The final hour before our parents' arrival came and went in a blink of an eye.
We were having so much fun playing 'Uno' that we didn't even hear them walk through the front door.
"Uno!" Anna shouted in joy at finally getting her large hand down to a single card.
"That's not fair!" Rudolph complained, "You cheated when you put Tony under your spell!"
"Hey, don't be jealous of our awesome girl power, Rudolph," I laughed at his moping face as I high-fived Anna.
I may have teamed up with her to help put these boys in their place. It was so worth it to see the pout on Rudolph's face and the embarrassed look on Tony's. Gregory, however, just seemed entertained by the entire ordeal and kept muttering 'what will these mortals think of next?'.
This playful banter made me laugh and watching Anna's face shine brightly as she placed her final card on the discard pile, just added the cherry on top of this wonderful day.
"Wait, do mortal girls also have the power of hypnotism?" Rudolph suddenly asked Tony, "Gregory, quick, shield your eyes so that we can win a hand!"
Gregory glared at his younger brother, "I'm not under a spell you little idiot."
"I don't know…you haven't won one time," Tony taunted the older vampire.
"Tony, cut it out," I admonished my little brother, "Rudolph, Gregory is not under a spell because female mortals don't have that kind of power."
"Uh-huh, sure you don't," Rudolph disregarded my claim, "Next you'll say that cows don't fly!"
"Oh, for Pete's sake—" I was cut off by Gregory's demanding voice.
"Who's Pete?" He growled in question.
"Lucy's boyfriend," Tony instigated.
"Tony!" I yelled at my little brother, hitting him upside the head in retaliation, "Gregory the term 'for Pete's sake' is just an expression. It's used when someone is exasperated at a situation."
I was in the process of picking up everyone's dropped cards when I remembered a bit of fun information.
"Fun fact: The term 'for Pete's sake' or 'for the love of Pete' came into play more than a century ago to substitute the expression 'for Christ's sake'," I happily informed the group with my silly factoid.
"You do realize that hanging out with you is like reading the encyclopedia," Tony nonchalantly commented, earning another hit upside his head from me.
"He does have a valid point, Miss Lulu," Rudolph politely acknowledged, "How do you remember all this information?"
"Not a clue," I admitted to the young vampire, "Everything that I see or hear just ends up sticking in there until I need the useless fact to win an argument or annoy my little brother."
Said brother stuck his tongue out at me in return.
I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out back at him.
"Is that a mortal girl thing?" Rudolph asked out of curiosity.
"Nope, it's just a Lucy thing," I replied while shuffling the remaining cards so we could start a new game.
I was just about to deal the next hand when a cough from the entryway caught everyone's attention.
"Well, here we were expecting a warm greeting when we entered through the door, but it would appear that our children have forgotten all about us," Frederick teased us about our oblivious attitudes.
"Mother, father!" Anna and Rudolph shouted out in unison while racing to greet their parents.
Gregory calmly walked towards the door to see his parents, hugging his mother and shaking his father's hand in greeting.
"Uh, hello, where are our hugs?" My dad asked the two of us with a hurt look on his face.
"Are we still in trouble?" Tony and I asked at the same time.
"You're going to be in bigger trouble if we don't get our hugs," my mom stated in a threatening tone.
We both sped over at this news and hugged them both to avoid receiving worst punishments.
"That's better," dad sighed out before holding us at arm's length to look at the two of us, "Now to decide which one to yell at first."
"Your daughter," my mom chimed in from the sidelines.
"Et tu Brute?" I directed towards my mother with a look of betrayal.
"This isn't the first offence and she technically disobeyed us before Tony snuck off to Transylvania," my mother added on stating her reasoning for choosing me first.
"I…honestly can't argue with that logic," I replied in admiration.
My mother smiled at my adoration.
That is one thing that many people don't understand about the bond between my mother and me. Even if the logic and rationale is used against each other in our debates with one another, we can't hide our mutual respect for the other's argument. It's like a brilliant mind getting in a fight with itself and being impressed at the opposing viewpoints pointed out during the debate.
Crazy?
Yes.
But it's us.
"I can," my dad told her, "Lucy's stressing and worrying needs to be addressed, however, Tony flew off to Transylvania and took on a crazed, homicidal, adult man. I feel like we should address the life- threatening issues first."
"Stress isn't life-threatening?" My mom questioned my dad in alarm, "What Tony did was extremely reckless, and he knows that, however, this was the first time he's—"
"First time—Dottie it shouldn't have happened a single time!"
