Noble of the Night: Blood Oath

Chapter 6

Damn it! Not only was she being held captive, but she had been thoroughly taken advantage of!

Isabella furiously rubbed her lips, desperately trying to erase the fact that they had been touched. She blushed as she stared at her reflection in the mirror—her lips were swollen and red.

It was all that man’s fault! Why on earth had he stolen a kiss from her? Clearly, he just wanted to take advantage of her!

Isabella squinted, feeling uncomfortable with the idea of being so close to someone. Back when she lived in the United States, most of her classmates avoided her because of her status as a child prodigy, and she didn’t bother trying to get close to anyone either. Over time, a wall naturally grew between her and others. After becoming a vampire, she continued keeping her distance from people to avoid drawing attention. In all those decades, that man was the first person to get this close to her.

Turning her gaze toward the closed door, Isabella frowned.

What was that man thinking, locking her in this room? It didn’t seem like he intended to take her away for experiments—after all, most people wouldn’t kiss their test subjects. So, what exactly were his intentions? Why had he approached her in the first place?

*You are mine…*

Suddenly, Clyce’s deep voice echoed in her mind, causing her cheeks to flush red again.

Ugh, stop it! Why was she thinking about all those things again? She should have forgotten about it by now! Shaking her head, Isabella tried to push the memory away.

It’s just a kiss—no big deal. Besides, he’s incredibly handsome. If she weighed the situation, she’d actually come out ahead!

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that. The most important thing was figuring out how to escape. Her current identity was that of a high school student, and if she missed too many classes, she’d be expelled.

She had worked hard at St. Deline’s for three years, all for the sake of earning a diploma. If she were expelled now, all her effort would have been for nothing.

Don’t doubt it—despite her past accomplishments, including earning two doctorate degrees and skipping high school, she never received a high school diploma. The main reason she was at St. Deline’s was because she wanted that piece of paper.

Surveying the room carefully, Isabella noticed that aside from the locked door, there was only a small vent, which seemed to connect to another room. Maybe there was an exit in that other room!

A smile spread across her face. Even if the vent was too small, so what? She was a vampire! She could transform into a bat and fly right through it. Her grin widened as she quickly transformed into a bat, ready to make her escape through the tiny vent.

Ha! She was about to escape!

As a tiny bat, Isabella swiftly flew through the vent and into the next room. It was a spacious room, about 200 to 300 square meters, decorated in dark tones, giving off a gloomy and sinister vibe.

Isabella scanned the room carefully and finally spotted a window on the left wall. Beyond the window was a beautiful starry sky, clearly indicating that the window led to freedom.

Yes! She was finally going home!

Flapping her wings excitedly, Isabella prepared to fly toward the window.

*Click—* Just at that moment, the door swung open.

Oh no! She had to hide quickly. Isabella instinctively took cover in one of the ceiling fixtures.

A man, wrapped in nothing but a towel, entered the room, his body still damp from a shower.

Isabella’s eyes widened—she recognized him immediately. It was the same man who had captured her, Clyce Morgan.

Could this be his room?

Her cheeks flushed as she watched Clyce carefully dry his beautiful golden hair. She knew it was wrong to spy on someone, but she couldn’t help it—her eyes were drawn to him!

Her gaze drifted from his face down to his half-naked chest, where droplets of water shimmered in the light, glistening like gold. His bronze chest rose and fell with each breath, exuding an undeniable allure.

What would it feel like to lie against that chest?

Her ears burned red at the thought. No! What was she thinking? She was here to find an escape route, not to watch some guy after a shower!

Shaking her head, she quickly spread her wings and flew toward the window. She couldn’t stay in this room any longer—if she did, she might turn into a shameless voyeur!

*Thud!* In her haste to flee, the little bat accidentally crashed into a beam.

Ouch! That hurt like hell.

Fighting through the pain, Isabella wobbled toward the window. She had made a noise when she hit the beam—there was no telling if the man had noticed the little bat on the ceiling.

After a bit of a struggle, Isabella finally managed to “escape through the window,” vanishing into the night.

Once she had left, Clyce stopped drying his hair and smiled knowingly. His gaze shifted to the mirrored wall on his right, and a faint, intoxicating smile played across his lips…

Midnight draped the earth in darkness. At this late hour, the night was silent, the air still. Only the soft whispers of the wind echoed across the vast land.

