Chapter 57

Zezi pulled back immediately, her back firm against the tree she was hiding behind.

Her mind was racing with different thoughts.

Had Lady Delice just been kidnapped?! Were her attackers still around here?

Scared but still logical, Zezi moved backward on her fours before she bumped into someone who yanked her up by the neckline of her dress, claws burying into her skin like sharp needles, blood-red eyes staring back into her blue ones, a deadly growl from a fanged mouth.

Zezi was quick; her fingernails shifted into claws, and she went for the neck of her attacker, but before she could make her mark, she found herself being thrown back with force, her back slamming right into the tree she had been hiding behind a moment ago.

"Lady Zezi!" Lady Delice called out, her voice a little high pitched with surprise, as she staggered back, while her face morphed back into its usual gentle state. Then she moved towards Zezi just as instantly, rushing to her knees to help her but stopped short at the realization that Zezi must have followed her in order to be in this situation that she was in right now.

Zezi's head was throbbing. Her fingers slipped into the hair at the back of her head to feel if her scalp was bleeding. Although the force at which she had been thrown back was great, she wasn't bleeding.

"Ah," she groaned.

It hurt though.

Her scent must have slipped, most likely when she was deep in thought. Thinking was very distracting and she had entertained the distraction.

How stupid.

Finding the position she was in vulnerable, Zezi rushed up to her feet the first opportunity she got; the scratch on the base of her neck, which she had received from Delice yanking her up earlier, started healing at a rather slow rate, compared to her recent healing speed.

"What are you doing here?" Delice asked, her voice the usual gentle tone Zezi knew it to be. "I could have hurt you." She stepped forward, stretching her hand before snapping it right back, as if she had been burned.

"Why did you follow me, Lady Zezi?" Although her thick, black eyelashes cast a small shadow on her cheeks, Zezi could see that Lady Delice's eyes were glittering with worry and confusion in the dark.

Zezi shrugged, dusting off her gown as casually as she could, wanting to look put together before a potential danger.

No one could be underestimated.

"Curiosity." She looked back at the gravestone, then at Delice. "Who is in that grave?"

Lady Delice shook her head, her lips stretching into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Not someone of your concern, I assure you." She paused, before she added, like that had been some second thought. "Also, I'll have to respectfully ask you not to get involved in something that obviously doesn't have anything to do with you. This is my private life, Lady Zezi, I'd appreciate it if you didn't interfere." She said, walking away, the anger that laced her voice, blending in like a chameleon.

"You saw nothing." She ended with a firm voice, turning back to Zezi who stopped in her tracks because of how closely she had been following Delice.

Zezi wasn't the type to back down easily, especially when it came to the vampires, but this situation was different. She knew she was the one in the wrong by snooping around where she was obviously not needed.

So when she found herself nodding stiffly, she didn't fight it.

"I understand. I'm sorry, this won't happen again."

"Thank you. I really appreciate that." Delice flashed her a subtle smile.

That smile, no matter how gentle and good-natured it always looked, consistently made Zezi feel uneasy.

Lady Delice was too good to be true.

A saint amid darkness. An absolute impossibility.

She acted too unaffected by everything to actually be that unaffected. Her good-natured, saintly personality that she consistently put forward was just too unbelievable.

Nothing but an over-practiced lie, Zezi was sure about it.

The haunting feeling of being watched came over her.

There was something Lady Delice was hiding; maybe she was planning something, and that was why she wasn't fighting her as the-- what the King saw her to be.

Or maybe she was--

Ah!

She was doing it again.

Overthinking.

Why was she so worried? This Kingdom and its stress was none of her damn business! Anything could happen in it, the whole place could be on fire even and she still wouldn't mind.

"I'll take my leave now."

"You should ride with me." Lady Delice offered, leading them away but Zezi didn't follow.

"I know my way back. I can go alone."

"No, you can't go alone, Lady Delice. It's not safe."

"Why is it not safe?"

Lady Delice looked around at the silent grave that had their voices echoing slightly by how empty it was.

"It is dark." She started with a smile, like she was talking to a child and stating the obvious, that even the child should know.

"I'm not scared of the dark."

"I wasn't saying you were, you are certainly not scared of anything." Her voice became low, almost a whisper, one that Zezi could have sworn she sensed envy in, or maybe it was just her mind that was bent on finding fault, at work.

"You stabbed our King, right in his heart and lived. You are the first, and we both know you'll be the last to ever do that."

Something twisted and turned in Zezi's stomach and she let out a silent gasp.

A breathy chuckle slipped from Delice's lips.

"You seem a little tired. We can go into the village, visit some shops while you rest. I don't think you have ever been out before."

"There will be no need for that."

"How about a restaurant? They have other fun things by the side." She sounded overly excited.

"I'm not hungry."

The low rumbling of her stomach that followed immediately after, filled the silence.

"Ignore it. It's lying."

Lady Delice attempted to hide her unrestrained chuckle behind her hand but it didn't quite work.

"They have very good food that you'll find to your liking."

"I said I'm not---" her stomach rumbled again and Zezi dragged in a long breath, asking for some power from above to help her make this moment pass.

Zezi was starting to get really desperate now.

"I'm seriously not hungry. You need to believe me."

"It's quite late," she held her hand in a friendly manner, attempting to lead her away while Zezi stubbornly refused. It was a light-hearted action with no hatred, just something that felt seemingly normal. "There will be no one in the kitchen by this time in the castle to prepare your kind of food, Lady Zezi. Please, come with me."

While Lady Delice started to pull her away this time, she shouted, her voice sounding like a desperate cry. "Don't believe the stomach, believe me!"

"I believe you, Lady Zezi," She said with a muffled chuckle. "I believe you."

Well, of all the times her stomach had to protest loudly, it just had to be now.

Oh Moon Goddess, please save her from her own body.