Taking advantage of the fact that she would not strike me right before I met the representative of the Blackwood family, I calmly turned my head, looked her dead in the eye and said, "If you continue repeating the same boorish threat, Mother, I fear that you would end up disgracing the Calthorpe family before the Blackwood family with your own tongue. May I assume that you would die a grisly death instead?"
Hatred, so potent like poison, gleamed in the depth of her eyes. And when the wicked smile returned to her heavily layered face, a sense of dread began to drag at my heart.
"Men! Take her here!" She shouted.
My heart dropped.
Before long, a disheveled woman was brought to us. Her tattered gown had lost its former shine and was now barely distinguishable from rags, just like the woman herself.
She let out a pained cry when she was shoved to the ground and made to grovel in front of Lady Calthorpe.
"Stop it," I hissed at the evil woman. "Stop it or I will speak about it in front of the Blackwoods."
"You wouldn't dare," Lady Calthorpe snapped back.
We all knew that vampires hated it the most if they were dragged into mortals' petty conflicts, but I was practically knocking at death's door anyway.
"Try me," I said through gnashed teeth.
We were locked in a glaring competition for a good while before Lady Calthorpe broke the eye contact and scoffed in disdain.
"The vampires do not like to wait. Come into the audience hall within five minutes."
I lifted the hem of my gown and curtsied before her retreating figure.
"I shall."
Only five minutes of farewell were granted to us, a couple of mother and daughter that would be separated for life.
My heart ached at the thought that my mother had to once again lose a child to the vampires.
"Charmaine, have you eaten?"
She raised her wrinkly hands and cupped my face within. I looked into her bright greenish-blue eyes. It was the most intoxicating feature she had, and she passed it onto her two daughters.
I pulled my mother into an embrace and mumbled, "Mother, I have to go now. But fret not, a blood slave who perform well in their duties will be granted a single request. I will ask them for your freedom, Mother."
Tears trickled down my mother's cheeks.
I knew why she cried. My elder sister made her the same promise back then.
"No, Charmaine, please don't," she sobbed. "I want no freedom, I just want my daughter."
"Mother..."
I tightened my arms around her frail body. Wracked by sobs, her body trembled violently, reminding me of a wounded nightingale I once saved.
"Mother, don't cry. I promise that everything will be better."
I did not have much time to console my mother, because Lady Calthorpe, in her impatience, decided to summon a guard to drag me into the audience hall.
My mother's pitiful cries were the last thing I heard before the heavy oak door was pushed open and I was presented before the Blackwood family's representative.
Or that was what I thought.
Sitting at the head of the table, with a leg crossed over the other and an elbow resting against an arm rest was the most exquisite creature I had ever seen.
His dark hair, trimmed just under his ears, framed a beautifully sculpted face with prominent cheekbones and highlighted a pair of vibrant golden eyes.
He wore the official outfit of the Blackwood family, adorned with a coat of arms and a signet ring to verify his identity.
The vampire was not a mere representative but a member of the Blackwood family.
The moment I looked into his eyes, I was trapped within his gaze, no different from a wild hare that had just been ensnared in a hunter's trap.
As much as I wanted to present myself as a dignified daughter of the Calthorpe family, I knew that I had failed.
Shock and fear were written all over my face.
The trembling of my knees betrayed my distress.
The pounding of my heart, loud as a drum, must be audible to all.
Just as the last bit of composure I held was starting to crumble like a sand palace, the vampire averted his eyes and chuckled.
"Is this skinny wench the tribute you wish to present to me?"
My biological father, who had pretended to know nothing as his second wife tormented us throughout these years, wiped a string of cold sweat beads from his balding head as he hastily proclaimed, "Esteemed Sir Elijah Blackwood, she might be skinny but she has ample amount of blood, that I can assure you."
"Hmm."
The vampire eyed me again, and I was again enslaved by his stare.
"Although she is your second-born, she has been abused throughout her life. What an exquisite tribute to the Blackwood family indeed."
----------
Author's note :
More characters to be introduced!
Elijah Blackwood - our male lead. A thousand and one hundred thirteen years old, a member of the pure-blooded Blackwood family.
Lord Calthorpe - a scum of a father, with three children as of now.
First child, Shireen Calthorpe, twenty-one years old, whereabouts unknown.
Second child, Charmaine Calthorpe.
Third child, Clementine Calthorpe, seventeen years old.