The ball ended abruptly.
Just like that, all the glittering jewels and glamorous people were gone. Most to adventure up top to see the mysterious blood moon. How can that even be possible? Like I get the irony in not understanding things that shouldn't be possible when I'm surrounded by vampires, actual mythical creatures, but still. A blood moon, which shouldn't even be due for months from now, that's pretty out there.
Even more out there was the fact that it only lasted exactly six minutes. Most of the people who rushed out to see it were sorely let down and thought the others had lied, but some had been quick enough to get video and photo proof of the strange occurrence.
I lost Dalton in the crowd, and Pedro demanded I be taken back to my room while he worked on settling the nerves of his people. I couldn't help hear a few whisper things about it being a sign of the end of the world as we pushed to get out of the ballroom, a fear I don't guess I've ever considered eternal beings having. More disturbing though, it made the memory of the frantic father from my vision pop into my mind.
A monster.
The whole world will fall, not just ours, but everyone's
I push the thoughts away, willing the tremor of fear that shakes me to go with it.
"Maybe it was some sort of trick." Lance muses next to me in the elevator, his arms crossed thoughtfully. "Something, anything would make more sense than it being real."
"How could it be a trick?" I shake my head, wishing I could dismiss it so easily. "I don't know many people who can pull off changing the color of the moon."
"Has to be a trick." He says again, distracted, maybe not even listening to me at all.
I can practically see the wheels in his head turning, trying to churn out any sensible explanation. When the elevator dings, he snaps out of his thoughts, turning to offer me a strained smile and his hand. "I'm sure everything will be fine." He tries to sound reassuring but it falls a little flat.
I take his hand and let him walk me to my door.
He smiles down at me, full of boyish charm. I bet when he was still human he was the captain of some kind of sports team or something. He leans in my doorway and sighs, brushing my hair back over my shoulder and letting his hand slide down the top of my arm.
"I had a good time with you tonight," I tell him honestly, a few butterflies beginning to flutter against my ribcage. "before the whole impending doom part."
He laughs lightly and my cheeks flush. "It seems all of our dates will end in some sort of doom." He shakes his head, moving in a step closer, lowering his voice. "I'll take the doom though if it means getting to spend more time with you. I missed you a lot the last few years. I really hated not being able to tell you why I just stopped talking to you, but it's what everyone thought was best." His eyes dip slightly, then the look back up under his eyelashes. He clearly knows what he's doing, hitting me with a smolder that would make Flynn Rider jealous. "Seeing how much you grew up in those years makes me hate it even more." His eyes rove down my dress, then back up to my eyes, leaving goosebumps without even having to touch me.
Without hesitation he takes my hand and leans in.
All of the fear and nerves wash away as his lips press to mine gently. The kiss I always daydreamed about having with Lance didn't disappoint. I was so lost within it, I didn't even notice my toes and fingers begin to tingle because it was already doing that all over.
I blink in confusion on the big wrap around deck on the back of a big red ranch house nestled on a hill and looking out over a pond with tall grasses blowing in the breeze. The sound of Lance's laughter makes me turn my head and I see us.
Lance sits in a rickety white rocking chair on the porch, while I sit across his lap, the two of us laughing over whatever it is he's whispering in my ear.
The sight startles me at first. I'm not used to seeing myself like this in my visions.
But then my eyes home in on our interlocked hands, both of our ring fingers sport simple golden bands.
I gasp.
"You ok?" Lance asks, materializing back in front of me.
I bring my hand up to my forehead, in shock over what I'd just seen.
"Um, yeah." I mumble. "I just-I just had a vision."
He raises his brows. "A good one I hope."
I put my fingers to my lips, remembering that we were in the middle of a kiss when I zoned out. I think of how happy we looked, the two of us cuddling on our porch and nod. "Actually, yes." I tell him. "A really good one."
He looks confused, but also a little pleased. A buzzing sound comes from his pocket and he frowns. "I wish I could stay, but I better see to this." He pulls out his phone. "Stay here, if there is any new news someone will let you know." He turns to go to the elevator but then whips back. "I had a great night with you, Rose."
