Olivia leaned over. ‘Do you think we should try to get some work done while we wait? Georgia would flip if she thought that we were slacking on such an important magazine assignment. Maybe we could get a few sound bites from the others?’
Ivy fiddled with the notepad in her lap. Their fellow guests were so standoffish and aloof. They were wearing sunglasses, despite the fact that the Banquet Hall was dim and candle-lit. They were so snooty they made Franklin Grove’s resident diva, Charlotte Brown, look down-to-earth! Ivy shuddered. Even Olivia – who gave everyone the benefit of the doubt – was starting to look unimpressed by the unwelcoming behaviour of the vampire girls.
‘Do we have to?’ Ivy muttered. One of the vampire’s heads snapped up and Ivy winced. She had spent so much time with humans back in Franklin Grove that she’d forgotten everyone here would have super vamp hearing. She tried to give an apologetic smile but the girl flipped her hair and turned away.
Was this ‘polite’ vampire society? And, worse, did these girls go to school at Wallachia Academy? Ivy cleared her throat, suddenly determined. They might not be the best interviewees in the world, but she had a job to do and was determined to be a professional for her first real reporting gig.
‘Excuse me.’ She craned round to smile at the vampire nearest her, opening her notepad to a blank page. If it weren’t for the diamond-encrusted sunglasses, the girl would have looked totally goth gorgeous in her blood-red evening dress and tasteful silver necklace. ‘I’m Ivy Vega and I was wondering if you might be kind enough to answer a few questions for me. See, I’m writing an article for VAMP magazine and my sister and I are covering the entire Vampire Royal Wedding. Would you mind?’
The girl shrugged and coolly lifted her perfectly arched eyebrows. ‘If you must.’
‘Great!’ Ivy’s voice came out squeaky. She noticed the heads of the other vampires tilt in the direction of the conversation, but they all pretended not to listen. They really should drop the unfriendly act, Ivy thought. It doesn’t look good on them. ‘Right,’ she started. ‘Firstly, what’s your name?’
‘Ivana. Pleased to meet you.’ She extended her fingers. Ivy awkwardly grasped Ivana’s fingers and gave them a little shake.
The vamp next to her, dressed in a sequined cocktail dress, gasped as if Ivy had made a huge faux-pas.
‘Pleasure,’ said Ivy as Ivana wiped her hand on her dress. ‘How long have you been friends with Tessa?’ She uncapped her pen.
‘We’ve never met,’ Ivana drawled in a husky voice.
Ivy bit her lip, furrowing her eyebrows. ‘I’m not sure I understand. If you’re not friends, why are you here?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Ivana twirled a strand of hair around her finger. ‘Because Tessa will one day be queen, of course. It’s a good idea to become her friend, no?’
Ivy shot Olivia a covert glance and she could tell her sister was thinking the same thing – yuck! How many of the other guests didn’t know Tessa at all? Surely they weren’t all just a bunch of social climbers?
‘Um, well, thanks for that.’ She closed her notepad. ‘That was really . . . fascinating.’
Ivy nudged Olivia and gestured to the vampire nearest her. Olivia took one look at the girl, who was busy studying her manicure, and turned back to Ivy.
No way, she mouthed, eyes wide.
The vamp girl was tall and a bit of a Glamazon. OK, so she was actually quite scary. Ivy nodded at Olivia, as if to say she understood her sister’s hesitation.
Then Ivy gave Olivia a harder nudge, so that she bumped into the Glamazon girl.
‘Sorry!’ Olivia yelped and shot Ivy a deadly glare.
‘Oops!’ Ivy batted her eyelashes and prepared to take notes.
The Glamazon looked at Olivia like she was a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of her stiletto.
‘Hi!’ Olivia waved, even though she was right under the vamp girl’s nose. ‘I’m Olivia. How are you and, um –’ she wiggled herself back on to her own chair – ‘how do you know Tessa?’
The Glamazon scooted her chair back a little. ‘My name is Arabella, and who is this Tessa person that you speak of? I’ve never heard of her.’
Ivy knew it was bad manners, but she couldn’t help it. She put her elbows on the table and leaned across Olivia. ‘Tessa . . . the girl who is going to marry Prince Alex . . . Any of this ring a bell?’
Arabella shrugged and turned her face away. ‘Not really.’
Ivy flipped her notepad shut. Getting appropriate sound bites here was not going to be easy. I wonder if VAMP magazine would like a feature on the impossible levels of snootiness among posh vampires? Because I could write a whole book about that!
The Banquet Hall doors swung open and Horatio stepped out, looking dapper in a sleek black tuxedo. ‘Announcing the arrival of Petra Tarasov, Anastasia Gorya, Nastya Petrov and Kristina Kazimir.’ More vampires? Oh great – the snootiness factor has just gone up by fifty per cent.
But, maybe not – these girls were sporting evening wear that was a little less rigid and much more vintage. Plus, they weren’t wearing sunglasses. Even better – they were actually smiling.
‘Hi, girls!’ One of the new guests pulled out a chair and plopped down between Ivy and Olivia. ‘I’m Petra.’ She wore a black shift with a funky lace hem. ‘So sorry we’re late.’ Ivy caught traces of various European accents – totally different to the Transylvanian one shared by the girls who had stonewalled her. ‘We had this assembly at the Academy that ran a little late. You know what a bore teachers can be.’ Her eyes flicked to the ceiling. ‘I’m sure we’re all capable of waiting until Monday to hear our millionth lecture on the importance of eating a balanced red-blood-cell diet.’