Chapter 15 - A Disaster On The Way

Chapter 15 - A Disaster On The Way
Amanda and Cord had basically dueled for dominion earlier, trying to be the person to get on top the other. Skin contact was already established.

She should have known then that he was different from other vampires, but only now, when Cord embraced her, their bodies pressed so close no gap were visible, that she noticed one pertinent detail about him.

Contrary to popular belief, Cord actually felt warm.

Warm.

He was as warm as she was, and damn, it actually felt good.

She hadn’t been embraced like this before. It was with so much passion that it weakened her anger. She couldn’t deny that it tugged a string in her heart, no matter how she trained it to be as dead as possible.

She knew that vampires always, always weren’t supposed be trusted, but with the Vitalis Master, she wondered if she could make an exception.

“Cord, you-you can let go of me now, ” Amanda stated, her hands stiffened midair, deliberating on pushing him.

The latter inhaled deeply, probably basking on her scent, she mused. He had done this many times, only now did she realize it was a vampire pattern.

“I will, ” Cord answered, though he still tightened his embrace, “but stay, Amanda. Stay in my bed. Sleep here until the sun greets you.”

Amanda’s mouth partly dropped after hearing it. “I have my own bedroom, you see.”

“I know, but I take it upon myself to protect you.” He released her finally, and went to stare at her with grave eyes. “I’m sure you already know it, but your life is in danger. Your attacker might come back to finish you.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I don’t think that staying in your bed protects me from that.”

Cord sighed. “True, but you together with me is.”

His gaze fell on her lips, two luscious mounts that he wanted swollen with his kisses. He wandered to the dip of her neckline too, which under the moonlit night showed just how much of a bewitching woman she was. Her delectable curves just made him crave to run his hands on them.

Amanda felt aware of his perusal. She cleared her throat and unconsciously darted her tongue out, wetting the bottom.

With this, Cord hastily climbed down the mattress and diverted his face onto the drapery above his head, counting to three to control himself from kissing her lips.

“My shadows around you keep danger at bay, ” he continued, his tall frame towering her.

“No, ” Amanda shook her head. “I can’t possibly stay in your chamber forever, Cord! I have a life to live too. You can’t jail me here. Me staying in your castle is already enough!”

“Just for this night, please, ” he negotiated, looking at her once again. “Just so that this argument would end. Don’t worry, I’ll be staying in the receiving room. I won’t crawl on you.”

Amanda suppressed a laugh. “Huh, sounds very reassuring.” But like him, she was also tired of arguing, so she surrendered, reaching for the duvet and arranging it to cover her legs.

She thought he’d exit then. They practically didn’t have anymore issues to discuss for the time being. But when she looked up again, he was still on his spot, staring intently at her.

“What? Have you changed your mind?” she asked, suddenly hopeful.

Cord shook his head and half smiled. “Clever of you to say that, but no.” He turned around and stalked to the doorway. “Have a pleasant dream, Amanda.”

She flashed her teeth to mock him. “Sorry, but I won’t say the same to you. You basically lack dreams.”

“Hmm, says who?” Cord paused in the doorway, looking at her over the shoulder. “Those humans who weaved false stories about us?”

Amanda shrugged her shoulders.

“We aren’t undead, Amanda. Just lack of heartbeat. We can still dream or...even have nightmares.”

And just like that, Cord left with a soft shut of the double doors leaving Amanda speechless.

How much truth does the popular belief of vampires hold? She now questioned every single one of them. It would be great to use this knowledge to her advantage. Hold this as leverage if and only if she’d face another precarious situation with one of them, like her attacker for example. That day in the pond may have been so gloomy and the man moved so quick, but she knew, she knew he was a vampire. Her healed but sore fang marks in the shoulder were an undeniable evidence.

With Cord out, the bedroom somehow looked barren. Amanda couldn’t be so sure if she was happy or not with his exit. True, his presence made her feel uncomfortable, but like many of their engagements in the past, he also made her utterly complete.

She could never tell why, but hoped that he could.

Another truth for another time, she thought and lay supine in the mattress whilst releasing a deep sigh and closed her eyes.

