Monster

Standing next to the cheerful Eli and Olivia, Alexander no longer wanted to be there.

His red eyes looked down at the woman who was still trying so desperately hard to rouse his interests.

"Do you mind accompanying me to take a stroll around the royal garden?" Alexander's deep voice suddenly spoke, causing the insignificant words at the tip of her tongue to quietly die out.

Her face flushed deep red at his words.

Who here didn't know that such a sentence was clearly coded for…that.

Without wanting to miss her chance, as shyly and demure as possible, Agnes slowly nodded her head and followed behind the footsteps of the pureblood vampire.

As they walked further away from the main palace, their surroundings gradually became quieter. Of course, they were not the only people on such a stroll, every so often they would come across pairs that were hidden behind the bushes, obscene sounds being heard once they walked past causing Agnes to blush profusely.

They soon stopped at a certain flowerbed, far away from any others.

Alexander looked down, staring intently at the foreign imported flowers. He seemed to be dwelling on his own thoughts yet, Agnes did not notice. Instead, she looked slightly flustered and expectant of what was to come.

Alexander, was in currently in deep reverie. His eyes gazed at the purple alpine flowers that were slowly swaying in the summer breeze. Flowers that were usually found in the southern part of the continent. Of course, such things were not much of a surprise, seeing as he was indeed standing in the 'royal' garden.

Yet, out of all the flowers laying around, it was these purple flowers that stood out to him the most.

'Her eyes, were they this colour?'

Remembering those beautiful and florescent purple pupils staring intently at him, he could not help but disagree.

'No, her eyes…her eyes were much more deeper than this. More exquisite and alluring.'

After viewing the flowers quietly, Agnes continued to sneak glances at the man beside her but to her dismay, he did not seem to be making any moves.

At this moment, her friends words came to mind.

["Agnes, you're a nice and gentle girl. Because of how you are, I fret that you may not be able to handle men in the future. Listen to my words. Although some men like to be straightforward and will be the one to take the first step, not all follow through with this formula. Some like to see the woman initiating contact first. Therefore, dear Agnes, do not hesitate and shy away from making the first move.]

Biting her rouge covered lip, she looked up at the vampire and soon came to a decision.

'Such a fine and elegant man, if I don't make my move now, wouldn't I die in regret?'

Slowly but surely, she took a few small steps, standing right in front of him. Steadily, she raised herself on her tiptoes, holding on to Alexander's shoulder.

Alexander, on the other hand, allowed the human to do as she pleased. He merely looked on with an expressionless face, yet such a thing did not discourage nor faze the noble lady, as if she expected such a response.

With a tight grip on his shoulders, she raised herself up further before leaning in. Soon, her red lips landed on the side of his neck, giving it a deep and longing kiss.

Once she leaned back, she looked up at his expression, only to find that there wasn't a single difference from earlier. It was blank as could be.

Seeing the results of her work, Agnes felt frustrated yet was unwilling to give up there and then. This time, she boldened herself and leaned in to give the corner of his mouth a small peck. Once more, she looked up to see his reaction in anticipation and indeed, this time she did get a result.

But it wasn't exactly what she was looking for.

Alexander's eyebrows were currently furrowed, as if deeply irritated. In actuality, he really was irritated.

Having a human near him, one would think it would somewhat rouse his thirst, yet he could not feel such a thing. Instead, his senses felt assaulted by the strong smell of perfume, mixed with rouge and face powder.

Although he wasn't averse to the smell of perfume, the one she was wearing at the moment seemed to disagree with him.

Slightly stepping back and putting some distance between them, he spoke in a low voice, "I'm sorry Miss Agnes, I am unable to answer to your affections."

Agnes stood there with blazing cheeks, one could only guess whether it was from embarrassment or anger. Behind her, the sun began to quietly set. Its golden rays shimmering against the palace walls.

"Is there…did I do something wrong?" Agnes spoke up after a while, a small quiver was heard through her voice.

Alexander stared back at the slightly trembling human before him, "When I spoke of taking a stroll, I truly did mean that in literal terms."

Because Agnes was previously looking down at the ground, hearing the vampires words, her head quickly whipped up. Her brown coils sharply moving along with her.

"But… you!" She stared at the man before her incredulously with widened eyes.

After a while, her expression changed into exasperation, "You asked for me to accompany you on a stroll indeed. However, who doesn't know what such words mean!"

In her anger, Agnes seemed to have forgotten that the man in front of her was not a human but rather a vampire. And a pureblood at that.

Originally, he was only mildly irritated but hearing this squabbling woman before him, he felt his irritation only increase further.

"I have not yet mentioned your disgraceful acts in your foolish pursuit of attempting to seduce me, only due to the sole reason that you are a noble woman. Yet, here you stand before me and twist my words? I apologise if you're saddened by the fact that I do not possess such preserve thoughts, but I won't allow for a person of your stature to speak of such slanderous words against me," His voice was harsh, cold and unyielding.

By now, Agnes' entire being was trembling. Being of noble upbringing, who had ever spoken such words to her, especially in that tone? Even her own parents treated her like a crown jewel.

As she stared at the unfeeling man in front, her eyes reddened with a set of unshed tears pooling at the bottom.

