Tobias

The vampire's fingernails extended to form sharp claws. Olivia's face quickly paled as she tried to frantically get out of his grip as fast as she could. But to no avail, nothing was working. Her strength wasn't enough to rival his. Finally, his hand lifted Olivia's dress to uncover her legs before swooping down and cutting off one of her limbs with a clean slice, using all his strength.

A few seconds later the intense pain registered in Olivia's mind as she gave a painful scream which echoed into the dimly lit street. Her blood splattered out on to the floor in a horrific fashion.

She slid down to the ground yet the vampire still had her arm firmly gripped in his hand. Sweat covered her forehead and back as she tried to adjust to the agony she was feeling.

It had been a while since someone had deliberately tortured her like this. Amidst her distress, her thoughts went back to Glenn and Miran, the dark chamber and the horror she had been through all these years. As she continued to divulge deeper into her memories among her whimpers and groans, the vampire's voice broke out, "Huh? Usually they pass out from pain at this point but this one looks fi-"

Before he could continue, the vampire went silent. Olivia broke out from her reminiscence upon the silence of the vampire. She looked around and finally found out why the vampire became mute. Her limb, which had just been severed, already reattached itself to her body. Olivia also now realised that she no longer felt any pain. Her heart had not, however, calmed down and was still continuing to gallop wildly in her chest. Droplets of sweat had formed on her forehead, every so often trickling down her face.

"Thi- this is amazing!" The vampire continued to stare at Olivia's leg with craziness and misplaced admiration.

"Just what are you? No, it doesn't matter, I'll find out later. I'm taking you with me. You're priceless. I won't let anyone else have you," The vampire's sentences soon turned into incoherent mumblings as his grip became tighter on Olivia's arm.

As Olivia continued to listen, her eyes started to sting, fresh tears forming at the bottom. Just as she had thought she escaped a life of torture and captivity, she was soon plunged into another. She wondered what she had done to deserve such a life.

After the vampire finished his mumblings, he sharply turned towards her, "I'll take you away, okay? Don't worry, I won't mist-" Before he could continue his blabbering, his blood spat out on to Olivia's face. Olivia sat there in confusion as she quickly wiped away her yet to be shed tears, to see the vampire's mouth frothing with blood and a hand that didn't belong to him, protruding out of his chest with the vampire's beating heart in the palm.

The vampire's corpse slid forward and fell on to Olivia. Finally Olivia looked up to see the missing Alexander now standing in front her with a slow beating heart in his hand. He stood there, staring at the bloody faced Olivia, before throwing the heart to the side.

"Get up," Alexander commanded. Olivia continued to stare at him. Just earlier she had been whispering his name. Looking for where he had gone. A few moments ago she also had a small wish for him to turn up and save her before she got hurt. Yet, why did her come now that everything was over and done with?

For some reason, Olivia was reminded of the time she had first escaped from Glen and how that turned out.

She soon shoved the dead vampire off her body and stood up to face Alexander.

"Where were you?" She questioned.

Alexander didn't answer and continued to stare back at her.

"Where were you?" She questioned once again.

"Nearby," He gave a quick reply.

The anger grew in Olivia as she repeated his answer in her head.

"So you saw him do that to me and didn't stop him?" Olivia asked with gritted teeth.

"I killed him didn't I?" He answered, as if her pain had nothing to do with him.

Olivia gave a self-depreciating chuckle before wiping the mocking smile off her face. She narrowed her eyes at him, "How dare you use me as bait without my permission."

Alexander frowned at the livid girl in front of him, not replying to her.

"Do you think you can just use me as you please? I have no obligation to serve you. In fact I have no obligation to do anything for you. Do you think you own me? You and I are nothing yet you dared to use me in order to catch a measly criminal? I could walk out of your household tomorrow and not owe you anything. You were the one who brought me but you think just because of that, you should have the privilege of taking advantage of me?" Olivia went on a rampage as she tried to find a way to calm her emotions and control her outburst.

She soon remembered what she had learnt from her first failed attempt at escaping. It's best to rely on no one but yourself.

"I won't," Alexander spoke after a few minutes.

"Won't, what?" Olivia snapped after him.

"I won't use you. At least without your permission," Alexander promised. His face not betraying any emotion.

Olivia stalled for a moment after listening to the vampire. She was surprised but wasn't flattered in the slightest. Once her emotions had fully simmered down, she took a deep breath. Olivia looked back up at the vampire.

Although she could leave whenever she wanted to, it was true that at the moment, she had nowhere to stay if she did decide to go. So it was best to remain civil with the stoic vampire for the time being. Olivia gave a small sigh before looking down at the corpse beside her feet. For the moment, she decided to forget the earlier mishap. If anything, she knew better to not have misplaced hope on others.

"What are you going to do with him," She asked, pointing to the dead vampire.

"I already sent a message to the bureau and they should be coming soon so we can just leave his body here," Alexander replied, seeming to be more talkative than usual. Olivia wondered if this was his way of apologizing.

She nodded her head and followed him to the carriage before making their way back to the De Vere estate.

