The room was too silent and too dark, the only burning candle wasn't easing the situation, and even if I'm a half-vampire, I wasn't able to see in such darkness. It felt like the windows were closed with heavy black curtains, so even the slightest piece of sun or moonlight wasn't going through it. I tried to stand up in an attempt to open the curtains to have some more light in the room, but suddenly voices on the outside of the room made me fall back to the bed. It was Markus and some unknown male voice talking.
"Mr. Malone, are you sure that's everything you want? We can organize everything on the…"
"Haven't I said it clearly? I don't need anyone!" Markus's voice was cold and strict, but it was easy to catch irritated notes in his voice. I tried to be as quiet as possible to not expose I'm not sleeping and to hear more information.
"But you always…"
There was some noise as if someone kicked something at the wall, so I immediately jumped out of the bed and ran outside as fast as possible. When I opened the door, I found Markus pressing an unknown, thin and small young man to the wall by the collar of his shirt. He lifted the man up to such a height that the young man's legs were barely touching the ground.
"Don't make me repeat my own words once again!" Markus hissed the words at the young man, then suddenly looked at me. His facial features relaxed, then he slowly put the man down and looked at his eyes, "Get lost until I need you."
The man disappeared as if he was never there, and Markus got closer to me. He gently stroked my neck with the back of his hand, then left a gentle kiss on my forehead. His other arm wrapped my waist, and he pressed me to himself, inhaling my smell.
"Sorry for waking you up…" he whispered, then forced me to get inside the room and closed the door behind himself, throwing me into the darkness again. Then, I felt his hands at my knees and on my back, he lifted me up and slowly went to the bed. Markus gently put me on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, and I felt he lay near me.
"Could you please bring some more light? I can barely see my nose," I pleased, then felt him standing out of the bed and heading somewhere, probably to the windows. Suddenly, the moonlight sneaked into the room, finally making it easier for me to see something. And the first thing I saw was Markus standing near the two huge windows and the moonlight playing on his pale face and platinum hair. I tilt my head up and focused my gaze on Markus, observing how his hair was shining blue from the moonlight. I couldn't take my eyes out of that gorgeous view until he got closer to me and finally lay on the bed near.
"How long are you awake?" he suddenly asked, as if remembering that I might hear that secret conversation, before he lifted that poor guy to the air. I chuckled, then climbed at him and put my head on his strong chest, wrapping my arms around his perfect-shaped torso.
"From the time you left me in this dark room," I said, remembering that I woke up much earlier when he was carrying me to this room through the dark corridor with red candles on the walls. I corrected myself, telling him this information, but his reaction was way different from what I expected. I still don't know a lot about this man I love!
"We arrived at Kristof's mansion, so I carried you from the car till this bedroom, as you were in a deep sweet sleep. I just simply didn't want to wake you up, but when I put you on a bed, you were sleeping. Or, maybe, just pretending," he chuckled, making me raise my head up and look at him, and how the moonlight was playing on his platinum hair, making it shine blue.
"What about the talk with the guy whom you lifted? What made you so irritated?" I asked, pretending I haven't heard anything except the body being pressed to the wall with inhuman force.
"A while ago, when I was at Kris previously, he offered his people to make a female company for me to have a rest from the tension of our way of life. I used his offer a few times, and that stupid guy, even seeing me carrying you, proposed to me a female company again. He irritated me on not hearing me refuse, even though I said it pretty clearly," Markus's explanation raised much more questions in my head than it should have been. I got closer to his pretty and pale face, on which the moonlight was playing, and looked into the depth of his onyx eyes.
"What have you just said?" I didn't need him to repeat his own words, and I knew he wouldn't as he doesn't like repeating himself. It was just a reaction that I couldn't either reject or resist.
Markus just laughed at my reaction, put his cold hand on my head, and pressed me to his chest again, wrapping my body with a blanket and pressing towards his warmed by the inner fire body.
"Nothing that requires your attention. You're the only female company I would keep for the rest of my eternity," he kissed the top of my head and kept silent, stroking my hair and my head, trying to help me to fall asleep.
