The Half-Blood Princess, Mihaela Bogdan [good books to read for young adults .TXT] 📗

Pretty soon this question will get an answer.
  My breakfast ended silently. I went to my closet and took a towel and a white bathrobe. I was still wearing my nightdress and slippers. Maybe a warm bubble bath will raise my moral a bit. The bathroom was just the other side of the corridor, in front of my bedroom door.
  When I opened the door, I met Cornelius leaving the bathroom only in a pair of white pants and white slippers, with a towel hanging on his left shoulder. He had a razor blade in his left hand.
  I looked at him and noticed his black wet hair dropping on the back of his neck and his face was freshly shaved.
  -What are you looking at, love? Haven’t you seen a shaved man before?
  -A shaved man, yes! But you are a vampire.
  -Vampires wash and shave themselves too, darling; he answered with a smirk on his face as he always does, revealing his perfectly white fangs.
  -How do you shave if you don’t have a reflection? I asked puzzled.
  -You get used to it. Dracula told me and dad that tonight you will have your first vampire party. What made you change your mind about giving up your human half?
  -It is none of your business, now leave me alone! I have a lot to do today, so let me take a bath in private.
  He opened the bathroom door for me and I went inside. After closing the door, he added:
  -You are doing this for me, aren’t you?! I knew you will come into your senses and choose me in the end.
  The door closed slowly and I turn the hot water on. The bathtub was almost full when I undressed and got in. The hot water made a big steam in the whole place. Above the tub was a small window. It didn’t manage to let the fresh air from outside to enter because of the steam inside. Despite this unimportant detail, the place was nice and fancy.
  For almost a month I have been here many times without having a good glance at every small detail. Now I realize how little it was compared to my bedroom. It had four meters long and two meters high, the walls entirely covered in white faience and the floor was made out of grey quadratic rocks.
  Near the tub was the sink with a marbled frame mirror above it and next the toilet. Opposite the sink, a medium sized drawer containing soups and other sanitary ware, had been settled.
  Soon the steam began to vanish and the water’s temperature to decrease. I got out and put on my bathrobe. I opened the drawer and took a hair brush. While brushing my hair slowly in the mirror, my transparent reflection seemed unfamiliar to me. After I done brushing my hair, I approached the mirror and had a better look at my face. Trying to memorize every detail of my image was another way to remember my appearance for the time when I will not be able to see myself in the mirror.
  Cornelius’s words came into my mind in that moment:
  ”-You get used to it!”
  Was it really easy to get used not seeing your own face in the mirror for ages? Come on, Valentina! You are a woman now. It is time to act and think like one. I returned to my bedroom and opened my wardrobe, searching for a dress I never worn before. A midnight blue dress, with short sleeves and tight in the waist caught my attention.
  In a second I changed into it and also found a pair of black shoes with bat wings on the round golden buckles. Their heels were small, perfect for a busy day. A black hair band had been chosen from my make-up table to keep my brands on the back, along with a golden necklace having a cross pendant and a pair of golden ear rings.
  Again, I looked closely at my reflection in the mirror and went to wait for grandpa in the living room. He should be back by now.
  By the time I got there, grandpa already done setting glasses and bottles full of red liquid, most likely animal blood, on the table. Our family portrait was cleaner and colorful than before and the entire place looked like new.
  -Grandpa, why did you do this all by yourself? I told you that I will help too.
  When he faced me, his eyes were red and tired from crying. He seemed older now.
  -I am deeply sorry, Miss Valentina! I wanted to do something around here in order to distract my sorrows and I guess I got carried away.
  It was amazing what some people are able to do in order to maintain calm, as nothing bothers them.
  -Have you talked to aunt Linda?
  -Yes. We both feel sad to hear that you will become a vampire. But we are also proud to know that you are doing it for Master Dracula. We ... we need time to get used with the changes taking place now.
  -I see. And what else do you have to tell me? My instincts told me there was more to be known.
  -Let us go in the library. Master Dracula, Sir Dragomir and his son are there. You will find out the rest, along with them, what else I need to say.
  We went to the library, where the three male vampires were. They were wearing black suits, black polished shoes and white shirts. The difference between them was that father had a red tie and his usual cape on his shoulders, Dragomir had a red bow and Cornelius, his crossed neck chain and the two upper buttons opened.
  After me and grandpa came in, they looked curious at us.
  -Master Dracula, Sir Dragomir, fellow Cornelius and (grandpa took me by the hand and dragged me near Cornelius, then he continued) Miss Valentina! I have an announcement to make.
  -What is it Daniel? Father asked worried.
  -As you all are aware, Miss Valentina decided to become like you, a vampire. At midnight tonight, when the vampire guests will arrive, she will take the life of a mortal and drink the blood in order to transform.
  I looked worried at grandpa as I hear him talking trembling nervously, sweating, despite the fine temperature in the room and his face turning red as a tomato. My instincts were telling me that my ears will hear some awful news. And they were right once again. With my heart beating, I continued listening very careful:
  -Without any other disruptions, I want to present Miss Valentina’s first victim: ME!
  ”What?! I couldn’t believe my ears. Maybe I have misheard grandpa. There is no way he could agree to do this sacrifice, even for me.
  What will aunt Linda say? Or she already knows about this?!
  Oh, grandpa, what are you planning to do?!” XVI/16

