Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 76: A better apology

Silas and Arabella finally parted ways when the auction reached its conclusion. Right away, upon approaching the railing of the balcony, gravity seemed to tug even harder at the young woman, making standing on her feet tremendously more challenging by the second.

From her perspective, it was as though she stood before a wall plastered with hundreds of portraits and twice as many eyes, all preying upon her every move with no sign of quitting it in sight.

Perhaps it was nothing more than an impression, though it was almost as if Arabella stood alone up there with no one else to share that ardent spotlight or more correctly... The burden of those ravenous gazes.

In an attempt to cool down her burning face, she aimed to find solace in familiar faces among the entertainers, but for some odd reason saw none in her proximity, besides Sebastian whose demeanor offered no comfort whatsoever.

So, Arabella turned to the assembly below and sought after Silas’ figure for a good while before giving it up as he was nowhere to be seen.

He’d completely vanished after accompanying her back to the ballroom balcony.

Her eyes then locked onto one of the staff members carrying a tray stacked with stunningly decorated beverage glasses. Arabella followed the woman as she gracefully weaved through the crowd to fulfill her task until something new snatched her attention away.

Back pressed against one of the pillars holding the balcony together, a young, quite handsome looking man donned a radiant beam on his features while gaping upwards, but unlike most of the guests, he did so in a different direction than hers.

His lips moved, mouthing words that were way out of Arabella’s reach, and in trailing his gaze, she was finally able to spot the friendly face of Katherine who stood on the other side of the balcony.

Katherine too smiled but... It wasn’t just any smile. It was the best, most gleaming one Arabella had ever caught on the vampire to that date.

And similarly to the young man, she appeared to whisper muted nothings back his way in the same fashion.

It was a conversation of the like Arabella had never been a part of or even witnessed before as both seemed thrilled to behold one another. The image did bring the young woman the comfort she so desperately needed, however, and much like every other good thing in life, that one too ended when an external voice came to burst the cozy bubble that had grown around her.

"Arabella!"

Thankfully, it was not a voice Arabella dreaded hearing.

"Yes, Allegra?" eyebrows a little knitted, Arabella wondered about the reasons Allegra would see to approach her.

"I...," the vampire looked down at her own fingers while twiddling them together, "I know, I haven’t found any opportunity to come to you and apologize for my behavior the other night,"

Eyebrows furrowing even more, nothing came to Arabella’s mind at those words, drawing a complete blank no matter how hard she tried to remember this behavior Allegra was talking about, "I don’t understand," she simply muttered.

"I meant, the other night when I almost bit you. I want you to know that I truly am sorry. Your scent is quite hard to resist, especially for a vampire my age, but that doesn’t mean I can’t restrain myself, and I wanted you to know that... You have nothing to fear at all," Allegra had vomited all of those words almost at once, leaving Arabella very little time to react in between breaths.

Memories of the three sisters "inspecting" her rushed back to the surface from the crevices of her mind, "Oh! Please! Say no more on that! You’ve already apologized to me," Arabella shook her head while doing her best to offer a comforting smile.

"I meant a proper apology," Allegra simmered down a bit, "I don’t want you to believe that I only apologized to save face in front of the Lady and the Master,"

"I never believed that for a second,"

"Still, I just needed you to know it," Allegra nodded to her own words.

"Well, apology accepted," in turn, Arabella mirrored her action and nodded as well.

Allegra then proceeded to turn her gaze downwards where the guests mingled merrily, "How are you feeling?" her smile dimmed down a tad.

"Quite alright, thank you," said Arabella.

"Earlier, when the auctions started, I noticed the abrupt spike in your heart rate and then I saw you exit the balcony with Katherine,"

Eyes still on the crowd, Allegra gripped the railing a little tighter. It was barely noticeable, but Arabella paid the vampire near more attention to distract her mind from the irises stuck to her figure.

"Yes, I sort of needed a breather. Thankfully Katherine was there for me," she muttered.

"They’ll be safe, you know," Allegra’s intonation rose towards the end of her sentence in an interrogative manner. Seeing the look on Arabella’s face, the vampire decided to elaborate, "The tributes, I mean,"

"Oh... Yes, I hope they will be,"

Arabella’s smile faded a little.

"No, they definitely are!" Allegra insisted, "In fact, I haven’t met a single human in Umbraria that claimed life was better back in Lustris,"

Deep into Arabella’s eyes she stared as though it’d make her words truer.

"And they are not snatched from their warm beds for no reason just to be tributes, they all committed crimes, some of them heinous crimes and yet they are still offered a chance at a better life. Now, I am not against it...,"

It was too late; there was no stopping her. Allegra had launched into elongated explanations, filled with justifications. She spoke fast and took no breaks almost like her survival depended on it.

Her plea went on until a third person entered the conversation, sparing Arabella the rest of that seemingly endless spiel.

"There, there, Allegra, you can breathe," Katherine’s voice came as a knight in shining armor to the rescue.