Birth of the Vampire (The Vanderlind Realm) Read Free Page B

the New World. I understood his reasoning. At the time, Hitler had started making some noise in Europe. Grandfather saw where it was headed—every psychopath knows his own. Even so, the castle has never felt really like home to me since it was rebuilt in Ohio. I still had no idea why Grandfather picked the spot. Maybe he somehow thought a giant medieval castle would look less conspicuous in a small town. That sounded about like his reasoning. After all, he was the one who decided turning his entire family into the undead was a good idea. I wished I could have asked him about it, but the old bastard had been missing for quite a few decades now, so it was safe to assume that he was gone for good.
    I actually knocked at the front door when I arrived. It felt a little odd, seeing that I was technically one of the heirs to the castle. But just barging in smacked of bad manners. Besides, I had to assume my family still employed mostly mortals for their staff, and I didn’t want to alarm anyone. Or accidentally heighten my appetite. I had been traveling for a few days and was ready to eat.
    The great hall was decorated to the nines with festive fabrics and ornaments covering every surface. There was an enormous tree, so tall that it almost touched the room’s vaulted ceiling. The entire thing was dripping with decorations. Tucked under its branches were wrapped packages of every shape and size. And the gifts that couldn’t fit there were piled into corners and nudged under furniture. I wondered if there was going to be a larger celebration than I had anticipated. I hoped not. I’d had my luggage shipped ahead, but I hadn’t bothered to pack my tails.
    “Dorian,” Aunt Alice exclaimed as she entered the room. I was relaxing on the sofa, sipping some refreshment that a very tall servant with a faint Russian accent had brought out on a tray. “How good of you to come. It’s wonderful to see you.” She had always been a dark-haired beauty, and of course, that hadn’t changed.
    “I was just thinking it was about time I visited the old homestead, and then Jessie extended to me your charming invitation,” I said, rising to kiss her on both cheeks. “So what’s this I hear about Jessie adopting another human?”
    “Don’t be wicked,” Aunt Alice scolded me. “I get enough of that from my oldest son.”
    “But Jessie has fallen for a new mortal?” I asked. “That’s what the gossip mills are saying.”
    She shrugged her slim shoulders, made impossibly white by a diaphanous crimson gown. “The heart wants what the heart wants,” she said with a little sigh.
    “Dorian. Did you finally decide to tear yourself away from breaking the heart of every vampiress in Budapest?” I heard Jessie’s voice exclaim. I turned to see him walking into the room, looking handsome as ever, his black hair slightly ruffled as usual. “I wouldn’t have been lounging around in bed if I’d known you’d arrived.”
    “You always were lazy,” I told him, which we both knew was a lie. Jessie was unusually studious for a vampire. We did the handshake one-armed-hug that men sometimes do. It was a gesture that lay somewhere between formality and familiarity. “So where’s this human of yours?” I asked, making a show of looking behind him as if she was glued to his sleeve.
    “Like I’d bring her anywhere near you,” was Jessie’s good-natured response.
    “Well, he’ll meet her tomorrow night for Christmas Eve,” Aunt Alice interjected. She turned to her son. “She’s still coming. Isn’t she?”
    “Of course, she is,” Jessie told her, giving her an affectionate hug. “Especially after you’ve gone to so much trouble.”
    I had been thinking the holiday decorations were a bit over the top, and now I knew why. Aunt Alice was showing off a little for the mortal guest.
    “Yes, we must pull out all the stops for Jessie’s little human,” said a droll voice. I turned to see my cousin Daniel stroll into the room.
    “Oh,