Belle Morte Bites (Belle Morte 4.3)

Valentine's Day: Part Three

"I hope you're getting my good side," Roux teased.

"All your sides are good," Ludovic said.

He held out his arm and Roux took it. She was aware of Isabeau taking another picture as they walked away, heading into the parlour on the left side of the vestibule, and from there to the dining hall and then the ballroom, where tonight's event was taking place.

"This looks amazing," Roux said, gazing around the room.

She'd seen it during Belle Morte balls, filled with dancing vampires and guests, sequins and suits flurrying through the space, and she'd twice seen it become a battlefield, the floor of concentric marble circles running red with blood, and thicker things painting the walls.

But she'd never seen it like this.

Round tables had been brought in – more than Roux could count – and they were carefully positioned around the room, each one just big enough for two people. The tables were covered with crisp white cloths, gleaming chinaware and polished silverware, with crystal champagne flutes and tumblers, and flickering candles – some sitting on golden candlesticks, some inside gold-etched glass holders. Dotted throughout the ballroom were smaller tables that looked like they were made entirely of glass, and each one was overflowing with red roses. The smell was amazing.

Ysanne swept up to them. Her petite frame was hugged by a black glittering dress, with a cape of the same material falling from her shoulders to her feet. Small sections were cut out of the shoulders of the cape, exposing ovals of pale skin, and her blonde hair fell in a poker-straight sheet down her back. She looked beautiful and remote, but Roux thought her face softened fractionally as she saw them.

"Thank you for coming," Ysanne said.

Since this was Belle Morte's first major event in a year, people probably expected big things, but the vampires who lived here weren't obligated to attend. Still, most of them had, and Roux smiled to see Benjamin and Alexandra holding hands across their table. For almost a year before Etienne and Jemima's takeover, Vladdict sites had been rife with speculation that Benjamin and Alexandra were more than just friends, and Roux was suddenly catapulted back to the first Belle Morte ball she'd attended, when she, Renie, and Jason had been donors. She remembered asking Renie if she thought the rumours about the two vampires were true, and Renie had told her that friends didn't look at each other the way Benjamin and Alexandra did.

It looked like she'd been right.

"Your table is this way," Ysanne said.

She led them to the far right corner of the room, and Ludovic pulled out Roux's chair for her. When she sat down, he brushed a kiss against her forehead, before taking his seat on the other side of the table.

For a moment neither of them said anything, then Roux giggled. "This feels weird, doesn't it?"

"A little," Ludovic agreed.

It was probably stranger for Roux, she thought. Belle Morte had been Ludovic's home for eleven years, but Roux's for only a year, and her experience of it had been different to his. She'd come here as a wide-eyed human donor, but the sparkle of the vampire world had worn off once she'd become tangled up with the mystery of what had happened to Renie's sister. Then Roux herself had been turned into a vampire, and had chosen to stay in Belle Morte with Ludovic, rather than returning home to her family. But this was her first big event as a vampire, and it was jarring to see it transformed like this, to see strangers sitting at the tables around her – the couples who had won their tickets. Some of them stared openly at the vampires – Roux and Ludovic included – and Roux reminded herself that a year ago she probably would have done the same thing. Until now, she hadn't realised how different it was to be on the other side of the fence.