I"d put my foot down about the gown. Not that my mother wanted me to wear what some of the other Uninitiated were wearing. However she"d wanted a little more dazzle, which I thought would bring unwanted attention to myself, not to mention, I wasn"t a dazzle type of person.
The others had gone full-on dazzle. Unbelievable amounts of jewels at their necks, wrists, ears, elaborate up-dos with sparkling gems affixed in their hair. Eye catching dresses from wide-skirted, Southern-Belle-on-a-rampage to daringly displayed skin (mostly cleavage and lots of it) to sequined affairs that probably weighed half a ton.
Every single dress, every single jewel, every twisted curl pinned high up on someone"s head screamed pick me!
My dress was satin, snug-fitting at the bodice, waist, and hips. It had a long skirt that was cut on the bias and hung beautifully when I was still and swirled softly around my legs with any movement. The dress bared my shoulders, had an empire waist, subtle cleavage where the material covered my b.r.e.a.s.t.s under which it was st.i.tched in gathers to the waistline. The same at the back under my shoulder blades, exposing skin at my back, around my shoulders, at my cleavage, but nothing too bold.
I wore only the Buchanan family"s ancient, hand-me-down earrings that had an oval ruby surrounded by diamonds set at the base, a larger teardrop ruby dropped from it. I also wore a much larger oval ruby surrounded by diamonds on my right ring finger.
I"d swept my blonde hair back from my face and fixed it in a twisted chignon at the nape of my neck. I"d done it myself and I didn"t think I did half bad.
I looked like I was headed into a Hollywood awards ceremony (at least this was what I told myself).
The rest of the Uninitiated looked like they were no-date girls at a high school prom desperate to be asked to dance.
"c.r.a.p," I muttered so low even my mother didn"t hear me and she would have at least given me a killing look if she did.
Even so, I saw a few men, their eyes still pinned to me (in fact, everyone"s eyes were still pinned to me) smile at my word.
As my mother propelled me down the steps with her hand again at my elbow I reminded myself that I was now amongst vampires. Their senses were heightened to extremes. They could hear better, see better, their senses of smell, taste, and touch were vastly more acute, and they moved faster.
Or so I"d been told.
And, it was important to note, they didn"t look like Avery. Not one of them did.
They also didn"t look like vampires. At least not what popular culture led us to believe was the look of vampires.
They were not thin and pale and wearing red ribbons around their throats to which a cross was affixed. They also didn"t have mullets and wear rock "n" roll clothes.
They were all varying heights but none of them were less than what you"d describe as tall. They had varying body sizes but none of them were slight or slender, nor were they heavy or obese-they were all muscular and powerful. They had all different eye and hair colors.
The vampire women were the same except the muscular part, but not the powerful part, even if this was a perceived power rather than the physical the men displayed.
Their skin was normal-toned, denoting warmth, humanity.
And, lastly, they were all beautiful.
As we hit the bottom step, I controlled my urge to mutter a different, stronger, profanity.
The conversation started buzzing again, which was a relief because it meant I"d stopped being the center of attention. This relief was short-lived.
"Lydia." A man, dark blond, green-eyed, tall, gorgeous, was all of a sudden close.
Wow. My first close encounter with a vampire.
"Cosmo," my mother whispered, her head tipped back, that strange, slightly sad but very familiar look she usually had in her eyes had melted away. Instead, her eyes were alight and there was a sweet but sultry smile I"d never seen her wear on her lips.
He bent low and kissed the hinge of her jaw. Something about this gesture was so intimate, I turned my eyes away.
Cosmo. I knew that name. My mother had told me the name only days before.
My mother"s vampire.
Oh my G.o.d.
"Cosmo, I want you to meet Leah." I heard my mother say and I turned back.
My mother was in her sixties. She didn"t look it, nowhere near it. But she still looked older than Cosmo who appeared to be no more than thirty-five. She"d been in her twenties when she"d serviced him.
He moved to me and bent in. I froze as his lips touched the hair at my temple then his head dipped further, and mouth at my ear, he murmured, "Leah."
A trill raced up my spine.
It wasn"t exactly fear; it wasn"t exactly not fear.
Nor was it unpleasant. Not in the slightest.
How weird.
Please, my mind begged, don"t let my mother"s vampire choose me. Please, please, please. That would be both weird and gross. Too gross. Ick!
His head moved away but his body didn"t.
I found my voice and did my utmost to turn it cold and added (for good measure) an icy look on my face when I returned, "Cosmo."
In the presence of my frost, he grinned. His grin made his beauty shoot off the charts. Therefore, I lost the frost and stared.
He turned to my mother and stated, "The rumors are true."
My mother shook her head, giving me a reproving look, but she spoke to Cosmo. "I"m afraid so."
"I like this," he muttered and turned to inspect my face. His green eyes moved the length of my body then back to my face before he continued, "Lucien will like it better."
I felt my body still at another reference to the unknown Lucien. Before I could open my mouth though, my mother spoke.
"Do you think so?" she asked hopefully.
"Oh yes," Cosmo answered, not taking his eyes from mine.
"Who"s...?" I began but a female vampire joined our group.
