Nicolae prided himself on being a gentleman, eager to take care and love the women closest to his heart now he could not hold himself to that standard anymore after what he just did. Nicolae needed to hunt; to take his anger and grief out on some poor undeserving animal was what made him feel better. After all, a vampire's nature meant bleeding others. Usually he'd put the animals into a sleep state, making sure to thank them before feeding. He took that deer back to shed along with some rabbits to store blood for his family when she'd walked in and met the vampire.
Within Nicolae's body lived two people. Nicolae Roman, the remnant of the British-Romanian human, son of a banker, husband of Odette, father to Octavian turned werewolf hunter turned vampire. The one who wore the mask of tranquility as the man of the house and the one who yearned for a family. Vampire Nicolae however...vampire Nicolae was another entity who Nicolae could rely on to take over when things got too much. The vampire within him was animalistic, instinctive, protective and ready to attack. It fought like an animal and tore others apart like a beast in heat. Oddly "he" wanted to protect Nicolae because if Nicolae let his guard down it meant trouble for them both.
Save for the elite vampires, their race was very territorial when it came to females and offspring. Vampire Nicolae was born for Odette and Octavian. He lived for blood, carnage and vengeance for those he loved. The blood of those who fell by his hand, seeping down his fingers in the name of Odette.
"You're so used to fighting for her, you were ready to fight Selene for her." the oldest brother whispered to himself hoping the vampire hidden in the deepest pits of his soul would hear.
"But we didn't know any better, my heart knows who it truly belongs to now. I need you to fight for Selene, not hurt her."
The bee balms, wood sage, and globe thistles all became a mishmash of colours to his vampiric speed. The world around him sped up whilst he remained in motion, sprinting past statues and fountains in seconds, a normal human would have taken minutes to get back to the manor.
"How can I make her forgive me? I know she will try to leave. She can't leave!" Bribes weren't an option. She made it very clear that she was tired of what his siblings did to her. "I have to make things better! That's the only way I have a chance.'
Racing past Lorie's brightly coloured playground and the still pool, elegantly the predator leaped onto the roof of the Queen Anne porch.
"This feels like I am on the hunt again." he brushed some strands of hair looking back at the garden below him. "But my prey isn't an animal. I can't call her a prey; she is my equal, my better half, my lover."
Lover.
The word rolled off his thoughts, feeling strange yet filling him with a warmth that temporarily ceased his fears. A mental album of young women flipped through his mind's eye of women he could consider that word. Agatha, his childhood friend, daughter of a rich family friend with her curly brown hair, Florence, the blonde he'd fancied at his secondary school, Alice the first girl who was mesmerized by his magic tricks, he'd courted and dated many women yet for the rest of his life he kept wishing for someone like Selene.
He noted that Selene had a head start and due to her being lighter, her supernatural run was faster than his. What made chasing her so exciting to him was her blood on his lips and the confirmation that she was indeed a child of the night as well.
She could hurt him and he could hurt her, it wasn't a human and vampire union where the scales tipped oddly against the human's life. Selene fought back. Not a silver of anger coursed through Nicolae for Selene. He didn't feel much, however, the nerve of the usually timid housekeeper impressed him.
"You aren't really a meek mouse when you are provoked." Nicolae felt heavily turned on by it but he knew it was wrong and it wasn't the time. With Selene things weren't black or white there were many shades in between and Nicolae hadn't prepared a demeanor for all of those shades. She made his mask slip and took away his desire for calm and control of a situation. She was a whirlwind of chaos hiding behind plumerias and damask roses.
"It's better not to jump the gun in case she does not forgive me." he sighed leaping onto the roof outside of her window like a feline.
Pressing his hands against the cold, dark glass Nicolae tried but he couldn't slide open her window. "Bloody hell Selene!" His sharp ears picked up on her feet scampering across the carpet between the flickering of her room lights and things moving around, he feared the worst. "She's leaving."
Leaning his forehead against the window, he felt like he could do nothing but let her go. His eyes going up and down, trying desperately to see inside of the room but the thick layers of curtains prevented anything. The silver moon, usually romantic, gleamed on the panes making him more miserable. In silence, he suddenly remembered that it was the early hours of Mother's Day.
"Great! Just great!" weakly he raised his fist to knock on the glass. "Selene? Please..I am sorry for everything that just happened. I wasn't myself...I..you know about me now I don't want to hurt you. I just want to explain myself. Please do not leave us..me."
