Rouen stared at the girl in front of him as if he was looking for a reason to back off from what he was about to do, from what she was pushing him to do to her, but when he failed to see anything, he breathed out deeply before he gently reached out for her nape and pulled her closer to him. She is only seventeen years old, barely eighteen years of age. She has not even debuted in society. Yet why doesn't he feel guilty about desiring her this way? He wanted her so painfully much and he coun't even put it into words.
He knew he should rationalize everything, especially when facing her. Her age drove her to want and do things because her curiosity is at its peak and there is a possibility that she will regret her decisions later. But has she ever regretted knowing about their world, about their kind? Not that he is aware of. Even after experiencing such horrors in her sleep, even if she has been put at death's door twice now, she still somehow wanted to stay close to him, as if she herself sought his presence, as if his world calls out to this girl who belongs in the world of the living.
She wanted to explore his world and he showed it to her. She wanted to meet their kind, and she did, through him, after Cohen acted as an instigator of everything. She asked and he answered everything according to his knowledge. And now that she wanted to experience the bloodletting herself while saying she wanted to experience it with him without having second thoughts, it really made him want to do it to her. He is a blood-sucking monster and she is offering herself to him willingly. He is also a vampire, who is he to deny what is being offered to him freely? Chances like this one doesn't come often especially when the one whose blood he's been craving the second he met her is offering herself to him this way.
Eona is enticing him in a way that he can't say 'no'. It is something only a vampire's beloved should be capable of doing to their destined half. And to think him and this girl in front of him are not even what fate had drawn to be pairs in this lifetime, what a joke that so-called fate must be?
"There is no going back once I've started, precious," he told her, slightly hoping she would back down from her words and tell him she was only messing with him.
She smiled at him before she whispered, "I know." She said it ever so trustfully and that was his undoing.
Her trust in him had no comparison and in exchange, for her, he would certainly do anything. She had the power to ask him anything and he surely would give it to her - even if it was the world itself. If she asked for everything to be turned upside down, he knew he was going to do it as long as it was for her. She had him at her fingertips and it's funny how she is not even aware of it.
Rouen slowly leaned closer to her and in the silence of the night, with the slight music being played in the banquet hall which serenaded their background, he could clearly hear her heart beating faster in anticipation. He stared at her purple-colored eyes and, for a second, he thought her eyes turned red, but since they remained violet after staring at them for too long, he thought of it as something like a reflection of some sort. The pull he feels towards her isn't something he could deny. He knew it wasn't just because of him wanting to have her close. He is also certain that the pull isn't even connected to his lust. It is so strong as if the thread that connects him and Eona the moment they first met just entangled itself in him even more, just to make sure that he isn't going anywhere - and he won't. Right now, he doesn't have any plans to stay away from her, even though he is aware that he needs to for her own safety and happiness. Something she could only gain if she was away from him.
"I am going to kiss you," he whispered to her as if asking for permission, but Eona just stared back at him as her cheeks flushed again.
He smiled. He really came to love how her emotions clearly showed themselves in her eyes and face and he couldn't help but tease her whenever she did it unknowingly. She is so innocent that it makes him want to tarnish her himself - in a good way. He wanted to mark her as his just to make sure everyone will recognized that she is his. At that moment, his selfishness is surfacing and also his possessiveness.
"I am going to kiss you hard," he told her again, and when their faces were only inches away, she had no other choice but to close her eyes and wait for what he was about to do.
Eona did not have to wait long because the second after she closed her eyes, she felt his lips touch hers in the most gentlest way, as if he was testing the waters. Like he was still giving her a time to back away even at that moment. When she responded, it was then when he started to move his lips over hers, this time, more demanding than the first, but she didn't mind. She held onto his shirt and followed his lead as she was breathing in between kisses for her not to be suffocated.
She was aware that Rouen had his share of women. Him living in this world for more than two centuries, she knew he had already done a lot of things and that included having intimate relationships with the women he met along the way. He is a man after all. A good looking man at that. Maybe he had loved and treasured some of them, but not enough for him to turn them into a being like him. Compared to her whose first kiss was him, Rouen is someone who had already experienced the extent of climax in the embrace of another. But she didn't have time to overthink about that because, for her, what's important is this moment, right here. Her being the one in Rouen's arms tonight - being hugged and kissed by him as if she was the most important person in his life right now, is enough. Even though experiencing it is only for a while.
