Bonfire Night II

"I thought you said you weren't the girl who caused the accident back then, Seraphine" Priscilla raised her voice, loud enough for people to hear.

Since most of the People there were also present at the vampire ball few nights ago, majority of them nodded, waiting for an explanation.

"Do you know the stress and trauma you made my friend go through because of your doing?" Priscilla queried.

Seraphine wished she could disappeared from the face of the earth, to be anywhere but that place. As Priscilla stepped forward, Seraphine retraced her step. She was too ashamed of her eyes to state that she was just as innocent as Mabel, that the actual culprit was Leonard.

"stay still"

The strong grip of Xavier's hand on her shoulder made it impossible for her to turn to look at him. Despite hearing his voice in her head and the unique scent which always accompanied him, she still wanted to look at him. At least, facing him alone would not make her see the disgust look on the others anymore.

"Keep looking at them. Let them fear you if need be but do not cower in their presence. Don't show them your weakness. Keep staring at their faces and ignore the murmur"

Her back straightened, she saw Leonard's mocking smile faltered, the cocky from from on his face was not as wide as before, his gaze was on Xavier instead.

Her glance centred on Priscilla, the pleased look on her face earlier was long gone, in its stead was thinned lips and a flared nose.

The murmur had become quiet in the presence of Xavier, apparently majority of the ladies believed they had a chance of being the future lady of the Manor and indulging in gossips was a classless habit, therefore, comportment and steering away from gossip was necessary.

"All right, the commotion is over. Let's go back to our feast" out from the crowd, Francis emerged, clapping to signal them to go back to their previous activity.

Diane also came forward and snag Seraphine's arm with a worried look, "how did you go out of our group?"

"We were busy looking for you at the other side, until we saw you in the middle of a large crowd" Daniel spoke, smoothening his ruffled cloth.

Felicity tried to rush through her speech, fanning herself since she was out of breath, "one second we were holding hands, the next someone almost ripped my hand off" she showed them the discolouration on her wrist.

Seraphine looked at her friend's messy hair and wild eyes, she was lost for words. She knew what all of them were doing; instead of asking her for an explanation, they were the one explaining.

As if a lump had developed in her throat, she couldn't say anything but looked at them in awe. Tears laced her eyes, threatening to fall as she heard Diane told Felicity to bring her hand so she could check it out.

Xavier who hadn't said anything since his arrival, intertwined his fingers around hers in the dark, standing beside her, the warmth she felt was gone. She shivered at the cool wave of air which gushed at her back due to his change of position.

"Welcome back old man" Daniel patted his friend's shoulder, Seraphine who was still unable to form words felt Xavier's fingers as he gently squeezed her hands for comfort.

"Do you know the cause of the commotion" he asked, directing his gaze at a figure behind Diane.

"We just heard someone scream but I can wager that it was a false alarm"

"And someone deliberately unlink my hand from Seraphine's" Felicity rubbed her wrist.

"They wanted you to be separated from her"

"I bet that giraffe neck Priscilla and the Lancaster siblings had something to do with it" The grim look on Diane's face was directed at the group far away from them.

"I felt the string of my spectacle being pulled as I ran" Seraphine softly spoke, recalling the scenes earlier.

"Leonard Lancaster is definitely the culprit" Daniel glared at him from behind.

Francis had come to hold Seraphine in high regard, annoyed to see the downcast look on her face, "if not that the essence of this ceremony was to united us all, I would've called him out for a duel!" His nose flared, the cracking of bone made them look down to see his crawl extending.

"Relax" Xavier spoke calmly while studying the back of Leonard's head.

Ignoring the unwelcomed stares that kept coming her way, she raise her head higher and cleared her throat, "I owe you an explanation for what happened"

"Save it for later, when you're ready, we will listen. Besides, this is not a suitable place to do it" Francis placed his hand on her shoulder, everyone nodded in agreement.

Grateful for their thoughtful consideration, she nodded, while muttering 'thank you' to them.

"How was the factory, hope everything is fine" Diane asked Xavier

"Nothing I can't handle" He gave his usual shrug, "I'll be right back.

Lucas Lancaster breathed a sigh of relief when he was able to extract himself from his siblings's group. Taking solace from the dark which shrouded him and the quiet away from the large crowd, his heart felt heavy even more, witnessing the frightened look on Seraphine's face.

He kept looking for a way to meet her alone and appologise, he had been subtly looking at where she stood with her friend, flanked by three protective males, the intimidating gaze of the one who arrived later gave him a fright down his spine.

"Guilty of something?"

Lucas whirled around to the sound of the voice, seeing the intimidating gaze on a closer view, his clenched jaw and narrowed eyes further scared him.

Lucas shook his head in denial, stepping backward as the vampire approached.

"No?"

He quickly changed his answer with a continuous nod of his head.

"Tell me, what are you guilty of?"

"I uh..I owe Seraphine an apology for accusing her of what was done by someone else"

"By someone you mean Leonard, right?" Xavier studied the young man, he seemed different from his elder brother.

"Yes"

Putting his arms akimbo, Xavier asked, "tell me, who planned the whole plan, creating commotion and removing Seraphine's spectacle?"

"Priscilla and Leonard" remembering how both of them had slowed down their pace on their way back from spying on Seraphine that evening.

Xavier listened while Lucas narrated the whole thing, from the incident years ago to following Seraphine to her father's grave.

Shame didn't allow Lucas meet Xavier's gaze throught the talk, the quick wind brushing his face made him look up to see that the vampire had disappeared.

Xavier rejoined the rest, sipping the cup of blood Daniel handed him. He felt Seraphine's heart skipped, tracing her line of vision to where Leonard stood.

"What did you see?" He knew she must have seen something.

"I'm not sure but I could swear I briefly saw him covered in some sort of particular weird tattoo. Does that make sense to you?"

"Anything that involves what you see can't be ignored. Can you make out an image from what you saw? Any thing similar you can relate it with?"

"I can do better than that. I can tell you what he is. A hunter"

Seeing that the rest of their friends had been too engrossed in a discussion of theirs, he drew her to a side, "a hunter? What do they hunt"

"I don't know"

"How do you know then that he's a hunter?"

"I read something similar in the book"

"The Creatures of the Past?"

"Yes, but I don't think he's aware yet"

Looking at where they Lancaster siblings stood, Xavier observed them, wondering what could he possibly be hunting.