Night Feast (8 page)

Lia didn’t know but she nodded in agreement anyway.  The other girls were still staring in silence, so Jody shot them a look, that jolted them out of their self-imposed trance.

“Are you in a school play or something” she inquired cordially.

“Yes that’s right, we were doing a little weekend rehearsal, but I’m going out on a date tonight and I thought I’d come and get some new clothes before I go home.”

Jody readily accepted her story, and Lia felt a sudden sense of appreciation for Dalia Jackson.  She would have given the vampire some modern clothes of her own to wear, but they were far too big. Besides a girl like Lia would have probably drawn more attention to herself, wearing the clothes of a middle-aged woman.  Dalia instead had told her what to say if anyone asked any questions.  Jody helped Lia to choose some clothes.  She led her customer to the prettiest items in the shop.  Together they carried pairs of jeans, shirts and tops to the changing room.

“Wait a minute, you’ll need a coat in this weather, I don’t know how you survived being outside dressed liked that.”

Lia was about to disagree, then remembered how these humans felt about the cold, and how she must fit in with them if she wanted to spend time in their century.

“Oh yes I’m freezing” she lied, “I came out without my coat this morning, I thought it was going to be a much warmer day.”

‘She must be from Florida or somewhere like that because anyone who has lived here knows that Maine is freezing most of the time’ thought Jody, but she smiled good naturedly, and chose a beautiful dark green coat for Lia.

“You’ll look good in this, it will match the colour of your eyes.”

Lia, who had been unimpressed by the lack of elegance in the style of the clothes that she was about to purchase, thought the green coat was a wonderful garment.  She tried on all the clothes, and was glad that she had Elena’s handkerchief to see how she looked in the mirror.   She kept on a pair of jeans, a shirt, and some flat pumps, and took the rest of the clothes to the cashier and paid for them.   She spent well over a thousand dollars, so Jody threw in a woollen hat for free, for her being such a good customer.  Lia accepted the offer of an empty bag gratefully, and stuffed her old fashioned dress into it.  Before she left the shop she made sure that the handkerchief was in her jean pocket.

The Real Estate lady had been very kind, Dalia had said that she would be.  She accepted Lia’s story of how her parents were visiting relatives in Surrey, in the United Kingdom without question.  She could see that Lia was the product of a wealthy background, so she had shown her photographs of the most expensive rental properties in Maine.  Lia had liked the look of a two bed roomed house in Westport, about an hour away from Portland.  They travelled together to view it, and she was not disappointed.  It was secluded by woodland but had riverside views, a perfect hideaway from prying eyes.  The rental was three thousand dollars a month, and Lia paid for a full year in advance in cash.

After exploring her modern new home, Lia supernatural abilities enabled her to fly back to Portland, in much less than an hour.  She wore her new green coat and her free woolly hat, after discovering what it was for, when she saw some other teenagers wearing similar things.  She was glad that she had been given the hat, it covered all of her beautiful hair, and stopped the stares of admiration of the people in town.  And then she saw him.

He was strolling along the sidewalk with another boy and they entered a place called the Diner.  She followed them inside, and it was easy to slip unnoticed into a corner because it was so busy.  The harassed young waitress didn’t notice her arrival, so she placed herself quite near to him without anybody’s knowledge.  Lia had gazed at Jay Patterson in silence, hoping that he wouldn’t hear her beating heart and find her hiding place. And then came Amberlee.

Chapter F
our

“Sorry, I didn’t see you there, can I get you something?”

Lia had waited until Amberlee and her friends had left the Diner, followed by Jay and Kevin around ten minutes later.  Even though they did not know that she had been spying on them, she was not ready to be seen.  The young waitress who had spotted her, seemed to relax when the other girls had gone.  She looked at the beautiful girl, wearing an expensive dark green coat and a woolly hat and wondered what her story was.  Lia met her gaze and answered her verbal question.

“No thank you, I was just leaving.”

The waitress shrugged and started clearing and wiping the table nearest to her.  Lia spoke again.

“Actually, do you know anything about the college dance that those four girls were talking about?”

