{21} I bought a Vampire from an Auction ° What have i Gotten Myself into!
Humans, Lust Animals
The candles around us turned off one by one leaving us in darkness. I could barely see his face with the little moon light that entered through the windows.Alexandre put his hands under my knees and took my body off the ground; my body was once again pressed against him.
I could barely see his face with the little moonlight that came in through the window. He seemed to be thinking seriously about something. His mischievous grin started to slip and his mouth turned into an ugly scowl. His moodiness seemed to be getting worse. He ignored me and walked to the window.
“Wh-what are you doing?” I stuttered.
He didn’t answer. He just kept his emotionless face and kept walking until he stopped in front of the window. I looked down but wasn’t able to see anything but bottomless dark. My heart jumped as I clutched his white shirt.
“Alexandre! What are you doing?” I said shaking. I wasn’t very fond of heights
“We are jumping of course.” he answered. My eyes widened. I opened my mouth to protest, but before I was able to make a sound, the floor disappeared and we were falling. I wanted to shout but I felt Alexandre’s cold hand covering my mouth, preventing me from making any sound.
The landing was surprisingly soft and peaceful. I didn’t even hear it.
I stayed where I was. My arms were around his strong shoulders and my face was hidden under his shaved chin. I was shaking, my eyes were tightly closed, and I tried to even my fast breaths that hit the soft skin of Alexandre’s exposed neck. I was still too scared to be embarrassed about my position against him.
Alexandre shook a little before he stiffened.
“Get off me.” he snarled as he dropped me on the grass before I could answer.
I jumped on my feet and glared at him.
“What is wrong with you?” I almost shouted. “I could have died. You almost gave me a heart attack. We could have used the stairs like normal human beings you know!” He raised an eyebrow and stared at me amused.
“Well, I am not normal nor a human being, so that rule doesn’t apply to me.” he answered. I huffed but didn’t reply. He continued speaking.
“Besides, there are guards all over the mansion looking for you. They would probably notice you coming from your hiding place. I’m guessing that you don’t want your secret place to be known.” he said curtly.
I processed his words and smiled a little. He noticed it and glared.
“I didn’t do it for you.” he growled. “If your father sees that I found you, he might take my punishment away.”
“Oh…” I said a bit disappointed. I remembered the day we came from the cave and the punishment my father gave him.
“Alright, I won’t punish him as the law commands.” My lips curved upwards into a grateful smile. He continued talking. “But there will be a small punishment. He will not be allowed to be fed regularly on blood. He will be given just enough blood to keep him from turning into a blood lusting animal.”
Now I really wanted to ask Alexandre a question but I was afraid that he would get even angrier at me, so I remained quiet.
We were halfway to the main door when I built up the courage to ask him.
“Umm… Alexandre?” I asked shyly.
“Yes?” he asked without bothering to look at me.
“About what my father said… is it true that you turn into a ‘blood lusting animal’. . .” I said making air quotes “. . . when you don’t feed?”
He stopped and looked at me. He looked angry, very angry. When he spoke his voice wasn’t loud or heated, but icy cold and soft. Somehow, it made me feel more frightened.
“Humans think they know so much about us, but they don’t know anything. If there is a lusting animal in this world, it is the humans. We are rational beings. We don’t let pleasure rein our lives. Humans eat when they are not hungry, drink when they are not thirsty, and harm their bodies with toxic substances. Humans have no sense of self preservation. You kill, without remorse, the vegetation and wildlife without even trying to preserve its balance.” He stopped breathing hard and the words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“And vampires don’t?” I asked and regretted it.
“No, we don’t. Humans don’t care because they know they are going to die; they know that they won’t be alive to see the consequences of their actions. But we live forever. We get to see the consequences of our actions and we have to answer for them. No one can live for as long as we have and not be wise.”
I stayed quiet this time. Somehow I could understand what he was saying and I knew it was true. We didn’t speak until we reached the main entrance. Alexandre looked at and examined me.
“Comb your hair.” He said
“Why?” I asked curious.
“It looks like a mess.” he started and I felt a little hurt. “I don’t want your parents to think that I ravished you in the forest-”. He stopped mid-sentence and seemed to be thinking about something. His eyes turned icy and he opened the doors leaving me behind.
***
It had been a week. It had been a long seven days since I had properly seen Alexandre, since I had talked to my parents, and even more surprising, it had been a week since I had seen Ms. Ashford.
