Beth_Fantaskey-Jessicas guide to dating the dark side.

by Jessica's Guide to Dating the Dark Side (lit)

Am I scared of the house—or the person who can stand to in­habit it?

  As Dorin and I watched, a light went on behind one of the windows. One single light, in a high window.

  My uncle and I exchanged glances.

  "Could be the servants," Dorin surmised. "Or, then again, maybe the boy came home for the night."

  "Let's go," I urged, grabbing my uncle's arm. Go, before I did something stupid. Like run right up to that castle and bang on the doors. Or run right home to Lebanon County and never look back. "Please. I want to go."

  "Right behind you," Dorin agreed, hurrying for the car.

  Chapter 61

  THE GOOD NEWS was the Dragomir clan actually did have its own fairly impressive estate. The bad news was it was open to tourists four days a week. This was yet another manifestation of our "reduced circumstances," as Dorin liked to call what was, quite apparently, real economic distress.

  "The tours don't start until ten a.m.," Dorin reassured me, helping me lug my suitcase into our musty mansion. He side­stepped a metal sign that instructed visitors: "no smoking! no flash photography!" in about seven languages. "We're very popular this year," Dorin added, like that was a great thing. "The Romanian tourism authority really stepped up the ad­vertising. Motor coach traffic is up sixty-seven percent."

  Good grief.

  "Of course, there are private living areas," Dorin added, seeing my disappointment. "The bedrooms and bathrooms are mostly off-limits. Although the occasional American finds his way to the private toilets. I suppose it's the unfamiliar foods.. . . At any rate, don't be alarmed if you open a door and find one of your countrymen perched there. It's embarrassing for every­one, yes. But not harmful, really. It's hardly an inconvenience, even. They're very good about flushing. For the most part."

  Tourists? Pooping in my castle? I bet nobody pooped, unau­thorized, at the Vladescu estate. . . .

  "Dorin?"

  "Hmm?" He was dragging my suitcase up a tall, curving, stone staircase. The bulb in a fake, electrified torch flickered on the wall, a cheap imitation of the actual fire that I was fairly certain blazed in Lucius's home. He would suffer no less than the real thing. I once again stroked the bloodstone at my throat, and the word unacceptable flashed through my mind. This was unacceptable. If things went as I hoped, and I really did come to lead this family, I would reclaim our castle for the Dragomirs—not tourists. The idea excited me to a surprising degree. As we reached the highest landing, I surveyed the vaulted ceilings, the once majestic corridors. Yes, we could do better.

  "What happens next?" I asked Dorin, following him down the hallway and into a cavernous bedroom.

  Dorin dropped the suitcase with a thud. "Why, you need to meet the family. Everyone's very excited to dine with you. They'll be here soon."

  Images of Lucius's "family" flashed through my mind.

  "How many are coming?" I asked, hoping that I wouldn't have to confront too many of my vampire kin all at once.

  "Oh, just twenty or so of our closest kin. We did not think it wise to overwhelm you on your first day here, but of course everyone is curious to see our long-awaited heiress. I suppose you'll want to clean up a little? Change clothes?" Dorin hinted.

  "Yes," I said, grasping the opportunity to be alone for a moment. To reflect. To pull myself together. This was all hap­pening so fast. I needed to think.

  Dorin moved through the room, snapping on lights. The space was dusty, dated, and drafty, but livable. It was not too far gone from its former glory. Yet. "I hope you are comfortable here," Dorin said, tossing my bag on the four-poster bed. "I'll come back for you in about an hour. Take a nap if you like."

  "Thanks."

  "Oh! I almost forgot." Dorin trotted to a large wardrobe, opened the door, and pulled down a gown on a hanger. It was a bit faded but still beautiful. Silk that had no doubt once blazed bright crimson had mellowed to a richer, deeper red. "This was your mother's. I thought you might want to wear it for dinner. It is a big occasion, and I'm afraid we left so hur­riedly that I gave you no chance to pack something formal."

