Conquering His Cold Heart

32 A Shred of Courage

Vincent was on high alert when a woman who looked like she was in her early twenties appeared at Carl’s porch.

“Mr. Carl! Please help me!” she breathlessly pleaded in agony while tightly clutching the door handle with one hand and pressing over the wound in her stomach with the other.

Her grey colored gown was soaked in blood, sweat, and dirt. Her gown was torn in several places as though someone had tried to force themselves on her. Her light red hair was all ruffled up and dirty.

At first glance, it looked like that woman was attacked by a vampire, and that she had freed herself from the clutch after putting up quite a fight.

“Ruby! Holy heavens! Who did this to you?” Carl ran to the door to aid that dying woman.

It looked like she had barely managed to drag herself there with her staggering feet. And the moment she got someone to lean on, her knees gave out completely, almost making both of them collapse on the floor.

But Carl was able to regain his footing and handle the weight of that woman. He then led her to an empty bed beside the one where Anastasia was resting.

Anastasia took a glance at that woman only to recall how Tilla was in a similar pitiful state yesterday. The trauma from yesterday’s attack resurfaced again and her hands and feet went cold. So she turned away from that woman and tried not to listen to her woeful cries.

Carl instantly began the treatment procedure. He cut the clothes around the bite mark in order to clean the wound. However, he was taken aback when he examined the bite mark.

.....

From the looks of it, it appeared that Ruby was mauled by some kind of animal. Unlike the usual four distinct puncture marks that a victim of a vampire would have, Ruby had a huge bite mark caused by digging of all of the teeth.

And to add to that, she had claw marks on her arms and legs. It was a well-known fact in Sorvando that the claws were limited to very few bloodlines. And none of them had ever attacked any humans like this before.

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Thus, Carl asked that struggling woman, “Ruby! I need you to tell me what attacked you. This does not look like it was from a vampire. I need to know the details so that I can give proper treatment to you.”

All this while, Vincent had been digging his claws on his palms and was standing while facing away from that patient. The smell of her fresh blood was making it extremely hard for him to control his urge to feed on that woman.

Ruby clenched her fists in pain and she answered Carl while whimpering, “No, it was not a vampire. It looked like a large dog. But I didn’t get to clearly see what it was. It attacked me when I was in the woods behind the town.”

“Dog huh? As I thought.” Carl then dipped a cotton swab in a solution and lightly brushed it against the wound.

However, Ruby squirmed in pain and screamed, “Argh! It burns like hell.” When she felt the same burning sensation again, she clasped Carl’s wrist tightly and begged, “Please don’t do whatever you did just now. I can’t bear it.”

Carl sighed and glanced at Vincent to ask for his help. But Vincent looked like he was the one who needed help. He was now pinching his nose and was holding his breath.

So he turned around to look at Anastasia and then asked her, “Your Majesty, may I please trouble you for a moment. The nurses have already left for their homes and I don’t have anyone to help me at the moment. Will you be kind enough to help me for a minute or two?”

Anastasia sat up on the bed and turned to face Carl. She glanced at Ruby who was now biting her own finger to stop herself from screaming. Anastasia was not sure how she would be of any help to Carl so she asked dismissively, “He-Help you? But I don’t know anything about medicine or treating a patient.”

“I only need you to hold her in place while I clean her wound and apply medicine,” Carl was in desperate need of some assistance so he added, “I promise it won’t take much time. It will only take a minute.”

Anastasia couldn’t deny Carl even when she was afraid to be near that woman. She nodded her head and got down from her bed. Then she stood beside Ruby’s bed and asked nervously, “Umm... where should I hold her?”

Carl hastily made Ruby cross her arms over her chest. And he instructed the Queen, “Please hold her head with one hand and her arms with the other.”

“Or...” Carl paused for a second and said, “At the second thought, you may press her arms with your body.” Carl further added while looking at Anastasia’s lean wrist, “It might be difficult for you to hold her once I resume cleaning her wounds again.”

Anastasia’s eyes involuntarily landed on that huge and gruesome wound of Ruby. The wound looked so ghastly that it looked as though the dog was trying to chomp on that woman’s meat. And almost instantly, she felt sick in her stomach and felt like throwing up.

However, she couldn’t back away now because Carl was already dipping the cotton swab in a cleaning solution and was ready to wipe Ruby’s wound.

So, Anastasia did as she was told. She practically lay on top of that unknown woman’s chest to hold both of her hands in place. And she also held Ruby’s head down after apologizing to her, “I’m sorry in advance for doing this to you. Please bear the pain for a while.”

But before Carl could even begin his work, Vincent stood in front of them and scolded Carl, “What do you think you are doing? Did you become that mighty that you are ordering around your Queen?”

“It is alright, Vincent. It will be over in a minute.” Anastasia lifted her head to look at Vincent who was standing at the other side of the bed.

And to her horror, Vincent was baring his fangs and was glaring at the blood gushing out of Ruby’s wound.

“Vincent! Please stand back. You don’t want to do this right now,” she politely ordered her husband’s friend but it was apparent that he was already consumed by his hunger.

Vincent snarled at the Queen and also at Carl to scare them off. And he said in a deep growl, “Leave her to me or else-”

“Or else what?” Anastasia burst up all of a sudden.

She was already fed up with everyone trying to kill her or intimidate her. And she was already fed up with the vampires showing off their dominance and cruelty over the weak humans.

She mustered up the courage to look at his face directly and she screamed at Vincent with all her might, “Or else what? You’ll kill me?”

Vincent walked over to Anastasia’s side and leaned closer to her face. He narrowed his bloodthirsty eyes and sneered, “If you keep on provoking me then I just might fulfill your wish.”

And in the heat of the moment, Anastasia took off her shoe and hit Vincent right on his cheek with the heel. “Then kill me. Come on!”

She hit him again on the other cheek as well and screamed, “Kill me and end this nightmare for me... once and for all! Come on! Do it!”

Vincent snapped out of his hunger trance after getting hit by the Queen. He saw Anastasia furiously glaring at him with her big green eyes. Her whole face had already turned red and she was offensively pointing her shoe at him.

He realized that he had tried to attack them so he instantly backed off. He bowed his head and apologized, “I’m sorry for misbehaving, Your Majesty. The smell of blood clouded my mind and I lost control. It won’t happen again.”

A drop of tear rolled down Anastasia’s cheek no matter how hard she tried to hold it in. But she still ordered one of the most dangerous vampires in a stern voice, “If you can’t control your urge to kill then get out of here. Nobody needs to die tonight.”