Chapter 9 Different last names
Renata
There’s a dining room on the west wing of the event floor that Lily booked for our dinner.
It’s small, but elegant, with wood paneled walls and a table set for five (although only one seat has a full place-setting).
Lexi wanted to use the lounge, but I told her there was no way I was losing the income for an entire evening.
It’s bad enough when Celine commandeers it to meet with other vampires.
There are hundreds of rooms in this hotel, including her own office, but apparently, both of them think they can use my restaurant any time they want to.
“Who pissed on your grave?” Celine says, appearing beside me.
I glare at her. “You’re borrowing expressions from Lexi now?”
“Well…it was a good one,” my older sister mutters, putting her hands into the pockets of her tuxedo pants.
“All of my expressions are good ones,” Lexi chirps. She’s seated already, at the head of the table.
Celine narrows her eyes. “What are you doing? That’s my seat, you sit in the middle.”
“I was here first!” Lexi whines. But Celine gives her a withering glare, and she obeys with a pout. “You’re just like dad.”
“I am not just like Tudor,” Celine replies. “But I am older than you, and…”
“Ugh, not this lecture again,” she moans, with a big eye roll. “Are you going to mention the dragon shifters of Algernon next? How they all got killed, because they didn’t strictly adhere to a particular seating chart?”
“Don’t start arguing before dinner’s even started,” I say. “Let’s all be civil tonight. I can’t have this drag out for hours, I’ve got work to get back to.”
“She is in a bad mood tonight,” Lexi reports to Celine. She gives her a classic little-sister expression that indicates she’s about to tell on me. “Lily brought her son into the office. Her five-year-old son.”
“Oh.” Celine’s expression shifts as she turns to me. “Renata, are you…”
“I’m fine,” I snap. “I’m not talking about it…”
“Talking about what?” says a cheery, familiar voice from the door of the dining room.
It’s our sister, Hallie. Tonight, the soft brown coils of her hair are pulled back into a ponytail, and she wears a long-sleeved purple sweater and dark jeans. Her copper skin glows with a vibrant liveliness that betrays the fact that she is the youngest of us, turned into a vampire only last year.
Hallie’s bright brown eyes widen when she sees the elaborate setting laid out across the lace tablecloth. “Wow, this is so nice!”
“But of course,” Celine says generously with a crisp nod. “We wanted to welcome you home properly.”
With characteristic exuberance, Hallie pulls Celine into a tight hug. My reserved older sister stiffens at the warm gesture, but doesn’t resist. Lexi stifles a laugh before rising from her seat to give Hallie a hug as well.
An enchanting scent and the telltale echo of a living human heart fill the room.
A figure appears in the doorway, a young witch, by the smell of magic in the air.
She has a pale, freckled face and wavy red hair that cascades down her back.
She wears a tight crop top patterned with constellations, a loose, shimmering skirt, and what appears to be an entire flea market’s worth of mismatched jewelry.
If I couldn’t smell that she’s a witch, I would still be able to tell.
“And this must be Lilith,” Celine says, looking warily at the witch’s bare feet on our recently-veneered, hardwood floor. “It’s a pleasure to…”
“Ooh!” Lexi squeals, hurrying to the girl’s side and taking a pinch of the fabric of her skirt without asking. “This is so cute! Where did you get it?”
Lilith looks a little startled at the supernatural speed with which a hundred-year-old vampire has just appeared beside her. “Oh! Um, it actually used to be an altar cloth, that my mother used for spellcasting. I liked the material, so I sewed it into this skirt.”
“Oh my god!” Lexi clasps her hands together. “It’s handmade! Very chic.”
The witch blushes, clearly pleased with the attention.
“Lilith,” Hallie coughs. “These are my older sisters, Celine C?té, Renata Espina, and Alexandra Price…”
“Everyone calls me Lexi,” says my younger sister with a charming smile. If anyone is good at playing the host, it’s Lexi. I try not to roll my eyes.
“Nice to meet you,” Lilith says. “But if you’re all sisters, why do you have different last names?”
“Well, we’re vampires,” Celine replies. “We all had different last names before we were turned. We use the ones we had before, rather than our Creator’s name. Except for Renata, she…”
“Let’s leave the family stories for dinner, shall we?” I interject. I signal to the butler waiting by the kitchen door. “Otherwise, your food will get cold.”