Sitting in his throne was a better option than to stay in his bedroom with Amanda still inside. Cord promised not to crawl on her, but after staying for quite some time in the receiving room just hearing her calm heartbeat, he began to regret his words.

So, in the end, he commanded his liquid shadows to protect her, make a dome around her again whilst he leave his chamber for a much needed respite.

He summoned one biter there, waited for a couple of minutes until that biter waltzed inside the throne hall with a hard expression on his face.

“Where were you when my guest was attacked?” Cord directly asked once Trace stood at the bottom of the dais. His voice was steely; his face the same; his patience beginning to dwindle as he tapped his well-trimmed fingernail against the hard wood of the throne, looking down on his troublesome cousin.

Though with now the blindfold on, Cord could still see the sneer his cousin produced for him, showing that the man undoubtedly disliked his entire person. He knew of this, for long a time, but he just stayed silent, allowing his cousin and all of the other biters under the castle roof to do as they please.

It was his obligation to give them that. He was after all the reason for their misfortune, having become a creature of the dark the moment he did as he turned thirty-one.

“I was feeding, ” Trace answered, pausing for a second and pointing his eyes on the floor before continuing, “Not in the castle. In an amusement park.”

“You lie, ” Cord grounded, his brows set in a firm line. Without warning, his liquid shadows materialized along his cousin’s sleeved arms.

“Ahhh shit!” Trace instantly shouted, feeling for the charged electricity there. He knelt on the ground and writhed in all fours, with his palms curling into a tight fist. He had been at the receiving end of the Master’s ire since the beginning, but never had he felt such powerful volts like this before.

The Master must be that desperate.

“Okay, okay!” Trace raised up his hands in surrender, wanting the envious energy out of his system ASAP. “I’ll tell you the truth!”

Cord lifted it and waited, ears focused on him.

“I was outside the castle when it happened, but I swear I didn’t attack the woman!” Trace confessed.

“Tell me more Trace, or you’ll get it, ” Cord threatened, his jaw tense.

“What I just saw was the last part of it!” he breathed in deeply. “Her attacker was a man. His back was to me so I wasn’t able to see his face. He had a built that’s common; tall, broad-chested. His hair, a shade of black. The woman managed to fight him off, I don’t know how, but I saw the man’s shoulders ossified or to use a better word, it turned into stone. He pushed her in the pond from there and then you came.”

So I wasn’t the reason why the attacker had fled, Cord mused grudgingly, it was Amanda’s unexpected retaliation, and from there another thought crossed his mind.

He unconsciously cleared his throat and shifted in his seat.

The description Trace just provided seemed to resemble what he experienced hours ago with Amanda’s hands: petrified skin like a stone and it damn felt numb and raw, and it stung big time.

Trace pulled himself up and staggered a little before continuing with little pants, ” I swear that’s all I know.”

“Then why did you lie to me?” Cord asked, this time mellowing a little of his rage. The information his cousin had told him was an important clue of Amanda and her attacker and he should be thankful for it.

“I wasn’t, ” Trace shook his head, not guilty. “I’m just trying to avoid you’re prejudiced idea of me. If you haven’t noticed, you already condemned me before you had me summoned. I know you know that I hate you, but I’m not that desperate to rouse your anger. I’ve experienced too much of your shadows Cord and they weren’t pretty.”

“Hmm, it’s good that we have that same conclusion, ” Cord smirked a little, pride flowing in his veins. “Leave Trace, you are done.”

He flipped up a hand, lazily so to say, and shifted his focus on stroking his pet’s forehead.

Sneering, Trace stepped backward, happy that he was free, but stopped abruptly and looked back at Cord. “Honestly though, who is that woman Cord? She—”

“Is none of your business, ” Cord finished, instantly irritated. The armrests of his seat chipped further, deeper than the damage he caused after Calvin roused his ire two days ago. “Leave, now.”

“Hmf, ” the latter scoffed, turning heels towards the massive double doors whilst frowning.

Once alone, Cord contemplated on the data he collected so far. First of was Amanda’s attacker. He had black hair, tall and broad-chested. How many relatives and family friends who turned to a vampire had that color of hair? Many. And he had a handful of employees who fitted the description too, the Head Majordomo included, but he was out of the picture. Jerome was just too loyal of him to do that.

