Chapter 2 Wrong Pipe

Mr. Angelov had already turned back to Amy.

"So vampire teens are just normal kids? Wait, I thought they were sick." Amy said a little confused. "You said anemic, right?"

Personally, it was all rubbish to me anyway. He smiled at her, his thick white skin stretched over his face. UGH!! That man was too creepy.

"Until the gene turns on they're not sick." Mr. Angelov explained as if we all should have understood this anyway. "Its effects start slowly. Flu-like symptoms. There was one case a few years ago that there were supposedly no warning symptoms. I doubt the validity, I'm sure there were symptoms." He was quiet for a minute, lost in his own thoughts.

Kyle cleared his throat.

Mr. Angelov didn't jump but shifted his eyes to look at Kyle. Kyle shifted in his seat, I was sure that he wanted the floor to open and swallow him. I would have too with that look directed at me.

"Mr. Angelov?" Amy asked and she sounded totally confused. "You said that some offices were inherited by birth?"

"Yes. The vampire queen is born to her place." Mr. Angelov said.

I couldn't help it. I did try not to offend the old man but the laugh passed my lips and I couldn't recall it no matter how he glared at me. I mean, Come on, Vampire Queen? It was like a bad movie that held your interest only because it was so bad.

"I know you don't believe me, Ms. Stone." He smiled at me and I felt like I would vomit. "You'll learn, if you live long enough, that people are never what they appear to be. The truth is only a small portion of what is and we are all responsible for who we become."

"Even the vampires that are born to their place? How can they be responsible for what they become?" I asked snidely. I should have kept my mouth shut.

"Them even more so. They may not choose the positions they hold but they choose how to hold it. A queen that shows no respect for her subjects dies young. A Mage that uses magic to deceive finds the bed they sleep in to burst into flames. You all will choose how you react to the life you are destined too. Choose wisely."

I felt my head nodding. This whole thing felt wrong. We shouldn't be here. We shouldn't be talking to this Crazy old man. I suddenly knew that what he said about people not being what they appear was true. He may be old but he was dangerous. He was scary.

A soft knock sounded on the door and Mr. Smith entered carrying a tray of tea and tiny cakes. Mr. Smith looked just like you would expect a butler to look. Well, maybe not as old. He wasn't as old as Mr. Angelov. Mr. Smith looked like he was maybe forty. He moved like he was younger. I didn't get a good look at his eyes but the rest of him was polished. Black jacket, black tie, black pants, shiny black shoes, That was Mr. Smith. Even his voice sounded polished. Accent and all.

We were each served and Mr. Smith left the room with a soft bow of his head to Mr. Angelov.

Kyle frowned at his cup but added three spoons of sugar anyway. Amy added sugar as well.

I took a drink of mine, it stung my throat, and I didn't care. It tasted mildly licorice, you know the black kind, not the red kind. My mind was still on the fact that I didn't want to be here. The feeling in my throat hadn't gone away either. I blew on my tea and braved another sip.

Amy smiled, always the cheery blond, she looked at Mr. Angelov and asked, "So, have you really met a vampire?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, I choked on my tea. I quickly put my cup on the table and I covered my mouth but some of the tea escaped anyway as it was forced from my lungs by harsh wracking coughs. The pain in my lungs was intense. I hardly noticed Amy stand and lean forward.

The hand that pounded at my back was not Amy however. It was too large and too exacting to be from the tiny blond. I looked up to see Eric looking at my face as he pounded my back. He looked faintly alarmed. I held up my hand to get him to stop pounding me into the ground.

He stopped, thankfully.

I coughed a few more seconds before all of the tea was removed from my now sore and painful lungs. Taking a few slow, shallow, breaths seemed to ease the pain a little.

Amy, of course, was the first to speak. "Are you okay? What happened?"

The question was, of course, stupid but it was also meant with the best of intentions.

"Wrong pipe." I supplied and cleared my throat.

Mr. Angelov leaned forward in his chair. "Are you okay, dear?" For a moment he truly looked concerned, but that could have been my oxygen deprived brain playing games. "It appears that you are not the worst for wear." Mr. Angelov said looking at me.

"I'm fine, thanks," I said. I cleared my throat again trying to remove the annoying little tickle that had begun to grow into an itch.