She is not so dense as to not notice the way he looks in her way. She notices every single time he looks for her in the middle of the crowd and the simple gestures he does unashamedly in front of others. She knew those weren't just for a show. He treats her differently and he is not afraid to show it, which makes her heart flutter every time. The mere thought of him brings a smile to her lips and makes her heart thump even if she is alone. And the fact that he declared he was going to court her made hope settle in her heart - a hope that she was it for him.
Eona doesn't believe in falling in love. She knew there was always a small piece of ground right before the cliff, giving her enough time to process that if she headed straight, she'd be taking a huge risk. For her, love is not an accidental tripping, it's a conscious jump. And with Rouen's existence in her life, she consciously took the risk and let herself fall off the cliff, not knowing if it would be a hard ground that would embrace her with open arms or if it was the waters of the ocean that would ensure her safety after the fall.
Rouen silently asked her to open her mouth when his tongue touched her lips, wanting to probe the insides, explore every crevice there was, and she did so. He deepened the kiss immediately as he pulled her effortlessly into his lap. Even with her floor-length gown, Eona sat astride on his lap while he remained sitting on the bench and her hands which held onto his shirt before now found themselves entangling his hair from behind his head.
She didn't know how it happened but their masks were now left down on the bench beside them so they are now kissing without any restrictions. They kissed like there was no tomorrow and the heat in between them beat the cold breeze outside. Rouen pulled her closer until there was no space left between them while his left hand settled in the curve of her waist. He wanted her and he wanted to devour her whole. Their tongues fought for dominance and Rouen, being the male and being the one with more experience in these kind of things, dominated her easily. His right hand glided down onto the side of her face, her neck where the filigree lines burned like molten lava under the moonlight for him to see, down to her arms and behind her back towards her bottom. Eona gasped and moaned as she ground herself once in a while on him while she let herself get lost in the moment. She had never been a wanton woman, but with Rouen caging her in his embrace like this while he kissed her so passionately, she was ready to lose it all to him.
"Rouen…" she whispered in need and want.
Rouen deepened the kiss even more. When she felt his lips trailing down from her lips, Eona unconsciously positioned her head in a way that gave him access to her neck freely. He breathes in deep as if he is memorizing her scent, marking it in his memory. When she felt his lips accompanied by the tip of his tongue softly touching her skin, she almost forgot how to breathe and when she felt his fangs gently graze the part where he was going to bite her, she pulled his hair which he didn't seem to mind. She didn't know what was happening but the act itself is making her mind go haywire. She couldn't think straight because her thoughts were filled with what Rouen was doing to her right now.
Rouen is having a hard time controlling the beast that is him at the moment. Eona was already lost and he knew he could take her right there in the garden if only he wanted to, because she certainly would let him do whatever he wanted to do to her. With his heightened senses, he could smell her desire for him. It blended in with the flowery breeze along with the scent of her blood and it was making him dizzy with want. He craved to feel her completely and deeply.
The way she unconsciously slowly grounded herself in his lap made him hard, making him want to just take her right there, but he knew there was a right time for that. He did not want to take her at the spur of the moment like he did with the many women before her. He did not want to just take her that when everything is done there is nothing left. Eona was different from the rest that came before her and, for the first time, he intended to love her leisurely - make her feel the thrill and exhilaration of being with him skin to skin. He plans to take her slowly and bring her to the hilt of climax until she herself will beg him to take her hard and fast. If that time comes, he is going to do just that. But damn it, he knew he had to wait because this girl in his embrace was still too young.
Rouen's desire for her cannot be compared to anything. He needed her the way he needed blood to stay sane and he wanted her in a way that he wanted her for his own only. He loved her and lusted her just the same if that even makes sense. When he stopped kissing her, she gasped and held onto his nape. She is breathing hard as if she has been deprived of air. Rouen then made his forehead touch hers. He, too, is breathing as raggedly as her.
