The Vampires' Birthright (9 page)

I looked to the guys for help. “Come on, you
know
this is bullshit Garvan.”

He refused to meet my gaze and opened his mouth to speak, but wandered over to stand behind Chanson in silence before finally noticing something incredibly interesting on his shoes.

“Unbelievable.” I was somewhere between furious and disappointed.

“Very well… we shall agree to disagree. Okay?” She stepped closer, lowering her voice to just above a whisper. “But for now, I ask that you act as if this unfortunate event never happened. At least—”

I started to protest, but she stopped me.

“At least until it’s safe enough to do otherwise.” She nodded in an effort to get me to do the same. The weight of her stare burrowed into my frazzled psyche, and I relented. “And, I mean safe enough for us all.”

In other words, I needed to keep my mouth shut until we were no longer guests of Xu Zheng Palace.

With such an unpleasant start to Christmas Eve, I assumed the entire holiday would be a somber, and thus a lonelier, affair. Especially since I seriously doubted our Chinese hosts gave a flip about this predominantly Western holiday. There wasn’t a single hint that Christmas even existed in the palace… no decorations, colored lights, and certainly no Christmas trees. Not even Asian or bonsai style. Yes, I knew that is Japanese, but it would have been cute anyway. Just the mundane Eighteenth century comforts.

Lovely. Just fucking lovely.

I believe if it had only been me this upset, my companions might’ve been tempted to lock me up in a dark closet and not let me out until January arrived. But Tyreen was also dealing with deep sadness—despite her new nature as a vampire. The human side of her would take decades to die off, unless she was as resilient as the vampires in our immediate circle. They usually seemed ‘human’ enough despite all were at least three centuries in age. Even so, I certainly was seeing more and more where compassion for the true human condition was a perspective of convenience.

“Hey, sister, how are you holding up?” she said, when the others prepared to leave the room for what I assumed would be another typical night of ‘pick your plasma preference while Txema picks at her food’.

“I’ll be okay, Tyreen. I just need to take my mind off this shit for at least a night.” The soft-hearted girl I once knew lingered in her eyes. They were glistening as if she might cry. Pink halos formed around the rims and a deeper spot of crimson filled the edge of her left eye. “How you are doing is the more important thing.”

“I’ll be okay, too,” she said. “But I really miss my mom and dad back in Atlanta… and I miss Johnny
even
more!”

Her lips trembled for a moment, and I so admired her efforts to hold in the pain for my sake. There wasn’t much mercy for a new vampire. Tyreen was expected to tough it out on her own. Surely, this had been the case long ago for my immortal companions when they were ‘turned.’ Assuming this, none of them could be expected to behave differently, or faulted for not showing compassion to a new vamp struggling with the steady decay of her humanity. Just five weeks earlier, Tyreen talked excitedly about traveling home to Atlanta from Knoxville for Thanksgiving break to introduce her parents to her college beau, Johnny Ayers.

“Oh, sweetie, you’ll always be able to count on me to be there for you.” I reached out to embrace her, and a deluge of pent up emotion exploded from her. She wept bitterly. “There, there…it’s okay.”

A good thing I didn’t wear something white that night, or I would’ve needed to change my wardrobe. But if I could wear her genuine tears on my dark burgundy sweater for the night—which I intended to do—it was a burden worth carrying. Especially since she seemed revived after her cry had ended.

She wiped her cheeks with her hands and saw the blood. Hunger and revulsion in equal measure filled her eyes. I put my hand on her chin, lifted her eyes to meet mine, and gave her a small smile, which she returned as she pushed the monster back into some dark closet of her soul.

“What will I do when you get old and gray?”

That’s the ultimate question that seems to haunt all immortals when faced with the loss of those they’ve cared most for while still human. Raquel once mentioned how the first such deaths are always the worst to endure.

“You’ll make her into a vampire and call it a day!” Armando inserted himself into our conversation quite literally.

He floated beneath us and popped up his face between ours. His comical expression and timing were impossible to resist, and both Tyreen and I laughed a little. It felt good. Really good.

“But I suggest you not wait so long to do it.” He continued his playful rant, after somehow disappearing from between us and reappearing next to Tyreen’s right shoulder. “Sometime before Txema turns into an old, craggy witch of a woman. Maybe when she’s thirty, no? Unless you two keep chit-chatting tonight away. If you’re not careful, I’ve seen how Chanson’s great, great, great, grand-niece gets when she hasn’t received prompt nourishment―and you have too, Tyreen. Txema might become that craggy witch much, much sooner and be completely ready to become a vampire this very night!”

