Ch. 29

A few days later, Bodoleck finally decided to come over for dinner. Stephanie, even though she knew that he didn’t eat human food, prepared an enormous meal, literally enough to fill an army. Susan was in a bad mood, but she was still curious about him.

“Oh, you’ll love Bodoleck. He’s so fun. He’s quite serious, too. You’d be amazed at how serious he really is. He doesn’t want anyone to know that we’re vampires, and would prefer that we’d live underground in Romania, but it’s really boring there. Nothing to do,” Rosemary jabbered. She was talking a mile a minute, for she was nervous about Bodoleck coming. “But you’ll just like him for his personality. Loving and caring. He’s only three years older than me, not including the thousand from his reincarnation, and he took care of me when I was a baby. I know, it’s so nice to have him as a half-brother-in-law. You see, his brother is married to my half-sister, so, wait, am I annoying you?”

“Yes, a little bit,” Anna calmly replied. She was now almost convinced that Rosemary wasn’t going to harm her, but was still careful around her, just in case.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just a bit nervous about this whole thing. I mean, fighting dragons I can do, but having a normal conversation with humans who know that I’m a vampire, I can’t stand. I hope Bodoleck behaves himself. He used to have a problem with blood, but he left for a few years and doesn’t have a problem anymore, but-”

Anna stopped Rosemary by turning and walking towards the door. She looked through the hole and saw Bodoleck standing there.

“That’s Bodoleck? I thought he was the big goofy one that brought Michael onto the field,” Anna commented.

“No. That was Medeleck, his older brother. You know, the one married to my half-sister, Susan,” Rosemary replied.

Anna, appearing not to have heard, opened the door to let Bodoleck in. She stared at his black hair, ruffled from running, and then at his red eyes, exactly like his brother’s. He had a friendly smile on his face as he stepped into the house.

“Good evening. I’m Bodoleck. And who might this lovely lady be, Rosemary?” He already knew who it was because he had heard their conversation, but was trying to be as polite as possible to win over the humans’ trust.

Rosemary smiled slyly and said, “Bodoleck, this is Anna, Michael’s older sister. Anna, this is Bodoleck, the person I told you about.” And under her breath to Anna she added, “I would suggest shaking hands.”

Anna, rising out of an apparent daze, took Bodoleck’s hand and said, “I’m very pleased to meet you. Why don’t you come and join us?”

“Uh uh uh. First rule. Never invite a vampire into your house.” Bodoleck chuckled at the look on Anna’s face and said, “But I’ll let this one slide. Please show me the way to your lovely dinner.”

Anna walked into the dining room, with Bodoleck and Rosemary closely behind her. Stephanie, Michael, and Alex were all waiting for them, and Bodoleck said to them, “I won’t bother you for long. Just for an hour or two. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course not, Dear. Come in, come in. Sit down,” Stephanie told him.

Before Bodoleck could do so much as take a step, Rosemary whispered in his ear, “You used the beauty enhancement charm, didn’t you?”

“Why yes. Yes I did. But it’s the short term one. It won’t be necessary after they get to know me.” Bodoleck chuckled. “It’s definitely working on Anna.”

Rosemary sat down, but before Bodoleck did, he pulled out Anna’s chair for her.

“Why, thank you,” she said, still a bit dazed.

“Don’t thank me. Thank you’re parents for letting me come over. It’s all because of them that I’m here,” Bodoleck said, taking his own seat next to her.

Once they were all settled, and a couple prayers were murmured, Alex said, “Well, let’s dig in.” And so they did. Stephanie had made a dinner the size of a Thanksgiving feast. There was a turkey and a chicken, but that was the only meat. There was also corn, mashed potatoes, squash, tuna salad, beans, mixed vegetables like carrots and broccoli, and for dessert there was chocolate and vanilla pudding.

After an hour, and they were almost done, Bodoleck said, “I think I would fancy a stroll. Anna, would you care to join me?”

Anna, dumbstruck and suprised, asked in almost a whisper, “Me?”

“Is there any other beautiful young woman in the room?” Bodoleck smiled warmly as he took Anna’s hand. She obediently, if not slowly, stood up as he led her to the door.

Once they were outside, Rosemary said, “He must really be trying. I’ve never seen him so polite. I don’t know what he’s up to, but I have a feeling that I’m not going to like it when I do find out.”

“Yeah. Can you hand me that turkey leg? No, not that one. The big one. That’s the one.” Rosemary handed Michael a leg with meat on it in a block that was the size of his head. He opened his jaw as wide as it would go, and took a huge chomp out of it.

