As I looked around the large room, I caught Petru Rareş smiling and nodding towards me silently from his place in the middle of a table placed along the right wall of the hall.
They were all there, the grand Council, twelve of them if I counted correctly, clad in dark grey cloaks, seated at a long oak table with only golden cups in front of them. That's all they will 'eat' tonight, I thought, frowning and quickly looking away. Not fast enough, though. I noticed Petru's grin when he saw my scowl.
The rest of those present were standing in small groups at the far end of the Great Hall by the huge fireplace, an interesting collection of humans and vampires. I smiled at a few familiar faces across the vast room-- Clara, holding Ioan's hand, Sorina and her parents, Mihail and some other Guards, Clara's father and another man I recognised from our visits in the village-- but they all looked too tense to smile back.
Apparently, I wasn't the only one who didn't like the Council. I looked at the vampires again inconspicuously, observing their faces, one whiter than the other. They were talking among themselves in low whispers while shooting occasional glances around the room, obviously enjoying the effect they had on the humans huddled in the corner. One of them noticed my inquisitive look and stared back, his gaze so dark and unnerving that it made me shiver.
I jumped when Vlad's hand came to rest on my arm, making me turn to him. He leaned closer and whispered, "Don't show them your anxiety. That's what they want. They think they can manipulate the humans through their fear. Don't allow it. They aren't more than us, or them." He looked towards the guests at the far end of the hall before he continued, "You must treat them as your equals. I wish I could make all the others understand this, but they are too scared, and their fear is what gives the Council their power over them."
I only nodded, my heart still pounding loudly. I knew perfectly well how 'the others' were feeling.
Just then, Petru stood up and invited the two couples to approach the Council.
"Welcome, young friends," he intoned, his voice carrying far and wide. "The Council is familiar with your requests, and we have already decided what to do with you." He smiled his typical, unctuous smile.
The four young people bowed and curtseyed, waiting for the decision to be announced.
Clara, wearing the yellow dress embroidered with gold, looked like the evening star shining above the sea. The rest of the room was indeed like the sea, restless and impatient, composed of the blue colour of the knights' and the azure of the Guards' cloaks, interspersed with different shades of grey and silver which the Council and the humans were wearing.
"Let's begin with the simpler case," Petru spoke again, drawing my attention back to himself. "You two, my friends, may marry whenever you want," he announced, looking at Mihail and Sorina.
I knew there was nothing they could possibly hold against these two, but I had to take a deep breath when he said that, as I had quite forgotten to breathe anyway. At least half of the people present seemed to have had the same need at the same time. The room suddenly filled with a collective sigh of relief; the sea heaving and swelling.
Petru looked around and smiled contentedly before his eyes rested on Ioan and Clara.
"And now you," he said, his smile morphing into a slight frown. "You've given us something to think about. We don't see the point of the girl remaining human. Sooner or later, you'll change her. Why not now?" Rareş called, his eyes, cold and hard as two shards of ice, straying to me momentarily, then flickering back to the couple in front of him. "However, that's your choice. We do not agree, and we would have refused your request completely, if not for His Highness, having spoken to us on your behalf. So, we give you six months to think... to decide what you really want to do. We will be watching you. Then, if you'll still want to marry, you'll come back to us, and we will reconsider your plea." Petru finished his speech and sat back down, thus dismissing the two couples.
The sea of people shifted and stretched, reaching out and swallowing first Sorina and Mihail, then Clara and Ioan.
I couldn't believe it. How could they do something like this? Six months, only to wait for another hearing, was a long time. At least for Clara, the humanly impatient part of the couple. Ioan... well, he was immortal. That made him infinitely patient. But Clara... she was a seventeen years old girl. Half a year for her would feel like eternity. And the way Rareş put it, it sounded like they were really lucky... I felt angry and disappointed.
I looked at Vlad and saw him shaking his head infinitesimally. He reached for my hand again and squeezed it, issuing a silent warning. Do not say anything.
I frowned and looked away from him just to meet Petru's bemused gaze. What is his problem? Is he challenging me to... act wrongly? To do something I might regret, something he could use against me?
While I was busy thinking, the room exploded in excited whispers, and the musicians seated along the gallery above the hall started to play again.
A few knights and servants brought in several more long tables, and all the guests were seated.
