Prudence saw the man, who had instilled anxiety in her last night by just his daunting aura, sip tea comfortably sitting at the dining table of her house. Her chest heaved because of the sprint she had done to reach her house as fast as she could. "Mama!" Prudence walked ahead, ignoring the other man who stood behind His Grace and went to stand by her mother's side.
Her eyes looked nervously at Vincent and then at the man behind him, who stood with two coats in his hand, one which belonged to himself and the other to His Grace.
Prudence understood it must be Lord Drakos, whose carriage was parked outside; right in the middle of the road. She noticed how Drakos had red eyes, but not as dark as Vincent's, whose eyes painted a hue of crimson dipped in honey. Having heard all the truth about Vincent from Abiona, Prudence thought this other man was from the mafia as well. Her stomach churned in thought that they were here to sort answers about what she did to Don Sam Murray yesterday.
She bowed politely this time to Vincent, and he flashed her his charming smile, which only made Prudence gulp hard on the ball of nervousness that had formed in the pit of her stomach.
"Mama, are you all right?" Prudence asked while quickly scanning her mother from top to bottom. She whispered her next words for only her mother to listen, being unknown of the fact that the night creatures had better hearing abilities. "Why are they here?" Prudence hurried her words.
Elizabeth crinkled her brows, seeing her daughter all worked up. Her hand came up to wipe the little patch of dirt that had found itself a place on Prudence's cheek.
"What would happen to me, Pearl," said her mother with a rather giddy smile while passing an upbeat glance at Vincent and looking back at Prudence to hold her by her shoulders. Elizabeth's voice came low with a raspy whisper, "this young man seems to have taken a liking towards you. You make your mother happy today." Her hand dusted Prudence's dress, and she tried to usher Prudence inside, "Hurry now, clean yourself and change into something good."
Prudence put up a resistance to her mother, who was trying to push her inside the bedroom. "No mama, wait," she tried to convince her mother, who had misunderstood the situation.
In Prudence's heart, she was sure that the men were here to exact revenge on her or punish Prudence, along with her family, for messing with the wrong people.
Drakos observed the exchange of words between the mother and daughter, and then his eyes slowly shifted to Vincent, who seemed to casually sip his tea, not gazing at them, and rather enjoy the cup of drink in his hand. Drakos reacted to nothing, but saw the patience that Vincent was putting up instead of taking right away what he wanted, as usual.
It was strange to see Vincent wait, and that only made Drakos wonder whether Vincent was waiting for the fear to build up inside Prudence so he could advantage of it.
Prudence, on the other hand, was getting more and more nervous about how to explain to her mother why His Grace was here. "Mama, you must have misunderstood something," Prudence hurried in a whisper. But her mother was far from trying to hear anything from her daughter. It was the rarest of the rare occasion for people like them to have the rich step in their house and especially rare for a man to come with liking towards her bold spirited daughter.
Just then, Abiona entered the house. She pursed her lips to gulp and wet her throat, which had gone dry because of the running Abiona had to do behind her friend till here. All the eyes turned to the sudden feet that had stepped inside the house.
On seeing Vincent, Abiona bowed deep, "His Grace, what a pleasure to see you here."
Her words were polite, but Abiona's heart was tumbling in her chest, trying to decide how to help Prudence out here. It would have been false if Abiona said she was not scared right now.
The man in front of them carried that daunting aura with him that somehow Prudence's mother, Elizabeth, had missed.
Prudence sucked in a sharp breath, watching Abiona here. She doubted Abiona would have any enormous influence like her father did and with how His Grace had welcomed himself in this house, Prudence doubted that even Abiona's father had any influence on this dangerous man. Elizabeth stopped pushing her daughter and looked at Abiona with a welcoming smile and confusion that smeared her face.
Abiona belonged to a family of high standing and for her to be bowing this deep meant the man was someone who was more influential than her father, the governor of Dewrest.
Drakos was about to answer Abiona, just as usual, that he did for Vincent. His Grace did not like to speak uselessly. Before Drakos could say anything, Vincent gently placed the teacup back on the saucer and smiled at Abiona, and he looked nothing less than an angel. Only a few eyes in the room saw the darkness behind his angelic smile. "Ms Thatcher, I did not get the chance to meet you at the dining yesterday. Your father dropped by earlier to make a request about your dear friend here."
Vincent pointed with his head towards Prudence. Her heartbeats were increasing with fear and were pumped with adrenaline, a melody to Vincent's ears. The sound of fear always made his fangs ache and his tongue ran over one of his fangs subtly.
"I apologise I could not make my presence in front of you yesterday, His Grace. But I hope you enjoyed the feast," Abiona said, trying to shift the subject even though she knew there was no use in front of Vincent. The man saw right through people as if he had the ability to read minds. If he truly could read minds, half of the people around him would be dead, thought Abiona to herself.
Through all the exchange, one thing Abiona was successful in doing was making Prudence's mother alert about Vincent. Elizabeth did not miss any detail and her head was quick to make a picture out of the pieces.
The protectiveness the Warrier mother and daughter carried for each other was quickly activated and the atmosphere in the room shifted to grim in seconds.