[Casey's POV]
My father's study was cold.
The grand fireplace, usually roaring with a warm fire, was a black, empty hole. It felt like the cold was coming from there.
We stood in silence. My father, Alfred Moore, sat behind his massive oak desk. His eyes pierced into me, yet he did not say a single word.
My mother, Eleanor, sat on a dark velvet sofa, her back perfectly straight. She was silently reading a book, as if she could not bear to look at any of us.
I stood in the very center of the carpet, feeling like a prisoner in a courtroom.
The silence was heavy. It was a suffocating, thick blanket that pressed down on me. No one spoke. No one moved.
The only sound was the clicking of Amelia's heels on the hardwood floor.
"Well, my dear sister," Amelia said, turning from the window, a brilliant, fake smile on her face. "That was quite the show, sister."
I said nothing. I looked at my father. His face did not move.
"I mean, I expected a failure," Amelia continued, walking towards me. "I was prepared for you to summon a three-headed rat. Or perhaps a mud-golem. Something useless."
She circled me slowly, like a predator.
"But this? A mortal human?" She laughed again. "This is not a failure, Casey. This is a disgrace."
"Amelia, stop it," I whispered.
"Stop what? Stating the truth?" Her voice was laced with poison. "You brought a piece of livestock onto the summoning stage. Aren't you ashamed of talking back?"
I looked at my mother. "Mother, please."
My mother, Eleanor, finally turned her head. Her eyes were cold. "Amelia, that is enough. You should support your sister when she is down."
Her voice had no strength. It was a token protest, and Amelia knew it.
"Oh, Mother, I am just so... sorry." Amelia placed a hand on her chest, her voice dripping with fake drama.
"Did you see the look on some of the nobles' faces? He was trying not to laugh!"
"And poor Dave!" she cooed. "He just gave that beautiful speech. 'I will protect your pixie,' he said. He must be dying of shame! His fiancée summoned a creature with no 'qi', no magic, no fangs... nothing! I wonder how he feels about yesterday."
"Silence. Dave told me that he would never abandon me. You'd better watch your damn mouth."
"Hehe… sure. But what do you plan to do with your familiar now?"
"I wonder if your human knows how to fetch? Maybe he could entertain us this way. At least then it would still be useful to keep him. Hahahaha."
"Amelia. You Dare!!"
That was it. I could no longer hold it back.
"Yes, I dare. What are you going to do about it?"
"You bitch…"
"SILENCE, Casey!"
My father, who had been sitting silently at his desk, finally opened his mouth.
"Father!" I cried out, the tears I had been holding back finally breaking free. "Father, please. Make her stop!"
I looked into his eyes, hoping to find some sympathy for me.
Something that would tell me that he still believed in me despite the fiasco that happened yesterday.
Unfortunately, it was not there.
The eyes that looked back at me were not a father's eyes. They were the cold and furious eyes of Lord Alfred Moore, leader of the Vampire Clan.
And they were filled with a cold, burning disappointment.
"Please, Father," I sobbed. "I do not know what happened. The ritual... something went wrong. It was not my fault! I did everything just as I should have done."
"Not your fault?" My father's voice was quiet, but it was more terrifying than his roar in the hall.
"Yes, not your fault. Maybe, some things are just not meant to be." He repeated, as if tasting the words.
"But father…"
"The entire demon nobility was in that hall, Casey. The Barons of the South, the Duchess of the Eastern Lands. Every major family was there to see the power of the Moore bloodline."
He leaned forward, his hands flat on the desk. "And what did they see?"
I could not answer. I just cried.
"They saw a failure," he hissed. "They saw the First Princess of the Moore Clan, my own blood daughter, summon a common human."
"Alfred, she is troubled," my mother said weakly from the sofa.
"She should be troubled!" Alfred slammed his hand on the desk. "I am upset! The entire family is troubled!"
"I tried my best!" I shouted back, finding a spark of defiance. "I did the ritual! I said the words! How is this my fault?"
"Your best?" he scoffed. "Your best resulted in the entire hall laughing at us! King Krawler's son is engaged to you! You have not just shamed yourself, you have shamed the Moore family and the Obsidian Wolves!"
"He said it didn't matter!" I cried. "Dave said he would stand by me no matter what!"
"Dave is a child!" my father roared. "He speaks of passion. Do you think that is how the world works? DO you think that is how our family became the strongest among the vampires?"
"Alliances are built on strength, Casey. Not on... pixies. Or whatever that thing is!"
Amelia laughed. "Father is right, sister. At this point, even a political marriage is unsuitable fr you. You should announce breaking up with Dave. You are useless."
"I am not useless!"
"Silence!" Father's voice cracked like a whip.