Bad Blood

Discrepancy

Marie raised her tired eyes to meet Damien’s, staring into those deep pools of blue. After some time, she nodded, looking away. Damien breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed the glass to place it in her hands. He watched as she raised the cup and downed the glass quickly, her instincts taking over as soon as the scent of blood hit her nose. He took the empty glass away and stayed still, watching as some color returned to her skin. She slowly licked her lips and sighed.

“Twice you have seen your mistress so weak, are you having second thoughts about serving me?” She asked, her voice hoarse from not speaking for several days.

“Of course not. You are more than allowed to be sad over this. You waited so loyally for his return when no one believed he would. And all he did was betray you and the love you had for him for someone far beneath you. I would kill him and his human if I could,” he muttered under his breath.

In an instant, he found his face in a vice grip as she pulled his face closer to his. Despite her weakness, she was still quite strong. Her eyes flashed bright in slight anger.

“Don’t you dare speak such nonsense ever again, Damien. You will not touch him. You know the consequences of killing a noble. I do not want to hear you say that ever again, do you understand?” Damien’s breath quickened as she chastised him. It was the first time that she had ever gotten angry with him, and it irked him because she was still protecting him.

“Please forgive me. I can’t help seeing you in such pain. I would do anything to take it away and bear it for you” he stated truthfully. He would do anything she asked of him. With a sigh, she let go of his face, placing her hand softly against his cheek.

“You do not want this pain. I don’t wish this pain to anyone. It hurts far more than that time you were bitten. Yet just the same when I lost mother and father.” She sighed softly.

“Perhaps I should stop wallowing in self-pity now. There are things that must be done and businesses that must be run. Life moves on, a lesson I have learned already.” Marie began sliding out of the bed. Damien gingerly held onto her arm as she rose from the bed slowly and then wrapped his arm around her waist as she stood fully upright.

“I’m alright now, thank you, Damien.” Marie said as she stretched a bit.

“I will fetch another glass for you” Damien said as he let her go and bowed, leaving her room. Marie took this chance to make her way to the vanity and sat down on the plush stool. She looked at her reflection and sighed. She knew that her appearance would be fixed once another serving of blood entered through her system, but she couldn’t help but internally sneer at herself.

She was a Gravenreuth, part of a proud, powerful lineage of vampires, yet here she was, weak and pitiful, because of a man who managed to steal her heart and break it. She scoffed to herself as Damien reentered her room with another full glass of blood.

As he approached, she reached out for it and downed it in no time. She felt its effect immediately, feeling more energized and alive. Yet it did not fix the large, icy, void inside of her, and at this point, she felt that nothing really would.

A quick glance in the mirror let her know that her skin had replenished and the bags under her eyes were practically gone. She passed the glass back to Damien and took up a hairbrush, absent-mindedly brushing through her hair. Damien took this chance to walk around the room and slowly open the curtains, spilling light into the room. Marie winced as her eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness but continued to brush her hair. Damien returned and took the brush from her hands and began to brush her hair.

“The necklace…” Damien started, not wanting to hit a nerve. Marie looked at her necklace through the mirror. She raised a hand and touched the large ruby stone and then the chain itself. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled, yanking it off her neck, breaking the clasp and tossing into onto the vanity.

“Send it back to the Vulpe Estate,” she directed.

“Yes, My Lady.” The two fell into silence again as Damien finished brushing her hair. He placed the brush down in its spot and stood behind her, looking at the mirror.

“Damien, what do I have today? I’m sure things have been a bit haywire due to my absence.”

“The meeting with the accountants is today in approximately two hours from now. Your uncle was able to take care of the other things, so everything is still running smoothly.” Damien answered.

“Two hours to make myself presentable should be enough time. When they come, direct them to the office.”

“I will leave you to get ready then.” Damien keeled his head forward and left the room. She stood up and headed into the large walk-in closet, peeling off the dress and draping it over a chair. She scanned the closest and settled on a simple black pencil skirt and white, silk, blouse. She paired the outfit with black pumps and walked back to her vanity. She opened a drawer that contained all her jewelry, meticulously organized, and picked out a simple gold necklace that belonged to her mother. Satisfied with her look, she left her room and veered towards the East wing of the manor and through a large, carved, cherry oak door.

The office was large, and since it was located at the end of the east wing, the entire back wall was made of glass, revealing the magnificent view of rolling hills. The other walls were covered from floor to ceiling in books, many of them antique and leather bound. The floor was made of a dark marble, and in the middle, a large heavy desk was located. It was cluttered with papers and books from her uncle who took over this past week. As Marie walked in, her heels echoed with each step until she pushed back the rich, leather chair and sank in. She glanced around the desk and shook her head. Papers littered the entire thing.

She set about organizing and making things neat before the accountants would arrive. As she gathered the papers, she would glance at some occasionally, skimming through the content quickly before placing it away in a drawer. One paper piqued her curiosity, as it was all just numbers, hastily scrawled by her uncle. She paid no mind to it and tossed it with the others in the drawer as she heard a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The door swung open, and in walked Damien with two men following behind. They looked a bit confused, seeing Marie at the desk instead of her uncle, which was odd to her. They had spoken to her many times in the past. Perhaps they were not expecting to see her since, in the past year, her uncle insisted on seeing the accountants himself. One of them looked positively pale as he sat down in one of the matching leather chairs in front of her. Since the accountants were human, Damien walked to the left side of the room and began to brew coffee for the visitors.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I hope your trip to the countryside went smoothly?” Marie began.

“Yes Ms. Gravenreuth, thank you. It went well. Is your uncle not here?” The one in the navy-blue suit asked, not as nervous as the other in the brown suit.

“No, I’m afraid not, Mr. Smith, It will be only me. I understand last year you met with him, but that will not be the norm.” Marie responded.

“Oh, well then, there must have been some miscommunication, we were scheduled for today to be seen by your uncle.” Mr. Smith answered, gathering his suitcase to him once more.

“Mr. Smith, do stay. There’s no reason as to why you should make such a long trip twice. You have met with me before, and you will be speaking to me from now on.”

At her insistence, Damien brought over two cups of hot coffee in beautiful white China and placed them in front of the accountants. He then moved to stand a few feet behind Marie and stared at the men. Both of their gazes were equally steeled as they looked upon the humans. While the gesture and the gaze convinced the men to stay, it did not help the evident nerves. She heard both of their hearts beat fast and smelled the perspiration that was beginning to form on the men’s brows. In all the times that she has met the accountants, whoever they were at the time, she had never seen them be so nervous before. It caused Marie to be on alert, suspicious by such reactions.

“Let us begin then?” Marie urged, sitting forward and waiting for one of them to produce the accounts. The two men exchanged a look before the man in the brown suit shakily reached into his suitcase and produced a fat folder that contained hundreds of pages of accounts filled to the brim with numbers. He cautiously placed it on the desk and retreated to his seat quickly as Marie grabbed the folder and opened it, beginning to flip through some pages.

A heavy silence fell as Marie continued to flip through page after page, scanning the numbers of the wineries, reviewing product amount and sales, and seeing where demand for the wine was the greatest. Every time a page was flipped, the accountants grew more and more restless.

“Ms. Gravenreuth, perhaps you should leave this to your uncle since he met with us last ye-.” Mr. Smith quickly froze mid-sentence as Marie threw him an icy glance. He closed his mouth and sank deeper into his seat as Marie returned her gaze to the reports.

Damien kept his eyes trained on the humans, displeased that were acting with such disrespect. Marie herself was focused on a certain page that showed a discrepancy, holding it apart from the stack to examine closer. The accountants had visibly paled and glanced at each other in fear.

“Gentlemen, I hope one of you can explain to me why the numbers on this page are so low in terms of income. I understand that this is from one of our smaller wineries, but I’ve never seen such low numbers from this location.” Marie remarked as she placed the paper down on the desk in front of them so that they could see what she was referring to.

“A-ah, yes, Ms. Gravenreuth, well, it seems that this is simply a poor fiscal year for this winery. These things happen, and business or demand falls low in the area. We only hope that the winery is able to fix the issue for the next year,” Mr. Smith explained, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

But something seemed quite off, as she clearly remembered the consistent numbers that this winery produced year after year, despite the small population that surrounded the area. At this point, she did not trust these accountants at all, and their nervousness only proved that something was off. She would need to talk to her uncle about possible theft.

With a frown, she continued to skim through the pages, finally reaching the last page. The entire time, the accountants fidgeted in their chairs.

“Is there anything else that needs to be discussed?” Marie asked, placing the stack onto the desk.

“No Ms. Gravenreuth, there are some things that we need to speak to your uncle about.” Mr. Smith rose with his suitcase in hand, quite eager to leave the office with his partner.

Marie nodded, and Damien moved to show the men out, leaving her alone. Once the door shut behind them, she slumped into the chair and swiveled around to look out of the large, windowed wall. The day was clear, but, in the distance, dark clouds gathered, lightening occasionally flashing here and there. As she traced the horizon with her eyes, she thought about the accountants. They were far too nervous to speak with her. What had happened between the time that her uncle spoke to them and now. Her uncle was never the most careful at looking through every detail. Perhaps the accountants were banking on her uncle being there, not paying attention to the smallest winery. Were they stealing money from her family?

What if it was her uncle? She didn’t want to think about it but it could be a possibility. She turned around and opened the drawers where she had stuffed her uncle’s papers and placed them back on the desk. She remembered the small paper that had numbers and fished it out from the pile. She examined the numbers carefully, comparing them to the loses of the small winery. One of the scrawled numbers matched exactly, which made her heart sink a bit. She began to flip through the accounts, focusing on the small wineries, matching the loses to the numbers on the paper. They had all matched up perfectly. There could only be two reasons for this, either her uncle was figuring out what the accountants were doing, or her uncle was in on it. She didn’t want to think about the second option, as she had enough scandals in the family for the week.

With a sigh, she grabbed the folder and the scrap of paper under her arm and made her way out of the office. Frankly, she was getting tired of humans taking things away from her.