The rage, embarrassment and shame of it all, balled into one as she raised her finger to point at him, "You!...H-How could you say such wo-"

Suddenly, she felt the air around her contract. She tried to breathe in yet was unable to do so. In horror, she looked up at the man before her as she did her best to gasp for air but she came face to face with a set of dark glowing eyes.

Immediately, her face paled as she crumpled to the floor, desperately clawing at her neck. Her eyes however, did not move away from his albeit, they were opened wide in terror.

"Speak another word of nonsense…"

Suddenly, she felt as if something was crushing her lungs yet, she did not even have the luxury of screaming.

"And I'll rip your throat out."

Finally, the cool summer breeze soon filled her mouth and lungs as she deeply inhaled as much air as she could. Her face was streaked with tears, smudging the generous amount of face powder she had applied earlier on. Not only that, underneath her fingernails, one could see droplets of blood and even worse, small pieces of ripped off skin.

Petrified, Agnes did not dare to even look at his retreating back as he walked away.

All she could think about was how today was a mistake, one that she would never forget for the years to come.

How could she ignore the biggest glaring disparity between them, allowing her affection and desire to blind her?

He was a vampire.

A monster.

Alexander quietly re-joined the crowds of people. Walking towards the front of the hall, he looked over at where Olivia was last standing, but she was no longer there.

A few seconds later, he turned his gaze away, not bothering to find where she currently was.

"Here you go," Rosina, had at some point, stood next to him. In her hand were two wine glasses.

"You would think King Roman would invest in better wine, instead he gives us this," She complained in contempt but continued to drink.

"Brother, you don't look so happy," Not hearing any words back, she decided to tease him.

"Wasn't that Miss Agnes you were with earlier? Did you not manage to get a big enough bite?" She playfully gnashed her teeth, beaming a smile at him in his plight.

Alexander didn't answer his foolish sister, merely continue to gaze forward.

With exaggerated actions, she put her hand to her forehead, looking around, "Oh? Why do I not see her anymore?"

She turned to look at her brother who didn't seem too pleased with her antics, and mock gasped, "Brother, don't tell me you…killed her?"

"Rosina, you shouldn't mess around with him too much," Another nuisance had once again appeared by his side. Lo and behold, Julian had also arrived, a lazy smile apparent on his face.

"Where's your little butterfly? Has she flown away from her cage?" Julian swivelled the tasteless wine in his glass cup.

Unperturbed, Alexander gave a slight smile, "You know, I've always wondered who that Giver resembled. They look incredibly familiar, especially those eyes. You know who I'm talking about, right brother?"

Silence dawned.

Julian's languid expression soon slipped off. He glared darkly at Alexander before nonchalantly walking away.

Rosina quietly watched her brothers but did not say a word. Such was the relationship between the three siblings.

Soon, however, a commotion broke out.

Without warning, countless people began screaming and running away. Drinks were spilled and glasses were smashed on the floor.

Rosina frowned but stayed put, as if such a thing was not of importance.

Alexander, however, was not so indifferent. Having smelt the spillage of blood, his eyes could not help but flit around, looking for that one person.

In front of him, someone had suddenly been thrown into the air. Once it landed however, it could no longer be described as 'someone'. The corpse was badly mangled and extremely terrifying to look at. Such a scene did not scare Alexander but his heart was indeed beating quite fast.

His eyes were rapidly skimming past countless faces, yet the face he wanted to see before him was not there. His senses had become overloaded with various different smells that he almost could not differentiate between them.

Hastily walking through the escaping attendees, he couldn't help but quicken his pace.

'Where was she?'

In this moment, he had suddenly remembered something. He had marked her.

Just by sensing her mark, he should get her exact location but before doing so, his ears had without warning, picked up a hoarse scream.

A voice.

An extremely familiar voice. One that he was accustomed to hearing every day.

Without delay, he quickly sensed her position and pushed the obstacles out of the way as he ran over. Yet the sight that came before him, caused him to pause for just that quick moment.

That quick second, however, felt rather long in his mind.

Before his eyes, Olivia was between the teeth of some sort of animal. No, he should say…monster.

Her plain cotton dress were ripped in multiple areas, her blood currently spilling out on to the floor. Alexander did not even bother to look at the pathetic Eli who lay sprawled on the floor as he stared at the back of Olivia in horror.

Within a blink of an eye, Alexander stuck his hand through the thing's chest, promptly ripping out its heart without a moments hesitation. He didn't stop there either. Raising his hand, he wrenched the head off its body, decapitating it in one clean cut.

The most appalling thing was that, although its body fell on to the floor, because its teeth were so entrenched in Olivia's flesh, his head had to be wrested off, causing pain to shoot up her arm.

Blood was everywhere due to the carnage.

Olivia finally breathed in some much needed air, her arm dangling lifelessly by her side. Her hair was matted against her sweaty forehead and her face was especially pale.

Looking up at Alexander who was holding on to her, she still managed to muster a weak smile.

"It seemed I didn't die this round either."

Behind her, Eli seemed to have recognised Alexander's presence as he slowly snapped out of his terror. Looking at the panting Olivia in his arms, he began to shakily stand up, slowly nearing the pair.

"Olivia! Olivia…are you alright? I…" With a trembling voice, he tried to speak to her but before his sentence had already finished, Alexander pulled her away from the scene, causing his outstretched arm to pathetically fall to the side.

With red eyes, he continued to stare at their backs as they walked into the distance, quietly mumbling her name, "Olivia…"