I nodded my head. I tried to sit straighter in my chair. "I'm fine, Mr. Angelov," I assured him promptly, even as I struggled not to rub my throat. I don't know why but I didn't want Mr. Angelov to see any weakness in me. He gave me the creeps more than I wanted to admit.

I wiped my mouth with one of the napkins from the tea tray.

Amy had cleaned up the tea that had escaped me and I gave her a grateful look. She smiled a smile that I took to mean 'you're welcome', and turned back to the others.

I wanted anyone to say something but no one spoke up. The silence dragged on, maybe less than a minute but it felt like eons to me, so I said, "Mr. Angelov, you said the vampire queen inherits her position." I couldn't help clearing my throat but hoped they would attribute it to the tea incident.

The old man smiled at me. He actually smiled, I was sure of it this time. The weird thing was that it wasn't even a creepy smile. It was more.... delighted parent.

"Yes, indeed, I did. The vampire queen is actually born to her role. The same family has held the throne for over a thousand years. To my knowledge, all the successors to the throne, with the exception of one, have been eager to ascend to the throne. The Queen holds power for 100 years, and then the next in line obtains the throne."

"Wait, Mr. Angelov, why only 100 years?" Kyle asked as he placed his cup on the table.

"What if the queen doesn't have a daughter?" Amy set to Kyle's left, tilting her head to the side.

"What if the queen dies before her 100 years is over?" I managed to ask. I have to admit I was a bit curious myself. I mean I knew it wasn't real but the man had created a complete fictional race in extreme detail. I was now thinking we could do our paper on Mr. Angelov. This was a serious thought and as soon as we left here I intended to talk to the others about it.

Mr. Angelov held up a hand in a gesture that said he would get to each of our questions. "First, 100 years is over the average lifetime of a human but only a small fraction of a vampire's existence. They believe that a longer reign would result in power struggles. Heirs would get impatient, but a hundred years is a short time to wait to rule. Or Rulers would become single-minded in there rule, they would exploit their power to their own ends. So the one hundred year standard was instituted." He looked at all of us as he spoke and we all were paying attention.

In truth, I can't say when we had started to become focused if not fascinated. It was interesting in a weird way. Like an ominous bedtime story told in an orphanage to scare the kids into being good. You know, clean your room or the monster in the closet will get you. Fairy tales have always had an element of horror. Over time, we've just been taught to overlook all of it. As a child, we don't realize that most of these are filled with cannibalistic witches, goblins, werewolves, murder, and death and we've just become desensitized to it. This seemed strangely like the tales that the Grimm brothers would have collected, only so far not as horrific.

"The queen has always had a daughter. Never a son. And I don't know why that is so don't ask." He said, for some reason, I got the impression that he was lying. "It has always been that way."

"So in a thousand years these women, queens, have never had a boy. Not once in all that time?" Kyle asked. He studied biology as if that was the only subject that held any interest to him; he was a fanatic about it. I expected him to be a doctor or surgeon when he was twenty-five.

Mr. Angelov ignored the question and answered the one I had asked. "If the Queen regent dies before her reign has ended, and that is very unlikely, then her successor is placed on the throne, and appointed advisers if she is considered too young to rule."

"How is the queen crowned?" Amy asked with childlike enthusiasm.

"It's called a coronation. The princesses' coronation is planned a year in advance. The queen announces her successor, all the rituals are prepared, date, time, place are selected.

"The princess kneels before the queen and takes the vow to lead the vampire nation for the next 100 years. She's lead to the bathing chamber. A total of twenty-five attendant's serve her needs as she is bathed in steam then she is bathed with a Sandalwood soap. She is then rinsed with rose-hip scented water. They dry her skin with the softest fabrics from around the world until she's ready for the next step."

He moved his hands as he spoke. He gave the impression that the bathing chamber was a huge space, that the attendants were young and beautiful.

"They take her to another chamber and massage her with Ylang-ylang oil. This process takes all night. The future queens are usually asleep within three hours of the beginning of the message."

He smiled as if thinking of something mildly funny. "You would assume that she would be too energized to sleep due to her upcoming position, but this is one of the reasons for the baths and message. It is quite possible that she has not slept in days and therefore not realistic enough to take the last vows of queenship. She must know what she says when she makes a lifetime vow."

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Again, I have made mild edits. I'm sure I have missed a few mistakes. 

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Love ya all, 

Asha