The Lost Queen Book 1 - Alden

20. The Ball

"What's Sara's roommate's name?" Victor rubs his eyes and seems to be really thinking hard.

"Silvie Silver... Sil..."

"SILVIA." Clark yells from his room.

"She's riding with us tonight?"

"Yea, her and Sara both are. They took Jenny to do her hair and whatever other stuff girls do. Then they are riding with us." I keep trying to find the black socks I packed.

"Why?"

"Sara and Silvie..."

"SILVIA" Clark yells.

"Sara and SILVIA like to feel more important than they are. And they like expensive shiny things. Of course, they want to ride in the limo. I'm sure they will bolt as soon as we get there. So be nice and help them out of the car."

"Oh that's cool, we got plenty of room anyway. Not like it matters if they ride with us. When are we leaving though?" Victor makes sure his tie is perfect. "But I am not going to be late because of them."

"Our arrival time is 4:45, we need to leave by 4:15. We have a full hour to get dressed. Will you please stop freaking out?"

"We need to leave a little early, so we are sure to get there on time. I don't want any problems with King Fane or his guards... or the king's police."

"Yea, we should probably leave by 4 and the girls are on their way now." I check my phone, "Jenny sent me a text 10 minutes ago saying they are on their way. They are bringing some 'mess free' snack foods for everyone."

"Don't they trust us to eat regular food?" Victor opens the fridge.

"I'm going to get dressed." I go into my room.

Clark comes out of his room. "Have you seen yourself eat? I'll be surprised if they don't get you a bib."

I can't help but laugh as I put on my pants.

"HAHA you're so funny. So who is taking which girl in? I'll take Sara, she's always smokin hot, and I'm hot... so it makes sense."

"I'll take Silvia, since I'm the only one who can remember her f*****g name."

I nod. "That works. Remember the plan. No alcohol. Talk about how nice everything is. Be overly polite to everyone and leave as soon as possible."

The girls come in. "Wow!" All Victor does is stare at them.

Clark rolls his eyes, "Ladies, you are absolutely stunning this evening."

"Yea, you girls are beautiful. I love the dresses." I smile at them.

They all say, "Thank you." and do a spin.

Jenny smiles and holds out her hand. "My fingernails match my dress perfectly and look at this. The clip in my hair matches too." She lifts the dress to show her shoes "And HIGH HEELS!!! EEEEEEE." She starts bouncing around.

Silvia smirks and walks up to Jenny, "Yes, this color red was perfect for your skin tone and the ball gown shape is perfect for your figure, and the sequins everywhere just make you sparkle!"

Sara walks up to the other side of her, "And the low cut top really accentuates your boobs. They are amazing. You should stop hiding them under t-shirts."

Silvia adjusts her dress, "I wonder if I should have brought a ball gown? You 2 seem so much fancier than me."

Sara nods. "No, your dress is perfect for you. The evening gown shows off your perfect ass and that slit up to your crotch is sexy as hell. And that emerald color makes your eyes pop."

"Well, you both have sequins, and you're sparkly."

"Yea, but you have shimmer. That fabric is shimmery. And you have some sequins on your shoes, which are so high. I don't think anyone else will be able to even walk in 5-inch heels. You look amazing, and you have the best shoes." Jenny smiles.

"Do me, Do me." Sara jumps up and down.

Jenny laughs. "Well that midnight blue is perfect on you. The color brings out your eyes and the mermaid style shows off your figure. And that sequin belt makes your waist look so small, and I can't believe you found shoes that match the dress color exactly."

"And that diamond necklace is going to have everyone staring at your rack all night." Silvia winks at her.

A car horn honks.

"Thank god." Victor blurts out.

I laugh and try to usher everyone out the door as quickly as possible. "We're going to leave now to make sure we're not late."

The limo mini-fridge is full of alcohol. We agreed not to drink until after the event though. Just in case something sketchy happens, we're sober. I'm starting to think 1 wouldn't hurt. It may actually calm my nerves. I go to grab a beer and Clark coughs, so I grab water instead.

