Ch. 32

Ch. 32

“Rosemary! Susan! How wonderful to see my two darling granddaughters dressed so beautifully on this magnificent night. Come come. Sit with your grandfather and I,” said Miss Darkness.

“Grandmother, what’s wrong with you? I thought you hated us to the bone,” said Susan. Reluctantly, she followed her grandmother to where her grandfather was standing by the door to the ballroom.

“Rosemary. You look lovely. I’m just heartbroken that your mother couldn’t see you now,” said Lord Batwings, embracing Rosemary.

Rosemary shrugged away from him and said frostily, “Whatever you’re doing, it isn’t going to work. We’re going to figure it out and stop you, so don’t even try to do anything.”

“Why do you think we’re up to something?” Lord Batwings asked, smiling in a way that would make and pro wrestler cringe away in fear of losing an eye.

Rosemary ignored that smile.

“Because you’re always up to something, and Rosemary is paranoid. Moving on. When is Dekanire opening the doors to the ballroom?” asked Bodoleck politely.

“Actually we were waiting for you. What took so long?” You could see from Lord Batwings’ face that it was a struggle to be civilized and not kill them. He wasn’t used to treating his grandson-in-law that way.

“Rosemary was getting dressed to go, and it took a while, as you can see by her dress and everything else,” Bodoleck replied. The cheerfulness from his face reached neither his voice nor his eyes.

Rosemary, already in a bad mood for who knows what, replied sourly, “Don’t blame me. If you should blame anyone, blame Dekanire for buying all this for me. I would’ve been just as happy with a plain black dress, but no, I-”

Rosemary wasn’t able to finish her rant, for Dekanire walked in and said to his quests, “Before we start drinking, I have some people I’d like to introduce to you. They’re very special. Welcome Anna and Michael, the humans! Mind you, they’re off the menu!”

Besides some grumbling (from Rosemary, too) everyone clapped. Seeing most of his guests in a good mood, Dekanire opened the doors and entered the dining room. They all gasped.

“Dekanire, you’ve outdone yourself this year,” said Miss Darkness, gazing awestruck at the room.

“Thank you,” Dekanire replied, hardly modest. He took his place at the High Table, gesturing for the royal family and the special guests to sit with him.

The dining room was amazing. Not only was it huge, but it was beautiful. The tall windows were framed with dark reds, purples, and golds. Gorgeous tapestries hung from the ceiling against the walls, in between the windows. The tiled floors were made of gold that had diamonds embedded in the middle of every single tile. The edges of the room had red carpets with dark purple designs on it. On top of the rugs sat hundreds of round tables with seven upholstered seats per table. The table cloths were purple with gold and black designs, and the dishes were black with yellow topazes embedded on them. The ceiling had windows and mirrors, alternating in a checker pattern.

“Dekanire, why did you spend so much money on this place?” Anna asked. She slowly walked to the closest window and felt the fabric that the curtains were made of.

“I spend at least a million a year. It’s just not right to have the same decorations year after year after year. It gets boring. But I like these decorations, and I think I’ll keep them for a little while,” Dekanire replied. He shrugged and went on, “Who knows. This might be the permanent decorations. You never know.”

Just then, a swarm of creatures came through a door. Half of them look like they were carrying little wooden instruments, and the other half were glowing. Music started to play, and the lights were dancing around the room in a flurry of quick beautiful movements.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the entertainment. Pixie musicians and firefly dancers. The blood will be coming shortly. Please enjoy yourselves to your fullest extent, and come back again next year. Thank you,” said Dekanire, bowing grandly at the end of his little speech.

Like he said, a few moments after he was seated, the goblets and plates filled magically. Anna and Michael’s plates, however, had grilled chicken on it, and water in the goblets. For dessert on a side plate was vanilla pudding.

“Looks good,” Michael said politely as he ate his chicken. But he threw away his manners and stuffed his face when the next thing that appeared on his plate was a steak and a twice-baked potato.

Rosemary rolled her eyes and ordered, “Michael, can you be anymore uncivilized than you already are? Actually chew your food. And try to swallow without having half of your mouthful fall onto your lap. Thank you.” While she was talking, Michael had wiped his face and swallowed his food with the rest of his water to show Rosemary that he could be neat and tidy, he just didn’t want to be.

“Michael, could you step outside with me for a second? I want to show you something,” said Bodoleck. Michael finished his ribs (which was the fifth thing that had appeared on his plate) and went to the front entrance hall with him.

‘I wonder what they’re up to,’ Rosemary thought to herself. She finished her first goblet of blood and sat, drumming her fingers while one of the dozens of waiters came and refilled it.

Dekanire looked around at his guests and clapped his hands. Almost immediately, upbeat classical music started to play. Vampires finished their goblets and went to the center of the room to dance.

A few minutes of boredom and Rosemary was almost asleep. But then she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to find Michael standing beside her, holding out his hand, smiling mischievously.

“What are you smiling at?” Rosemary asked, taking his hand. She soon found out, for he almost glided to the middle of the dance floor, astonishing her in more ways than one.

“Suprise. I’ve been working hard on my dancing lessons. And Bodoleck put a spell on my shoes for me to be more graceful,” Michael explained. A new song - a waltz - started and Michael danced, leading Rosemary around the room.

“Well, the enchanted shoes seem to be working. You haven’t tripped yet. Would you mind my asking if you could dance a little bit more towards my grandparents. I wouldn’t trust them if my life depended on it, and I’m not starting now,” Rosemary said. Michael did as he was told, and danced towards the door, where Miss Darkness and Lord Batwings were dancing. They hid behind a group of vampires, still able to see Rosemary’s grandparents, and danced there for a few minutes.

But then they heard it. A loud bang in the distance, a few miles away from the mansion. They could hear a guard vampire reporting to Dekanire, “Sir, it came from the area around the High School. A house is on fire.”

Miss Darkness smiled at Lord Batwings evilly, and the both glided out of the room unnoticed to anyone but Rosemary and Michael. Rosemary gave and outraged roar (almost like a lion’s, but much, much louder) and yelled to her family, “We’re leaving. Now! My grandparents have the book, and Veripema probably has something to do with it, and we need to see the damage. MOVE!!”

They did as they were told in fear of getting their heads bitten of in the literal sense and flew to Rosemary’s house. None of them were suprised to see it in flames and burning to the ground.

Rosemary was even more enraged than before.

“Grraaaaa!!!”