He hit the glass harder, three more times. Each connection of skin upon glass was like a dry clap of thunder, shaking the manor. "SELENE."
After fifteen more raps, he gave up, choosing to instead walk across the roof to his room's window.
꧁ ꧂
Despite the ointment on her lips, they still bled.
Selene watched her fawnskin with streams of red down her chin, dripping onto her bra. She looked like a ghost. "What just ha...pened?' her whispers cracked as her voice hadn't fully returned. "That wasn't the Nicolae I fell for. The red-eyed vampire threatening me with anger and rage blaming me...what did I do?!" she slammed her fist on the porcelain sink, swinging around in disgust. "I can't bear to look at myself!"
Scratching herself gently, she held out her now normal nails. Regret brewing like a storm. In the heat of the moment, she had to defend herself from a menacing vampire but touching her lips brought many emotions. Nicolae had kissed her as if she were the blood the vampire desperately needed. Not romantically but the passion was there, burning and scorching both of their lips. She could have stopped it, broke away from him but no she let him do it even kissing her vampire back. She'd been in love before but had never romanced a vampire in her entire life. She could have but looking to fill the emptiness inside felt more important. She knew the European vampires were handsome and she was plain as a slice of roti gambang. Why would any beautiful creature of this world take a liking to her?
" I am not going to feel guilty about protecting myself," she muttered throwing away those thoughts.
"SELENE!"
Her name crystal clear as the daylight, being screamed from outside. She knew his brothers could hear him. Scampering out to her room she quickly flicked off her lamp and locked her door.
Selene wasn't a stupid woman, there was no way she'd open that window and enter her own demise. No matter how many sorry and pitiful words he tried to say. It could very well be a trap. A sweet, sorry man but once the barriers were down, he'd attack. 'I forget I am dealing with vampires. He could easily break my windows and doors and doors."
What was better, however? Him breaking her doors or escaping right into his fangs as he stalked the dark halls waiting for her to come out and run away like the poor deer he killed.
Yet the vampire didn't. She watched his distorted shadow from outside lean against the glass, spying inside for her yet she was intrigued to hear him explain his side of the story. Why was he that way? The question alone was enough to move her feet closer to the window, one step after the next towards the barrier keeping the vampire away from her.
To throw back the curtains and touch the glass where he leant against, it was appealing as the blood of a small child but involved having her heartbroken, not the wondrous sensation of adrenochrome gliding over her tongue. Yet Nicolae was addicting like that. He was enough to make her like a poor rat in a deadly maze when she threw away the obstacles easily only a dark void sealed by fate awaited her.
If she didn't pull back the Windsor-Richmond fabric and see him, she'd ache, she'd grovel and she'd go insane but no matter how she felt right now, he did not have any right to her body or to her emotions.
Her fingers caressed the brass ornaments just as his shadow slipped away from her sight. And she stood there at loss, cursing her conflicted feelings for letting Nicolae getaway yet she did not want to stay here. Lorie was not the daughter she yearned for, her time at the Bartholy manor taught her that Phoebe was no longer in this world and trying to fill the gap was pointless. Staying for Nicolae but enduring Drogo wasn't worth it.
"You are so stupid! How were you sure that he was going to be good for you? Do you think Drogo would really change towards you?"
A thin line of moonlight crossed the floor as she pulled back the curtain, the nail laying there on the windowsill. A faint smile pulled her lips.
"I don't need this..not anymore."
Her things were in one corner. She'd barely come to Mystery Spell with much aside from few clothes.
"Where should I go?" she wondered, pushing the thought of running into Nicolae away.
"I don't feel the need to return to London or The Isle of Wight. There's nothing for me there just heartache." She pondered slipping off her clothing, hoping a bath would relax her. Stepping into the bathroom, she looked at herself and the ugly patterns marring her skin, she stared and stared until a tear rolled down her eye.
"I don't...I know she was in there but why...? She trailed off the spike of anxiety she usually got seeing her stabbed stomach was unbearable but now she felt barely anything. "Why am I not feeling sad? The pain of my murder and loneliness of losing my baby was everything to me? It's why I am in Mystery Spell; in this manor! Without the pain.."
