I really wished I was there. Not underground, waiting in the tunnel, but rather at the epicentre of all destruction, the headquarters of the merchant’s guild, which was probably now flying the flag of my organization I gave Tom a few days ago. The view would have been phenomenal, but it was alright like this as well.
“Shall we go back?” I asked Hannah who stood by my side, gazing into the distance. She didn’t seem too worried about the explosions.
“You don’t want to help?” She said a bit flustered. I smiled gently and placed my hand on her upper arm.
“There is no one to help in this evacuated area. Let the guards handle whatever happened there.” I answered and turned around to stroll towards the stairs. Hannah followed behind shortly afterwards in silence, at least for a little while.
“How will this country develop?” She asked, just as we exited the tower and she confirmed nobody else was around.
“You question is a bit sudden,” I said, still continuing to walk home. Fascinatingly enough, I already knew the way, probably because I used this street rather often lately. “,but okay. The humans lost the last battle against the elves decisively and thus, we will be attacked soon. Large parts of the east will be lost, but the impact on the kingdom will be minuscule as it is underpopulated, underdeveloped and doesn’t hold any valuable industries anymore. Still, the loss of land will fuel their desire for revenge and maybe, they will get that. If not … well, humanity will be gone from this planet within a few generations.”
“You have a rather objective perspective for someone who walks through flames to save a few humans.” She said after thinking about my evaluation for some time. She wasn’t asking me for real, she wanted to test me and see if I lied which I totally did. I wouldn’t let it come this far. I didn’t reply and rather waited for her next question that surprisingly never came. It was the third day of our agreement. Her stopping only could mean that she was sure she could prove that I lied and betted on the promise I made to bring her to the elven forest.
I was a bit interested in what she found out, but not enough to ask her. None of us was really willing to do small talk and so, we soon found ourselves on my bed, reading a book made for children. Unexpectedly, she still struggled to read, but I really didn’t mind her slow progress. Instead, it made my plan to change her mind considerably easier. It all started, like every good plan, as soon as the sun set behind the horizon. I closed the book we were reading and turned around to stare at the ceiling.
“Hey,” she said after some time, equally laying on her back at this point in time. “it is the third day, isn’t it?”
I sighed, rolled over and nudged closer to her. Before I answered, I laid my head on her chest and enjoyed her rhythmically beating heart. Her heartbeat seemed a bit too fast in my opinion and only accelerated as I placed my left leg above hers, basically claiming her as my ultimate pillow.
“It is.” I stated and brought my left hand to her neck, making her shiver because of the cold. Her heart was beating even faster, bringing me joy, and knowledge at the same time. I knew what she found out about me. “Why are you scared? Have I ever wronged you, or why is your heart beating so fast?”
“You aren´t what you claim to be.” She gulped loudly and I looked upwards, straight into her eyes. She was frightened, no doubts about that.
“So tell me, what am I?” I asked, smiling in anticipation.
“Your temperature is always one of your surroundings. You are pale. You never open your mouth too wide, as if there was something you needed to hide. And … you have no smell whatsoever. You aren´t human.” She went far with her observations, although she didn’t guess my actual race.
There was just one slight problem … I wanted her to know. Otherwise, I would have never touched her in the first place or even slept in the same bed as she did. I wanted her to think about my real being to distract her from all the lies I was uttering the whole time. And it seemed as if that worked perfectly fine.
I straddled her belly and with my legs beside her hips, I lifted up my upper body, only to smile devilishly.
“Even you cannot claim otherwise.” She added, a bit unsure because of my unusual reaction. I was honestly fascinated. She knew I wasn’t human and most likely made her assumptions about my real race, but still chose to reveal her knowledge when I was this close and most importantly, during the night where I didn’t need my sunglasses. Happily, I caressed her cheek with my left hand while steadying myself on the bed with the other. She laid beneath me so defenceless, so scared that I really wanted to take a bite, right then. Instead, though, I laughed loudly.
“I never said I was a human in the first place. You just assumed I was. Thus, I didn’t lie. Is there anything else you want to add?”
“You … you didn’t … you definitely have!” She was struggling to speak, which made her even more lovable.
“Nope. Once more, is that all?” My index finger went through her hair, placing it behind her long ear. She tilted her head away, but my other arm, still pressing onto the bed with my body weight restricted her movement and boxed her in.
“You lied somewhere else!” She exclaimed, already in panic mode.
“And where? If you guess wrong, I will punish you, so chose with great care.” I said, already bringing my head closer to hers, scaring her even more. She was looking left and right, trying to find a way out of this, but didn’t attack me at all, probably because she knew it would be useless.
“I …” she stumbled over her words once more, but suddenly, her eyes, full of panic, glowed in a calm blue. “… everywhere.”