"Okay, how about this," my mom conceded, "We'll yell at them both at the same time. You yell at Tony outside and I'll yell at Lucy inside, deal?"
"That actually works, yes," my dad agreed while grabbing a firm hold of Tony's shoulder.
"Oh, before you leave, could you hand me Lucy's tablet over there?" my mom asked my dad as he walked Tony towards the door. He gave a quick nod before handing the device to my mother and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.
Their footsteps echoed off the walls of the long hallway.
"Tony isn't in too much trouble is he?" I asked my mom, "He was just trying to help his best—"
"Worry about yourself, Lucy," my mom intervened, clearly not amused that I was fretting about other people again.
"If you'll excuse us," Freda told us with an apologetic smile on her face, "We'll leave you to your family business and will see you later this evening."
"Oh, of course, you all must be so tired," my mom beamed at the vampire family, "Before you leave, Rudolph, could I get that key from you?"
Rudolph quickly complied and handed my mom the key to the innkeepers' bedroom.
"Thank you, Rudolph," My mom gratefully replied, "I hope you all have a good nigh—er, day!"
The Sackville-Baggs wished us a pleasant day as well before hastily flying out of the room to search for a nice dark place to rest. And most likely to not be awkwardly present during this confrontation.
I desperately wanted to go with them and also not be part of this oncoming lecture.
"Now, Lucy," my mother began, giving me a level look, "I will give you to the count of three to fess up to any unauthorized plotting after I specifically forbade you from further interference with adult business. If you choose to remain quiet and I open up this tablet and find evidence of your crimes, then I will be forced to add an extra week to your punishment. Do you understand these terms?"
"What if I am innocent?" I asked, weighing my options.
"If you are entirely innocent then you will only be grounded for 1 week without your tablet and cellphone, but still have privileges to your iPod. However, if you are guilty and admit to your transgressions then you will be grounded for 1 week and 3 days with the aforementioned privileges. BUT, if I open this tablet and find you guilty then you will be grounded for 2 weeks with absolutely no access to any electronic devices and no contact with your brother or friends. I ask you again, do you understand the terms of your punishment?" my mother questioned with a cool air about her, not breaking eye contact with me once.
Crap.
It's not worth it.
My pride wants to say that she's bluffing and can't tell what I worked on, but the logical side of my brain is telling me to not play with fire.
"I understand the terms," I replied back.
"Good. One…Two…T—"
"Wait."
I let out a sigh.
"I plotted after you told me to stop," I admitted my guilt, my head downcast.
"For how long," my mother asked me.
"I planned for one hour and played games with the others for the last hour," I confessed.
"Was Tony aware of your disobedience?" My mom asked, continuing her interrogation.
"No," I fibbed to my mother, "I left the room so that I could concentrate."
My mom knows that I'm not a snitch and that I wasn't going to rat Tony out. She tries every time, but never gets either of us to tattle on the other. In a way, I feel as though our loyalty to each other makes her proud.
"Alright, as stated before, your punishment is for 1 week and 3 days with the previously mentioned privileges still being available," my mom informed me before opening my tablet, "Now, I will erase those 3 extra days if you can figure out how I knew that you were still plotting on your tablet. You have until the count of three."
"Wait, wha—" I dumbly began.
"One…Two…Three…Time's up," my mother declared.
"Wait, that's not fair, I didn't get a chance to—"
"To think? To plan? What were you expecting, Lucy?" My mom asked me, driving her point home with each question, "This is the real world and it's not always going to go according to your best laid plans. It's your life experiences that are going to save your neck one day. Life experiences you won't receive if you don't get out of your head and get involved with the world."
I could feel my cheeks flare up in embarrassment. The red creeped to the back of my neck and to my ears. She was right and she had an extremely good point…but it didn't ease the sting of my embarrassment.
Pushing my pride to the side, I lifted my head to ask, "Can I know the answer?"
"What answer?"
"About how you were going to find out if I was plotting on my tablet or not…"
She smiled at my curiosity before flipping my tablet's screen around. Her dainty fingers pointed to the file folder where it showed the date and…
"The time stamp," I muttered out, facepalming at my own oversight.
"Exactly," my mother told me triumphantly.
"I didn't even think of that!" I told her in good humor.
What can I say? I'm extremely impressed by my mother's ingenuity.
"Alright, now that life lessons are out of the way," my mom began, "Let's go over your ideas and the concerns that you have so that we can fix this."
"Really? That's it?" I asked her incredulously.
"What, you want me to embarrass you some more?" My mom asked me.
