A faint blush spread over the creamy tint of Holly’s cheeks. ‘Cool.’ Absentmindedly, Holly opened and closed the lens on her camera. ‘I mean, thanks.’
‘Are you into photography?’ asked Olivia, pointing.
‘Yeah, well, as I said, I want to be a journalist,’ Holly mumbled. ‘I don’t have any real experience yet, but I’m working on it. An exclusive – that’s what I need.’ Her eyes lit up as though she’d just had an idea. ‘Hey . . .’ she began to say.
‘No way!’ Olivia clapped her hands together and pressed them to her lips. ‘This is too freaky. My sister wants to be a writer too.’ She wished she could tell Holly about her time with Ivy as guest reporters for VAMP Magazine, but sadly that tidbit of information was top secret.
‘Really?’ Holly asked. ‘She could totally get an exclusive in Transylvania. All those vampires just waiting to be interviewed!’
Olivia felt a spark of alarm and forced her smile not to fade. ‘Vampires aren’t real, you do know that, don’t you?’
Holly smiled. ‘Of course! I was joking. But perhaps your sister would help out another would-be writer. Do you think she’d let me interview her about Transylvania? Could you ask next time you speak to her?’ She’d edged so close that Olivia found herself backing away. Holly’s forehead wrinkled. ‘But wait, if your sister is all the way in Europe, then why are you going to her house? And don’t you live in the same house? I mean, you’re twins, aren’t you?’
Olivia felt her face colouring. ‘It’s, um, complicated,’ she said. She liked this girl, but there was no way she was getting into all that! She didn’t have time to come up with an explanation and, besides, any story she gave Holly would be a lie and Olivia tried to avoid those as much as possible. ‘I’m just helping out with something.’ Olivia side-stepped the issue. That wasn’t a lie. Not really!
Holly hooked her thumbs through the belt loops of her jeans and shrugged. ‘Some other time then?’
‘Are you kidding? Absolutely!’ Olivia hoped she wasn’t overdoing it on the enthusiasm, but it was always nice to make new friends and Holly was almost like another Ivy – just a little less grumpy.
‘See you later then,’ Holly said.
‘Sure thing,’ Olivia agreed, before turning to hurry up the sloping sidewalk, towards the top of the hill and the cul-de-sac where Ivy’s house was located. When she looked back over her shoulder, Holly was still standing in the same spot, watching her. Olivia waved uncertainly. New girl in town. She’s probably just bored and lonely, she thought, watching the girl finally scurry off.
She rang Mr Vega’s doorbell. A snippet from Mozart’s Requiem boomed from a pipe organ inside. Vampires and their classical music, thought Olivia. So old school!
The heavy gothic door swung open and Charles popped his head out. ‘Hello, Olivia.’ His usually coiffed hair poked in all directions and his midnight-blue shirt was uncharacteristically rumpled. Did his iron break or something? Olivia’s bio-dad looked like he hadn’t slept in his coffin for days.
‘Dad!’ Olivia made a show of scanning him from head to toe. ‘What on earth are you researching? You look . . . well . . . you don’t look your usual suave self!’ Normally Charles was one of the most stylish men she knew. He could walk straight on to the cover of a men’s fashion magazine, but now? Not so much.
He motioned her in and Olivia saw that the dining-room table was completely covered in loose sheets of paper. ‘Never mind that,’ he said quickly. ‘Can you find out about Australian wildlife and the threats they pose to trav–’
Olivia slapped her hands to her cheeks. ‘Oh . . . my . . . goodness . . .’ A thought had dawned in her head. She pointed at him, grinning from ear to ear.
‘No, no, no.’ He pulled his fingers through his hair. ‘It’s not what you –’
Too late! ‘You were going to say “travellers”, weren’t you?’ Olivia’s eyes narrowed. ‘And why would you be thinking of going to Australia and New Zealand unless . . . unless . . . Could it be that you’re planning . . . a honeymoon?!’ Olivia jumped up and down squealing.
‘Shhh, shhhhh,’ Charles gestured with his hands as if to tell Olivia to take it down a notch, but she couldn’t help it and, besides, it wasn’t like anyone was listening.
Olivia wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. ‘I’m so happy! You’re marrying Lillian!’
Lillian was a sophisticated vampire whom Charles had met when Olivia first walked the red carpet with Jackson. Not only was Lillian gracious and kind, she also had the most to-die-for accessories on the planet. Romance plus a killer wardrobe – swoon! Olivia pressed her lips together and flattened a palm over her heart.
If Charles had been capable of blushing, Olivia thought he would have been pinker than her cotton-candy lipgloss. ‘I haven’t asked her yet,’ he told Olivia. ‘So it’s not guaranteed.’
Olivia tilted her head to the side and folded her arms across her chest. ‘I can’t imagine why she would ever say no. You guys are totally in love. Have you told Ivy yet?’
‘No.’ Charles slid his hands in pockets.’ I was sort of waiting for the right time to tell you two. But someone –’ his eyebrows shot up – ‘decided to become an amateur sleuth all of a sudden.’ Olivia grinned sheepishly. ‘I want to make sure I have the perfect wedding and honeymoon lined up before popping the question.’
Judging by the amount of running around we’ve done the past few days, I’m sure it’ll be just that, Olivia thought, but . . . ‘There’s one thing that makes me . . . well . . .’ Her brow furrowed as she tried to decide on the right way to phrase what she had to say. ‘No, no, it’s nothing.’ She shook her head. She shouldn’t have said anything.
Charles’s face fell. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’
‘Um, well, perhaps,’ she began to point out, trying to be extra gentle, ‘perhaps Lillian might like to have some involvement in planning her own wedding?’ She didn’t want to hurt her bio-dad’s feelings, but sometimes men didn’t quite grasp the importance of white veils, hundreds of lilies and the right bride-and-groom cake-toppers. ‘It is every girl’s dream, after all,’ she finished.
Charles breathed a sigh of relief. ‘For a moment there, I thought it was going to be something really bad.’ He rested his hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry. Nothing is going to be booked until I’ve checked it with Lillian and I’m leaving the finer details all down to her judgment. For now, I just want to look into venues. Take the initiative. Carpe diem!’
Olivia mentally cringed. Sometimes Charles and her adoptive dad weren’t so different – they were both equally embarrassing with their love of Latin phrases and self-improvement. ‘So what do you think?’ he continued. ‘Are you still in? Can you look up how long it would take to sail on a barge down the Nile?’
‘A barge down the Nile!’ Olivia’s jaw dropped open. ‘Lillian is going to die! But in a good way,’ she corrected herself before she could freak out her bio-dad even more.
‘Not for many, many more centuries. She is a vampire, remember.’ Charles returned to the study while Olivia cleared a spot at the table, swooshing her finger across the computer’s keypad to