I smile and wave shyly as I duck into my room.
Scratch that, Dalton's room.
Dalton.
He's inescapable in here. He's literally everywhere.
Annoyed with thoughts of him, especially him and Eyan, plus my confusion over that kiss and vision, on top of the nerves from the creepy moon, I decide my mind needs distracting. No way would I be able to sleep right now, so instead I dig through my bags until I find the book I brought with me.
I walk over to the bed with it and sit down and begin reading.
Over an hour into the thick of the story I still can't stop inserting my own issues into the book. Raven has two guys who adore her, but naturally she can't decide between the two. I can't help but roll my eyes at her so many times because she's got it so easy. They both want her, but one is so clearly superior to the other yet she can't see it. If only real life were as easy as her fictional one.
Lance and I have always had a connection and it's built on a friendship. I laugh when I realize I'm being worse than Raven from the story because I've quite literally just had a vision of myself with Lance and I'm still questioning it. Why, I don't know. My mind just keeps wandering right back to...
"Sorry." I jump hard, dropping the book down onto the bed when I see Dalton slide in the door. "It's so late I figured you'd be asleep or I would've knocked." He explains and I sit up, the surprise of seeing him wearing off and my heart settling back down into a normal pace. He shakes his head and laughs under his breath. "I see you're still dressed for a party." He points out and I look down, realizing I'm still in my gown, even my shoes are still strapped to my feet.
I blush under his stare. "Yeah well, I just wasn't ready to take it off yet."
"It's certainly something." He nods, standing at the foot of the bed, looking down at me.
"Was that almost a compliment?" I smile coyly.
One side of his mouth lifts in a smile. "Almost." He nods.
"Anyway," I roll my eyes, standing to walk over to him. "You're not one to talk about my outfit when you're still in your tux." I point out with a grin. Boy he sure is still in that tux too. He fills it out like shouldn't be possible, and manages to look even more heartbreaking with the top few buttons of his white under shirt undone and his tie discarded.
"Which is why I was sneaking in." He explains, taking me away from my shameless ogling. "I needed some clothes."
"Oh?" I cross my arms, remembering that I'm supposed to be mad at him. "You don't keep a change of clothes in your girlfriend's room? Or is it just too hard to differentiate your clothes from the ones all her other lovers leave behind?"
He tilts his head back in frustration, the veins in his neck bulging. "You're going to start this shit again?"
"You still dating a lying cheating slut?" I fire back. When he doesn't answer I turn away from him. "Then yes, I'm starting it again. I don't understand Dalton. Why are you with her even knowing how awful she is?"
He sits down on the foot of my bed and groans. "I find Lance to be pretty insufferable, yet you are still with him. You don't have to like her, Rose. I never asked your permission on who it was ok for me to date."
"Oh my god, you're so delusional." I snap. "There is a big difference in me just not liking her, and me not being able to stand her because she is shady and goes behind your back."
"What the hell was up with you tonight anyway?" He looks up at me. "Were you really about to start a brawl in the middle of ball?"
I shrug my shoulders and look at him evenly. "It wouldn't have been much of a brawl." I tell him, working hard not to smile. "I'm sure I could have taken her. Just ask that dead guy, I've got a mean right hook."
He laughs as he shakes his head at me. "Rose," My name out of his mouth when he isn't yelling it is silky smooth. "I'm too tired to fight with you tonight, and you're clearly too wound up for me to win."
"Exactly, so stop fighting with me."
"You're the one who started it."
"No," I wiggle my finger at him. "You did when the first words out of your mouth when you walked in weren't 'hey, Rose, good to see you. Oh, by the way, I dumped my succubus of a girlfriend.'"
He moves so fast I gasp when he's suddenly right in front of me, his cool hands on both sides of my head. "Do you ever shut up?"
"Sometimes." I reply, moving my hands up to his for a second before he lets me go.
