Charlie Gyid 2 by Anysia Eaton (book club books .TXT) 📕

jumped to his feet. I practically ran into his arms. Digging my head in shoulder. He wrapped his arms tightly around my back, holding me in place.
“When does he arrive?” he asked, he was no better at hiding his stress as anybody else in the covert.
Can nobody hide their stress, worry and fear in this place?
“Three weeks” I replied briefly.
“And the... ball?”
“The first night”
I wasn’t going to say anymore unless he asks about it. He doesn’t need to worry for another three weeks. I’ll tell him then, save him the worry. I couldn’t help but imagine his pained face at the ball. It stained my head. For my first experience at a proper Royal Ball, and I wouldn’t even be dancing with Brad. I would be with a stranger, a Vampire.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“Nothing for you to worry about, or at least not yet.” I replied a lot quieter than I was going for. He pulled my face out of his shoulder – his hands holding my face in place – so he could look me in the eye.
“What do you mean by that?” he asked scrutinizing my face.
“I mean, if I tell you now, you’ll be worrying unnecessarily. I will tell you, just closer to the time. Maybe the night before” I explained to him.
“Promise?” he asked, still holding my face in his hands.
“Promise” I replied with a small smile.
He said nothing else but leaned in a pressed his lips up against mine.
And just like she was called, Geska came running through the door and broke us up. She squeezed in-between the two of us – facing me. I couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed with Geska at this point. She always comes in at the wrong point. It’s like she has a built in radar for when we don’t want to be disturbed and so she comes in.
“Well?” she asked in her innocent little three year voice.
“Nothing for you to worry about Geska” I said patting her head. She cringed away from my hand, she hated being patted on the head, but I do it anyway.
“Anyway, Charlie, We have some planning to do” said Brad taking both of my hands, gaining my attention. That’s never really very hard for Brad.
“We do?” I asked in shock. How could he already know?
“Well, do you want the wedding to be a Vegas thing?”
He’d was talking about the wedding. I sighed a sigh of relieve, hoping he didn’t notice.
“No. I want it to be beautiful” I said.
“Well, then we have some planning to do” laughed Brad pulling me back into his arms, moving Geska out of the way as he did it. We both looked down to Geska. We didn’t have to say anything, she knew what we wanted.
“I’ll be in my room” she pouted as she stormed out the door. The door slammed shut behind her.
“I’ll read you Cinderella tonight” I shouted, hoping she would hear me.
She quickly poked her head around the door and cheered “Thank you”
She closed the door carefully behind her this time.
“It is so easy to make her happy” laughed Brad.
He lifted me up and placed me in the centre of our bed. He lay on top of me, gently massaging my neck with kisses. He moved from my dress strap to below my ear. My heart beat picked up and my breathing stuttered.
“I... I thought we... we were wedding planning” I blurted out, struggling with my words.
“When do you want it?” he asked, still not relenting on the kissing, that was quickly driving me crazy.
“I... I...” I couldn’t talk, at all.
“Charlie?” his voice rank in my ear.
“July” I decided to stick with the one word.
“Two months? That is brilliant, not too long and not too short” he replied allowing his hand to stroke the side of my arm. A wave of heat flooded through me. “Where do you want it?”
“Here” Again, one word answers. I couldn’t manage anymore than that. His kissing and soft strokes were driving me mad. Tying my tongue into knots like it was a pile of spaghetti.
“What? On this bed?” he asked almost jokingly.
I shook my head, “No”
“Oh, you mean the covert?” he asked, sitting up. His eyes mocking. A huge smile on his lips.
“In the grand hall” I replied. I was glad to finally be able to use a sentence. Or at least to be able to think enough to use a sentence.
“You’ll have to ask Sir Mallot and Mistress Halsente for permission”
“No, I’m a royal. I can give permission”
“Of course. I forgot I was marrying the most powerful girl in the entire Underworld” he joked, lifting my hand, so he could press his lips up against it.
“Who will be in invited?”
“The Swiss Covert...” I started.
“Naturally. Including Alison and her parents, I’m guessing” he interrupted.
“Yeh. Elspeth, from the French Covert. I still owe her one. And then Laura Drew.”
“All added to the list” he smiled.
I smiled back. I pulled my legs out from under him as I sat up against the back wall. He crawled to me. Refusing to let me get away. He perched himself on my legs. His fingers stroked my arms as he asked, “Who will be your maid of honour?”
“I’m not sure. I mean, I’ve know Alison longer, but I don’t want to hurt Gabby’s feelings. But if I choose Gabby, I’ll hurt Alison’s feelings.” I said slightly moaning.
“What about Geska?” he asked plainly curious.
