Page 3 of Vampires of Eden

The tension in the room is thick, as if I’m a gunman holding everyone hostage and making ludicrous demands. Slowly, I turn over one card. Then the other.

“An ace and a jack?” Nadya gawks, awestruck. “You’ve got nothing. Bloody nothing!”

“You bluffedme out of two-hundred grand for kicks?” Ashwin exclaims, her eyes wild with disbelief.

“No,” I say, pushing myself up from the table. An intense swirl of anger, fatigue and dejection fills my chest. I can’t stay here anymore. “I don’t want your money. Keep it. But don’tevermistake empathy for being ‘soft,’ you mouthy and insecure little snake.”

I step away from the table, but then pause because I can’t help myself as I look her over. “And that suit is hideous. Like something you stole off a corpse from the nineteen-fifties.”

Sebastian chuckles, sitting upright. “Honestly, I was thinking something similar. It reminds me ofBeetlejuice. Remember that movie?”

Ashwin balks, turning as I stalk past her and toward the door. “Y-you asshole! This suit came straight off the runway in Paris.”

“It’s trash. Fuck all of you.”

“Not fuck me?” Sebastian pleads. “Why fuckme? I agreed with you—Beetlejuice. Aleksey, wait!”

Pulling the heavy oak door open, I step through and into the carpeted corridor, then slam it shut. The lighting out here is the same. Gauzy yellow and casting ghostly shadows. It creates that distinctly old-fashioned vampiric mood that I hate. Antique sconces mounted on charcoal and golden damask wallpaper. Gilded frames holding prestigious oil paintings of emotionless purebreds long dead. Polished oak surfaces with fanciful ornate moldings.

Same old same old.

“Your highness?” Raphael bows, pushes off the wall and is behind me in a flash as I move down the hallway and toward the main sitting room. He was waiting outside the games room along with the other handlers. Servants aren’t allowed inside anymore when we play poker because Ashwin and her handler cheat.

As we move, the corridor gently curves, cutting us off from the group of servants stationed outside of the games room. The second we’re alone, Raphael reaches and grips my shoulder. “Hey—Is everything alright? What’s the matter with you?” His eyes bore into me, warm and brown like cedar wood in the low chandelier light.

I shake my head. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I didn’t want to come to this stupid dinner—I’ve shown my face. It’s enough.” Breaking free from his palm, I step forward.

“Alright, alright…” Raphael keeps pace at my side. “So, I’m assuming it was as bad as we thought?”

“Worse.” After the official announcement was made that my engagement was off, I kept to myself at home. Not wanting to face the public at large. Not ready. But my motherstronglyencouraged me to attend this dinner tonight. She’d had enough of me, quote, “Sulking like a weak little baby.” Yet another un-princely behavior.

“Hm…” Raphael sighs, sympathizing. “But why was Ashwin shouting? We could hear her outside.”

“Because she’s an insecure twit.”

“Sure, everyone knows that.”

“And I bluffed her out of two-hundred grand.”

Suddenly, I’m walking alone. As if an invisible wall was extended just far enough outward to impede Raphael but not me. The sensation is jarring so I stop and turn. His mouth is agape and his freckled face is utterly stupefied. My eyebrow lifts in confusion. “What?”

“Two-hundred grand? Have you lost your mind?”

I shrug, indifferent. “I won the bluff.”

“You have got to bekidding me.”

“I’m not taking Ashwin’s money.”

“That isn’t the issue here. You donothave capital to play around with right now?—”

“I know that,” I say, guarded. “Don’t lecture me. I just needed to shut her up because she’s a coward. Can we go, please?”

Visibly stressed, Raphael rubs both palms against his face but steps forward.

“Did you shut her up, at least?” he asks as we approach our destination.

“For tonight. But you know her nasty attitude is everlasting. Like a bad roach infestation.”