  As if in a trance, I moved to Dorin and ran my fingertips across the fabric. "I recognize this. From her photograph."

  "Ah, yes, her portrait." Dorin smiled. "Mihaela had many gowns, but this was her favorite. She loved the intense color— so like her personality. She wore this to so many lovely gather­ings, in a different time, before the purge . . ." He looked for a moment as if he might cry, then brightened. "You will do it justice, Antanasia, and usher in a new era for us. Perhaps we will all be happy again soon. Perhaps your mother's fondest dream—peace for the Vladescus and Dragomirs—will be made manifest after all."

  I stroked the fabric again. "Are you sure it's okay? To wear it?"

  "Not just 'okay,'" Dorin promised. "Appropriate. Perfect."

  He left me alone then, and I gently laid the dress on the bed. I wore her necklace, I was about to slip into her gown, and I stood in her home. But could I live up to the legacy of Mihaela Dragomir? Was I a real princess, as I hoped, or just a ghost—a pale, insubstantial shadow of her—like the old man in the restaurant had believed?

  Doubts won't help now, Jess. Lucius believed you were just like her, in every way. . . .

  Locating the bathroom, I stripped off the jeans and shirt Id worn on the plane and took a long, hot shower. Toweling off, I carefully removed the dress from the hanger, undid a row of seed-pearl buttons that ran down the back, and stepped into the gown, drawing it up around my body like an embrace from the past. A leftover hug from my mother.

  It fit perfectly. As if it had been designed for me.

  I gazed into a gilt mirror that stood in the corner of the room, watching my reflection by the light of a full, clear moon that shone like a quavery searchlight through a long bank of warped, leaded windows.

  Is this how Mihaela had regarded herself? By the light of this moon? In this same mirror?

  The collar of the dress was high, rising almost to brush my jaw, but the neckline plunged deep, showcasing the bloodstone at my throat. The gown curved over my breasts, then fell as sharply and abruptly as a waterfall cascading over a Carpathian cliff, ending in a sweep of silken train that swished like a whis­per when I walked. Like the whispers that no doubt followed any woman who dared to wear this spellbinding dress.

  This was a gown that made a statement about the woman who wore it. It told everyone who saw her, "I am powerful, and beautiful, and just try to look away from me. I will be noticed."

  I had no silver coronet, so I gathered my curls loosely be­hind my neck and allowed them to tumble freely down my back, glossy black hair upon glossy red fabric, staking my own more youthful, but still dramatic, claim to the gown.

  The young woman I saw reflected in the mirror, her dark eyes glittering in the moonlight, really did look like a princess.

  Strong. Determined. Unafraid.

  There was a knock on the door, and Dorin called in to me, "Your guests have arrived. Are you ready?"

  "Come in," I urged him.

  Dorin poked his head in the room, and his merry, crinkled eyes snapped wide open. For a long moment, he simply stared at me, finally saying, "Yes. You are ready, indeed." Then he stepped aside, allowing me to walk through the door before him. I noted that he bowed to me, just slightly, as I passed.

  Chapter 62

  THEY WERE WAITING for me at the foot of the curved staircase, every face turned in my direction as I descended, and I watched as their looks changed from skepticism and concern to appreciation and wonder—and hope. And the fact that they were beginning to believe in me gave me confidence, even as it terrified me, too.

  Who am I to be anyone's savior? Anyone's princess?

  You are your mother's daughter. . . beautiful, powerful, regal. . . Dorin's reassurances and Lucius's ode echoed again in my mind, giving me courage.

  One by one, my vampire relations approached to meet me as I paused at the foot of the staircase. Dorin introduced them, and as each of my Dragomir kin
—cousins close and distant— came near to bow or curtsy, I saw echoes of myself in the curve of a nose, the arch of an eyebrow, the slant of a cheekbone. They were attired in good clothes, but I noted that the dresses were a bit outdated, the suits sometimes ill-fitting. What has become of us since my parents' destruction?

