Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Bellcolor
V alentina is true to her word, and does an exceptional job. She picks one of the designer dresses Betty packed for me, a white summer dress Valentina says ‘keeps my innocence’, but is still hot enough to invite entry into my panties. Her choice of words, not mine.
I let my hair hang loose and Valentina curls its edges, adding a hairpin made of real diamonds that will draw demons with the right ‘status’. To emphasize my own status, she chooses a matching set of earrings and a delicate diamond necklace. Completing the summer look, I put on flat, gold-colored open-toe sandals.
Valentina, on the other hand, is ‘going for broke’. She’s wearing leather pants that cling to her like a second skin, perfectly emphasizing her curves, and a black collared shirt with an open back. She’s got high heels on, again making me look more like her little sister than her peer. Her make-up is carefully done, and she’s all glamour and power, as befits a mafia princess. I skip heavy makeup so as not to draw attention to the pigmentation in my eyes.
She pulls me by the hand as we enter the ballroom, which reminds me a bit of the Council’s castle. Ancient paintings decorate the ceiling and a huge zircon chandelier illuminates the entire hall. Deep red curtains are drawn to reveal the university gardens through the large openings, and I feel like I’ve burst into an 18 th century ball.
The freshmen students gather in clusters, getting to know each other. Valentina scans the hall, carefully examining the groups and those present.
“We need to be smart, Belle,” she whispers to me. “The gang we join will determine the rest of our time here.”
I nod, but I’m not sure I trust her to pick the right group for us. I have bitter experiences with the popular crowd, and I wouldn’t want to be part of them. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to continue living as an outcast.
“Bingo,” Valentina points out three demons who seem absolutely bored. Based on their clothes it doesn’t look like they tried too hard for the event, but they don’t look like the group of weirdoes in the distant corner of the hall, or the privileged group that looks like they dressed for a charity gala rather than a university mixer.
She pulls me after her, and we make our way through the crowd.
“So what’s your story?” Valentina asks as we stop in front of the three.
The two boys and the girl turn their white eyes to us and examine us silently. The boys are wearing identical jeans and white polo shirts, and look like identical twins. They both have the same blond undercut that’s a bit messy on top, like they’ve just woken up. The girl looks like their female mirror image, with smooth blond hair in a bob cut, a denim skirt and a white T- shirt. I’m sure they’re triplets. They look like a beam of light in the mist.
“No story,” one boy shrugs, turning his gaze from us. The other stares at me with his white eyes.
“You look like you stepped out of a California fashion catalogue,” Valentina giggles, and the girl lets out a derisive snort.
“And you look like you don’t belong here,” the one staring at me says. I look down and play with my fingers.
“Good thing you’re not the one who decides on that,” Valentina comes to my aid.
“Seriously, what’s with your eyes?” he keeps pushing me.
“None of your business,” Valentina answers for me, and pulls me away from there. She lets out an exasperated breath and picks up the pace as I trail after her. “Ugh, how did I get that so wrong? I’m usually good at reading people.”
“Maybe demons need their own category,” I suggest.
“Guess you’re right.”
We reach the refreshments – there’s nothing there except bowls of punch in a variety of colors. Valentina pours us both some of the phosphorescent punch at the center of the table. I bring it to my mouth and recoil; It smells weird.
“What’s this supposed to be?” I grimace.
“You don’t know? It’s your dad’s recipe. You can call it ‘beginner’s blood’ punch. The veteran demons think we should gradually get used to blood, and this is basically the fruit juice of blood. It’s actually kind of nice.” She takes a sip from her cup and seems to enjoy it. I try to sip my drink, but the smell makes me so sick that I quickly push the cup away from me.
“Is this because the transformation is incomplete?” she examines me.
Yes, I suppose it is, but my reaction to Libretto’s blood was different from the one I had to the human’s. His blood was powerful, its smell so sharp that…
My breathing becomes labored as I replay the sensations in my mind, I can feel my throat closing up and my guts churning. The thought of Libretto’s blood drives me wild, and I lean against the refreshments table to support myself.
“Belle, are you okay? Your eyes…” She grabs my hand and pulls me out to the balcony, the first escape route she could find. “Breathe, Belle, slowly.” Valentina is trying to calm me down, and I lean on the railing and try to do as she says. She stands in front of me, taking deep breaths, and I imitate her, but the breaths don’t feel natural to me. My body doesn’t need them anymore, and I’m drowning deeper and deeper in my panic.
“Count with me,” she says when breathing doesn’t help. “One…” she draws out the word and I repeat it. When we reach ten, I feel the panic subsiding. “Wow, sis, what was that? Your eyes were glowing, and they were pure white!” she says as I finally calm down.
“I was thinking of blood…” I admit between gasps, but I won’t say exactly whose blood I was thinking of.
“You’ve tasted blood already?!” I shake my head. “Damn, there must really be a point to that gradual exposure thing after all. You totally lost it. Wait, when did you get exposed to blood? The rules say that’s not allowed.”
“The head of the Council offered me some,” I whisper as if it’s a secret, and say nothing further.
“He made the rules, he probably knew what he was doing… but why?”
“Maybe he was testing me to see whether I’m really a demon, because look at me, I really don’t look like I belong here,” I answer angrily. That guy was totally right, I feel like a fish out of water.
“Don’t worry, that’s what I’m here for. Though I’d have been happier to be prepared for the job in advance. This is totally fucked up.”
“I’m sorry…”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, maybe it’s my father’s way of preparing me for unexpected situations.” She looks like it’s no big deal, even though it’s a huge deal. “You feeling any better?”
