Twenty-one
— Mila... - I say her name while I see her huddled, watching the trees pass by the car window.
"She's so quiet..."
It seems that every time I get close to this woman, a whirlwind of emotions ends up taking over me. So I who always had everything according to my wishes without having to worry about the voices that surrounded me, today I find myself here, worried about the silence of the one I barely know, but that my body insists on showing how much the lack of voice she manages to unstructure me.
"I told you, don't worry, nobody's going to find those bodies!"
She rubs her cheeks with her bloodstained hands and curls back up against the leather, still not looking me in the eye.
"Why is she so weird?"
- You will not speak to me? - I question letting my anger leak out little by little. -I can't help you like that, Mila!
This sentimental shit makes everything so confusing.
I squeeze the steering wheel with my fist, flooring the accelerator until I'm past 180 speed.
"I-I don't need your help..." he said in a low, husky voice.
- What is happening?
I know killing is wrong, but I didn't know she would take it so seriously.
"Is it Piter you're worried about?" - Push a little more. -Thomas?
"Leave me alone, Benjamin...please..." She stumbles over the words, sucking in the oxygen harder.
"Damn it!"
- Is crying?
"N-no!" -mind.
- Thousand -
"LEAVE ME ALONE, BITCH!" She turns, revealing her red eyes along with a sea of tears.
In the same second, I make a quick maneuver with the car and park it carelessly. She looks at me scared, not understanding my attitude and what would come next.
- For! - I say turning to her. -So as to...
I bring my hands to her face in an attempt to dry her torturous tears.
"I don't like people crying around me!"
“I just killed three people, Benjamin. Do you want me to smile?
“I know how wrong this is, but if you knew others like us, you'd realize that this is something to be proud of.
- Pride? She snaps, taking my hands away from her face. -They're people, Benjamin. Lives. They sure had family!
- I agree! -I say. -But in two thousand years, I had never met someone who, after being transformed recently, killed so few people with the chance you had. If you even knew what other people do when they lose control, you wouldn't be crying right now.
"None of this is helping me!" -she said irritably, turning on her back with her arms crossed.
— So tell me what I can do... -I try to be gentle, touching her arm as cautiously as possible.
— A bath... -she is direct.
- What?
— I just want to take a shower... -he said calmly, revealing that the green in his eyes had returned to normal.
- All good...
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A few minutes later we are received by Vincent, who was waiting for us at the entrance of the house.
- And then? I asked my butler as I opened the car door for the Queen. -How is he?
- Alive!
- Alive? she repeated.
"A little bit, but it is!"
"M-my God..." he said with an air of relief.
Piter wasn't the type of guy to die on anything. He might be human, but he was the luckiest human I knew.
"Did you leave him with Doctor Scott?"
— Yes, in a few days he will be discharged.
- Right! -I talk. -Take her to my room and organize everything so she feels at ease!
Mila "Am I going to stay in his room?"
- Yes sir!
When we enter the house, I notice that Mila is starting to get restless about something.
- Everything is fine?
— Yes, I just didn't remember that good smell of wet wood.
— The sun doesn't usually reach this part of the house, but upstairs it illuminates the rooms very well.
She was so distraught the last time she came here that I didn't get a chance to introduce her to the rest of the place.
— Follow Vincent, he'll show you the room, there's also a bathroom there, so take a shower and then rest.
- But and you? she asked shyly.
- What about me?
- You do not come -
She fails to complete the sentence the second my butler widens his eyes, understanding her question.
"Y-you...uh...go...go...where are you actually going?"
"Don't worry about me, I'll be here when you wake up tomorrow!"
"C-can we go upstairs?" -she said throwing a fake cough.
Frustrated with Vincent's interference, the Queen turns and heads straight for the steps. I look up, imagining the shit this could turn into if I don't know how to tell right from wrong.
— BENJAMIN! she yelled at me from the top of the stairs.
- Yes? -I answer standing downstairs.
Vincent and I didn't understand her attitude, mainly because she stared at me for thirty seconds without saying anything.
— Thank you... -she thanked her in a calm and sweet voice.
I don't know what to say, nor do I know if I should say anything. She is my responsibility, but at the same time she is not. I'm trying to separate our blood bond, but it's even harder than before, when she was just an attractive human.
"Hell. Was that a good idea?"
I curl my lips in a slight smile as an answer to her gratitude and soon she reciprocates, returning to her footprints soon after.
"Vincent..." he called, going down the corridor.
- It was taking too long! - he commented with laughter.
"What was taking so long?"
Both enter into a mixture of intimacy, exchanging jokes and friendly lines.
“Oh, you know! - mocked. - I'm sure you want to ask me something...
"Stop being ridiculous!" -she joked. -But...it's...it's just...
"It's about my master, isn't it?"
"How long have you known him?" -It's direct letting go.
“I think my whole life. I was born and raised here, my family has been serving Bennet's for many, many years, for -
- What?
