Conquering His Cold Heart

Those sharp and long fangs that she was baring, those red eyes that were full of bloodlust, and the threatening tone of Marcella were enough to suddenly remind Tilla of the day that she was almost killed by a crazed vampire.

The trauma that she had gone through at that time suddenly relapsed, making Tilla shaken to her core. She began breathing heavily. Her whole body began to shake uncontrollably. And streams of tears started to fall down her eyes.

“Is she for real? We haven’t done anything yet!” Beatrice looked at Martha’s pitiable condition and scoffed.

“Oi!” Marcella snapped her fingers in front of Tilla’s eyes and whispered in a low growling voice, “Just tell us what you did if you don’t want to die right here and right now.”

Tilla was, however, not responding to Marcella. Her eyes were fixated on that terrifying face of the predator who was standing in front of her as if she would pounce at any moment.

“Hey! I am talking to you! Are you putting up an act thinking we will let her go?” Marcella was even more enraged by that irresponsiveness of Tilla. She snarled and slapped Tilla on her cheek in order to bring her out of her dazed state.

Tilla placed her palm over her cheek and immediately began to beg, “Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me. I swear on my mother that I didn’t use any tricks to seduce the Lord. Why don’t you believe me?”

“Because you are not being believable!” Marcella let Tilla’s hair loose, only to slap Tilla with that hand too. “If you didn’t seduce him then why is he behaving like a dog and constantly wagging his tail around you?”

.....

“He is not!” Tilla screamed while covering both of her cheeks with her palms. “He is only showing his pity towards me. Why would he be interested in a poor human like me?” She lied.

Since her bullies were listening to her, she thought of ‘clarifying’ things to them in a believable way and then gritted through her teeth, “He was the one who protected me from getting killed back in Xanmar. Maybe he is always around me these days because he feels great pity for a weak being like me. And nothing more!”

“Ohhhhh…” Marcella retracted her fangs and smiled widely. “Right, right. He is just being the considerate person that he is and showing his pity towards a weakling, right?” she said while beaming.

Beatrice didn’t want to be involved with Tilla in the first place. She had only come here as a lookout for Marcella. And when she saw Marcella looking happy with Tilla’s answer, she scratched her head and said, “I think you got your answer now. Shut her mouth before heading towards your room. I better not get kicked out of the castle tomorrow.”

“Hey, wait–” Marcella wasn’t done with Tilla yet. She wanted to leave together with her friend after warning Tilla.

However, Beatrice was long gone before she could even finish her sentence.

Marcella rolled her eyes at the empty path before her and then focused her attention back on Tilla.

Tilla was still shivering like a leaf. She had stopped shedding her tears though, feeling a bit relieved thinking that Marcella would let her go now.

Marcella, however, suddenly grabbed Tilla by her neck and began choking her. “Okay, here’s the deal.”

Tilla began coughing and gagging when Marcella’s hurtful grip blocked her air passage. Marcella clenched her teeth and tightened her grip even more thinking that Tilla was deliberately putting up an act so as not to let her speak.

“Listen, you weakling!” Marcella exclaimed and began mumbling to Tilla, “I will give you the benefit of doubt today. I will believe what you said to me today, that Lord Vincent is only showing you pity. But from tomorrow onward, if I keep on seeing you letting the Lord hover around you and laugh with you, then I will make you suffer like never before.”

Tilla’s face was already starting to look pale because of the lack of oxygen. The blue veins on her forehead and her neck were beginning to look more prominent. She wasn’t even able to cough anymore.

She grabbed Marcella’s wrists with both of her hands in order to loosen the grip on her neck, only to fail in doing so.

“Oh, don’t be in such a hurry to escape my clutch, you little bitch! I have some more things to say to you!” Marcella pushed Tilla’s back against the wall of the well and then warned her, “And don’t you dare complain about what happened here to any single soul. I might be a maid but I have my ways to hurt those who you love and respect.”

Tilla widened her eyes in fear when she heard that. Her drumming heart began to throb even faster when she imagined this maid doing something to hurt Anastasia.

There was no telling how many friends Marcella had inside the castle. What if she found someone to exact her revenge even after she was thrown out of the castle? Or what if someone else took revenge even if she was killed?

Tilla’s face turned even paler thinking about all this.

“Do you agree to keep our little secret?” Marcella asked without lifting her hand away from Tilla’s neck.

Tilla could only nod feebly.

“Speak!” Marcella was enjoying putting Tilla through this torture. “Say yes or no,” she added while giving Tilla an evil smirk.

Marcella’s intention wasn’t to kill Tilla though. She was only trying to threaten Tilla enough so that she wouldn’t complain about tonight’s incident to the Queen. However, her grip on Tilla’s neck was a bit tighter than she had imagined. She didn’t know that Tilla was seconds away from passing out.

“What do you think you are doing?”

Marcella was suddenly startled when she heard a woman’s scream from a little distance. And when she shifted her gaze away from Tilla to look in the direction from where the sound was coming, she was terrified out of her wits.

It was the Queen herself who was running towards them, her eyes filled with immense rage and her expression looking grim.