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

You should be ashamed of yourselves! It is not polite to spread gossip about people you don’t know nothing about.
  They were silent when I finished talking to them and returned to grandpa. He was waiting in the post office’s front door.
  -I sent that letter, Miss Valentina. Where did you disappear so suddenly?
  -Some women were talking nonsense about me and my parents.
  -Be careful what you say Miss Valentina! Some people are not worth talking to. This is the reason why Master Dracula never comes here, not even during the night.
  -Can we see the rest of the town? I want to spend more time outdoors. It’s been days since I last went outside of that dark castle!
  -But you study on one of your bedroom’s balconies.
  -Please grandpa, just one more hour. I’m sure father will understand.
  I looked at grandpa with sad puppy eyes, this trick always fooled mother to make her give me what I want. And it worked on grandpa too. He showed me some beautiful dress shops and jewelry stores; but the public library interested me the most. I borrowed some romance novels since father’s library was full of books about vampires and other dark creatures.
  -I must admit, Master Dracula’s tastes in literature are not fit for a young delicate lady. We are lucky this town has a bright appearance.
  Grandpa smiled under his straw hat and made the sign of the cross when we walk beside the church’s gateway. I wanted to agree with him but in that moment I saw a young handsome man in front of the church’s main doors, talking to the rude looking priest. He was a little taller than him, with golden hair and light blue eyes. I stood pat to see him better but he went inside along with the priest.
  -That young lad is Amen, the priest’s son; grandpa said behind me. You like him, don’t you?
  -Um ... a little! I start to blush, obviously ashamed of my childish behavior.
  -You don’t need to hide your feelings. It is fine to let them surface. Everyone falls in love at one point in life.
  Then he touched my cheek lovingly. I wanted to change the subject. Talking about personal feelings made me feel weak in front of someone, even in front of people close to me that I trust. So I asked grandpa when he fell in love for the first time. When he finished his long story about the women in his life we were at the castle already. Before we went inside, I persuade grandpa to keep my crush on Amen a secret:
  -Please, grandpa Daniel! Let me tell father about Amen when I think it’s the right moment.
  -It is not right to have secrets from Master Dracula. However, as a butler, I have no obligation to interfere in his family matters. You have my word, Miss Valentina!
  I kissed him on the cheek and went to tell father about what I saw in town, except Amen, of course. The castle’s hallway seemed like an abandoned cemetery compared to the bright colorful town. It has been more than a week since I came here and supposed I would got used living in this castle. Well, to be honest, if father will be kind to paint some walls in light colors, maybe the castle wouldn’t seem so depressing. VIII/8

Father was in the living room and by the sound of it, it seemed that he was having a friendly talk with two other men. I saw the door open. The living room contained a long rectangular table, about ten meters long and two meters width. Under the table was a huge carped that occupied most of the floor, in Burgundy with black and yellow curve pattern on it.
  On the left of the room, were wide windows, all closed and covered with velvet curtains. On the right, old paintings illustrating nobles that once lived in the castle were hanging, looking very boring to me. The picture on the other side of the room captured my attention. It was a portrait of father and mother when they were living together. They were holding a sleeping baby in their arms and looked very happy together. Under our family portrait was a fire place, same as the one in the library, only it was twice as bigger.
  Father was sitting near the fire place, on his left (my right) was an older man with grey hair. I noticed he was a vampire by looking at his red eyes and his bright smile that revealed his fangs. He was wearing a dark green suit with black shoes, white shirt and an orange-red nuanced tie.
  On father’s right (my left) a man between twenty and twenty five years, with dark brown straight hair tied in a short ponytail, pale skin, a cross shaped scar on his right cheek, red eyes and pointy fangs; was sitting looking uninterested of anything. He wore a red shirt with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows and two buttons were opened revealing a quarter of his chest. A metal cross neck chain was covering it.
  -Oh, Valentina, you are back! Come and meet our guests! Father said after he saw me standing in the doorway.
  As I approached them, I saw a half empty bottle and three glasses that were smudged by a red fluid. Father noticed the scared look on my face and covered the bottle and glasses with a sheet.
  -Excuse me, gentlemen! As you know my daughter is a half vampire and she is not used to see me drink blood. But do not worry dear, it is animal blood. Mister Dragomir here killed a deer on his way to us.
  In that moment I felt awkward in front of the three male vampires, I felt weak in front of them. My face began burning red.
  -Don’t worry Vladimir, I was just like her back then! She will get used to it eventually. Dragomir’s accent wasn’t Transylvanian such as mine or father’s. Even grandpa Daniel had a little Transylvanian accent, although he was a Jew.
  -Excuse me for asking sir, but where are you from? I tried to be polite. Who knows how a vampire reacts to rudeness.
  -Bulgaria, young lady. And I must say, you look like Vladimir ... if he was a woman of course. And that lad sitting in front of me is my son, Cornelius.
  When I turned my eyes on him, Cornelius winked at me and pulled out a chair near him as if he was inviting me to sit next to him.
  -Don’t fear darling, I don’t bite ... very bad! He teased me, showing his fangs and licked them with his tongue. His accent was also Bulgarian like his father’s.
  I looked puzzled at father, he smiled a little and pointed with his look on the chair that Cornelius offered me. So I sat without looking at him, but I could feel that Cornelius’s eyes were staring at me.
  -Why did you show your fangs, Cornelius?! Now the girl is scared of you! Dragomir argued with his son while looking very friendly at me.
  -Sorry, dad! I assumed that being Dracula’s daughter, she wouldn’t get scared of anything. He teased me again. I wanted to slap him over his scar but knowing that our fathers are best friends, I controlled my anger.
  -Well, you seemed to forget that my mother was a normal human and I’m not as strong as a real vampire! I replied instead, looking angrily at him.
  When he saw that I gave him attention, he teased me again:
  -If you want, dad discovered a cure for this ‘insignificant’ detail!
  He succeeded on making me so furious that I got out of the room as quick as I could and went to my room. I inherited that ‘insignificant’ detail from my mother and there is no way I would get rid of it, just to become a real vampire. I prefer to remain a half vampire for the rest of my life than giving up on the last thing that reminds me of mother. Dragomir seemed to be a nice vampire. Too bad his son is an insensitive jerk. I bet Amen is a lot better match for me.
  As I entered my room, Amen’s figure appeared in my mind and I couldn’t stop thinking of him. My body felt weak, my forehead was sweating and my arms were trembling nervously. I sat quickly on my bed, because my feet began to tremble as well. I remember that mother told me about how she felt near father. She had the exact same symptoms, meaning that I wasn’t well at all. I was contaminated by an incurable disease called LOVE.
  Yes, love is a disease because once you got it, you will never get cured of it. And it is bad because it makes your body, mind and soul vulnerable; and ironically, despite the fact that it is the most beautiful feeling in the world, it is in the same time the only feeling that makes you suffer the most.
  Considering that I never felt this way about any boy in my life, love was now something new and scary. It interested me and in the same time it made me feel like a frightened little girl. Trying to think about what to do, I picked one of the romance novels I borrowed from town, maybe they will explain how to deal with love.
  After all, every story has a grain of truth at some point, right?!
  And another strange thing: Cornelius’s figure appeared in my head, this time my cheeks were red and I start trembling of anger. Why on earth does this boy enjoys teasing me, when he doesn’t know nothing about me!?
  Or was I too sensitive towards mother, even after she passed away years ago?! Why do I even care what Cornelius thinks about me? Is it because I am a half vampire and that he is pure, which probably gives him the idea that he is better than me?!

IX/9

I began reading one of the novels borrowed from town in order to