She had claimed to be sick that night just before I came back with Alexandre. She had locked herself in her room and she still hadn’t come out. A few days later I had heard the chef talking with the staff about how pale, weak, and shaky she had looked.
Zara was the only person I had seen during the past week, and it wasn’t that often.
The day I had returned with Alexandre, my father had a long talk with him. By the time Alexandre had returned, I was already in bed with the lights off and I didn’t bother to say anything. He simply walked toward his door in the darkness.
Somehow he managed to avoid me these whole seven days and I was feeling unusually sad. Alexandre confused me a lot; his mood seemed to change every five seconds. Perhaps that’s the way boys normally acted, or perhaps it was just part of the awkwardness of having a slave.
***
I tried to keep my thoughts from drifting from my book so I wouldn’t reread the same paragraph. I was in the drawing room.
“From the very beginning—from the first moment, I may almost say—of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form the ground work of disapprobation on which succeeding events have built so immovable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”
I sighed and closed the book. Pride and Prejudice was my favorite book. When I was little, every girl wanted to find their Cinderella charming prince, but I only wanted my Mr. Darcy. I used to day dream about being Elizabeth Bennett and having a Mr. Darcy love me. A snort left my lips and I shook my head.
There was a knock on the door and I sat straight on the sofa. The door opened and a maid came in.
“Miss Emily, your mother is looking for you. She wishes to see you in her office.”
She bowed and left the room.
I stood up and looked at myself in a mirror. My brown curly hair was held in a lose ponytail. I was wearing a black turtleneck t-shirt and dark jeans. Finally, when I decided that I was presentable enough, I left the room and headed for my mother’s office.
Once I was there, I knocked twice.
“Come in,” was my mother’s answer.
She looked away from some papers on her desk and smiled at me. She had her brown hair up and her hazel eyes looked happy.
“Emily, please sit down. I have some news to tell you.” I nodded and sat down on a chair in front of her wooden desk.
“I don’t have a lot of time so I’ll be brief. Jack Bramwell, your fiancé, will be arriving next week all the way from France and you must prepare yourself. You’ve already wasted a lot of time so you and your slave will have to have intensive classes with Ms. Ashford.” she said.
“But she is sick. And why does Alexandre need classes as well?” I asked. I could feel the dread of a week of ‘intensive classes’. I sighed and looked down.
“Because your slave will be with you at all times. We didn’t buy it for you just so you would hide it. And yes, she might be sick, but she hasn’t worked for a week and this is of most importance. We can’t lose more time; there are lots of things that you have yet to learn. The life of a married woman is very different from the one of a single one. I can’t believe that my only daughter is getting married.” My mother’s smile widened and her eyes became glossy.
I started to feel nauseous. I said good-bye and left the room to go and tell Ms. Ashford the news.
I stood awkwardly outside her door. I sighed and knocked softly, hoping that she was asleep so that I could go back to the drawing room and finish reading my book, but I knew I couldn’t be that lucky. I heard movement in the room before the door opened.
She looked almost the same as always. She was wearing a dull, brown, old-fashioned dress and her hair was held up in a complex bun. The only difference was that her skin looked paler than usual.
“Oh, Miss Emily, I did not expect this. What are you doing here?” She didn’t seem surprised at all.
“Well, my fiancé will be arriving next week and my mother wants me to be ready…D
“Next week!” Ms. Ashford’s body seemed to come into life. “It’s so little time and there is so much that you need to learn! Let’s lose no time. We must go to the drawing room immediately.”
And just like that, she closed her door and started walking towards the room. All the way there, she seemed to be in her own world muttering things about proper ladies, dancing, and etiquette.
We opened the doors that lead to the drawing room and we both froze. Alexandre was sitting on the sofa in front of the fire place with my book opened in his hands.
“What are you doing here?” I asked. I felt weird about seeing him in my favorite room after he spent a whole week avoiding me.
“Your mother requested my presence to be here.” he said without looking up from the book.
“Oh…” I said not knowing how to answer. Miss Ashford was still frozen. She looked scared and her eyes were wide open. I could see her hands shaking.
“Are you alright?” I asked concerned. Perhaps she was feeling ill again.
Alexandre finally looked up from the book, and when he looked at Miss Ashford, his body stiffened. They stared at each other for a while without moving.
I could feel the tension in the room growing with every passing second.
***************************
what do you think about the vampire/human conversation between Alexandre and Emily? was it confusing?
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