"No, no, that's alright!" I quickly declined. Once is more than enough for me.
"Lucy, I can ground you until the cows come home—or fly home in this case, but I know it's not going to stop you from worrying about everything and trying to save the world. You are your mother's daughter, after all. But you need to balance between your responsibilities and having a life of your own. I know all of this because I've been in your shoes. I've had to learn the importance of balance the hard way and I don't want you to make the same mistakes that I did," my mom lovingly expressed to me, pushing my blonde locks from my face.
"Mom—I just…" I trailed off, not even knowing what to say.
"I know, sweetheart, but you can't lock yourself away in your thoughts," mom said, "You have to come out and learn to rely on others."
I simply nodded my head before wrapping my arms around my mother. I wanted to stop worrying. I wanted to be normal. I just… don't know how.
"I'll show you how. Don't worry," she told me, returning my embrace.
Did I say that out loud?
"Now, we are going to go through each one of your scenarios and anxieties, and we will fix them until there is nothing left except a peace of mind," my mom declared, "Come on, let's get started."
"So, how long did you get grounded for?" Tony asked me with a yawn as we laid on the picnic blanket, waiting for our parents to finish their meeting with the two caretakers.
My parents and I decided that it was a good idea to squash the rumors that my brother was a vampire and had us join them in the sunshine for the picnic. We still hadn't had a decent night's sleep and couldn't wait for this meeting to be over so that we could rest in our beds.
After seeing Tony basking in the morning rays, they were more susceptible to the lie that the vampire incident was just a prank that my mischievous brother came up with. We didn't want the two caretakers going to the village and forming an angry mob to chase away our new friends.
We topped off our ruse with a lie about how our parents wanted to buy the castle for a pair of important political clients. The same clients they spent the last two nights picking up and driving back to their new potential estate.
This helped explain the reasoning for the gag order and vacating the premises on the same day. The two former innkeepers readily agreed to these demands in exchange for a good sum of money, a beach side cottage in England, and all trip expenses paid for in advance. Not to mention the added bonus of getting far from this 'vampire- infested countryside'.
All these benefits led us to the moment of them eagerly signing the documents and thanking our parents for taking the property off their hands.
"I got grounded for 1 week and 3 days," I replied to my brother, trying to stifle a yawn of my own.
"What!?" He shouted indignantly, "I got grounded for 2 weeks!"
"You also snuck out your room in a foreign country to battle an absolute madman," I reminded Tony, still a bit peeved that he put himself in so much danger.
No matter how just the cause was, it doesn't excuse his actions.
"Yeah, yeah," He waved me off before settling on his side to look at me, "At least they said that I could still hang out with Rudolph and everybody else."
Tony only had his electronics and comic books taken away as punishment. My parents didn't want to take away his only true friend but threatened to do so if he ever did anything dangerous like that again.
"Mmm…the vet should be here today as well," I secretly told Tony, "He's from a couple of towns over and is used to odd requests from 'filthy rich people' and knows how to keep his mouth shut."
"That's great!" Tony cried out happily, "Their clan will actually get a decent meal for a change."
"Yep…It'll only be cows' blood for a short time," I added on, "At least until mom and dad finalize some papers with a potential buyout of a medical company in two weeks. Then we'll be able to get them the real deal in a couple of months from now."
"It still amazes me that you thought of all this in one hour," Tony praised me in awe.
"Thanks, it's nice to hear approval about my plans and ideas," I confided before letting out a yawn.
"Alright, kids, the meeting is over," my mom informed us, "It's time for you both to get some well-deserved sleep."
We agreed with her statement before quickly standing up and helping her fold the picnic blanket.
"Mom, you guys are going to be awake when the vet gets here, right?" I clarified with my mother. I just needed one more reassurance that everything was going to be handled today.
She smiled comfortingly towards me before replying, "Yes, Lucy. Your father and I will be awake for the vet and will follow all of his instructions. I promise."
Mom started to push my brother and I towards the castle.
"Go get some sleep and I'll wake you both up when it's time for dinner."
Tony and I followed her orders, wished each other pleasant dreams, and stumbled into our respective rooms.
Once inside, I changed back into the pajamas that I had on earlier in the morning, folded the outfit that I would wear to dinner tonight, and dashed beneath my covers.
Sweet, merciful sleep—here I come.
A cold sensation brushed over my face.
I tried to ignore it to the best of my ability, but I ended up blearily opening my eyes to discover the source of the persistent touch.
"Gregory?" I whispered the floating vampire's name in shock.
Why is he in my room?
Am I dreaming?
