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"Please sit down. I will go get you something to drink," the woman said politely to move to the adjacent room which was the kitchen, "We were surprised when we heard the news that Greg has a sister. I mean what were the odds because your parents never told us about you," Vivian heard the woman speak from the kitchen.
"We received the letter from Lord Alexander two days ago and decided to come right away," said Leonard who hadn"t taken a seat and was instead looking through the objects in the room while Vivian sat down on the wooden chair.
"You know the Lord?" the woman"s voice came out surprised as if she hadn"t expected for them to know the man closely.
"We have mutual acquaintances," Vivian got up from her seat and at the same time, a boy entered the room.
He was taller than her, but his features similar to her. Their nose and the color of the hair along with the red eyes were similar. Vivian fell short of words as she stared at her brother whom she didn"t remember from their childhood except for the memories she had touched of hers which had been hard to find as her mind was still developing at that time.
As much as they were siblings, they were still strangers who didn"t remember and had no recollection of each other. How much time had gone by that the little boy she had seen had grown to a tall boy with decent features who stared at her just as she did? Tears welled up her eyes, and she had to hold them back from falling down.
Taking a step closer, she wanted to make sure she wasn"t dreaming that he was alive and here right in front of her.
"Sister Vivian," he called her a small smile on his face and she noticed the way his voice quivered as he shared the same feeling she was having right now, "It"s been long."
"Long," the word couldn"t even make up to the lost years they had shared. Awkwardly both of them sat on the chair. Leo who had been previously looking at the objects looked at the man who looked like his wife except for the masculine features he possessed. Seeing that the siblings would need some s.p.a.ce to catch up, he went to the kitchen to see what the woman was up to.
"Mrs Nelson, if you don"t mind. Pardon me but could you tell me how you came to be the parent of Vivian"s brother Gregory?"
"Let"s take it outside, son. I have some plants to water. Will you help me?" the lady asked.
Leo being the polite man he was, "Sure," he answered leaving both Vivian and Gregory inside the house.
Leonard followed the woman through the backdoor making him carry the water cannel in his hand, "I don"t remember the year exactly but one night his I mean their parents came at our door asking us to take the boy for a certain amount of money. We didn"t know who they were until a man came to speak to us a few days ago. I heard that they lived three towns away from here," of course they would have given to a couple who would never come across them.
"Didn"t they tell you why they were giving him away?" inquired Leonard.
"Nothing at all. They appeared to be in a hurry when they came to leave Gregory with us. Placing a decent amount of gold in our hand, they left telling us to not find them. My husband and I don"t have children of our own. I couldn"t birth a child and at that time it was an opportune moment for us to have Greg."
Leonard didn"t know why it felt something didn"t just sit right as to why they would give their son away. He understood when it came to Vivian as they were ashamed to have a human for their daughter. But Gregory seemed completely normal and healthy according to the pureblooded vampire standards.
"I see," he murmured for a response.
"I am just glad that he has a sister. Sometimes no matter how many people take care of you, you need that person who is connected to you by blood, isn"t that right?" asked the woman, taking the equipment from his hands, she poured water to the plants.
"I wouldn"t take on that," Leo"s words startled the old woman. She stopped watering the plants to look at him. The woman had missed the point that the Harlow"s had given their child for no reason. Where was the blood relations.h.i.+p in there?
The Carmichael"s were the opposite when compared to the Harlow"s. While Mrs. Carmichael had always protected Leonard from any and everything. Though she belonged to the higher society, the woman shared sympathy and compa.s.sion enough to accept a girl lower than their status when the Harlow"s had failed to accept their own daughter.
"It all depends on the situation we all are put in," he kept his words short. It didn"t seem like there was anything he could find from her and the reason why the Harlow"s had given away the boy had died with them.
Going back inside the house, Leo saw his wife speaking to her brother, "Leonard Carmichael," he extended his hand towards the man who took it with a smile.
"Gregory Nelson," Gregory shook his hand, "Thank you for taking care of her all this time. It is unfortunate that I didn"t know about her or I would have come to see her as quick as I could," the man frowned at what he came to hear from his elder sister. Like him, she was given away but Vivian hadn"t told him the entire truth as she didn"t know how he would take it. Her brother felt sorry for her that while he was sent to a proper house, she had been given away as a maid.
"It"s alright. We finally got to see each other that is more than enough," Vivian could barely hold in her happy tears that she had united with her brother.
"What do you do, Gregory?" asked Leonard interested in the man. As he was Vivian"s younger brother, he had automatically taken the boy to be under his wing. What mattered to Vivian, mattered to Leonard.
The boy turned to look a little bashful at the question asked to him. "I well, help father in cutting the logs of wood at the forest," even though Vivian had gone as a maid, she had transformed into an intelligent woman while he had remained to accept the fate he had been given.
Vivian said, "No work is ever small, Gregory. If you can, maybe you can prepare for the next council exam," she suggested for him to laugh.
"Ah, no. I don"t think the council work will suite me. I am content with what I am doing now," he a.s.sured her. Vivian nodded her head. If he was happy with what he was doing, that was more than enough for her.
"There"s time for that," added Leonard before the woman came back inside.
"Where are you staying? We have a spare room. I would like it if you stayed longer," said her brother with a hopeful look. Vivian and Leonard had decided to stay in Gibb"s residence but seeing the boy look at his sister with a hopeful expression.
"Let me ask Kit to go get the luggage from the house," said Leo before taking his leave from there.
"Your husband is considerate towards you," Vivian heard her brother compliment when she continued to see Leo"s back which walked out of the house.
"He"s amazing," Vivian smiled for her brother to return the smile.
"Let me show you the room and see if you both would need anything," Gregory lead her the way to the room which was as big as the hall, "Ah, it is not much. Just a spare room my parents built," he added when she took in the room.
"It"s lovely."
Due to the request put by the family to stay, Leo and Vivian spent their night at Nelson"s house. Vivian had her head resting on Leo"s chest while he ran his finger through her hair, weaving through it gently. Both had their eyes open as they basked in each other"s presence.
"We should build a house like this. I think I quite like the cosiness here," Vivian heard Leo speak, his hands soothing her. She refused to close her eyes at the touch of his fingers as they felt close to her scalp.
"We can build one and later go back?"
"You want to go back?" asked Leo interested. Moving her head away from his chest, Vivian supported herself with her elbows.
"Small house is nice, it will bring us a lot of memories but maybe once we have a family. Our children, it would be nice to have them grow up where ours and many other"s memories that live in the mansion," she then laughed, "I think it came out a little odd."
"It didn"t," he patted her head, "It does make sense. To have our children in the future to be brought up there. We have a lot of memories. Good ones and bad ones. In time, we can build more good ones until the bad ones disappears," she nodded her head. Leaning close and holding back her hair that came to hover in front of her face, she touched her lips with his. Pressing them softly against his.
"My Leo," she whispered looking into his eyes, "I feel very happy right now."
"I am happy you are happy," he whispered back. They had to keep their voices low as the walls of the room were thin. The last thing they wanted was to disturb the owners of the house.
"You never told me how many children you want," she gazed down at him. Running her thumb on his cheek, feeling the light subtle on the tips of her fingers.
"I will take as many as you can give me."
"Really?"
"Really really, Bambi," she gave him a wide grin before hugging him, "We can start making them right now. What happened?" he frowned when he felt her flinch in his arms.
"It sometimes gets difficult to breathe," she replied as he let her lay down on the bed. He lifted himself to look into her eyes and the colour of her face which appeared fine.
"It hasn"t gone yet?" he got worried.
"I think my body is still taking time to adjust the changes. Murkh said it was common when the transition took place from human to vampire. He said as I turned to a pureblooded vampire, it will take a little longer time before the body accepts it fully. I am fine," she a.s.sured him," raising her head up to leave a peck of a kiss on his cheek.
"I cannot help but worry even if you cough," Leo"s gaze was serious on her, "My beautiful girl," he whispered to her.
"You were speaking about babies. Let"s try making one tonight," she subtly diverted the topic for him to narrow his eyes which made her giggle.
"You will tell me if something goes wrong right?"
"Always."
Far away from the lands of Valeria, in the land of Bonelake Creed waited for the black witch to appear in the forest. The place they usually met after the sun had set and the men and women went to sleep.
After two hours pa.s.sed, the man returned back without meeting the black witch as she hadn"t turned up. It seemed that she had really disappeared out of sight as if she knew this was going to happen. Finding her would be impossible as it had taken him months to get in contact with her.
The black witch was the youngest out of all of the other black witches they had caught and tried to free that day on the condition that they would help each other. The witches had fled away to be only caught but this one, the black witch who went by the name Ester was smarter and stronger than the rest to flee.
