Bitten – Episode 31

 

Chapter 31

 

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“Emily, Honey, are you going to eat?”

 

Jumping slightly in surprise, my eyes shot to Luella, who was staring at me with a concerned expression. Changing my gaze to the food on my plate, I picked up my fork and stabbed a piece of squash, shoving it in my mouth. “Yep! See?”

 

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Vincent said in a belittling tone.

 

I glared at him, resisting the urge to show him the chewed up food in my mouth. If it weren’t for the others at the table, I would’ve. Everyone in the Rutherford family was present— Solomon, Luella, Fiona, Sebastian, and Vincent. Joel was there too, but I figured he was included in most family gatherings.

 

“You’ll choke,” Vincent finished after a moment, dropping his gaze down to his place.

 

Luella’s eyes widened slightly. She mouthed something to her husband that I didn’t catch causing him, and Sebastian who was sitting next to him, to smirk. I cocked my head to the side, gazing at the pair of men with questioning eyes. They both waved me off. I scowled.

 

A new silence settled in after that, aside from the scraping of metal forks on the porcelain plates. There was some type of tension in the air, but I couldn’t figure out why. Usually the Rutherfords were pretty calm. They spoke what was on their mind (especially Vincent), so this was a little strange.

 

I had my own reasons for being unsettled though. It was the second day since Ashton had left me in the forest. Technically second night, actually, which meant that meant there was only four more days before he came back to retrieve me. No one had spoken one word of it over the past two days. It made my mind race with questions: Why weren’t they talking about it? Were they not worried about it? Were they secretly planning without me? Why wouldn’t they tell me?

 

“Ah, before I forget,” Solomon started, interrupting the quiet dinner room. “Tomorrow we’ll be having a few guests from the court over for dinner. I do

 

 

believe it would be in our best interests if Emily were out of the house. Fiona, Vincent, I’ll leave that up to you two.”

 

“What about me?” Joel asked excitedly.

 

“You need to go to your parents house for dinner,” Solomon told him.

 

His jaw dropped. “What? No!”

 

I cocked an eyebrow. It never occurred to me that Joel had parents. Well, no, obviously he had parents, but I’d assumed Solomon and Luella were kind of his adoptive parents.

 

“They miss you,” Luella added.

 

“I will die,” he commented dramatically, flopping onto the table. “I can hear them scolding me already…”

 

Solomon shook his head at Joel before turning to Fiona and Vincent. “So are you guys up for it?”

 

Fiona beamed happily at him. “No problem! I’d do anything to stay away from the court members!”

 

“Same,” Vincent grunted. “Those assholes can’t even be polite enough to at least act like they like me.”

 

“Vivi, language,” Luella scolded him. “Your swearing habit has gotten out of hand lately.”

 

Solomon laughed. “Don’t say that, Luella, that will just make him do it more.” She frowned. “That’s no good…”

 

“Father, will I have to attend this court meeting?” Sebastian inquired, disappointed washed across his face for some reason. The usual twinkle to his eye was gone. Did he not like the court either?

 

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“Oh! No! I forgot to tell you, you don’t have to attend either. Why don’t you take the opportunity to go out and have some fun? I know you’ve been busy lately, so I think it will do you some good.”

 

His eyes lit up like a child’s on Christmas. “Are you sure?”

 

“Positive,” Solomon responded, smiling at his son. “Emily could use the extra protection too, right?”

 

His words suddenly brought everyone to a halt. My eyes widened. Finally. He was bringing up the issue! Well, maybe not bringing it up, but mentioning it.

 

It felt like my back pocket was burning, and I knew why. The note I’d received from Luca was there, still unread. I’d decided I wanted to read it with Sebastian. If I read it alone, there could be a chance that I wouldn’t want to share the information in it and put both his family and myself in danger. However I hadn’t managed to get him alone, so there’d been no time to read it.

 

For a second I debated on taking it out right now and showing everyone, but I wasn’t sure if that would be the best idea. What if it was something really bad? Sebastian would know what to do. He always did.

 

“I think it would be fun to check out that new restaurant,” Solomon said thoughtfully, tapping his chin. “Maybe you could eat dinner there and tell me how it is.”

 

“I like that idea!” Fiona chirped.

 

Sebastian smiled at her. “Anything for food, right?”

 

She grinned sheepishly, her cheeks tinting pink. “Well…”

 

“Hey,” I began, raising my voice to gain everyone’s attention. “Why are you all acting so normal?”

 

Everyone but Vincent gave me a confused look. He gave me an eye roll.

 

“What do you mean?” Luella questioned, placing her fork on her plate.