Why would I dream of Gregory?
"What are you doing up," I groggily asked the older vampire who smiled down at me.
"It's already 7o'clock at night," he informed me.
I raised my eyebrows in alarm before bolting up in bed to grab my phone and check the time.
"Oh…right, my phone got taken away since I'm grounded," I muttered under my breath.
"How long are you on punishment for," Gregory asked.
"Only 1 week and 3 days and it's not all bad," I divulged, "At least I get to keep my iPod and get to hang out with you guys still."
"What is an 'iPod'?" He questioned, emphasizing the syllables in an almost comedic fashion.
"It's basically a device that lets you listen to music," I enlightened him.
Gregory nodded his head in understanding.
"Why are you in my room?" I asked him, still trying to get my bearings on the situation.
"Your mother asked me to wake you up. She said dinner would be ready at 8pm and you needed to get ready," He relayed to me, "It's a good thing she sent me when she did. You are going to need at least an hour to comb that hair of yours."
His final comment was emphasized with his cold fingers playfully tugging at my tangled locks.
"It's not that bad," I reprimanded him for exaggerating.
"Oh, but it is," He informed me with a smirk on his face, "You are truly a sight to behold when you first wake up."
I rolled my eyes at his dramatics before ruffling my hair some more with pride and stretching my arms over my head. Nothing beats a good stretch in the mornings…or evenings in this case.
He let out a low chuckle at my prideful behavior before perching himself at the end of my bed.
"Well…" I began motioning to him.
"Well, what?" He asked innocently.
"Aren't you going to be a gentleman and leave my room so that I can shower and change?"
"What on earth gave you that idea?" He questioned me in astonishment.
"You literally just told me that you were sent here to get me ready for dinner," I reminded him.
"No, not that—I'm wondering where you got the idea that I was a gentleman," he cheekily teased me with a wide, toothy grin on his face.
I chucked a pillow at his stupid face.
"Fine," I conceded, trying to act like his teasing didn't bother me, "I'll just change in the bathroom."
My arms brought my neatly folded clothes to my chest as I started marching my way to the connected bathroom.
"Sounds good," he replied, "While you're in there, I'll try to find the scissors to help you with that tangled mess on your head."
I glared at the older vampire boy before impudently sticking my tongue out at him in response.
Such a jerk.
Once the doors were locked behind me, I quickly showered, brushed my teeth, and changed into my outfit for the day. It was a cute outfit that consisted of denim overall shorts, my pink sneakers, and a white long-sleeved shirt with pink hearts and cartoon corgis on it. My outfit looked a bit childish, but it made me happy and was extremely comfortable.
I didn't want to hog the bathroom for too long, in case Tony needed to use it. Not to mention that I left a tyrannical teenaged vampire alone in my room, God knows what he's snooped through on his own.
With this last thought in mind, I quickly grabbed my makeup bag and hair products before returning to my bedroom.
"It's about time you—what is on your shirt?" Gregory suddenly cut himself off, looking at my outfit in surprise and confusion.
"Wiggle-butts," I simply replied, setting my items down at my desk.
"Wiggle- what now?" He asked while letting out a small chuckle of disbelief.
"Wiggle-butts—it's another name that this dog breed, corgis, are called," I explained while moistening my hair with water from a spray bottle before adding my detangler to the ends.
"I thought that's what you said," he mumbled to himself before asking, "Why are you wearing dogs on your clothing?"
Once I had enough detangler in my hair, I slowly began brushing out the knots first. I paused my administrations to look at Gregory.
"Because it makes me happy," I stated in an obvious fashion, "Besides, I think it's cute."
With that final statement I went back to brushing my hair.
"…Cute indeed…" Gregory murmured.
"Glad you agree," I stated without looking up at him. I finally finished brushing my knotted hair and decided to look at the end result. My fingers searched the confines of my bag for my small mirror before touching a familiar plastic handle. Grabbing onto said handle, I pulled my small mirror out and nearly died of shock at the sight.
Dammit, my hair was tremendously frizzy. I'll have no choice but to style it. My fingers quickly went to work on parting the main two sections of my hair before I expertly began French braiding the first pigtail. Once that side was done, I made quick work of the other one.
"How'd you do that so quickly?" Gregory asked from my side while tracing one long finger down the braid.
"Years of practice, I guess," I told him while shrugging my shoulders and tying off the final braid, "Your mother and sister could probably do hair faster than me."
"I doubt it," Gregory confided, "Vampires don't cast a reflection, so a lot of female vampires don't touch their hair again once they finally get it situated."
