Music Recommendation: The War Room- Trevor Morris
In the Moriarty mansion's ballroom, Eve stood in one corner, looking at the guests who continued to mingle with each other. The number of people looking at her earlier had reduced as if the word had spread about where she came from and who she was, leaving her to herself.
When the music played in the room stopped, the room turned quiet once again. Everyone turned to look at what was the next entertainment event going to take place here.
Eve noticed Lady Marceline step forward and stand in her floral dress at the centre of the room. She had a sweet smile on her lips, and the expression on her face was pleasant, with a hint of excitement in her eyes.
Marceline didn't speak immediately and patiently waited until she had every single person's attention in this room on herself. She then spoke,
"It is time to bring my present which I personally handpicked for my dear mother Annalise. As all of you know, it has been kept a secret until now so that all of you can enjoy it to the fullest. And when I say this, I mean you will enjoy every bit of it," the vampiress continued to smile while looking at her guests.
She then turned to look at one of the servants, nodding her head as if silently giving him the order to bring her precious gift to the ballroom. The young vampiress continued,
"Mother Annalise has been the most beloved person to me and my siblings. In teaching us what elegance means, along with the importance of our pureblood line of being one of the prominent standing families in existence. Thanks to her, the emptiness that I experienced many years ago was filled by her. I wouldn't be the way I am, if it wasn't for her and my father."
Lady Annalise, who heard this, her chin tipped up in pride for being praised, and she fondly smiled back at Marceline.
"I couldn't ask for a better daughter," Lady Annalise replied, as the vampiress felt Marceline listened and obliged to her words better than her own daughter, who still had a lot to learn when it came to how to behave like a person from a high-class family.
The guests in the room turned curious, wondering if it was a piece of rare jewellery that Marceline was gifting to Lady Annalise. Eve couldn't help but be curious like the others, wondering what the lady was gifting. As she came from a humble place, during occasions such as birthdays Eve and her current family cooked for each other and went on picnics. The last time, she had gifted Aunt Aubrey a hairpin and Eugene a pair of socks.
Eve remembered her mother preparing a special porridge on her birthdays and adding meat. She clung to some memories, refusing to let go of it and keep it close to her heart as she could.
As she recollected the memories with a faint smile on her face, subconsciously, she shifted her weight from one foot to another, and when she did that, she felt her soul slip out of her body with the sharp prick she felt under her sole.
The feeling was worse than a needle.
With every guest hanging on to what Lady Marceline was speaking, Eve lifted one side of her dress and raised her feet to look at it.
Though it wasn't clear, something shone when the candle's light fell on it. It was then she realized it was a piece of glass that she must have stepped on when Charles had not caught the wine glass.
"Everybody, please move to the side!" Mr. Walker requested the guests so that the gift could be brought in without the guests being in the way. Two more guards appeared next to Mr. Walker, ensuring the guests stepped away from the centre of the room.
All the guests started to move to the side, and Eve didn't have a choice except follow the others by moving to the side. But with every step, she felt the glass piece prick her sole harder making her hands clench. Her nails dug into the palms of her hands because of the pain she felt.
Eve wanted to leave the ballroom, but it would only attract unwanted attention to her as all the guests were staring at the ballroom's double doors. She would need to wait for the guests to be occupied with what Lady Marceline had to show them before slipping out of here. She decided to take her shoes off her foot and maybe hide the shoes in her dress while walking bare feet. But when she removed her shoe, she winced and noticed blood on it.
She stared at it. She couldn't pick up her shoe to remove the glass piece in the middle of the crowd.
This was something Eve had not expected.
It was the worst that could happen to her in a room full of vampires. Slipping her foot back in her shoe while closing her eyes, she bit her lip as she felt her skin rip. Taking deep breaths, she decided to stay in one place, and once she would find an opportunity, she would escape from here, she thought to herself.
Suddenly the ballroom's double doors opened wide, and four men entered the room, carrying a large wooden box.
"What do you think is in there?"
"Lady Marceline must have got something very eye-catching, especially if it is this big, I can only anticipate what it might be."
"Do you think it is Lady Annalise's statue?"
The guests continued to guess while the four men carried the box under Mr. Walker's instructions. It was carefully placed next to where Marceline stood.
In the meantime, Eve, who was in pain because of the glass piece piercing through her shoe, noticed a drop of her blood on the floor. Her eyes widened, realising it must have fallen when she pulled her foot out of the shoe to look at it. She dropped her handkerchief on the floor, noticing the cloth absorbing the blood.
But before she could pick it, someone else did it for her. It was one of the men she had earlier danced with.
The man looked at her handkerchief, and Eve felt her heartbeat quicken. Anxiety and panic started to surface in her body, thinking the man would smell the scent of blood.
"You dropped this," said the man, handing it to Eve. She bowed and quickly took it from him.
"Thank you," Eve whispered, where she could feel her heartbeat ringing in her ear drums.
"No problem, milady."
The man stepped away from her as he wanted to look at what Lady Marceline wanted to show everyone.
Eve wondered if it was because of the perfume sprinkled on everyone's body, along with the aroma of food and drinks in the air, that made it difficult for one to catch the scent of her blood. After all, the scent of a mermaid's blood was no different from a human's, and the taste was the only difference.
When Eve turned to look at the double doors shut, her face turned pale. She tried to calm herself so that she could think straight. But with the panic running in her mind, it was hard to stay focused.
Lady Marceline announced, "It is time to open mother's grand gift, a gift not many can afford to get their hands on."
The vampiress snapped her fingers, and Mr. Walker's men unbound the ropes holding the wooden sides around the box.
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