The girl stopped wiping the table and turned to her.

“Oh yeah, I heard about it, it’s next Friday, starts about seven I think.  It’s to celebrate the opening of Claremont, that’s the name of the college.”

Then she adds wistfully “I used to go there but I had to drop out about a year ago because.....”

“Where would I find it?” interrupted Lia, abruptly stemming the flow of words depicting  how hard done by she was.

“You go out of here and turn left and left again then you’ll see it right in front of you.  You can’t really miss it, it’s a huge building.  I haven’t seen you in here before I.....”

“Thanks, I’ve got to go.”  Lia rushed from the Diner leaving the open mouthed waitress in mid sentence.

Lia had already decided that wild horses would not keep her from going to the dance at Claremont college.  She didn’t know what she was going to do, or say, when she finally came face to face with the object of her desire.  However she felt that the dance would be a perfect opportunity, and the right environment, for a first meeting.

****************************************

Amberlee had been physically exhausted after all that shopping.  She was however, very pleased with her purchases but she wished that she had gone with either Tori or Judi, instead of boring old Libby.  She hadn’t been much help at all, she was totally useless.  Amberlee, who always had her butt firmly placed on her throne of vanity, had expected Libby Peterson to shower her with compliments, but none had been forthcoming.  Amberlee stood in her pink coloured bedroom, in front of her much used, full length mirror.  She held the red dress, that she’d bought specially for the dance pressed against her body.

“I’ll get all the compliments I want from Jay” she told herself confidently.

During college earlier in the day, Amberlee had told anyone who would listen that she was going to be Jay Patterson’s date for the dance on Friday.  She had ignored the looks of disbelief, but revelled in the envious comments of her peers.  The girls who had lined themselves up to ask Jay to be their date, had admitted defeat and backed off, when Libby had reluctantly confirmed that it was true.  A few of the boys who, from experience knew that Amberlee Robinson would put out, had kept patting Jay on the back.  Amberlee had been desperate to catch his eye in class, but he had ignored her.  She felt a little perturbed by the fact that Kevin and Libby had been getting on so well, since the dates had been arranged in the Diner. She was determined to get Jay to talk to her, because she wanted all the other girls to witness it.  So she decided to discuss the meeting up arrangements with him.

“You do remember that you’re my date for the dance don’t you?” she had demanded rather aggressively.  Jay had looked up from the book he was reading. He hadn’t even been aware that she had been trying to move mountains to get his attention that day.

“Yeah, yeah I remember we’ll come and pick you and Libby up”

“Okay” said Amberlee with renewed enthusiasm, he hadn’t forgotten at least.

“Libby can come to my house and you can pick us both up from there” she announced with finality.

“Sure, whatever” Jay replied, as if it was no big deal.

‘Okay he doesn’t seem very keen now’ thought Amberlee, ‘but he’ll be totally hot for me when he sees me in my new dress.’

“You live further away than me Amberlee, it would be better if you came to my place”

Libby had heard the arrangement being made, once again Amberlee had made a decision, that involved her, without consulting her first.

“See you later Libby” said Kevin who had been chatting amiably with her, but sensing a cat fight both he and Jay made a quick exit.

“You’ve scared them off now” exclaimed Amberlee unreasonably, then she continued,

“I totally spend more time getting ready than you do anyway, so I think it’s best that we all leave from my place.”

Libby had gave up trying to fight her corner, listening to anyone else’s point of view had never been high on Amberlee Robinson’s list of priorities.

“I’m going to get some lunch are you coming?”

“Okay” said Amberlee brightly, she had won the battle.

“But stop me if I try to have too much,  I want to be able to fit into my new dress on Friday, so just for this week I’m watching what I eat.”

“Going in, or coming out” muttered Libby under her breath.

