Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) (21 page)

I wasn't exactly sure how long I sat there in that chair wincing from the pain while Morana worked the brush on my hair, but I knew when she forced my eyes shut and moved in front of me to start on my makeup.

Brushing powers against my eyelids,
and then
telling me to open my eyes again, she'd started brushing more onto my eyelid. When she stood back finally, I got to look at her for once as well.

She had long glossy waves of hair, bright vibrant green sparkling eyes, and was wearing bright red lipstick. Her dress had a slit down the center of it showing cleavage and her navel
before it ended. The dress it
self fell to the floor, pooling around her feet.

“Perfect, come here Layre, Raine you can go wait, when I’m done with her we’re
leaving
.” Morana ordered, shooing me away from her with a quick gesture of her hand. I jumped back as fast as I could, trying to avoid getting in the way and watching as she started to work on Layre.

She didn't take too long on
Layre,
she highlighted a few features, traced her eyes with a black liquid that I guess was their substitute for eyeliner. Messed with her hair a bit so that it was framing her face, and then she was done. Layre didn't need much done to her anyway. She had scars along her face, but she was still pretty, nothing could hide that. Especially in the red dress she was wearing, strapless, it had a long slit all the way up to the top of her thigh.

“Now, we’re good to go, by the way Raine, here.” Morana said to us, holding up a mirror to me and showing me my own reflection. 

She'd done my eyeliner like she did to Layre, and put a deep blue shadow of some sort on my eyes. My lips were red, and my hair hung in loose waves around my shoulders. I didn't know what to do or
say;
for once I was speechless from happiness. Morana just shrugged, and set the mirror back down once she was sure I was done. “I know you want to thank me, come on.”

“I swear, if I didn’t have to go to this thing I wouldn’t.” I muttered loud enough for them both to hear, as I walked
alongside
the two of them towards what I was now just going to call the "Castle" 

“Oh hush, you’ll enjoy it.” Morana smiled

“Sure I will.”

“Don’t worry Raine, when I ditch this place I’ll say I kidnapped you.” Layre smiled over at me, winking as she did.

“That, sounds like a plan.”

“Thought you’d agree.”

**
*
**

We walked past all kinds of different men and women, even some children that were all dressed up. Though some not as nicely as other's were, the women were all in their own dresses, some modest and others more exposing than what I was wearing.

I shook my head as we got closer to the ball room that I didn't even want to enter, or know what was inside. I saw guards, they were all grouped off into fives, and all had on the same pure black outfit's, as if to try and blend in with everyone else. It wasn't working.

“Those are the guards that got stuck on duty, also higher ranked than what we are. We’re group
fifteen;
those are groups, seventeen, sixteen, eighteen, and nineteen.” Layre mentioned to me, pointing to each one.

I looked over at her, then back at the guards nodding my head thoughtfully as I scanned them.

“We protect those inside the court, they work outside it. I think you met some of them when you first came
here;
Fang’s under group sixteen, though he's working with us for now. So they had to replace him.”

“Oh.”

“And no, he’s not off right now, he’s over there.” She mentioned to me as she pointed over at one of the men that
were
dressed in black, the only thing that stood out about him was the shock of blonde hair. He was talking to another man, and woman dressed almost identically to him.

“So where are Nixon and the other’s then?” I asked her, turning and looking from Fang back to her.

“I found them!” Morana announced to us in
an
almost singsong voice. I cringed.

“Of course you did, where are they.” Layre sighed, she looked depressed already, not that I could blame her though.

Morana grabbed hold of my arm, yanking me behind her so that she could hide me from the others, but made me follow her nonetheless. We made our way towards a group, and I spotted Eyloff almost instantly.

He wasn't dressed up at all, he had a pair of loose pants and a shirt on, his hair was pulled back messily into a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck, and he looked like he was ready to kill the first person who disturbed him. It made me smile.

“Hey Mora.” Tom smiled from ear to ear when he set eyes on her, nearly hoping up to greet her.

“Hey, oh,
”
Morana turned around without another thought, pulling me in front of her, and then continued to speak. “You didn’t have to stay back there, you know.”

“I rather felt I did, I enjoy hiding where no one can see me.” I replied, glaring daggers her way. In my head I was killing her a thousand times over, because just once wasn't enough.

