Dinner With a Vampire (The Dark Heroine #1)(120)
Author: Abigail Gibbs

Three guesses who, I thought dryly. But my father didn’t need three guesses. He turned around straight away and looked at me.

‘But she is human.’

‘Dhampir, actually. But the Prophecy states that the second Heroine has ‘no birth’, indicating that—’

‘Dhampir? What do you mean, dhampir?’

Silence fell. Eaglen shifted, closing the book with a soft thud. The Permanent Secretary glanced at the other man beside him.

‘Half-blood,’ Eaglen said slowly, as though lengthening each word would lessen the blow.

‘I know what it is,’ my father snarled, pushing himself out of the chair and rounding on me. ‘But do you mean to say you contain vampire’s blood?’

I said nothing. He didn’t know why I was a dhampir. I didn’t want him to know and I pleaded with my eyes to Eaglen, but it was the King who broke the silence.

‘Her Lady Heroine had little choice in such a matter as the situation was … problematic and unforeseen. But we can talk of such things when time is not so pressing.’

The door opened yet again and Kaspar and Cain slipped in; Kaspar stopped dead as his eyes glazed over me, then my father and onto Eaglen’s worried expression.

‘What the—’

‘Was it him? Did he make you drink it? Is he why you’re a dhampir?’ my father demanded, glaring at Kaspar. I shook my head, feeling a little desperate and wishing that someone would change the subject as I tried to press my father’s hand, which pointed at Kaspar, back down, flushing again.

‘No, nothing like that. Look, it doesn’t matter so much, just forget about it.’

‘Forget about it? How can I forget that my own daughter has the blood of murderers in her veins?’ He turned away, burying his face in his hands. ‘No daughter of mine would do that! So who are you? Who are you?’

Cain launched himself forwards, only just grabbed in time by Kaspar. ‘Stop it! It wasn’t her fault! None of it was her fault. She was attacked and that blood saved her life and she’s just found out she is a Heroine and all you can do is hound her for letting herself be poisoned by murderers, or whatever you call it. What kind of a family do you call yourself?’

The whole room was silent, shocked at Cain’s sudden outburst. I waited for my father’s response, my skin starting to crawl with a feeling I thought I had forgotten.

‘Attacked?’ my father breathed. ‘When? Who?’

I didn’t answer. Nobody did.

‘It doesn’t matter. It’s no big deal. It was ages ago now.’ I couldn’t tell him who. He would try and kill Valerian Crimson for what his son had done, and it wouldn’t be Crimson coming off worse.

‘Doesn’t matter? Of course it matters!’

‘Everything is fine, there’s no need to talk about it, okay?’ I began, trying to salvage the situation.

‘No, we are going to talk about this now—’

‘No, we’re not,’ I corrected, seeing Eaglen mouthing for me to go. I didn’t need any encouragement and I turned on my heel, leaving the occupants of the room in embarrassed silence. Kaspar reached out towards me but I recoiled, just as my sister had done earlier.

‘I’m fine!’ I snapped, leaving the room to mutters of ‘My Lady’. I bolted upstairs, locking myself into the bathroom and scrubbing my hands and splashing my face with cold water until my cheeks turned red and my skin tingled.

When I was done, I slipped out onto the balcony outside Kaspar’s room, sinking down against the banisters and listening to the voices and footsteps of the people who passed below.

The grounds were bare and empty now. The warm hues that had ringed the mansion earlier on in the autumn had descended to the lawns, dappling them with spots of muddy brown. It was still windy and I curled up in the corner of the balcony, tugging the short sleeves of the blouse down as far as they would go and folding my arms across my chest. The hairs across my arms stood up as a bitter breeze passed through, rustling the piles of leaves scattered across the ground like a child crumpling sweet wrappers.

‘Are you trying to freeze yourself to death?’

Untangling myself from the material, I wrapped it around my shoulders. ‘No.’

‘Your father is being difficult,’ Kaspar said, coming and sitting down beside me. ‘Reminds me of someone, actually.’ He gave me a knowing smile, but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of responding. Instead, I stared at the blanket around my knees, shivering beneath it.

‘Did he actually get that I’m a Heroine?’

‘Yes, but in all honesty, he was more bothered about, well …’ He left the sentence hanging. I pulled my knees in closer to my chest and rested my head on the blanket, which was already becoming damp from the specks of rain continuing to fall. He is only being protective, I told myself. But the tone he had used; the words he had chosen; the way he had demanded who? still hurt.

But what did you expect? my voice asked. I had expected him to be angry over Kaspar and over me turning, but I hadn’t expected what Ilta had done to come up. I hadn’t been prepared for that.

‘Will he come to Athenea with us?’ I muttered.

‘Who? Your father? Probably,’ Kaspar answered. ‘It will mean we can keep an eye on him.’

I shook my head. I knew that: it was common sense. ‘I meant Valerian Crimson.’

There was a pause which answered my question better than any words. Resigned, I nodded into the blanket.

‘But Athenea is huge. You won’t even know he is there,’ Kaspar continued in a more hopeful tone. ‘And he wouldn’t dare touch you, not now you’re under the Sage’s protection.’

I didn’t doubt that. But just his presence was too much. All I wanted to do was forget about it, but every time he appeared I felt as though I was the dirt crushed below his boot, pushed further and further into the gravel, like I had been just a day before.

I felt tears prick at my eyes and closed them, burying my face in the folds of the rough material. ‘Ilta tried to kill me.’ A spot burnt in the centre of my palm. ‘He knew I was a Heroine and he wanted to finish me off. I’m lucky he didn’t just get straight to it.’

Kaspar growled. ‘Don’t say that. He had no right to do that to you, Heroine or not.’

‘There’ll be more like him though,’ I muttered.

‘No, there won’t. It will all work out, you’ll see, Girly. It’s not the end until everything is all right.’