She felt sickened by the whole night. Everything felt wrong, dreadfully, horribly wrong.
Armando came around the statue, took hold of her arm, and whispered through her hair, “Talk to him.”
“Tell me how,” Vanora retorted, gesturing toward the couple.
Carlotta had pulled Roman out onto the dance floor set next to the pool. Swinging Carlotta about in his arms, Roman wore an expression of total joy.
“See what I mean,” Vanora exclaimed over the blaring music.
Armando was obviously frustrated and furious. “Damn it all!” He stalked off toward a table where he flung himself into a chair.
“Great party, isn’t it?” a familiar Australian accent said.
“Sheila!” Vanora said with surprise as she turned about.
“Hey, doll, welcome home!” Sheila flung her arms around the girl and kissed her cheek.
Again Vanora felt a thrill of fear, but managed to hug the skinny vampire back and not jerk away. She was holding up better than she had expected considering how haunted she was by the events of that Halloween night. Alexander greeted her with a wink and a kiss on her forehead.
“My, you’ve grown up and are even prettier,” Sheila said, lightly touching Vanora’s white-blond hair.
Alexander nodded in agreement.
“Hey, it’s Vanora!” Angel enthusiastically hugged Vanora. “You look great kid!”
Vanora soon found herself surrounded by her old friends. The vampires greeted her with great warmth, hugging and kissing her. The experience of having such deadly creatures all about her was excruciatingly frightening. She handled her fears fairly well as she answered their questions and tried to sound like her normal self. It was difficult to keep track of Roman as more and more guests arrived. There were many more vampires than she remembered. At last she managed to slip away. Making her way through the crowd, she found Armando.
“Where is he?” she asked.
Armando gestured angrily to the dance floor. “With her! Dancing. Still!”
Vanora felt chilled to her very core. It wasn’t just the wintery night air or because she was surrounded by vampires. Something far worse, far more evil, was lurking in the night, waiting to strike out at Roman. That knowledge slammed into her like a jackhammer and she gripped the table to steady herself.
Armando instantly rose to steady her. “Vanora...”
“It’s coming,” Vanora whispered.
“What?” Armando’s golden gaze met her own.
“Death...”
“He’s gone.” Armando craned his head, searching through the crowd of partygoers.
Carlotta was alone near the dance floor, sipping from a wine glass while speaking to several guests.
“Go keep her occupied! I’ll find him!”
Armando instantly rushed through the throng toward Carlotta.
Vanora spotted Alisha talking with Sheila and pushed her past the party guests to her sister’s side. “Alisha, have you seen Roman?”
“He was just dancing with Carlotta and...” Alisha’s eyes widened, then she looked about frantically.
“I think I saw him go inside.” Sheila studied Vanora and Alisha’s distraught faces. “What’s going on?”
“He’s in danger. I sense it.” Vanora was trapped in a nightmare.
“What?” Sheila’s expression quickly changed from joyous to concerned. “What do you mean?”
“She had a dream,” Alisha said swiftly.
“Oh, shit.”
“Nothing feels right, Alisha. Whatever is going to happen I feel it’s going to happen tonight.” Vanora’s body trembled while her head painfully throbbed. The urgency to find Roman was quickly becoming dire.
“Go find him. Warn him.” Alisha stared across the pool toward the dance floor where Armando was flirting with Carlotta and attempting to get her to dance with him. Carlotta kept glancing away from him, obviously looking for Roman. “I’ll go help Armando.”
“I’ll go check for him inside.” Vanora squeezed her sister’s hand, then hurried into the mansion.
Most of the lights were on inside. Vanora could hear voices in the kitchen. Rushing down the hall, she fought the panic swelling within her.
Roman stood next to the kitchen counter holding a bottle of wine in one hand while Ryan and Miss Robbins poured blood into wine decanters. They were chatting, laughing, and smiling, yet Vanora could only stare at her brother as fear bubbled up inside of her.
“Roman,” Vanora gasped.
Her brother cast a surprised look in her direction. “Yes? Is something wrong?”
“Can I talk to you?”
There was a slight puckering between Roman’s eyebrows, but he nodded. “Of course.”
“It’s private.”
Miss Robbins and Ryan made a point of pretending not to be listening.
“All right.”
Clearly mystified, Roman followed her out of the kitchen and into the dining room. The sounds of the party were far away and the night pressed up against the long windows. Vanora took a deep breath and faced Roman.
“What’s wrong, Vanora? Is this about your friend?”
The concern in his face made her heart throb with love and she took his cool hand in her own.
“Roman, I had a really bad nightmare about you.” Immediately Vanora could see her brother’s annoyance, but she plunged onward. “It was very vivid and it scared me. You were dead in the dream, Roman.”
“I am technically dead already,” Roman pointed out. He set the wine bottle down on the dining room table with a loud thunk. Tucking his hands into his trousers pockets, he regarded her with a mix of annoyance and sympathy.
“You’re a vampire. That’s not really being dead.” Vanora met his gaze, willing him to see the truth.
“I’m dead to the human world.” Roman gestured in the general direction of the party. “That world out there is the only one I exist in anymore. So, yes, I’m already dead.”
“Roman, I know you don’t buy into my powers or Alisha’s-”
“The witch stuff,” Roman said, nodding.
“Right. But you’re a freakin’ vampire! You’re alive when you shouldn’t be! How can you not believe us?”
With a sigh of exasperation, Roman jerked a chair out from beneath the table and sat down in it. “Vanora, all my life I’ve listened to the predictions of the women of this family. Some came true. Some didn’t. I believe that what came true was mere coincidence. Alisha shows me her paintings and gives me an interpretation. I look at those same paintings and see something entirely different. I can look at those paintings and make my prediction based off them completely true. I can’t base my life off of your fears.”
Swallowing down the painful lump in her throat, Vanora said, “Rhonda is dead. I don’t want to lose you.”
“Did you dream about her death?”
The question hurt and Vanora flinched. “Yes, but I didn’t realize the meaning of the dream until she was gone.”
Roman lightly tapped his fingers against the surface of the table. “Okay. So you didn’t know how to interpret the dream then, right?”
“Roman, the dream I had about you was really clear! You were dead!”
“My point, Vanora, is that your dreams are subjective. Let’s say your dream is true. I am dead. Dead to this world.”
“You were dead before a throne!”
That visibly started her brother, but he quickly recovered. “I’m no king.”
“If our family hadn’t hidden our lineage from us, maybe you would have been. We are of the House Corvinus. But beyond that, Roman, you’re a king to those vampires out there!”
“Again, two interpretations of a dream.”