People say there is the light at the end of every tunnel but no one said when you left that tunnel the "light" in reality was a fog, clouding everything and from sadness you walked into a limbo, feeling lost. She was not forgetting her daughter but she was losing sight of her purpose for still being on this earth, in this town, in Nicolae's home.
"Without the pain?" she whispered to her horrified reflection, touching the scar "Who am I?"
Realizing she left her spare clothing in the bedroom. Selene leapt at the chance to escape her thoughts. Not wanting to see herself in the mirror she made way for the door.
"My clothes yes my clothes, my clothes," she repeated hoping to push away everything plaguing her. The air was warmer and stifling in the smaller room. "I should wear something easy to escape, some pants and something dark to blend in with the shadows or maybe something brown?
She was relieved to head back into the bedroom ready to grab her clothes and when she closed the door feeling one step closer to her escape, she stopped dead in her tracks, frozen, her voice wanted to cry out in frustration but not even a choked cry of "How?!" could her windpipes manage to say.
Sitting on the window seat in the cold pale light, silver glimmering off strands of brown hair was him. He stared longingly out of the backyard as if he couldn't have something he wanted. A forlorn gaze cast in grey eyes reflected right back at him. She hadn't noticed how full the side profile of his lips was and his strong jaw. He seemed to be made for mere mortals and the hapless like her to stare at. Whether it was the vampiric beauty or not, he wasn't made to walk amongst the humans of this town.
His grey-green eyes flicked to her in the glass.
"I have the key to every room in this house." he offered before she could even ask.
"Come for round two have you?" Selene's arms were at her side, fingers curled and on alert like a mother tigress, ready to defend herself till the end not caring if she was naked. Nude or not she'd fight till the end. Beautiful or not the vampire was unpredictable.
But Nicolae did not move from his spot.
"It was a night like this when I looked at this forest and wished for someone to enter my life. Someone who could take the weight off my shoulders and could one day become the lady of the manor by my side."
Nicolae touched his reflection remorsefully.
"I'd love nothing more than for you to find someone who loves you and cherishes you. There are so much things that I want with you but I am a vampire...which you saw just now. I was not myself."
"Whether you were yourself or not; you need to learn that women have boundaries!" Selene retorted betraying her own feelings. "After everything you did, you invite yourself into my room as if nothing happened..."
"Sorry...That's why I am sitting here."
Selene knew she could cover herself but she was so mesmerized by him and his pain, she dared not do anything if meant missing a mere second of him.
"I am a vampire but I was human once. I was even married. I try very hard to have things under control and to protect my own feelings for the sake of my family. Whenever I feel helpless Selene, the version of me in the shed comes out to protect me so I can hide within myself and recover."
Selene's eyes flared. "I did nothing to you!"
"The beast inside me doesn't think so."
Nicolae sighed. "Since you don't seem to plan on covering yourself...may I look at you?'
Selene snapped out of her shocked state and grabbed a robe tying it around herself. Luckily he hadn't turned around or he'd see her scar. No he couldn't have seen her scar.
"No."
"May I come closer to you?"
Selene hesitated. Of course she wanted him closer to her.
"You may."
She took out some of her clothes and folded them into her bag.
"Where are you going Selene?"
"Far away from this madhouse."
"I wish you wouldn't think of us like that." He muttered softly.
Selene laughed mockingly packing up her things.
"Your child sister has the hots for you, accuses me of things I never did. She's a difficult little girl, no wonder nobody wants to work for you! Your brother doesn't want me here. Anyone with some self-respect left would leave this place. You promise things will be better....but you almost attacked me just now. I don't know what Peter is capable of. None of you are trustworthy."
"Things can still change. I've dealt with Lorie and Drogo. They will be nicer to you I promise., Drogo, he just wants to protect me too even though his ways are unorthodox. I will talk to him..I'll do whatever you want!"
"You aren't capable of protecting yourself now? I'm miffed here, the man who tossed me out of his library and makes excuses can't protect himself now! What really is..."
The window was now empty as her words hung in mid-air before gasping. The vampire was gone....now he stood in front of her.
Grasping her wrist gently yet firmly, his tall, imposing figure towering over hers: he wasn't wearing his vest and his tunic lay unbuttoned; revealing a sculpted torso, made for soft breasts to press against and for a lover to run her hands over the defined muscles. "How has he not have many lovers?" she wondered. The only sign of her gorgeous employer having a love life was the photos she'd found. Nicolae was a woman's dream come true, handsome with chivalry but when he wanted someone, he wouldn't let her out of his sight until she yielded to his dominance. Yet he let himself be vulnerable and with the bobbing of his adam's apple, she knew being vulnerable was hard, he only did this for her, in some desperate hope that she'd understand.
