Chapter 5
Chapter
Five
The cottage was absolutely perfect, with a big roof and diamond glass windows.
Inside, my kittens were waiting for me in the cozy living room/kitchen, stone walls and floors, softened by overstuffed furniture in tiny floral prints.
I scooped up the orange striped kitten and snuggled it under my chin as I explored.
Past the big room was a bedroom with a pretty bed stacked with various floral quilts.
So pretty, simple, but absolutely adorable, and it felt super authentic.
The bedroom had two doors, one a closet full of my gorgeous princess dresses and the other a bathroom with an enormous vanity stocked with all the cosmetics I could possibly want.
Who helped the scholar set this up? Definitely not Libby.
Sultry? I nodded. It certainly wasn’t Glade, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else the Scholar asking about decorating.
Usually he’d ask me, but he’d wanted to give me a surprise.
My heart warmed and for a second I just stood there, sniffling, feeling loved and not abandoned.
But I didn’t have time to be sentimental.
I texted my thanks to the Scholar and Sultry that I knew they’d be too distracted to respond to, and then spent two hours making gorgeous content for my platform.
While I was photographing myself and my kittens in an adorable chemise with the light coming in the window just so, my phone dinged and a message from SunRae, my best friend forever came through.
Did you meet the contestants yet? I’m so excited to watch you on tv tonight!
You’re a movie star! Who will you choose?
The fairy is so pretty, and his costumes and singing are top notch.
But the wolf is so hot! And an incubus billionaire?
I mean…WOW. And the Cupid gives him a run for his seductive appeal.
And then the devil of Wonderland? What is he doing there?
Isn’t he like evil? I guess evil is hot!
And then the elf. Elves are always pretty, but he also seems really nice, which is rare!
Also, what do you think of this carrot cake?
Is it too much? I carved tiny carrots out of real carrots and used edible moss for the tops, with veggie icing for the stems.
The attached photo showed the cake studded with mini carrots and fluffy stems, which was the most adorable thing ever, placed on a lace paper doily and with her gray rabbit Stew with big puffy cheeks next to it.
I hearted the image. Seriously, she was the cutest baker ever.
As for her other questions, the elf seemed the most realistic possibility, but elves didn’t like vampires, and eventually I’d die and turn, and the pretty immortal would be stuck with an infernal monster.
Maybe I should have included some vampiric options.
I typed a quick response.
Cutest cake ever! OMG I love it so much!
Say hi to Stew for me. Why is he so cute?
We’ve got to have a picnic sometime with my kittens and your menagerie.
I’m not allowed to sound biased or leak any news before the show airs tonight.
You’re right, tho, these guys are all hot! I’m the luckiest girl in the world!
I was lucky to have one best friend and other people who really cared about me, even if they didn’t understand. I took a book, a blanket, and went outside with my kittens to find a nice place to lay in the sun. Imagine the sun, right outside my cottage door! Was anything so magical?
Instead of reading a nice fantasy romance, it was all about defense runes.
I needed to prove that I could take care of myself during this crazy show, or what was I even doing?
And I wanted to not think about the fact that Richard the Lion was on the show instead of Lorien the Cupid.
Maybe I could start a war somewhere so he had to go fight in it.
I made a face at the thought of seeing the angel again, and then focused on how to spell defense runes.
I fell asleep on my book and woke up with a puddle of drool on the page while the trees shadows fell over me, making me shiver.
I wiped the book and then quickly gathered up all the blankets, shivering too much.
Being cold meant only one thing: I needed blood.
Inside the cottage I punctured a blood bag with my fangs and ignored the horrible taste while I considered outfits.
I pushed back the hangers, fingers lingering on a silk dress that would be perfect for a picnic.
Hm. What about this one? Chocolate brown velveteen bodice and skirt with pink silk scallops along the hem and pink silk rosettes along the bodice?
For a cocoa meet-and-greet in the library, this would be perfect!
My book nap had smashed some of my ringlets, so it took some time to recapture the perfection, and then I worked on makeup.