“Stephanie, how do you manage to feed a boy like this? His stomach is a bottomless pit of storage space,” Rosemary commented.

Alex laughed and replied, “I don’t know why, but he always eats more when you’re around. It’s strange. By the way, how was that trip to and from Romania? Michael refuses to tell us.”

“Well, my aunt, Veripema came to my half-sister’s house and almost killed us, I fought off goblins, outran a dragon, got a bottle of potion that my mom made from mermaids, and visited fairies. I’ll tell you the details when Bodoleck isn’t flirting with your daughter,” Rosemary told them.

“Flirting?” Alex’s face went white at the word, but Rosemary just laughed.

“Not exactly. He’s just trying to dazzle her into trusting him, and then that will be it. I think. I really have no idea what’s on his mind. I’ll ask him later,” Rosemary said, crushing Michael’s turkey bone (he did actually finish the entire thing) into dust.

“Please do that for us. Thank you,” Stephanie squeaked. Apparently the idea of her daughter falling in love with a vampire wasn’t on her to-do list for the century.

“Mom, you can’t seriously be worried that she’ll fall in love with him. She’s to practical to fall in love with anyone. Besides, I’m dating a vampire and you’re not complaining about that,” Michael complained as he scarfed down another plateful of mashed potatoes.

Stephanie ignored the question and started clearing the table. Rosemary lightly pushed her out of the way at human speed and cleared the table, washed the dishes, and put all the food away. She was done in under two minutes, and Stephanie wordlessly thanked her.

In a half an hour, Bodoleck was back with Anna. They were both laughing, and Bodoleck’s hair was wind-blown again.

“Oh, hello. I’m sorry that we took so long. I was just having a nice little chat with Anna. Rosemary, I’m positive that you have some questions, so let’s go into the family room,” Bodoleck offered. He calmly walked in with Rosemary storming after him.

Once the door was safely closed and they had a few spells on it, Rosemary turned to him and yelled, “What do you think you were doing? What did you show her? What did you tell her? I hope you didn’t do anything that you shouldn’t have done!”

“Relax, Rosemary. I don’t think I did anything that I shouldn’t have done. I was taking safety procedures. Like you were doing on the football field. Only mine were a little more drastic,” Bodoleck told her, still calm, but clearly making an effort.

“How drastic?” Rosemary hissed.

“I invited her to the Vampiranese Ball this Halloween, and she said yes. I’ve also organized a trip for Stephanie and Alex to go to London on the week of Halloween. That’s how drastic.”

“You WHAT?! Sending their parents to London, I can understand, but inviting her to the ball? What were you thinking? The only reason I invited Michael was because Veripema wants to kill him, but Anna? No way. There is no way I will allow this,” Rosemary said to him, trying unsuccessfully to be firm.

Bodoleck sighed and said, “There’s nothing you can do. I talked to Dekanire about it and he agrees with me. I told Anna my reasoning, and she agrees, also.”

“What is you’re reasoning?”

“Don’t you think that Veripema will try and capture Michael’s family so he would come and try to save them, only to get himself captured as well? And then you would be at her mercy, and would have to tell here where the spell is or else they all die. This is the only way, Rose, don’t you see?”

Rosemary, now calm, replied, “Well, when you put it like that, I guess it makes sense.”

“Exactly. Now, Anna is a very fine young lady and she knows what she’s doing. I have her trust completely, I believe, and I hope that you won’t screw this up for me. Promise?” Bodoleck asked. Rosemary sighed and nodded her head. Bodoleck just smiled and walked into the dining room. Rosemary solemnly followed.

“Well, I won’t bother you any longer, so I think I should be leaving. I will see you later,” Bodoleck said. He strode out of the room, and ran home.

Anna sighed and said, “I think I should go to bed. Bodoleck really is very nice, Rosemary. You were right about him.”

The phone rang, and Anna sprang out of her chair to get it. “Hello? Mom, can I go over to Emily’s house tonight?” Anna called into the room from the kitchen.

“I don’t see why not. It’s only 8:30.”

“Thank you. I’ll be back around noon tomorrow. See you!” Anna called. She raced out of the house with her already prepared sleep-over bag in her hands.

They all left the room slowly and Rosemary was the last to climb up the stairs. Michael was already asleep from the huge meal, and he was snoring louder than ever.

‘I wonder what Bodoleck’s up to tonight,’ Rosemary thought to herself. She curled up next to Michael and watched him sleep, thinking, all night.