"Just not right now." He rolls his eyes, turning to sit back down on the bed. "If you're in the mood to be chatty, can it at least not be about Eyan?"
"What do you want to talk about then?" I cave just because I don't want him to leave.
He purses his lips and then shrugs. "I don't know, did you have fun tonight?"
I can't help but smile. "Yes," I twirl to add to my enthusiasm. "It was so perfect." I tell him, thinking of all of the music and dancing and food, then I stop in place. "Until it got ruined, guess by who?"
He ignores me as he stands and goes to the side of the bed. "I think I have something that might make your night better." He tells me, kneeling beside the bed and reaching under. I move over beside him out of curiosity. He slides his arms back out and passes the large canvas painting over to me. I brush away some of the dust and smile at the image of swirling red and pink roses. The brush strokes so delicate, resulting in a masterpiece. "There were dozens of them when I moved in here." He shrugs at my side. "Calvin had them brought in here for Rachel. Your grandmother, Calvin's mom, painted them. She was apparently quite the artist."
I nod, having heard the stories of her beauty and talents many times. "Yeah, she was." I whisper, running my fingers over the petals, then look up at him, our eyes lingering on each other. "Thank you for this." It feels amazing to be holding something of hers, something she created. Dad will be so happy if I bring this home for him.
I feel a tension growing between us and I'm almost grateful for the canvas separating us, keeping me from acting on my urge to touch him. As I reposition it in my hands my finger brush something tucked into the back of the canvas and I flip it over to pull out the paper.
I hardly get the photo turned over in my hands before Dalton snatches it away. But not before I catch a glimpse of the man and woman in the picture.
"Dalton, who are those people?" I gasp, heart pounding hard.
"No one." He shakes his head, trying to brush me off.
I put the canvas down and turn to grab him by the shoulders. "Dalton, tell me. I need to know who they are."
"Why?" He demands, pulling back defensively.
I don't want to remember it, but the vision is engraved on my brain.
"I had a vision about them." I tell him, my voice shaking with the fear the man's ramblings put in me. "I need to know who they are."
He turns his back to me, clutching the picture. "I don't know for sure." He says lowly. "I've had the picture since I was little. As long as I can remember actually."
It clicks then. I almost stumble backward in shock.
"Oh my god," I mutter. "You're the baby."
He spins back to me. "What?" He asks, brows knitted tightly together.
I reach for him but he flinches away again. "Dalton, they're your parents." I say gently. "They loved you so much."
Rage flashes across his already dark features. "Oh yeah?" He yells. "Is that why they threw me away at that awful place?"
"He did it to protect you." I tell him, my head in a spin. "He wanted to save you...He was like me. Your father could see..." I drop my hands to my side as a thought comes to me. "He had ability, so he was like me. And since he was your father...and your mother was a vampire too..."
"Rose?" Dalton says my name like he's trying to coax me away from a ledge. "What are you talking about?"
"Like me." I say again. "That other man called me a seer. He knew, because they're looking for people like me. Like you too." I tell him. "It isn't random."
"The missing?" Dalton shakes his head, trying to catch up to where my mind is going.
"Yes." I nod. "I bet if you look into, they're all from successions of vampire families. Think about it. I am different because of my blood, and so was Tommy. Tommy's whole family are vampires. Long lines of them. That's got to be the missing connection between them all."
"So then what are they doing with your blood?" He asks and for a second I'm a loss, but then I remember.
"In the lab, they were studying it, trying to do something with it and the woman was getting impatient." I recall aloud, then gasp. "Oh god."
"What?"
"Your father saw it coming."
"Saw what coming? I don't understand, Rose."
I cover my mouth with my hand. "He said a monster...a monster would destroy our world. He wanted to protect you from it. He must have known that they'd eventually come looking for people like you and he thought hiding you away in the human world would give you a chance. Your father saw something terrible. It terrified him."
"You think what he saw has to do with what those people are doing with our blood?"
I nod slowly, not wanting to believe it myself.
"I think they're creating a new monster out of our own blood." I cover my mouth again. "A monster that's going to end the world."