She was tall, thin but curvy, dark curling hair, beautiful blue eyes, and she was wearing a strapless dress with a slit up her right leg that ended high on her hip at a graceful drape of material.
"Finally. Leah," she announced upon arriving at our small group. Before anyone could say anything, she lifted a hand and snapped her fingers.
A waiter bearing a tray of champagne flutes appeared at our sides. Cosmo took a gla.s.s and handed it to my mother then another, which he handed to me.
As he did this the female, her gaze on me, begged Cosmo, "Please tell me this will be interesting."
Cosmo, also watching me, affirmed, "This will be interesting."
I was losing patience.
On any day, even a good day, I didn"t tend to have a lot of patience. But in these extraordinary circ.u.mstances I had almost none. Therefore this wasn"t a surprise.
This meant I was also losing my temper, something which also happened easily and, unfortunately, frequently.
"Can someone please tell me what everyone is talking about? Who"s Lucien?" My voice was still cold and now also sharp.
At my words, I felt my mother turn to stone in horror at my side. Cosmo grinned. The female examined me for a moment then she threw back her head and laughed.
"What"s funny?" I snapped.
She stopped laughing, but even so, it still danced in her eyes as she replied, "I"m Stephanie."
"That"s lovely, you being Stephanie and all, but that isn"t an answer to my question," I told her.
"Leah," my mother said softly in her mother tone, this one also sounding slightly alarmed.
"Leave her be, Lydia," Cosmo ordered gently. "No harm will come to her."
I felt my eyes grow wide. No harm would come to me?
What did that mean?
I thought this whole farce was about urbanity and civility. How could harm come to me? Other than the harm that would come to me if I was selected, of course.
"She is a Buchanan, after all," Stephanie added before I could form a question.
"Yes. There is that and, of course, Lucien," Cosmo put in and Stephanie turned to him.
"Where is Lucien? I thought he"d never miss her arrival," Stephanie asked Cosmo.
"He"s going to be late. He"s having some difficulty with Katrina. She"s..." Cosmo paused and glanced at me before looking back to Stephanie, "not happy about him attending this particular Selection."
I watched, with no small amount of unease, as Stephanie"s face grew hard. "What would she have him to do? Starve?"
"I think in this instance," I watched Cosmo"s eyes shift to me again before returning to Stephanie, "she would."
"Wh.o.r.e," Stephanie spat with such fierce, terrifying emotion, I couldn"t help myself. I stepped back.
"Calm, Teffie, you"re frightening Leah," Cosmo warned.
I felt it important to save face. I mean, I was frightened. Stephanie was scaring the s.h.i.t out of me, but I didn"t want them to know that.
"I"m not frightened, I"m annoyed," I announced. "No one has answered my questions."
Cosmo"s eyes came back to me. "You"ll get your answers soon enough, love."
That didn"t sound too good.
Cosmo moved to my mother and took her elbow. "Let"s get you something to eat, my love. I distinctly remember you like to eat."
As Mom moved away with Cosmo I heard her reply in a voice filled with fond laughter, "I remember you like the same."
Cosmo laughed. I couldn"t help it, I grimaced. I mean, even if it was my mom, it was still gross.
"You"ll like it too," Stephanie said and my eyes shot to her.
"Sorry?"
"You"ll like it too," she repeated.
"What?" I asked, even though I knew.
"The feeding," she replied.
I didn"t think so.
"I doubt it," I shared icily.
She smiled. All anger out of her expression, she was back to beautiful again. She was also, I noted, not affected in the slightest by my icy demeanor.
Her hand darted out and her fingers closed around my upper arm with a strength that shouldn"t have been surprising, but it was.
She led me further into the room. I saw and felt eyes on us as we moved. She stopped us close to an outer wall in a pocket where no one was near. She dropped my arm and took a sip of her champagne which I found shocking. Firstly, I hadn"t even noticed she was carrying a gla.s.s. Secondly, I didn"t think vampires drank anything but blood.
I took my first sip as well before asking, "Is no one going to explain about this Lucien guy?"
"I think we should let Lucien do the explaining," she told me, her blue eyes on my face.
"What does he have to do with me?" I persevered.
I was, it"s important to note, as well as impatient and short-tempered, also stubborn. I had a lot of bad traits. I knew this and I worked on it with people I cared about. Like my mother, my sister, my aunties-even though all of them drove me to distraction a great deal of the time-and especially my friends.
I also had a lot of good traits which meant my mother, sister, and aunties put up with me. It also meant I had a lot of friends.
However, I wasn"t going to show my good traits. Not tonight.
"Everything," Stephanie responded to my question and then her head moved around sharply right before her eyes narrowed and the scary, hard look came back to her face. "f.u.c.k," she hissed.
I looked in the direction she was glaring. A man was approaching us. Tall, beautiful, dark hair, swarthy skin, and strangely with his coloring, intense light gray eyes.
He was smiling. At me. Wolfishly.
I felt another trill race up my spine. This one was total fear. Complete and total fear. I"d never felt anything like it and it scared the h.e.l.l out of me.
Yes, this was true. The level of my fear scared the h.e.l.l out of me. Therefore I was doubly terrified.