(In this chapter I thought to present Amen’s doings, since he last saw Valentina.)

  Valentina hasn’t showed up in town any more and I began to think that somehow I have upset her. The next day, after a night full of dreams about her, I spend it in Linda’s restaurant, hoping that my dark haired princess will come. The second day, the same, she didn’t came although I have waited for her.
  Where I did wrong? What did I do to make her not coming to see me?
  Maybe her father won’t let her go out anymore or ... he found for her a wealthy young count, maybe a prince. Why didn’t you though about this, Amen?!
  Being rich, Valentina surely wants someone close to her social status, which apparently you aren’t!
  After wasting another day inside the restaurant, I decided to go home, but when I heard the clock tower beating eight times, Linda’s voice was welcoming someone in the restaurant. It was unusual because she doesn’t let anyone inside after this hour. Being curious about who the mysterious guest might be, I returned, but Linda already closed the windows and the front door.
  I sneaked under a window next to the front door and I heard Valentina’s voice. Then I heard a chair being pulled and Linda told her to stay a little longer. In order to hear better what the two women were talking about, I went around the back where Linda always let the kitchen window half opened. From there I could easily distinguish every word they spoke.
  Linda asked Valentina a question:
  ”-How are things in the vampire world?”
  How could Valentina know something about vampires? Is Linda making jokes? Because if she is, then they are not funny, at all! It is not fun to mention those blood sucking monsters. Linda continued:
  ”-Daniel didn’t told you that I know your family’s secret? Stupid thing for him to do! Yes, child, I am aware that Count Dracula is a vampire and that you are only half human. Me and Daniel are some sort of secret lovers so I am informed often about what is happening in the castle.”
  I could not believe my ears! Daniel the butler and Linda being secret lovers wasn’t a surprise. But both of them knowing that the Count is a vampire and still they continue working for him, it must be the biggest sin ever. And Valentina is not a normal human!? She’s not a human nor a vampire, but half of each!? This means that she’s a dirty hybrid.
  To think that I was going to make her my wife! I felt nothing for her in that moment, except hatred and disgust. And as if that wasn’t enough, I heard her telling Linda that tomorrow night she will bring all the vampires in her castle to be witnesses at her transformation into a pure vampire.
  ”-Finding a ‘volunteer’ in this matter will not be a piece of cake. But I can give you some names of the people I can’t stand in this town.”
  Linda, keeping the existence of vampires near our town a secret is one thing, but helping them to kill people in order to make hybrids into pure vampires, you went too far. Father will be ashamed with her now. In fact I will tell him and the whole town their plans for tomorrow.
  When they finished talking, I got away from there as quick as I could without making too much noise. It was Saturday night. Tomorrow morning, when everyone in town will gather at the church, I will inform them what Count Dracula and his daughter are planning to do. Now I know why I had the desire of touching Valentina’s body. Female vampires use their hypnotic powers to fool the common men. This way they make them into slaves, obeying blindly every order, like