 

“Ashton is coming in four days!” I burst, clenching my fist. “Why haven’t we talked about a plan? Or strategy? Or something! Isn’t it going to be dangerous? You guys might have to fight him! Don’t you think you should have some kind of idea of how to protect yourselves? What about me? I don’t know what’s going on either!”

 

There were a few moments of silence after my little rant. I stayed quiet, focusing on keeping my breath under control. Weren’t they at least a little bit worried about what was going to come? Was I the only one worried for them ?

 

 

“Come to think of it, we should probably think of something,” Solomon commented, blinking at his wife. “Maybe the ball planning can be put to a pause.”

 

“I agree,” she responded slowly. “I guess it’s best to be prepared even in a situation such as this.”

 

I stared blankly at the two. Were they serious? They hadn’t even thought about planning something? “Unbelievable! I thought you two would at least be more worried.”

 

“Emily, you keep forgetting we’re vampires,” Fiona interjected, rapping her fist gently on my head. “We’re strong.”

 

“You’re forgetting that your opponent is also a vampire!” I replied, feeling a wave of anxiousness wash over me. “You guys need to take this more seriously!”

 

Sebastian tapped his chin. “Maybe we can set up some booby traps…”

 

“You’re so childish,” Vincent muttered. Then he smirked. “I say we play a real life version of Mouse Trap. That’ll be

 

much more—”

 

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“You guys!” I cried, pushing myself to my feet. “Stop joking around! I’m being serious! Don’t go blindly into this! You never know what Ashton’s planning! What if one of you gets hurt because of this? If you don’t step up your game, I’ll go with Ashton willingly—”

 

Vincent sent me a harsh glare, but before I could continue speaking, or he could start, Solomon abruptly started laughing, but easily changed it into a cough. “Sit down, Emily.”

 

Luella sent me a gentle smile as I did as the king ordered. “I’m sorry.” “For what?”

 

Everyone at the table aside from Vincent hooked me a thumbs up. “We’re teasing you.”

 

My mind went blank. “What?”

 

 

“Ah, I now know why Vincent teases you so much,” Solomon commented with a sigh. “You’re so gullible and easily influenced.”

 

“I kind of feel bad,” Luella admitted.

 

“I don’t,” Sebastian and Fiona stated simultaneously.

 

The blank expression was wiped away, replaced by irritation. “You guys are jerks!”

 

Solomon chuckled again, pushing his dark hair out of his face. “Sorry, sorry. Let me ease your worries. Everything is already planned. There’s no need for you to worry about anything.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I’m not sure if Sebastian or Vincent have told you, but on that same day is the ball for the search of Sebastian’s fiancée.”

 

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably, his shoulders tensing. “It’s just a ball,” he muttered, staring a hole in the kitchen table.

 

Solomon frowned at him for a second before turning back to me. “We really aren’t that ignorant. Ashton’s group really isn’t a threat to us, but it’s still wise to take precautions.”

 

“Also, there will be a lot of vampires here on our side,” Fiona added. “It would be stupid for Ashton to try anything.”

 

“Wait… So… You might not have to fight?” I asked hesitantly. If they didn’t have to use violence, then there would be no worries!

 

Solomon nodded. “That’s the favorable outcome, however, there still is a chance we might have to engage in battle. Don’t fret over it though; we have everything covered. Every one here knows what Ashton wants and will help protect us— even the kitchen crew.

 

Relief washed through me. “Oh, good.”

 

“I’ll be your knight in shining armor if anything bad happens, Em,” Joel piped in, grinning happily at me. “I’m pretty strong.”

 

“Strong enough to get beat up by his crew before, right?” Vincent said mockingly, his sapphire eyes narrowing in amusement.

 

Joel looked offended. “They took me by surprise!”

 

“Anyway,” Solomon began, taking my attention away from the bickering boys, “you’ll be in the back room of the ballroom. This way you’re protected without being suspicious and Ashton will never know of your location.”

 

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I frowned a tiny bit. So they were planning on keeping me away from the ball. That wasn’t any fun. Trying to be inconspicuous, I slid my gaze over to Vincent. Our eyes met and after a moment he sighed, inclining his head a fraction of an inch. I brightened up immediately. Hopefully he was receiving my telepathic question of whether or not he was still going to be my fairy godmother. Why should I miss out on the fun at the ball? I wanted to dance too. It would take my mind off of the impending danger that Ashton posed.

 

“You don’t have to worry about anything,” Luella told me, her soft eyes meeting mine as I turned to look at her.

 

I smiled back at her. “I still will though.”

 

She laughed quietly. “I can’t say I blame you. Even I’m a little worried myself, although I’m also sure that nothing will go against our favor.”

 

“Enough of this serious talk!” Solomon said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s talk about something more exciting.”

 

“Cute guys?” Fiona said enthusiastically.

 

“The NASCAR race?” Sebastian added.

