10 Date with Destiny - My Sister the Vampire (12 page)

‘What are you doing in my coffin?’ Ivy cocked her head, a little worried now. Her twin looked pasty and pale – but, then again, Transylvania wasn’t quite as sunny as Franklin Grove.

‘I’m sorry.’ Olivia spoke as if it was an effort. ‘I didn’t have the energy to climb into my own bunk. I figured you wouldn’t mind if I took a nap in yours.’

Ivy smiled. ‘Of course not. It just gave me a scare seeing you in my coffin like that. You were sleeping like the dead!’

‘It’s surprisingly comfortable,’ said Olivia, nestling back into the red velour cushioning. She closed her eyes. ‘Would you mind shutting the lid?’

Wow, the jet lag must have really caught up with her
, thought Ivy as she gently closed the lid on her human twin. Bunnies were more vulnerable to that sort of thing, Ivy knew. There was probably no need to worry. Olivia just needed a good nap and maybe a cup of coffee to jump-start her into Transylvania time.

The bedroom door was flung open, making Ivy jump. ‘Shhh! Olivia’s going to sleep!’ Then she saw it was Tessa.

‘Sorry!’ Tessa whispered. ‘Can I hide out here for a bit?’

‘Yeah, no problem.’ Ivy offered her the swivel chair at the desk. Tessa’s hair was in tangles and her mascara was smudged under her eyes. Suddenly, Ivy wished Olivia could be more . . . well,
awake
. Her sister watched every one of those wedding shows. She would be much better at comforting a clearly stressed-out bride.

Ivy sat on the floor, playing with her shoelaces. What if she said the wrong thing? ‘Um, is everything OK, Tessa? You seem, sort of, all over the place?’ She cringed. That hadn’t come out right.

‘Huh? Me?’ Tessa’s eyes flicked up. She’d been staring into space. ‘I’m fine. Just typical wedding craziness.’

‘I guess that’s to be expected when you’re planning the wedding of the century.’ Ivy tried to smile before she became tongue-tied again. The two sat in uncomfortable silence.

Ivy glanced up and saw Olivia’s camera on the desk by the computer. Olivia had been diligently snapping pictures ever since they’d arrived. It reminded Ivy that she should be doing more for her article. It wasn’t going to write itself! But now hardly seemed like the right time to interview Tessa.

Then Ivy had another idea. She stood up and picked the camera off the desk. ‘Do you want to check out Olivia’s pictures? Maybe it will take your mind off all the crazy wedding stuff for a bit.’

Tessa gave a tired smile. ‘OK.’

‘Great.’ Ivy pushed the power button and the screen lit up. ‘If I know my sister, she’ll have taken some killer shots.’

Sitting together on the narrow swivel chair, Ivy scrolled through the photos. There was a stunning picture of the rose meadow, and one of the mansion reflected in the glinting glass of the greenhouse. Olivia really did have an eye for this sort of thing. She had used different camera features to brighten the colours and the natural lighting to highlight certain parts of the scenery. If anything, Olivia had made the house and grounds look even more spectacular than they appeared in real life.

But what – or,
who
 
– was that in the background? Tessa craned her neck to take a closer look. Ivy leaned in, absorbed in Olivia’s shot. There was a figure lurking on the edge of the screen. She clicked the zoom button twice. It was the OTT caped vampire that she had run into on the side of the road. In the shot Olivia had taken, he was standing in a clump of tall bushes.
Somebody’s taking this creepy horror-movie shtick too far
, thought Ivy, noticing that in the picture he was staring up towards the castle. What was he doing?

‘That is the weirdest thing. I ran into that same guy on the road outside the palace,’ Ivy explained, staring at the shadowy figure lurking in the background of Olivia’s photo. ‘Total creepazoid, if you know what I mean. Do you think we should tell someone? I’m sure you don’t want anyone gate-crashing your big day.’

But when Ivy turned, Tessa was gone. Vanished. What was that about? Did Tessa know the guy in the picture? No – no way
that
 
guy could know a soon-to-be-princess. Maybe Tessa had just remembered some last-minute detail she had to attend to before the big day. Ivy didn’t know the first thing about weddings, so that was entirely possible. But why would she run off without saying a word?

This royal wedding was really beginning to mess with people’s heads!

S
o much food and so little desire to eat it! Olivia knew this rehearsal dinner for the wedding was going to be totally wasted on her. She rested her elbow on the arm of her chair and pushed her cheek into her palm. Buttery rolls, smoked-salmon roulades and miniature quiches were piled high on silver platters, but tonight, nothing could tempt her.

She should have been enjoying the candlelit banquet, but instead she was weak and clammy. Everything felt so distant – even Ivy and her bio-dad seemed a mile off, and they were on
either side
 
of her!

Lillian’s voice came from the other side of Charles. ‘The candelabra are just lovely. And
who
 
put together those gorgeous star-gazer arrangements?’ She sounded tinny and far away. It was like Olivia was living in a dream within a dream.

Jet lag plus Helga’s potion – which had to be the most vile thing she’d ever put in her mouth, including a non-vegetarian sausage she’d picked up by mistake at Ivy’s house that summer – were proving to be a powerful combination. She would be OK soon – any moment now. She just needed to catch her second wind, that was all. Perhaps she could distract herself by sharing her secret theory with Ivy.

‘Guess what?’ she whispered, leaning over to her twin. ‘I think there’s another romance blossoming here. I’m sure Horatio has a crush on the gardener, Helga.’ Before she could go into more detail she noticed something across the room. ‘Hey. What’s with Tessa?’ she asked. The bride-to-be was staring glassy-eyed into the distance, not paying a bit of attention to any of the conversations going on around her. She seemed in even more of a funk than Olivia.

