A Study of Poisons

THIRTY TWO

I got the message that everyone was coming together for dinner through a pink sticky note on my door from Nataila. It simply read. I'm so sorry, please come to dinner. I didn't want to be on Nat's good side after learning about her near addiction to feeding. Yet, here I sat. Playing with the tomato soup in my bowl.

Everyone was on edge.

I was stuck. The only thing I had learn from scrying was that I was the fated downfall of everyone at this table. There was still the looming threat of who was trying to assassinate the Prince that lived in my blood. I had come to the conclusion that I would deal with that later.

The silence completely and utterly took over the room. Nelo was the only one making eye contact with me as we just sat there staring at each other. I could read his mind, you could drop a pin in here. "So is everyone excited to return to your normal lives?" I called out to the table they all looked at me like I was crazy.

"Alex won't be returning to the school and I'll be back with my place in the Queen's embassy." Holstein told me straightforward. I would not be thanking him for the dry comment any time soon.

My eyes quickly darted back to Nelo. His brow rose as he shook his head. I fought him to say something. As we exchanged looked I could feel the room waiting for something. Finally, the Vampire broke. "My plan is to head off to Budapest. I have a couple of friends down there who I want to see again." He nodded off. I nearly slapped my forehead. This was ranking at the top of my list of the worst dinner's ever. "Nat is going back to her family home in France." He answered for her, still not helping.

"What about you Delia?" Nat called out.

I didn't want to answer that but it was only right because they did the same.

"Back to Chicago to listen to my mother complain about a wedding I don't want, while my father tells me about what kind of wife I need to be. Super fun." I forced a smile on my face and my eyes went back to my soup.

Alex snapped at all of us, his commanding voice echoed as we all jumped to look his way. His hands slamming on the table as he spoke. "I don't care about what happens after this week anymore, excuse me but I've lost my appetite." With that the Prince rose to his feet and left the room with everyone just staring at each other.

"Aren't you going to go after him?" I asked Holstein who just shrugged his shoulders. What a good friend he is. Rising to my feet, I pedaled them under one another. Alex was already in the study before I was able to follow him in there. The door shutting behind us. "What was that?" I asked him.

Instead of responding to me like usual, he reacted coldly. "It was nothing." He said as he walked to the other side of the room. Showing no clear sign that he was going to talk to me. I guess I do deserve this, I thought.

I shook my head, "Don't turn into a teenager on me, it was definitely something." I sounded like my mother now. Scolding a child for turning it's emotions off.

"So are we on speaking terms right now?" He asked me as he pulled a bottle of whiskey from a desk drawer. He had been drinking, I could now smell the stench that broke off from every corner of the room. I was so concerned about protecting Alex from others I didn't even think to protect him from himself.

I began to fight him back, "Considering the attitude, you should be lucky I've decided to put it all past me." Walking up to him, I snatched the alcohol from his hands. He reached out to take it back but I stepped away from him before he got the chance to react.

He pointed at me as he came back from around the desk, "You started this. You casted a spell without telling me and risked yourself." He tried to take the bottle back but I tossed it to my other hand.