We sit around the table, Celine at the head, Lexi and I at her right, and Hallie and Lilith together on the other side of the table. The butler appears in a crimson tie and vest.
“Good evening, mademoiselles,” he says with a nod. “What will you be having to drink tonight?”
He looks to Lilith first, who replies, “Oh, um, do you have any wine?”
“We have our house Bordeoux, rich-bodied with notes of cherry. It pairs well with the beef. I highly recommend it.”
“That sounds delicious,” she says.
“And Ms. Johnson.” He turns to Hallie. “So wonderful to have you home. May I bring you a glass of bloodwine?”
Hallie smiles shyly at the butler. She’s still not used to being waited on like this and it makes her a little uncomfortable. “Sure, if it’s not too much trouble…”
“Bring her one of our newer bottles,” Lexi says. “And I’ll have a glass as well, please, Walter.”
“I’m fine without the bloodwine, Walter,” Celine says quickly, before he can ask.
“Me too,” I add, tapping my pointer finger impatiently upon the tablecloth. “I drank earlier this evening.”
Lexi pouts, but doesn’t comment as the butler disappears into the kitchen.
Lexi developed a way to prevent blood from congealing, so that it can be made into a distilled wine that vampires can drink.
A clever idea, but I wish Lexi would turn her focus onto more productive pursuits.
If she spent a bit more time on her role as the hotel’s Chief Marketing Office, instead of on her ridiculous entrepreneurial schemes, I would have a lot less work on my own plate.
“Amrita said that you two had quite a semester,” Celine says. “Something about a magical competition? She mentioned the Devil…”
Hallie and Lilith exchange glances. Hallie reaches up as if to adjust the glasses on her nose, then realizes that she’s not wearing them anymore. “Yes, it’s a bit of a long story…”
Taking turns, Hallie and Lilith tell us all about their semester, and how Lilith’s coven of evil witches attacked the academy. Lilith turned against them to help Hallie, Amrita and the other professors defeat them.
“Where are the Satanic witches now?” Celine asks, her dark eyebrows slightly furrowed.
“They’ve retreated back to my coven’s ancestral home,” Lilith replies. “The High Priest is gone, so they’ll need to appoint a new one.” She looks lovingly at Hallie as she takes a sip of her wine. “You should have seen Hallie! She was amazing. She’s really good at witchcraft, for a vampire.”
“Well, it’s a lot of work, but I like my classes,” Hallie replies.
The main course arrives, and Lilith eagerly digs into her beef bourguignon.
“This is so tasty!” she says. “I wish my coven’s food was like this. Evil witches are terrible cooks.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Celine tells her with a grimace.
Lexi snorts, then raises her eyebrow at Lilith conspiratorially. “Celine thinks living humans eat too much. She doesn’t understand it.”
“It just seems like a lot!” Celine replies defensively. “I don’t remember ever eating so much.”
“Well, yeah, back in medieval France, I’m sure the food was pretty terrible,” Lexi says, taking a gulp of her bloodwine.
“I was born in Quebec in the eighteenth century,” Celine snaps.
“Same difference,” Lexi shrugs.
“Resources were scarce back then,” Celine says, turning to me. “It was a very different time and food wasn’t the same as it is now.”
“Speak for yourself,” I reply dryly. “My cooking was delicious.”
“What did you used to make?” Hallie asks me. “Maybe you could show Lilith and I how to make it this summer.”
For the third time this evening, I feel a little pang of emotion in my chest that I don’t like.
“I don’t have any time for cooking,” I reply.
“We have chefs for that purpose. I’m far too busy running the hotel.
” I glare at Celine and Lexi. “I’m basically holding this place together myself.
We have the highest number of weddings and conferences booked that we ever have had over the course of one season… ”
“Ooh! I was thinking about that.” Lexi leans over the table, a dangerous glint in her blue eyes. “Renata, I have this great idea that’s going to bring us a ton of business!”
“A ton of business is the opposite of what we need, Lexi-”
“It’s an influencer program,” Lexi says, clasping her hands together in delight. “All of the big luxury brands have them nowadays!”
“A what program?”
“An influencer program! You know, content creators with large platforms on social media. We provide them with free hotel packages, and they create content in the hotels. They tag us and use a discount code to generate hype for our brand. I think it would be perfect! We need to move into a younger market.”
