NIGHTS OF HALLOW

The second and minute hand of the clock ticked away in a rhythmic tik tok tik tok sound as the sun which had been shining on the people slowly went behind the clouds indicating the nearing of evening.

Gentle breeze like whispers caressed the bodies of the people, thus cooling the heat on their skin. The sensation gave a relaxing feeling as everyone carried on with the day, trying to finish off the activities that they had begun in the early hours of the morning.

Seated in the King’s study room was the King himself, Sthena Acheron, who had joined Daemon after he left Perdita in the hallway to drink warm fresh blood as they discussed in low tones.

Sthena had one of his legs casually crossed over the other as he maintained a relaxed position with his back pressed on the backrest of the couch. He constantly sipped the blood in his cup, enjoying the rich taste of the liquid as it glided down his throat as his mood had turned sour since the coming of Mark who had hugged Perdita.

Daemon sat opposite him, his spectacle perfectly fixed on his face as his gaze lingered on the glass of blood he held rather than drinking from it. After a while of an uncomfortable silence between them, Daemon broke the silence when he questioned the King.

”Is there something going on? I mean about the glass cup you asked me to bring for you?”

”Oh, that?” Sthena waved his hand as he turned to look at the now famous glass placed on top of his table. ”Someone is trying to get smarter than their brain.” Sthena’s eyes flickered from being calm and turned to a darker shade of red as he recalled what had transpired in the hallway involving Rosamonda and Emily.

While he was engaged with Perdita in the library, he had listened to the conversation between Rosamonda and Perdita’s maid to know how she had forced the maid to give Perdita the drink that she had poisoned.

He had kept mute when Emily entered the library room to serve the drink because he also wanted to know what Emily would do. If she would disappoint his judgment of appointing her to be Perdita’s handmaid or if she would pass the test. Luckily for her, she slightly passed the test. If not, the floor would have been painted with her blood though he still waited for her to come clean about what happened.

So, this is the game Rosamonda was playing? Sthena thought as he internally sneered in his head. What a feasible attempt to poison Perdita. But why would she poison her?

”When you said someone, do you mean—” Daemon left his words hanging for Sthena to complete the name of the lucky enemy. He swirled the blood in his glass cup, and with a lazy gaze on the blood, he gulped everything into his mouth.

”Yes,” Sthena affirmed.

”Ahh, Poison,” Daemon stated and nodded his head knowingly, understanding what could have happened. ”Was it the Lady?”

”Sadly,” Sthena replied. ”I drank it though.”

Daemon tilted his head to the side with a small mischievous smile. ”You drank it for the Lady in yellow. Weren’t you concerned that it might contain something your body cannot withstand?”

Sthena scoffed, his eyes twinkling in pure evil, ”There is nothing in this world that is called poison I cannot neutralize.” Sthena as a pureblooded vampire had many abilities and powers at his disposal, unlike some other purebloods. His advantage is only because he was born directly from the original vampires who first inhabited the earth.

”Ahh,” Daemon nodded understandingly. He asked, ”What are you planning next?”

”I wonder what it would be like if she tasted her own poison,” Sthena stated with a casual look of thinking. ”Perhaps, it will make her skin glow? Who knows if it will in turn make her wiser.”

Daemon chuckled and added his own evil thought to Sthena’s supposed experiment he wanted to carry out on Rosamonda. ”Maybe, you can add something more strong. You know, she is a pureblooded vampire. It would readily have the desired effect.”

Sthena’s lips stretched into a wide grin as he uttered, ”You know, sometimes, I do wonder who is more evil. Me or you?”

”Your Majesty wins in all. I am only doing my work of being the Chief Advisor to you.” Daemon replied with a dark chuckle, his dark red eyes glinted with the evil they had planned out for Rosamonda.

Sthena drank the remnants of the blood inside his glass cup while he adjusted his sitting position to a more comfortable one. He placed the cup on the table in between him and Daemon as his tongue peeked out to lick his bloodied lips. He inquired from the Daemon,

”I believe you found something related to the death case in Blackfang town. Though I care less about the complaints of the members of the town, I want to know the reason behind the killing. Why it happened? Who the culprit behind it is, and who that woman is.”

Daemon shook his head apologetically, his face marred with a look of uncertainty, he said, ”In as much as I tried my best to uncover the story behind this killing, I was unable to cover anything.”

Sthena’s hand clenched on the armrest of the couch he sat on, his gaze piercing into nothingness. He voiced his thoughts, ”Whoever it is must have something big planned behind the scenes to have suddenly killed someone in such a way. I don’t know why, but something tells me it is related to the witches. Only witches would kill and leave the body without bothering to cover up the deed. They are often stupid but also merciless too.”

”Isn’t the Lady a witch? By saying this about witches, does it mean she falls into this category?” Daemon asked with a sly smile on his face.

Sthena glared at Daemon and replied, ”Even humans and vampires have dumb people too, it doesn’t mean all witches are like that.”

Daemon raised his two hands in the air in surrender. ”I was only asking a possible question, Milord. What will be the next step in getting the hearts of the town’s people of Blackfang calmed? The news is flying everywhere and very soon, more complaints will be filed and the kingdom might turn chaotic.”

”For now, our goal is to catch whoever the bastard is,” Sthena muttered in between clenched jaws, his eyes blazing in anger towards the person who suddenly wanted to turn his kingdom into a hunt kingdom.

Sthena after some seconds instructed Daemon, ”Announce that there would be a soiree that would held in my name in the town of Blackfang. And for this unknown person, I want us to lay a trap for him.”

”How are we going to achieve that, Milord?” Daemon inquired.

”Leave that to me,” Sthena responded, his head already swirling with thoughts of a possible way to catch the culprit once and for all before another death occurred.

The King went on to say, ”What I want you to do is to get me a bait. Compel anyone you can find.”

”Right on it, Milord” Daemon bowed his head as he stood up to leave the study room knowing his time was up and it was time for the King to go settle it with his Lady in yellow.

Daemon shook his head in pity as he thought about himself. Love? He internally asked himself. Love was not for men like him. Not even close.