Ghost

"Would you like me to add some curls to your hair, miss?" the hair stylist politely asked Leah.

"No," Leah replied as she gazed at her reflection in the mirror.

Despite her initial refusal to remove to black colour dye from her hair, Lucius still made her do it.

Leah felt strange as gazed at her brown hair. That light coffee colour looked completely foreign. She had been using hair dyes since she was eighteen, and she had become used to that deep black colour. She did have her reasons for using black hair dye, it was not because she hated her hair colour — She loved it.

She stood up and thanked the hair stylist before leaving the saloon. She didn't want to stay long there because the hair stylist was a vampire and she was the only customer in the saloon. She was sure that Lucius must trust the hair stylist, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Since Lucius wouldn't be coming back to pick her up anytime soon, as he was attending an important event, she decided to explore around because it was one of her dreams to visit Rome for a vacation. This wasn't a vacation though but that didn't mean that she couldn't wander around before sunset when Lucius would come to take her back to the manor.

Leah dipped her hand into her small purse and pulled out the black card Lucius had given her. The mere knowledge that this little freedom was temporary and would end by sunset killed her agile spirit.

What if she attempted to escape? She could use Lucius' money to flee, and she would be long gone before he even noticed. Her eyes gleamed with hope when these thoughts crossed her mind, but they vanished just as quickly as they had appeared.

Leaving would alternately put Ami in danger. Killing Ami would be the first thing that Lucius would do once he finds out that she left and she couldn't take that risk.

Completely discarding those thoughts, Leah decided to do a little shopping. After buying the few necessities that she needed, it was already almost sunset. She asked for directions to a certain location that Lucius had asked her to wait for him.

When she got to the place Lucius was no where insight so she decided to sit on a bench under a tree.

While waiting, Leah noticed a girl across from her who kept staring intensely. She tried to ignore the girl's gaze, but it was too persistent to overlook; the girl's eyes didn't flatter away from Leah for even a second.

What made the situation even stranger was that the girl was wearing a patient gown with bloodstains on the abdomen and had a deep cut on her forehead.

With furrowed brows, Leah stared at the girl wondering if she was perhaps a sick patient from a hospital who tried escaping and got into an accident.

"Is she... a ghost?" Leah asked no one in particular with a low voice.

Leah glanced around, to check if anyone was also seeing the girl but it looked like no one was seeing the girl except her. She glanced at the girl again, trying to check if she had seen her somewhere.

"Excuse me, miss."

The male voice cut off her concentration and she turned to glance at the owner of the voice. There was a tall brown haired man in dark suit standing there with a small smile on his lips.

"You must be Leah Morris, right?" The man asked and Leah nodded in affirmation causing the man's smile to stretch even more.

"I'm Victor, Lucius sent me to come pick you up,"

Leah nodded before grabbing her bags from the bench and rising up and following him, she glanced at the area where the girl was standing but she was no longer there.

...

The ride was silent as Leah was completely engrossed in staring at the orange evening whether outside. Victor was constantly glancing at her through the rear mirror like something was running through his mind.

"If there's something you wanna ask me then go ahead and ask, I'm not comfortable with you looking away from the road," Leah said, her eyes still focused on the evening scenery.

"This is the first time I'm seeing someone from a very strong hunters bloodline so relaxed around a vampire."

Leah glanced at Victor, her green eyes looking a little thoughtful. She had no idea that he was a vampire.

"I'm not like the others. I see things from a different perspective,"

Victor gave a small nod to her reply.

"Lucius mentioned that you were working for Maria," Victor said, with casual tone like he knew Maria very well. "It must have been tough to tolerate her perturbing attitude knowing fully well that she was a vampire."

Leah's brows cringed a little, both in surprise and in confusion. She did not know that Maria was a vampire, there were no possible signs that even showed that she was a vampire. So hearing Victor mention that shocked her a bit.

Victor glanced at her through the rear mirror again.

"Based on your silence, I'm guessing you didn't know what Maria was?"

"I didn't," Leah replied in a low voice.

Victor glanced at her one more time, he wouldn't have mentioned Maria being a vampire, but he assumed that she knew or Lucius must have told her about that.

None of them spoke again throughout the rest of the drive.

It was already dark when the car pulled up in front of the mansion. A maid came to help Leah in carrying her bags immediately she stepped out from the car, but Victor sent the maid away with a glare and took the bags from Leah instead.

Leah wanted to retire to her room but a maid informed her that the rest of the family and the guest were having dinner in the dining room, so she decided to join them.

The persons at the table were a little fewer than Leah had been expecting. Priscilla, Alexander, Grace, Anastasia and a blonde girl which Leah assumed must be Zelia were the only ones present at the table.

When Anastasia's rose up her head to Leah's direction, her eyes immediately lit up like stars.

"Leah!" Anastasia exclaimed happily . "Come sit beside,"

Leah smiled lightly as she made her way over to the table and sat beside Anastasia.

"I'm you are able to join us for dinner. I was starting to think you wouldn't be able to make it,"

Before Leah could even respond to Anastasia, Grace butted in.

"It would have been better if she ate in her room," Grace said with venom in her voice. "She doesn't even belong here in the first place."

"Grace!" Anastasia glared at her.

"What?" Grace scoffed before gesturing for a maid to come over.

When the maid got to where she sat, she glanced at Leah with a sly smile on her lips before the maid's wrist close to her lips and sinking her fangs into it. She did not take her eyes away from Leah as she drank from the maid. She wanted to elicit a negative reaction from her, but Leah did not give her any, instead she flashed her a calm smirk which only irked her.

If Grace thought she was trying to scare her then she was as silly as the thought itself. Leah focused on dishing out her food, and began eating.

They ate in silence as Anastasia never uttered a single word.

Leah was the first person to leave the table as she only ate little of her food. She said good night to Anastasia before leaving.

"Are you okay?" Alexander asked his sister in a low voice immediately Leah left.

Anastasia glanced at him before nodding.

While Grace had been so eager to upset Leah by drinking from that human maid a while ago, she had forgotten that Anastasia had little control to the scent of human blood.

Everyone in the manor knew about that except for Leah who was still oblivious to this certain information.

Alexander glanced at Grace with a calm look but with a deeper look one would see the raw coldness in his eyes.

...

The small tossing and turning continued for a time before Leah opened her eyes. She found it difficult to sleep again after waking up from a nightmare. It was almost two in the morning, yet she couldn't feel a single wink of sleep in her eyes.

Seeing that sleeping was out of the picture for the meantime, she decided to read one of the books she had bought the previous day. She reached for the bedside lamp and turned it on.

But as soon as the light flooded the room, Leah regretted her decision. She froze, her heart pounding in her chest, as she gaze at the figure standing at the foot of her bed.