She caresses my back, and I nod, placing my hands on my still chest. Shit, realizing that I’m neither dead nor alive is really starting to sink in. “Can you eat human food?” she asks with sincere concern, and I shake my head. “Well, damn, what are you supposed to do?” Her forehead stiffens. “How are you supposed to feed? Your body recoils from synthetic blood, and I know for sure that feeding on actual blood is forbidden for freshmen students.”
“I’m fine as long as I don’t think about it. I don’t feel hungry.” It’s true. I haven’t eaten in three days and it never even occurred to me, even when the memory of Libretto’s blood flooded my mind. I’m a broken vampire , I think bitterly.
“In the meantime ,” she emphasizes that last word, “we may be immortal but our bodies need sustenance. Promise me that if it changes, we’ll get one of the faculty members involved.”
“No, we can’t.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea…” she hesitantly says.
“I’m fine. If it changes, you’ll be the first to know. Promise.”
Valentina doesn’t seem convinced, but she lets it drop.
“Well, well.” The guy who was staring at me before steps out onto the balcony. I straighten up so as not to raise any suspicions about what just happened.
“What do you want?” Valentina charges at him, putting herself between us.
“We wanted to suggest that we move the party somewhere more interesting,” he smiles.
“Thought you were too cool for us,” Valentina’s voice is positively venomous.
“Maybe we changed our minds.” He runs a hand through his golden hair. The moonlight is reflected in his skin, creating a kind of aura around him. What’s this guy’s deal?
“Why?” she demands. Exactly the question going through my mind.
“Because you’re the only idiots who dared approach us.”
“And who exactly are you?”
“Why don’t you join us and we’ll get to know each other better?”
I send Valentina a questioning look, and she frowns. I don’t wait for her reply, detaching myself from the railing and following him. My curiosity is overwhelming; I have to find out what his deal is.
“Wait!” Valentina hurries after me and grabs my arm. “Are you sure about this?” she whispers in my ear.
“What else can go wrong?”
“After that? Everything.” She sighs, but joins me anyway.
The strange guy leads us up a dusty stairwell to the roof of the university building, where his friends are waiting for us, sitting too close to the edge of the roof. We sit next to them, and Valentina willingly takes the whiskey bottle the girl offers her.
“If we can’t eat human food, how can we drink alcohol?” I ask. It contradicts what my father told me.
“Guess it’s the Devil’s joke on the Holy Trinity,” the girl answers.
“The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost?” I ask, and she bursts into laughter.
“Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll.”
“Ah.” I don’t get it.
She sees my confused expression. “Drugs don’t affect us the way they do humans. It takes something really strong to get us going, so the Devil replaced it with alcohol.”
I remember Leo’s comment, that Trent was supposed to slip me a roofie, and now I understand why it hadn’t affected me the way they’d expected. Thank God for that, or the night would’ve ended much differently.
“I’m Valentina, and this is Belle,” Valentina introduces us both, and I smile shyly at the three of them.
“Tyra, Evan and Liam Pace,” Tyra indicates each of them. So the slim guy is Liam…
“So what’s your story? Why did Liam say we were idiots for approaching you?” Valentina pries shamelessly.
“We’re Beatrice and Greta’s kids,” Liam answers.
“Shit,” I blurt out, and immediately regret it.
“Shit indeed,” Tyra giggles. “Too late to run now.”
“You’re the one who met the Council members, Belle, are they really that terrible?” Valentina asks, and I give her a petrifying glare.
“You met our moms?” the three siblings seem stunned.
“Y-yes… yesterday, with my father.”
“She’s a Fermi,” Valentina clarifies, and I frown at her. Seriously, what’s going on with her? We barely know them. If she knew what happened with the Council members, she’d shut her mouth.
“Ah, right, your father’s up for a Council seat. Maybe you’ll become one of us,” Evan bumps me with his shoulder, and a tense laugh slips through my lips. I don’t think I’d want that.
Valentina passes me the bottle of whiskey, and I take a long sip. Maybe it’ll dull my nerves a bit. The stinging is awful, but not as horrible as the night I drank my father’s fancy bourbon.
I gather my courage and ask: “Did they tell you anything?”
“Nope, Council business is confidential, but by the look on your face I take it things didn’t go the way you thought,” Evan says, and I’m unable to answer.
“I don’t get it, your mothers are sisters?” Valentina changes the subject, for which I’m grateful.
“Not just sisters, twins. It’s joint parenting,” Tyra answers as I pass her the bottle.
“Nice, I guess we all have big shoes to fill, we should stick together – the kids with the parental complexes.” Valentina laughs, and we all join her. She’s right.
It ultimately turns out to be a pleasant evening, and we have a secret competition for who has the most embarrassing story about their adoptive parents. I learn that Beatrice and Greta are the youngest members of the Council, younger than my father, but they’re no less strict. They watched over the trio like hawks their whole lives. Unlike me, they were taken into the custody of Beatrice and Greta at a relatively late age, and always knew they were adopted. I wonder why the Devil marked them when they were older.
I choose my words carefully despite the stories we share; I know I can’t let my guard down around them. After all, their mothers are part of the Council, and I don’t know what parts of the information I reveal to the siblings will reach their ears, and then Libretto’s.
As the sun begins to rise, Valentina gets up and shakes her leather pants of the dust from the floor. “We should get back,” she says. “The faculty’s prepared a whole schedule for us today. We wouldn’t want to be late.”
I get up after her and discover that my dress isn’t white anymore. I let out a disappointed groan at the thought that I’ll never get the dirt stains off it.
“You coming?” she asks the trio.
“No,” Tyra answers, looking towards the sunrise like she’s waiting just for it.
“Have it your way,” I answer, and follow Valentina back to the dorms.
I can’t shake the feeling that despite Valentina’s “cool person” radar, I’m not supposed to befriend them.