Abigail Gibbs - The Dark Heroine - Dinner with a Vampire

He cleared his throat, filling the room with a definite awkwardness. I shifted from one foot to the other. ‘You’re wanted downstairs. Now.’

‘Why?’

As he left, his gaze glided up and down my body, taking in my attire – a scruffy pair of Lyla’s old pyjamas. ‘You have two minutes.’

His deliberate avoiding of the question unnerved me, but I was already in the wardrobe when I heard the bedroom door close. I grabbed something a little less inappropriate and changed.

I left the room, wondering what the great urgency was. I had never been requested to be ‘seen’ in the fifteen days I had been here and Sky had never spoken directly to me.

The eldest Varn child was much older than the other five: a thousand, Fabian said, but he was not the heir to the throne. No, Kaspar was heir. Sky was married to Arabella, a few years his junior and they had two daughters. They lived in Romania mostly, as did Jag and Mary; I suspected it was my arrival that had prompted their visit.

The entrance hall was a frenzy of activity when I reached the top of the staircase. It seemed as though most of the household had gathered, all wearing long black cloaks, even tiny Thyme. Servants rushed about, passing various objects around, before hastily bowing and darting off to their next task. I spotted Annie, who gave me the smallest of smiles.

‘It’s like trying to get an army on the move,’ Fabian said, coming up to greet me, grimacing at the bickering of the Varn siblings below. Unlike the others, he wore normal clothes.

‘What’s going on?’ I asked, leaning over the banister.

He grimaced again. ‘It’s a hunt.’ My lips pursed and I swallowed back a gag, realizing why Sky had avoided my question a moment ago.

‘A hunt for what?’ He shot me a look that said, ‘As if you don’t know.’ I closed my eyes. ‘But what do I have to do with that?’

‘They’re going for the weekend, so I’m staying to keep an eye on you.’

Below, Kaspar and Cain snapped at each other, unbothered by what they were about to do. ‘I don’t need babysitting. What the hell would I do? It’s not as though I could go anywhere.’

He shrugged, heading down the stairs. ‘You tell me. But it could be worse. Kaspar could be staying.’ He gave me a knowing look.

That is true. I would be an idiot to trust Fabian, but he was a lesser of two evils when compared to Kaspar.

The King strode forward and, as he did so, the butler rushed forward, swinging both of the enormous doors open. He disappeared down them and one by one, the others filtered after him. Kaspar, however, hung back, waiting for Fabian at the base of the stairs. We both descended.

‘Don’t let her out of your sight.’ He jerked his thumb towards me and I dropped my gaze to the floor.

‘I am perfectly capable of looking after a human, Kaspar,’ Fabian replied testily.

‘Perhaps.’ He went to leave but I dived forward and grabbed his wrist in a sudden burst of energy as my heart leapt. The floor squealed beneath his boots as he swung back around; his cloak slung away from the loose linen shirt he wore underneath, revealing a coat of arms emblazoned on the breast: a black rose, dripping a drop of blood into a large ‘V’ below.

‘Please, don’t kill anyone,’ I whispered.

I thought I saw his eyes soften for a moment. But he tore his wrist from my grip like I was no more than a child, which I realized I must be to him. A child. He walked down the steps after the others, who were already halfway across the grounds, stopping once he reached the lawns, turning back towards me as I stood watching from the open doorway, inhaling the first fresh air in weeks.

His eyes rose from the floor to meet mine. He held that gaze for a moment, before he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head, casting all into shadow, save for his glistening emerald eyes. His dark figure lingered for a little longer, until he swept around into the sunset that had bathed the world in pale gold. As he reached the other cloaked figures, they all sped up, becoming a dark blur on the landscape, running into the falling sun and on the hunt as they had been the first time I had set eyes upon their kind.

The moon soon replaced the sun and stars dotted the clear night sky, untainted by the orange glow of the built-up areas. Somewhere, a clock chimed, telling me it was getting on towards midnight.

‘There’s far more to this world than humans think, isn’t there?’ I asked, turning to face Fabian from my window seat.

His face was framed by the dancing fire, which roared in the hearth. It was eerie, watching the orange flames light up his pale skin, lapping at it as though it longed to burn his unnatural presence away.

‘Far more. This is just one royal family of many,’ he continued. ‘But you don’t want to know more. Ignorance is a blessing. Treasure it.’

I nodded. He’s right .

Unfolding my legs, I slipped off the seat and moved myself to one of the armchairs. He looked up in anticipation, by now used to my quizzing.

‘What happened to the Queen?’

I instantly regretted asking, because whatever it was, it had stirred some deep, forgotten emotion in him. He sank back into the chair and his blue eyes flashed to black, and then to grey, where they remained. They were pitiful, lost of all the life they usually contained. If colour could drain from his face, it would.

‘I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,’ I stammered. His eyes glazed over and he didn’t move. ‘Fabian?’

His head snapped up and the greyness in his eyes seemed to melt away, returning to their usual sky blue. His stiff body loosened and he ran a hand down the back of his head.

‘I’m sorry, but when you know someone that long … you …’ he trailed off. ‘I will tell you on the condition that you never speak a word of it to anyone but me.’

I didn’t hesitate. ‘I won’t say a thing.’

‘I will start from the very beginning. It’s a long story.’

I shifted a little, trying to make myself as comfortable as possible, never taking my eyes off his saddened face.

‘Vampires have been around for millions of years, roaming the Earth millennia before humans. Nobody knows how we came about. There are no theories. But we were a peaceful species, and for many centuries, we lived alongside nature without any conflict. We drank the blood of any animal we could lay our hands on, and in turn we were respected as the ultimate predator. We were primitive – but still far more advanced than any other animal at the time.’

He paused for a moment, thinking.

‘If the theory of evolution is indeed correct, then about two million years ago, the first ape-type creatures appeared and, for the first time, the vampires met an animal similar to themselves. But vampires treated them like they did any other: they continued to hunt them. But it all changed when you lot arrived.’

He stopped, looking me in the eye. You lot. Us.

‘These creatures were clever, resourceful and, most importantly, were able to adapt. For the first time ever, vampires had met their match. But they continued to feed from them as they had done with every other animal and quickly developed a taste for their blood. Within a couple of centuries, the only acceptable blood was human; the only blood that would quench their thirst. Most vampires still hunted animals, but it wasn’t the same. But what our ancestors didn’t realize is that they were creating a situation that would cause problems forever more.’

He stopped once more, allowing that to sink in.

‘How can you know this if it was so long ago?’ I asked.

‘Like I said, the oldest vampire is, well, old . He remembers a lot of our history and what he doesn’t know was passed down through his family,’ he answered, before carrying on. ‘As I was saying, the early humans eventually learnt to fight back, and the vampires realized their mistake. The most powerful vampire clan at the time ordered all vampires to go into hiding. They were told to try not to kill a human when they fed, and to hunt at night wherever possible. It was a drastic last minute attempt to prevent the destruction of both species. This powerful family continued to govern the vampires and they eventually became the first royal family. That family was the Varns.’