She pulled away as two other men were dragged flailing and kicking through the doors, which were closed with a resounding thump behind them. ‘Not any more. I was given the all-clear two months ago.’ I began to break into relieved stutters, but she cut me off. ‘Of course, you wouldn’t know that.’ She turned and glared at the King, not even a hint of fear in her expression.

‘Scum,’ my father muttered, directing it towards the Varns, as the two men, one of whom I recognized as the Second Permanent Under Secretary, were let down beside him.

I froze. ‘Don’t say that,’ I breathed. He shook his head, blank, and I realized I was speaking too softly for him to hear. Guess that is what happens when you’re around vampires. ‘Don’t say that,’ I repeated as my voice filled my mind.

Remember what you have to do, Girly, it said. Remember you’re a Heroine.

I reached up and touched the locket around my neck, feeling the coolness on my skin.

My father’s eyes met mine before he let them slide down to the pendant in the palm of my hand. The lines across his forehead deepened and he opened his mouth to speak, but I got there first.

‘Don’t you dare say that.’ I let the locket fall back against the material of my shirt, beginning to back away. Then I turned and walked away from my father and my sister, towards Kaspar, whose face broke into relief as a small, triumphant, even proud smirk appeared on his lips. Maybe I was imagining it, but the corners of the King’s mouth seemed to upturn too.

I slipped in between them both, allowing Kaspar’s arm to wrap itself around my waist as I matched him, folding myself into his side.

My sister’s hand flew to her mouth as she gasped and my father looked from me to Kaspar, stuttering over his words like he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing. But then with a thunderous roar, he surged forward, only just grabbed by three of the vampires.

‘You promised!’ he yelled, his chest heaving and his face becoming bright red, almost purple. The vampires pulled him back and wrapped his arms behind his back until his hollers became questions and then pleads. Kaspar brought his hand down to mine and gripped it like he was trying to hold on whilst we were being torn apart. I couldn’t help but feel he was worried I might rush forward again, but I didn’t plan to. On the other side of the room, I saw Eaglen and Henry exchange glances, Henry’s eyebrows raised. I flushed.

‘You promised, didn’t you? Violet? What the hell have they done to you?’

I didn’t reply. What is there to say? But I was saved from doing so as the King moved forward, stopping just a few metres short of my father, who raised his chin as the King neared.

‘What have you done to my daughter?’ he demanded. ‘What has your bloody Kingdom done to her? Tell me!’

The King sighed and a chill passed around the walls of the room like a wind. I shivered; so did Lily. ‘More than you can ever imagine, Michael Lee,’ he murmured, yet I could hear him as clear as a chime in the still air. He turned back to me with a face splintered with emotion that he seemed to try to be hiding. But his eyes were empty of life or feeling, as ever. ‘She knows what you did,’ he continued, looking back at my father and gesturing around the room. ‘We all do.’ My father’s eyes widened then and for the first time, Lily looked afraid.

‘Is this your revenge then, Your Majesty? Poisoning my daughter?’

‘That was certainly not the preferred method of vengeance,’ Eaglen said with the slightest hint of distaste, although he maintained a straight face. He came forward. ‘I suppose you are familiar with what we call the King and Crown’s Protection?’

‘Of course.’

‘You and your family are under it.’ He cut off my father’s surprised response with a wave of his hand. ‘It can wait. I suggest we continue this conversation somewhere a little more comfortable and perhaps a little more rationally, I hope, for both your children’s sakes.’

Neither of them objected and with a wave of the King’s hand, my father was steered from the hall, his eyes staring straight ahead in a defiant effort not to look at me. He was followed by the two other men; the man who had carried Lily in went to take her arm but she pulled it out of his reach, recoiling from his touch like a spring. She strode forwards before he could attempt to grab her again and stopped just short of me, the lines across her brow deep. A slight blush tinged the apples of her cheeks like they had been pinched as she allowed her wide but bright eyes to pass across Kaspar, and then the rest of the Varns, who were dissipating and following in the wake of my father and the King.