Chapter 6

WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY

The next morning, when I woke up, I was slightly disoriented.  When I first opened my eyes, I was sort of disappointed to see the same room that I had fallen asleep in.  I was hoping I was just having a bad dream.  I am told that when you wish you were dreaming  in your dreams, it sometimes is true.  Stretching, I got up.  The thought of changing clothes crossed my mind, but it kind of skeeved me out to think about putting on things that were not mine.  I walked over to the tall windows which were basically large doors to a small balcony.  I pushed one open, and realized we were up so high that the wind was pushing the doors shut.  I didn’t try fighting it, and let them close.

I stepped back in, looking around the room again.  There was a television over the fireplace that I hadn't noticed last night.  It looked like an all black painting set in a big gold frame.  I walked over to the door and opened it so I could find Luke and have him take me home.  I pulled on the handle and the door did not open.   I went into shock.  I felt my heart accelerate.  I pulled on the door again, using both hands, getting the same result.  I panicked, realizing I was locked in the room.  I started pacing back and forth, not knowing what to do.  I ran back to the window, forcing them open in spite of the wind.  I looked over the railing to see if it was possible to jump down to another balcony, but there was none close.  Just a straight drop I wouldn’t survive jumping.

I walked back in the room slamming the doors shut as I continued to pace, trying to figure out what to do.  Those stupid vampires had basically kidnapped me.  I was trapped like a mouse caught in a trap, waiting to die slowly.  I walked back over to the door and banged on it as loud as possible and started yelling for help, for anyone to get me out of this room.  I was answered by deathly silence.  I leaned up against the wall next to the door and slid to the ground, unable to focus.  Glancing around the room again, my eyes landed on the clock next to the bed.  11:45 am.  It occurred to me that all the stupid vampires are asleep right now because it was daytime.  I felt stupid at first, but then the door opened and the same maid from last night walked in looking around.

"Good morning Sir.  Did you  sleep well, I hope?"  She was smiling.  

"Why was the door locked?" I demanded.  She walked over to the bed and started remaking it.

"Mostly for your safety.  The palace is enormous.  One can get lost very easily if one does  not know their way around.  It wouldn’t  be good if you wandered around only to find  yourself in an area that if not the safest."  She walked back to the door.  "Everyone is downstairs and about to eat lunch.  Would you like for me to take you down to them?"

"Not really.  I just want to go home!"  I replied.  

"Very well, but first, you must have some brunch.  Then you will be on your way.  Sound good?" She was trying so hard to be pleasant, which I resisted, shanking my head.

"Last night, I was told just one video game and then I could go home.  Now, its have some food,  then you can go home.  Why can't I just go home now?" I was borderline hysterical.

"Very well, follow me.  I'll take you to Prince Luke and get you on your way."  Still cheerful.

I followed behind her quickly as she started walking toward the stairs.   I was irritated that this same maid had forgotten to tell me last night that there was an elevator.  Now, she was wanting me to climb down the mountain of stairs and skip the elevator again.  I stopped as soon as she approached the stairs.  She noticed, and stopped too.

"Is there something the matter, Sir?"  She said, taking a few steps back towards me.

"Yeah, I don't want to walk down these stairs.  May I please take the elevator?  She nodded.

"I assumed you would want to take it, but the elevators do not reach the top floor, so we need to go down to the next landing.  We can board the elevator there and go down to the first floor."  She motioned for me to follow her and again headed down the stairs.

I walked quickly.  The building seemed much busier than it had when I arrived.  All the people around me stopped what they were doing.  They made no attempt to conceal the fact that they were staring at me.  Theu whispered and pointed openly.  I wanted to say something nasty to them,  but I knew it wasn't a brilliant idea.  I wasn’t sure what these vampires were capable of, and really didn't want to find out the hard way.  So I jumped off the stairs and ran to the elevator as quickly as I could.  It took forever for the doors to open.  I almost wished I had taken the stairs just so I didn't have to stand there, eye candy to the gawkers.  After what felt like a year, the doors finally opened.  I was relieved to finally be inside the elevators and behind closed doors.  I could finally stop holding my breath.

"Are you not feeling well, sir?"  The maid said, looking concerned for me.

"I'm fine, I just don't really like people staring at me, especially . . . vampires, or whatever.  It is unnerving, and rude.  They were whispering about me.”  There, I blurted that out.