‘I don’t know,’ said Ivy, whose chunky black bracelets jangled as she took another helping of chocolate marshmallow platelets for dessert. ‘It’s weird. She came to our room to hide out while you were napping. One moment she was there and the next she had run out of the bedchamber without saying a word. This wedding must be really getting to her.’

‘Seriously? She ran out?’ Olivia remembered how Tessa had run out on her own party last night too, like she hadn’t wanted to be there. Olivia had thought it was wedding nerves, but now she knew that there was definitely something going on.
The question is: what can it be?

Prince Alex reached for Tessa’s hand, but she pulled it away to fiddle with her hair and then placed it firmly in her lap. Oh no! Had they argued? That would make the most sense, but they were usually such a happy pair. Was the wedding going to be called off? Olivia stopped herself, realising that she was letting her imagination run wild. But after everything that had happened with Jackson – not to mention her recent tumble – she didn’t feel able to judge anything any more.

Prince Alex stood up, clinking his crystal goblet with a knife. His teeth were sparkling white as he smiled out at the dinner guests as if nothing was wrong. He wore a cream-coloured suit and a slender crimson tie. If he had lived in the States, he might have had an impressive career as a male model.

‘Welcome, everyone.’ He held his glass high and the room fell silent. ‘I’m going to use my bad jokes tonight, since this is a
rehearsal
 
dinner and I would much prefer to save my best material for the wedding toast tomorrow. I hope you can forgive me.’ The group chuckled. ‘As many of you know, my relationship with Tessa hasn’t always been bats and blackness.’

‘What does that mean?’ Olivia whispered in Ivy’s ear, confused.

Ivy hissed back: ‘It means their relationship hasn’t always been easy-peasy.’

‘We kept our love secret for a long time,’ Prince Alex continued, ‘and it is only recently that we came out of the coffin.’ Alex paused for a smattering of applause and laughter. ‘But all jokes aside –’ he turned to his bride-to-be – ‘Tessa is like the Free Rose of Summer – rare and beautiful. And now that I’ve found her, I know my future.’

Olivia knew that if she were Tessa she’d be swooning at Alex’s touching words. Drawn-out
awww
s sounded around the dining table. In fact, the only person not showing any real emotion was Tessa. Instead, the soon-to-be-princess was staring hard at her lap. Ivy and Olivia shared a look, but either Prince Alex didn’t notice his fiancée’s expression or he was very good at hiding his feelings.

‘To Tessa!’ He raised the glass to his lips and took a sip.

‘To Tessa!’ The guests echoed.

A moment later, the door to the Banquet Hall banged open and every head in the room swivelled to look. There was a short scuffle with a white-coated servant, and then a caped vampire with a slicked-back mullet burst into the room. Olivia recognised the intruder immediately. It was the same creepy vamp Ivy had pointed out on Olivia’s camera just before they had come down! What was he doing here at Alex and Tessa’s dinner?

The Queen’s bodyguard appeared behind the caped vampire, shaking his head. ‘He was lurking outside, Count Lazar,’ he announced. ‘I tried to stop him, but he slipped through. I am terribly sorry.’ The caped vampire straightened his collar, smiling as if crashing a royal dinner was the most normal thing on the planet, and turned to address the twins’ father.

‘Hello, Karl, my old friend,’ he said. ‘It’s been a detestably long time.’

Olivia saw the look on her bio-dad’s face and gasped. She had never seen him like this before; dark and scary. He looked like an evil vampire in a B-list horror movie. It actually gave her the chills when suddenly he snarled, ‘You!’ and leapt to his feet, his chair scooting back across the floor. The room fell silent.

Olivia dared a glance at Ivy, but her twin sister just shrugged.
This guy
 
knows
our father?
 
Olivia thought.
How?

‘The nerve of that man,’ whispered a tuxedoed vampire with a thick goatee.

‘To prance around looking like a cheap haunted-house prop! It’s ludicrous.’ A woman wearing scarlet satin gloves tossed her napkin on the table in disgust.

Ludicrous was exactly the right word. The caped vampire wore thick eyeliner. His hair was greased back, styled into a sharp ‘V’ on his forehead. The lining of his cape was silky red and he wore pointy-toed boots that laced up to his knees. Olivia had never seen a more atrocious outfit anywhere, let alone smack bang in the middle of the Transylvanian elite!

Charles’s body was stiff and his expression was ice cold. There was anger in his voice as he finally addressed the caped vampire. ‘A long time? It has not been nearly long enough, Vincenzo.’

‘Please, Karl, don’t be so dramatic. It’s ancient history.’ Olivia had no idea what ‘It’ was. Vincenzo scanned the table. ‘Is Susannah not here? She could always calm you down when your temper started flaring. You can be so –’ he waved a hand through the air – ‘impetuous!’

Charles moved so fast that, to Olivia’s eye, he practically teleported. He lunged for Vincenzo, teeth flashing, but Count Lazar and Horatio quickly placed themselves between him and the caped vampire.

‘This is not the way,’ said the Count. His old eyes looked sad, contrasting sharply with his festive red smoking jacket.

From her place at the head of the table, the Queen called, ‘Karl –
Charles
 
– listen to your father. There is a time and place for duelling, but this is not it.’

Charles did not return to his seat. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides. A vein pulsed at his neck. ‘You are
not
 
going to ruin another wedding,’ he said through gritted teeth. Olivia shrank back into her seat. Her normally super-cool bio-dad looked like he was about to lose it.

Vincenzo puffed his chest out. ‘But I never –’

‘No,’ bellowed Charles. ‘Not this time. Do you understand me?’

Vincenzo’s shoulders slumped, and his cape skirted the floor. ‘But it’s
my
 
niece getting married tomorrow,’ he said. ‘I promised her father that I’d always be there for her. I took this promise seriously, even after he and I fell out.’