"Stop moving, gem."
"Why?" She asked, innocence lacing her voice.
"I might not be able to stop myself and end up doing you right here. That is more dangerous than bloodletting because, right now, my desire to do both at the same time is harder than just wanting to have a taste of your blood. Can you feel me?"
It was then when Eona became aware that she was sitting on something hard in his lap directly pointed at her entrance. She has been grinding there for a while now, while she was lost in the moment, and she was certain Rouen suffered miserably, knowing that they cannot go all through out because he doesn't have any intention of doing it right now out of respect and care for her. She blushed profusely at the way her thoughts were going. How can she be so shameless and ignorant of what she has been doing with him all this time? She was about to move away from him but Rouen caged her in his arms.
"Where are you going? We're not done yet."
To hide her flushing cheeks, Eona leaned onto his shoulders and hid her face in the crook of his neck. She could not think straight and she was embarrassed that she was thinking she would let Rouen do everything he wanted to do to her at that very same moment. Something was pulling her to him and she was letting herself be pulled freely because she wanted to get closer - she wanted to have him for herself. Call her selfish, but she wanted him whole.
"Hold on to me, love," he whispered and the moment that she did, she felt him kiss the crook of her neck before his fangs pierced her skin.
She gasped and almost cried out in pain as she held onto him tightly, but the inflamed feeling of exhilaration that came afterwards when he started to suck her blood was intoxicating. She moaned unconsciously and she felt Rouen smile at that moment as if he had just accomplished something.
If he hadn't blocked his ability, he would have been able to see Eona's memories through her blood. He is aware he doesn't have any right to be reading it through bloodletting without her permission, so he stopped his ability from taking place himself. He never thought he respected her that much. When was the last time that he was willing to adjust everything for the sake of one woman? He doesn't remember. Maybe this here is the first.
The flowery smell of her blood combined with its heavenly taste filled Rouen unlike any other blood had done to him for two centuries. Her blood quenched his thirst the moment it first touched his throat and it made him want nothing but it. It made him feel contented and he was both elated and pleased as he drank it freshly from her veins. Rouen knew the vampires inside the manor could smell her blood but no one dared to come out and look for it because the scent was accompanied by his presence, which warned whoever it is that plans on looking for the source of it.
Eona blinked. After a while, she felt like she was losing her own strength. She could still feel him sucking her blood as he hugged her close to him.
"Rouen…" she whispered, but didn't say anything else.
Rouen withdrew himself from her after he had licked her skin clear of blood as well as to seal and heal his own bite marks. With a small kiss on the crook of her neck, she knew he was done. Under the moonlight, when Eona slightly moved herself away from his chest but still remained in her position in his lap, she saw how he licked her blood off his lips and it was enthralling. She found him sexy then. She frowned. What is happening to her? She's supposed to see him as a dangerous being, but to her, he is safety itself. She was supposed to feel repulsive, but instead, she was enthralled by him. She must have completely gone crazy the moment she let herself fall.
"What does my blood taste like?"
"Cake," he answered, and they both laughed at that.
Rouen could see her strength had left her and he was glad he was able to stop himself from draining her dry. Eona's existence did something to him and her blood pushed that hilt to an extent where he couldn't go back. He wanted her and he was going to have her. He knew she was feeling sleepy, so he gently pulled her close to him to lull her to sleep.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For everything," he answered.
He let her put her head on his shoulder, slightly on his chest, while they remained sitting on the bench. He gently kissed the top of her head as he rested his arm on her back and pulled her close to him.
"Sleep, love."
When he knew she was already deep in her sleep, he looked up at the moon. For the first time, he wished and he prayed that the time he would meet his beloved, the woman destined to be by his side, would not come. He had finally chosen Eona and he wanted it to stay that way. The existence of another woman, one of whom who would make him feel something he had never felt before, would just ruin this beautiful thing he had slowly built with this girl in his arms right now. He glanced down at her and gently brushed her stray hair away from her face.
"Why can't I just love you freely the way that I wanted to?" He whispered.
