Under the vampire Lord's protection-Chapter 81: Lord Dragomir

Lord Dragomir towered over Arabella, wine glass in hand, he looked down at her with a grin only Edna’s unsettling smirk could dethrone in terms of disruption.

"I think you’ve had your turn with her, Edward," his eyes flickered towards the man sitting beside her.

"Well, that sounded eerily inappropriate," Lord Foy gave one of his signature chuckles.

"Come now, you know exactly what I meant," Dragomir made the last "t" of that sentence pop in his lips.

Aside from their choice of words, there was this lingering feeling, heaviness that thickened the air around them. Arabella needn’t have advanced senses to note the tension between the two men. A darkened glare here, a deeper and lower tone there and the way they’d addressed each other left very few questions unanswered on that matter.

Lord Dragomir offered a hand to Arabella first, "I think he’s hogged you for long enough,"

The young woman threw a glance towards Lord Edward Expectantly, but in response he merely smiled rigidly and gave a single, barely noticeable nod of acknowledgement. In the end, Arabella was left with no other alternative but to accept Dragomir’s hand.

Very gently, he helped pull her back onto her feet and the young woman allowed it. The Lord then offered his arm just like the previous man did which she also took.

All the while, Arabella refused to meet his gaze.

Out of nowhere, he declared, "I’d kill for some fresh air, wouldn’t you?" the smile on him never reached his eyes.

"Yes," she only muttered.

The vampire led her through the crowd, straight towards one of the open balcony windows.

"Then I suppose, nothing is stopping us from stepping outside for some," he half asked, but she knew very well it was rhetorical.

Indeed, the Lord did not wait for an answer and instead tugged her along with him, leaving it to nothing but her frantic little irises to seek help. To no avail, Katherine and her sisters were busy, deep into conversations of their own. Lady Persephone too seemed engaged in an exchange with someone Arabella did not recognize.

As a result of that, she found herself completely isolated from the rest of the party, out into the dimness of the night where fresh air swept her long hair about freely.

One of her hands slowly rose, trailing from the wrist up to her other arm in an attempt to appease her skin which suffered the chills that had started to gnaw at her.

"Such a lovely night," he said, eyes on the cloudy sky.

"Yes, it is," she answered without even looking up, too busy trying to control the shivers that threatened to overtake her.

"You know, I thought you seemed familiar," he started, his gaze snapping onto her.

She said nothing and merely stared ahead into nothingness, but her restless heart gave it all away.

From the moment he’d commented on her eyes at the ball, she’d known he was going to be trouble. There was something in the way the Lord stalked her all along, the hopes of it being a coincidence were quite fragile.

"Are you by any chance a member of the Sterling Lineage?"

And there it was... The question Arabella dreaded the most but still expected. Since the guests belonged to prestigious and powerful bloodlines, a scenario such as that one was inevitable.

"Yes, I... I am," her voice trembled as she barely whispered the answer.

By then, the cold had claimed her, mingling with the sheer fear that had taken roots in her heart.

"So, you are the infamous Arabella Sterling after all. My right-hand man did mention meeting an interesting young human at the tailor’s shop," Dragomir threw a glance behind his shoulder only to furrow his eyebrows upon realizing there was no one else but them out there, "He’s always wandered off that one. I could never pin him down," he added.

The infamous Arabella, he said. She knew her escape would raise a storm back home. There were no surprises there. Her mind panned to the memory of Lauden back in Mr Kallum’s shop and how interested he was in her.

"I often deal business with you father. You wouldn’t recognize me, of course. I only came and went at night. Although perhaps you’ve heard of my last name,"

That smirk he offered etched itself behind her eyes and promised to stay. Every word in that sentence pressed in on her pounding heart, forcing it to beat faster and louder against her chest. Cold reigned supreme as her stomach churned and squeezed, threatening to expel all of its contents.

Lord Dragomir did not appear to care one bit about the clear anxiety in her teary eyes. On the contrary, he pushed on further, "You know, your father has turned quite distraught since your departure. I could see it in his eyes how broken he was,"

Every fiber in her being screamed at her to just... Leave. To go back inside where warmth would greet and cradle her. To run away from him and keep as far as physically possible from that man, but alas, she did none of that.

Arabella stayed stunned in her spot, fighting with all of her might to reel her heavy tears back in. To stand steady with grace.

"I hear he even got in trouble with the royal family due to your... Little stunt," he moved even closer to her, until his warmth ensnared all of her, "I truly am curious as to know why you’d feel the need to go through with something like that, knowing full well the consequences it’d bring about," practically whispering, he bent nearer for his breath to brush against her face, snatching an evident flinch out of her.

"It is quite cold out here for a human," a frigid yet familiar voice came from behind the both of them, "I believe it is best to go back inside," Silas added the moment they’d spun around to meet his eyes.