A mischievous glint

Leah listened to Anastasia's story with a sympathetic look, gently holding her hand for comfort. They decided to pause their walk and found a spot to sit on a fallen tree. Anastasia smiled, though there was a hint of sadness in her expression.

"You're the only human friend I've ever had in a very long time." Anastasia said. "My eyes make it very hard for me to make friends outside the manor. When I was younger, other vampires always saw me as an abomination since my eyes didn't really match with the usual vampire eye color, and the fact that I couldn't hide it only made things worse."

"I'm really sorry about that." Leah said, sympathetically.

"Thanks." Anastasia gave a small smile.

"I'm used to it now, and I don't think any vampire has the balls to talk to me disrespectfully now." She chuckled lightly. "It's time to head back now. We have a game to play."

"You're right. Let's go." Leah chuckled, feeling a sense of camaraderie with Anastasia.

They both laughed together, rising from the fallen tree and making their way back to the mansion, continuing their conversation along the way.

Anastasia led Leah to the garden, where a chess table had already been set up. As they arrived, everyone was already gathered there - the entire Valdez family, their guest, and Priscilla. Anastasia quickly left Leah behind and joined Alexander, who was engrossed in conversation with William and Lucius.

Leah noticed a few unfamiliar faces in the group. A man with tattoos on both arms was deep in conversation with one of the new women, while a younger blonde girl was chatting with Priscilla. The girl said something that caused Priscilla to burst into laughter.

Suddenly, a voice startled Leah from behind, "I heard you were looking for me."

She turned to see Lucius standing there, staring at the direction she had been looking. Leah let out a sigh and faced forward again. It seemed like Lucius had a talent for appearing suddenly and giving her a fright.

Leah couldn't help but wonder how Lucius knew that she had been looking for him. She hadn't made it obvious by directly asking about him.

"And who told you that?" she asked, still staring at the others gathered in the garden.

"Someone whispered it to my ears," Lucius replied with a mischievous smile.

Leah glanced at him, perplexed, before shifting her gaze to Anastasia, her brows furrowed in confusion. There was no way Anastasia could have told him, as they had been together the whole morning. Her eyes then moved to William, suspicion creeping into her expression as she narrowed her eyes at him.

Priscilla and Jane were witches so there was no way they could have earse dropped on she and Anastasia conversion, and Andrea didn't look like the type who would tattle tale to Lucius so it was definitely William — the pure blood vampire and Lucius younger brother.

As if noticing her stares, the man turned to glance at her and Lucius, his blues eyes settled on her and he flashed her a smile which Leah returned with a glare causing his lips to stretch further. Leah diverted her eyes from him feeling annoyed.

From her few hours of living in the manor, Leah noticed that the Lucius and Williams were slightly alike. From their strange behavior to their resemblance. They didn't exactly look alike like twins would, but they had the same eye colour and hair colour, the only difference in their looks was their lip colour — Lucius lips were pink while William lips were red.

Leah scoffed.

"Well, your little birdy must have mistaken," she said. "Why would I even be looking for you?" Leah asked.

"It's not like you're so important," she mumbled to herself

"I should be asking you that, Leah." Lucius said, his voice low and teasing as he leaned closer to her. "But I won't because you wouldn't be able to give me a reasonable answer." He whispered in her ear, causing her to startling.

Leah attempted to turn and face him, but the close proximity between them made her almost brush her lips against his. Her eyes widened in surprise as their noses lightly brushed against each other. In her attempt to create some distance, Leah lost her balance, but Lucius quickly caught her by the waist, preventing her from falling.

Anastasia, who had been observing the interaction, couldn't help but interject with a playful comment. "Can you two stop with the romantic show already? We have a game to play, Leah," she said, a smile on her face.

Feeling a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, Leah swatted Lucius's hands away from her waist as soon as she regained her balance. Her face flushed red as she realized that everyone around them was staring. She shot Lucius a glare, wishing she could feed him with some fallen leaves from the ground to express how mad she was.

"Let them be, Anna. I can play chess with you if you want." Alexander offered.

Anastasia's face lit up immediately she heard her brother's offer. She had been dying to spend some time with him for so long.

"Of course. I would love that," Anastasia said excitedly.

Alexander whispered something to his sister that made her smile widen even more before she turned to Leah and said.

"Alex just told me that you and Lucius had already planned yesterday to spend the afternoon together," Anastasia said causing Leah to frown.

When did she and Lucius talk about spending the afternoon together yesterday. She glanced at Lucius and saw that the man had a mischievous smirk. She turned to face Anastasia to tell her that she had no plans with Lucius but Lucius quickly whispered in her ears again.

"I thought you wanted to see your dog?" Lucius asked, a teasing tone in his voice.

Leah's frustration grew as she clenched her knuckles, trying to control her anger. She was tired of his constant taunting and couldn't understand why he enjoyed vexing her so much. Why had she even been looking for him in morning? She must have lost her mind after waking up, or maybe it was because she assumed that he must have changed after their normal conversion last night.

"Stop whispering in my ears," she warned him, her voice laced with irritation. She refused to make the mistake of turning to face him this time, not wanting what just happened to repeat again.

"Okay," Lucius replied with a satisfied smirk, clearly enjoying getting under her skin.

He found her reactions highly entertaining, and the fact that she was already reacting negatively to all his advances only fueled his desire to push her further. However, he knew there was a limit, and he didn't plan on going too far —at least not yet.

Leah exhaled tiredly, realizing that arguing with Lucius was futile. She would rather spend her afternoon with bees than with Lucius, but she needed to see her dog, and she also needed something else from him. Therefore, she would be the one losing if she refused to go with him.

"Fine," Leah said, finally relenting. She turned to face him. "Lead the way."

With a mischievous glint in his eyes, Lucius gestured for her to follow him and began walking towards the other side of the garden.