Bambi and the Duke

As Vivian fell asleep soundly, the Lord of Valeria asked Leonard who was watching the girl who was asleep, ”What were you looking for outside the mansion?” Leonard tore away his eyes from her, ”When Vivian spoke about the corruption of heart and the witch being involved, I thought there might be a mass murder being planned,” Lord Alexander hummed.

”Seems very much valid but the black witches can’t mark anything from this mansion to the next ten to twenty radius. If one were to try they will only begin to burn. I believe you have heard of my mother,” Leonard gave a small nod to it. He had heard about how Lord Alexander’s mother was a witch herself. But he only knew what people said without knowing the actual story from the man himself.

Alexander didn’t bother to clear the airs around his mother nor go to explain about his past, instead, he said, ”My mother didn’t want any of her other side of the sisters to come and trouble her family. To keep us safe she had set up magic which would last until the end of time. Black witches cannot step into the territory nor hover around.”

”If you don’t mind me asking, what did you mean when you said the gift can be a curse?” Leonard wanted to know if it was just the Lord’s mere words or if there was something more he knew of.

The Lord pursed his lips, ”Duke Leonard, a pureblooded vampire doesn’t receive gifts out of the blue. It is caused due to a certain reason and I can tell that you don’t believe it has anything to do with the genes that have been passed. If it was from her early childhood at the age of one maybe we could argue it but her parents disowned her later on which means something happened that her parents never went to investigate. Instead, they pushed her away. Gifts what we have, are some times either caused by pain, loss or an external factor mutation change in the body. It is why not everyone receives the gift, or to put it in a better way...every pureblooded vampire must be gifted which is dormant and hidden somewhere deep inside which doesn’t show up. The girl will come to see a lot of things in the future, things that might be good while some will not be pleasant. Haven’t you heard the saying ignorance is bliss? To know too much about everything will cause pain.”

The Duke agreed to it silently. He knew this but wasn’t aware of this was what he was talking about.

”You possess such gift too,” Leonard stated and Lord Alexander smiled. Vivian had called the Lord of Valeria different so it was obvious he wasn’t just a simple pureblooded vampire lord. Like Nicholas, he believed the man had secrets up his sleeves.

”I do but I haven’t dived into it yet. Unlike your mentor, I prefer to keep it untouched,” Lord Alexander said as if he knew about Nicholas’ secrets.

Leonard’s eyes darted to see Vivian who snuggled closer to the pillow in her sleep. It was wonderment in how she had slept, did she have a bad dream yesterday which he wasn’t aware of?

”Take care of her, if some of the council members come to know of her and her another ability which you haven’t mentioned though I am curious, they would use her as a test subject to learn more. As much as I hate that man, I am sure the Lord will look out for both of you because I can see you are close to him.”

One side of Leo’s lips pulled up to smile, ”True. It is good to have someone like him around,” Nicholas could be a pain at times due to his extreme curiosity of wanting to find everything around and no matter how he was in handling Leo during his young years, the man had looked out for him even when his first mission in the council hadn’t gone well.

Vivian’s eyelids opened to see the Lord and Leo speaking to each other. She wondered when she had fallen asleep, the last she remembered was her leaning against the wall but not with a cushioned pillow next to her. She didn’t have to guess who had put it here. With all the guests around, she couldn’t find who the switcher was, for him to move so quickly with the potion she let out a sigh. Glad that she had thought quickly else there was no need to guess what would happen. Bloodshed was all she could think of.

Waking up while wiping her mouth for possible drool with the back of her hand, she stood up to have the attention of both the men. At the same time, Lord Nicholas stepped back into the room after he had seen off every guest with a smile as his calculative eyes searched for the impersonator.

”Good morning, sleeping beauty. Did you sleep well?” Lord Nicholas’ comment received him a small nod and he turned to look at the Lord of Valeria, ”It is going to be harder to find the culprit when we don’t know their drawbacks. Everyone seemed utterly the same. Red, blue, green, brown, black eyes with different hair structure.”

”What was the memory this time, Vivi?” Leonard walked to her asking the question, bringing a glass of water on the way and handing it to her. She took it shyly from him. She was capable of doing things but with two other men, they would think something else.

”Usually, I can see who it is, even the owner of the memory, I can see them but with the switcher, it doesn’t allow me. When I touch the switcher it is as if I am the person,” they frowned hearing this, ”Maybe once I am in the council, I will be able to find something more.”

When they were going to leave the mansion, Lord Nicholas wanted to talk something with Leonard leaving Lord Alexander and Vivian when the man spoke to her,

”I had something to ask you, Lady Vivian,” she had been looking at the horses when he spoke to her.

”What is it, milord?” she asked.

”Could you tell what exactly you saw in the memory when you tapped into my mind?” he was looking forward at the garden, following his line of sight she saw it was the blue rose of a shrub that had grown wide with many more roses. How strange she thought to herself, she had seen his memory as if she were part of it and to see the single stem of rose to have grown so big felt as time had passed way too quickly.

Her eyes moved to look at Lord Nicholas and Leonard who were speaking about something, feeling it was safe enough to speak as she felt it was a memory she wasn’t supposed to share with anyone else, she said, ”You dug the grave of Rachel Rein,” and just as she said this a question arose in her mind and she asked him, ”Was your mother’s last name Rein?” it was because Lord Alexander’s last name was Delcrov and not Rein.

