The deep red liquid descended longer than how our wines do and it made me overthink a lot more crucifying possibilities.
What is that made of? How did they acquire such beverages? Do they have a place where they could have possibly sourced those? Is it a vampire-operated establishment? And is it a human-free derivative?
"What do we have here? Is it blood? Human blood?" Damien vehemently inquired while pouring a bottle of wine into his glass.
He stared at it with hopeful eyes and we all watched him cause he is apparently only talking to himself.
"Fuck." he crispy cursed after smelling it in his glass. "This is a deer's, man..."
He then proceeded to prick his fork on what seemed to be a medium rare stake on his plate. The perfect juiciness in it when pressed made me part my lips.
What if it is a slice of human meat?
"Is this a slice of human meat?" he echoed, placing it exactly at his eye level and proceeded to stare at it fondly as if it would magically be the human meat he is drooling for.
Is he perhaps damaged in the mind?
Cier is on a full frown looking at him. Tarnus snobs us all and started eating his food. Delila and I are watching him with ridiculed expressions as he finally bit it on the edge of it like a lunatic picky food tester everyone hates in a cooking show. And Akin is back in his corner, near the window, jaw clenching as he stares earnestly at his hand.
He said he was done eating after he pulled a chair for me so he is not on the table with us.
"Oh, what a pity this taste like cows" he snorted.
The three of us shifted our eyes anywhere aside his direction when he brought down his meat.
His scoff echoed in the dining. "You all are a sucker for me."
Cier immediately extinguished his flaming pride with rancid slur. "We won't dare if it is you. You look poisoned even outside."
Delila called. "Cier…"
Being the unstoppable that he is, Damien couldn't allow himself to not have the last say. "Poisoned or not, I will remain more luscious than you."
Cier is about to talk again when Delila overindulged his mouth with a handfull load of steak, lettuce, and tomato. One swallow and it disappeared in his mug but then he didn't talk again as I have thought.
He busied himself with the wine and when done with a sip, he snickered like it was the foulest taste served at him.
"These boys are louder than me..." she murmured in between her graceful scoops. In a smooth glide of her knife, the meat is divided equally like how I visualized her slicing my flesh. Her steak is cooked well done though so it somehow lessened my uneasiness about the served foods.
I swiftly took interest in my empty plate when she is about to look at me.
"The Grosteque was said to first knew of the news. As by herseay, Bufous set his foot on Relimenia. Have we come in terms with them?" the bulky man casually started. He must be Tarnus. "And where is your sister Akin? Must she not be talking about that to us?"
He has a sister?
Akin stood on his slouch. "I didn't know," he clenched his jaw tightly. "I am gonna talk to her about it."
"She spoke to a grostoque." Tarnus added like it was a sin.
"She to had to, on their way back," Akin stated.
Everyone shamelessly skimmed at me. I remained awkwardly seated, unfamiliar of how they are all acting.
"Not that. I saw her talk to another before the attack," Ciero continued.
"As well as I saw her too before that." it was Delila.
Damien grimly butt in. "You cannot hold that woman properly?"
The grosteque they are talking about, what is it? What made it exceptional that these vampire crowd named them as their subject?
Wanting to not attract any attention, I only served myself with the bowls of food that are not a stretch of my hand, slowly and silently.
Now my plate is having a few slices of blanched carrots, lettuce, tomato, and string beans. And a stew looking like my favorite sour soup dish— Sinigang.
I am about to place the carrot in my mouth when I realized I couldn't take it.
I couldn't stomach the fact that I should be at peace eating with them. I lowered my knife and fork and being the sound that they didn't make, the attention is all on me again.
"I'm sorry. But I would like to not proceed for this feast is not for me." I voiced cautiously, trying hard to not be a tick in their ears and be their sumptuous breakfast for today.
Damien languidly slanted his back on the chair and clicked his neck. "Are you denying us a peaceful breakfast my dearest sister?"
A movement from my peripheral destructed me but I remained my eyes on the vigilant vampires unapproving of my argument.
"I am not your sister."
"Okay, cousin." he corrected.
I stared at him seriously to which he replied with an equally profound gaze. He even played with his eye color, from light red to red to the deepest red.
Cier whistled on his seat. Tarnus's gaze remained on our malevolent host. And Delila is unusually timid in her position.
"Please spare us our lives and let us go quietly-"
"What do you think of my eye color?" Damien out of a sudden inquired.
I remained muted in my seat as it isn't something I believe we must discuss. A shade materialized above me and it revealed Damien, recklessly shoving his true form in front of me. My breathing hitched when his arm yanked me away from my chair and brought me away from anyone's reach.
I oversaw Akin's arms coming to snare me on the embezzle, Delila's agitated disapproval of the circumstances, and the whole of the palace sinking away from my sight as Damien smashed us out of the glass window.
"It has been a long time since I robbed a princess in a palace. I couldn't believe I wasted years of having to feel a yet again fierce hunger to be destroyed because of my treachery," my capturer said with a stern smirk.
"I don't think you being called someone's brother is due. Perhaps the unlucky sister you are looking for will stand as the eldest between the both of you," I said as I gaze how he is too proud of him scheming the others. "You are more like a child to me."
"And here you are telling me you are not my mother's daughter when you have just exactly recited her favorite verse at me..." he mums before everything turned black.