"Man, my mouth is so dry... crackers and peanuts are making me thirsty. Are we there yet? It's been like 35 minutes." Victor is cranky.

"We brought some water." Silvia points at the fridge.

I try to see through the tint on the window. "Yea, we're here. We're in line to be dropped off at the front door. We're next to go through the security check point."

Sara rolls down her window. "Wow, they got this place all done up. Spotlights are on by the main entrance."

A few minutes later, we pull up to the entrance. I get out first and help Jenny out. She takes my arm as we walk up the red carpet. They have a DJ playing outside. It's playing Welcome to my House when we get out. On either side of the red carpet are humans trying to see everyone who gets out of the cars. The press is here interviewing people. There are lots of flashing lights. Jenny is holding onto me like she's about to be abducted by aliens. I glance behind us and see Victor and Sara. Sara loves this. She's all smiles and making Victor pose for photos.

Jenny and I get in the building and through the coat check. Then we are guided down a hallway to the ballroom. There are 2 guards in the hallway making sure no one takes a wrong turn.

Once in the ballroom, there are about 100 round tables set up. They have black tablecloths and red linen. The china for the dinner is white and red with gold silverware. There are roses in the center of every table.

"This black, red and gold color theme is really beautiful." Jenny finally speaks.

"Yea, check out the head table, it's all black and gold. No red on it... it's awesome like that." This is the plan. Keep talking about how beautiful and nice everything is.

"Oh they even have a live band playing." She elbows me lightly and points.

I glance at her and see a guard about 5 feet away from us.

"It looks like they have the gardens open. Do you want to check it out?" I am trying to figure out a way for us to move.

Luckily for us, the guard leaves.

Jenny lets out a sigh of relief, "Lets sit until the rest of the group gets here."

I pull a chair out for her. "Keep your eyes open."

She flags a waiter who is carrying long-stemmed wine glasses of blood. We grab a couple, then Victor and Sara show up.

"This place is awesome, I can't believe how big it is and how fancy everything is."

"Yes and I love the color theme, everything is so perfect," Jenny smiles and points out a few things.

Victor sips his blood glass. "And this is amazing. This is the best blood I've ever tasted."

"Thank you. We make sure to breed the ones who taste the best. The blood now has an amazing taste that can not be topped." The man takes a sip of his own glass. "It really is exquisite."

Sara gives a fake flirty laugh and puts her hand over her boobs, "Oh my goodness, you startled me."

The man laughs and then stares at her boobs. "Pardon me ma'am, it was not my intention. You folks have a wonderful night. Make sure to check out the gardens before you depart."

Silvia walks up to us. "Can you believe how beautiful this place is?"

"I know right." Jenny looks around. "I wonder what they are making for dinner? I bet it will be fancy." And then she whispers, "Who was that?" in my ear.

I shrug my shoulders. "No idea."

"Hopefully it's not too messy." Sara takes a seat.

"Who is here? Must be lots of important people for all the press and photographers to be outside." Jenny fixes her hair.

Clark takes a drink, "Lots of important people. I've seen a few ambassadors, presidents, there's a senator over there. There are a few multi-millionaire musicians as well. There is a lot of money and power in this room, and they are all vampires. The King is over there with a former leader of a drug cartel."

Sara and Silvia smile.

A woman steps on the platform the king's table is on, "Everyone, please take your seats. Dinner will be served in 15 minutes."

After everyone takes their seats, the king gets a standing ovation for finding his table. Everyone takes their seats again and he starts a speech. "Thank you for coming tonight. This is a wonderful occasion for us to be able to gather together. The fact that we can gather together for a ball is perfect. Everyone enjoy the night." He then sits and makes a hand gesture.

About 100 waiters come out with wine. They are filling the glasses up in record time. They also leave Hors-d'oeuvres. Then the waiters seem to disappear.

"A wonderful party for an amazing king. Congratulations on 500 years. Long may you reign, King Fane." A man at a table by the king starts the toasts.

After 15 minutes of toasts and speeches, the waiters appear again. This time with tomato bisque.

After 30 minutes, they bring appetizers.

