"Lily..." I scowled.

"What did you do now?" I asked, frustrated. That's what she always did. She always got me in trouble. I was always the more sensible of the two of us.

"Nothing...I only told them what happened at the bakery and then they sort of just....freaked. Then they said that they wanted to see you" she said, biting her lip. My eyes widened and I was just about ready to strangle her. I would have too if I thought it would even make her flinch. I got up and turned to Aunt Erin who's face looked nervous as well.

"I'm sorry that we didn't get to talk more. Maybe we could talk more tomorrow" I offered. "Yeah sure, you just go see what your parents want now, go on" she said, gently pushing me towards the door.

"Bye Aunt Erin!" Lily said anxiously before once again pulling me so hard that I actually thought I felt something in my arm crack as she ran down hall after hall, dragging me quickly with her. In no time, we were in front of the dreaded China doors. I shook my head, looking down at my feet nervously.

"Look before we go in, I just want you to know that I'm sorry for whatever they do to you. It just kind of slipped" she said, guilty. I sighed.

"It's ok. It's just how you are Lils" I said, hugging her a little to make her feel better. I was always the most forgiving too. If you want to call it that. Some call it being a pushover. I took a deep breath and opened the doors, walking in to meet my doom. As soon as I entered the room, Mom was running down the length of the throne room to pull me into a hug, she caught me completely off gaurd before I could even take a step.

"My baby girl! Are you hurt?!" She asked pulling back and inspecting me, worry all over my face. "I'm fine Mom, don't worry so much" I said smiling at her concern. I hadn't had a lot of that before. Dad's face was emotionless as he stared at me.

"That man has been decapitated so you won't be bothered any longer" Mom said. My eyes widened in shock though I wasn't concerned for the man seeing as he obviously deserved it, I was just....shocked.

"Oh" was all I could say. She swung and arm around my shoulder and walked with me closer to the throne where the intimitading king sat.

"Violet, we knew this would happen eventually and it is not safe now that everyone knows your back. Vampires everywhere will try and turn you to get to the throne and the only way we can prevent that is if we find you your mate" he said. Oh no, this can't lead to any place good.

"We can't wait any longer for you to find him on your own" he said finally.

"What does that mean?" I asked, starting to get upset with anxiety and confusion.

"I'm sorry we have to do this Violet" Mom said, sitting back upon her throne.

"Do what?" I asked. "Lily come forth, Maryanne summon Jordan" Dad said, his voice stern and commanding. In a flash, Lily was beside me and then so was Jordan.

"Lily, prepare the hall, there's going to be a ball. All the respectable and eligible young men in the realm will be there so make sure it looks at its best" He ordered. I could feel her shock but she left without question. I was in shock. Were they going to pull some kind of vampiric Cinderella crap on me? Then I remembered Jordan beside me and my heart dropped though I wasn't sure why. Everything was so confusing at this point.

"Jordan, alert everybody in the castle to prepare food and such" Dad said. I heard him mutter something but it was too quiet for me to hear before it vanished.

"What is going on?" I asked, hoping it wasn't what I thought it was.

"With all the eligible men there, tomorrow at this ball, you should be able to find your soul mate" Mom said, trying to make this sound like a good thing when all it came out sounding like was a night mare.

"But I just got here! Lily got to wait three years!" I protested, horrified.

"I'm sorry sweetie but we have no other choice. We only want the best for you" Mom said.

"Isn't tomorrow a little soon anyway seeing as how much time it should take to prepare such an...event" I finished, trying to find a word to substitute for disaster. I tried as hard as I could to stall it out longer.

"Nonsense dear, we're vampires. Everything's fast and perfect for us. Tomorrow night should be exactly right" Mom said, sounding like Aunt Erin for a moment.

"Now go get some rest flower so you're rested for your big night tomorrow" Dad said, sounding more like a dad than a king again. I just walked out, feeling like I was going to cry. What was I going to do? There was no way to get out of this.

When I got back to my room there was a girl in there replacing the flowers.

"Hello?" I asked and the girl jumped.

"Oh hello miss" she said quickly, her voice fast reminding me of Fred off of Angel. She turned around and I was shocked to see that it was the girl from the bakery.

"It's Elleanora right?" I asked.

"Oh yes miss, thank you so much from taking me away from that aweful man" she said, her paleblue skin aglow with happiness.

"It was no problem" I said. "Oh but it was. You were very brave" she said. "It really was not that bad. You didn't deserve that" I said.

"Oh but I did miss. You see, I tried to take some bread. But only because I hadn't eaten in a few days and I was hungry. I know that's no excuse but I just couldn't help myself" she said shamefully.

"You did nothing wrong" I repeated, believing it.

"Thank you miss, but then what is troubling you?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked, kind of shocked.

"We ghosts are impaths miss. I feel your distress" she said concerned.

"Yeah well, there's a ball coming up that I don't want to go to" I said.

"Ahh, I see. Trying to mate you off then?" She asked, knowingly. "Yeah, how'd you know?" I asked.

"We ghosts have a way of knowing as well. And I have a feeling that the ball wont be as bad as you think. You might end up finding your mate after all. Maybe just not in the way you think" she said winking.

"Good day miss" she said before disappearing. I stood there dumstruck. That was odd, and not the least bit comforting knowing that she must know something I don't. Trying not to dwell too much on it seeing as I already had enough on my mind, I decided to get some sleep to prepare myself for tomorrow.

Elleanora

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