I sat on the windowsill, smoking the third cigar of the day. Occasionally, I would turn to watch Sully sleep peacefully on the bed. At first, she was pretending to be asleep, probably to see what I would do. But then, she fell asleep after a while.That woman amused me. I had not been so amused in a long while.I was thirsty. My thirst was never this much before. After all, I was not a full-vampire. The original Silverclaws were vampires. Then the Silverclaws married a human and created half-vampires. To protect the bloodline, sometimes there was incest in the family. My father was an original vampire. But he never married his sister. In fact, he was disgusted at the prospect. That was why there were no more original vampire other than Father. I and all my siblings were half-vampires. We did not need blood on a regular basis. Once in seven days was fine.But something about Sully’s blood made me crave more. Or perhaps it was because I was attracted to her. It was not my fault. She was
I would not feel safe no matter what, unless Demian was with me. I must admit that he made me feel at least a little safer than alone. He liked playing with me. He might even want me for my body. But that was fine. It would help me survive this hell house.I threw up once right after waking up. What happened the previous day kept on playing in my mind. I felt sick every time I remembered the separated head. I could feel the maid staring at me with her big brown eyes.At breakfast, everyone had their particular place at the table. My place was beside Demian as his wife. On my other side was a crippled boy around sixteen. He did not look at anyone. He kept his head down and ate.“I heard you were sick yesterday,” Alexander, the Head said. “You couldn’t join us for dinner.”“My apologies,” I murmured. I kept my head down as I apologized. “I felt under the weather.”“It shouldn’t happen again. After all, we cannot let you go hungry the whole night, can we?” He said it with a threatening t
My plan for today was simple. I was to check the surrounding by joining Dela for a tour around the estate. No matter how afraid I was, I had to do it. I needed to know where what was.I sent a letter to Dela by a maid. I got a reply soon enough. Dela said we would meet in the afternoon and she would show me everything.At lunch, once again, I sat beside Theodore. On my left, there was an empty chair between me and Rosalia since Demian was not here. I felt awfully alone without him.I was not asked as many questions as before which was a relief. After lunch, I went back to our bed chamber and lay down on the bed. I was used to being alone. Back at home, I spent most of my time holed up in my chamber with books. However, everything was so foreign that I craved company who was familiar with the rules, regulations and every nook and corner here. I wanted someone to tell me what to do, how to be safe. Demian did that. He might not want to kill me so soon, so I wanted to believe him for t
It had been a long time since we started the tour. I was tired, but also rather thrilled. The estate was beautiful. There were no extra pieces of furniture, only what was necessary.The last place to visit was the library. The library was huge. All the covers of the books were black. They were gorgeous. My hands itched to trace the title of the books.“Do you love books?” Dela asked.I nodded. “Back at home…”Dela held up her hand. “This is your home now. There is no other place in the world that is your home but House Silverclaw.”I gulped and nodded. “My apologies, Your Gra… Mother. It was a slip of tongue. What I meant was back at House Star, I used to spend my time reading in my room. I read at least 120 books a year.”“That is rather impressive. I do not understand what you find so interesting in books though,” Dela said, shrugging. “Come now. You have another very important place to see. It is my most favorite place in the whole estate.”I did not remember having left a place be
I winced as the whip came down on the man’s back. It felt like Dela was hitting me, not him. I closed my eyes and gulped down the choking sound that almost left my throat.The man groaned and kicked, but nothing stopped Dela. She was insane. She was hitting him like a crazy woman, not caring where the whip hit. The sound was agonizing to hear. The man did not scream. It was like he was used to the pain.I could not imagine being hit like this. But this almost became my fate too. If only Demian did not want to marry me, I would have been the slave of Kiara and would have been treated like this if not worse.I had no idea how long we spent there. The smell of grime, sweat and blood became almost familiar to me. However, I could not get used to the smell of decaying flesh. That was too strong and disgusting.I swallowed the bile that filled my mouth.When we left the dungeon, my hands were trembling. It was worse than anything I had imagined. I had guessed there must be a place for tortu
It was not like anyone other than the owner of the brothel knew about my identity. I wore a veil all the time. That made the men even more excited. When you could not see something even though it was right in front of you, you were automatically intrigued. That was the case with the men.And I adored the attention. I craved it.When Demian touched me, I could finally the feel the real excitement. It was even better than dancing.After spending some time with Theodore, I took my leave. He walked me to his door. I could perfectly see his limp. It was bad.“We can do it sometimes,” he said. “If you want to, of course. I enjoyed our talk. Whenever you feel lonely, you can come here and we can talk again.”I nodded. “I will do that. Thanks for the tea, Theodore.”“You are welcome. I should be the one thanking you. I rarely have company here. You are more than welcome to come here.”If my judgment was not wrong, Theodore was a good man. He had a good heart. Or perhaps, it was just an act. Y