I scowl at her. “Lexi, I’m not entertaining one of your ridiculous schemes again. The last thing I need is a bunch of Gen Z’s running around my hotel with their phones…”
“It’s not a ridiculous scheme!” Lexi shrieks. “And I’ll have you know, I was turned a hundred years ago!”
“Then why are you dressed like a children’s television host?” I ask her, gesturing at her loud, bright green and pink jacket, which is (uncomprehendingly) paired with a burnt orange bodysuit and matching boots. “You’re a professional, for god’s sake.”
“I’m extremely professional,” Lexi says, her voice rising now.
Hallie and Lilith watch us like a tennis match, their eyes darting back and forth.
“You and Celine are always bullying me. You think you’re both so impressive because you’re old and grouchy!
But maybe the reason why you’re so mad all the time is because you never let anyone else help you! ”
“Maybe I would let you help,” I reply, matching her tone and volume. “If you would act a little bit more responsible from time to time!”
She stands abruptly, knocking her chair out behind her. “Responsible! I’ll show you responsible!”
I join her, my eyes flashing crimson. “I would love to see it!”
Lexi leaps into the air. But I know all of her moves.
I don’t have time to duck out of her way, but I tuck myself so I head-butt her right in the stomach.
We fall into a heap on the ground beside Celine’s end of the table.
My older sister sighs and scooches her chair to the side, away from us.
Lexi is on top of me, but not for long. She’s briefly winded, and I manage to roll on top of her, sitting on her chest, pinning her long arms down on the ground.
“Not fair!” she shrieks. “Celine!”
“Oh, can’t finish what you started?” I snarl, as my younger sister thrashes beneath me.
She’s strong, and it’s hard to keep her down.
She manages to get one hand free and she scratches my face with her long nails.
I’m glad I drank recently, but the scratches still hurt.
With a furious roar, I grab her fist, but I have to let go of her other hand.
She takes advantage and pushes me off of her.
We both jump to our feet, but it’s not over.
Not anywhere close. Lexi is stronger than me, but I’m older and more skilled.
I know if I can get her down again, it’s an easy win for me.
Without hesitating, I high-kick her, my stiletto making satisfying contact with her chest. She fumbles for a moment.
“Um…” Hallie says, from the table. She looks nervously at Celine. “Should we…stop them, maybe?”
Celine waves her hand. “Let them blow off some steam. Trust me, this is how they work shit out.”
Lexi recovers, and lunges at me, reaching for a fistful of my hair. She grabs it right at the root and yanks. My eyes water with bloody tears, and I roar in pain and fury. Her jacket rides up and there’s a patch of pale skin exposed at her abdomen. I reach out and pinch it as hard as I can.
“Ow!” she lets go of my hair, and I grab her by the shoulders.
I have the upper hand, and my fangs come out all of the way eagerly. Lexi shrieks, and puts her hands up to shield her face and neck.
“Renata, no biting,” Celine says sternly from the table.
I snarl one more time at Lexi, then I let her go. She scrambles back to her overturned chair, picking it up to sit back at the table. My fangs are still elongated over my bottom lips.
“You think that just because you’re the oldest, you get to make the rules,” I say angrily to Celine, my voice thick.
“I am the oldest, so I get to make the rules,” Celine replies curtly.
I huff, but I know I can’t argue with her.
My phone buzzes. It’s Lily.
I’m so sorry, Ms. Espina. I know you’re very busy, but there’s been a disruption on the holding floor. Typically Damien would take care of it, but he’s teaching tonight, and Xia has already gone home.
“Is everything ok?” Hallie asks.
“Everything will be fine,” I snap, looking at Celine. “You stay here and finish the dinner. I’ll take care of this, just like I take care of everything.” I nod at Hallie and Lilith, who is watching us with a fascinated expression. “It was good to see you Hallie, and a pleasure to meet you, Lilith.”
Without another word, I leave the dining room.
To tell the truth, I’m glad Lily interrupted our dinner.
I couldn’t stand another moment in the presence of my sisters.
I thought that Tudor being captured would bring us closer, but it’s as though Celine is becoming more and more like him.
She thinks she can control me. And Lexi’s become even more spoiled and entitled.
All of her ridiculous schemes just create more work for me.
Doesn’t she realize that her entire lifestyle is because of the hard work that I do?
I smooth the folds of my pantsuit, glad that the fight didn’t draw any blood so I won’t need to change. I check my face for unhealed marks, but my skin is smooth.
I text Lily that I’ll meet her on the office floor.