After Isabella made it clear to the girls where things stood, she took my hand and guided me up the stairs. Her hips swayed as she climbed the steps.
"Where are we going?" I asked as I tripped over the top step.
"Don't you want to spend time with me? It's our wedding night, after all," she said, giving me a cheeky smile.
Normally, on a guy's wedding night, they would feel excited to spend the night with their wife, but for me, a sense of uneasiness settled in my stomach.
The truth is, out of all my wives, Isabella was the one I trusted the least. Monsters that know how to use their heads are the worst type. She was a vampire who wreaked havoc on the city of Palasia, appearing out of nowhere and draining the blood of every human male she encountered.
The ones who captured her described her as mad. They said she had lost her mind completely. This was common for vampires since they had heightened emotions. It normally took one traumatic event to push them over the edge.
If I had to guess, something horrific must have happened to her all those many years ago, but looking at her now, you would think she was perfectly normal. Except for one small detail I noticed about her…
"Darling, where's our bedroom? I would like to take a shower and have a bath." She lifted her arm to take a sniff and frowned as she quickly pulled back her head. "Yuck, I stink."
She had just realized her deplorable condition. She was dressed in brown rags that were stitched together to form a short gown.
It was short, sheer, and clung to her curves, leaving little to the imagination. Her large breasts were visible if you looked closely enough, with her nipples pushing through the material.
Her delicate curves were those of a mature woman, old enough to be my own mother, but her face and skin made her look like she was in her mid-twenties.
"You like what you see?" she teased.
"The washroom is down the hall to the right, and if you go further down, you'll find the main bedroom," I instructed. "I'll wait for you there while you get washed up."
"Oh, you don't want to join?"
I didn't consider myself a genius by any stretch of the word, but still, it took a special kind of stupid to step into a bath with a vampire.
"Maybe next time."
She giggled as she turned on her heel and left. Walking at a brisk pace, I hurried to the main bedroom, hoping not to run into any of the girls. Luckily, I didn't, so I hurriedly closed the door and collapsed on the bed.
The soft mattress and silky sheets made me want to pass out right then and there, but the thought of being in the same house as those monsters kept my eyes open.
A shallow gasp escaped my lips. I thought I would die tonight. If it weren't for Isabella, I probably would have died, but still, my gut instinct told me I couldn't trust her. Living in fear for my own life was beneath me. I needed my power back—the power they took from me.
I then pried myself off the bed and opened the wardrobe.
I searched until I found an oversized silk shirt I had. Unfortunately, this was the only thing I had that could fit Isabella. Shortly after, the door to the room creaked open, and Isabella stepped in wearing one of my robes. The robe could barely contain her busty figure, as her large breasts were spilling out.
"Darling?" she whispered in a soft voice, a blush blooming on her cheeks.
"I found a shirt you can wear," I said, showing her the oversized silk shirt laid out on the bed. "I'll exit the room so you can change."
She didn't utter a word and only stared at me blankly as I left. Shortly after, I reentered when she was finished getting changed. She lay comfortably on my bed, and I sat beside her.
"You want to ask me something?" she asked. "Go ahead; I'll answer if I can."
"Why did you help me?" That was the first question that came to mind.
She sighed and flipped over onto her back.
"Boring. Ask me something else; I've already explained why downstairs."
"Fair enough. I'll ask something else then. Back then, why did you kill so many people? And why were most of them men?"
"Because men are easy. I used them then disposed of them like the garbage they are." she said matter-of-factly.
My eyes narrowed at her. I couldn't find it in myself to believe a word she was saying. It was hard to explain, almost like intuition.
"You don't believe me?" she chuckled."Vampires are sexual creatures; we tend to lose ourselves in the heat of the moment."
"Then why was your hand trembling?" I asked.
She cocked her head to the side, not quite understanding what I was saying, so I explained.
"When you dragged me upstairs by the arm, your hand was trembling."
"So?"
"So, someone who craves sex, as you claimed, wouldn't have trembled from touching someone of the opposite sex. Is it something in your past that—"
"Enough!"
Her voice wasn't loud, but it was sharp. It intrigued me. At first, I thought of her as nothing but a hideous monster, but now… I had this sinking feeling that I was staring at nothing but a shell, and maybe if I dug deep enough, I could unwrap the specimen in front of me.
Her once flushed cheeks had become pale. She squirmed as if my gaze alone was making her uncomfortable.
Her eyes suddenly turned sharp and in a blur that even I couldn't comprehend, she was on top of me, her eyes glowing red and sharp fangs protruding from her mouth.
Her wide hips spread over me as she locked my arms in place so I couldn't move. But even from this advantageous position, her body was still quivering. Her eyes held a deep anger, not the type you'd normally see in a hungry vampire, but in someone who was deeply hurt.
"You know I can kill you as easily as batting an eye," she said, tightening her grip and stopping the blood flow in my wrist.
"What drove you to your madness?" I asked, ignoring her threat.
She shook her head solemnly, then a wry smile appeared on her face.
"You know we've actually met before," she said. "Well, not exactly met, but I saw you from afar. I barely even noticed you back then."
I recalled exactly what she was talking about.
"It was during one of your punishments," I said.
We had no way of killing her, so we came up with different ways of punishing her by trying out various execution methods. It was a way to appease the families of her victims.
"I was five years old," I recalled.
"So you do remember?"
"Yes, you don't forget a woman being tied to a pole and burned until only bones remained. I still remember your lifeless eyes on that day. I remember thinking, what's the point of all this? She looks dead already."
"That doesn't sound like the thoughts of a five-year-old child."
"I was a special child."
And now here she was, feigning courage as her body trembled like a leaf. The scariest part was that it wasn't all the suffering she endured during her punishments that caused her trembling. No, my gut told me it was something else.
It was strange; my body was also trembling.
She smiled, then slowly unbuttoned my shirt until it was halfway down.
"Who would have thought that the little boy I saw would grow up to be the man in front of me today?" She leaned in and whispered something in my ear. "I'm going to suck your blood. Keep your hands to yourself, or I'll kill you on the spot."