****************************************

Lia needed to go on another shopping trip.  She wanted to buy a new dress to wear to the dance.  She sat in the living room of her newly rented house in Westport, and pondered while staring out of the windows, at the riverside views.  The real estate lady had offered to turn the heating on for her, but of course she had graciously said no thank you.  Lia had been surprised and pleased by her ability to control herself around these human beings.  Daddy would be amazed and so proud of her, he was always reprimanding her for being too eager and impatient.  Although she wouldn’t mind pouncing on that girl, Amberlee.  Not just for her blood but for the sheer fun of it.  Lia had been really vexed by the way that girl had sashayed over to Jay.  Her brash and forward manner had reminded the vampire of the girls of the streets, on the other side of the portal.  She had been relieved to see that Jay had not really responded to her.  The thought of him brought that same stirring within her again.  Jay.  That was the name that she had heard that awful girl and the other boy call him.  His voice had been like sweet music to her ears, it had a masculine deepness to it, a knowingness.  She had felt her whole body tremble at the sound.  Lia was quite overwhelmed by the strong feeling and emotion that he, without even knowing that she existed, had instilled in her. She decided that this must be how her Father had felt when he had first seen her Mother. This must be what the human beings call love.

Quicker than lightening strikes, she transported herself back to Portland.  She found her way to the shopping mall for the second time, however this time she went to another shop.  She was aware that she was still on the receiving end of peoples furtive glances ,some were less subtle with outright stares.  Nevertheless this time the reason was more about her incredible beauty than her clothes.

Lia reminded herself, as she was developing a habit of doing, not to lose control in this very human environment.  Her father had taught her some very effective techniques, to stop herself from attacking people at inappropriate times.  He had not been so concerned about her twin sister Kathrin, she was the epitome of self control.  Valentin had told Lia to vividly imagine that the people were not really flesh and blood, but mere statues.  He had told her to visualise herself touching and smelling their necks, and feeling the cold, grey rough stone rub against her lips.  Then he had instructed her to bite into the necks of the imaginary statues, and feel her teeth break on the unwelcoming, tasteless stone.  After taking seven deep breaths Lia had completed the full visualisation.  Her father’s method had quelled her appetite for hours.

Lia walked around the shop that sold mainly dresses and shoes.  She went from rail to rail and was amazed at how short the dresses were.  Back in her century, a woman would have been heavily frowned upon, if she wore anything that revealed her ankles.  There was also much less material in these clothes.  Lia was used to much thicker fabric and fuller skirts.  Her eyes finally fell upon a pretty, dark green, silk and taffeta dress.  It was roughly the same shade as her new coat, and she remembered that the sales girl Jody had said that the colour was a match for her beautiful eyes.  She held the dress against her body for a moment, and was about to put it where she’d found it.  It was strapless and it barely covered her knees, she couldn’t possibly wear anything like this!  Then she remembered the very wise words of Dalia Jackson.

“To fit into this world, this century, you must wear what the other teenage girls wear.  At first it will seem very strange to you, not being at all used to showing your flesh, but it is a sacrifice that you are going to have to make.”

The shop assistant, an older woman in her late thirties this time, came towards her.

“That dress will look lovely on you Miss, that’s a very good choice.  Would you like to try it on?”

Her persuasive tone denoted that she could see that Lia was a girl who could easily afford to pay the five hundred dollar price tag. Lia nodded and followed the woman’s directions to the changing rooms, at the back of the shop.  Once behind the curtain she removed her coat and hat.  She took off her shirt and pulls the dress on over her head, while she was still wearing her jeans.  She then took Elena’s handkerchief from the pocket of her jeans, and removed them before observing herself in the mirror.  Dalia Jackson was right.  She did feel very strange in what she saw to be a very revealing outfit.  However, even though her long shapely legs were in full view, she had to admit that the image that stood before her was breathtakingly beautiful.  The shop assistant called out to her, asking if everything was okay, and if she could see her wearing the dress.  Lia obliged and came from behind the curtain.  The woman was speechless, and found it difficult to take her eyes off the vision that was standing before her.  She asked if the dress was for a special occasion.  Lia said that she was going to the dance at Claremont college.  The woman told her that she had a son, who graduated from the college about eighteen months ago.  Lia changed out of the dress and handed it to the shop assistant, who then wrapped it up beautifully for her customer.