I felt someone touching my cheek. I opened my eyes and sat up so quickly that I got a headache.“Demian!”“Shit! You screamed like I was another man, not your own husband,” he said and smirked. “Did I scare you?”“Don’t do that,” I said.“I’m thirsty, Sully darling,” he said. He had splatters of blood on his face. I used the sleeve of my nightgown to wipe the blood off his face.“You can drink my blood,” I whispered.“Are you seducing me?” he groaned and took hold of me by the waist. He pulled me towards him and pressed his lips on mine.Was I trying to seduce him? Probably. I wanted him to hold me. I wanted his fangs to pierce my flesh. The feeling was addictive. And I got addicted pretty quickly.He moved his lips against mine slowly, yet with an urgency that he was trying to suppress.“Tell me truthfully, darling,” he said in a rough voice as his lips left mine. “Have you truly never done this with someone before?”I shook my head. “Why would I lie?”“Why? Because you hate me and m
Sully did not seem like a bold one to me. Not at first, at least. But then, I saw the way she talked, the way she sometimes stared at everything and everyone- when she dropped the act, she was a different woman. A woman who was brave. A woman who could make a hard choice in the blink of an eye. A woman who pretended to be weak.Even Sully most probably did not know she was putting up an act. It must come naturally to her. Because when she looked meek and innocent, I was tempted to believe her.When Sully walked, I noticed she walked with a certain sway. Noble women did not walk like that. But Sully walked like she owned the place, like she knew she had the power to make men go crazy for her.It was a small suspicion. However, I still looked into the matter.I was shocked when I found out what my wife used to do. She never lay with any of those men, but she danced for them. She was a feast for their lustful eyes.I was amused. Honestly, for such a noble woman of House Star, Sully was s
The fact that Sully had been pregnant knew only a few people. There had been a rumor going around. I questioned Jade Star about it and he was forced to admit it. He said Sully had a miscarriage and that she was not pregnant anymore.Now, he was planning to take revenge on the Silverclaws. I joined him because I also had a debt to settle with them. Alexander Silverclaw took my bride from me on our wedding day.They took the woman from me who I wanted all my life since the moment I saw her.I never wanted much things in my life. But Sully- she was the only thing I truly wanted. I set my eyes on her and knew I had to have her.When I met her, I thought she was the prettiest girl every with brown skin and ruby red eyes and long curly hair. She talked little, but watched everything with curious eyes. I remembered asking my father who that little girl was. When he told me, I knew I needed to have her. I wanted her.But then I heard that she ran away from
For some reason, I dreamed of Millie tonight. It was strange. I never even thought about her. At least, not much.I woke up and found Demian beside me. He was staring at me. Okay, it was a little uncomfortable to think that he watched me while I was sleeping.“What’s wrong?” he asked. “A nightmare?”“No… Just a dream,” I said. “About my half-sister.”“Millie Thorn.”“Ah yes, she is a Thorn now. I keep forgetting,” I said. “I wonder if she is happy there. I wonder if Rezef is treating her right.”“You said Rezef is a righteous and kind man. If he doesn’t treat his own wife right, won’t it defeat the purpose of his righteous and kind personality?” Demian did not like Rezef at all. He might be annoyed that I told him that Rezef was like the hero of a story.“Rezef is like that, but he… He can be harsh, you know, without even meaning to. For example, he can’t show care and love even if he wants to. I have noticed this a lot of times. For example, when he used to want to meet me, he would
Rezef’s father died this morning. It had been sudden. The maids woke me up and told me about it. Apparently, he fell from the roof.“How did he fall from the roof?” I asked Rezef.“I don’t know. It happened in the middle of the night,” he said. He was hastily changing his attire.“Why didn’t you wake me up?”“For what? It’s not like you can bring him back.”I did not talk back. It was not good if I talked back. What if Rezef sent me back?Now that Rezef’s father was dead, Rezef was the new Head of House Thorn. The problem was that Rezef did not have an heir and according to the tradition, the new Head must already have an heir.What would happen now?Rezef had an older sister and a younger brother. It did not make sense that someone else other than him could be the new Head. Well, his older sister could not be the Head anyway. So, his younger brother remained. It was not like Byron had any heir either. He was only sixteen.“What will happen now?” I asked.“What do you mean?” Rezef sou
