Chapter Twenty-One

Neruda's POV

I look around the room the maid left me in, it's more modern than anything I've had to live in for a while but it'll do. The guest room was done in classic chrome with soft shades of brown and beige to complete it, it's quite welcoming.

    I settle in quickly even though my dad says I could be here for a while, he probably just wants to spend more time with Estelle not like care. I mean how hard could it be to find an the Imperial in a town whose population is not even up to a couple thousand.

The thought of school sends a shiver down my spine, plus the fact that I wouldn't be able to use my powers as freely anymore. It's not like I have anything against attending school, seeing that I received a much more formal education and now I know fifteen different languages that I'll probably never use, complex calculations and theories that are now stale and lot more incredibly useless knowledge so school is nothing but a disturbance.

     I think I probably dozed off because I wake up to light taps on the door with a quiet voice announcing dinner.

Groaning, I scrub my face and roll off the bed, going to the bathroom to wash my face. I towel my dark hair off and study my reflection, red tinted irises stare back at me, side package of being of a Hellhound and I groan inwardly, I'd have to wear contacts to school.

   I brush my button down and skinny jeans, liking the comfort of informal clothes, downside to them though is that they're easily flammable.

  I decide that I had wasted enough time and start down to the dinning room, my sense of direction superb.

I hadn't seen the Laccrosses in a long time, strange that her husband would let her keep her surname and even give it to the children but then again she was a Laccrosse which basically meant Vampire Royalty. It's probably part of their marriage rites so that the Laccrosse name doesn't die out.

  From what little he could remember, they had always been on the move. Granted, they had a lot of mortal and deadly enemies but they did a lot of unnecessary movement and hid away from the elite society.

I mask my emotions and bar my mind before I step into the dining room, I wasn't taking any chances.

"Neruda." Lavina says, the carbon copy of her mother down to the icy eyes. I bow to her and her husband before I take my seat.

A maid directs me to my seat which is opposite one of the twins and beside their elder brother. Their parents sat on opposite sides of the small table that seated six, although in pretty sure they had two or three more elaborate dinning rooms and this one is used simply for my benefit.

   "There's no need to be so formal dear." She says, more nicely than I'd expected. 'Hmm, maybe I misjudged.' "I hope your suite was too your liking." She tagged on looking at her husband. "William dear?"

  William Laccrosse chokes on his soup and I hear similar reactions from their three kids - seems my stay is going to be so much fun - I gauge sarcastically.

They recover quickly enough and I sense two of the children talking telepathically, although they're pretty good at hiding it. I only know because a childhood friend in a very distant past taught me how to pick up on it.

   "The Council informed us that you're here to seek out the Imperial, odd that the Imperial should be traced to Brenton." He speaks with a quiet authority that makes me look at him with new eyes. "My resources are yours and anything you need to aid you on your mission, just inquire. I'm sure you already know Lavina and I, these are our children, Cyril, Selena and September."

   My brain goes blank as he mentions Cyril's name and I'm staring doe eyed at him. How did I not see it? I face palm mentally, wondering if he still remembers. "Sorry what?" I splutter ungracefully.

"September." The other twin, Selena repeats with a glare, her voice dripping frost bite.

  I hum in annoyance and return her glare with glee. "And I'm Neruda, Neruda del Monté." I introduce as nicely as my evil meter allows.

Now it's Lavina's turn to choke. "What?" She splutters and does it gracefully, I bet she'd even find a way to rip someone's heart out with poise and grace.

Aha! She took her time, I knew she didn't pay mind to my name the first time or perhaps she just wanted to play nice so I pressed home. "Neruda del Monté." I repeated with satisfaction. "You might know my father..."

   "Jacque." She completed darkly. "Indeed, I do know him." She ended the matter there, refusing to say anything else.

"Cyril?" William called by of conversation. "Don't you remember Neruda? I'm sure he visited a lot of times when you went to stay with your grandmother."

Cyril's face goes blank with confusion then realization washes over him and he gapes. "You're Ruda?" He near exclaims, dropping his cutlery.

"You two know each other?" September asks.

"It was before you two were born, just a couple months around the time of your birth but I left grandma's Castle not long after." Cyril mused.

"Ruda?" Selena snorts, struggling to keep in her laughter.

"Yeah?" I challenge, one eyebrow up.

"It suits you." She shrugs sarcastically, evil smile in her voice.

"So you've been in the Olde Country all this while?" Cyril asks with barely suppressed excitement, I don't blame him. It's a nice turn of events to see a good old friend.

"Yeah, a little of everywhere." I shrug, "been on the look out for the Imperial. My dad dragged me along on each scout, something about being the 'Ahri' of the Imperial. It all sounds made up to me." I add, noting that William and Lavina had stopped eating, plus Lavina's face is really red.

    "What's that? An 'Ahri' I mean." September asks with wide green eyes. People shouldn't be walking around with eyes like saucers on their face, I mean, how am I supposed to concentrate on anything else?

  "Didn't ask." I say, honestly I didn't, it didn't sound like good news and no one was willing to tell me anyway. I wasn't going to go around looking for trouble.

"It seems you kids are getting along well." Lavina interjected, studying me.

"No one's bleeding." Selena agrees. "Yet."

"That's good enough." She says getting up, "I suppose you could go out or something, you know show Neruda around." She concludes, smiling at William as they bring the meal to a close.

  They both go somewhere and we all wander back to the nearest living room.

"I'm not sure I was listening right." Selena says shaking her head, a stunned look on her face. "Did mom just tell us to go out?"

  "Stranger things have happened." September murmurs, sitting crossed legged on a sofa.

"Well she did give us permission." Cyril says.

"We never needed it before." Selena informs him.

"Yeah, yeah but we might as well take Neruda out if he's interested." He looks at me expecting an answer.

"Yeah I'm down." I reply, might as well get started on my mission.