"What?" Gusion asked defiantly after about half an hour of trying to ignore Guinevere's suspecting glare.
The girl's determination to stare at him until he melts was astonishing that he could not ignore it anymore.
Only then did she look sideways before glaring back at him. "What is your hidden agenda on this trip? There is no getting away now."
"I told you already."
"I am not convinced about that...lame reason." She leaned towards his direction as she tried to catch even a glimpse of hesitation in his eyes.
He looked away and sighed in surrender. "I was trying to find this teleportation device that is transporting demons from the abyss into the different woodlands."
She frowned at him. "Alucard and the others are already doing that. And why are you searching for it in Antoinerei?"
A look from him made her realize why.
"You think some of the Scholars are committing treason? What in the world made you think of that?"
"This." Gusion took out something from his pocket and held it out to her. "I found it from that demon's scales."
It was a circular golden clock smaller than her palm, a crack crossing from one side to the other, the hands still.
She looked at Gusion as if he was losing his mind. "So it's a handheld clock. What's the point?"
"Open it."
She did as she was told, and was shocked at what she had seen. A symbol. A symbol that she had just seen earlier.
A long-beaked owl inside a laurel wreath, the symbol of the scholars.
She looked at him, wide-eyed.
Gusion then leaned back at the cushioned backrest of his bench. "Now you're gonna stop bugging me?"
Guinevere just casted him a defiant look, leaned back and looked out the window.
They were now at a more thicker woodland, and though the sun hadn't set, darkness seemed to have blanketed the place.
"Why didn't you just tell Alucard about this?" She asked.
"Because I didn't know it was from the Scholars until I saw their emblem earlier."
"We should warn them."
"What? You mean go back? After this long road we've taken?"
"Yes."
Gusion leaned towards her, his eyes sharp. "Listen here, Miss Violet. You should learn to be patient and take one step at a time—"
"Why take one step when I could just leap?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
"I most certainly don't." She said stubbornly.
He sighed audibly, clearly annoyed but holding back. He leaned back and spoke calmly. "Look, let's look for your brother first and then I'll go back to the Monastery and tell them."
Before Guinevere could answer, their carriage rattled strongly again, jerking them against one side as they horses galloped faster and suddenly swerved.
"No way they caught up that fast!" She looked through the window and her eyes widened. "Demons!"
Scaly walking reptiles almost as tall as her were trotting after them, their eyes red and sinister as they craved flesh and blood.
They weren't as big as the one who broke her ribs, but they were many; Guinevere looked around to count the slimy gross creatures who were making ear-piercing sounds echo all through the woods.
"10! There are ten of them!" Gusion announced urgently and looked at her as the carriage made a sudden jerk again. "We can take them."
Gusion was about to pull his sword from its sheathe when Guinevere wrapped her small hand around his.
"No." She stopped him. "Don't you know anything about demons? Everybody thinks we should watch out from the large ones, bit it's the small ones we should really be cautious about."
She pushed the carriage's window curtain to get a better view at their pursuers. "The large ones are big but they rely mostly on their strength, which makes them dumber. The small ones are wiser and more cunning."
Gusion wanted to hit himself in the head. How could he forget that?
"They seem to be making calling sounds." He observed.
Guinevere nodded in agreement. "They're calling their friends."
As if on cue, a loud roar rang in the woods ahead, and it definitely did not came from a demon in the same size as the ones chasing them.
"We have to get away!" She said, knowing Gusion was trying to say the same thing.
Their was a sudden cry of pain from outside, and they knew the butler was injured gravely. The next thing they knew, the carriage were running in no certain direction as if the horses knew their driver was dead.
Guinevere propped her hands against the carriage walls to keep herself from rocking with the carriage, but it was getting out of control and was mostly tilting parallel to the ground.
"We have to get out!" Gusion yelled and grabbed her by the waist.
He locked her waist against him and kicked the door open. "You know what spell to use! On my count, 3, 2, 1!"
Guinevere casted her thumping spell the same time he blinked, and their forces combined sent them flitting thirty feet over the ground.
They landed a distant away from the carriage and into the pathless woods, where Gusion let go of her waist and she blinked again, further from the demons, knowing Gusion was just on her tail doing the same.
They only stopped when they came at the side of a strongly flowing river, miles away from where they left their carriage.
There was no sign of approaching demons already.
Guinevere collapsed on her hands at the riverside, catching her breath. She had never ran that fast in her entire life, and it was making her dizzy, but she could also feel the flow of her blood all over her veins, making her active.
Gusion leaned a hand against a tree, his pants audible from where Guinevere was.
Nothing but the sound of the gushing water and their desperate filling of air in their lungs.
Then Gusion made a sound. Something between a pant and a chuckle. A few more attempts and it became more distinct, louder.
Guinevere stared at him for a moment, wondering where could the serious Gusion have gone. His shoulders were shaking in laughter, and he threw his head back as he laughed louder that it became contagious that Guinevere soon felt laughter rising up in her throat as well.
"That was crazy." She said between her laughter.
"I ran thinking about my head bleeding again." Gusion said, his own laughter not dying down. "You were so fast. You were thinking of those broken ribs you got, weren't you?" He teased.
"Sort of." She admitted.
A pair of laughter's echoed through the riverbanks for a few minutes, until Guinevere felt something that made her alert, and Gusion started looking around, too.
Guinevere got to her feet, on guard. There was something strong in the air, the smell of something evil. But unlike the retching odor of the other abyssal demons, this smelled of alluring sweetness mixed with blood.
She scanned her eyes around the dim woods, and behind one of the thick-branched trees shone something red.
"Blood demon!" She announced, igniting energy balls in her hands.
The demon came out of hiding.