"That…must really suck," I whispered slowly in shock. Truth be told, I didn't even think about the whole reflection thing and just how hard it would be to style your hair without it. I don't think I could manage styling my hair without glancing at least once in the mirror to check on the progress.
"Uh… 'suck'?" Gregory asked in confusion.
"Oh, right, you know like it would really bite—sorry that's a bad description as well. Uhm…," I trailed off trying to think of an apt description for the slang word 'suck.'
What a time to lose my ability to google certain things…
"Oh! I know it's like saying something would be miserable or hard," I finally explained with a smile on my face.
"You mortals come up with the strangest things," Gregory commented while still playing with my braids.
"The vampires before you probably said the same thing about your time period," I retorted, my fingers reaching for my makeup bag next.
He chuckled at my clever assessment before agreeing with me.
"Now, what do you have in your hand?" He nosily asked me. Gregory's fingers paused their ministrations in my hair as he peered over my shoulder.
"It's my makeup bag," I answered while pulling out a small tube, "And this is my concealer."
"Concealer?"
"Yeah, it covers up problem spots like acne, dark circles, freckles—"
"You are going to cover your freckles?" He suddenly questioned in horror.
"Uh…well sometimes I do, but I'm not going to today," I honestly replied, not understanding his sudden objection, "It's just family dinner so I'm going to use it to cover the dark circles under my eyes."
"Good."
"You do realize that covering my freckles doesn't make them disappear, right?" I asked him, thinking there must have been a miscommunication with my previous explanation.
"Yes, I understand that part," Gregory responded, ignoring my gaze to go back to playing with my braids.
"O—okay…" I trailed off, quickly dabbing a bit of the product under my eyes before rubbing it in. My fingers took hold of my mascara next where I hastily applied it to my eyelashes. I was hoping to avoid Gregory asking me further questions about my make-up regimen. Truth be told, I was starting to feel self-conscious from his prying eyes.
Thankfully, he seemed to be busy amusing himself with my hair and didn't notice my quick movements. With his attention being diverted, I swiftly packed my products back into my makeup bag and placed it on the far corner of my desk.
"Alright, that's enough of that," I sternly told him while removing his fingers from my braids and standing up, "Let's go eat."
"…You do realize that if I were to eat then you'd be the one on the menu, right?" Gregory asked with a sinister look on his face.
I blinked at him in confusion, "Nobody, told you?"
"Told me what?" He questioned me back. I noticed him stand a little straighter, his stance tensing up in preparation for any surprise attack.
"We got cow's blood for your entire family," I revealed to him.
"…You…but how?"
"Oh, we got a vet to come out and safely remove one pint of blood from each cow. Well, not all the cows—we drew blood from the majority of cows on the land," I happily informed, "We're going to keep alternating the cows who 'donate' so that way you guys don't run low on supplies. All this is a temporary solution until we finalize the buyout of a medical company that owns the majority of the blood banks in the world."
"…You planned this, didn't you?" Gregory questioned me in bewilderment.
"Uhm…a bit of it yeah, but my mom is the one who took my ideas and made it happen with the comp—"
Gregory had pulled me into a strong hug—effectively shutting me up.
"Uh…Gregory?"
"Thank you…Lucy," He whispered in my ear, pulling me closer into his cool embrace.
My knees felt like jelly and my face was on fire again.
I must be coming down with something.
I'll need to get more rest after dinner.
Gregory finally loosened his hold on my body and smiled down at me.
"Let's go eat, shall we?"
"Shouldn't we get Tony first?" I asked Gregory as we walked by my little brother's room.
He shook his head no, "Rudolph and Anna already got him up."
"Oh, that's good to hear," I acknowledged.
We both fell into a comfortable silence as we made our way to the dining hall. The large oak doors opened to reveal the vampire clan seated at multiple tables with their corresponding families. There were two tables placed together in the middle and it sat both my and Gregory's family together.
"Ah, there you two are!" Frederick declared, announcing our arrival to the rest of the family, "We're still waiting for your Aunt Wulftrud and Uncle Gernot before we begin our meal, however, both of you should have been here 15 minutes ago."
"We thought you two became lost in the castle's endless hallways," Freda gently added on, "What matter delayed both your arrivals?"
"I'm sorry for my tardiness, mother," Gregory began before sending me a wicked grin.
I squinted my eyes at the mischievous look he was giving me.
Oh, he better not mention my tangled hair.
"Truth be told…" He drawled out, enjoying my attempt to look threating in my cute corgi outfit, "Lucy, was informing me about some modern mortal products and we lost track of time."