I stopped, stupefied. My mouth was already wide open, ready to take a snack, but I froze as soon as she said that. I just couldn’t comprehend where my acting was off because she seemed pretty sure all of a sudden. I pushed my upper body upwards once more and looked down in fascination, but also a hint of anger at myself.
“What makes you think that?” I asked, squinting my eyes. Although it wasn’t meant as a sign of hostility, she took it as one and looked towards the door, once again panicking. Such a short, unusual period of calmness and then this … I seriously didn’t know what to think of it.
“Nobody who wants to drink my blood would be so kind.” She stated while squirming underneath me. I brought my hand to my chin, thinking deeply about what she said and came to the same conclusion. One could even argue that saving her from the fires was a lie in itself based on that knowledge. Figuring out I was lying whenever I could, wasn’t a hard task afterwards. Still, to realize this under pressure wasn’t something I expected from her.
“Fascinating … can you prove it?” I asked, hoping she thought even further than that.
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“N-No. B-but I can tell everyone you are a vampire! Y-You cannot kill me here!” My fascination for her was short-lived. She didn’t think that far after all. A bit bored already and knowing exactly how this would play out, I leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
“You are an elf, I am the daughter of the duchess. Even if you succeed in getting out of this room, you would convince nobody. On the contrary, others would probably love to see me, giving up on protecting you, mostly because you wouldn’t survive long.” I said, already imagining how she would be hung without me, doing anything at all.
“I … please let me go! I won´t say anything, I swear.” A complete one hundred and eighty-degree turn in a matter of seconds was honestly quite a feat. But what can I say, she was scared and would probably say anything to save her own skin.
“Hmm … about that …” I leaned over to my nightstand and took the newspaper that laid there. I only turned the page once and then showed her an article that started with ‘Elf’. Naturally, there were no pictures and the article was about something else entirely, but she didn’t know that. “They are blaming your race for the fires.”
I pointed towards the headline, waited for a second and then threw the whole newspaper away. Supporting my arguments with non-existing facts was certainly a great way to box her in further.
“You will get lynched faster than you can imagine.” I stated.
“Then … bring me to the elven forest. You admitted to lying!” I tilted my head and laid the palm of my left hand on my cheek, seemingly in utter confusion.
“Sorry, I did what?” I answered.
“You never wanted to bring me to the elven forest in the first place, did you?” I smiled a bit, but then returned to show her a completely blank face.
“To be honest … no, not this soon. What do you want there in the first place? You grew up amongst humans, have adopted their way of living and their culture. Do you really think they would welcome you with open arms?” I asked, entirely convinced of the hardships she would have to live through.
“No … but at least I would be free there.” She stated.
“Are you entirely sure about that?” I asked with doubt in my voice.
“I … how should I know? I was never there!” At least she admitted to having absolutely no idea what living in the elven forest was like.
“Then why risk it? Why no life here as my maid in luxury? You just have to keep the three harpies away from me and do a few things for me, I want nothing more.”
“Because you are a v-“ I placed my hand onto her mouth because she was a tad too loud in my opinion.
“So what?” I asked annoyed and let go of her as she seemed to have understood not to shout.
“You want to drink my blood.” She stated which was kind of right, but also a bit wrong.
“Meh … don’t be full of yourself. I can go out there and hunt some criminals whenever I want without too many issues. I won´t kill you, Hannah, your blood isn´t good enough so that I won´t be able to control myself.” I said.
“Then … why am I here?” Hannah asked.
“Purely because you are an elf. The only worth you have is what you can do for me and that’s by no means little. In return, I give you security, a roof over your head, a nice bed and a stable income.” Everyone in the slums would accept such an offer immediately, no doubts about that. Only the fact that I was a vampire stopped her from accepting right away.
“And for a few days, I really thought you were a nice person.”
“I am a nice person, as long as others don’t get in my way, don’t annoy me, do what I say and don’t fuck something up … this is going nowhere, am I right?”
“I …” She couldn’t decline, but also couldn’t accept. I knew for a fact she liked to sleep in a bed, eat delicious food, and so much more she couldn’t do previously. She simply had to exist by my side, that’s all I wanted, but she couldn’t trust me one bit after realizing what I was. However, there was one person who could change her mind.
“You don’t have to accept my offer right now. You can talk to Mary the whole night if you want to. But I do want you to decide tomorrow early in the morning.” I said.
“What if I don’t want to work as your maid?” I seriously didn’t know what I would do then. Objectively, it was the worst decision she could take. At best, she would get into an uncertain situation, at worst, she would die.
“I´ll throw you out, give you a compass, a map and that’s it.” I could only hope Mary would convince her somehow as I really didn’t want to search for another elf who I would need to set in front of the exact same decision.