"Yes, I can understand that.  They're just interested in who you are.  I believe Bobby was the last changed vampire in the palace, so it's always an exciting event when it does happen.  It will die down in a few weeks or so." she said, smiling.

"Vampires are not made very often?" I asked.  I wasn’t sure why I cared.

"No not really.  There are new vampires created and born almost every day.  It just doesn't happen often here in the palace.  There are rules and procedures we have to follow to be able to change or create a vampire." she said, looking impatient and looking at her watch.

"Why are there procedures in place here, but not elsewhere?" I asked.  I noticed my reflection in elevator doors.  I was tired and my hair was more messy than usual.

"Well, the Palace has many functions.  It serves as a home for Prince Luke, the King and Queen, and their immediate Royal circle, which you are becoming a part of.  That is why you are on the top floor."  She explained.  "The rest of the levels serve as offices to run various businesses including all Palace business.  On the Elevator Level, Bobby and Michael have offices.  Michael trains and prepares Bobby to take over for him as Prince Luke’s bodyguard.  Josh and Christopher do their work together on this level, too.  Josh is training for..." The elevator finally if a bit abruptly came to a stop and the doors slid opened.

"Oh good, we're here."  We were in the main hallway that I came into last night.  "The main floor has many rooms, entryways and exits."  She pointed at two giant double doors.  "That is the entrance to the Grand Ballroom.  It is used for celebrations, weddings, funerals, really anything that you can think of, we use it for." She was proud of where she worked, obviously.  "The Courtroom.  It is used to uphold Vampire laws and rules, much the same as humans use their courtrooms to uphold their  laws and rules.  There are motions which are ruled on and passed in there.  If your mate is a human, then you go to them first and they have to work their system to make it okay for you to bring them into our world."  She kept speaking, but I really didn't care at the moment.   “There is the Dining Hall and kitchens are located here as well."   She opened the door to a room three times the size of the room I spent the night in..

There was a big, long wooden table sitting in the center of the room, where a small group of people were sitting at one end.  Luke was sitting at the head of the table, which made I thought was ludicrous.  I could see Bobby sitting next to him.  There was girl who seemed very small compared to him sitting very close to him.   Another girl sitting alone sitting across from them.  The maid lightly pushed me over toward them.  I am sure I glared at her, but she just smiled back at me.

"Max, come join us.  Some people are eager to meet you,"  Luke said, waving me over.  I dragged my feet, stopping a few feet away from them.  "Sit.  Let’s get you something to eat."  I stood my ground.

"No, thank you.  I don't want to sit.  I don’t want anything to eat.  I just want you to take me home now."  Luke nodded.

"Well, unfortunately, Max, I cannot take you home right now," he to a bite of a roll.

"What?  You promised to take me home!"  I was furious, and not able to hide it any longer.

"True, but I can't take you home now, Max,   The sun is up, as you can see.  I was never human, so I cannot go out into the sunlight.  You will have to wait till the clouds cover the sun or the sun goes down to go home,  I am sorry.”

"This isn't fair.  You knew this last night, so why didn't you just say that, instead of putting me through this?”  I was shouting.

"Well, this morning was cloudy.  I probably could have taken you home, but you only recently woke up.  Now the sun is out,,,"

I tried taking deep breaths to relax, but it wasn't helping.  "Why didn't you wake me then?  This is bull-shit Luke.  I want to go home now!"

"Relax, Max.  I'll take you home, if you're really going to be a big baby about all this," Bobby said, taking another bite of his sandwich, talking with his mouth full.

“Good!  Let's go then!"  I said impatiently.

"Not so fast!  I'm eating.  Why don't you sit, eat, relax a few minutes, then we can go."  He was chewing and trying to take sip of soda at the same time.  It was just gross.

"I don't want to eat.  I just want to leave!" I said trying not to yell, because I really didn’t want to piss him off.

"Suit yourself.  But I'm going to finish and you can just stand there like a baby and wait instead of sitting here like a normal person and eating like everyone else." he said, shoving a handful of chips in his mouth.  At that moment, I understood the phrase “blood boil”, as I felt myself grow incredibly hot.

I stood my ground I wasn't falling for that giants manipulating game again like I had done last night.  I wasn't thinking clearly and I fell right into their trap, playing video games all night until I had no choice but to stay the night.  I stood there glaring at him as he seemed to start eating slower.  Which I just wanted to walk over there and grab his stupid sandwich and shove it down his throat and drag him out the door.

"Well, as long as we're waiting, Max, I would like for you to meet Mickey, Bobby's wife." Luke gestured to a petite girl next to the giant Bobby.  She smiled demurely and waved. "And Susan, who is married to Josh.  You met him  last night."  The other girl turned in her chair, smiling.  She waved, albeit less energetic than the smaller girl.

"Hi," I said, trying not to be too social with these people/vampires.  I really needed to figure out what to call them.

"it is so nice to meet you, we are all super excited you're here, and we can't wait until you are changed.  Then, you will meet your mate, then we get another new friend!  It is going to be so much fun and..." The little girl, Mickey, started rambling, very fast and very enthusiastically.

"Mickey, shut up and calm down a little."  Bobby said, taking another bite of his sandwich.

Mickey looked like she had been smacked in the face as she slowly turned her head toward him.  Instinctively, I knew it was time to start backing away.  Luke slowly pushed his chair away from the table like he was going to cut and run, too.  The other girl, Susan,  sitting across from her, shook her head, looking down in a gesture of defeat.  

"What did you just say to me?" Mickey said slowly.  Luke was slowly getting up.

"I told you to shut up.  I also told you not to spaz out on him."  Bobby continued to chew his food as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

"I was not spazzing out, do you want me to show you, spazzing out?!" Mickey shouted.   Not only was Luke out of his chair, but somehow he was standing next to me.

"I think it's a good time to go," Luke said quietly, as Bobby attention snapped to us.

"That is a good idea, let’s go now!" Bobby said getting up, grabbing another sandwich and  walking toward us quickly.  He mouthed the word “Move”.   I didn't need to be told twice, turning and following closely behind Luke.

"All of you freeze or so help me, I will emasculate all of you!"  I assumed Mickey screamed.  Luke froze quickly, and I slammed into him, confused and horrified as I saw the ferrous looking tiny girl standing where Luke had sat a few minutes ago

"Luke, block her.  I'll get Max home and deal with her later." Bobby said, uncharacteristically quietly.

"No, no you don't Bobby!  You try running and I will murder you while you sleep!" Mickey had somehow gotten  much closer to us.

"But darling, that would kind of kill you, too.  Run, Max!"  Bobby yelped.  As if I didn't think I just ran as fast as possible, I felt a hand pushing my back forcing me to go even faster.

The hand directed me to the front door.  I heard ferocious screaming coming from not a far enough away distance behind us.  I really was not interested in finding out how close,  I just wanted to be as far away from that sound and this Palace as possible.  I ran outside to Luke’s car, where it had been since last night.   I ran down the stairs fast as possible and pulled open the passenger door and got in slamming it behind me. The car lurched and squealed at we took off around the curved driveway that led back to the straight road heading into the forest.  I felt relieved that I was finally getting to go home.  But I was genuinely afraid at Bobby’s wife’s reaction and her chasing after us.  I kept randomly glancing back to see if she was following.

"Relax, she can't follow us.  She is like Luke.  She was born a vampire and can't go outside in direct sunlight.  We are safe until dusk"  Bobby was saying, driving.  I was never so relieved to be told someone was a vampire and could not follow us into the sun.

"What happens once dusk comes?" I wondered.

"well, I'll be in a bit of trouble, nothing really for you to worry about" he said laughing as I looked out the window as we speed down the road and the forest line became a blur of green and drown passed by.

I relaxed back into my seat more once we turned on to the main road as the car became silent for the rest of the drive. I was still on edge about being in a car alone with Bobby and him being a giant vampire, plus the fact he was going to know where I lived at, where my family lived, the town my family and friends lived. It was bad enough Luke knew, but he seemed more harmless than Bobby, who just gave off the presence of dangers and unpredictable. I sigh and tried sucking up how uncomfortable I was about this situation, but there was nothing I could do about it now.

_Okay because im supper busy right now, and im trying to work on this book and my others, i need to cut back on the weekly updates, cause i just dont have the time to focuse on all in one week so we are going to start alternating patterns of uploading. meaning every other week. each week i will upload one chapter for one book. so this week im uploading this book next suday will be the chosen son, then in two weeks 14 days i will upload this book again. i just dont have the time to work on both at the same time plus all my school work.