After time spent happily seated at the pink vanity, with little cute rose carvings around the oval mirror, I was the perfect princess, ready for a cozy-cute evening.
I bounced because everything was just so wonderful, and then I took a quick photo and left the room.
In the living room, I put a book and my kittens in a large basket, because then I’d be cute and get to see the reaction of the infernal contestants to my adorable pets.
Except that maybe I didn’t want to see the werewolf’s reaction.
I frowned as I stared into the black one’s green eyes, considering whether taking them would put them in danger.
I sighed and kissed his soft forehead and put him on the ground. “Sorry, sweetheart. I’d better not risk it.”
I took the kittens out of the basket and then stopped when I saw the daisy where I’d left it, tossed on the table.
It hadn’t wilted at all, in spite of how long it had been.
The memory of the angel hit me hard. He was just so…
Arrogant. Rude, even ruder than the werewolf, and the way he made everyone else look like pale imitations of attractiveness without even trying?
Unforgivable! I shook my head. I wasn’t thinking about the angel.
I wanted to toss the daisy, but it was my favorite flower, and it shouldn’t suffer just because it had the misfortune of being picked by someone so terrible.
I put it in a cute white vase on my vanity and it seemed to perk up even more, making me smile in spite of the person who gave it to me.
No one would know that I’d kept it. And I liked the flower, not the angel.
Obviously. He was the most conceited, bloodthirsty, obnoxious creature in the entire world.
Pity he was so gorgeous and sang like, well, an angel.
At any rate, I already knew who I was going to vote to go home at the end of the first week.
It would be good to help him with the virtue of humility.
He desperately needed all the humbling he could get.
I walked towards the castle on a different path, one that should lead me to a patio and side door that would take almost directly into the library, where the evening cocoa meet-and-greet would take place.
Hopefully I looked like a strawberry dipped in chocolate.
I couldn’t help swirling my skirt as I walked, the basket with books resting on my arm.
I made it to the library, but a harried camerawoman blocked my entrance and pulled me back, flashing sharp teeth at me. “What are you doing here?!”
I blinked at her. What was she? Another siren? She didn’t sound at all soothing and manipulative. “Isn’t this where we’re having the cocoa meet-and-greet?”
“You’re not due here for an hour! We have to get set up and Pearly needs to interview the males without you, feeding their competitiveness. Where’s the Angel? I suppose you don’t know. If you see him, send him in. An hour!” she hissed and shooed me away.
I hesitated, feeling hurt and rejected for no rational reason before I nodded and gave her a sparkly smile. “Sure thing!”
I turned and started walking keeping my chin up even though it trembled.
Wasn’t everyone supposed to be nice to me since I was the whole point of the show?
Not that I should be so sensitive. Infernal creatures weren’t as a rule, but I was a half human born vampire.
I was sensitive and delicate and stupid.
I sniffed and then turned my head slowly as I smelled something delicious.
I sniffed as I turned a corner, walking down a stone hall away from the oak library door.
Were those chocolate chip cookies I smelled baking?
I sniffed and then followed the scent of warmth and happiness down a hall, down some stairs and into a gorgeous kitchen, well-lit, with a fire burning in the enormous stone fireplace, chicken noodle soup on the stove, and someone bent over the fancy white stove, taking a pan of chocolate chip cookies out of the oven.
In a blink, a jolt of reality set in as the angel, the vile, arrogant, horrible monster turned and stared at me, holding the pan in his bare hand, like he didn’t mind the heat.
His golden hair was tousled, his blue eyes glowed with warmth and softness, and his lips parted oh-so-slightly, like he was as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
And he was still wearing a golden breastplate that set off his gleaming hair and stunning eyes.
I crossed my arms and tried not to glower, but it was so difficult. I wanted a cookie, but it was him. The one person here who I absolutely knew would always be my enemy. And he smelled even better than the cookies now that I was in close enough range to sniff him out.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. “They’re looking for you in the library.”
He gave me a slight frown as he put the cookies on the counter and then scraped them onto a cooling rack, all with his left hand, his right doing absolutely nothing. “I’m making cookies,” he said like it wasn’t obvious.