"Okay, you have me there," I conceded. "But they could try to convince me to read it if they're that passionate about it. Who knows, stranger things have more than likely happened."
"More than likely," the corner of Merrill's mouth tugged a little.
"But if that's all they read, then they've missed out on a lot of contemporary fiction, which might be a shame," I said. "We're all a product of our times, are we not? Isn't it important to keep up with things and not just bury ourselves in the past, pretending that current events don't exist?"
"Some of those you may meet have most certainly buried themselves in the past," Merrill informed me dryly. He was trying not to smile; I just knew it.
"Then we won't have anything in common," I said. "Therefore and henceforth, they should get themselves gone." I made a shooing motion with my hand. It broke contact with my partner which was a no-no in the dance and Merrill stopped right there, bent over and started laughing.
"Now," I went on, "while you may have been best buds with Voltaire and all that, I've seen his picture, that's some hairdo he had going, by the way, I've never met anybody important. Not while I was human, anyway, and I haven't read anything past Shakespeare I don't think, although I have seen quite a few movies. Does that make me insignificant? Maybe to you. But you have to look at it this way; in geologic time, we're all a blip on the radar." I walked away from him.
"That certainly does put things in perspective, doesn't it?" Merrill was back at my elbow and we went on with our dance.
"Are you aware of the controversy surrounding the last extinction—the one where all the large mammals disappeared?" I asked as we made another turn around Merrill's ballroom. Yes, he has a ballroom. Go figure.
"The one where some think it was caused by a comet or a series of comets while others think it was the Clovis people?"
"That's the one. I'm with the series of comets people, I think. Otherwise, those Clovis people had to be really hungry. There were some big, furry animals in that bunch. Made a lot of soup, no doubt."
"I agree," Merrill smiled.
* * *
"Oh, you're kidding." I stared at Mr. Dalton, hair designer, who stood in front of me, looking my hair over. He had an assistant with him—a young woman who popped bubble gum while she did my nails and make-up. The night of the ball had crept up on me. I was less than prepared to go and the gum cracking was so annoying at one point I nearly let a claw slide out to pop a rather large bubble. Holding back that urge, I ground my teeth instead and hoped she'd finish soon. Merrill was already dressed and waiting impatiently while Mr. Dalton and Co. worked me over, gum chewing notwithstanding.
Mr. Dalton worked on my hair while the girl did my nails, toenails, and then my face, handing me a mirror afterward so I could see the results. Mr. Dalton had piled my hair atop my head. It looked decent, even if it did feel a little weird at first. My fingernails and toenails had never looked so good. Lena stayed late and helped me into my dress afterward.
"That looks incredible," Franklin said when I and my dress floated downstairs. Greg had gone back home only two days before and Frank and I both missed him.
"This will finish it off," Merrill slipped a diamond necklace around my neck, handing the matching earrings to me.
"I don't even want to know how much these cost," I said, slipping the earrings into my ears.
Brock was waiting to drive us, and I learned that he'd acted in that capacity for Merrill for a long time before becoming an Enforcer. He also piloted Merrill's jet and often flew for the Council when needed. We rode to the ball in the Rolls Royce Phantom. Brock explained during the drive that it was a Diamond Black and not just black in color, in addition to giving me information about the engine and other car parts I didn't recognize. As he talked, I nodded like one of those dogs that some people stick to their dash. He gave me a nice grin. "What kind of pizza am I?" he asked. Russell and Radomir must have been talking.
"You're the ham and pineapple guy," I said without thinking.
"Well, I was a ham and pineapple guy," he agreed. "Good guess."
"If it wasn't that, it was the shrimp and lobster."
"My second favorite. How do you know these things?"
"I'm a good guesser," I said, smiling at him. Actually, I had no idea what kind of guesser I was.
Merrill settled my wrap a little better around me when Brock dropped us off outside a very large building on the outskirts of London. I hadn't paid much attention to where we were going; Brock had talked most of the way. Merrill let me ride up front with Brock while he sat in the back, watching and listening to his two youngest vampire children.
Vampires were waiting outside to assist guests when they arrived, some of them working as valets, others as escorts and doormen. The scents came as soon as Merrill handed me out of the car and I could have told you which ones were the oldest and which the youngest. Two vampires opened the double doors into the building, allowing Merrill and me inside. I didn't miss the look of shock on the face of the one closest to me; he inhaled sharply and almost banged himself in the nose with the heavy wood door.
I also learned that any Enforcers or Assassins that weren't out on assignment were there to watch the crowd. I spotted Russell against a wall, watching everything carefully while Will stood on the opposite side, doing exactly the same. I hadn't seen Will since I'd ridden in the Council's jet with him and I'd been chained to my seat at the time. I still appreciated his attempts to argue with Gavin over my treatment, however.
What I wasn't expecting to see inside the huge ballroom was the rather large number of human women there as dates and escorts. Merrill warned me they might be there, but I wasn't expecting so many. I guess vampires hated going to a do without a date as much as humans did. I smelled the human women intermixed with a heady, spicy scent of very old vampire. Once inside, Merrill led me to a cubicle where a vampire took my wrap and laid it on a shelf, handing Merrill a small slip of paper, which he pocketed. Merrill was decked out in a tux, just like all the other males. If the people who made the James Bond films could have seen him dressed like that, they would have swooned and tried to sign him on the spot.
"There's our little female." I remembered this Vampire Council member; Charles said his name was Flavio, who was also his sire. More than likely the most beautiful man in the room, although his eyes were very dark as opposed to Merrill's piercing blue. Flavio took my hand and kissed me, European style, on both cheeks. I returned the favor as well as I could. "You are well?" he asked me.