Chapter 17: Chapter 17

[Lucien’s POV]

“Welcome, sir,” Mrs Phil said as I stepped into the living room, holding my phone in one hand and a plastic bag in the other.

“Yeah, thanks. Where is Nivera?” I asked.

“She should be in her room,” she replied.

“That’s strange. Usually, she’d come out to welcome me once she hears the sound of my horn. Carry on with whatever you were doing,” I said and proceeded to go upstairs.

“She might be sleeping. It’s best to not wake her up,” Mrs Phil hurriedly said.

“My bedroom is also upstairs. Who said I was going to see her?” I calmly retorted.

“Oh, I forgot,” she said, and continued with her chores.

I started climbing up the stairs, and I could feel it already. Something was wrong somewhere, and during the time I went out to take care of my real estate business, something had happened which I was unaware of… at least, for now.

Contrary to what I had told the housekeeper, I headed straight to Nivera’s bedroom and knocked gently on her door. She didn’t answer, but I knew she was awake and just proceeded to open the door.

“I didn’t answer for a reason,” she said as I stepped into her room.

She was lying with her back to me and obviously didn’t want me there.

“Why? Is something wrong? Are you on your period?” I asked, sitting on the bed.

“Why would you ask a woman that question?” she asked, rolling over to face me.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I shouldn’t ask you that,” I apologised.

She sat up, and forced a smile. “I was only joking. You didn’t have to apologise. Why are you always so nice to me?”

“Would you rather have me be mean to you?”

I could see her visibly shudder as I said those words. “You seem pale. Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked, ignoring my gut feeling.

She nodded her head in the affirmative. “Yes, I am. I am just feeling a little bit tired,” she explained.

“I bet you’ll regain your energy when you see what I got for you,” I told her, then brought out three novels from the plastic bag I had been holding. “Ta-da,” I said.

She smiled excitedly and took them from me in a hurry. “Wow. You got me more books written by Sandra Brown,” she said, looking really happy.

“Yes. You liked ‘Chill factor’ so much and I thought you’d love more books from her,” I said.

“Thank you so much,” she said.

“Always, Nivera, always,” I told her, and made to remove a strand of hair that was in her face.

She instantly moved backwards and seemed a little afraid as she removed it herself. “I’ve got it,” she said, as the smile dried up from her lips.

Okay, I couldn’t keep ignoring that something had definitely changed since the last time we spoke to each other which was this morning before I had left the house.

“I give good head massages, you know. They help especially when one is tired,” I said, drawing close to her even though she pulled back.

“I… I am fine. I don’t think I need it,” she declined as her voice broke.

“Shh. Relax,” I said, then placed both hands on each side of her head and looked in her eyes. She had no idea what was going on and just seemed jittery, but I could finally understand why everything had seemed so off with her. Her last memory transmitted from her brain to mine. I could see who she had spoken to, what the conversation had been all about and how she had reacted afterwards.

Words could never explain the feeling of anger and betrayal I felt as I took my hands off her face; the anger was directed at Mrs Phil, but for Nivera, I felt betrayed.

“Is that all?” she asked in a soft tone.

It took all the strong will I had to not snap at her. “Yeah. I should go shower. I’ll see you later,” I said hastily, and quickly left and slammed the door behind me.

Was I going to shower? Of course not. I had just one location in mind, and that was downstairs; the last place I had seen the idiot who had the audacity to spill gibberish about me in my own home to the ears of the woman I was head over heels in love with.

I stood at the foot of the staircase and listened attentively. Her heartbeat was coming from the study, and I appeared right behind her in a matter of seconds. She was busy dusting the books, and taking her by surprise, I placed my hand on her shoulder and got her to face me.

She was startled. “Sir, I didn’t realise…”

“Who sent you?” I asked, interrupting her.

“My baby is there. She’s over there,” she said, pointing to an empty space by the window.

“Don’t fucking pretend to be out of your mind right now. You’ve worked under me for half-a-decade and I believed you were truly mentally unstable all this while, not knowing you were one of them. If you want to live, tell me who sent you right this minute!” I yelled angrily.

“Do as you please, you won’t be getting any information from me,” she said through clenched teeth, as she looked at me dead in the eyes, without an iota of fear in her eyes.

“Let’s do this the hard way, then,” I said, and proceeded to compel her when I saw blood drip from her mouth as her eyes were directed towards the ceiling as though she was looking up to the heavens.

When I looked down, I saw that she had stabbed herself in the stomach and blood gushed from her stomach as well as her mouth as she fell to her knees.

I crouched to the floor and shook her arms. “How could you do this? I treated you well. Tell me, who sent you to me? Who made you tell Nivera those awful things about me?” I demanded, hoping she would tell the truth with her last breath.

“Accept my soul, oh Queen Mother,” she muttered and fell on her back, lying dead with her eyes wide opened.

“Shit!” I screamed, throwing punches into the wall as I stood up, then ran my fingers through my hair and only stopped to search the corpse of the late Mrs Phil to see if there was anything at all I could find on her that would tell me who my real enemy was.

There was nothing at all; no clue… nothing.

It wouldn’t be the first time someone had been sent after me, and maybe I did deserve it because of what I had done in the past. However, it was the first time someone ever spoiled my image in front of the person I cared about, and as much as I didn’t mind going down in history as a ruthless vampire who killed anything that crossed his path, I wanted to preserve a clean appearance in front of her.

I left the study and closed the door, forgetting I had a corpse in there as so many thoughts ran through my head. I was terribly bothered about what had happened. She had only heard a few things and was scared for her life; what if one of these days, she saw me for the monster I truly was?

I hung my head low as I walked away. With the way she had looked at me today, I couldn’t tell anymore if there was a chance for our story to have a happy ending.