"Do not move..." Aziel calmly whispered in her ear. He moved away from her and paced slowly around the room, his footsteps making their presence known as they loudly kissed the floor.
According to her research and rumors, she heard from the market women, the cursed vampire prince was supposed to be blind.
Lily stood stiffly and cautiously opened her eyes. She directed them to Aziel who casually touched ornaments as he walked past them. This was not the trait of a blind man. If he was truly blind as the rumors carried, he should be with his stick to navigate his environment, or a helper to aid him in basic tasks.
'He might not be the cursed prince...' she thought to herself and newfound courage enveloped her, and she walked to where he was.
"I see you like gory paintings, huh?" She said breathy, almost as if she had just run a marathon.
Aziel cast her a glance before he went on to continue admiring the collections of his tea sets.
"In this castle, things like this are common," he swiftly faced her, causing her to bend back slightly. Aziel followed her movement and bent forward to stare at her face.
"What if I don't get used to it?" Lily whispered shakily.
"Then you die," Aziel said silently, the hot breath emanating from his lips, fanning her face. He stood upright and began walking forward, "Are you scared?"
"Huh?" Lily came back from her spaced-out moment and muttered his obvious question.
"I enjoy seeing you rub your sweaty palms. I love the sound of your fast-racing heart. The way your eyes waver thinking of different escape routes...it's quite amusing."
Lily stood rooted to the ground on which she stood. The way he said it was so creepy. Almost as if he would toy with her just to heighten her adrenaline for fear and drown in the pleasure of seeing her shivers.
She was about to say something but a loud raspy roar from behind her made her turn to look at the source.
There, was a bloodied man with a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, coming at her with full force.
She expertly dodged the strike that was coming at her and when she thought it was over, the man kept coming at her with the same intensity despite how frail he looked.
"Who are you?!" Lily yelled at the man but the empty look in the man's eyes showed her that he could not comprehend what she was saying.
It was evidence that the man only aimed to kill, but the way he aimlessly flung his sword at her told lily the man was not in his right senses. He was drugged.
Amidst trying to save herself from the attacks of the man, Lily's eyes searched for Aziel and when she found him, she couldn't help but glare hard at him.
He sat on the bed with his legs crossed as if he was some VIP watching wrestlers fighting in the village square.
All the while Aziel kept a serious face and watched the moves Lily made. Once in a while, he would scoff at her failed attempt to hide her skillfulness, other than that, he never said a word nor did they try to put an end to the fight which he could have easily done.
Lily ignored Aziel's presence and focused on removing the aggravated fellow before her. The man swished his sword at her for the umpteenth time and Lily got tired of dodging and finally put an end to it.
With her hands spread out, she skillfully gave the man a strike to the neck. That one strike made the man unconscious.
Lily breathed in and finally faced Aziel. "Did you see that?" She asked angrily, masked behind a calm face.
"I didn't see that, I felt it," Aziel said with a smile.
Lily paused for a moment and tried to understand what he meant by that statement.
This man!
She just couldn't figure out who he was. Some few hints point out that he is indeed the cursed prince. Just like now, he just admitted to not seeing meanwhile his other behaviors and his words.
'Maybe I'm overthinking, he probably didn't mean he was blind when he said he felt it...right?'
Lily tried to stay calm and convince herself while denying the truth that was staring her right in the eye.
Aziel quietly observed his surroundings. He picked out a fast heartbeat of Lily, and he smirked knowing fully well what caused her to fret this much.
He had been toying with her, making things harder for her to discover who the real cursed price was but, oh well, he was going to make things easier for her.
He had enough fun and now the whole act of playing dumb was becoming boring to him.
"Send him over," Aziel said casually to the guard, who in turn went straight up to the bloodied unconscious man and began kicking him towards Aziel.
The kicks were painful enough to get the man back to his consciousness but almost immediately, his eyes met the most sinister stare.
Aziel smiled cruelly at the weak man before him, "come closer," He said gesturing to the man with his right hand.
Despite being slightly conscious, the man still knew better than to heed the instructions of the monster sitting before him. He knew this was the end, but like every normal living thing, he struggled to look for an escape.
As he lay helplessly on the floor, he darted his eyes, and they fell on Lily, the girl with whom he had fought earlier.
Lily saw his silent cry for help and despite her mind telling her to stay put and observe, her mouth had other plans as she spoke without caution.
"What do you plan on doing to him?" She spoke shakily.
"Why? Do you want to help him?" Aziel asked with a small frown.
"N-no. You said you were hungry, so I was just thinking you should have some food before going ahead to punish him." Lily silently breathed a sigh of relief thinking she had managed to buy some minutes to save the man.
"Do not worry, this man right here is my meal."
Aziel didn't give Lily a second to comprehend his statement before digging his fangs into the salty flesh of the man.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I've finally resumed this book after two months of not writing. This chapter might be chaotic and have a lot of wording as I'm trying to pick up the pieces from where I left off. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience.