The next day, in the early morning, Eve stood in front of the ceiling-to-floor glass window, looking at the castle grounds where three carriages were parked. She wondered if the family was going out. Her hands were clasped together in front of her, and she turned her face towards the door as a knock sounded.
"Come in," she invited. The visitor turned out to be one of her personal maids, Ester.
"It's time for breakfast, Milady," the young female vampire bowed.
Eve nodded and began walking towards the door. She had bathed and dressed earlier. As she neared the maid, who stood to the right of the door, Ester raised her head. Her eyes fell on Eve's neck, zeroing in on a bold mark that had started to turn purple.
"Milady, you are bruised," Ester panicked.
"Bruised?" Eve echoed, her hand instinctively rising to the left side of her neck where she had been bitten. But that wasn't what the maid was referring to.
Ester led her to a full-length mirror, turning Eve so she could see the bruise herself. Eve's brows furrowed as she viewed the purplish bruise on her skin. She touched it but felt no pain. As her fingers pulled away, realization dawned on her. A blush crept over her face. It was the result of Sebastian's kiss, and she knew he had done it deliberately. The mark was situated where her dress collar would not hide it.
Ester continued to observe Eve, whose face had reddened and who was looking nervous.
"You look ill, Milady. Are you sure you're alright?" Ester couldn't help but ask. If her lady fell ill, there was a higher possibility of punishment from the King.
"Ah... Yes, I am," Eve snapped out of her thoughts. "Do you know how we can cover this?" She asked quickly. Ester nodded, picking up the makeup from the dressing table. The prior day, she had overheard servants whispering about seeing the human carried in the arms the King. She noted Eve's blush but remained silent, applying powder to the mark. Unfortunately, the color of the bruise was too deep to be covered.
"Milady, the bruise can't be covered with color," she admitted, dropping her hands to her sides.
Eve pursed her lips while looking at the half-concealed mark. It wasn't very noticeable unless someone stared for a lengthy period. She didn't want to take chances. She undid her neatly tied bun, letting her hair cascade down her shoulders. She selected a light pink colored scarf from her closet and tied it around her neck.
Glancing into the mirror once more, she turned to Ester and said, "Let's go." The maid nodded and followed three steps behind Eve out of the room and down the stairs. Upon reaching the dining hall, Ester bowed and waited outside, as maids were not permitted in the hall when the family was dining.
As Eve entered the large room, her eyes fell on the people seated at the dining table. There were visitors, she noted, as the number of people had increased. Her steps slowed as she approached her seat beside Sebastian, who had looked up from his meal to watch her.
It was only when she got closer that she scrutinized the visitors. Her brown eyes widened and she almost tripped over the hem of her dress.
"Easy there, darling," Sebastian smirked as he said, and Eve turned to glare at him but briefly so no one else would notice. The day was going to be a long and interesting day and he was definitely going to enjoy every seconds as it passed. The letter Leif had brought to him from Vrussia mentioned Eve's family and the King and his ministers coming to visit.
Beads of cold sweat dripped down Eve's back as she bowed at King Krantz of Vrussia and the ministers and then her Parents.
"I was wondering if you wanted to skip your meal this morning," Queen Rohesia said disdainfully when Eve bowed in greetings. She didn't see the need to hide the fact that she didn't like the human, same with the rest seated on the table. Her wrinkled face scrunched in disgust.
"I didn't know we had visitors and breakfast would be served earlier," Eve replied as she sat down in her seat. The day she left home, she had thought she wouldn't ever have to see their faces again but here they were, staring back at her with visible contempt. It was no doubt they were forced to visit.
"It is good to see you in good health, sister Evelyn," Eve who had picked up her cutlery to start eating heard the voice of Grace. She looked up immediately, surprised that the vampiress had spoken to her.
Though she was smiling, it never reached Grace's red eyes who watched as Eve stared at her. She hadn't changed in Eve's eyes, she looked the same, something with vampires not aging fast.
When Eve finally replied, her voice spoke in high volumes of confidence, "Of course I would be, were you expecting something else?" she smiled, her head tilting to the side.