So now, he was at a stagnant end. He couldn’t just base the attacker with hair and body built alone. He needed more concrete proof.

Secondly, was the woman who thought of him as an enemy, Amanda, and as sure as the stars seen through his throne tinted glass windows, he believed her right. The Vitalis family had haunted her own kind to gain their abilities causing their supposed extinction. Who wouldn’t be angry with that?

What was left now was to gain her trust, again. A deeper one. Well, he couldn’t be sure if she had already trusted him prior to their revelations, but he wouldn’t mind trying again.

“She’ll just have to trust me if she wants her life preserved, ” he concluded, sighing and took out the amethyst necklace from his trench coat pocket. He stared at it through the blindfold and though he only could see white and grey shades, he knew that it wasn’t just a normal stone. It somehow was connected to Amanda and her true nature.

“You told him your secret?!”

That’s the first reaction Noman sputtered after Amanda entered her bed chamber first thing in the morning. She didn’t want to waste time staying in the Master’s room. What for?

For protection?

Nope. The vampires inside the castle were most likely sleeping already, in their coffins Amanda presumed, and thought she’d be safe to exit Cord’s lair.

Amanda hadn’t found him when she woke up, and even when she passed by the receiving room where he said he’d be staying. It wasn’t a surprise for her though. He was after all a vampire and was expected to sleep by sunrise. To where? She didn’t care, but there was a nagging feeling that she did. To her displeasure.

But it still relieved her that he was absent, at least she’d be able to dodge an awkward time with him, as enemies, and risk her heart exploding from his constant perusal and her perusing him back.

“Cait, why?” Noman added whilst a bacon was stuffed in his mouth. He was eating breakfast when she walked in and giddily, he asked her to join and inquired about her night with the Master.

“I...I don’t have a choice, ” Amanda answered, feeling guilty all of a sudden. Her eyes diverted on the floor, replaying the embarrassing scenes with Cord. “He forced me to confess. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have released me. He is one persis-” She looked back at her best friend and abruptly paused. “Hey! Wipe that grin off your face Dom!” She frowned, seeing Noman grinning like a bobcat.

“I’m sorry I can’t help it, ” he replied, shrugging his shoulders and zipping his lips, trying his best not to laugh.

“I thought you were surprised that I told him about my true nature, ” she lifted a brow, whilst crossing her arms over her chest and hitting her back on the sofa like a child on a tantrum.

Noman bobbed his head to affirm. “Of course I am, ” he said, “but other than that, I am more surprised that you, ” he pointed his finger on her groin, “and him, ” he followed by pointing another past the ceiling where he knew the Master’s chamber was located, “are hitting it below the belt now. That’s quite fast for you Cait, but I salute you.”

“What. Are. You. Talking about?” Amanda narrowed his eyes at him.

“Ah-ah-ah, ” Noman whipped one finger from side to side. “Don’t play innocent with me, woman. I know you’re in bedsheet names with the Master.”

“No we’re not!” Feeling flustered, Amanda immediately denied, but a memory flashed in her mind again, one that showed how they battled for the top dominion looking like they were really doing the deed. “Like what he told you, I was attacked by a...drunkard and...” she trailed off.

“Let me guess, he placed you in his bedroom to assure your safety, ” Noman continued. “In his bed. For two nights.”

“Yes, for my safety, ” she confirmed.

“Yet, you tell me now that he and you didn’t...” he lifted an inquisitive brow, leaning his face towards her.

“Of course not, why would I? With him?” Amanda quickly shook her head in dismay.

“Okay, I’m just going to act like a fool and believe you.” Noman stood up, raced towards the bathroom with Amanda following behind like a deflated puppy.

“Oh, come on Dom, it’s all the truth!” she said.

“Yeah, yeah, ” he flipped a hand in the air, disappointed that his best friend didn’t hit homebase. He turned to her when they arrived in the bathroom counter and continued, “So now, back to our topic, you seriously told him that you’re a...”

Amanda sighed and nodded. She leaned against the tiles and crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, basically he was quick to piece all of my words and guessed it right.”

“Huh, no surprise in that, ” Noman stated. “He’s the Master here, and a one hot ass of a Master for that matter. But why would you do that? You could always lie you know.”

