Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 172: Many ways

The way her eyes barely even reflected sunlight tore him apart on the inside.

No soothing words aligned in his mind, no gesture nor comforting touch seemed proper in their context.

Not that any would have worked, Silas thought.

All day long, Arabella did nothing but gawk at the gardens that beckoned to her with open arms. An invitation which the young woman declined time and time again.

The only thing that made her stand off of that chair was the seemingly irresistible need for yet another bath as if the three taken that same morning weren’t enough.

The conversation between herself and the water that engulfed her body were far more engaging than any she’d entertained with the living, breathing beings that approached her.

Silas sat at his desk, facing the reports drafted by Calistro and Ethendra following their assessment of the kidnappers’ bodies.

Hours of tests, chanting and spell craft, experiments and deliberation only to reach absolutely nothing in the end.

The witches that had helped the assailants were thorough and applied themselves in their work, thus stomping on all chances or means of tracing any trail back to them.

The only loose ends would have been the tongues of the kidnappers had they survived their brutal encounter with Cynric.

But in their state, the dead men told no tales.

A weak knock landed on his door. One he immediately recognized as Ada’s.

The vampire said and did nothing, well acquainted with the system established between himself and his servants. After all, Silas had been the one to ask they only knock once before entering wherever it was they’d been summoned to.

Predictably, short seconds followed until the knob twisted, allowing the door to creak open for Ada to sheepishly slide inside.

After curtsying, the maid held in place, hands clasped together over the skirt of her uniform, "How may I be of service to you, Master?"

"Sit," he ordered dryly, "I’d like to hear more on what you had to say the night before," the vampire proceeded once the maid adhered to his fist demand.

Her entire demeanor went from apprehension to something completely different. Features hardening again much like they did when the same topic had been broached.

"You believe my words," she half asked.

"Never mind if I do. Now speak,"

"I’m afraid I’ve already said everything I had on the matter. I am sorry I can’t be of any more help to you," she shook her head slowly, an apologetic outlook on.

"What I’d like to know is how does a maid such as you acquire that sort of knowledge?" an eyebrow raised, his diamonds observed every micro expression crossing her face, "To my understanding, none of our daytime servants have ever had to deal nor frolic with wolf folk," he added.

"No, I’ve never dealt with them," Ada paused and only spoke again when her eyes connected with his in a bold fashion, "Not after entering your service,"

"And what is the meaning of that, exactly?" his eyebrow rose further up, almost threatening to disappear.

Ada took the deepest of breaths that Silas had ever witnessed from her and began twiddling her own fingers atop her lap, "I’ve come to Umbraria many times before...," voice growing hoarse at that sentence as though someone held a firm grip around her vocal cords and squeezed harder by the second, "Before being shipped,"

"When was that?" he moved past her clear discomfort.

"In my childhood,"

Ever since her tale had started, her eyes fell and refused to meet his gaze again.

"My father had made a name for himself as a gardener, serving one of the most prominent nobles back in Lustris," she inhaled deeply again, "Besides all the praise he’d received, all sorts of demands and invitations would pour in from some of the most influential people here in Umbraria. The Lord that used to employ him saw that as a compliment to his name as well and seized the opportunity to strengthen his bridges or build new connections beyond the border,"

Despite that part being utterly irrelevant to his quest, Silas never cut her off, allowing her to tell the story at her own pace.

"Since my father was the last of my family, he had no other choice but to bring me with him and throughout the many times we came over, one instance in particular stood out to me. One that remained engraved in my brain to this day," Ada gulped down her own saliva, "A young human man approached my father, pleading for help to save his wife, claiming she’d been bitten by a wolfman who desired her as a mate and refused to take no for an answer. It turned out the couple served the noble that had extended the invitation to my father,"

"Why would the man ask a gardener for help? Why not take his wife to a witch instead?" Silas wondered.

"My father’s knowledge in herbology extended beyond growing plants and matching beautiful colors. The man said no spellcaster would reply in time before the next moon rose, by which time, it’d be too late and...," Ada trailed off, a distant look in her eyes.

"And?"

Snapping out of whatever daze had entrapped her, Ada shook her head once before continuing, "I met the woman. I saw the empty look in her eyes, the flimsiness of her voice. My father wrapped his hand right around the fresh bite mark on her arm and she barely even flinched," Ada’s hand rose, mimicking the act of wrapping around an invisible arm, "Calm as a pond she was and she too spoke of the moon, saying something about how beautiful it’ll be once it shines bright...,"

"I see," he pushed a sigh without ever slouching out of his rigid posture, "But that still does not explain the absence of bite marks on Arabella’s body,"

"Oh, yes it does!" she nodded along to her own words, "The same way we can explain how the Mirari takes effect in blood donors," Ada looked him dead in the eyes, a fire burning brighter in her irises.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