Two days pass without further issue, and it’s only on the second day that I see Lord Makai again. Luckily, there’s no blood involved this time.

He’s inspecting the replacements in the hall. Higra is with him, watching quietly while he looks over the work. There’s no stains or any sign of the struggle from days prior, even His Grace comes across as the everyday man; standing in the hall with his arms crossed in a fine burgundy suit with silver cufflinks. If not for his unnaturally pale skin and the deep red of his eyes, he could blend in with the rest of us.

“It still reeks,” Lord Makai says with a face of disgust. When his lips pull back, the tips of his fangs are visible. “Clean it again.”

“As you wish, Your Grace.” When Higra catches me staring I already know what she’s going to say. “Wallace, clean this hall until Lord Makai is satisfied.”

I’m tempted to ask when that will be because even now the hall smells of bleach, but when Lord Makai looks to me out of the corner of his eye, I immediately bow.

“I’ll get to it right away, Your Grace.”

When I return with cleaning supplies, Lord Makai is gone and I must return to the floor to clean. I have to wear a face mask, the smell of bleach is too overpowering. From time to time, I peer down the hall to the rooms I’ve never been. I know one is Lord Makai’s study, another is his bedroom, but a few more doors remain. Higra and Layne are the only ones to frequently work down there.

When focusing on a task, it’s hard to tell how much time goes by or what’s around you. So when a pair of silver shoes appear before my eyes, I’m surprised. Slowly raising my head, I go wide-eyed upon finding Lord Makai staring down at me. I didn’t even hear him come out of the office.

“My Lord.” I bow my head but remain on the floor since, I don’t know, I’m kneeling and that’s what most do in front of a noble, right? Who knows.

I remove the mask so my voice isn’t muffled when I ask, “Do you need anything?”

“No.”

He’s staring at me. The look is neither cold nor warm, more an observation. I wouldn’t say I’m unsettled or comfortable because I have no idea why, especially when we’re this close. From here I notice the sharpness of his cheekbones and the pointed tips of his ears and heart shaped face. I’d say that’s not very fitting, but he pulls it off well. Not that I would ever have the guts to say that out loud.

I offer up a smile in the awkward silence until I remember I’m not supposed to smile. I shake my head to remove it. Smiling is a sort of knee jerk reaction to me at this point.

“Leave,” he finally orders.

“The hall no longer reeks then?”

He nods, but twists his nose for some reason. It isn’t until he glances to my hands that I realize why. I’m bleeding. I scrubbed until my hands were raw. Great, so I scrubbed away the smell of blood only to replace it with my own.

“I’m deeply sorry, Your Grace. I probably just ruined the whole job. I can request—”

“No.” He interrupts and waves his clawed hand. “Just leave.”

He walks away without another word, going downstairs for some reason. Obviously I don’t ask. I’m more than happy to be done cleaning for the day and now that I’m aware of my hands, the slight sting settles in. So I clean up my workspace and request some bandages from Elamir who happily helps wrap my injuries.

When Hael hears that I had to clean the second floor hallway, he snorts but also seems apologetic.

“That must have been rough,” he says. “You’ve spent too much time there.”

“Doing the same thing. I’ve cleaned that hall so much I’m surprised the floors haven’t been bleached away.”

“Be more careful. If you need to pass through the second floor, do it in secret to avoid another meeting.”

I don’t think I mind as much as Hael does, but I plan to take his advice. It’s probably best to avoid the second floor. I wouldn’t say I’m scared of Lord Makai, but I’m not friendly with him either, obviously. He’s the lord of the house, my employer, and most people don’t want to be around their employer.

But it seems that the world does not agree with me because the next day I find myself receiving new orders from Higra, “Lord Makai wishes to speak with you in his office, Wallace. Go to the kitchen and take up his afternoon tea, immediately.”

“Ah, is...is this about the hallway? Did I not clean well enough?” I ask, but Higra narrows her eyes, which tells me not to ask, just do it.

Damn, come on, throw me a bone! Did I do something wrong?

While getting Lord Makai’s tea (vampires drink tea? You learn something new everyday), I think over what happened yesterday. I did all my usual duties and cleaned the hall as I was instructed. Lord Makai was even the one that let me leave! Although I did probably get my own blood on the floor, but the hall still smells like bleach this morning so I had to have covered up the smell! Shit, what’s going on?

I can’t come up with an answer by the time I make it to Lord Makai’s office, and there’s no turning back. I must do as I’m instructed so I knock hesitantly.

“Come in.”

His deep voice puts me on edge.

I push open the doors to find Lord Makai seated at his desk with Layne standing at his side. The room is as pristine and immaculate as the rest of the mansion. The left and right wall are made up nearly completely of books. There are cupboards on the bottom and small knick knacks scattered throughout the shelves. In the center of the room is a round coffee table with two deep green loveseats on either side.

Then there’s a wide and tall window located directly behind Lord Makai’s dark brown desk. It casts the room in warm sunlight since the dark green curtains are tied back. There’s even a breeze coming in from the doorway that leads out onto a terrace. A more than comfortable room, as it should be, seeing as Lord Makai is here quite often.

There are stacks and stacks of paper littering his desk. He’s reading over some now, scribbling away before handing them off to Layne. He says something, but it’s a quiet whisper. Layne bows and leaves with the papers, offering up a smile to me before he stepping out the door. I hope that’s a good sign.

“Would you like me to sit your tea on the desk?” I ask since I have no idea if he wants it anywhere near his work.

“Obviously not.”

Ok, well that answers that, so I immediately place the tray on the coffee table then wait patiently. Higra said he wants to speak to me, about what, I’m not sure. The longer I wait the more nervous I get.