The maids were starting to bring in trays of food and more mysterious golden cups when Vlad took my hand and led me towards the Council's table. I was the only human, this side of the hall, but I was so angry with all of them that I didn't even feel uneasy.
Cook served us personally, Vlad and I were the only ones eating at this table.
"Won't they be angry with you for this?" I whispered to him some time later, over the rim of my second cup of wine. I watched him picking at his cake, choosing the parts he liked more first, and for some reason, it was suddenly really funny.
"About what?" he asked, lost in his own thoughts. "My having spoken to them for Ioan and Clara, or eating with you now?" He smiled, feeding me a few raisins from his plate.
"Both," I replied, realising that the Council could really find any number of things they considered wrong in our behaviour.
"I don't care, Samara. The only thing that matters to me is your smile," Vlad added, kissing me briefly. "By the way, your first dance is mine. Then I'll have to leave you to the others. They want to talk to me," he informed me, giving the Council an annoyed, sidelong glance.
As the music changed, our plates were cleared, and some of the tables were taken away to make space for dancing.
"Do I really have to dance?" I piped, all serious again.
"Of course. And I know you'll enjoy it, you always have," he said, pulling me to my feet and dragging me among the first few dancing couples.
Vlad was right, of course. I did like it. It was amazing, dancing with him, all the steps coming easily from my memory at hearing the music and feeling his touch guiding me, his hands on my waist lifting me up or making me twirl. It was so enjoyable that I felt sad when the song was over, and he left me with a swift kiss on the forehead.
I danced with Ioan then, and Mihail, both wanting to express their thanks, before Petru Rareş materialised in front of me, asking for the next dance.
He kept talking all the time, inquiring, watching me closely. Somehow, I managed to ignore most of his questions, and when the dance was over, there was another man waiting to dance with me, not giving Petru a chance to torture me further.
"May I introduce to you Florin de Hunedoara, my lady? He is one of us," Petru announced.
As if I couldn't see that. The man's grey and silver cloak told me that he was another member of the Vampire Council.
"My lord," I greeted him politely, taking his proffered cold hand when Rareş left us.
"Lady Samara," he said as the music started again, making it difficult for me to follow his words closely.
"I think I've heard your name before," I said, trying for a small talk when the steps allowed us to come close enough. "Are you by any chance related to Ioan?"
"I'm his older brother, yes."
"That's great!" I blurted out very improperly. "Ioan is my friend."
He watched me, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"I didn't know you were in the Council," I continued as he didn't say anything.
"I think there are a lot of things you don't know," he said, looking down at me, making me regret my friendliness. "Like, for instance, that I'm related to your husband, too."
Something in the way he said that made me dislike the direction in which our conversation was going.
"We share the same ancient bloodline," he continued, as our hands met one more time after a few moments of separation, and I could hear him again.
"What does it mean, my lord?" I asked, puzzled, trying to follow his train of thought. Ioan had never mentioned this connection between their families.
"It only means that should your husband abdicate, and should something happen to his son... seeing that his brother, Lord Radu, is quite useless... then I would become the next prince," he said, his cold, calculating eyes piercing through me. "We all think that your husband has been around for too long. This country needs a change."
Was that supposed to sound like a threat?
I looked around the large room, searching for Vlad, hating my height. Apparently, I was short even by the medieval standards and couldn't see him anywhere, through the whirlwind of moving dancers, most of whom were taller than me. I didn't want to stay with Florin any longer. He was making me feel anxious. Where did Vlad go? Could I just leave this man in the middle of the dancefloor and run?
Distracted as I was, I forgot my steps momentarily and landed on Florin's foot after a jump. "Oh, I'm sorry, my lord," I lied, as the music finally stopped and someone wrapped an arm around my waist from behind, pulling me away from him.
I turned around to see the newcomer and smiled broadly. Junior!
"May I have the next dance, my lady?" he asked, his eyes twinkling with suppressed laughter. He must have seen me stepping on Florin's foot.
I only nodded, relieved, completely forgetting to greet Florin when he left me with Junior.
"Finally!" I called happily once Florin was gone. I cupped Junior's face and kissed him on the cheek, making him laugh and causing a few of the guests standing close enough to notice our improper antics to gape in surprise. "I missed you," I said, meaning it.
