Tarous, стр. 25
“Help,” I squeaked in a meek voice. My two bodyguards just snickered.
The demon’s style of dance was rather forceful as well and when one couple got too close she kicked one of the dancers in the leg. There was a rather loud snapping noise and the dancer screamed, but the demon girl paid no attention as she continued her dance around the ballroom dance floor. I was rather unhappy at the way the demon girl dragged me across the dance floor. It set off another round of snickers between the bodyguards, and even a smirk from Tarous standing near them.
Occasionally I could hear the other dancers talking. One was talking to his dance partner, dropping as many names as he could to impress her. I also noticed my father, Lord Rask, at the edge of the dance floor talking to a large group of guests. He was doing his duty as head of the family. My mother was with him. They made for a powerful pair. I felt a little bad for anyone that dared to challenge them.
I was also looking around at the other dancers, trying to figure out a way to escape the demon girl. I felt a sharp pain shooting through my arm, like all the bones in my hand had just been crushed. And that was exactly what had happened.
“Pay attention only to me,” she said in a cute growl while she continued to squeeze my hand. She really had broken all the bones in my hand. I snatched my hand from her grasp and gave it a few quick shakes before I shape shifted my hand, changing it into a hand without broken bones.
With my newly healed hand I conjured a beautiful rose out of thin air. These small magics were easy for me. Rasks had magical ability in their blood though they rarely publicized it. I handed the beautiful rose to the demon girl.
“Of course, I do apologize,” I told the demon girl in the most suave voice I could manage.
She took the rose from me. “That was rather impressive.” She then inhaled the aroma of the flower, but she didn’t stop there. The red rose faded to grey and then black before it broke apart in her hand immediately turning into dust that fell to the floor. She had sucked all the life out of the rose. Apparently it had been delicious.
I really need to meet a new class of people, I thought to myself. Then I noticed a boy across the room glaring at me. He briskly walked across the dance floor towards us. I immediately started looking for an exit.
“I challenge you to a duel, Edward of the Rask family.” The one challenging me was a member of the Dreg family. The oldest son in fact, named George. He was tall, whip cord lean, and had the body of a fighter. He was both strong and fast, trained from birth to be a warrior. He wished to gain his family much honor by challenging a Rask. His family hated the Rasks, but the Rasks kept forgetting who the Dreg family were.
“I will crush you! I will bring great dishonor to you and… Where did he go?”
Poor Dregs, there was a family that had never opened a book. George was still scratching his head long after I had snuck away during his little speech. While the demon girl was distracted by the Dreg boy’s ranting I had thrown up an illusion around myself identical to my actual self. This wasn’t a magic spell, but a natural ability in illusions that my heritage afforded me. It would only fool them for a little while, but that was all the time I needed. The illusion wouldn’t move or talk or even blink, but it didn’t need to.
I managed to make it to a nearby table before my illusion disappeared, although it still took George a moment to discover I was gone. He was just too caught up in his own little rant to notice. I watched the look on George’s face as he realized that he had been fooled. Tricking George was similar to tricking a particularly slow puppy, and I felt no satisfaction whatsoever from tricking him.
A shadow descended on me, and a chill went up my spine.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Oh crap!” I was scared to turn around.
Slowly I turned to see the Butler. There were a lot of really scary rumors about him floating around. I was more scared of the Butler than my own father. The Butler glared at me. Words were not necessary. That look spoke volumes.
I smiled and the Butler continued to glare, his fangs showing. No one would ever ask if he sparkled. That would have been a very bad idea, the kind of mistake that you would literally never make twice.
The Butler grabbed one of the chairs under the table and pulled it out. “Sit.”
I sat.
The Butler looked human, he always looked human, but his true form looked nothing like a human. He was bound by a contract to serve the Rask family for 500 years and so far he had served for over 300. Nobody was sure what he was exactly, except for Lord Rask. Most thought he was a vampire, but he was way too strong to just be a vampire.
“Sit up straight, young master.” The Butler’s words were calm and almost seemed casual.
I snapped to attention. When the Butler made a “suggestion” you had better follow it. My father must have assigned the Butler to me after my bodyguards had problems keeping track of me. The Butler would never have such problems.
“Rasks never run from anyone, especially monsters like them,” said the Butler gesturing towards George. He wrinkled his nose like he had just smelled something bad when he looked over at George.
“How many young ladies have you danced with