Page 6 of Entranced By the Immortal

She laughed, throwing her head back. “If you expected mercy, you would have stayed far away from here. The Lord will come for you soon.”

With that, she turned around and left the room, leaving me alone.

“Fuck.” I thrashed in frustration, knowing it wouldn’t change a thing. I was stuck, trapped, and there was nothing I could do until the Lord of Dupont Manor showed up to decide my fate.

This was perfect. Fucking perfect.

My mother was going to kill me when she found out. Assuming, of course, that no one else killed me first.

The minutes dragged on, the light outside darkening to a rich scarlet color. Finally, all the light outside faded, and the only things illuminating the sophisticated sitting room were a couple of gas lamps and the light spilling in from the hall. They gave everything around me a dreamy look, and I had to remind myself for the hundredth time that this wasn’t a dream.

This was all real, and shortly I would meet the very real consequences of my actions.

I swallowed hard.

After what felt like an eternity, I heard footsteps, faint and slow at first. They grew louder, closer, and my throat tightened. They weren’t the same rapid clicks from before; they were heavier, slower, like whoever approached was in no hurry at all.

Finally, a figure appeared in the gaping doorway and I straightened as much as I could, nerves mounting. The light from the hallway cast him in shadows, his tall frame filling most of the doorframe. He lingered there for a second before entering, crossing the room slowly with fluid movements. I’d never seen anyone so graceful. It was like he floated on air rather than walking, even though I could hear his footsteps.

The closer he got, the more of him I could make out in the limited lighting, and my blood ran cold. A spill of blond hair fell around his shoulders, and his eyes were impossibly dark, like two black holes determined to suck me in and destroy me. He wore a vintage suit with a tailored vest and a shirt with a ruffled white collar, much like the clothes I’d seen in the photos from the library. They were pristine, like they’d been perfectly preserved since the 1800s.

He was handsome, but not in the conventional, rugged way. His features were timeless, elegant, exactly the way I’d imagine a rich manor owner to look. Except for the fangs, which flashed as he smiled down at me. Those were a surprise.

“Welcome to my home,” he said, his words punctuated and proper. “I hope it’s everything you thought it would be.”

I cocked an eyebrow at him, wondering why he was being so polite. If what the woman earlier said was true, I’d killed two of his servants, and he was going to make me pay for it. Why would he attempt pleasantries first if his intention was to hurt me? Maybe he was playing the long game. Maybe he was…

He stepped closer, and my heart shot into my throat as I prepared for the worst. However, rather than hit me, he simply stared down the bridge of his thin nose, his gaze crushing down on me with impossible weight, before producing a key from the inside of his coat. Without a word, he unlocked the padlock keeping the chains in place, and they fell limp a second later.

“You’ll have to excuse Edith,” he said. I could only assume she was the woman from before. “She can be a little over-zealous, but she means well.”

I rubbed the feeling back into my arms and shoved the chain away, letting it fall with a clanking thud to the floor. The man took a step backward, and I stood, lingering next to the chair apprehensively, still terrified of his next move. I was unsteady, my legs shaky, and I gripped the back of the chair for balance.

“Why did you let me go?” I asked, unable to contain my curiosity any longer.

“Do you prefer the chains?” He cocked his head to the side. “You’d be the first, but everyone has their kinks, I suppose.”

Heat creeped up my neck, scorching my cheeks, and thoughts of being chained up in a different scenario bloomed to life in my mind. I quickly shook my head and the thoughts from it. “No, no. I just… Edith said you planned to punish me for killing your servants. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any harm, but they attacked me and…”

The man lifted a hand to silence me, and against my will, my words died. Whether it was magic or awe that made me stop mid-sentence, I wasn’t sure, but I stood there speechless, waiting for him to explain.

“Youwillpay,” he said, running his tongue along his to teeth as he stared at me. “But first, I shall give you the answers you came for.”

I froze, my eyes glued to his unusually sharp canines. I’d seen enough cosplayers wearing fake fangs to not be alarmed immediately, but the more I looked at them, the more uncertain I grew. Surely, a man so private and sophisticated wouldn’t spend his free time wearing fake vampire fangs.

Then again, everyone had their kinks.

Despite his threat to punish me, I wasn’t nearly as afraid as I should have been. Something about his proper demeanor, the charm that oozed from him, settled the terror that otherwise would have had me losing my mind. It was a false sense of comfort that made me feel like he wouldn’t hurt me, but that was probably part of his plan.

“Why?” I asked, unable to keep my mouth shut. “Why give me answers?”

“Others might paint me to be a cruel monster, but I’m not as vicious as you think.”

I looked him over again, memorizing every detail. No matter how long my eyes lingered on him, it wasn’t enough. I wanted to drink him in, brand him on the backs of my eyelids, because he was unlike anyone I’d ever met before. Plucked straight from another time period, or perhaps the set of a movie, this man was so unusual and so mesmerizing, it frazzled my senses and left me desperate to know more.

“Who are you?” I asked, finally finding my voice. Legs no longer wobbling, I took a half-step to the side so that more light from the hall fell on his face, and his dark eyes shone with intrigue.

“Forgive me. Where have my manners gone? It’s been so many years since I’ve had visitors.” He shook his head. “My name is Corvin. Corvin Dupont.”

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