The next day, was just as exhausting. I was rushed around through tea parties and meetings with Houses. None of them were the House of Vampire. After yesterday, my father probably figured that Damian was more of a bad influence than a protector. I couldn’t agree more.

Yet, his and Elle’s absence through the day made me frustrated. I missed having her by my side and I guess that Damian’s annoying side was getting comfortable with me.

I shook that thought from my head. Damian is a play boy. He breaks hearts and probably brought those vampires in. Stay away from him!

I slolwy prepared for day three of the festival. Tonight was story night. We dressed up as characters from Solestian fairytales. I wanted to be my favorite character, the Sun Hunteress.

When I was a child, my mother told me the story of the Sun Hunteress and the Star Sorcerer. The Sun Huntress hunted mythical animals sent form the Sun to earth. She wanted to discover new lands and find a true home. One day, she ran into a Star Sorcererer. The two wanted the same thing. Together, they went off into far off places.

Soon, they fell in love. The Moon didn’t like that and tried to tear them apart. He sent the Huntress to a far off land with everything she could ever want and sent the Star Sorcerer to a twisted land of monsters. Even though the Huntress had everything she wanted, she went back to find the Star Sorcerer.

It says that she still lingers the earth, searching for her lover.

I always found that story romantic. I smiled as I put my hair into a braid. I dressed in a simple, but brightly colored dress. I kept my outfit very plain looking. It was a bright red maiden outfit with black boots and a quiver of arrows.

Me and my sisters made our way to the festival grounds. My sisters were the Sky Twins from a child’s story. “Vesper, what are you going to do tonight?” Prudence asked me.

I shrugged my shoulders. “Why?” I asked.

“I hear that the House of Dolce’s tent has a dance floor for dancing and I wanted to go. I was wondering if you’d take me.” She looked down shyly. I smiled.

“Of course I’ll take you. Charity, do you want to go?”

Charity was busy looking for someone. “Umm, I don’t know. Do you think Aspen Vampire will be there?” She asked.

I froze. “Aspen Vampire?”

“Yeah.”

My sister had a crush. He was a cute boy so I wouldn’t say much. “Maybe. Let’s go and see.”

I took them to the Dulce tent. There was a ballroom in there. It was lovely. Instantly, my sisters ran off to find a partner to dance with. Charity was lucky. Aspen was there and the two of them began to dance quickly.

“Hey, Vesper.” Elle said as she approached me. She was dressed as a the Demon Queen of Glorenland. It fit her well.

“Hey, Elle. I like your outfit.” I replied.

She twirled, her black and red gown shimmering in the tent lights. “Thank you. I always found the Demon Queen to fit my personality.”

I laughed. “It does.”

“Damian told me about what your father said.”

Oh. I paused. She knew. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry. You seem like the kind of girl who wants to choose who you love.”

“My love is gonna betray me anyway. Did he tell you that part?”

Elle nodded.

“So, there’s no point in letting me decide. I’ll end up hurt either way.”

“And about Dane?”

His name sent an unease over me. I shivered in fear. He had touched me, but I had been wearing a revealing dress. Had it been my fault? I shouldn’t have been showing that much skin anyway. I shouldn’t feel this bad about a guy touching me. Plenty of guys are going to touch me. I just had to get used to it, I guess.

“I guess he’s alright.” I said.

“Hello, Sunshine.” Damian said as he appeared behind me. I could feel his presence behind me. My body knew where he was. “Hello, dear sister.”

Elle nodded to him. “Dear brother.” She replied in acknowledgment.

I turned to him. “What do you want, Damian?” I asked.

“A dance.” He replied and smirked at me.

“No.”

“Please.” He pouted.

I rolled me eyes. “Why?”

“Am I not allowed to want a dance from the pretty princess?” He offered me his hand.

I eyed him suspiciously. I looked at Elle. She shrugged and grabbed a goblet of wine. What was one little dance gonna do? Nothing.

But I should be staying away from him. I knew that I was starting to get comfortable with him. He was dangerous. This was dangerous.

“Fine.” I took his hand defeatedly.

“Don’t sound so sad, sunshine.” He said as he pulled me onto the dance floor. His hand found my waist and the other landed on my shoulder.

I placed my hands on his shoulders and let him lead the dance. I tried to look anywhere, but Damian’s eyes. I knew that if I looked into them, I would be swept away.

“So how is sunshine doing tonight?” He asked me.

I looked at him. “Fine.” I replied.

He smirked at me. “You can’t just be doing fine. You’re dancing with me.”

“You think too highly of yourself.” I placed my head on his shoulder and leaned into his touch. I still kept my guard up, but relaxed a little.

The breath hitched in Damian’s throat. He relaxed a second later and pulled me closer to him. We danced in silence for a while. I enjoyed swaying to melody, just him and me.

Then I saw something. There was a flash a dark coloring on the edge of the tent. Then I saw Lucian there. That was Damian’s brother. He was holding something. It was crystal. It was a dark crystal the color of midnights.

“Hey, is that-“ I was cut off by the lights going out in the tent.

No. I tensed up. I knew what was about to happen. This had happened two night ago.

“We need to get out of here, now!” Damian whispered to me.

I nodded. I knew what was about to come and we needed to leave.

This time, we were ready. Someone screamed for everyone to run. People did as told, as well as screaming.

I watched as my sisters made it safely out of the tent. Damian and I had been towards the back so it took us longer to get to the door.

By that time, they had started to descend.

People were screaming like crazy. It was all flashes of screams, dark colors, wings, and murderous red eyes. Vampires. There were vampires here. Real vampires.

“Sunshine, stay close.” Damian said as he pulled out a knife.

“You just keep that on you?” I cried out.

“You have a dagger strapped to your thigh, hypocrite.” He threw the knife at a vampire and it hit it in the wings. It screeched so loud, I had to cover my ears.

“But I can barely use it, remember?” I pressed myself as close as I could to him.

I wanted to get out of here. I had to find my sisters and Aspen-

A female vampire grabbed my arm. I screamed and swung a punch at her. She hissed at me and pulled me closer to her. Damian cried out my name, but it was too late.

Teeth were sunk into my arm.