"W-why?"
Ember choked out.
"Why not? You are beautiful. You set my heart on fire the moment I set my eyes on you. You invade my thoughts and drive me crazy."
He paused, nibbling on his lower lip.
"I fancy you, and I want you in my bed."
Ember swallowed again, struggling to comprehend what had just happened.
As her trembling hand grabbed the teacup for a sip, the door jerked open, and the cook wheeled in a food tray comprising a variety of mouth-watering meals.
She settled each plate on the center table before them and poured them each a glass of wine, replacing their teacups.
Immediately she was out again, Ember gulped down the whole content of wine.
"Consume to your satisfaction. When you are done, we can talk."
Duke Dallas refills her bottle and settles back in his seat to watch her eat.
However, as he did, his supernatural sensitive hearing had immediately caught on the conversation in the kitchen downstairs.
"Who is she?"
A worker asked, her voice sealed with spite.
"I don't know. Where could he have found such a hideous-looking girl?"
The cook who had just served them earlier added.
"Why do you think she is hideous?"
"She has a very ugly scar. She could be that monster they said sucks people's blood."
The cook suggested, chuckling along with her coworkers thereafter. She was chopping something, the Duke could collect.
"I saw you pouring the whole content of the peanut powder into the meal you took to them. Why did you do that?"
The Duke could hear the smirk in her tone as she said: "She is allergic to that. It was my intention."
The Duke suddenly jerked onto his feet, poured the rest of the wine in each of the meals to prevent any consumption of it, and proceeded to the door.
But, before he pushed open the door, he turned around.
"I have an important business to attend to. Do not wait."
And, off he was, dashing out of the bedroom and skipping through the flight of stairs, leaving a perplexed Ember back in the bedroom.
When Ember gathered herself, she walked out of the bedroom and hoped to help herself out of the Duke's mansion without the notice of a single person, especially the saucy cook.
What had seemed to be a start of shocking revelations and confessions had ended in a plot twist.
Now, she had a lot of unanswered questions in her head.
Did the Duke fancy her as he confessed? Why did he leave like that, then?
In the quest to find the door of the main entrance, her eyes darted to the opened kitchen door.
It was left ajar, and something within it caught her gaze.
Someone lay on the floor, but she only saw the person's foot.
She moved closer, and as she grabbed the door handle, she realized that it was stained with blood.
And, when she stared at her palm, there was blood on it.
With her heart beating faster than its normal pace, she walked into the kitchen.
In a few seconds, she dropped to the floor in shock; her eyes widened at the scene before her.
There were six of them, and they were all dead, including the saucy cook.
They had blood dripping from their neck and staining their workers' uniforms. And, they had bite marks.
Before Ember could bat an eye, officers darted into the scene, collecting the bodies of the workers into body bags, and two of the officers apprehended her immediately, placing her under arrest for the murder of the workers.