-----
"Iris! Rin! Wait for meeeeeeee!!!!!!!" Savannah called as she ran toward the two forms in the distance. They turned as she caught up to them, gasping.
"Hey, what's up?" Iris asked, "is Gregori hyper again?"
Savannah shook her head, "no. But I just got the greatest idea! I was thinking and- what!?" She caught the disturbed glances Iris and Rin exchanged.
"It's just that when you've been thinking, usually it's never a good thing," Rin said with a laugh. Savannah playfully shoved her lightly before continuing.
"That's not ALWAYS true...but I digress," she said, "I was at home, and Gregori told me he had to go to a meeting with Mikhail and the others to discuss you know, the whole issue about the female children and stuff. He left and I thought, whoa. Meeting. Then it came to me. And I just HAD to tell you guys, 'cause I totally know that you would like it. I mean, it would be like the funnest thing in the world. And I know that technically funnest isn't a word, but whatever. I mean, people make up words all the time, like remember that once when-!"
"Just get to the point already!" Iris sighed.
Savannah looked a bit flustered for a second that Iris had actually interrupted her ranting, then cleared her throat, "uh, sorry. Right. What I meant to say was, I had the idea that we could...you know, like barge in on their meeting and turn it into a full blast party!" Iris and Rin looked at each other and shrugged.
"Okay, why not?" Rin said, "that would be fun."
"Yeah!" Savannah cried, "and then we can finally get them into a party spirit!" Iris and Rin tried to imagine Gregori in a party spirit and somehow, that was REALLY creepy...
"...And we can get chips, and soda, and other stuff, just for the heck of it, do you want to invite humans too? I dunno, I don't really want them here; maybe it would be best if we just had Carpathians there. Yeah, that would be better. But get the food anyway, it would be fun to watch them if they had a food fight. And then, we can teach them stuff that they should know!"
"Teach them...stuff?" Iris asked, "what stuff?"
"Like you know, how to get rid of all that over-bearing male arrogance they have, you know how they are. And how to take better care of their lifemates!" Savannah replied.
"Somehow I don't think that arrogance is going to go away any time soon," Rin said.
"Yeah, but..." Savannah mused, "it would still be fun to watch them try! It could be like...How to Take Care of Your Lifemate 101."
"That's saying something considering you're the only one out of the three of us who actually HAS a lifemate," Iris said.
Savannah shrugged, "not my fault. So anyway, what do you guys say?"
"Sure!" Iris and Rin both replied. The three would-be-troublemakers high-fived and set off for their party.
-----Scene Change-----
"I'm sure I could think of something," Shea said, "I am a surgeon after all. Gary and I will continue to research the matter, I'm sure with your help Mikhail, we will be able to conquer the problem."
"Very true, you have never failed us before, Mikhail," Vikirnoff agreed.
Mikhail sighed, "such is the burden of responsibilities of being the prince. There will come a time when I will have to pass on the mantel of leadership. You know I would present the offer to you first, Gregori."
Gregori grinned slightly, just a lift of the corner of his mouth, "I'm not sure I would be able to handle that, Mikhail. Savannah is still young, not quite ready to rule by my side yet."
"I will hold on to my title until she is then," Mikhail agreed, "after all, she is still yet a fledgling."
"She matures quickly though," Gregori said, "she already knows how to utilize her Carpathian skills to her full extent, I am very proud of-ah!" Gregori was rarely startled by anything, but if your lifemate suddenly appeared hanging upside-down in front of your face mere centimeters from you, screaming surprise at the top of her lungs, you would cry out too. He fell back off his chair in alarm, earning amused bursts of laughter from Savannah hanging from the ceiling.
"I heard you were talking about me, oh so respectable lifemate," she taunted, "I heard the word proud too. How rarely you use that word, you couldn't have been talking about me, could you?" Savannah smiled sweetly and gazed at him, her dark blue/silver-streaked eyes sparkling.
"It's moments like this that I am very disappointed in you, Savannah," Gregori replied, standing up and walking toward her. Try as he might though, he couldn't manage just enough anger into his tone to reprimand his own lifemate, he loved her far too much, "and why, may I ask, are you hanging from the ceiling?" Right at that moment, Savannah's eyes widened as she felt the grip on the rope slacking, and with a slight cry of fear, she tumbled onto the table, Iris and Rin landing in a heap on top of her through the hole in the ceiling they had been holding her through.