Guinevere would have thought he was one of the fairest man she had ever seen in her life, except that he was unnaturally pale, his beauty surreal, his hair as dark as a starless night, his eyes were glowing blood red, and he reeked of fresh blood.
A pair of bat wings sprung out of his back as he seethed, showing his sharp white fangs.
As if it wasn't enough, another one came out on the other side of the tree.
This time, it was a lady that looked oddly familiar to Guinevere.
She had snow white hair waving down to her shoulders, her eyes as red as her companion's, and her crimson red gown torn and shredded on the edges.
"Lady Guinevere..." Gusion started to say but she ignored him.
Guinevere brought her hand backward as she increased the energy forming in her hand and was about to pitch it hard towards the blood demons.
"Guinevere, no!" Gusion caught her from behind, locking his arms around hers and pinned them against her chest, leaving her no choice but to extinguish her magic.
"What are you doing?!" She asked him, glancing at him over her shoulder as she tried to escape his hold.
"They're harmless."
She stopped resisting, finding his arms around her too warm for her comfort.
"Let me go." She demanded, trying to keep her voice as calm as it could sound.
He tightened his hold around her though. "Only if you promise not to harm them."
"Harm them? They're more likely to harm me!"
"I can guarantee you, they won't."
"Alright. Get off me now!"
He released her and only then did she realize she had been holding a breath, and her chest was racing.
"Lord Gusion." It was the Lady who came out of hiding first, her crimson eyes traveling from him to Guinevere. "Lady Guinevere."
Guinevere's eyes widened, and she straightened from her defensive stance.
No wonder she looked familiar.
It was the Lady Carmilla from the Ansaac Family of the Castle Aberleen. But she was paler than she was, and her warm brown eyes had now became this horrifying color of red. Her brown hair had turned into this dead shade of white.
"Lady Carmilla...you..you look.." She bit her tongue from saying something offending, her eyes scanning the lady and the man who came behind her and coiled his long arm around her waist.
She partly got the reason why she had turned into that.
This man had turned her into that. He turned the fairest lady of the empire into this horrifyingly beautiful blood demon.
"..different." Guinevere finally said.
"What are you doing wandering in a forest full of demons?" Carmilla asked. She sounded just as graceful and gentle as she usually was that it was hard for Guinevere to think of her keeping her old personality despite turning into a demon.
"I'm...looking for my brother." Guinevere then sat to the ground, letting her guard down. "And I see you are...eloping. With your lover."
She caught a glimpse of a long deep cut at the lady's right wrist, and figured out how she ended up that way.
Carmilla smiled, and if she was still human, she would've blushed as she looked at Cecilion with a look of fondness that Guinevere never thought a blood demon could make.
"This is Cecilion." She introduced as Cecilion did a slight bow to Guinevere's direction. "The love of my life."
"That is...if you still have a life."
"Guinevere." Gusion scolded.
But Carmilla smiled, and she still looked as beautiful as ever, blood demon or not. "You're quite right. But I've never felt more alive before."
"Some irony." She said and turned to Gusion who was now sitting on the ground, his hands propped behind him to support his weight as he leaned back. "How do you know them?"
"He saved us...on the night we ran away from the Aberleen guards." Cecilion answered.
"The same night you came into that house you slept in." Gusion filled her in.
"We are eternally grateful for that." Carmilla said to Gusion. "And for that, you can set camp here for the night as we keep watch for demons."
"Really? I'd really appreciate that." Gusion said.
"But how are you gonna sleep?" Guinevere asked, earning a look from Gusion.
"And I thought you were smart." Gusion got to his feet and began heading to the woods.
"Where are you going?"
"Collecting woods for the fire."
As the night came deep, the woods had gone entirely dark. Guinevere was crunched up in front of the fire Gusion created, trying not to think of the dinner she would've had if she didn't run away.
Gusion sat a couple of feet away from her, warming himself as well.
Cecilion and Carmilla were sitting over a branch of a tree in a distant, out of earshot but still in sight to them, all absorbed with each other to pay attention to them.
She must admit, Carmilla really looked happier than she ever was. Guinevere could recall the times they met at Balls that their families usually held where she had always looked dazzling, but she could remember how there had always been something in the glint of her eyes.
Now that Guinevere could see how bright Carmilla's eyes were, she figured out that glint was sadness. She had been lonely, longing for someone who could make her feel more than a beautiful lady that everyone admired.
There was no sign of regret in her face as she stared lovingly at Cecilion, who looked at her as if nothing else mattered.
Looking at them, something in Guinevere's chest hurt. She knew deep inside she was curious if ever she could find a love as great as theirs.
"Why did you save them?" Guinevere asked Gusion, who lifted his gaze from his blades to look at her.
"What?"
She took her gaze off the couple and turned them to Gusion. She could see the blazing tongues of the fire reflected in his eyes.
"What made you help them?" She repeated.
A smile tugged at one side of his lips, and it was the second time on that day that she saw him smile out of pure humor and not of bitterness and mischief.
"You really are a curious mind, aren't you?"
She shrugged admittedly. She was used to hearing people say that.
"And you're smart. So I know you could clearly see what made me help them."
"Right." She turned her back on him as she lied down the mossy ground. Only when her body hit the ground did she realize how tired she was, and her eyes started to flutter sleepily. "They're one of those few people who found true love."
She heard him scoff a chuckle. "You think you won't be able to do the same?"
"I don't know... I think it's just for the strong hearted, for the deserving ones who are brave enough to fight for it."
"And you're not strong enough to do that?"
"The hell would I know. I've never even been fond of someone." Her lids had really became too heavy for her to keep her eyes open.
"But do you think you can ever do so?" Gusion asked, but it sounded distance away as she fell deeper and deeper into sleep.