Chapter 26

26 The Hooded Vampire

“First night of what? Dinner?” Anastasia pouted her lips and thought, ‘He could have at least said what we would be doing so that I could prepare myself accordingly...’

She sighed again because she did not like the fact that he could disappear from her room before she could even say a complete word. ‘I should ask him not to run like that when he leaves my room from now on.’

Anastasia went and stood in front of the mirror. She thought while checking her reflection, ‘I hope this dress will be okay for whatever he has planned for the night.’

Anastasia was now left all alone in the room with a couple of hours left for the day to end. She tried to occupy herself but the loneliness finally caught up to her.

Without Tilla around and also her collection of some reality-escaping novels, Anastasia was bored out of her mind. There was nothing that she could do to keep herself entertained in that lonely castle.

She flopped on her bed and let out a long, exasperated noise. And she scolded herself, “Why didn’t you bring any books with you, Anna?”

She pouted and poked her cheeks with her fingers. “Did you think that you were going to die on the very first day? Or did you think that you would find something more interesting than the books here?”

A soft smile appeared on Anastasia’s lips because her brain sent an interesting image of her husband in front of her eyes. And she whispered in her daze, “Well, Caspian’s interesting.”

And she abruptly widened her eyes and slapped her lips for saying that out loud. ‘Don’t say such scandalous things, you stupid mouth!’

.....

Anastasia sighed again and got up from the bed intending to call Martha and Holly.

However, she had just met her personal maids and didn’t really know how to indulge them in conversations without making it awkward for both parties. So, she didn’t bother calling them in either.

Anastasia then went to her antechamber from where she could see the front view of the castle. She stood by the window and kept on staring to see if she would see something interesting. But all she could see were some birds that would fly by every once in a while.

Her eyes suddenly widened with excitement because she noticed a black blur running from the castle to the tall wall until it vanished from her sight.

“Oh! I think that was a vampire! I can see them run! Sort of...” She lightly clapped because that had been the most exciting thing that she saw in the past two hours.

She let out a deep sigh and sat down on the sofa. As there was nothing better to do, she began to recall her earlier interaction with Caspian. ‘So he was born in the early 1300s huh! I wonder how the world was like back then.’

Anastasia lay down on the sofa while facing the fireplace. She trailed her eyes around at the paintings and tapestries that were hung on the wall.

“Wait!” she suddenly looked back at the painting that was hung above the fireplace. An extremely beautiful woman was bathing two little children.

She had already seen that painting a couple of times while she lounged in her antechamber. But now that she looked at it again, she had a hunch that the woman in that painting was Caspian’s mother and the children were him and his brother.

Anastasia got down to closely inspect that painting. Though the colors of the painting were already cracking and had started to peel off, it was still beautiful.

She squinted her eyes and looked at the face of the babies to see if one of them looked like Caspian.

And her eyes twinkled when she inspected the face of the younger child who looked around three years old. “Ah! This one resembles his eyes and nose. Maybe this is indeed him and his family.”

She then giggled and thought, ‘But why is was he painted naked? And why is it hung in this room?’

Anastasia then shifted her glance at the child who looked around eight years old and then thought, ‘This must be Caspian’s brother.’

She recalled Caspian saying that his brother was the King before him. Her face turned gloomy all of a sudden because she knew what that meant. ‘His brother is already...’ she sighed and thought, ‘I guess he doesn’t have any other close relatives than Lady Edith and her family.’

And she felt the pit of her stomach churn. ‘I cannot even imagine having to live such a long life.’ She gazed at the painting again and lightly touched on that child’s face. ‘Doesn’t he miss his family? He must have felt very lonely.’

—

A little far away from the Kilerth Castle, in the forest that surrounded it, a vampire in a black hooded cloak was frantically waiting for someone.

‘She asked me to be here at 5. So why isn’t she here yet?’ that vampire thought to himself as he tapped his fingernail on his crooked front teeth.

He had already scanned the surrounding with his red eyes for the hundredth time within a matter of 5 minutes. It almost looked as though he was trying hard not to be seen by the other vampire than the one he was waiting for.

That vampire sighed in frustration and then took out his brass pocket watch from his black waistcoat. ‘It is already 6 minutes past five!’

He looked in one particular direction and thought, ‘Come on! Where are you? The others will notice if I disappear for too long.’

He lightly paced around for a bit because he was getting anxious by the second. His eyes and ears were alert all of a sudden when he heard someone running towards him. And the corner of his lips pulled up because the beautiful woman that he was waiting for was finally standing not too far away from him.

“Beth!” he called her name in the softest whisper and instantly closed the gap between them.

He gazed at her beautiful eyes and her cherry-red lips. Those lips made him recall the hot and passion-filled kiss that they shared yesterday after the ball. So he leaned in for a kiss but Beth pressed her finger on his lips and stopped him.

“Elias, I would have loved to devour you... but the others might recognize my scent on you if you do that. So we better be careful, until the main task for today is complete.” Beth gave the sweetest smile to that man.

Elias gave a sad smile to Beth. Though he would have loved to claim her lips right there, what Beth was saying was valid. He didn’t want to be caught by anyone, especially Zenon. “You are right. I shall resist the temptation for now then.”

“We can arrange a rendezvous some other time. It shall be your reward after you close that human’s chapter forever.” Beth winked at him and slipped a small vial inside his waist pocket.

She then playfully ran her finger on his cheek and seductively whispered, “Make sure that human takes it. Force her, trick her, I don’t care. All I care about is the result.”