Her eyes fell on Grace hands and surprisingly, she still had her ring which meant she was still married. It was either she had tamed the Duke's son or 'she' was tamed, which was likely impossible.
"We keep to our words," Queen Rohesia didn't want to miss the chance as she said, "But you know, we can't always guarantee safety," she sliced the half cooked meat on her plate and brought it to her lips as she stared at King Krantz whose brows furrowed in confusion.
"No one can but we see you've kept lady Evelyn safe," Krantz said.
Queen Rohesia hummed and nodded, not arguing with his words. They continued their breakfast in silence with only the cutleries making sounds as they made contact with the ceramic plates.
"Some of the vampires has managed to infiltrate into our Kingdom in the past two weeks," King Krantz stated as they finished their meal, and the maids came to clear the dining table when Sebastian rang a tiny bell.
"They are the rogues," Leif was the one to answer.
"Rogues?"
"The vampires who have lost their sense of reasoning, they are the only ones who feed from both vampires and humans and are stronger than the average vampires."
"The humans who are bitten turn to vampires," one of the ministers, Hawkins said with a frown. He wasn't keen with the vampires and with some of the blood-suckers attacking the humans made him annoyed.
"The vampires who are bitten are bedridden for days, we don't have humans here to have tested how fatal the rogues' bite could be on them," Sebastian replied, noting the irritation in the elderly human's voice.
The man pursed his lips as he sent a glare towards Sebastian before looking away.
"Lady Evelyn had been bitten yesterday but she isn't showing any signs of transformations," Oriana chimed in, and has she had expected, the Vrussians weren't happy about the news as they looked at Sebastian.
"Even Lady Evelyn wasn't kept safe as you had claimed, how would we trust you to keeping Vrussia safe?" Hawkins asked.
"I only gave word to protect my bride, not the people in her Kingdom," Sebastian lazily replied as he picked up a knife and an apple from the fruit basket.
"King Sebastian," Krantz called his attention and the vampire looked up at him.
"I was not bitten, your highness," Eve quickly said while throwing an irritating look at Oriana.
"Yo-"
"Oriana!" The mother Queen called silently asking her not to involve herself in the matters of the court.
"Then why do you have your neck covered with a scarf? There is a much warmer temperature this morning to claim you're cold," Hawkins said, eyeing her neck and waiting to see the fang marks.
"This-" Eve's hand instinctively raised to the scarf and she felt her face heaten as she turned to Sebastian who concentrated on peeling the apple in his hand. His lips was stretched in a wide grin that she could see his fangs.
"You can show us the mark, Lady Evelyn. You don't have to be scared of him," Krantz said as he glanced at Sebastian, the man did look scary with the grin on his face and he wondered if he had threatened her.
Eve's hand was still on the scarf and she continued to look at Sebastian waiting for him to say something but he wasn't looking away from the apple.
Reluctantly, she pulled the scarf, feeling the momentary silence seep into her bones as everyone waited to see the two punctured holes.
Her neck felt the cool air as she unwrapped the scarf around her neck and the bite mark was visible to them but not the one they wanted to see. Oriana who had a satisfied smile on her lips slowly frowned as she stared at the purplish mark on her skin.
Sebastian's brows drew together, he saw the fang marks from the previous day to be missing from the left side of her neck.
Though the answer was at the back of everyone's mind, they ignored it and Hawkins questioned, "How did you get bruised, lady Evelyn?"
Eve had whirled her mind for a possible answer and she opened her mouth to reply when Sebastian cut in.
"How shameful of you to ask about our bedroom life," he tched at the end, putting a slice of apple in his mouth. He watched as the realization hit everyone. They all looked away from Eve's neck in embarrassment.
"We- I-"
"You have just arrived, why don't we save all these questioning till dusk. The servants will take you to your arranged room," Sebastian dismissed all of them.
He saw how Grace stared at Eve before standing up from the table and followed her parents out of the hall. He had noticed all of them glancing at Eve as they ate. Leif had told him about them and it wasn't a surprise to see them glaring at her.
But they were also shocked, the surprise dancing in their red orbs, maybe because Eve was alive whereas they wanted her dead? Sebastian's pupil dilated, it would be an irony then, as they would be the ones to die.