We went to the top floor today. The strange things Shea talked about last night turned out to be something that I knew very well. All those things in glass jars- big and small- I knew them a little too well. It was in a room that was accessible from my bed chamber only.There was a big table there, a cauldron, many pots, spoons- long and short, small and big- knives in various sizes.“You made me a… workplace,” I murmured. “Gosh, Demian, you made me a lab!”I threw myself at Demian and he caught me casually as if I weighted nothing. I wrapped my legs around him and laughed. I could not believe he did this for me.“That’s so… Gosh, I love it, Demian! I love it a lot! I love you!”“I had a feeling you might like it,” he said.“You really did thought of everything, didn’t you?”He put me down and kissed me on the forehead.“I wanted to build you a lab for a while now. But I thought it would be better if it was not at the estate, since… Father might start to blame you for everything, like
Demian came back two hours later. His hair was damp and he was wearing a black robe. Shea bowed to him and me and then left since it appeared Demian made it clear that when he and I were together, Shea or any other maid could not stay.“You did not tell me about her before,” I said. “That she can talk.”“It was a good surprise,” Demian said.“I don’t like surprises.”“I know,” he said. “Actually, I did not think it was that important for you to know earlier.”I decided not to press on the matter farther. I was having a hard time coming in terms with the fact that I had to stay in a tower on the top floor.I still could not believe Demian did such a thing. How could he?“The water is cold here all the time,” Demian said. “I suggest never to take a bath in the water just like it is. Tell the maids to warm it first.”“You used the cold water, didn’t you?” Demian preferred cold water over warm or normal temperature water. In fact, I once found him soaking in an ice-cold water bath. There
We stayed on the first floor that night. Demian wanted to go up, but I refused to.There were only a handful of maids here. Five, if I was right. But there were a lot of guards. Most of them were Demian’s men who could keep an eye on you without you noticing them.Since I refused to move from the first floor, the guards brought a huge wooden tub for me that the maids filled with warm water. I took a bath in one of the other two rooms of the first floor. Demian went up to a proper bathroom since he always needed things to be perfect and orderly.In my opinion, he was a little psychotic about it. He nagged me a whole fifteen minutes to go and take a bath with him in a proper bathroom. When I refused, he refused to talk to me and went away.It was not my fault. I did not want to move with my sore back, hips and legs. I could barely move my legs. My legs trembled as if they were having a seizure. They were trembling like I had given birth to a child (women’s legs trembled sometimes becaus
We arrived in one piece. However, we were not unharmed. Well, you could not see any bruises. But I had a hard time straightening and getting down the carriage because of my back and legs. Demian did not look like he was struggling, but he told me that his legs hurt.It took us eight days to reach our destination. Honestly, I was not shocked. I expected that it would take a while. Demian would not keep me somewhere where anyone could find me easily.But something else shocked me. I could not stop staring at where Demian was going to keep me.“Are you okay?” Demian asked.“What is this?” I asked.“This is where you will be. I will stay with you for a few days and come to see you often.”“Demian, this is… This is not a villa. You said you would take me to a vacation villa.”“I don’t see the issue here. So what if it’s not a villa?”“Demian, it’s a damn tower! You are keeping me in a tower?”“It has got all the facilities. It’s a nice tower.”I rolled my eyes. Demian took my hand and led
One thing I noticed about Sully was that she liked a good conversation. The conversation did not always have to have a meaning. If it was entertaining, she would engage in it eagerly.I always thought that conversations needed to hold a meaning, or it was not needed at all. In fact, I never had that kind of meaningless conversation with anyone in my whole life.But now, with Sully, I engaged in some silly conversations and did not get bored. On the other hand, I quite enjoyed it. It was not like me. I acted like a different person with her. She saw a piece of me that I never showed anyone before. It made me feel vulnerable. I did not hate it though. Perhaps it was alright to feel vulnerable in front of her. Perhaps it was okay to let her see the bare part of me.Just a while ago, we had a conversation about what we liked about each other’s physical appearance the most. Honestly, I liked everything about her. I liked her hair that she hated so much; I liked her round face, her thick th
Demian made sure that the content of the conversation between Rosalia and Theodore reached Alexander’s ears. As I had expected, Rosalia and Theodore talked about Rose and me.Today, Demian and I set out for our vacation. We were going by a carriage with as little people as we could since we did not want to draw attention. Demian did not want to sit with me inside the carriage. He wanted to ride a horse.I forced him to stay with me. He said that it felt stuffy and he hated the way the carriage bumped every time the wheels ran over a stone of if the road was bumpy.“I am not going to be the only one with sore hips and back,” I said.Demian cursed under his breath as the carriage bumped roughly once again.“This is the most ridiculous form of transportation,” Demian said. “You basically arrive at your destination with a sore body and it can even hurt your back so much that you will feel it for the rest of your life.”“At least, it takes you to your destination,” I said. “That’s enough.