Stained By Sin

TWENTY-FOUR

Elara continued to watch as Nero paced inside her room. He was obviously worried sick about Ava. She knew that he had already called all his major guards and fighters for a meeting. He had also sent quite several guards after Ava’s trail as soon as the sun had set, hoping they could catch up to her, wherever she was.

Elara could understand why Nero was so anxious. He had already done everything he could. All he could do now was to wait. And even though he wanted to search for Ava himself, there was no way he could leave her behind, especially since the only reason his officials were tolerating her roaming free inside the Ivory premises was having Nero as her guide. If Nero would decide to go after Ava himself, he would have to take her with him. And Elara was sure that it wouldn’t sit well with the other vampires.

Even if he was the king, there were still a lot of things he couldn’t do.

As she continued to stare at the pacing king, Elara felt a tinge of pity for him. As soon as the feeling hit her, Elara felt shocked. How far had she come in just a short amount of time. From hating the man in front of her, she was now feeling compassionate. Like she should do something to make him feel at least a bit better.

Elara shook her head, pushing the thought away. Still, the feeling didn’t go away. From wanting to make him feel better, she now wanted to comfort him. Pull him to an embrace and tell him it would all be okay. That she knew where Ava was and that she was about to do something to confirm her suspicions.

These thoughts were very absurd. Why would she feel this way? Pity, she could accept. But this sudde wave of need to comfort Nero? No freaking way.

“Elara,” Nero’s voice broke through the haze of Elara’s thoughts. She looked at him quietly, waiting for him to speak again. “Elara, would you tell me a story?”

Elara was quiet for a moment, processing Nero’s request.

“What?” she said simply when she was sure she didn’t mishear him.

“Tell me a story, please. Even if it’s nonsense. I need something to distract me.” Nero’s voice was shaking as he spoke. He had already stopped pacing. He was standing on one spot, looking at Elara with begging eyes.

“Why would I do that?” Elara asked, stubbornly denying her own impulse to give him the distraction he needs.

Nero didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he looked down on the ground for a couple of seconds. He then wiped his face with his hands, ruffling his hair in frustration. When he looked at her again, he looked like he had aged ten years in just a matter of minutes.

“I don’t have any right to ask you anything, I know that. But please. I’m begging you… I feel like I’m losing my mind right now.” Elara wasn’t sure what it was that pushed her over the edge. Was it the way his voice broke when he spoke? The fact the obviously looked so stressed at the moment? Or was it the combination of both?

Regardless, without even thinking about it, Elara nodded. When she realized what she did, she just decided to stick with it. “Fine, I’ll talk to you and keep you company.”

No sooner had she spoken, she heard the familiar steps of Arren. Thinking as fast as she could, she continued to speak. “I will keep you company, but let’s not talk here. Let’s go to the library. We can find a lot of things to talk about there.”

With a small, grateful smile, Nero nodded. “Thank you,” he whispered.

Elara just waived her hand. “Don’t thank me. I don’t need your gratitude. Now go on, I’ll follow closely. I just need to get something from my closet.”

Nero nodded again, turning his back at her and leaving her room without a word.

As quickly as she could, she took the letter she hid from her drawer and slid it behind the folds of skirt. She started to leave her room. As soon as she crossed her doorway, Arren stepped in front of her. As discreetly as she could, she slid her letter to Arren’s waiting hand. Arren hid the letter in her own skirt as she walked past Elara without even a glance. Without missing a beat, Elara continued walking as well, catching up to Nero.

Elara smiled to herself in satisfaction. She was sure no one realized what had just happened, and it was already a milestone for her plan. Now, all she needed to do was wait for Arren to go to the Crow residence and give her letter to Aki.

Elara was still thinking about her secret operation when Nero stopped walking. She was usually alert and would never bump into someone, but because of her current milestone, her head was a bit in the clouds as she tried to think of the next move. As a result, she bumped into Nero’s back.

“What the—” she said as she took a couple steps back to regain her balance.

“I’m sorry, are you okay?” Nero asked, looking at her with concern.

“Yeah, yeah. Just had my head a bit in the clouds.”

Nero looked at her weirdly before heading to the library door. He opened it and waited for her to enter before going inside the library himself.

Just like before, the room was still dimly – but beautifully – lit by candles. The window’s curtain was pulled back, allowing the gentle breeze of enter the room, and the moonlight cast shadows to the shelves.

As soon as they entered, Nero spoke. “What are we going to talk about?”

He asked this, but it was obvious that he wasn’t that interested. Elara thought of something that would actually distract him. If they talked about books, it most certainly wouldn’t be enough to keep his mind off Ava.

Elara gave a quick glance to all the shelves in the room and found one of her favorite book still sitting in its spot. The book of their origins.

“Would you like to talk about the history of our race?” she asked with a wicked grin on her face.