CHAPTER TWELVE — Blood in the Walls
1077 Words
(Seraphina’s POV)
The ballroom changed instantly.
One second it was filled with music and false elegance.
The next…
It felt like a battlefield waiting for blood.
The guests noticed it too.
Conversations stopped.
Smiles disappeared.
Eyes sharpened.
Predators sensing danger.
Lucien Draven stood rigid beside the staircase, his gaze fixed entirely on Lord Michael.
“There’s been a breach,” Lucien repeated quietly.
Michael’s expression became unreadable, cold and deadly.
“Where?”
“The lower corridors.”
My pulse slowed instantly.
Lower corridors, underground, the trafficking routes. Something had gone wrong or someone had gotten caught.
The guests began whispering uneasily around us. Some looked annoyed. Others nervous.
A few… excited.
Like violence entertained them.
Disgusting.
Michael’s gaze swept across the ballroom calmly.
“Everyone remains here,” he said smoothly.
And somehow, that soft voice carried more authority than shouting ever could.
Nobody argued.
Of course they didn’t.
Michael looked toward Lucien.
“Handle it.”
Lucien’s jaw tightened slightly.
“We may already be too late.”
Something dangerous flickered across Michael’s face at that.
Not fear.
Never fear.
Anger.
Cold and controlled.
Which somehow felt worse.
Before either of them could move—
A scream echoed through the mansion.
Closer this time.
The ballroom erupted into uneasy murmurs.
And then—
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Darkness swallowed the room for half a second. When the lights returned…
One of the girls from the staircase was gone.
Panic exploded instantly.
Guests stood abruptly.
Voices rose.
Someone cursed.
The remaining girls looked terrified and my instincts screamed.
Move.
I turned immediately toward the side hallway where I’d last seen the missing girl disappear.
“Seraphina—”
Michael’s voice followed sharply behind me.
Too late.
I was already running.
The hallway was darker away from the ballroom.
Quieter.
My heels clicked sharply against the marble floor as I moved quickly through the shadows.
“Wait!”
Lucien’s voice.
Closer now.
I ignored him.
A faint sound echoed ahead.
A struggle.
Then a muffled cry.
I turned the corner—
And froze.
A man had the missing girl pinned against the wall.
Human.
Middle-aged.
Drunk on power and something darker.
His hand covered her mouth while she fought desperately beneath him.
Rage exploded through me instantly.
“Get your hands off her.”
The man turned sharply.
Annoyed.
Not afraid.
“Leave,” he snapped. “She was purchased.”
Purchased.
The word hit me like poison.
The girl’s terrified eyes locked onto mine silently begging for help. Something inside me broke.
I crossed the distance between us before thinking.
Fast.
Violent.
My fist slammed into his face hard enough to send him stumbling backward.
The girl gasped.
The man cursed loudly.
“You stupid b***h—”
He lunged toward me.
I grabbed the nearest object—a silver candle holder—and swung it directly into his jaw.
A sick crack echoed through the hallway.
He collapsed instantly.
Breathing.
But unconscious.
Silence filled the corridor.
The girl stared at me in shock.
So did Lucien.
I hadn’t even heard him arrive.
Lucien Draven stood a few feet away, watching me with something dangerously close to admiration.
“You hit hard,” he murmured.
I dropped the candle holder with a loud clatter.
“He called her purchased.”
My voice shook slightly.
Not from fear.
From fury.
Lucien’s expression darkened.
“Yes.”
Like that explained everything.
I turned toward the girl immediately.
She looked barely eighteen. Still trembling.
“What’s your name?” I asked softly.
“…Lydia.”
“It’s okay, Lydia.”
No.
That was a lie.
Nothing about this place was okay.
But she nodded anyway.
Like she desperately needed to hear it.
Lucien stepped closer slowly.
“We need to move.”
“Why?”
“Because Michael’s guests are becoming restless.”Something in his tone made me look at him carefully.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Silence.
Then—
A low growl echoed somewhere deeper in the mansion.
Not human.
My blood went cold.
Another scream followed.
Short.
Violent.
Lydia began trembling harder.
“What was that?”
Lucien’s jaw tightened.
“The breach wasn’t human.”
Every nerve in my body sharpened instantly.
“What does that mean?”
Before he could answer—
A body crashed into the hallway wall nearby.
Hard.
I jumped back instinctively.
A guard slid across the floor covered in blood.
Dead.
And then…
Something stepped out of the shadows.
Tall.
Pale.
Eyes glowing unnaturally red.
A vampire.
But unlike Michael or Lucien…
This one looked feral.
Wild.Blood stained his mouth.
And when his gaze landed on Lydia—
He smiled.
My stomach twisted violently.
The vampire moved fast.
Too fast.
One second he stood across the hallway.
The next—
He was directly in front of us.
Lucien shoved me backward instantly.
“Run.”
The feral vampire lunged.
Lucien caught him violently midair, slamming him into the wall hard enough to crack stone.
I grabbed Lydia immediately.
“Move!”
We ran.
Behind us, the sounds of violence exploded through the corridor.
Stone breaking.
Growls.
Blood.
I glanced back once.Big mistake.Lucien wasn’t fighting like a man.
He moved like something lethal.
Fast enough to blur.
Brutal enough to terrify me.
And for the first time…
I truly understood what he was.
Not just dangerous.
A monster.
The feral vampire slammed Lucien through part of the wall with a deafening crash.
Lydia screamed.
Then suddenly—
Everything stopped.
A new presence entered the hallway.
Lord Michael
The feral vampire froze instantly.
Fear flooded his face.
Real fear.
Michael’s expression remained perfectly calm.
Which somehow made it worse.
“You’ve made a mess,” Michael said softly.
The feral vampire dropped to his knees immediately.
“Please—”
Michael moved faster than my eyes could follow.
One second he stood still.
The next—
His hand was through the vampire’s chest.
Blood splattered across the hallway.
Lydia screamed again.
I couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
Michael ripped the creature’s heart free with horrifying ease.
The body collapsed instantly.
Dead.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Terrible.
Michael looked down at the blood coating his hand almost lazily.
Then slowly…
His gaze lifted to me.
And for the first time since meeting him…
I felt fear.
Real fear.
Because now I had seen the truth beneath the elegance.
And the monster staring back at me…
Was far more terrifying than I imagined.
- Writer
