“We promised him an hour,” Faith says, cutting him off. “It won’t kill us to be dressed for the occasion. Your clothing is in Richard’s room.”
“I’m not wearing any of it; what I have on is fine.”
“Oh, Victor, relax, have a little fun.”
“Fun? Faith, you may enjoy changing outfits every hour, but putting on clothes once a night is enough for me.”
“I don’t change clothes every hour.” She sniffs. “Every half hour maybe. Now, go on, get out of here. We have work to do.”
“But we are leaving as planned.”
“Of course.”
Victor gives me a smile filled with apology before walking out of the room and closing the door.
I crawl over the bed and touch the soft material, rubbing it between my fingers. I had to wear Victorian clothing when I met with Murdoch Valentine, but it was more suited to funerals than parties.
“I realize you’d be more comfortable if it came with a hood,” Faith says.
I glance up at her. “It’s beautiful. It’s just that it’s not me.”
“When I’m finished with you, for the next hour, it will be.”
Faith does more than help me get into the gown. She fixes my hair and applies makeup. When I look in the mirror, I can hardly believe what I’m seeing. Faith curled my hair so it’s full and flowing down my back. The gown is cut low, a little too low. I tug—
“Leave it,” she orders.
“But I feel like I could pop out of it.”
She chuckles softly. “You won’t.”
The deep purple material makes the blue of my eyes brighter. They also appear more almond-shaped, exotic. Faith did that, with liner and shadow. My lips are a glistening vibrant red as though they are waiting to be kissed.
“I don’t know, Faith.”
“Trust me. Victor won’t be able to take his eyes off you.”
Faith is right. When we enter the dining room, Victor looks as though he’s never seen me before. He strides over and gives me an appreciative smile. “You look—”
“Like Old Family,” Faith says quietly.
We both jerk our head toward her.
Faith shrugs. “She wasn’t nearly as difficult to clean up as I expected.”
My face heats with embarrassment.
“Dawn is always beautiful,” Victor tells her, then winks at me. “Even when she’s wearing a hoodie.”
Faith growls low, but with his words, the warmth turns to pleasure. I’ve never had to pretend with him.
Like Xavier and Richard, he’s wearing a black dinner jacket that’s long in the back. Swallow-tailed, I think it was called. His white shirt is pristine and he has a red cravat—an old-fashioned tie—around his neck.
“Faith, you look magnificent,” Xavier gushes.
She bats her lashes at him. “You’re so sweet.”
“Come, a quick meal and then we shall dance.”
“Xavier, we don’t have time,” Victor tells him.
“An hour, no more, I promise. You must indulge me. I’m so lonely here in this dank, dreary manor.”
“We promised, Victor,” Faith reminds him, and then lets Xavier lead her to the table.
“You promised,” Victor mutters before offering me his arm.
“I guess this is the way vampires usually entertain,” I say as we walk over to a ridiculously long table.
“We can’t do anything simply.”
Xavier sits at the head of the table, while Victor and I are on one side, Faith and Richard on the other. I can’t complain about the food. I’m served steak and various vegetables. Everything is delicious. While vampires derive no real nourishment from food, they do enjoy the sensations of taste.
I glance over at Richard. He’s not enjoying anything. Not eating, not drinking, not joining in on the conversation. Probably because no matter to whom Xavier is talking, his gaze is always honed in on Faith.
“The Council just didn’t give any thought to the inconvenience of putting humans within walled cities,” Xavier says before sipping from an ornate silver goblet that I’m pretty sure doesn’t contain wine. “Someone has to watch them. But there is nothing except desolation around the cities. No one comes to see me. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve seen an Old Family female? How can I court? How can I bond?” He takes Faith’s hand and presses a kiss to it. “How can I entice her into being my mate?”
“Have you explained all this to your father?” Faith asks. “Maybe he can send one of your brothers to watch over the territory for a while.”
With a pout, Xavier sits back. “I have. He doesn’t seem to care. I simply wait around for the sun to rise, the sun to set, and blood to be delivered. Night in, night out. Week after week. Month after month. Boring.”
“Do you get enough blood?” I ask.
He jerks his gaze to me as though he’d completely forgotten that I was there. He furrows his brow. “You allow your diva to speak?”
“She’s very knowledgeable,” Victor assures him. “I’d like to know the answer to her question.”
“Not as much as we used to. I shall have to punish them soon. But I don’t want to think about that now. Let’s dance.” He gets up, goes to an old phonograph sitting on a table, cranks it up, and sets a needle on a disc. After a few moments of static the room fills with scratchy music. Xavier rushes over to Faith, bows slightly, and holds out his hand.
“Xavier—” Victor begins.
“I know. You must leave. But what is three more minutes?”
Faith places her hand in Xavier’s. “Yes, Victor, what is three more minutes? Dance with Dawn.”
She goes with Xavier to an empty space on the other side of the room, and they begin to glide over the floor with graceful movements. It’s very different from the way I dance at parties. Xavier has a hand on her waist. Hers is on his shoulder.
Victor stands and extends his hand to me. “Dawn?”
I gaze at him, standing there, looking incredibly handsome, so enticing. “I don’t know how.”
“Just follow my lead.”
I can’t deny that I’ve always wanted to dance with him, to have a moment that seemed normal. I follow him to the uncluttered area. Taking me in his arms, he sweeps me over the floor.
I want to laugh with the joy of it. Gazing into his eyes, I can almost forget that the world around us is such a mess. It’s only the two of us, keeping in perfect rhythm, even when the music skips and plays over, skips and plays over. A broken record.
I feel elegant and beautiful in this gown. I’ve never worn anything this elaborate before. If this were a fairy tale, I’d be a princess. But I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago.
“You’re so beautiful,” Victor says quietly. “I wish I could give you more moments like this, when there is nothing but the music and the two of us. No worries, no evil, no problems.”
“Is this what Old Family life was like before the war?”
“We had balls and dances almost every week. But we had orchestras playing the music. Not scratchy old records that grate on the ears.”
“Do you miss it?”
“I miss the peace of it. The laughter. The happiness. Everything changed when we came out of the shadows. We couldn’t hold on to this any longer.”
“Xavier is trying to.”
“Yes, many do.”
They hate technology and modern conveniences. I try to envision what it was like back then, but I’m distracted by the candlelight in the chandeliers as the flickering flames cause light to flutter over Victor’s face. The shadows ebb and flow. It’s magical, lures me in, and I realize that I’m nearer to him than I was when we started. My skirt brushes against his legs. My hand has moved from his shoulder to his neck. I can feel his warm breath on my cheek. I could fall into the blue depths of his eyes. I wish we could stay here, constantly moving in a circle over the polished hardwood floor.