After about 45 minutes of toasts and speeches, the king finally seems satisfied. He stands up and puts his arms up smiling. "Thank you for these lovely words, let's eat." And with that, the 100 waiters show back up, this time with salads and swordfish. The band starts playing something classical.

Silvia gasps. "This is beautiful, and I bet it tastes amazing."

"Oh it is amazing." Victor says with his mouth full.

We laugh and dig in.

After the swordfish, there is lime sorbet. Then ribeye roast.

Victor's eyes are about to pop out of his head, "2 dinners? I never want to leave."

The last course is cheese, desserts and pastries.

The band stops playing long enough for the lady to make another announcement. "I hope you enjoyed that lovely meal. At this point, the dancing will commence. The garden is also open for viewing."

The band plays upbeat dancing music.

"Are you guys going to ask us to dance?" Sara asks all sweetly.

Victor makes an annoying "ugghhh" sound.

"1 dance." Clark smiles.

The girls get happy and wiggly.

After 1 dance, Sara and Silvia go find other people to dance and flirt with. Jenny sticks with us.

She smiles. "Can we go check out the gardens?"

"Of course." I know she's been looking forward to seeing this place.

We go into the gardens. There are paths lit up and flowers are everywhere.

"It took us forever to get into the building. Silvia made me pose for every damn photographer." Clark and Victor are taking turns complaining. There are not many guards out here, so it doesn't matter as long as they're not loud.

"Sara too. Alden got lucky as hell."

We're blindly following Jenny around. She seems to be smelling and touching every flower. She finds a huge fountain with string lights around it. "This is so beautiful. This garden is so huge and perfect. I couldn't make it any better myself." After a few minutes we follow her through this big round wooden gazebo with benches around it, "Look at these roses."

She seems to be walking us in a circle because we're heading back towards the building now. But when we get there, we're by a side door with no guard at it. I try to open the door, but it's locked. She waves her hand and it unlocks. "There you go."

"Lets explore. I can't go back in there yet." Victor pulls his tie out a bit, "And no one is leaving yet."

So we pile in and Jenny locks the door behind us. There is a noise down the hallway, so we run in the first doorway we see. It's stairs going down and there are no lights.

"Night vision for the win." Clark smirks.

We go down the stairs and it is nasty. Cobwebs are everywhere. Stone walls. Dirt floors. Long hallways with wooden doors.

"Wow, it's original. It's the dungeon. Look..." She opens up one of the doors. "There's bars and chains with cuffs for holding people."

"Yea this is creepy as hell." I nod.

Jenny does something with her hand and says some words I don't understand.

As I look around, I see some spots on the walls and doors glowing, "What is this?"

"Anything that has been touched by magic will be visible to us."

"That's an awesome trick." Victor nods.

Jenny smiles, "You may find an old treasure if you look around enough."

Victor and Clark head down a hallway, peeking through the squares that are cut into the doors as windows. "Maybe there, that spot is kind of bright. Let's check it out." Victor opens a door.

I go down the same hallway but in the other direction, towards the center of the castle. After a few doors, I come across an empty room, but the back wall is lit up like daylight. I pick up a hunk of metal from the ground. Then I walk up to it and try to chisel some of the grout away that's between the stones.

"It won't budge. Not any of it." Jenny comes in behind me.

"Let me try something." She closes her eyes and puts her hand out to touch it. "Ouch" She jumps back. "It zapped me. I don't know what this is."

I don't know what is coming over me, but I have to get behind this wall. "Can you make this room soundproof?"

"Yes, but I do think everyone will notice if the castle falls down on them."

"It won't. This place is ancient and there is a lot of support down here. Do it please. I have a bad feeling."

"Yea, we're all going to have bad feelings if you're wrong. Hang on a sec." She motions for the other 2. "He's going to blow up a wall."

Victor shakes his head. "Bro, that's a bad idea."

"Go in the hallway. Jenny soundproof the room and tell me when you're done."

"I figured we should be close together for this."

I hear Jenny say some weird words. Then she nods at me.

I take a deep breath and do it like I did before. I open my eyes to a huge orb. Bigger than the one I blew a hole in the school with. I take another deep breath, count to 3, and throw it.