Just One Drop

Chapter 8- The Afterparty

Felicia's POV

After all the courses of the meal had been served, I was put on serving duty for drinks. There was to be a grand afterparty, and we couldn't let the guests go thirsty.

Luckily for me, I was not serving blood; I was serving champagne. An unfortunate girl named Lyanna had gotten that job. The poor thing was only thirteen years old, with dark reddish-ginger locks and bright blue eyes. She was quite a beauty.

I continued meandering through the hall, every now and then being stopped by a vampire who wanted one of the glasses. Unexpectedly, I was soon stopped by Damien, Master's slightly younger brother.

I nodded and smiled in greeting, though I knew he could sense my trembling and increased heartrate.

He had a fierce reputation, and I didn't want to see if he lived up to it.

"Miss Felicia," he greeted.

I offered the tray forwards, nodding towards it nervously. I scrambled to write a quick note saying I needed to move on if he didn't want one, but all of a sudden, Master flashed to my side, cutting me off. Vampire speed was truly amazing.

"Brother," he greeted icily. "I think Felicia here needs to go serve the other guests."

"Aren't I allowed a glass?" Damien asked, feigning surprise.

"If you wanted a glass, you would've taken one without so much as looking at her."

I hated to admit it, but Master was right. And as of then, I wasn't sure who I feared most: Master or Damien.

"Hmm," was all Damien said, before he took a glass off of my tray and left.

Master turned to me. "Are you okay?"

My body immediately reacted to his focus being on me; it began shaking, the tray wobbling precariously, and I moved as far away as I could from him without moving my feet.

He reached out to help balanse my tray, but as his hand got nearer, I shook more. It seemed my body reacted like this on instinct now.

He noticed the change and realised my shaking was his doing.

He cleared his throat, and said, "Keep doing your work slave."

Then he walked away, as cold as ever, as if he had drained all of the compassion I had just seen out, in only a second.

I shook my head to clear it of all the thoughts running through it; I needed to focus on keeping the tray balansed and moving through the crowd gracefully.

I overheard many interesting conversations during my meandering, though the information I gained from them would no doubt be useless in any attempt at escape: Lord Montgomery was cheating on his wife with Lady Cassandra of Nottingshire, whose daughter Amanda was pregnant with Lady Jacquelin's son Martigan, who was actually engaged with Lord Montgomery's cousin's daughter, Yumi.

And, Lady Emma of Yurn's daughter Janie was about to get married to the Duke of Gerhald's son Klaudius, even though it was rumoured that he lay with other men, rather than women.

That last little nugget of information did in fact interest me slightly, as where I came from it was simply called 'being gay' and it was not referred to as something so abnormal. So I toyed around with the question of where we were, but still couldn't come to a conclusion.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn't even notice when I bumped into someone, and it was sheer luck that none of the glasses had spillt.

'Oh, I'm so so terribly sorry m'lady,' I started writing, holding it up so she could see.

She turned around and looked at me, and I realised it was Duchess Morgana, Master's cousin. She was wearing an enchanting red dress, that definitely flattered her body shape, and drew attention to the more -ahumm- prominent features.

This is something like Morgana's dress.

"Who's slave are you?" she snapped angrily.

'My master is Prince Braith, m'lady,' I wrote meekly, starting to tremble at the thought of what he would do to me.

"Braith!" she called, her voice shrill.

He was next to us within a second. "Darling, you don't have to be so loud. We have vampire hearing. Or, my sweetling, you could reach to me telepathically, you know. Now, my little dove, what caused you to call me?"

I felt like puking at their disgusting sweet talk.

"My love, this, this slave bumped into me."

His gaze hardened as it landed on me.

"She did, did she?" he asked quietly, his voice the one of an animal on the prowl.

I could see the satisfaction in his eyes at how I was now shaking like a leaf, my heart beat loud and fast enough for the whole castle to hear it.

"Don't worry, my flower, I will take care of it."

He spat out the last word as if I were some sort of human vermin, not even worth being more than an it.

"She won't be bumping into anyone else anytime soon."

An evil look entered his eyes, and he grabbed ahold of my wrist, pulling me out of the room, up to his room. I didn't struggle, even though my wrist hurt like hell; there would most definitely be a bruise there, at least for a week. Just another one to add to the collection, I supposed.

We entered his room, and he threw me onto the bed forcefully, then turned to slam the door shut.

I shook and awaited his next move, wondering if the punishment could be any worse than what I'd already experienced. Somehow, I had no doubt it could.