Finally, Lord Makai sets aside whatever work he has to acknowledge me, only I would prefer he continue working. It’s the same gaze as yesterday, observation and nothing more. That’s better than hate or annoyance, but certainly more confusing.

“Do you need me to get you anything else, Your Grace?” I ask, uncertain if Higra misspoke and he only requested I bring his afternoon tea. Although that’s usually Higra’s job so I don’t know why he’d want me to do it.

Then Lord Makai asks a question that I’m uncertain if I wish to answer.

“Have we met before?” He rests his elbows on the desk and his chin atop his folded hands. “The scent—” he glances to my hands. “Was familiar.”

Ah, so that’s why he was staring. It’s been a long time so it’s not surprising he didn’t recognize me. I was only 8 then, it’s been 14 years, although I’m shocked he remembers the scent of someone’s blood after so long. I never planned to bring up the truth, but now I see I can’t keep this secret.

“I must admit I’m surprised you remember,” I respond. “The short answer is yes, we’ve met before, Your Grace.”

“Give the longer answer then.”

I’m nervous, wondering exactly what this means. If he discovers the truth, am I out of a job? Will he even care? But it’s too late to back out now and if I lied it’d probably be worse.

“You know the story of Chandri, don’t you?” I ask, although I know the answer. By the way he tenses, I doubt he has any desire for someone to speak of the tale that has been kept secret by all.

“When the Treddin army broke through the frontlines and stationed themselves in Chandri, they took villagers as hostages to work as slaves for their army. King Baylor came to fight, slaying the generals and King Treddin himself thus ending the war while also saving the villagers, so the story has been told.”

He scowls, but doesn’t tell me to stop so I continue the story, the true story.

“I saw a man on the battlefield with the true warriors; low level militia made up of commoners sent to die. The stranger with red eyes was the true victor, slaying King Treddin and setting the villagers free, myself being one of them. I was too scared to move when that stranger found me chained up, hungry, and cold, but he held out his hand, told me everything would be ok and that I was safe. He didn’t leave my side for three days, until I was safely returned home, but that man never got credit for what he did, and I never got the chance to thank him for it.”

And that man is the so called monstrous vampire, Soran Makai, watching me with a silent stare.

After witnessing the death of that man days ago, assassin or not, I’m troubled and uncertain about Lord Makai, but remembering my three long months of hell that he rescued me (and many others) from makes me want to forget it ever happened. Because it wasn’t just me and the villagers that were saved, but also the soldiers sent to die against the Treddin army. They would have been wiped out against a military of that size without Lord Makai’s assistance.

I’m not sure how he feels about it either. He’s not saying anything. Maybe he thinks I’m lying, but I know I’m not mistaken. He’s kind of easy to spot. Even he asked if we met before, implying that he believes we have.

“Ah, and I didn’t purposely come here to work because of that!” I quickly explain upon realizing that, maybe, he thinks I did. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing, but I rather make myself clear. “A relative of mine works for House Allani, and when he heard I was looking for a place to stay and a new job he wrote letters of recommendation, which is how I got here. I had no idea. I just accepted it.”

Lord Makai actually makes a face, a slightly amused but almost concerned and annoyed type of face; something out of a children’s book honestly. It leaves me a little speechless because, again, not sure what it means.

“Even after learning who you would be working for, you accepted the job?”

I nod eagerly, which somehow worsens his shocked expression.

“Are you an idiot?”

I bite my lip. That’s clearly not a question I’m meant to answer but I give it a shot. “Is there a problem? Do you not like me being here? I’ve been doing all my work to the best of my abilities.”

His eyes clench shut when he rubs his temple, clearly annoyed, but I’m not sure why.

“What is your name?” He asks. I’m a little hurt he doesn’t remember, but I cut him some slack.

“Wallace, but I prefer to go by Wallie.”

“Wallace, have you told anyone about this?”

I quickly shake my head. “Even if I did, I doubt anyone would believe me.”

“True. Should King Baylor hear of it, you may find yourself in an awful predicament.”

My eyes widen because I never thought about that. Living in a small town that people only heard of from the stories probably wasn’t much of a threat to King Baylor. But knowing a survivor that is aware of, and witnessed the truth, now working in House Makai, which he wishes to remain seen as a monster and nothing else, may unsettle him. He wouldn’t...kill me or anything, right? Seriously, no one would believe me if I said anything!

“Do not speak of what happened again, to anyone. If you do, I’ll rip out your tongue.”

Huh?

“Bring me more tea. It’s cold now.”

I’m sorry, are we ignoring the threat of ripping out my tongue? Ok, everyone here is crazy, but I...well, I don’t know. I’m going to do my job, I guess?

“Y-Yes, right away, Lord Makai!”

He’s glaring at me. “Don’t shout.”

“Ah, my apologies.”

Turning away, I’m about to grab the tray when I bite my lip, uncertain if I should go through with the possibly life ending idea in my head. Lord Makai looks to me; probably only because I haven’t left yet. Judging by his narrowed gaze, he’s about to ask why or yell at me, but I put a stop to that by swiftly kneeling.

“I know I am not meant to speak of it again, but before I go I wish to thank you.” I bow and press my forehead to the floor, hoping this is not a tongue ripping out offense. “For saving the soldiers, the villagers, and myself, even if I don’t know why you helped, I honestly don’t care. While many don’t know the truth, I do, and I’m forever grateful for it. Thank you, Your Grace.”

Before Lord Makai can respond, or I die of embarrassment, I take the tray to get the hot tea as instructed. My thanks must not be a good or a bad thing because when I return, he says nothing. I leave the tea, excuse myself, and that’s the end of it.

To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about being discovered. I managed to thank the man that saved me, even if it didn’t seem he wanted to be thanked. But I still must keep the truth a secret from everyone else, and that’s annoying.

♱♱♱