Amanda woke up early the next morning feeling refreshed. With her night clothes on, she stood up and neared the French door of the balcony. The outside showed the cheerful sky of light blue and yellow-orange. She inhaled deeply and smiled.
She maybe in the witness protection program, but that didn’t mean she can’t tour the castle grounds freely.
Taking an early bath was the first step to it so she did that in a classy bathroom accessible just a few strides away from the bed. By the time she finished and exited with a towel wrapped around her body, breakfast was already laid in the coffee table, the bedroom door was open, the thick curtains were drawn to the sides, and the early morning light shone through.
There was a new maid busily fixing her bedding, but she seemed to be immersed with the rock music in her headphones.
“Uh, good morning?” Amanda stated, standing near the bat
To Amanda, the contact of their bodies, though brief, felt like acid and fire. Of the good and bad kind.Bad - because she swore she felt like he was killing her with his touch. Bled and dried. Tortured and stolen of her essence.Good - because she felt herself complete. Revived. Replenished of energy. Her nerve endings felt charged with a desirable electricity - an electricity that she could well be addicted too.And because of these conflicts inside her, she realized that staying in the Vitalis Castle could be more dangerous than being chased by drug lords and loan sharks.She needed to leave the place ASAP, but how will she explain this to Chief Moretti then?She can’t say that the Master of the House just threatened to tie her up in the pillar. That’s just too embarrassing of a reason. She might have the Chief think they were experimenting BDSM.
Right after dinner, Amanda positioned her laptop in the mattress just like what she did last night. Noman was the first to pop in complete with a clear video feed of him in a moon-printed shirt. He waved a ‘hi’ on her way and Amanda returned a ‘hello’ back.Just as he was about to start his daily interrogations about her experiences in the castle, Matteo’s number flashed on her cellphone screen, registered as his eleventh attempt of call for the day.Amanda sighed and picked up the gadget lying next to the laptop.“I better take this call, Dom. I have been ignoring Matt since this morning, ” she said while sitting in her mattress, Indian style.Noman nodded. “Yeah, you should. I’ll just wait. I won’t log-out.”Amanda pressed the answer button and right then and there, Matteo’s worried but stiff voice flowed.
'To hell be this morning, ′ Cord cursed as another day greeted him complete with the morning sun blaring against the castle rooftops. He wore no blindfold on, sitting in his throne chair with a lazy posture, enshrouded by his liquid shadows. He expected a peaceful rest to overtake him, but the contrary happened.Dammit, the woman was like an alarm clock to him.Every sure beat of the Amanda’s heart was like a lullaby, but it wasn’t an invitation to sleep, it was an invitation to listen more along with her footsteps all over the hallways.She must be having another tour with the maid, he mused. Would have been better if I did it.But of course he couldn’t. Wouldn’t.After his moment of weakness last night, he promised to harden himself and he was damned sure to do just that.Not like he wasn’t already doing it.
Silent. Awkward. And as usual, a torture. Their second dinner could be summarized like that. Again. The Master said nothing more after that illustrious admission of his. Amanda remained smartly silent, acting as if she enjoyed the meal when in truth her stomach felt like it had just turned upside down. Who wouldn’t be when this kind of a man just revealed what he thinks about her? Amanda knew the purpose of this dinner was to be interrogated about what she witnessed during the time of the murder. She didn’t expect it would turn out a confession as well. It consequently placed her in a hot seat. Especially in addition to another predicament of hers: the Master’s uncovered eyes. During dinner, she felt like a mouse trapped in a cage. Why? Because the he kept on drilling a hole through her with his secretive star
Although drinking her blood was his precise plan, Cord had just tested her at that moment to see how brave she was. He expected her to refuse then, but to his stunned reaction, she accepted. His fiery little butterfly actually accepted. That got him encouraged even more to proceed with biting her wrist. And now, this happened. Surely not of blood loss. Cord replayed that sentence in his mind over and over again when he saw Amanda faint. Her body sagged like a sack of grain against the chair. A curtain of her hair covered her neck - to his relief - while most of her face was pressed against the back cushion. Painstakingly, he pulled his mouth from her flesh and stared at her with hooded eyes, hints of passion managing to spark from it before he had them snuffed. Blood continued to come out from her wrist in beads but he didn’t mind licking it clean. Hell, the blood could wait. Her well-being couldn’t. Try
Using his ability, Cord disappeared from the throne room and materialized to where he felt Amanda’s weakening presence. Liquid shadows first enveloped him, from the foot to the head, and it dispersed, the moment he touched the grassy ground.He scanned from side to side, trying to find any traces of the woman: her golden-brown locks maybe or just a silhouette of her body, but he found none.Seething in anger, he directed his focus on her heartbeat again. He found it somewhere near the vicinity, very faint and decreasing, but the exact location of it was a mystery to him.Where was she?The biter who had the audacity to attack her had already fled. Cord couldn’t feel his presence anymore. But he would have wanted for the biter to stay, just so that he could exact revenge and tear his neck apart.Aware that time was ticking, Cord continued to scan the area. His blindnes
Hypnotized? Under a spell? Or tied on invisible strings? That’s what it somehow looked like when Amanda stood up and strode towards the sleeping Master. Her eyes were a deep violet - the brown shade in them gone. There were swirls of red in the center appearing alive just like the waves in the sea and the clouds in the sky. She had no mission in mind. Nothing at all except to.... “Kill him...” she voiced in her thoughts as she stared at Cord with anger. “I’ll kill him...” Like a cat undetected in the night, she moved fluidly, kneeling and drawing her legs apart to sit on his lap. Her weight, surprisingly, didn’t even wake him. She placed both palms against his heart first feeling for a steady beating there but found none. This didn’t stop her. It only made her narrow her eyes at him and poised to lock her hands on his neck. “Rexcord Alexande
Amanda and Cord had basically dueled for dominion earlier, trying to be the person to get on top the other. Skin contact was already established. She should have known then that he was different from other vampires, but only now, when Cord embraced her, their bodies pressed so close no gap were visible, that she noticed one pertinent detail about him. Contrary to popular belief, Cord actually felt warm. Warm. He was as warm as she was, and damn, it actually felt good. She hadn’t been embraced like this before. It was with so much passion that it weakened her anger. She couldn’t deny that it tugged a string in her heart, no matter how she trained it to be as dead as possible. She knew that vampires always, always weren’t supposed be trusted, but with the Vitalis Master, she wondered if she could make an exception. “Cord, you-you can let go of me now, ” Amanda stated, her ha