#2: Family Brunch Time

"You're here early.", A sarcastic reply from one of my twin sisters.

"Oh.. I was busy dressing up."

"But you stink.. Sister.", My smaller brothers complained.

"Do I? I never actually noticed..", I said as I sat down at my place, my plates were quite different from my sibling's. Mine had a standard design, a local one, but my parents held intricate royal design, my elder brother the same, the others each had their own customized set finished with the touch of gold, but my cutlery had silver.

One thing, which humans got right about vampires was we can't touch silver. It burns our skin, the story behind that is quite complex, but in a summary, no vampire can hold silver cutlery without burning their fingers, It of course, will heal, but the pain is comparable to the fires of hell.

Considering that it was Vampire maids who served this, the silver must have been a false/ a poor quality silver, which wouldn't hurt maids, but is equally dangerous as pure silver to pure blood royal Vampires, like me.

"So, All of us are here, Let's begin eating, I am famished.", said My father.

In a second, the doors opened, and food was strolled in various platters, all looking delicious with the scent of blood flooding the room. I swallowed back my drool, I didn't have anything since yesterday's brunch.

"Let's Eat.", My mom said and we all started eating, except of course, me.

I looked around at all the maids, the one who planned this would kill to see me suffer holding the spoons, every maid knows that asking for different set of cutlery when the one presented to you is neat; is rude.

In a corner, a maid unable to control her smile was staring at my food. 'Yep, She's the one' I muttered . I had to do something, making a scene here would just add a bit more to my notorious reputation.

"Where is third brother?", I asked drinking blood from my glass.

"He is out chasing after his love.", My mother said with disgust clearly written on her face.

"Yes, behind that human reporter.", My third sister said, copying mother's expression.

"Well, it is his age to roam about. I wouldn't mind having a human sister-in law.", said my first brother with an evil smirk.

"Are you sure you won't play with her?", added my first sister.

"Like last time, you ended up killing his previous love.", continued my second sister.

"Not my fault, How was I supposed to know that being in fire hurts humans? I just took her to the fire pond.", He defended himself.

"Don't spoil the mood by talking about humans.", third sister hissed at him.

"Why don't we talk about your three boyfriends, sister?", My second brother laughed and joined the conversation

"Shut up!!!", my third sister, Bella said. The fact that she has three boyfriends each of different clan is a known fact among us siblings but it would be a whole new story if mother, who is very much traditional found out.

"What if I don't? ", second brother, Vasil stared down at her, he was the one who loved drama, especially if the one doing it was mother and Bella. He opened his mouth to tell on Bella.

Bella did the expected move, she froze time. Her magic was manipulating time, though not as good as mother or my grandmother. I was a sensitive person I guess, because the magic never had an effect on me.

But I stayed still, if Bella knew her magic would not work on me, she would probably kill me.

"hey... why are you acting like such a b**ch? you tired of living? huh? " Bella said dropping her graceful act. Only during the time break she is herself and not a duplicate version of mother.

She came towards him(as expected) and took my knife from the table and pierced his hand(expected move...she been doing this since we were twelve) Bella who stopped time can't feel pain or any sensation as her body is also stopped in time, she moves it with the help of magic.

She went back to her place and relaxed the magic.

1..2..3... Vasil freaked out... the burning feeling was indescribable, the maid was also shocked seeing how my cutlery ended up in the short-tempered Vasil's hand.

"Oh sweet Blood!!! what is silver doing in your hands?? " mother freaked out backing since she had a phobia and a trauma related to silver.

"It hurtss!!!!!! " he cried.

the maids came and helped him. the knife was kept on the table, Father demanded to know who did that, as making a Royal touch silver is as equal to torturing them.

"So who did it? ", he asked, immediately suspicious of eldest brother Nyxus.

" If it was me, I would have made sure it would pierce his heart.", Nyxus said calm as ever drinking blood.

"Not us." my smaller siblings said in unison.

"It was m-me.. ", Bella admitted.

" you? ", mother asked.

"I was the one who pierced it in his hand by using my magic... but I swear on mother's name, I never knew it was silver!! ", she said and began sobbing.

"Hmm... considering you can't feel when you use the magic. The one who kept these silver cutlery couldn't be you.", Mother said clearly taking Bella's side. Father didn't probe any further.

"Since sister had them.. Shouldn't she be the culprit? ", my smallest sister, Heather.

" Oh no! Was it mine? that means I was served silver cutlery?". I did the cliche freak and changed the pointing finger from me to the maids.

"All of the maids, Assemble here.", Father commanded and lo all the maids who have served and prepared the meal were assembled in 10seconds.

" Today, A Royal was served cutlery served with silver, I expect all of you to know what it means and it's consequences.", he said, each word of his determining the life and death of the maids.

"My king, all of the kitchen maids never used cutlery and I know it for sure as I was the one who was overseeing all of them.", said the head maid, the most trust worthy aide of mother.

" father, let me try and see who did it... " Evan, one of the triplets said.

"How would you? "

"We recently unlocked a new magic skill, this would be the perfect time to apply it.", Stevan, the other triplet said.

" well, do so. ".

" Evan, Fang come closer. ", the triplets formed a sort of triangle and kept the knife in middle, the knife began to hover and a bit of bluish air... aura? I don't know... came creeping out of it.

The room wholely became dark and each of us began emitting that sort of stuff... except me... I hid myself though. each of us had a different color, but only one had blue. The smiling maid from then.

"T'is her. " Fang, the most quiet one of the triplets said.

"How do I know it is true.? " Father asked.

"We copied the methods of human, a thing called 'fingerprint'. we came to a conclusion and developed a magic technique which shows us who was the last one to touch it... we removed sister from our observation and only two other auras were found. The maid over there and... Fang, you tell. ", Evan said.

" A werewolf", said Fang.

The whole palace gasped. A maid doing such a thing meant life long prison and slavery, but colluding with werewolves and moving on their orders is just treason with punishment being the most torturous.

"I swear... I didn't know about the werewolf... I only meant to cause some trouble. ", She began begging, all might be wondering why all just mumble out the truth, it's just my father's magic, which makes people say the truth willingly.

" From whom did you procure silver cutlery? ", asked father.

" He was an elf, the pointy ears and a fair face, lived in the corner of the Helmont village. A cottage just near the border. He was the one who enticed me into this! ", she mumbled.

" Guards look into this, if a spy from werewolves, knew the identity of a maid working in palace, it means he has already infiltrated. Increase the security till he is found. " He declared and went out.

" I guess the brunch can be resumed with me, come, continue. ", Mother said.

I got new cutlery and better food and all. The whole thing became messy but.. I guess all is well.

I forgot one thing that is special about me which I keep secret, None of the magic works on me, neither mother's, father's, anyone's. Only my nanny could put a spell on me.