Following his lead, Heidi took a sip and scrunched her brows and gulped the liquid quickly which burned her throat.

"It is strange," she commented, looking down at her gla.s.s and then sighed.

"Trouble in paradise?" Timothy questioned her out of nowhere.

"What?"

"You seem a little lost today. Warren can sometimes be difficult to understand. We all started with different perspectives but people around him have come to the same conclusion that he isn't that bad. Oh, sorry. I meant to say Nicholas," Timothy smiled taking an eager sip from his gla.s.s. His words made Heidi cough and she cleared her throat as the wine had entered the wrong pipe in her body, "You look shocked. Don't be. I am a keeper when it comes to secrets," he placed his finger on his lips with a mischievous smile.

Had she left her expressions so wide open that people could read things that were going between the lord and her? The butler knew, Mr. Rufus knew, who else knew about it? And what was she supposed to say in these kind of situations?

"H-how do you know about it?" she stuttered.

"I was there when Nick asked me to lie to Warren about you falling unconscious before he took you back here. But Warren already knows so it was a scam y-"

"Warren knows?" Heidi asked him shocked.

"I don't know about the soul bond but I am definitely sure he knows that you hold Nicholas' interest," the man shrugged throwing off words like it was nothing. It looked like her plate that held her worries kept adding one after the other, "So what's got you so down?"

"Nothing much," she smiled to hear him say, "The multiple sighs doesn't appear to look like nothing," Heidi could now understand why Nicholas and Mr. Rufus were friends. They both had the habit of pressing on subjects until they got an answer. And between the two of them, it made her wonder who had acquired the quality from whom.

"I won't tell it to anyone. Secret keeper remember," he reminded her.

"Have you had anyone you have loved, Mr. Rufus?"

"I did once."

"Where is she now?" she asked him curious.

"She died," he answered with a small smile on his lips and before she could apologize he said, "Don't be. It has been decades. If she were still alive, she would be in her fifties. She was a human like yourself," Heidi didn't want to poke her nose where it wasn't her business.

"I see..." Heidi trailed. Wondering if Timothy might have an answer to Nicholas' behaviour, she decided to ask him, "I think, he's been avoiding me for four days. I don't know why but since I saw the dead maid in his room, we haven't spoken much. I don't think I did anything to upset him," she confessed to see Timothy nod his head.

"Hmm, his thirst killed the maid?" the blonde man used his thumb nail to run it between his fang the tooth next to it, "And here I thought he would be love sick after the bond. That's disappointing. In Rhys case, he was-" Timothy stopped talking abruptly. Something then clicked his mind and he asked Heidi to give her hand.

"Why?" asked a confused Heidi.

"Can you trust me on this one?" he asked her and taking her gla.s.s from her to place it below the hand he held, he took the scale which laid on the desk and ran it over her skin, letting the drops of blood fall into the gla.s.s. Once he was satisfied with the amount of blood that mingled into the red colored wine, he let her hand go while humming a tone merrily like a mischievous elf. Swirling it well, he checked the gla.s.s before giving it back to her, "Give this one to Nicholas and make sure he drinks it. Do not give it through the butler because Stanley would be suspicious about it. I will see my way out then," he patted her head with a smile and left her alone in the room with the two gla.s.ses which was filled lesser than half of the size of gla.s.s.

Heidi wasn't exactly sure if this was the right thing to do. Was Nicholas worried that he wouldn't be able to stop feeding from her until she lay dead like the maid? Taking a deep breath, she stood from her seat and picked both the gla.s.ses in her hand.

When she arrived at Nicholas' study, the butler was only leaving, bowing at her and leaving the door open so that she could get in. As the doors closed, she walked to where Nicholas sat,

"Good afternoon," he greeted her, "And what do we have there?" he asked her.

"Wine made from wild flowers. Would you like to have some?" she asked him.

"Why not," she pa.s.sed the gla.s.s to him just like Mr. Rufus had advised her to, not knowing the outcome it would bring. He took one sip from it and asked, "Is it just the wildflowers?" Getting up from his plush seat, he emptied the gla.s.s before placing it with clink sound and walking around his desk to stand in front of Heidi with a peaceful face. But his eyes gave away as it darkened.

"There might be blood," she leaned back on the desk as he towered her figure. Both his hands resting on the desk as they stared.

"Are you trying to tempt me?" he asked her, his voice holding a certain heat to it.

"No," it seemed that she was almost sitting on his desk now. He looked angry, his eyes furious with what she just did, "You were avoiding me and Timothy advised-"

"Timothy," he spoke the named irritatedly, "I am going to kill him," he suddenly smiled as if he had flipped a switch with a snap, "I don't want you tricking me into drinking your blood next time."

"But why? Why would you drink blood from others and not me?" she demanded answer from him.

"Why?" he repeated her words, "For once I am being patient but here you are intent in breaking my resolve which is as weak as a thin striped ice."

"My sweet cinnamon," he tutted her, "Are you willing to let me steal your virginity and wreck you in my bed right now? Because once I will, you will never return back to your own bed. With the soul bond in place, the need to have you is too much and your blood would only fasten it. Do you understand what I am saying?" he asked her softly, gauging the shocked and embarra.s.sed look on her face.

"I-I am sorry."

Heidi looked at his s.h.i.+rt. Her face beet red with what she had tried to do. She didn't know about it and it was true, she hadn't mentally prepared for it. To think that Nicholas who usually did what he pleased was trying to be considerate, taking her feelings into account was a big deal. But his words had made her imagine things at the moment and she didn't have the courage to look him in the eye.

"I want to hold you," he voiced his thoughts and hugged her, "I am not a patient man Heidi," he warned her. He didn't lie when he said he wanted her, in so many different ways that the times when he slept, his dreamless night would be filled with nothing but her, fueling the need to take her to bed that more, "Did Timothy leave?" he asked pulling back to see her nod.

"He did," Heidi replied and then asked, "What happened to Mr. Rufus' lover?"

"Why do you ask?" Nicholas asked, seeing the palm of her hand that had been wounded, he picked it up to lick it.

"Timothy said she died."

Nicholas hummed, pulling back her hand to inspect it, "Timothy hadn't placed a soul bond on her but he wanted her to live. To live as long as he would. With that in mind, he decided to turn her into a vampire. But things never go as expected. Greediness sometimes costs us vampires very heavily. Her transformation didn't work and she turned out to be one of the deranged vampires. In the end, he killed her with his own two hands."