The rhythmic clicking of a woman’s high heels broke the silence. A businesswoman hurried down the street, clutching her briefcase tightly as she made her way home.

“It’s so late, and there’s no one else on the street. Walking home alone at night is terrifying—I need to hurry up and get home,” she muttered to herself, quickening her pace as she glanced at the deserted street.

Lately, there had been rumors in the newspapers about throat-slashing criminals and taxi predators. These stories had left many women nervous about walking home alone at night. Everyone tried to get home as quickly as possible to avoid crossing paths with any of these twisted criminals.

If it weren’t for the work gathering that had kept her out late, she would never have stayed out this long.

The woman furrowed her brows and sped up.

A cold midnight breeze whistled through the air, and thick clouds obscured the bright stars, adding an eerie atmosphere to the quiet night.

Just as the woman was about to reach her front door, a large hand shot out from a nearby alley, grabbing her at lightning speed and dragging her into the darkness.

“Ahhh—” Her scream pierced the still night, but it was quickly silenced. The night swallowed everything once again, leaving only a heavy silence in its wake.

The night remained calm, with only the wind softly weeping in the dark.

Ouch… it hurt so much!

While the teacher lectured passionately at the front of the class, Isabella sat at her desk, massaging her throbbing forehead.

Ouch, ouch! It hurt like hell! She could guarantee that Clyce’s house had spared no expense on the beams—those pillars were as hard as stone, and now she had a massive bump on her forehead to prove it.

If only she hadn’t been distracted by watching that man after his shower, she wouldn’t have flown into his pillar. Now, her forehead was going to be swollen for days.

“Isabella, what happened to your forehead? You’ve been rubbing it this whole time,” the teacher’s sharp eyes had noticed her odd behavior.

The entire class turned to look in her direction.

Ugh… she had drawn attention to herself again. Isabella sighed and looked at the teacher weakly. “I accidentally bumped into a pillar yesterday.”

“A pillar?” The class was stunned for a moment before everyone burst into laughter.

Ugh, she knew they would laugh at her. Isabella’s face turned bright red as she lowered her head, silently cursing that towel-clad Clyce.

“Isabella, how did you manage to bump into a pillar?” The teacher’s curious voice rang out again.

I was too busy staring at a man to notice where I was going, she thought silently. Of course, she couldn’t say that out loud. “I was walking home at night and wasn’t paying attention, so I ran into a pillar,” she lied.

At her words, the teacher’s face suddenly went pale, as if he had heard something terrible. “Do you often walk home alone at night?”

“Yeah.” While hunting for prey to feed on, of course.

“Isabella, that’s not safe! Haven’t you heard about the serial killer attacking women who walk home late at night? Just last night, another woman was killed—a businesswoman.”

Isabella glanced in confusion at her classmate. She hadn’t heard anything about that.

“What? You didn’t know?” Her classmate stared at her in disbelief. “It’s been all over the news—a psychopathic killer! They’re saying that all the victims had half of their blood drained, and there were large slashes across their necks. The coroner said the slashes seemed like they were meant to cover up other wounds on the neck. People are joking that the killer might be a vampire—how else could half the victim’s blood just disappear?”

At this, Isabella’s face turned pale. “A vampire? Did someone really suggest it was a vampire?”

Who did this? That kind of death definitely sounded like a vampire’s doing, but she had never killed anyone to feed.

“Isabella, are you okay? Why did your face go pale all of a sudden?”

“Oh… it’s nothing. I just feel a little queasy hearing about such gross stuff so early in the morning.” She forced a laugh, then buried her head in her books.

Hmm… this was probably just her overthinking things. Besides her, there shouldn’t be any other vampires around here. In all the years she’d been a vampire, she had never encountered another one, which meant vampires were incredibly rare.

Besides, when a person’s blood was drained, they usually forgot the whole ordeal. So why would anyone bother killing them afterward? This must have been some psycho copying the ways of a vampire.

Relieved by this thought, Isabella let out a deep breath and buried herself in her studies.

Overthinking things would only waste her precious brain cells, and a genius like her couldn’t afford that.

Nodding in agreement with herself, Isabella refused to think about it any longer.

Catching criminals was the police’s job. No matter how far-fetched the situation became, it had nothing to do with her—just an ordinary girl living her life.