“Whoa, my sister can actually look pretty?” Tom asked sounding truly shocked, my glare turned toward him, and he flinched knowing that was my look of death.

Without a second thought, I walked up to him, hit him and then crossed my arms over my chest. He started laughing at me almost instantly, he wasn't exactly dressed up,
and actually
none of the men really were. They were just in clothes that I would
consider
being
nice clothes. It was really strange to see, especially at an event like this one.

“Sexy is she not? Even Layre is sexy.” Morana beamed brightly at me, then over to her sister who shared the same glare that I did when standing that close to her.

Layre let out a huff, and rolled her eyes at her sister. “Are you done embarrassing the poor girl, I think she’s had enough, besides you got your wish, they’re staring at her.”

I felt myself actually twitch a little, then looking over at the others. She was right, Nixon was smiling and staring at me, and Nickel was staring. Dolphus was as well, though to me it was more of a 'You're so pretty!!!' look from him, and Talon… Well he wasn't really paying us any
attention
at all.

His eyes were actually held tightly shut, and there was a blank look on his face, he was just sitting there with his arms crossed and his legs stretched out as far as possible. He looked annoyed, yet
comfortable;
it was so strange to see.

“Yeah, um, can I just sit down and hide myself somehow?” I asked them all, looking at Layre mainly though.

“I’d say yes but, you’d jump back up to kill him.” She said to me, then inclined her head at what was behind me, and even grimaced herself.

Raven came rushing over as fast as he possibly could, looking from Morana to Layre then finally me. His eyes stayed on me as he stared for a few minutes then let out a low whistle, and smirked at me. “Man, I thought you looked good when you came over to my house, but now, damn.”

I could only roll my eyes at
him;
this was going to be a fun evening if he was involved… not. Nixon came over and looked at his brother with a look that practically said '
seriously
man?
’
there was a sigh and then he started to talk. “If she came alone you could flirt, but she came with me.”

“Really now?”

“Yes.” I let it come out as a hiss between my clenched teeth as I glared at him.

“Now why would you want to go and do something like that, with a lame guard who’ll probably just end up dead?”

“Such a lovely way to talk about your brother.” Layre piped up immediately, arching her eyebrow as she looked over at him.

“He made his own choices, just like our sister
did;
he can live with them too. I want nothing to do with family that decides to do this for a living.” He said, gesturing towards the other guards for a moment. “It’s pointless, and you’ll just die faster, why not enjoy the immortality that you have?”

“Because doing this has a point to it, don’t you have tons of other girls you like to flirt with?” Nixon asked him, locking his own jaw as he eyed his brother.

“Yeah sure, though this doesn’t mean I can’t still try little brother.” Raven smiled, patting Nixon on the head before he turned and left, almost as fast as he came over here.

“And that doesn’t mean I won't break your neck when we get home.” Nixon muttered just loud enough for me to hear, before he turned around, put
an
arm around my bare waist and pulled me towards where the others were all seated. He gestured for me to sit down. I didn't have to be asked twice, I sat down quickly.

I looked over at Dolphus for a moment, and realized he was giving me a look that made him look like an angered God. It was the oddest thing I'd ever seen, and I had to blink my eyes a few times to make sure it was real. “Tell me I don’t have to kill a dhampire?” He asked to the both of us.

I quickly shook my head, and in return he nodded his own. Talon moved and caught my
attention
, making me turn my head quickly and watch as he straightened up and open his eyes to look over at us.

“Let me guess, Raven’s eyeing Raine.”

“M’hmm.” Morana replied, practically
lying
on top of my brother, it made me shudder as I looked. Tom was so transfixed on her that he didn't even watch anything that moved around him… it was like he had turned into a zombie, and it wasn't normal.

“Well then, I guess this won't be such a boring night after all.” Talon announced leaning back against his chair once more, and closing both his eyes though this time he had a smile across his face.

I looked at Talon for a long moment,
and then
shook my head slowly, my gaze returning to Morana and Tom once more. I wanted to scream at them to stop, it was bothering me, and I couldn't handle it for much longer at this rate.

I mean, yeah sure I want Tom to go out, have a girlfriend, be happy and all that. But for Christ's sake, we are in a different universe all here, and I don't want to see what should go on behind closed doors, ever.

“What’s up with Mora?” Nickel asked, leaning towards us a bit so that only we could hear what was said.