“Yes, I thought about that, but he forced me to because of a certain event.”

Noman was all ears now.

“Juice. Give me all the juice, ” he urged.

“I may....have...attempted to take his life, Dom, ” Amanda twisted her brows as she looked at him. She expected he would flip out and just like that, he did.

“What?!” Noman grabbed her shoulder. “You mean, you-you tried to kill him? How? Why?!”

Amanda sighed again and thoroughly faced him.

“That’s what I want to ask you. You gave me a necklace last night right?”

“Yes, and hey, speaking of that, where is it?” Noman examined her neck, but found the said object absent there.

“Yeah, ” Amanda’s forehead wrinkled. “The last time I saw it, it was lying on the floor in Cord’s bedroom, the chain broken. He probably took it for safe keeping, I don’t know. Where did you get that necklace anyway?”

Noman stared at her, serious all of a sudden. “I got it from Matteo. He told me it is your early birthday present. Why? What’s the connection with the necklace and you trying to kill the Vitalis Master?”

“Well, ” she sighed again, hitting her hips against the counter. “I actually don’t know.”

Noman instantly groaned. “Don’t tease me, Cait. Come on, spill it out!”

“I really don’t know Dom. But what I do know is that when it was still around my neck, I felt my anger with all vampires amplified. I badly wanted to kill one that time. Cord was the easy target since he was sleeping in his chair, close to my bed.”

“Wow, that’s some serious shit Cait, but why would you attack the Master? It’s not like he is...”

Amanda nodded and twisted her lips, giving Noman an unspoken yes.

“OhmyGod!” he immediately squealed and jumped to grab both of her shoulders. “Like Lestat and Edward?!”

“Dom, please, don’t romanticize them. I expected you to cower in fear, not jump like a bloody old lady in her first sex.” Amanda frowned.

Noman, in response, slapped her bottom. She winced.

“You’re so harsh, Cait, but I’ll forgive you! You are my best friend after all, but seriously though, the Master is a vampire? No wonder he is an eye-candy. So, the popular rumors about vampires are true. They are hot bitches. I wonder if they drink blood as well.”

“Of course they do silly!” Amanda slapped his bottom back and released a sigh, rolling her eyes heavenward.

“Wait, hearing you say that, have you been the target of their appetite this past few days?” he asked, genuinely curious.

The latter shut her eyes and hissed, remembering the Master’s fangs lodged in her flesh. “It’s easy to say that I am, to Cord probably, since I haven’t met his family who may be creatures of the dark too. I think he thirsts for me. My blood can feel it.”

“Huh, you are taking the threat to your life lightly, Cait, ” Noman remarked. “Is this because you fantasize the Master’s fangs?”

Amanda shot a glare and growled at him.

“Here, let me screw your head tight, ” she said.

She reached for his head and pushed her knuckles against his scalp.

Noman laughed and put up his hands in surrender. “Oh! Oh! Come on Cait, I’m just joking!” he cried, ducking his head to stop her knuckles from connecting.

Amanda stopped, groaning, and leaned herself against the counter again. She couldn’t believe she was this sensitive with regards to the Master.

Noman paused for a moment to calm himself. He leaned against the counter too and placed both palms on top it. “But hey, all threat aside, don’t say you aren’t thinking about it? You said so yourself you are fascinated with him.”

“Please, Dom, let’s not stray away from the topic.” Amanda gave him pleading eyes.

In reaction, he pouted and mumbled, “Hmmm, clever little witch.”

“Could you ask Matteo to come over though?” Amanda stated, changing the subject. “I know that I’m prohibited to divulge my safe house and that Chief Moretti would scold me if I did, but I don’t want to talk to him through the phone. I want to see him, make sure he explains all that there is with regards to the necklace.”

“Sure, Beautiful, I’m your errand boy, ” Noman nodded, not at all afraid to break the rules. “I’ll tell Matteo your message when I leave. But first, retrieve that thing from the Master. Otherwise, Matteo would suspect something’s wrong.”

After hearing that, Amanda face-palmed herself and pressed her lips thinly.

“Oh God, this is going to be a disaster.”