  "Come," said Dorin when we had all been introduced. "Let us dine."

  I led a small procession into a long and lofty dining room, chilly in spite of a fire that blazed in a cavernous fireplace, and, at Dorin's indication, claimed my seat at the head of a table glittering with silver and candlelight. We Dragomirs were in difficult financial straits, but all the stops seemed to have been pulled out for my return.

  "Sit, sit," Dorin said quietly, pulling out my chair. "I am afraid I must serve . . . We are short on servants right now, and it is difficult to draw anyone from the village, anyhow, given the current state of things. No one wants to be working late at the Dragomir estate ..."

  "It's fine," I reassured him, taking my seat.

  Toasts were raised to me, in Romanian, and Dorin trans­lated for me. To my health . . . to my return . . . to the pact. . . to peace.

  A murmur went around the table as the last toast was concluded, and Dorin bent to speak to me. "They wish to hear from you. They are too eager to eat. You must tell them your plans."

  For the first time since I'd donned the red silk dress and begun to settle into my new royal role, I felt a flash of genuine panic. I didn't prepare a speech. I should have prepared a speech. What can I tell them? God, what do I even plan to do? "I can't do it," I whispered to Dorin, leaning close to him. "I don't know what to say."

  "You must, Antanasia," Dorin begged me. "They will ex­pect it. They will lose confidence if you do not."

  Confidence. I cannot afford to lose their confidence. And so I rose, facing my family, and began, "It is my honor to be among you tonight, back in our ancestral home . . ." What can I say? "It has been too long."

  Dorin translated for those who didn't speak English, glanc­ing at me now and then with more than a little dismay in his eyes. He knew I was struggling, and looking at my rela­tives ringed around the table, I saw uncertainty creeping back into their minds, too. I was losing their trust as quickly as I'd gained it.

  "I intend to ensure that the pact is honored," I added. "As your princess, I promise I will not let you down."

  "Tell me, Jessica'' someone began. A deep voice.

  Oh, thank goodness. . . a question.

  "Yes?" I searched the faces, trying to find the speaker in the dim, candlelit room.

  "How do you intend to keep the bargain? Stop the war? Be­cause I understand the Vladescus have no interest in the pact anymore."

  The voice came from behind me. The familiar voice.

  I spun around, knocking over my chair, to see Lucius Vladescu standing in the doorway, leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest, a bitter smile on his face.

  "Lucius." My heart stopped in my chest, and all the blood drained from my face. It was Lucius. Alive. Standing not twenty feet from me. How many times had I dreamed of seeing him again? Dreamed of touching him? How many times had those dreams nearly devastated me with their futility? But now, he was so close. . . .

  His smile faded, as if he couldn't maintain his coolly ironic demeanor at the sight of me, and I heard him murmur, just faintly, "Antanasia . . ." In that one word, I perceived longing, relief, tenderness, eagerness. The same emotions I was experi­encing. He hesitated, uncertain, one hand extended as though he might approach me.

  "Lucius," I repeated, blinking at him, as the reality of his existence slowly sank in. "It's really you."

  When I said that, Lucius's hand dropped to his side, and he regained his ironic smile. "Indeed, there is only one," he joked bitterly, all traces of tenderness fading. "And the world is bet­ter for it."

  I began to run for him, then, nearly tripping over the train of my gown, wanted to hurl myself at him, tackle him, and kiss him again and again for the joy of seeing him. And then scream at him for lying to me and abandoning me. But then I saw his face up close, and I stopped short, in midstride.

  "Lucius?"

  It seemed as though he'd aged years in the few months we'd been apart. All vestiges of the American teenager were gone—and not just because he'd resumed wearing his tailored pants, his velvet jacket. His black hair was longer, drawn into a care­less ponytail. His mouth was set more firmly. His shoulders had broadened. Stubble shadowed his usually clean-shaven jaw. And his eyes were blacker than ever, almost as if they had no soul behind them, animating them.