"Savannah!" both Gregori and Mikhail rushed to her.
"Get...OFF!!!" Savannah cried as she shoved Rin and Iris off her with all her strength, and they rolled off her onto the floor.
"Ow..." they both muttered as they stood up, "you know Savannah, you're really hard to hold up."
"It's the two of you holding one of me, how hard can it possibly be?" Savannah exclaimed. Gregori gazed up at her from the floor, not much shorter than her even though she was standing on the table; in fact, he was still nearly as tall as she was.
"Savannah? Are you hurt?" he asked, a trace of worry in his dark voice.
"Naw, I'm all right," Savannah replied.
"Don't ever do that again," Mikhail scolded, and Gregori unconsciously narrowed his eyes at having another male, even the prince, near his lifemate.
Mikhail noticed this and raised an eyebrow, "Gregori. I am her father, and more over, the prince. I have the right to chastise my own daughter."
"NEVAH!!!!" Savannah cried, leaping up and landing directly in the center of the table, sending the cups of...er...blood flying through the air, "I shall rule the Carpathian species! I shall rule the world!!! Mwahahaha!!!!!"
"Oh no, who let her drink sugar-filled blood again?" Raven sighed. Just for good measure, Iris and Rin used their Carpathian telekinesis powers and sent the teacups of blood flying onto Gregori's head, drenching him in...blood. Unable to control herself, Savannah burst out in howls of laughter, accompanied by Iris and Rin. The others in the room couldn't help it either, and started laughing as well. Gregori glared at them all, and then sighed and realized he couldn't stop them anyway, so why try?
"Kodak moment!" Savannah took out a camera and snapped a photo of Gregori drenched in blood.
"Where'd you get the camera?" Iris asked.
Savannah shrugged, "Mikhail's room. You should see the human gadgets he keep in there. He's got the most awesome high-speed computer ever!!!!"
"Well you know, he does have to seem at least human," Rin pointed out, "he does own all the petroleum rights over there anyway."
"True, true..." Savannah agreed, "hey, why don't we go sell these pictures on eBay?"
"Savannah! Don't you dare-!" Mikhail called after them, but they were already gone, "mess up my computer..."
"Last time they went online, they screwed up something, and it took you a whole week to figure out what was wrong with it," Raven laughed, "you got SO mad...but Savannah wouldn't tell you what she did."
"Don't remind me..." Mikhail sighed.
"Well, I think continuing this meeting would be pointless anyway," Lucian said as he stood up with his brother Gabriel, "we had better attend to that vampire that's roaming these parts. I will see you all soon." He bowed with traditional old-world grace, and left the room.
"Well, that meeting was...informative..." Jacques snickered as he stood, "my niece is certainly a handful..."
"You have no idea..." Gregori mumbled as he headed home.
Several hours later Gregori was in the kitchen using the towel and sink to wash off any traces of blood he could get to. He muttered curses under his breath for dried blood being so difficult to get off.
Savannah suddenly crossed the hall behind him, riffling intently through a handful of bills, "I got lotsa money, I got lotsa money..." she chanted as she traversed to the other end of the hall. Gregori heard muffled voices as she split the earnings with Iris and Rin; those three were definitely a combined force worth reckoning with. He felt sorry for the poor souls who were the lifemates of the other two.
The three of them now crossed the hall again, going in the opposite direction, each riffling through a handful of dollar bills, chanting, "we got lotsa money, we got lotsa money..." Gregori sighed as he realized a lot of the buyers were probably fellow Carpathians. He would be the laughingstock of his people for a while. He felt a milli-second surge of anger, but it was soon suppressed. After all, he couldn't be angry at his own lifemate, it just wasn't in him. Poor, poor Gregori, his legendary reputation of being the Dark One and the Bogeyman, a myth among Carpathians, was about to take a nosedive. His continent-sized ego was being squashed by three girls who all seemed to leave trouble in their wake, a photo, and a website. What else could possibly go wrong?