Thankfully once they arrived, Alexander allowed her to use his bathroom to wash up instead of making her sleep in her filth.

Once she stepped out, feeling freshly clean, she didn't even spare Alexander a glance as she walked out of his room and stepped back into hers. She slowly slipped into her bed and tucked herself in as she thought of the events of the day. She decided that she needed to somehow find a way to earn money as, if she needed to leave, she could leave with a secure financial status and not worry about a thing. Soon, after sorting out her thoughts, she slowly drifted off to another dreamless sleep.

Recently, if not following Alexander to and from the bureau, Olivia was either stuck in her room or was in the dining room awkwardly eating with the pale faced Givers.

Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore so one afternoon she walked across the hallway and knocked on to Alexander's door. A few seconds later, she heard him give her permission and so she opened the door and walked in. She then paused in the middle of the room, not knowing whether to continue standing or to take a seat.

"Are you planning to stand there like a clown all day?"

Olivia promptly sat herself on the seat opposite him.

She twiddled her thumbs for a few seconds, deliberating in her mind whether this great master of hers would accept her request.

"I don't have all day," A deep voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

"I don't have much to do during the day…" Olivia tentatively started off.

Alexander didn't reply and merely continued to sip on his tea.

Seeing him like this, Olivia didn't fret. She took a deep breath before saying, "When we're not busy, could I perhaps work in the garden?"

She saw a frown start to form on Alexander's face, "Or even just helping out at the stables would be good too," She quickly added.

"Are you that idle?" Alexander asked.

"It's not like there's much to do here," Olivia slightly complained in a quiet voice.

As she waited for her judgement, Alexander soon replied, "Very well, just be wary."

Olivia startled not believing that the vampire would agree so easily before joking, "What's this? Are you starting to care for me?"

Alexander quickly crinkled his eyebrows, "I'm worried that my family members may take you for a Giver."

He then paused for a while before adding, "You're not suitable for them."

Olivia pursed her lips, "It's not like I'll die."

Alexander didn't reply to her little retort and went back to acting as if she didn't exist. Olivia took this as her cue to leave and closed the door behind her quietly.

The next day she woke up slightly excited as she now had something to do with her free time. She even felt the gruelling porridge she was eating was slightly sweeter than usual.

She heartily continued to scoop mouthfuls of porridge before hearing a loud thud resound close by. Olivia whipped her head up to find one of the Givers, who was originally sitting opposite her, lying flat on the floor in a dead faint.

Olivia was startled as she instinctively looked up at Alexander who was seated on the main table only to find out that not one member of the De Vere's, let alone Alexander, bat an eyelid. The butler quietly walked in, hauling the poor Giver on his back and left the room.

Olivia then looked towards the remaining Givers to see them continue to eat, unperturbed.

Once the gloomy breakfast was over, Olivia took the chance to ask the butler to lead her to the stables.

The De Vere household didn't own a big stable but it was enough to house about 7 well bred horses. Olivia noticed a bucket of carrots off to the side of the entrance and picked one up before walking up to the nearest horse. She stroked its nose, feeling the soft brown fur under her fingertips.

"Here do you want this?" Olivia nudged the carrot towards the horses' mouth allowing it to munch in one gulp.

"Aren't you a hungry one?" She giggled as she played around with its mane.

"And who might you be?" Olivia followed the sound of the voice to find a young looking vampire who seemed to be around her age approach her from the side. He wore a simple white shirt with his sleeves rolled up and plain dark brown trousers held up by black suspenders with matching black boots. His auburn hair slightly ruffled in the spring breeze.

Olivia continued to stroke the horse, "Hello, I'm Olivia."

"Oh. So you're the one the others always go on about. I'm Ivan," He greeted with a smile.

Olivia twitched her lips. She didn't think she had become a source of gossip for the others. She watched Ivan walk over to the other side before seeing him shovel the filth leftover from the horses.

"So, what are you doing here?" Ivan asked.

"I'm here to help out in the stables," She replied before also adding, "And occasionally the garden."

"I've never seen a human so composed whilst being amongst vampires," Ivan nonchalantly commented as he continued to stack the dirty hay into a neat pile in the corner.

"Well now you have, thanks to me," Olivia joked, feeling slightly awkward. She had never interacted with vampires before meeting Alexander but she had to wonder, was her current predicament that bad in the eyes of others?

The stables resumed to its silence only leaving the huffing of the horses. Soon both Olivia and Ivan witnessed the butler dragging something big wrapped in white cloth as he walked past.

"There goes Reginald, dragging out another one of them again. It's already the second one within the last 7 months," Ivan spoke shaking his head but having no other expression.

Olivia had a thought, "That was a Giver?"

Ivan looked at Olivia, "If not? It wasn't going to be a vampire now was it?"

Olivia watched Ivan's indifferent expression towards what he had just seen. It seemed like Givers were not seen highly according to vampires.

"And you? You're not a Giver, are you?" Ivan asked.

Olivia shook her head and faced back towards the horse keeping her thoughts to herself.