 

Joel nearly shot up from his seat. “Fried squid?”

 

Vincent sighed heavily, shaking his head. “Just shut up, Joel.”

 

“What? Aww, does that mean we aren’t talking about fried squid? I really want some…”

 

“Well if Vincent doesn’t want to talk about fried squid, maybe he wants to talk about something a little more personal,” Sebastian said slyly.

 

Vincent gave him a blank stare. “Like what?”

 

 

He looked pointedly at me. It took all I had to control the blush threatening to spread across my cheeks.

 

“You’re stupid,” Vincent said with a sigh.

 

Sebastian shrugged, the corners of his lips curving up into a smug smile. “Whatever you say, Vince. I’m done. If you’ll excuse me…”

 

Solomon nodded. “You may go.”

 

“Where are you off to?” Luella inquired.

 

“Shower,” Sebastian responded.

 

I sat up a little straighter. “Wait, can I come with you?”

 

Sebastian blinked at me while both Solomon and Luella stared at me with shocked expressions. Fiona giggled, patting my shoulder. “I didn’t know you were into that.”

 

It took me a moment to realize my words came out wrong. Flushing, I shook my head. “No! That’s not what I meant!” I sent a panicked look to Vincent, who rolled his eyes at me. “I just want to talk to you for a moment!”

 

“Sure?” Sebastian responded in a questioning tone. “What do you want to talk about?”

 

“Secret,” I responded, glancing around the table.

 

He got up from the table and I followed immediately, going to stand by his side. Solomon, Fiona, and Luella all bid us a farewell and goodnight, but Vincent just scowled. After a moment he stood up as well. “I’m coming with you guys too.”

 

My mouth opened in protest, but I stopped myself before I said anything. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings. Would it really matter if Vincent read it too? Sure, he was a little hotheaded, but it wouldn’t make that much of a difference. But what if it was something awful? I didn’t want Vincent to read that…

 

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After a few more seconds of hesitation and a suspicious look from Solomon, I decided there was no way I could convince Vincent not to come. I would have to deal with whatever would happen. The three of us trooped out of kitchen and into

 

 

the hallway. Nobody spoke as we made our way to a room where we wouldn’t be overheard. Sebastian led the way, deciding my temporary room would be the best— it was the furthest from the room that the others were in.

 

“What do you want to talk about?” Sebastian questioned as soon as we were in my room with the door shut.

 

“Well, actually, I’m not sure yet,” I responded slowly, sliding my hand into my back pocket. “The other night Luca gave me something…”

 

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. “Luca?”

 

My eyes snapped to Vincent. “You didn’t tell anyone?”

 

“I told Father,” he returned, crossing his arms. “I didn’t feel that Sebastian needed to know.”

 

“Know what?” Sebastian demanded.

 

“The other night Emily ran into Luca. It wasn’t a big deal. Luca just wanted to let us know Ashton knew we had Emily,” Vincent explained briefly. He crossed his arms, leaning against the door. “Now what do you want to talk about, Emily?”

 

Sighing, I revealed the note, holding it out in front of me. “He slipped this into my back pocket before leaving.”

 

Vincent narrowed his eyes. “What does it say?”

 

“I don’t know…”

 

“You don’t know?”

 

“I was going to read it with Sebastian,” I admitted, “that way I couldn’t hide any information it might contain.”

 

Sebastian nodded, coming closer to me. “Smart move,” he murmured, taking the piece of paper out of my hand. “Shall I read it aloud?”

 

“Yes,” Vincent responded curtly. “I want to hear it too.”

 

I swallowed nervously, shifting uncomfortably on my feet. “I suppose it’s the best way…”

 

“Very well,” Sebastian said, unfolding the letter. His eyes scanned it for a moment, widening slightly. “What…?”

 

“Read it,” Vincent urged him.

 

He looked at Vincent with wide eyes, his mouth opening the tiniest bit. After a brief moment his gaze shifted to me. My heart thudded in my chest in anticipation. Sebastian looked from the note, to me, to Vincent, to the note, and back to me again. “I shouldn’t read this in front of Emily,” he finally declared.

 

“What?” I cried.

 

“Why?” Vincent added.

 

Sebastian lowered his gaze. “I don’t want her choice being influenced by it…”

 

“If it wasn’t influenced before, why would it be influenced now?” Vincent snapped.

 

For a second, I felt like I didn’t want to hear the letter. Was it really that bad? What would make me change my mind? I hadn’t really decided on anything, anyway. The plan was that Ashton wasn’t taking me, and Sebastian wasn’t going to be killed. What could be different?

 

Taking a deep breath, Sebastian looked at the note again. “It’s not long. It’s just… Well, it added something new to think about.”

 

“Something new?”

