Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 118: The howl

The minutes that followed Silas’ arrival in the library were awkwardly quiet, to say the least.

The two of them sat, facing each other, Arabella never once daring to raise her gaze and him who, as per his usual, never averted his eyes.

She waited with bated breath for him to say something since he came in, but he merely pulled the chair opposite from hers, occupied it and glared at her to no end.

"I was clear when I said you should always have company with you, especially when you leave your room, wasn’t I?" he finally broke the stifling silence.

The freezing cold voice induced shivers that crawled over and under her skin upon reaching her ears.

Her head hung even lower than it did before, which was an impressive feat of its own.

"My apologies, Master,"

Had he been human, his hearing wouldn’t have been advanced enough to interpret her mumbles.

Silas did not press or chastise her further, but he offered no comforting words either and instead continued to stare through to her soul as if expecting wings to grow on her back.

They never did. What happened however, was Arabella finally gathering the courage to speak up again.

"I would also like to apologize for my behavior the night before the previous one," her gemstones did not exactly meet his diamonds, but they ascended to his chest and Silas was not one to spit in the face of progress whenever he saw it, "I was completely out of line and I acted as though I’d forgotten my place,"

Despite the calm demeanor, her heart beat wildly against its cage. Wildly enough for her ears to switch colors.

"You were quite brazen. I’ll give it to you,"

As subtle as it was, the twitch of his eyebrow was noticed by the young woman. Silas had such a relentless impassive outlook that peripheral vision alone was enough to spot the slightest shift in his facial muscles.

"I swear, I never meant to be insolent. I only worried for...," she trailed off, remembering Ada’s words.

"You were only worried for mine as well as everyone else’s wellbeing," he finished the sentence for her.

Her heart had already been going at an insane cadence, the spike it experienced at that moment worried even Silas.

"I... You...," it wasn’t that the words did not come to her. It was the complete opposite as they’d all come at once, pulling her tongue in every direction until none of them won.

"Yes, I was listening in. However, I don’t want you to think I constantly spy on you or on anyone else for that matter. Your conversation with your father was a special case, but as you were already told, going over two weeks without feeding makes me do things I wouldn’t consider under normal circumstances,"

The vampire had entirely brushed past the part where Ada told the young woman that he, Silas, was sweet on her which was for the better.

"Of course, I understand that," she nodded profusely.

"You did the right thing," he paused before adding, "Nobody would find joy in having a sadistic vampire running around," Silas pressed on the word sadistic.

His features let slip yet another emotion when one corner of his lips pulled into a faint smirk that vanished the instant after.

It couldn’t be helped. The look on her face when he’d used the same word to describe himself as the one Ada had chosen was simply priceless.

"Which reminds me," his closed demeanor returned, "Did I hurt you when I...," he trailed off.

"No! It was utterly painless,"

Upon noting the way her fingers had risen towards her neck, he clarified, "I don’t mean that," he shook his head slowly.

Seeing the slightly furrowed eyebrows on her, his eyes went from her chin down to her shoulders then chest.

The action jogged her memory back to the tight embrace he’d practically forced her into. freewebnøvel.com

"No!" her own eyes widened, "You did not hurt me in the slightest,"

She told no lies. Even though forced, Silas remained lucid enough to maintain control over his strength when dealing with her.

"That is a relief," his diamonds flickered towards the closed book near the one Arabella had opened, titled Sterling.

She followed his gaze and rushed to justify her choice. There were many things Arabella wanted to say, but the only words that aligned correctly were, "Page 540 was the last one I’d read. I’d still like to finish it,"

"I’ve read it more times than I can count," he said dryly, eyes glued to the golden-embossed letters on its spine, "I can tell you the rest of it,"

"I prefer to read it myself, if it is all the same to you," she muttered.

"Have it your way," his attention then fell on the open book in front of her.

"Oh... This one is about fairy folk. I wanted to learn more about them," a feeble chuckle escaped her, "I was, sort of, caught by surprise last time,"

"Right," he started, "We never got around to discuss our trip to the valley. It pains me even more to know that it was due to a fault of mine,"

The blood seeping through his clenched fists flashed behind her eyes, "Oh no, it was not-"

He cut her off, "I never meant to scare you," his eyes rose back to her, "But do tell me, what have you learned about them so far?"

"Well, I suppose I was curious and wanted to understand why all of their names ended with Iel so-"

Once again, Arabella was not allowed to finish her sentence. It was a shame too; Silas had finally gotten to see those little stars that shone when she raved about something that fueled her passion.

Indeed, aside from the books that whooshed past them like nothing had happened, everything else around grinded to a halt when a blood curdling howl arose in the night.

It blared so loud even a human such as Arabella knew it emanated from some place very close by.