“Only if you’re eager to experience the ‘true death’ from Gustav, since that would happen long before the bearer of the last birthmark of life gets turned into one of us!” said Chanson, sort of playfully, sort of not. She appeared in our midst out of nowhere. “In the meantime, I have a little surprise for both Txema and Tyreen tonight!”

My extremities were numb from all of the vampires gathered close to me, along with the arctic air pouring in through the gaping hole still present in the window. It, and our door, wouldn’t be fixed for a few more hours, since suitable lumber wasn’t easy to come by. I envisioned little Chinese orphans chopping wood in the dead of night, while their lazy vampire overlords told Gustav ‘our window and door repair crews are working diligently around the clock to get your issue taken care of promptly!’

“What kind of surprise?” I didn’t wait for the answer, anxiously digging out my coat and some gloves since the room’s temperature had dropped to where my breaths rose in progressively longer mists.

Chanson motioned for Garvan to bring over a long dress box to me. At the moment, I was wearing jeans and the sweater I mentioned earlier. Since arriving at the palace the month prior, fashion had become far less important to me than warmth. I should’ve known something was up, since they all were dressed up more than usual. While the guys were wearing semi-formal Pierre Cardin, all the girls had these amazing evening gowns that bore only slight differences in design despite different colors―all the latest fashion.

In fact, I had seen the same designs on some starlet at a premier for Cosmic Smash 2 or something like that just last week. Don’t judge, I had a lot of time and nothing but some magazines I had taken off the jet when we landed. Raquel always looked splendid no matter what color or style she chose to wear, and went for a fuchsia evening gown. Tyreen’s gown was almost hunter green, but it was softened with some other hue to where it matched her eyes perfectly. Chanson wore traditional black, but there were slight ruffles along the neckline and lower hem. I seized upon the minute details of each dress, drinking in the normalcy of them and pretending for a moment to be a regular person, with regular friends.

I had to admit I was deeply curious about what awaited me in the box. When I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised to find a pearl sequined gown. As beautiful as it was, I worried I’d likely freeze my ass off in it.

“That is why you will also wear this,” said Armando, beaming as he brought a beautiful white mink stole over to me.

“And this.” Garvan pulled out a dazzling diamond necklace along with matching earrings and bracelet from his coat pocket. He smiled shyly as he brought them over to me, and requested the honor to put them on me once I had changed clothes.

“And don’t forget these!” said Raquel.

She brought over a pair of stunning white satin Manolos for my feet. Wearing her patented seductive smirk, she motioned for me to go ahead and change into my wardrobe for the evening―with all of them standing right there in front of me. Of course, I still have far too much modesty to do that in front of a mixed crowd—even when all of them had surely seen me in some stage of undress before.

“Let’s give her a moment of privacy, shall we?” said Chanson, placing her arms around Raquel’s waist to get her to come along.

They all followed her out into the hallway, but Tyreen also had something to give me, as well.

“You’ll definitely be needing these,” she said, and handed me the sheer hosiery I needed to make the dress look right. “And, I remember you once said something about dressing up like Princess Di when you were a little kid.”

She pulled out a pair of elegant white gloves from a small bag she carried. The gloves came up an inch past my elbows.

By then, I had figured out something grand was going down. A very big vampire celebration was about to happen. Certainly, Tyreen had heard about the ones held in France on a regular basis, where le Chateau de Douleur would rock as hard as the Playboy mansion in California ever has. Only vampire-style. I am sure she was as excited as I was, though perhaps for a different reason. This would be her first real soirée as a member of the vampire culture.

The question in my mind was where in the hell would a party like that take place in this sterile, soulless God-forsaken monastery?

Tyreen left me to change into my wonderful outfit―the beautiful gown and accessories fit for a queen. It really touched my heart and lifted my mood. But, still there was a feeling of foreboding I couldn’t shake. I was on borrowed time… borrowed time against what fate had in store for me. The image of me in spending the evening in some sort of macabre dance party with a room full of walking corpses sent a series of rapid chills up and down my spine. Perhaps it was the deepening cold air seeping through the window-wound on the third floor of Xu Zheng Palace.

I shook my head to clear it of the dark images that threatened to ruin my evening and resolved to make the best of whatever time I had left there… And, to try and embrace Christmas with my friends.

Party on!

’m glad you let me put these on you.”