 

“It seems Ashton knows more than he’s let on,” Sebastian told us, his expression solemn. “He knows about the thing with Fiona.”

 

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“No way!” I gasped.

 

Vincent strode forward, ripping the paper out of Sebastian’s hand. His eyes flashed with anger as he read it. “So it’s either we hand over Emily, or he spills the family secret and kills you, huh?”

 

I tried to snatch the note, but Vincent held it over my head. “Let me see it!”

 

“Ask politely.”

 

I scowled at him. “Please let me see it, Vincent.”

 

 

He finally handed it to me, the beginning of a smirk on his face. “Well if you say please…”

 

“Don’t take it to heart, Emily,” Sebastian spoke, watching my reaction as I read over the letter.

 

It really didn’t say much. All it said was that Ashton knew the family secret— the thing about Sebastian turning Fiona, not Vincent. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “I don’t understand… Why is that more threatening?”

 

Vincent opened his mouth and uttered a small noise, but abruptly shut it. It seemed as though he was holding back a nasty remark. “Think about it a little bit,” he said calmly.

 

I gave him an impressed look. “Hey! You stopped yourself from snapping at me!” “Shut up.”

 

“Hey now,” Sebastian interjected, frowning. “Emily, if anyone finds out that my family has lied about the whole Fiona fiasco, our family’s name will be soiled. I may be kicked out of being the next king, and that would lead to Ashton having his way. Well, minus the part about having you, of course.”

 

I blinked. “Oh.”

 

“Don’t worry about it though,” he urged me. “We’ll sort it out. Ashton is notorious for not being exactly… good. I’m sure we’ll be able to convince everyone he’s lying.” He crossed his arms, a pondering expression on his face. “Although I do wonder why he would bring that up. Why did he think it might affect our decision? That doesn’t make sense to me.”

 

Vincent scowled. “He’s an arrogant little prick, that’s why.”

 

“But…” Sebastian trailed off, looking troubled. “I don’t know. I have a bad feeling about this.”

 

“A bad feeling?” I echoed, feeling my heart rate increase. “What do you mean by bad feeling?” Was he thinking someone would go wrong? The doubt in his voice unnerved me. If that was the case then…

 

Sebastian gently ruffled my hair. “Don’t think about it too much. It’s really nothing.”

 

I frowned. “But…”

 

 

“I’m off to take a shower,” he announced, standing up a little straighter. “Forget about the note, Emily. It won’t make a difference. Hand it over.”

 

Reluctantly, I gave him the sheet of paper. “Okay.”

 

“Take care tonight. I know you don’t like thunderstorms and one is approaching,” he advised me. “If you need to, you may come to my room later—”

 

“I’ll handle it,” Vincent interjected, shooting him a dirty look.

 

He raised an eyebrow at him. “Very well.” After turning away from Vincent, he winked at me. “Sleep tight, Emily.”

 

I blushed, doing my best not to glower at him. “Night, Sebastian.”

 

Vincent and I stood in silence while Sebastian sauntered out of the room, chuckling to himself about something. After he was gone, I turned to Vincent. “You don’t have to stay.”

 

“It’s fine,” he responded, sounding a little irritated.

 

Frowning, I crossed my arms over my chest. “No, it’s fine if you go. You don’t sound like you want to stay.”

 

He shook his head at me. “I said I’d stay.”

 

“Oh, I know,” I started, a smirk slipping onto my face, “you are upset about the comment Sebastian made. Geez, Vivi, it was only an offer.”

 

“So what?” he snapped, an embarrassed look crawling across his face. “I don’t like it. Even if you say there’s nothing between you too, I rather not leave you in his care. I was the one who stayed up with you before.”

 

My lips turned up into a silly grin. Vincent was really cute. “Thank you,” I said, moving closer to him. Standing on my tiptoes, I gave him a quick kiss on the nose.

 

He immediately jerked away, rubbing his nose. “Hey!”

 

“Hay is for horses,” I told him tauntingly, turning my back to him. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go take a shower too—”

 

“Wait,” he ordered, grabbing my forearm and pulling me back. “If you’re going to kiss me, kiss me properly. Or else I’ll never learn.”

 

 

Instead of the usual insulted expression on his face when his poor kissing skills were mentioned, he looked completely confident. And a little smug. Almost as if… My eyes widened as he drew in closer. “Wait! You know?”

 

“Of course I know. I’m not stupid, like you,” he returned with an evil smile. “I’m pretty confident in my kissing skills. I just liked watching you think you were teasing me.”

 

“You—”

 

He cut me off by pressing his lips against mine firmly. I kissed him back, but I felt myself blushing again. That was just like him. Making a fool out of me.

 

Oh well , I thought. If he didn’t do that, he wouldn’t be my Vincent.