And it wasn't that hard, as his words satisfied me a lot, so I fell into the sleeping kingdom not so long after them.
The next morning we arrived at the Bloody Bank that was under Kristof's lead as Markus promised before. It was around ten in the morning, but the weather was gloomy, cold, and wet. It was raining heavily since early morning, and it was hard to believe there was a cloudless sky with a moon shining bright all night. So, when we went out of the car, a few guards quickly reached us and proposed us the umbrellas, and we eagerly took them to not get soaked to the skin, and that's not because we would catch a cold…
We knew at least one of us can't catch any cold, so the reason was way different, and it wasn't hard to guess, right?
"I was waiting for you!" We heard the voice coming from upstairs, so Markus lift the umbrella up, revealing a view of Kristof standing in the doorway leading to his bank. He was dressed in the very same black suit he had when he visited us, just the difference was in the red shirt he had on today. And, whom I was surprised to see was Mallory Malone, standing in the red mini-dress barely hiding her intimate places right near Kristof. I tried to hide my amusement, deciding to ask Markus about everything when we'll be alone.
"As far as I see, you two decided to finally tell the world about yourselves, right?" Markus left his spicy comment for the first time.
As soon as we stepped under the roof, he gave the umbrellas back to his guards and wrapped my waist with one hand, holding his other one in the pocket of his black pants.
"You two were our examples," Mallory smiled at me and suddenly winked so probably only I was able to notice it. Her hand was holding Kristof's hand, so they were really not hiding anymore. I wonder why, and I doubt the reason was in the two of us.
"Let's leave this conversation for the dinner, right?" Kristof smirked, then turned around and led Mallory to the inside, asking us to follow. I frowned and looked at Markus, asking him to explain everything quickly.
"They were hiding because of our mother, who was against those relationships with the vampire who can't reproduce himself. However, what happened to you because of George made her change her mind and give us freedom of choice at whom to date." Markus whispered in my ear quickly, then led me to the inside and I heard how the doors closed at our backs, leaving the sound of the rain outside.
The building of the bloody bank Kristof had was twice smaller than Markus's bloody bank. It consisted only of one floor, and probably some underground floor, as I saw the staircase leading underground. Kristof stopped with Mallory near that staircase, then turned at us.
"My greeting, Mister and Miss Malone," he said officially, and both of them, Kristof and Mallory, bowed at us. Markus put his head up at my back and pulled me slightly down, asking me to do the same they just did, to bow.
"Long time no see," Markus said, probably meaning the bloody bank than the two of them, but who knows?
It took us around an hour to get a look at all of Kristof's belongings. He was showing more to me than to Markus how they sort out the blood, and where actually people donate their blood. Kristof also explained why people donate their blood, and what for they do that. So, after an hour, I had an even deeper understanding of how the mafia works and how they can freely take fresh blood from humans without being suspicious.
So, only those humans who know who the mafia really is and how they work can donate their blood. Moreover, they do that only after the mafia helped them and protected them, from other mafia bosses, aggressive vampire clans, police, or even other humans. Any human being can come to the mafia and ask for help in protecting, and pay for that help either with his or her blood or money. They even sign the contract, so none of the two parts won't get tricked as they get compensation if one of the duties wasn't fulfilled. Kristof is dealing with all this paperwork on his own, as they agreed on the mafia meeting centuries ago. Also, it depends on which mafia bosses the human being came and asked for help, so they sign the contract only with that mafia boss, and can't go to another one if they're not satisfied.
They are actually staying under that mafia boss's protection for the rest of their lives, paying the tribute once a year.
"And now," Kristof started and got closer to some door, opening it for us, "Let's head to the second part of our meeting."
We happened to be in a small room where we could see some figures sitting on the floor, with the hoods on their head and their hands and legs being tied with a rope. Kristof left Mallory near me and Markus, then headed to one of that figures and removed the hood.
I could see the very familiar thin pale face, but this time the person had red pupils instead of white-blue as the previous time. I still don't know how they tricked me.
"YOU?" The person said and hissed in my direction, bearing its fangs at me. Kristof slapped the figure in the face so it fell to the floor, looking as dead as ever.
"And that's all?" I asked.