  Behind me, the Dragomirs seemed frozen in place, to find their enemy in their midst.

  "Security's a tad lax," Lucius noted. He pushed off from the door frame and strode past me into the room, not meeting my eyes, assessing the obviously timeworn furnishings with the same disdain he'd exhibited months ago in our farmhouse kitchen. Only this time, he seemed not just arrogant, in the in­nocent way of someone who's known nothing but privilege, but deliberately dismissive. "I was going to sign up for the tour," he added. "But I couldn't wait until ten a.m. to see you, Jessica."

  I stared at him with a mixture of dismay and fury. He knew that using my American name was an insult in this place. And he was being so cold. "Don't speak to me like that," I told him. "It's cruel, and I know you are not cruel."

  He still refused to meet my eyes, deliberately averting his gaze. "Am I not?"

  "No." I moved toward him, refusing to let him control every moment of our meeting. This wasn't a high school dance, where he could assume the lead. He was in my family's home. Shaken as I was to see him so unexpectedly, to find him so al­tered, I would not be cowed, like my relatives behind me, quak­ing in their chairs. "You are not cruel, Lucius."

  We were standing close to each other now, near enough that I could smell that aromatic, exotic cologne he'd gotten away from wearing sometime during his transformation into an American student. Lucius the warrior prince was back, in every aspect. Or so he wanted me to believe.

  "Why did you come here?" Lucius asked me, softly so that my relatives would not hear. He still didn't meet my gaze. "You must leave, Jessica."

  "No. No, Lucius, I won't."

  He turned to me then, and there was a flash of misery—of humanity—in his eyes, but it was momentary, and he stepped around me, putting physical and emotional distance between us again. I could tell that he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. To keep me at arm's length. At least, I hoped he was struggling. The coldness, the distance: They seemed so real.

  "You were watching my house," he noted, circling the table like a hawk looking for the rabbit that didn't have the good sense to stay still. As he passed behind each of my vampire rela­tives, they cowered visibly. I wished, desperately, that they'd stop doing that.

  "How did you know?"

  "It's wise, on the eve of a conflict, to stay alert," Lucius ad­vised, voice growing even flintier as he talked of war, slipping into his role as a general. Slipping away from me. "Of course I have guards on the perimeter of my property. Your family pesters me endlessly, whining about the unfulfilled pact, claim­ing that I never wanted to share power . . . And the more they say that, the more I realize, Why share what I can take by force? I am not averse to a little spilled blood, if it achieves my ends."

  "Lucius, you don't mean that."

  "Yes, I do," Lucius said, placing his hands on the back of Dorin's chair. My uncle locked up with a full-body spasm. I knew he was terrified that Lucius would destroy him, right then and there, for bringing me to Romania. "Have you ever known me to jest about power, Dorin?"

  My uncle said nothing.

  Lucius leaned close, speaking right into Dorin's ear. "I shall deal with you later for defying me and bringing her here."

  "Step away from him," I ordered. "You're here to see me. Don't torment my family in our own home."

  Lucius surveyed the room again. "When all this is mine, I shall have to
make some serious changes. Giving tours. It shames all of vampiredom!"

  I stared at him, refusing to become visibly upset or tearful, even, over just how callous he was acting. The Lucius before me was even icier and more inaccessible than he'd been after Vasile had ordered him beaten so severely. Lucius. . . where is my Lucius?

  "I want you to leave now, Lucius," I told him, deliberately calm. "I won't talk with you when you're like this."

  He arched his eyebrows. "Is this not the reunion you hoped for, Jessica? Is this not what you came thousands of miles for? Are you disappointed to find your family weak—and your for­mer betrothed more despicable than ever?"

  "You can't make me hate you," I said. "No matter how hard you try. I know what you're doing. I know you're trying to drive me away from you. You think you're beyond redemption be­cause you destroyed Vasile. You're convinced that you're just like him—or worse because you betrayed your family. But you're not like Vasile." I dared to stroke his arm. "I know you."