The Vampire Hunter's Daughter: Complete Collection(46)

On the other side, framed by the darkness, stood a man and a woman. We examined each other for a moment. He was tall, with dark hair and bright blue eyes and was dressed in black slacks and a dark blue button up shirt. His arm was protectively wrapped around the waist of his lady friend.

She was a pale goddess. Blond ringlets cascaded her back to her waistline. Her skin was so smooth, like porcelain. I wanted to reach out and touch it. She had big, wide, grey eyes, and she wore a dress almost the same color. The dress was classy: tight-fitting, touched the knees, showed just enough cleavage, elegant sleeves. I liked it.

“Hello, I’m Chloe.” I greeted them and opened the door wider. “Come in.”

“I am Vincent.” He ushered the blond inside. “This is Dahlia.”

He held out his hand for me to shake once they were fully inside and I was able to shut the door. I grasped his cool hand and nodded.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

He smiled at me, showing me his perfect white teeth. I couldn’t see any fangs.

“I’m happy to meet you as well.” I told him. “Have you met Oscar?”

Oscar stepped forward with his hand extended. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure. I’m Oscar Williams, Chloe’s tutor.”

I glanced at Dahlia and saw her watery, grey eyes scale up and down Oscar's body and briefly flashed with red.

Oh, my gosh!

I hoped she wouldn't try to drink his blood while he was here. I thought I was going to be the only one I had to worry about.

Before I could worry about it too much, the doorbell rang again. This time the couple in the doorway were women, both dark haired, dark eyed and dressed to impress. I escorted them in, introduced myself and learned their names were Vanessa and Constance.

“Do you know Vincent and Dahlia?” I questioned as we approached the couple, who were speaking with Oscar in the hallway. Vanessa shrugged out of her wrap, and held it out for me to take. I stared at her for a moment before grabbing it from her and hanging it on the coat hook.

What was I, her maid?

Immediately, I took back the mental comment, because of Alice.

“Yes, I’m quite familiar with Vincent and Dahlia.” She practically purred Dahlia’s name and ran her fingertips down the length of the other woman's arm.

Uh, weird.

I was beginning to think all these vampires were kind of perverted. Maybe that was another reason Trevor had told them to stay away. Before I could wonder about their odd relationships, the doorbell sounded again. Trevor swept into the room in his usual black clothing, only this time instead of jean, he wore black slacks and button up shirt.

“I’m so glad you all could make it.” He greeted his guests on his way to the door. Vincent, Dahlia and all the rest of us moved into the living room to mingle while Trevor ordered Alice to answer the door and take coats.

Trevor made formal introductions. Turned out Vincent was his business associate. For some reason, when he told me that, I thought of Eli and how my mother made it sound like he was Trevor’s main man.

I stuck closely to Oscar’s side and spent as much time helping Alice as I could. At dinner, the twelve of us sat at the table. I was bombarded with questions: How did I like it here? What did my mother tell me about my father? Did I have any vampire abilities? The list went on and on. I lied about all of them. Lying seemed to be something I was good at lately. Funny, I could never get one by my mother.

I thought it was just the dumbest thing that vampires were all sitting around a dinner table and they didn’t even eat. The whole dinner plate thing was probably just to give them something to play with while they questioned me.

Alice came in and out, serving us the courses and keeping our glasses full. Everyone’s goblets were full of some kind of blood wine mixture while mine only had water. Oscar had opted for a beer. I didn’t even know we had beer in the house.

Trevor sat at the head of the table while I sat directly to his right. “Chloe, would you like some of the wine?”

Oh, how I desperately did want some of that wine. If it was anything like what my own blood tasted like, then yes, I wanted some. But, I knew what weakened me, and I knew what I was here for. I didn’t want to become a vampire. I wanted to kill them.

“No, thank you. I’ll just stick to water.”

Trevor nodded and then proceeded to question the rather ugly looking male vampire to his left. Vanessa sat on the other side of me and Dahlia straight across the table. Dahlia, seemed like a quiet one. She hadn’t said anything since she had arrived. Suddenly, I felt a hand on my leg.

My head snapped over and I glared into Vanessa’s dark eyes.

“Take your hands off me,” I hissed at her under my breath.

“Oh, honey,” she whispered back. “I will place my hands anywhere I damned well please.”

“Take them off,” I repeated.

In complete defiance of my wishes, she ran her hand up farther onto my thigh. What the heck was wrong with this chick? Well, if she wanted to play with fire, she picked the right person. I looked into her eyes and smiled, then reached underneath the table. I used my fingertips, to gently walk her short dress up until enough skin was exposed. I then rested my hand on the cold bare skin of her thigh.

Everyone around us was chatting, not paying any attention to what was happening between us. Vanessa smiled and ran a fingernail over my skin.