Leah angrily sat on the bed, cutting through some of her trousers with a pair of scissors, her mumbling filling the room. It had been three days since Lucius threatened to burn her friend. It has been three days since she accepted her new life... Her worst fate. And through out these three days, Lucius had not shown up in her room, not even once.
"All of this wouldn't be happening if you had refused Maria's invitation to that stupid ball," Leah muttered to herself aloud.
Just as she spoke, a knock on the door abruptly interrupted her mumbles.
"Come in," she responded to the person at the door.
Anastasia entered the room and closed the door behind her, her gaze fixated on Leah, who appeared deeply engrossed in her task.
"I hope I'm not interrupting," Anastasia inquired, glancing at the clothes spread out on the bed.
"Oh, Your not. I'm not doing anything serious here, I'm just messing around," Leah replied, stretching her hand to drop the scissors on the side drawer. "Would you like to sit?" Leah asked, clearing some of her clothes from the bed.
"Sure," Anastasia replied, going to sit on the bed. "Lucius told me that you've been feeling moody these past few days," Anastasia said immediately she settled on the bed with Leah.
"Did he?" Leah asked, to which Anastasia nodded. Leah's frown deepened as she asked, "Did he mention the reason why I'm in a bad mood?" The memory of Lucius's threat to burn Ami resurfaced, causing her to feel angry and anxious.
"No," Anastasia replied, noticing Leah's change in demeanor and wondering if Lucius was the cause of her sour mood. "Did Lucius do something?" Anastasia asked, concern evident in her voice.
Leah sighed softly before beginning to narrate everything to Anastasia, her voice tinged with resentment. She carefully omitted the part about being a hunter, and Ami being a witch. By the time she was done explaining, she had a very frustrated look on her face.
Anastasia was silent after hearing everything, she knew very well that Lucius was capable of doing all those things that Leah had just told her, but she didn't expect him to mark Leah.
'He must have made a mistake,' she thought inwardly.
"I can remove the mark he placed on your wrist if you want," Anastasia said, with a little shrug.
Leah raised up her head to glance at Anastasia, her eyes looking brighter than before.
"Really?" Leah asked slightly doubtful, and Anastasia nodded with a reassuring smile. "Thank you so much," Leah's voice was filled with so much relief as she spoke.
Leah extended her wrist towards Anastasia, who carefully took hold of it, inspecting it for a moment. Then, Anastasia bit her own thumb, drawing out a small amount of blood. She pressed her slightly bloodied thumb against Leah's wrist, and Leah's skin began to absorb the blood. As the blood mingled, Leah experienced a tingling, burning sensation where Anastasia's thumb made contact. However, the sensation gradually faded away.
Anastasia pulled her thumb away from Leah's wrist with a proud smile on her lips.
"It's done," Anastasia said, cheerfully.
Leah brought up her hand to glance at her wrist before slowly rubbing it.
"Thank you so much, Anna," Leah said, gratefully, a genuine smile appearing on her face.
"It's fine. It's just a small favour," Anastasia said, waving her hand like what she did was nothing. "We are friends, so this is really nothing," Anastasia said stretching her hand forward to take Leah's hand but when her palm made contact with Leah's palm, she immediately retracted her hand like she had just felt an electric shock.
"Are you okay?" Leah moved closer to her with a worried look but Anastasia only backed away from her, coming down from the bed.
Anastasia looked scared as she glanced at Leah and then back at her own palm.
"Um... I... I have something to check on," Anastasia stuttered backing towards the door. "But... We can talk later," she said as she got to the door, hurriedly opening it and stepping out, before slamming the door shut.
Leah looked confused as she glanced at the closed door. She didn't understand what had suddenly scared Anastasia. One minute they were talking and the next minute Anastasia suddenly started acting like she had seen a ghost... Like Leah was the ghost.
Leah sighed tiredly and lay back on the bed.
'I'll talk to her later,' she assured herself.
...
Anastasia slammed her palm on the door to her brother's study repeatedly till the door cracked open from the inside. She pushed it wide open stepping inside the office.
The sight that greeted her only upset her even more.
"What are the both of you doing in here?" Anastasia asked, glaring at William and Andrea who were smoking on a couch.
Andrea was sitting on William's lap with his hand circled around her waist.
"What does it look like we're doing?" William asked her back, as he extinguished his cigarette on the ash tray by the side table.
Anastasia looked away from them, her eyes scanning the room before glanced back at them.
"Where is my brother?" she asked the both of them.
"He is in the library, with Lucius," Andrea replied, licking the small trail of blood on her wrist.
What she did only seem to anger Anastasia even more.
"Next time the both of you decide to get disgusting, I suggest you lock yourselves in your rooms and do it in there," Anastasia said and walked away from the study.
"Anna wait," Andrea tried calling Anastasia but she was already gone.
...
"How many books did you say are missing again?" Alexander asked, as he ran his finger on the shelf where one of the said books that Lucius was looking for had previously been placed a few weeks ago.
"Two," Lucius replied, as he calmly flipped through a small book in his hand.
Though he looked calm on the outside, he was far from calm on the inside. Those books were very important to him and the only reason he left them in the general library was because he trusted everybody in the house, at least that was until two weeks ago.
"We've been losing a lot of things lately," Lucius commented, before raising his eyes from the book in his hand to glance at Alexander. "You said someone broke into your study last night?" Lucius asked flatly.
"It wasn't exactly a break in since the door and windows were still locked this morning, but I noticed that some of my things were missing from my safe." Alexander replied, his attention moving to the direction of the footsteps approaching him and Lucius.
"Alexander!!" Anastasia's voice rang angrily from the other side of the shelf.
Alexander simply mumbled to himself without answering his sister's call. He already knew that she was angry because she only call him by his full name when she is upset about something, same with him.
"You!" Anastasia yelled, angrily immediately she came face to face with her brother and Lucius.
"What is it this time, Anna?" Alexander asked calmly, without even spearing her a glance.
"When were the two of you going to tell me that Leah is a hunter?!" Anastasia asked glaring at Lucius and Alexander.
"Bring your voice down." Alexander glared at her.
Lucius kept the book he was reading back before striding away from the siblings.
"Are you leaving?" Alexander asked, obviously not pleased that Lucius was leaving him alone with his angry sister.
Lucius stopped and glanced back at the both of them over his shoulder.
"You were the one who decided not to tell her the truth, so talk to her," Lucius said, his eyes moving to Anastasia. "And try not to burn my books," he said, obviously directing his statement to Anastasia before leaving the two of them.
Lucius thought about visiting Leah since he hadn't seen her since their last conversation. However, he had more pressing matters to attend to. Someone important had been chained up in the underground tunnels in the woods for days, and Lucius needed to see that person. This person might have the answers to the questions that he had been searching for in the library for the past few days now. Lucius decided to postpone his visit to Leah and headed towards the woods.