Mila brakes suddenly, with the worst expression her face could ever display of surprise and panic. You can see her lips tremble as she stares at the butler, waiting for him to correct what she just said.
- What it was? - he said nervously.
Vincent is so startled by the Queen's reaction that he forgets what he had said.
- Are you well?
She's in shock, staring at him like she's in a vegetative state.
— Mila?
"Be...ben...bennet!" - she said with a shudder. -You said Bennet's!
- Yes... -he hesitates.
"Did your family serve the Bennet's?"
"You're already scaring me!"
— Piter! -quoted full of mystery. -Piter is a Bennett. Why do you work for Benjamin if you just said you always served Bennet's?
“But my master is a Bennet. Benjamin Bennet! -revealed. -Piter is his nephew!
Mila "Fuck..."
"Mila, what's going on?"
— U-one minute... -she looks for the wall, supporting herself with her hands in an attempt to keep her body upright, while her mind went round and round.
"Are you feeling anything?" he asked worriedly.
"A-air..." he begged. -I can't breathe!
- Calm! He touched her shoulder. -Do you have problems with anxiety? -he asks anxiously, hoping to help.
— Y-yes...
“Shit! - he said in agony.
Vincent tries to support the Queen, while at the same time looking for the reason for her lack of oxygen when the whole house is well ventilated. He was consumed with grief, as he had never witnessed a vampire go through this before.
- Sir! - called his master in a stronger tone. -Don't faint, please!
— V-vicent... -she pronounces his name, losing all control of her body.
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"Yes Thomas, I put her on the plane and—"
Downstairs, in the hall with paintings, I block my lines on my cell phone, sure I heard someone call my name.
"Benjamin, are you there?" - he called from the other side of the phone.
"Y-yes..." he replied suspiciously.
- What there was?
I walk back to the room, hoping to capture again what I had heard.
“Benjamin?
— VICENT! - called him near the stairs.
"Can you tell me what's going on?"
- I thought I heard -
- HELP! - echoed from above.
The vampire's eyes fire and your cell phone falls straight to the ground. He climbs the steps with his heart racing as the King calls him shouting on the link.
— VICENT! - he said reaching the top of the stairs.
"S-sir..."
Worried, my butler was sitting on the floor, the Queen's unconscious body in his arms. I get to them as quickly as possible, crouching beside them, not asking what happened.
My first step was to check if she was okay.
- She is alive? she asked, watching me touch her face.
To know if a vampire was alive, only its creator could say. In that part we were identical to humans, because our body simply became inert, pale and without any trace of vital functions. We didn't explode, turn to dust, or go up in flames. A human was already alive before anything else, or he could have passed away just a few minutes ago, but a vampire cannot have his death calculated when his heart hasn't beat for years.
"Can you feel it?"
- Stay quiet! - I order him, trying to concentrate.
The reason why only the breeder can give this answer is precisely because of the blood connection and training. We could feel it underneath our flesh buried in our chest, an electrifying sensation that caused a set of torment and imbalance, whenever our offspring were in some kind of danger, or harm. But those breeders who cannot foresee this type of situation are those who have a very long lineage and who no longer know this feeling, because they are used to living with it.
"After so many losses, we get used to it and then it starts to go unnoticed!"
- She is fine! -reveal relieved.
- Our...
My butler relaxes his shoulders visibly lighter and I take it upon myself to pick her up from his lap, lifting myself off the floor with her body in my arms.
- Hang on! - she asked seeing me take her. -Isn't it better for her to go to the hospital?
- No! - I'm rude. -Everything she needs is here!
- Sir -
—WHAT IS VICENT? - I say pissed, entering the room.
- What is your goal?
Vincent keeps following me around and peppering my ears with questions. As if my problems weren't enough, he insists on weighing my conscience.
- Will not answer me?
- Okay! - I tighten my expression in a look of hatred and put Mila on the bed, covering her with the sheets.
- No need to get angry, I just want to understand!
"Say it, Vincent!" I go at him with clenched fists. -Tell me what the fuck you want to know!
"What did you mean by bringing the Queen into your house, knowing that she is whose wife she is?"
— Nothing, my intention is only to help!
"But help whom?" she snapped. -You have thousands of vampires around the world and you never worried if they were alive or dead, now you're telling me that you went to the King's house, stole his wife and all this was with the intention of helping?
- Yes!
"Damn it, Vincent was never this teasing!"
- With all due respect, this woman seems to know how to take care of herself, her husband doesn't even need to mention it, so the only one helped here is you doing it for yourself!
"This has nothing to do with me!"
“Oh, don't be so sly. You can fool yourself with this nonsense you're talking, but don't fool me. You're so lost in your feelings that if you could look in the mirror right now, you'd see that you don't even have control of your eyes anymore.
"I'm already pissed at you, Vincent!"
I was really nervous. It was at a level it hadn't reached in a long time.
“Okay, you can be stressed. Throw me out if you want, or kill me if you prefer, but before making any decisions, I ask you to sit down and evaluate the consequences that her presence can cause.
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