Everyone sat silently on the table with the chair opposite to Clarissa empty. The empty plates were placed in front of them as glares were being daggered around the table. The servants stood with their backs next to the walls behind each chair. The door opened once again and everyone's attention moved to the person.
Agathon stood there with a charming smile plastered on his face. He had changed out of his bloodied clothes into a green turtle neck along with dark blue jeans, he had black flip flops on his feet with white socks. His dark hair was wet and a little messy.
"I must apologise for the delay. " Agathon said as he walked towards Sandro as he got up from his seat to greet him. "Mr. Dominik, it's a pleasure to meet you." A sincere smile formed on his lips as he shook his hand warmly holding it in both of his hands.
Clarissa felt disgusted because she knew that smile on his lips was a fake one. Werewolves and Vampires had been enemies for far too long to greet each other with sincere smiles. That's what she hated the most about Vampires, they were good with deception. They were good at keeping up appearances. She always used the Urdu word 'munafiq' to refer to Vampires.
Sandro greeted him back and sat back in his seat. Agathon's eyes moved to Clarissa and he softly nodded his head standing at a distance from her.
"Ms. Dominik." He said.
"Mr. Aurelia." She replied in a similar demeanour.
"Ah.. You kids are being far too formal." Guilia laughed and Sandro laughed along with her. "Call each other by your names, you're engaged to be married." She added.
Agathon slightly smiled and chose to ignore her mother's comment as he walked over to his seat which was opposite to Clarissa.
"Would you at least like to explain to our guests why you showed up drenched in human blood?" Guilia asked, waving her hand up for servants to stay where they were.
"Yes, I apologise for what you both saw earlier. My guards and I were attacked by human hunters on the way." He said as Clarissa and Sandro's eyes dilated in surprise.
The reaction was similar from the Aurelia siblings.
"Hunters?" Theon said as he looked at Agathon from across the table.
"Yes. Hunters. Was I not clear about that?" He replied with a sarcastic tone.
"Agathon." His mother warned him.
"Humans have become tense ever since the treaty of Azurus was put forward. I believe they planned on killing me, the person who is responsible for the treaty, and wanted to stage the murder as if it was werewolves' fault." He said as he waved the servants and they stepped forward to the table and started serving food to everyone on the table.
Each servant was assigned to a single person on the table. Clarissa didn't feel comfortable with it , this wasn't the way she was accustomed to eating.
"What happened then?" Aeneas asked as the servants were done serving and had stepped back to their positions.
Agathon shrugged his shoulders. "I killed all of them." His red beaming eyes moved up at Clarissa and they made eye contact for a moment. He softly smiled and looked down at his plate.
"We should do something about humans. I've also heard how impatient and scared they are because of Azurus." Sandro added.
Agathon smiled and nodded. "We will. But we need to take one step at a time. It will take some time before we can merge Alman and Lizvia into Azurus so right now I want to focus on the wedding."
"Agathon is right. Humans have always been bothersome but their small toys can't really hurt us so it's better we focus on important things." Guilia added and Sandro agreed.
The clanging of the utensils continued on the table as Guilia and Sandro discussed politics while Clarissa gained the attention of the Aurelia siblings. Each pair of eyes shot glares at her but there was only one pair of eyes that bothered her and it wasn't a glare, it was an amusement right therein Agathon's eyes sparked as he watched her, making her uncomfortable under his gaze.
She stayed focused on her food. She gulped down the wine in her glass in one go as she received judgemental looks from around the table. Agathon smiled softly at her as he looked down at his plate. The servant assigned to Clarissa moved forward to pour more wine in her glass but she held her hand up.
"I can do it myself." She said, taking the bottle from him and pouring the wine in her glass.
Theon scoffed looking at Clarissa.
"Is there a problem, brother?" Agathon asked, looking at him from across the table.
Theon's jaw clenched as he shook his head in a 'no'. Agathon nodded slightly and said good.
"I can tell, Ms. Dominik, you're not comfortable with the servants handling your food." Agathon said.
"It's not that. I believe I'm capable enough to serve my own food and it is idiotic to have people standing behind me in case I need to sprinkle salt on my plate." Clarissa replied and he smiled softly nodding.
He gestured to the servant standing behind her to leave and the servant obliged quickly. He then moved his hand behind his head and gestured to the servant behind him to leave.
" I can't force everyone here to serve themselves but I'd like to practice this with you." He said with the same sincere smile he had on earlier.
Clarissa didn't like that look on his face. To her it just seemed like an illusion. He was like a sly fox with a silver tongue, if he were to lose his strength completely he would still come victorious in the war.
"Excuse me. I need some fresh air." Clarissa was about to stand up when Aeneas interrupted her.