"Oh, I see, you were always such a curious boy," Freda fondly reminisced patting his hand.
"Yes, too curious for your own good, if you ask me," Frederick added, not impressed by our late arrival, "Gregory, you are the oldest and are held to a higher standard. You must always be punctual if—"
"If I don't want to tarnish the Sackville-Bagg name when I am clan leader," Gregory finished in aggravation while pulling out a chair for me to sit down at the table. This clearly wasn't the first time he's heard the lecture.
Frederick opened his mouth, probably to reprimand Gregory more, but I took over the conversation.
"So, did everybody sleep alright?" I hurriedly asked, trying to quickly change the topic.
Gregory promptly took his seat next to me and sent me a grateful look for my interruption.
"I know I sure did," Tony replied.
"I wasn't talking about you, you dork," I laughed at his antics.
"Well, I slept in the armoire of Tony's room again," Rudolph chimed in, "It's actually cozier than you'd think it would be."
"I still say that it's not fair," Anna pouted, "Why can't I sleep in Tony's room?"
"Because you're a girl, Anna, and can't sleep in a boy's room," Rudolph groused, clearly annoyed by his sister's lovestruck behavior, "Besides, Tony is my best friend, not yours."
Anna hissed at Rudolph in agitation. Freda quickly scolded her daughter, saying that such behavior was unbecoming of a young lady.
I smiled at the family banter before turning to Gregory.
"Are all vampires this territorial?" I asked in a hushed whisper.
Gregory looked over his left and right shoulder in a conspiratorial manner. He then secretly ushered me to come closer and leaned in closely to whisper in my ear.
"Yes."
He pulled back with a teasing grin and I just glared at his childish behavior.
Should have known better than to expect him to answer me in a serious manner.
I rolled my eyes when he sent me a wink and turned my attention to the rest of the table. My mother was watching me in amusement.
"What?" I asked her with a tilt of my head.
"Nothing," She replied with faux innocence.
I wanted to call her out on her obvious lie, but Tony distracted me.
"Hey, Lulu, what are we doing today?" He nervously asked me. I guess he wanted to get out of the middle of the two glaring vampire children and was looking to me for help.
"Uh…" I hesitated with an answer. My mind tried to piece together a plan to stop the two siblings from fighting with each other but came up empty-handed.
"We could go flying," Gregory deviously suggested.
"We most certainly could not go flying!" I shrieked out, whipping my head around to glare daggers at his outrageous claim.
His grin widened at my terrified reaction.
The cheeky bugger is going to get garlic flung at that stupid face of his.
"Gregory, quit antagonizing, Miss Lulu," Rudolph chided his older brother.
"I agree with Rudolph," Anna added on, forgetting her previous fight with said brother, "Lucy has been nothing except nice to you, while you continuously pick on her."
"Yeah, yeah," Gregory flippantly said, waving off his younger siblings.
My eyes narrowed suspiciously at his attitude.
Did he do that on purpose to get them to stop fighting?
I opened my mouth to suggest playing some more board games, but immediately closed it when I thought about the situation at hand.
Rudolph and Anna were already fighting over Tony and we didn't need game night to end with an all-out brawl.
A memory suddenly surfaced from my talk with Gregory and a brilliant idea popped into my mind.
"How about we watch a movie," I suggested.
"Oh! Can we watch a horror movie?" Tony excitedly asked.
Rudolph seemed enthusiastic by the suggestion, but Anna scrunched her nose in disgust at the potential movie genre.
"I was thinking something more of a family feature with a bit of romance in it," I told them, earning a 'yuck' from the two boys and a 'yes' from Anna.
Gregory just watched me mediate the situation with pride.
"Does it have to be romance?" Rudolph pleaded, clearly over his little sister casting lovey-dovey eyes at his best friend.
"Trust me, you'll like it," I reassured him, "It's actually one of Tony's favorite movies."
"You like romance too, Tony?" Anna dreamily sighed at my younger brother.
"Anna…" Rudolph growled out in warning.
Oh boy.
"And, Anna," I immediately cut in, trying to reel back the vampire girl's attention, "We could have a bit of a girl's night while watching the movie."
"Girl's night?" She asked me in confusion.
"Yep, we can paint our nails, craft friendship bracelets, braid each other's hair…" I trailed off listing some things that she might like.
"Oh, yes!" She exclaimed in excitement, "That sounds like so much fun!"
"Great!" I cheered back, happy to avoid another sibling fight for the time being.