”No.”

No? If it were so why was she buried under the wrong last name? Not able to understand she looked at the Lord with a question on her face, ”It wasn’t my mother’s name. My mother was burnt in the name of her being a black witch, at that time the situation in these lands it wasn’t safe for the white witches. Folks despised them as much they have them now, but more than that they believed them to be an abomination to the world. They didn’t agree that she was allowed to have a grave of her own, after all, that was left of her was only burnt ashes in the middle of the town. Before my father heard of what happened, her grave was done in the local cemetery just for the sake as she was the Lord’s wife.”

Vivian frowned at what he said, ”They didn’t let the priest pray with you and your family?” she asked him, feeling heaviness in her stomach.

”Humans and vampires, anyone for that matter, the public will blindly follow in the crowd. They wanted to wash away but the local guards stepped in and buried it under another name so that no other villager would come and dig it out,” she felt sorry for the lord. How could they do it? It was not only cruel but also unethical in her eyes.

”I am sorry to hear it,” she apologized, pursing her lips she then said, ”I saw you dig the grave with a cat.”

”Areo,” he said the cat’s name, ”It is a gift from my mother. He’s very special,” Vivian could guess with the way the cat had stuck to stick next to him when he had been digging the ground and following him back home when he was young in her memory, ”I sensed something around us that day. When I reached the spot to dig. Were you standing there?” he asked her.

For a second, she didn’t understand what he just said. It took her a few more seconds before it sank and her heart almost stopped at his question. Very slowly she gave him a nod.

”Did you know that?”

”I thought I was only visiting the memories all this time,” she confessed trying to wrap her head around what just happened.

”Maybe you were, maybe you weren’t. Or it might be that you are able to step into the past but make sure to learn to control this power that you have acquired. It might be a progressive gift that is getting stronger and maybe one day you might be able to make your presence known in the past where people can see but that is why you will have to be careful. Imagine seeing more than one of you at the same time. You will only turn to be a switcher. Either killing your present or your past,” he warned her.

Taking in his advice her eyes lowered back to look at the hooves of the horses. When all the guests left, Lord Alexander stood outside the mansion staring at the sky. His butler, Martin who had served his families for years now came to stand behind him.

Lord Alexander asked his butler, ”What do you think of the girl?”

The butler didn’t furrow his brows nor did he give away any other expression, ”Do you plan to take her as your wife, milord?”

”No, Martin. I do not see her as my potential wife,” Alexander answered.

The old man spent a few more seconds and then said, ”She seemed like a normal human to me,” the pureblooded vampire hummed at it. She looked like a human but her ability surpassed any of the existing pureblooded vampires.

”She isn’t an ordinary girl. She might also be the key to finding out answers,” the old man finally looked at his master who was still staring up at the sky.

”You think she’s the key?” the butler asked a little taken aback.

”Maybe.”

Back at the Gibbs house, Vivian and Leonard were welcomed back by Mrs Clark who had woken up at the knock of the door. Not asking and speaking much, the woman let the couple to retire to bed after locking up the door and going back to sleep herself. Getting into the room, Leonard had gone to change his clothes while Vivian had sat in front of the dressing table in a daze. So many things had happened in one night, thought Vivian to herself. Only if they could catch the switcher, there would be fewer things to worry about.

Her mind had been distributed in so many things.

There was the second examination which worried her as Jerome had informed her that it was going to be held in the snow mansion, the same place where she had been dreaming about lately. Then there was the switcher who was causing problems in the pureblooded world, the witch was someone she didn’t concern herself with for now as she had no potion to create. Vivian came to the conclusion that the black witch might end up keeping herself low as there was no more plant to create it. The next was her parents, and that was something that concerned and worried her.

With days that had come by she had let the hope diminish little by little to the point where now it felt that looking at them from afar would be the best option. And it wasn’t that she had missed them all these years, after all, she never knew about them. She had grown around Paul, Grace, Martha, Thomas, Leonard that it never came to her notice.

To think that her life was hard would be a folly, to say the least. She had seen others life to be much harder and all she could tell is that God might have pitied her a little more than the rest to give her a life which she now had.

By the time Leonard had finished changing his clothes, he saw Vivian who hadn’t moved from the position he had seen her before going to the bath. She sat staring at her reflection in the mirror. Walking towards her, he placed his hands on her shoulders which brought her out of her thoughts.

”Are you planning to sleep like this because you look pretty, Bambi?” his voice was serious but there was tease underneath those words.

”I can?”

”Sure, why not. But it won’t be comfortable with all those layers,” he said running his hand around her neck and massaging he back with his fingers, ”It will be uncomfortable for you and with the looks of your back,” he said looking at the strings that had been pulled too tightly he could tell it had left red lines beneath the dress she wore, ”Do you want me to help you with the necklace?” but before she could answer his hands already began to play with the little hook of the necklace, removing it he placed it on the dressing table.

These were the moments when Vivian felt she was pampered. Before she was only a pampered person but now in her mind it went as a pampered wife, not knowing if it was a good or a bad thing. Maybe she could cook him breakfast tomorrow and with that thought, she started changing her clothes.

~Don’t forget to use your power stones on the book~