Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 203: Different

The walls were just as yellow on the inside as they were outside. A bit scuffed perhaps, quite rough to the touch for the exposure to years upon years of time wore them down.

Although, despite the many cracks that dared riddle their surfaces, they still held on to dear life, determined to stand for more centuries yet to come.

"As I said before, this place was not my first choice for an outing," he started, "However, the recent conversation we had changed my mind,"

"What was your first choice, if I may ask?"

"I’d drafted a permit request in order to visit the great old castle of our province, but I haven’t sent it out yet,"

Instead of focusing on those words, Arabella’s mind instead remained stuck on the previous ones, "How did our recent conversation change your mind?"

Her voice so gentle, it untwined all the knots that had his vocal cords entangled, "You spoke of isolation in your younger years as if it were a long lost relative, a dear family member," he looked her in the eyes, "Our circumstances may not have been the exact same but your words on the matter opened a door I’d long since locked and believed to have left behind myself,"

Right she’d been to think so. Arabella had the answer even before asking the question.

"You’d so trustingly volunteered a piece of your past, I merely thought I’d share a fragment of mine as well,"

The words did not come easy. What to say to that? Was Arabella supposed to thank him? Was that the right thing to do before her master?

Was it what he’d expected from her?

The glint from the sun came much softer than it did earlier. The stronger warmth that enveloped her whole in that moment was Silas’ as he slowly cut the distance between them shorter until they stood at measly inches from each other.

When his right hand rose and went straight for her hair, she did not flinch, did not pull away from him, her gemstones simply gazing back into his diamonds.

His finger ran through the more so voluminous strands that had thickened due to the minerals and moisture that glided along the air.

After pushing the tousled little curls out of his way, he cupped her cheeks, rattling every dormant butterfly within her, prompting the flutters among her guts that quickly rose to her palpitating heart.

That sort of skin-to-skin contact between them ignited her nerve endings on a fire that burned red with passion for... Something she had yet to put her finger on.

Things weren’t so different from his perspective, but it was the clear and cloudless green of her irises that absorbed him.

It was then that Ada’s words about the effects of the Mirari blared back in his head, bouncing from one inner wall to the other.

His lips parted but the words were held back by a few seconds of delay, "This entire time I wondered...," he trailed off, only carrying on upon noting the furrowed eyebrows on her, "I wondered what it was that made you different,"

The longer gap of silence encouraged her to ask, "Different from who or what?"

"From the rest of my blood providers,"

"In what way?"

By that point, the two of them merely whispered their words to each other.

"I kept wondering why the Mirari did not affect you the way it did with them, but then I remembered...,"

He dragged his thoughts along which was pure torture for the young woman, "What did you remember?"

"You are the only one I’ve volunteered to always heal with my blood,"

There was a spark that shone bright in her widening eyes. One that vanished as quickly as it had appeared, "Oh... I see," she paused very shortly, "Yes, I do consume your blood the very next day after every feeding session," Arabella nodded slowly after breaking eye contact.

For some reason, the floor beneath their feet seemed like the most interesting thing all of the sudden.

Silas noticed the shift in her demeanor almost immediately, as subtle as it was. It seemed as though something broke or at the very least, cracked in her.

Had he uttered the wrong thing?

That time around, the vampire refused to let it slide and put his hand under her chin in order to raise her gaze back towards him, "What is it?" he breathed.

"I understand, I always deemed it beyond my comprehension and therefore never dwelled on the matter but, I suppose now...,"

When the young woman did not finish her sentence, Silas gave her a verbal nudge, "What do you suppose?"

"Well, now that you’ve figured out the reason was as simple as that, things can go back to normal,"

Normal, as they should be since he finally figured out that there was nothing truly special about her. On the contrary, he was the special one all along.

Putting her back in line with the rest of the people around him, where she belonged, should have been his next move.

"What do you mean, normal?" for once, he fought neither his furrowing eyebrows nor the creases they yielded up his forehead.

"I am just a simple human, like every other that came knocking on your door for safety and...," her voice had turned brittle again, "We may go back to having a standard, appropriate Master and servant relationship," she gave slow, deep nods along with her own words, as if to convince herself more than him. freeweɓnøvel~com

It was the turn for his core to be shaken, but he never looked away even when her eyes refused to meet his.

It was in no way the scenario he hoped for, never the outcome he imagined, certainly not what he aimed for, and yet... That was the conclusion she drew from it.

Before he’d gathered the proper words to align, her hands very carefully connected with his and pushed her face out of his grasp.

The young woman turned around and exited the room, leaving him there with his screaming thoughts as a sole companion.

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