"So, what movie are we watching?" Tony asked in curiosity.
"I was thinking we could watch The Corpse Bride."
"Ohhhhh… That is a good one," Tony commented, "You'll like it Rudolph and while watching it, we can draw that comic book we were talking about earlier."
"Another comic book idea?" I asked Tony in disbelief.
"Don't be so surprised," He smugly responded, "You aren't the only genius in the family."
I laughed at his quick wit while shaking my head in amazement at the amount of sass that resides in his small body.
My eyes glanced at Gregory who remained silent through the whole exchange.
"Don't think that you are getting out of movie night, Mr. Gregory Sackville-Bagg," I accused the older vampire.
"I wouldn't dream about missing it, Miss Lucy Thompson," he informed me with a sly smirk on his face.
My face was aflame once more.
Why does this happen every time he says my name like that?
I should tell him to go back to calling me 'mortal'. But the thought of never hearing him call my name again makes me…sad?
I need to talk to Tony about this.
A sudden commotion at the dining hall's entrance shook me from my troubling thoughts.
"Here we are!" I heard an older gentleman call out from the entryway. This must be Uncle Gernot that they were talking about earlier.
"Freda, we are so sorry about the delay," an older vampire woman apologized before smacking her husband's arm, "This nincompoop got himself locked in our room and couldn't get out. I knew we should have chosen a room with windows."
I had to cover my laugh with a cough.
They are officially my favorite couple of all time.
"Oh, don't worry," Freda reassured the elderly vampires, "We are just happy to have you join us for this wonderful surprise."
Surprise?
Crap…was I not supposed to tell Gregory?
I glanced to my side at said teenager as innocently as I could, hoping he didn't catch that last bit of information.
That wide devilish grin was back on his face.
He obviously heard his mother's comment.
Great…
Frederick took that as his cue to fly above and gain the clan's attention.
"My family, as you all know we started this gathering to celebrate my youngest son's 313th birthday and it ended with us gaining the addition of wonderful friends and allies," Frederick began his speech while motioning to my family below.
I could feel my face heat up in embarrassment as all eyes landed in our direction.
Gregory secretly gave my hand a tight squeeze in reassurance under the table.
I gave him a small grateful smile.
"Our new friends have provided us with a safe shelter to protect us from our enemies and allow us to finally live in peace," Frederick carried on, "Now, my fellow kinsman, our friends have benevolently bestowed upon us another generous gift."
He then let out a deep, resonating whistle. A group of five female vampires entered the hall and were wheeling five individual carts. Four of the carts that were wheeled in had goblets for every vampire in the clan. The last cart that was wheeled out was filled with the pints of blood that was collected earlier that day from the cows. Shocked gasps and whispers broke out from the tables of vampires as they saw the bountiful supply.
"Do not hesitate to drink your fill, my family," Frederick informed them, starting to wind down his speech, "The Thompson's have already made future plans to ensure that our supplies never dwindle and that we will never endure hunger again."
Applause erupted throughout the dining hall and the families started cheering our name. My embarrassment came back full force and I couldn't bring myself to make any eye contact. Gregory chuckled at my bashful nature before slipping his hand back under the table and lacing his fingers with my own.
Truth be told, I don't think that I would have been able to stomach all of this attention without Gregory by my side.
Even if he is a sarcastic jackarse.
With Frederick's speech wrapped up, the vampires each took a goblet and, depending on the size of the table, took one to three bags of blood.
My mom excused herself to go grab our cart of food to bring to the table and dad left to go help her. Frederick and Freda told her that they would wait for their return before beginning their meal, but my parents insisted that they begin eating.
Adhering to my mother's insistence, Freda opened one of the bags and filled the goblets of Anna, Rudolph, and Gregory, in that order. She went to go fill up Frederick's goblet, but he simply placed his hand over his cup before lovingly kissing his wife's hand.
"You eat first, my darling," Frederick whispered to her.
"But, Frederick, you are still weak from Rookery's attack," she protested while lovingly stroking the burned side of his face.
"I would gladly endure 1,000 suns if it meant keeping you safe, my love," he vowed to his wife.
Aww…I love it when it turns out that the tough guy is a big softie.
My eyes glanced over at the Sackville-Bagg children. Anna was the only child impressed by her father's declaration of love. The other two boys scrunched their noses in disgust at their parents' public affections.
Tony seemed disturbed by the openly public sentiments but remained polite and averted his gaze.
I ended up having to intervene when Gregory and Rudolph made gagging noises in the back of their throats. My elbow quickly jabbed Gregory in the side and my glare silenced Rudolph's misbehavior.