He kissed her forehead lovingly but the moment he stood and carried her carefully in his arms to take her back to her room through the terrace, an unknown presence made itself known to him - something that even him, a Gold Blood, felt pressured and chilled. He held Eona close to him and looked in front where the presence he felt was concentrated. His eyes glistened with a warning as his fangs that had just receded elongated for the second time that night when he clearly saw someone standing there. He was suddenly on alert.
Across the manmade pool where the fountain dances stood a man with black hair and threateningly red eyes. He looks angry and his anger is directly pointed at him. Rouen knew who those eyes belonged to. The race that damned them to be forever dependent on blood as long as they live their never-ending existence.
"Noble…" he whispered, his voice full of hate.
Him and Sin are right to doubt their disappearance after the Blood War. Because right there in front of him stood the evidence that they did not perish but had just hidden themselves as they waited for the right time to show that they were still alive. How did he even go past all of the sentinels stationed around the kingdom? And how is he able to roam freely without them being aware of his presence until he made him feel it at that moment? Is it one of his blood powers? To stay hidden if he wills it so?
"You dare take advantage of her this way?" Rouen heard a voice asking him in his mind a few seconds before the vampire standing on the other side appeared right in front of him and held him by the neck at arm's length rather harshly.
Rouen cursed and grimaced because he couldn't move nor retaliate since he still held Eona safely in his arms. The Noble gripped his neck tightly to the point that he restricted his breathing. His nails dug painfully into his skin, making him bleed, but Rouen held his ground. It was then when he realized that if priority came first, he would make sure to secure Eona's life before him.
Aelvien was pleased as he studied the prince closer while probing into his thoughts without permission. Rouen didn't move, instead he made sure the girl was safe in his arms. Aelvien couldn't help himself but be angry at what this young prince did and he intended to make him bleed in exchange, but seeing him protecting her instead of his own life made Aelvien change his mind and just resorted to threatening him.
Aelvien saw his eyes glisten. A sign that Rouen is about to communicate through telepathy.
"Don't even try and call the Silvers. None of them will respond to you," Aelvien said to him when he read about his plans in his mind. Being rendered useless this way, of course, it was natural for Rouen to ask for assistance, especially when he was protecting someone. "You - "
Before Aelvien could finish what he was about to say, a force suddenly pushed him back away from the prince whose eyes were now gleaming dangerously under the moonlight. The force was so strong that the marble fountain shattered upon his impact on it. When he is about to move, he finds himself frozen in there along with the water that surrounds him.
"Capable," Aelvien thought to himself.
He is impressed by the way the newly awakened prince was able to use the extent of his ability that came from him being a Gold born vampire so easily.
Rouen didn't have any choice but to lay Eona down on the bench and face the vampire who had threatened him, because if he didn't subdue him right now, who knew what this vampire would do to Eona?
"You dare enter our kingdom as you are just because of your pride as a Noble? A vampire who belongs in the higher society? Are you somehow hoping you can control me to do your bidding?"
"I may be a Pureblood, but I am not of Noble Blood. And do not test me. I won't hope to control you because I can do that just fine if ever I wanted to."
For a few seconds, Rouen did not say anything as he processed what he had just said to him. It only shows how superior Purebloods are to their race. His eyes squinted before he attacked the vampire in front of him. The difference between him and the turned vampires is that he is a born vampire, just like the Purebloods, and he too possesses blood power by right like them. He is certain he will be just fine. Rouen was quite amazed at how the ones inside the banquet hall did not notice the commotion outside as their strength and power collided, destroying everything in their way. It must have been his opponent's doing. They fought and completely ruined the garden behind the Crystal Manor. By tomorrow, Cohen will surely raise hell because he has spent quite an amount beautifying it only to end up like this, but Rouen didn't have time to think about it. He'll face all the consequences later.
Vampires from the lower society despised the existence of vampires from the higher society because it was those beings that made them this way. They hated them in a way that they'd be on guard and that they'd want to kill them the second they encountered one. It's like an instinct imprinted on their blood because of the superiority these beings hold over them. It was the Nobles who cursed them to live their lives this way. It is not like they chose to live off of human blood or even the animals. They were forced to do so until they came to accept the bitter truth that they needed blood to survive. It took them years to establish their way of living away from the mundane, but it didn't mean that they didn't wish they'd have stayed as human beings - ones who live their life fully because they only have one shot at it in such a short time.