"We don't leave the table until everyone has finished. Those are basic table manners." He narrowed his red eyes on her.
"It's okay, Aeneas, She's a guest." Guilia said.
"No. Aeneas is right." Cyra added. "She's going to be the part of the family she needs to get accustomed to the basic manners of this household."
"Cyra-" Guilia was going to say something but was interrupted by Sandro.
"It's okay. I apologise on my daughter's behalf. She didn't grow up in an environment like this, it'll take her sometime to get used to this." Sandro said as Clarissa looked at him in disbelief.
This is her father, the man who would rip off any vampire's head he'd lay eyes on and here he is apologising to them? She couldn't wrap her head around this all. Was he really that desperate to send her in this family as a spy? Was it really worth it?
"Mr. Dominik, you shouldn't apologise. You don't owe us any apology." Agathon stood up from his seat and walked around the table to Clarissa. He held his hand towards her, "Come on, I'll take you to the garden. You'll get lost in the castle if you go alone."
Clarissa wanted to refuse and stay in her seat but Agathon leaned forward and held her hand in his. She felt a chill run down her spine.
I need to discuss something with you.
The message in her mind played as she realised Agathon had used the skin contact to talk to her. It was one of the demonic abilities that vampires had, with close contact of skin to skin they were able to transfer their message telepathically into the other person's head. The closer and deeper the contact is the more information could be transferred. Clarissa had heard of this ability but it was her first time experiencing it.
She was a little taken aback but decided to follow him as he helped her up and led her out the room. The guards followed them outside the room but Agathon told them not to. The guards shared a look in between themselves and one of them said, "We're ordered by the Queen to stay by your side."
"The Queen would understand that I wanted some alone time with my fiancée." Agathon said as he intertwined his fingers with Clarissa's.
"We apologise, Prince. But we can't refuse her orders." They said and Agathon sighed.
"Okay, you can follow us but keep a distance."
They nodded and Agathon took Clarissa with him.
"I must apologise for this. My mother is a little paranoid but that doesn't mean she hates you." Agathon said letting go of her hand.
"It's okay if she hates me because I hate you all too." Clarissa politely smiled.
"Of course that's a given the hateful poisonous history our species have." Agathon smiled as he led her through the halls filled with poetry and pieces of literature painted on the walls. She seemed a bit mesmerized by the writings.
There was a particular one that caught her eye. She didn't understand the language but was drawn towards the handwriting.
"La Folia." Agathon said as he realized Clarissa's intrigue towards the piece.
"Huh?" She looked up at him and he smiled softly.
"'La Folia' is the name of this story." He said.
"What does it mean?" She asked in curiosity.
"Madness." He replied as he moved closer to the writing. "It's a story about two lovers who hated each other."
She scoffed a little, "How are they lovers when they hate each other?" She asked.
He smiled, "That's why it's called Madness."
"The writer of this piece is unknown and this is the only page of this story left." He let out a sigh. "I've tried to find the rest of the story but with the writer unknown and from it being centuries now it's really hard to find the rest."
"Why do you want to find it?" She asked.
He shrugged, "I want to know how it ends, the only thing this page tells is that they hated each other. The hate was embedded in their heart for years but despite that hate they fell in love."
"Isn't that the end of the story? I mean most stories that start with hate end up with love, don't they?" She added.
"I don't believe that's true for this one." He smiled at her. "Let's forget about it. We're actually here because I wanted to do something." He said and her eyebrows bumped in confusion.
"Someth-"
She was interrupted as he held her hand firmly and pulled her closer to him. His face inches away from her as he looked into her eyes with red beaming in his, he held her chin carefully as his eyes moved to her lips.
"I must apologise for being rude but I can't help it." Saying that he closed the distance between them and locked his lips with her.
Clarissa rested her hands on his shoulders as she closed her eyes deepening the kiss with him. Their hearts beat with excitement as they held onto each other, pulling each other in, his cold hands against her warm neck held it clumsily as she held onto his hands just standing.
Agathon finally pulled away with his breath heavy; he rested his forehead against hers as he caressed her cheek looking at her. She kept her eyes closed still holding his hand, resting on her face.
"I need an answer, Rissa. You have until the day of our wedding." Whispering that he stepped back and walked away from her.
Rissa, he was the only one who called her that. The only person she allowed to call her that.
She stood there with her hand on her chest as she tried to calm herself. She hated that he still had this effect on her. She hated that unlike last time she knew who exactly he was and she still feels excited by his touch even after his sins, the hurt
Her eyes fell on the writing in front of her as she read the title in a small whisper.
"La Folia." She chuckled with bitterness in her voice as she wiped her mouth.