Valerian Empire

Chapter 18: Black & White- Part 2

She was taken in by surprise when he had asked her to dance with him and by the time she had recovered from it they were at the center of the dance floor. Unlike most of the ladies in the room she had never been to a dance etiquette not because she didn’t want to. She never found the time and money for it. Dance etiquette was held for the elite women and she wasn’t one.

“I don’t know to dance,” she whispered only for him to hear.

“Is that so,” Alexander replied with a grin as he placed his hand on her waist, “Then now is a good time to learn.”

Katherine was glad that the music that was being played now was soft and slow, which didn’t require too much of hand movements. Her mind was too occupied minding her steps to make any conversation with him. She stamped his feet twice by mistake and felt her face flush red with embarrassment.

“I’m so sorry,” she apologized quickly, closing her eyes and heard him chuckle. He was finding it amusing while here she was dancing like a duck.

This was terrible. Utterly worst disaster in the history ever, she thought to herself.

“Don’t be,” he replied as he twirled her and got her back to face her, looking into her eyes, “No one learns without few mistakes. If you haven’t made a mistake and learnt from it, you wouldn’t learn anything at all.”

His words encouraged her. As minutes passed by she learned to follow his lead, keeping up with his pace which she found quiet easy to do.

Suddenly the lights went out in the main hall and she felt her breath hitch when she felt Alexander’s fingers on her neck.

“I see you have kept it safe,” she heard him whisper next to her ear as his fingers touched the silver chain around her neck. And in the next two seconds the light was up again and so was the dance.

She looked at the high tower watch as it dinged. It was eleven o clock.

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“Do you have an escort for your ride back home?” He asked her to which she shook her head no. For a moment she thought he was going to escort her but that didn’t happen, “I’ll arrange a carriage for you with an escort so that you reach home safe,” he called a guard who was passing by, ordering him to get the carriage ready.

Though she wanted to spend some more time with him, she couldn’t bring herself to ask him such a thing. He would have matters to attend to and she would just be a hindrance.

It made her feel warm when Nicholas came to her to say his farewell. He had been kind to her the entire evening when she was in his presence and she was grateful to his gesture.

Alexander walked Katie out of the main hall to see her to the carriage. The wind blew at them as they walked, the leaves in the trees rustling quietly. One strand of her hair that been tucked in safely got out loose, to fall over the side of her face.

He looked at her as the horses pulled the carriage in front of them. She was beautiful, so soft and sweet by nature. It awakened the beast inside him like a beacon light, wanting to taint that pure soul she held.

He had seen the way men watched her and it irritated his nerves.

He was humouring Caroline only because she was useful to him. A pawn that could be used and thrown, which didn’t matter to him.

Alexander knew that he had to keep Katherine at an arm’s distance if he needed her safe. There were too many people who wanted to find his weakness to bring him down and Katie was a mere human. Enemies who always lurked around, like the one who was standing behind the pillar right now.

The coachman got down from his seat to open the door so that Katie could get inside but instead, someone got out of it.

It was Elliot Havok, Lord Alexander’s third in command standing there with a wide grin on his face, his wavy hair cut at the sides while leaving the front side longer so that it rested on his forehead.

“Elliot,” Katie said his name making him glow brighter than the sun. Sylvia who had been out on an errand had just returned to the mansion and looking at the girl who stood there, she smiled.

“Katie, you remember me! I missed you,” Elliot exclaimed as he hugged her and twirled her in his arms like she was six again, it made Katie giggle.

She had memories of him reading out story after story to her even though the memory was faint Katie could never forget Elliot. He had been her friend along with Sylvia during her stay in the mansion.

Though Alexander and the others hadn’t gone to meet her, they made sure to know she was doing well as she grew from the people who were assigned to look at the human town and gather information.

She looked at Alexander and saw him narrow his eyes ever so slightly as Elliot held Katie’s hands. Finally there was going to be color in the mansion. It was more than evident that Elliot was overjoyed from seeing Katie, Sylvia thought, Katie was like an adopted daughter to him. She couldn’t wait to see how the events were going to unfold from this time on.

Elliot and Sylvia accompanied Katie in the carriage and Katie couldn’t be any happier. Reaching the town after two hours, Katie got down from the carriage and waved her hand smiling as the carriage left. She couldn’t wait to tell her aunt on how well the night had turned out.

The night was dark and chill as she knocked the door looking around. Everyone had gone to sleep.

She knocked a little harder this time and found the door was unlocked. That was strange, she thought. Stepping inside she went to the kitchen to see if her aunt was awake but stopped in her tracks when she saw the blood on the ground that was coming out of the body. Both her aunt and uncle were lying on the floor with their throat slashed.

“No,” she whispered shaking her head, “RALPH!” she called out her cousin’s name but there was no sound apart from her quick breathing in the room.

She ran to his room to see everything broken and on the floor. Blood was on the wall but he was nowhere to be seen. She went down again to where her relatives were and shook their body with her shaking hands but they were dead.

“What happened here?!”

It was Sylvia who had come to give the box of chocolates to Katie as she had forgotten to give it to her earlier. For some odd reason, she felt suspicious about the town, it was too quiet even though if humans resided at this part of the South Empire-Mythweald.

When she stepped inside the house, she smelt blood. Soon she found where the smell was coming from, someone had murdered Katie’s relatives.

“Elliot the bodies-”

“It’s everywhere,” Elliot interrupted her as his brows furrowed and she looked at him confused, “Smell it.”

He was right. As Sylvia took a deep breath she could feel the air carrying the smell of blood in it and it wasn’t just this house. It was like every house carried it.

“Katie?” Elliot called out her name but there was no response. Walking towards where Katie was Elliot sat down to see her face blank without an expression.

Katie hadn’t noticed Elliot nor Sylvia as she was shell-shocked at the scene in front of her. When someone shook her shoulder she turned her head to see a worried Elliot who was looking at her carefully. Her gaze turned back to her family and her emotions came sprawling out like an uncontrollable flood.

“She’s having an anxiety attack,” Sylvia noticed the rapid breathing Katie was having and her eyes had turned hollow, “Katie you need to breathe. That’s it, just breath in and out,” she advised her as she saw the girl’s breathing getting even. Just then their coachman arrived at the door.

“Sir Elliot, all the houses have dead bodies.”

“It’s a massacre,” Sylvia whispered, worried and asked, “What now?”

Elliot turned towards the coachman and ordered,

“Go notify Lord Alexander about it.”