Boys.
Frederick delicately took the bag from Freda's hands and filled her cup first before filling his. She lovingly cooed at her husband's thoughtful behavior.
I quickly glared at Rudolph and Gregory, ensuring that they didn't ruin this touching moment for the married couple.
Rudolph innocently smiled at me, while Gregory raised his brow. Silently asking what I could possibly do to stop him. My eyes narrowed at his non-verbal taunt.
He is so getting garlic hurled at that stupid, smug face of his once dinner was over.
My mom and dad soon returned with our cart full of food. She set a glass of milk in front of Tony and then me before putting our already prepared plates in front of us. Tony groaned out when he saw the vegetable that was on the plate.
"Mom…" Tony complained.
"They're good for you," she countered without looking up at the pained expression on Tony's face.
"It tastes like dirt!" Tony declared, making a gagging sound in his throat.
"Tony, it's not that bad," I told him while taking another bite of the beets on my plate.
"That's because you like eating dirt," Tony exaggerated while trying to get his fish and rice away from the offending vegetable.
"When have I ever eaten dirt?" I challenged him while shaking my head at his childish behavior.
I thought that I had a 13-year-old brother, not a 3- year- old.
"Clearly in a past life since you can eat this without any problems," He spat back without hesitation.
"Tony…" I began reprimanding him as he continued to eat everything else but his beets.
A lightbulb suddenly went off in my head.
"You do realize that mom isn't going to let you leave this table until you eat all your food, right?" I slyly asked him, he stopped midchew to give me a look of suspicion, "That means that you won't get your movie night with us nor be able to draw with Rudolph."
The look of realization and horror that came across his face was absolutely priceless.
"You can do it, Tony," Rudolph cheered for his friend, "They can't be that bad."
"Oh, yeah?" Tony prodded, "Then you eat them."
"I'm a vampire, remember?" Rudolph sarcastically informed his friend, "It will taste and feel as though ash is in my mouth."
"That sucks," I commented with a look of disgust on my face.
"Uhm, 'sucks', dear?" Freda asked me from the side.
"Oh, it means that it sounds rough or miserable," I clarified.
"Oh, I see—how interesting!" She gushed.
"Apparently, the term 'bites' means the same thing, mother," Gregory added on remembering our earlier conversation.
"Yeah, if someone says, 'that bites' it just means that it's rough or miserable," I further explained, slightly impressed that Gregory was catching on so quickly.
"There you go, Tony, just one more bite!" Rudolph happily cheered for my little brother who had powered through eating his least favorite vegetable.
Tony plugged his nose before chomping on the last pieces of beet from his plate. I had already finished eating my food and silently watched as both vampire children praised my little brother for cleaning his plate.
Rudolph held up one of Tony's hands as though he was a victor in some kind of boxing match. Tony chuckled at his best friend's antics before glaring at me.
"I hope tomorrow night's vegetable is peas," he growled at me with such a serious look that I almost spit out the milk I was drinking.
"It's not funny, Lulu," Tony grumbled out, "That was the absolute worst punishment ever."
"Tony beets are good for you—"
"And so are peas…in fact, hey mom, can we eat peas for dinner tomorrow night? I mean a lot of peas. A whole truck load of peas," Tony evilly requested with a sinister smile on his face.
My mom said that she would check the freezer to see if we had any while laughing at his petty behavior.
I shook my head at him.
Sure, peas were my least favorite vegetable, but I learned long ago that it was much easier to hold your breath and shovel it down first. That way you don't have the taste of your least favorite food lingering on your taste buds after dinner.
Tony just smirked at me in victory.
I rolled my eyes before moving to collect his, finally, clean plate and empty milk glass. My mom and dad stopped me and told us to go have fun watching our movie with the others. They then added on that we were to go straight to bed once it was over.
Rudolph and Tony pleaded for an extension for their playtime, but our parents said no. They wanted us to make up for the lack of sleep from these past three nights before they would extend the curfew for bedtime.
"You both can stay up later tomorrow night, and we'll discuss your new bedtimes and sleep schedules then," mom said before shooing us out the door to play.
"Alright, Tony is in charge of setting up the movie on the television in the den, Rudolph will grab the art supplies from Tony's room, I'll grab my hair products and nail polish, and Anna and Gregory can grab a whole bunch of blankets and pillows for the fort," I listed off, giving everyone a task for movie night.
Everyone nodded in understanding before speeding off to perform their delegated roles.
Tonight was going to be so much fun!