He knew that the black witches were not be trusted. They were the kind who first broke their promises and words given. Due to this, he had gotten the black witch make a binding contract to fulfil and uphold the words spoken between them.
"Mater Creed, welcome back," his housekeeper who was a half-blooded vampire took hold of his coat from him.
"Send me a girl later after my bath," he ordered the housekeeper.
"Yes, master," the servant smiled with an eerie smile, "The men only brought a very young girl from the slave establishment. I am sure she will please you well," the slave was a docile person who looked frightened when the men had brought her into the mansion, just the type his owner liked.
Creed didn"t bother to respond or wait to hear him out, he went straight to his room. Shedding his clothes and getting into the bath. The councilman usually took more time when he was in the bath, but today he just didn"t feel like it. Going back to the room, he started wiping and drying himself, wearing the clothes that were already prepared for him on the bed.
While he waited for his housekeeper to send the girl as his meal, he sat on the bed waiting.
He heard the small whistling of the wind coming from the patio of the room. Walking towards it, he stepped outside of the room and saw the snow that was falling down from the sky rapidly. It wasn"t soft and the blizzard in the forest was approaching close to the mansion.
What Creed didn"t notice was the shadow that had been hovering in his room, waiting for the right opportunity and when the man stepped out, the creature moved stealthily to close the door of the room from inside so that no one would come to interrupt them.
Creed after watching the snow, he came to step back inside when a large creature which he had never seen, heard or known had to come stand in front of him.
He stumbled back, looking at the ghoul fearfully. The creature was none other than Narcissus who stood tall in its ragged robes that slightly flew because of the wind making its presence that much daunting.
"Who are you?!" his fangs and claws came out, ready to fight the creature. But Creed didn"t know that it was useless. The creature could not be killed not unless one killed its master. Illiterate about that little knowledge, he moved his hand to hurt it but nothing ever came to happen to the ghoul, "Move away from me!" he ordered, the ghoul heard none of his words.
Noticing it approaching, he decided to flee from there but the ghoul caught him. It caught him with his neck. He struggled as it continued to hold him before lifting him up in the air.
For a pureblooded Creed, the ghoul holding his neck felt nothing but every pureblooded vampire"s weakness was the core of the heart. The ghoul was a creature who was born from a pureblooded vampire child and it had enough knowledge to know what had to be done. Still holding the man in the hair who tried to reach for the creature, the ghoul slowly raised its hand. It"s boney fingers coming in front of him. It garbled something under its breath before taking it close to the man"s chest.
"What are you doing?" the man asked and someone from the other side of the room banged the door.
"Master?" but the ghoul didn"t heed to it.
"S-STOP IT!" the man struggled with his eyes widening when it placed its fingers right on his chest to dip it inside him like it was touching the surface of the water.
The ghoul pushed its hand deep into the man"s chest, encircling his heart by its finger and that was when Creed knew what was going to happen next.
But before he could react, the ghoul had squeezed the heart in his chest like a tender fruit until there was no heart or the core for the body to continue to live. Taking its b.l.o.o.d.y skeleton-like hand out of his body, it dropped the man on the patio floor before disappearing from there. Creed laid dead on the cold floor, his eyes were wide open which had turned black as the core had been destroyed to indicate he wasn"t alive.
The servants who had heard their master"s voice had gathered in front of the door, knocking it and calling him before breaking the door open after a lot of thought to see their master nowhere in the room until one of them spotted the man out in the patio.
For people who didn"t know, his death was an unexpected one.
"Call the guards and ask them to find the intruder!" the housekeeper ordered the servant who stood behind him in shock. But the intruder had long left without a trace who wouldn"t be caught unless asked to.
The housekeeper checked for blood but there was none around the floor. The ghoul had killed the man from inside in such a way that there wouldn"t be anyone but himself to be blamed. Far away from councilman Creed"s mansion, at the Rune"s mansion Nicholas was in taking a late bath with a woman in his arms who had fallen unconscious after drinking her blood but still alive.
Catching sight of the ghoul, Nicholas asked, "Is it done?" and he received a garbled response, his expression turning peaceful, "Good."
Lord Nicholas didn"t get an opportunity to ask what had transpired in the storage room that day when the switcher had died. She had been in shock. Not because of finding but because for the first time she had killed someone. After all, the first kill was never easy and knowing the girl, the guilt about it would stay for a long time.