Nicolae's grey eyes bore into her violet ones with a sense of gentleness, adoration, and affection. They stared at each other in silence, taking in the sight of each other's unique beauty before he spoke:
"Vampires' hearts do not beat." placing her hand over his left pectoral, his gaze turned more and more intense. Thumps upon thumps beat against his cold, marble-like skin and Selene frowned feeling the organ moving in his body. "Was he lying?"
"Until they've found their mate. The one person their soul was crafted for regardless of whether they are are human or not."
Selene violently yanked her hand away. "What are you trying to do? You want me to stay well making up grand tales isn't the way."
"You did that to me!" he raised his voice slightly yet remained eerily calm. "My heart started beating when I realized what you are, it was beating in the shed. It hasn't done this since I became a vampire. When I was a mortal.." he paused "I was married, I had a child."
Selene softened instantly, her eyes glassy. "Nicolae was a father?"
Remembering how soft he seemed towards Lorie and Peter it made sense, it also made sense that he had children books in his library. He obviously treasured the things once belonging to his baby.
"Did your baby die too?" she asked hoarsely noticing at the slight flinch he made at the word "too". She was hoping and praying the answer was no. She hoped futilely that they lived, she pleaded with Nicolae silently to tell her the rest of the story. The vampire found her weakness. A weakness that made her protective of a child she never met.
"He was murdered."
Her body paused while a ton of bricks fell on her head, horrified she brought her hands to her mouth, suppressing the urge to scream. "His son was murdered and my daughter was cut out of me." Her mind stuttered, nothing she could say would help Nicolae, she spent a century nursing that same pain.
"You are a beauty that's untouched and I mean no offense to you but back then I loved my wife. She was also murdered along with my son. The man you met earlier I became him because of their deaths. He was born because he gave his life for someone his love wasn't meant for...think about it, Selene. It's not an excuse for what he did but I am not letting you go so easily."
Nicolae muttered "You can run to all ends of the earth and no matter how far away you go; you carry a piece of my heart with you that I will never get back. I would like you by my side through joy, pain, hope, and madness, there's only one place next to me and it belongs to you."
A thrill of pleasure and a delightful shiver eclipsed her body upon hearing him say that. Selene, a creature who spent years wandering aimlessly was being offered stability in the arms of someone who loved her. A tempting new world was about to open up for her.
The vampire lingered close to her as if he wanted to touch her but he was holding back. His unorganized state and vulnerability reminded her of the man she'd grown to love and treasure.
Nicolae gave a slight nod asking for permission, she blinked granting him his wishes. Leaning forward, the shadows of his face came closer and she smelt the natural woody scent he whispered against her mouth "I'll always try to be that kind of man for you."
Nicolae's mouth met hers, softly at first as if to get a feel of her. Tremors shook her despite his gentleness; his kisses were enough to make her weak, with every tug and nip she sighed with pleasure. Sighs turned into moans when the vampire swiftly intensified his ministrations, parting her shivering lips with his tongue. Holding onto his broad shoulders for dear life, his shirt slid down revealing his perfect body.
Without interrupting their steamy exchange, Nicolae shrugged the garment off onto the floor. She raked her nails across his hard nipples, enjoying his groans in her mouth as he grabbed her lower back and held her there against him. There was no choice but to drown in his pale, milky skin and the surging iciness of it made her limp with pleasure if her life depended on her having some source of strength she'd fail, his kisses, his gentle guidance and the way his hands slipped up her back was too much to fight against. Nicolae seemed to be fighting the urge to push her back on the wall but he didn't dare, knowing it wasn't the time. For now, they were content feeling all of each other's body in a situation they never imagined in their wildest dreams.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Roti gambang is an Indonesian bread. I updated faster for once instead of making y'all wait months lol. Also for the past few months, I haven't been in a mood to write anything Drogo related so I apologize for the wait with Miss Bartholy.
Also, I am in quarantine atm cause COVID 19 finally hit. It sucks.
Anyway, comments encourage me. Please tell me if you liked the chapter ^_^