I did miss him, his way of treating me as if I was one of them, and not as if I was a precious and easily breakable human who needed to be handled with special care. Well, not that I disliked that either, at least not too much, not from Vlad.
"I must thank you for bringing your father back that time," I continued, stepping back from him as I remembered my manners and the music started to play again.
He kissed my hand, saying, "I must thank you for letting me go after him, otherwise..."
"What exactly happened there?" I enquired as soon as the complicated moves and steps of the dance constricting us to change partners often, permitted.
"Father didn't tell you, did he?"
"Hmm... Not enough..." I admitted just before we were separated again.
There was no way we could talk properly while dancing, so as soon as the dance finally ended, Junior pulled me into a dim alcove by the fireplace. From there we could see all the room, but no one could see us well. And I could hear and see Ioan arguing with Florin in a corner not far from us... Ioan didn't seem to be happy about the Council's decision either.
"So what did he do to you?" Junior asked, looking at Florin too. "You nearly broke his foot."
"How very funny," I said, trying to look offended, but ending up giggling instead. I was just too happy that Junior was back. "He was going on about an ancient bloodline and something happening to you..." I froze, my eyes fixed on Florin, recalling his words properly. "He was trying to scare me, I think." I shuddered.
"Oh, don't worry about him. He's been saying the same things ever since he is in the Council."
I nodded, looking back at Junior. "Fine. Now tell me what happened when I sent you after your father."
"Nothing much, really... you only saved his life. I came at the last moment finding him and Ioan unconscious in that burning tower, exactly as you saw it in your dream. If I didn't get there on time..." he trailed off. "It was a trap."
I nodded. Vlad had told me that much. "Were they lured out there by humans?" I asked, frowning, remembering Junior telling me once that humans would have to burn a vampire alive to kill him.
Junior shook his head. "It was supposed to look like there were humans involved, but no."
"Who, then?" I asked, so intrigued by our conversation that I jumped at hearing Vlad's voice from somewhere behind me.
"May I have my wife back? Are you two done talking..." Our startled, guilty expressions must have given us away because he added, his confused look flickering between us, "... about me?"
Junior looked at me, and we both laughed.
"I'll leave you two then," he announced. "But if they ever make you angry again, Human, just call me. Father wants me to stay in the castle anyway."
"What do you mean?" I asked, nonplussed.
"You are wearing your hair loose. Old Katerina, or maybe it was Father this time, must have done something to upset you," he said, laughing.
"Off you go!" I said, giggling, pushing him away. He knew me a bit too well.
I was starting to feel like an open book. They were all so perceptive here.
"Go torture one of your ladies, Son," Vlad said, looking towards a group of young women observing Junior from a shadowy corner. "It's high time you chose one..."
"Enough, enough Father, I'm leaving," he said, disappearing among the dancers in a blur.
"So what do we do now?" Vlad asked, wrapping me in a tight embrace, nearly toppling the crown that by some miracle was still on my head. "I'm yours for the rest of the evening. I've had enough of them all for today."
"Do you promise?" I whispered longingly.
I stared into his eyes getting lost there, imagining how it would be if we were different people in a different place, where we could spend as much time as we liked together, just the two of us, not having to think about anything or anyone else.
I would have liked to dance with him one more time, but as those mesmerising green eyes kept looking back at me, the room started to feel too loud and crowded. I bit my lower lip as I realised just how much I wanted to be alone with him, to have him only for myself.
Suddenly, Vlad's mouth captured mine, his teeth tugging gently at my lip, releasing it and deepening the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned into him, feeling unsure on my legs. When we pulled away, breathless, I noticed that despite standing in a dim alcove, we were starting to attract curious looks.
"Maybe we should leave," I proposed, blushing and straightening my crown again. "I think we are behaving unsuitably."
Vlad followed my look and nodded, grinning, taking my hand in his to lead me outside.
"How long did it take you to put that dress on?" he asked softly, pulling me towards the door and out of the room.
"Too long." I laughed, the sound echoing around us in the dark corridor, making him laugh too.
"I wish it had a zip instead of all the hooks and buttons," I added as we reached the wide, torch-lit staircase, soliciting his bewildered smile.
Without a word, he pulled me closer and kissed me again, then lifted me in his arms to carry me up the stairs.