I glanced toward the sound and saw a little girl. No more than eight or nine in a tea length dress all ruffled and billowing around her, her curls were pulled up in a pretty little bow. She looked completely out of place in the club.
She smiled when she saw me and rushed to my side. "Piper," she exclaimed. "I'm so happy to see you. I didn't expect you to be back so soon."
I glanced down at the little girl who held onto my arm, hugging it tightly like we were old friends. For all I knew, we might be.
I patted on the back of her head, letting out an awkward, "Hello."
"Oh, right." The girl pulled away from me with a frown. "You don't know who I am. I'm Odette."
"Hello, Odette." I offered her a small smile." It's nice to meet you. But it seems like you have me at a disadvantage." Pursing my lips, I stared down at the girl. I wasn't sure if it was my maternal instincts kicking in or just the sight of the little girl surrounded by vampires I didn’t like. "What are you doing here? Where are your parents?"
"Piper," Allister placed his hand on my shoulder. "Odette is one of the council members."
I stared down at the child in confusion.
One of the council members. How could a child be a council member?
Odette flashed me a pretty smile, fangs and all.
"Ah, Antoine!" A dark skinned man walked into the room followed by another man of no unique description. "What do we owe the pleasure of your company this evening?"
"You have to fix me." I jumped up from my seat knowing I was going against everything Antoine had instructed. "Give my memories back now."
"Tuma, my apologies." Antoine intercepted and then turned to me. "Piper," Antoine warned, placing his hands on my shoulders. "What did we discuss?"
I shook him off. "I don't care what we discussed. I want to know what's going on and I want to know now."
"Oh my," Tuma tut-tutted. "This is quite a development. Not even a week out and already you're quitting?" He glanced over at his companion. "Is this why you suggested this game? You knew they'd fail so fast?"
The man shook his head. "No. I knew they'd fail but not for the reason they're here."
I stepped back. The way the man was staring at me made me suddenly uneasy. "What does it matter why we're here? Just give them back."
"Now, now Miss Piper," Tuma pursed his lips and stepped up to me, his golden cane pointed toward me. "Memories or not, you shouldn't be rude to strangers. You never know what they might do." He let his fangs peek between his lips.
I growled. "Look, no offense but I just found out I had my memories tampered with, I work for vampires and I'm banging most of them." I gestured back to the group and then let out a bitter laugh. "And to top off this stack of crazy, I'm pregnant! And I don't even know who the father is or if he's human or vampire. So excuse me if I left the niceties at the door."
"Oh my. That is quite a conundrum." Tuma looked me over and then to his friend. "Did you not see this before we issued out our punishment, Caleb?"
The man, Caleb, shook his head. "No. The Piper before had no knowledge of her pregnancy and I couldn't read any signs of another inside of her."
"A baby!" Odette squealed racing to my side to clutch me around the waist. "I'm so excited! You must stay here and let us take care of you."
"Uh..." I stared down at the little girl still having an issue thinking of her as a blood sucking fiend. "I'm not sure that's a good idea. Why don't we worry about that after I get my memories back?"
"Yes, yes," Tuma agreed with me. "My apologies, Miss Piper. If we had known we would have found a more fitting punishment. No one likes to upset pregnant women. We don't want to risk hurting the baby."
Frowning, I scanned the three council members' faces. "So you don't care that I might be pregnant with a vampire?"
"Of course not! We're delighted," Tuma explained. "Whether it be a human offspring or that of a vampire. Either way, a child of a human servant is special and should be treated as such." He gestured to Caleb with his two fingers. "Now Caleb, give this dear woman her memories back before she goes into premature labor from all the shock."
Odette stepped away from me as Caleb came forward. I stared at the quiet man, my heart racing as he reached his hand out. Shooting a look behind me, the Durands weren't at all concerned about what was about to happen. This made me relax slightly but not enough to keep me from flinching when Caleb's hand touched my forehead.
"This shouldn't take long," he said right before I was overrun with images.
Images poured into my head, blinding me to everything before me. My heart beat hard enough that I swore it was going to jump out of my chest. The insides of my head were so full of voices and feelings that I wouldn't have been surprised had it exploded all over the floor just like Morpheus's had a few days earlier.
Then all of my senses came back at once. The air was thicker. The ground beneath my feet was more firm. I could actually taste the air as I inhaled. Then there was a heart beat but it wasn't mine. I focused on that sound, reaching down inside of me until I found it.