While fighting, Aelvien studied him. Rouen being a Gold Born made him very different from others. He was born possessing blood powers which were his own that, if used correctly to target a Pureblood, could be lethal to the point that it could kill them. He can stand on equal ground with most of the Noble Bloods when it comes to strength and blood power, but he didn't have to tell him that. Besides, Nobles are trained at such a young age to overcome people like him in battle. When it comes to experience, the youngest clan leader that Elysia has right now had more on his list because, for them, Rouen, who is already over two centuries old, is still young.
"I see… So the girl is not your beloved?"
Rouen immediately stopped at that statement and felt like an ice-cold bucket of water was poured into his whole being. He froze.
"Stop reading my mind without permission!"
"Hmm. But I couldn't help it. It's not like I can stop reading people's minds whenever I want to."
It is a burden that comes from being the Monarch. Aelvien could hear everyone's thoughts at a certain radius without intending to. For over a millennium, he has learned to ignore them, but it doesn't mean he cannot hear them. Aelvien tilted his head to the side and looked at the puzzled prince. Rouen had stood his ground against him. He had proven to him that he was capable enough to protect the girl if he ever left her in his care. Besides, he really needed to leave her because of certain things he could no longer ignore since he still had the responsibility as the Monarch. But how far is Rouen going to go for her own sake?
Aelvien vanished from where he stood and appeared next to Eona. She had been asleep all this time, as if she had been put in a sleeping spell. Rouen hissed and bared his fangs in warning - that if he ever touched her, all hell would break lose tonight but he wasn't able to hide the worry that etched itself in his eyes and Aelvien was delighted to see that.
"Leaving her side is a thoughtless act, don't you think so, young prince? Didn't you once think that I might go after her life to bring you down?"
Rouen ignored everything he just said as his anger and hate just reached their pinnacle. "Touch just a single strand of her hair and I will decapitate you."
Aelvien chuckled and touched the girl's neck with the back of his forefinger, in a place where the filigree lines are glowing softly.
Upon contact, Rouen noticed that the mark glowed in response to his touch and he couldn't have been mistaken when he saw his opponent glaring at the mark in hate.
"What if I end her life right here?"
"Don't you - "
Aelvien gripped the girl's neck and raised her in the air easily for Rouen to see as if she weighed nothing, but even then she did not once open her eyes. Fear gripped Rouen's heart painfully. The Pureblood looked lethal at that moment and he looked determined to kill her right in front of him.
"She is not your beloved, isn't she? Her death will not be able to affect you directly. After all, she is just a human who has caught your attention and interest at the moment. One of whom can be easily replaced by another."
Rouen breathed in deep when he felt his own body turn hot like something was burning deep within him. He heard what his opponent said but he was not able to process it. His eyesight started to turn blurry as his heart beats painfully in his chest - so strong he thought he could even hear it himself. It was only just the other night when this happened to him, so he knew the demon inside him was trying to free himself from his chains. He blinked his eyes. He knew he was awake but everything was starting to fade into the dark as if someone was taking over his consciousness. The peacefulness he felt a while ago is gone and has been replaced by chaos. And the demon that was sleeping inside him was now fully awake in anger, hate and with the intention of shedding blood. He was enraged because the girl he held close to his heart was being threatened.
Aelvien saw and felt the change in Rouen and he smiled triumphantly. Threatening the girl's life in front of him wasn't actually a vain move because he had just learned something. Something even the prince is not aware of because of the girl's own predicament, which started when she was eight.
"You are yet to meet your beloved, so getting rid of this girl right here will make everything less complicated. Don't you think so, Gold Blood?"
"Let her go."
Aelvien ignored him and before Rouen could say anything, he heard something break and immediately the soft breathing pattern of Eona stopped. Her heartbeat slowed down until it too didn't make another sound. The satisfied smile that etched on his opponent's lips made him snap. His eyes glistened angrily and his pupils turned to slits.
"Kill…" a whisper sounded at the back of his mind before everything turned dark.