“She’s not old enough. Besides I want her to be my flower girl” I could see Geska now in a beautiful flowing dress, flowers in her hair, and holding a bunch of flowers in her hands.
“What about Mistress Halsente?” suggested Brad. “I mean she could be the witness, and then Alison and Gabby could be the bridesmaids”
“That’s a brilliant idea. Hazel as witness and then... Of course. That’s brilliant.” I said.
I took his head in my hands and pulled his lips on to mine. When he pulled back I cheered, “I knew I said yes for a reason”
“I’m here to help” he chuckled.
Prep. Prep. And more prep. Over the week we went out of our way to prep the covert. It was up to me to break the news to the students of the school, and I must admit I had never been more nervous. We gathered them in the food hall, and told them all to take a seat. I was stood at the front. Brad had offered to stand next to me and so he did.
“Right, as you all know yesterday we had a visitor. He was the event planner for the Vampire Prince Sir Malice. As you can guess, Sir Malice will be visiting this covert...” A loud gasp erupted in the room, as well as thunderous whispering. “Quiet” They wouldn’t shut up. “QUIET” They still wouldn’t shut up.
“Frolesca Dracota” I chanted. Out of my right palm came a ball of fire. It shot up and floated mid air. It shifted in on itself until it created the shape of dragons head. Suddenly a loud roar ripped through the grand hall. The room fell silent. The dragon retreated back into my hand.
“Right... as I was saying he will be visiting, and he will be visiting in three weeks...” the room erupted into more whispering.
I sighed. This was going to be a long day. I took a seat and waited. I checked my watch every now and then. When ten minutes had passed my impatience got the better of me. I walked to the closest table and climbed up.
“Momenta noisia” I chanted as I brought my hands up clapping them together. The noise rocketed through the room, along with a large burst of wind. All the papers in the room shot across the room and smashed against the far wall.
“Right, if this room falls into whispers one more time when I am not finished it will be you hitting that back wall” I threatened in my best threatening tone. “Has anybody got anything to say?”
I watched as each person looked around them at the other people. After a few moments nobody had said anything, “Good”
“Now. With this visit brings danger. A threat. Do not worry, he will not harm you. We would never allow that. But for the next three weeks, every year will have extra hours in battle room learning how to defend yourself against vampires.” There was a loud gasp but no whispering so I continued “During his visit, you are to do exactly what you are told. You do not leave your dorms after eight o’clock, anybody caught will be severely punished by either me, or Sri Mallot...”
Mistress Halsente had been excluded from that. Both Sir Mallot and I know of her obsession of keeping the student safe. She is so obsessed she had become more relaxed with punishment, she usually lets them off. But this case, we cannot risk them thinking they can get away with it. It would have to be Sir Mallot and I doing the punishment.
“... You will of course, be one alert when passing through the corridors to your lessons. Also, we do wish for you to remain in either the new common rooms, your dorm rooms, or the training rooms outside of school hours. For your own safety. Closer to the time, we will tell you which corridors you are to avoid, but for now, I wish you good luck in your extra hours. Beginners, first years, you are to go first. Second years, you will go to the training room in exactly one hour. Third years the next hour. And fourth, the next. Intermediate, your extra hours are tomorrow. You will be told during the day when you are to attend. Ok, now you can talk. I am done”
The whole room erupted in a roar of chattering. I climbed down and walked to Brad’s side.
“How did I do? Too much, Too little?” I asked him as he wrapped his arms around me.
“No, I would say just right. I must say, I liked your dragon. Very stylish” he smiled.
“Thank you” I kissed him on the cheek.
Telling the students wasn’t the hardest part, the hardest part was training them. Luckily, as I was still classed as a student I didn’t actually have to train them but I had to sit through the Expert training. We, as the eldest in the school, not only had learn how to protect ourselves we had to learn how to protect others. The two Expert years combined together and spent four hours in a row training.
“Right, Vampire are peculiar creatures...” started Sir Mallot.
Sir Mallot, Mistress Halsente and our defence teacher, Mr Carris, were responsible for teaching us.
“They survive off of blood alone, but that you know. For those of you who don’t know, most myths about Vampires in the mortal world are false. They in fact can come out in the day, in bright sunlight. They do have super abilities, like speed and strength. It is true that one bite is all it takes to turn you into one of them, so that will be our first topic. Biting” Continued Sir Mallot.
“Should a vampire approach you, the first thing you need to be sure of is ‘is he going to bite you?’. We have of course arranged for donated blood to be prepared for them, so they shouldn’t bite but we’re not sure about how good their self-control is...” Mr Carries continued. “Because of their speed and agility, running is not the best thing to do. You will have