Bite Me

Ch. 28 Party Girl

I stood in front of the mirror at 5:30 looking at the dress in the mirror. The sky blue silk brought out the blueness of my eyes. The silk dress had spaghetti straps that showed a modest amount of skin. The dress flowed all the way to the floor with a slit up the right side. The dress tight on the top but started to fall loosely around my waist. I stared at the aquamarine necklace with a silver chain Greg gave me to go with the dress. I put the necklace on before applying the finishing touches to my smokey eyeshadow. My hair fell in waves down my back which was slightly exposed in the dress. I gave a weak smile as the nerves bubbled up inside me. I walked over to the front door when Greg knocked.

"You look beautiful," were the first words out of Greg's mouth when I opened the door. I grinned at his complement.

"Thank you," I said taking his arm allowing him to lead me to his car. We climbed in with two hunters joining as bodyguards and one as a driver. "You have a lot of security."

"This is light. I know you can fight or I'd have at least four maybe five just for my protection. Being the man in charge of everything puts a target on me," he said as I nodded in understanding.

"So you think my ability is that of at least 2 maybe three people?" I questioned as he nodded.

"Your name has come up more than once before we met," he said with a smile on his face.

"Really?" I said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes. There was discussion of promotions and possibly shifting you to a more administrative position," Greg said as I stared at him with my jaw dropped. Why would they do that when I sided with the vampires very publicly for the longest time?

"That's surprising," I muttered as he laughed.

"It's not considering your family," he said simply as the car pulled up to a fancy building. There were a few people taking photos of celebrities entering the building as I gave him a look of confusion. "We hide our parties in plain sight and even pose for the cameras."

"That isn't what I expected," I said as we climbed out of the car. His hand rest on my waist as we stood getting our photos taken. I kept a smile on my face as we walked towards the building. Once inside Greg let go of my waist turning to face me.

"Now we go to a different part of the building," he said before walk off leaving me to follow him in my silver high heels. We rushed into the stairwell going up a few floors. We reached a door with several security guys standing outside the door. They held the door when they saw Greg. We both entered the room to find a small dance floor and lots of tables set up. I looked around the room recognizing a few of the people here some I was close to as a child. Several of my neighbors and even my babysitter were here.

"How many hunters were in my life?" I gasped as he smirked.

"Easier question how many weren't hunters," Greg said simply as my jaw dropped. "Your aunt and uncle didn't want to take risks with you and I guess she would be your cousin's safety."

"I still call her my sister," I muttered as we walked further into the room. "I guess I felt betrayed by the lie but knew she wasn't to blame for that."

"Understandable," He said before he led me over to some of his collogues. "Marissa, this is Ashley Wayne. Ashley is going to be working more closely with us from now on and thought you'd like to be introduced."

"We've met actually," Marissa smiled softly at me.

"Yeah she used to babysit me and my sister," I said with a polite smile. I remember being close with Marissa as a child. "As you can see I've grown up."

"Indeed," she said pushing her dark hair out of her face. "I was sorry to hear about your mother." She said causing me to tense slightly at the mention of my aunt.

"Yes she will be missed," I said tightly trying to mask my irritation at Marissa calling her my mother. She wasn't my mother, she killed my mother!

"How are you holding up with all of this? I know this world is still pretty new to you," Marissa said. Greg had been silently watching the interaction and I knew he was assessing my social abilities.

"It's been hard but thankfully Greg offered to help me out so that makes things smoother for me," I said firmly. She continued to smile sipping on her drink.

"Sorry to interrupt ladies but we should probably start the speeches," Greg said after a moment.

"Okay, um, it was great to see you Marissa and I hope to see more of you in the future," I said softly as she grinned at me.

"I look forward to it," she said as I took Greg's arm allowing him to lead me to a table in the front. We sat down as the speeches began. The people who spoke said the very things I expected, down with vampires and had such a hatred in their eyes as they spoke. I didn't even really listen as they spoke because they weren't saying anything important or valuable to know. Greg eventually got up to say his piece but he didn't say down with vampires and instead began to talk about the losses.

"Today the vampires have taken those who mattered most. It began with Crystal," Greg began as an image of my mother was projected onto a screen. Tears pooled in my eyes as her bright blue eyes looked at the camera with so much joy. She looked happy and I knew that wasn't how she stayed. "That was the Crystal I knew. So full of life and love. But this is the Crystal we had to deal with." Another image but this one had her eyes black and blood splashed across her face which was twisted into a scowl. "This is what vampirism does to a person. It destroys everything good about them." My heart filled with anger at his words. She just wanted them to accept her but she had to fight them at every turn when she didn't deserve to. "Then they tried to take her niece, Ashley Wayne!" He knew I wasn't her niece but didn't care and proclaimed me as her niece. "Ashley is the first to become a vampire and then fight off the curse to return to her natural human state but that only enraged the vampires for they continued to attack her and eventually killed her mother in front of her!" Greg roared as an image of my aunt holding me as a child flashed across the screen. "They need to be extinguished before anymore lives are lost!" The room was quite for a few seconds before the burst into applause while I gazed up at Greg. I didn't bother hiding the tears that spilled down my face as he would expect emotions and so while people clapped the tears dripped calmly down my cheeks. He was charismatic which could be a huge problem. If I hadn't been so close to Blake I may have followed Greg blindly. Greg needed to be stopped and quickly.