Still staring at Vincent, Eve asked him, "What option?"
"Vanish the body without anyone's notice and burn every evidence that points that the woman was here or you had anything to do with her," Vincent stopped dabbing the cloth and pressed the bloodied handkerchief on her wound.
Eve felt pain shoot down her neck.
"I am not sure if you wanting to die for being bitten would be for noble cause," Vincent's words were sarcastic.
Part of Eve wanted to confess the truth in the hope that the Council would give her justice for being attacked by a vampiress. But the other part of her knew that justice wasn't for everyone in the society she lived. She didn't want to die. She asked,
"What if the evidence is spilled all over the place?"
A small smile crept on Vincent's lips, and he said, "You don't have to worry about it. I am good at it."
"In hiding bodies?" Eve asked him with her eyebrows knitted together.
"That too," Vincent responded.
Once the blood on Eve's neck was cleaned, Vincent noticed how harshly Lady Camille had bitten her like a rabid dog. If the woman was alive, she would have died by his hands for what she did.
His eyes fell on Eve, who had zoned out in worry. He could tell she was scared with her body shaking with light tremors.
Someone knocked on the door, and Eve's body stiffened. Vincent walked to the door, saying, "Relax, it is only the butler."
Vincent opened the door, and as expected, Alfie stood in front of the room. The butler bowed and informed,
"The carriage outside the mansion belongs to Lady Camille."
"Did you speak to the coachman?" Vincent questioned his butler, who nodded.
"I did, Sire. I asked him what he was doing there and he said he was waiting for his Mistress to return…" Alfie informed and caught a whiff of something in the air. Earlier, he was sure the lady had left the mansion. But according to the coachman, the lady was still in the mansion. When he finally realised what the smell was, his eyes widened. Lady Camille had come to meet Ms. Barlow… in the piano room.
Vincent ordered him, "I need you to do something, Alfie. Go back to the coachman and tell him that his Mistress has ordered him to go to Lady Layla Nicholson's mansion and park it in the front and wait for her there. Tell him, she will be going there with Lady Annalise in our carriage."
Away from the piano room, in Marceline's room, the vampiress was reading the letters sent by some of her male admirers, who were courting her. She didn't care much about it as she had no intention or interest in them. But at the same time, it was good to see the number of letters she had received, and that the elite males were actively seeking her.
She placed the letters in the drawer, before getting up and taking a peek outside the window. The carriage she had seen was still there outside the mansion, and her curiosity got the best out of her. Leaving her room, she quickly descended the stairs and walked out of the mansion's entrance.
"Would you like me to pull up the carriage for you, milady?" Asked one of the guards who stood there.
Marceline raised her hand, before walking towards the gate. She stepped out of the gates just to catch Alfie talking to the coachman. Her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes narrowed.
When the vampiress took another step toward the carriage, the coachman started the carriage and left the place, while the butler turned to get back into the mansion. But on seeing Marceline, Alfie stared at her.
Marceline questioned, "Whose carriage was it?"
"It was someone from the Council, who was waiting for Master Vincent's signed parchments, milady," Alfie lied with the straightest face he could muster, while feeling the look of suspicion fall on him.
"Since when did the council stop entering the mansion?" The vampiress demanded, feeling something very odd about the carriage. "Hm?"
The butler answered, "I am not sure, milady. You will need to check with Master Vincent about it."
Alfie bowed and walked back inside the mansion's gates while Marceline watched the butler with her shrewd eyes. She then turned back to look in the direction in which the odd carriage had left.
Back in the piano room, Eve watched Vincent pour the bloody water into a plant pot. She asked him,
"Lady Camille wasn't riding in her carriage now. Won't the blame fall on Lady Annalise or the butler?"
"It won't," Vincent replied. "Lady Layla is a woman whom everyone knows in the town, and that would include our dead vampiress here. Not to mention, the mansion is at the centre place, which many people will catch sight of, making them believe Lady Camille is visiting another person. The more the confusion, the better to get rid of the traces."
Eve walked to where the dead body was, staring at the person's face and remembering her last words. She whispered,
"How am I going to look at Rosetta?"
"She was the one to bring this upon you. You don't have to feel guilty for choosing yourself rather than being someone's evening drink," commented Vincent. He had read the letter that the naive vampiress had left, making him roll his eyes at her. "If she didn't write a letter for you, which she obviously failed to send, the vampiress wouldn't have come looking for you, and you wouldn't have killed her."
Vincent's eyes fell on the sharp object sticking out of Lady Camille's chest. A grin appeared on his lips and he said, "I am impressed by your work here. You have finally put your feet into the dark side."
"I didn't intend to…"
"Nobody ever intends to do anything. This wasn't an accident, was it?" hummed Vincent, "Did you know that deep down everyone is a killer? You just need the right motivation to bring it out."
Eve covered her face with both her hands. The tension inside her had slowly disappeared with Vincent in the room, but not the thoughts. She asked him,
"When do we bury her?"
"I would say now, but considering there are servants and my dear sister in the mansion, maybe once they fall asleep?" Vincent said calmly, and Eve nodded. He then said, "How about we talk about something else. How was your day so far?"
Eve stared at Vincent, "I killed my friend's aunt, who bit me and I spent more than two hours with the dead. How do you think it is going?"
Vincent clicked his tongue, before a broad smile appeared on his lips as he stared at Eve's sullen face. He said, "I feel like a proud teacher who is seeing his student qualify in his subject."
Only Vincent Moriarty could see it that way, which was also why Eve knew he was the only one to whom she could open the door. She asked him, "How was your day?"
They stared at each other for five long seconds, and Vincent responded, "It was mundane until evening, but my day just got better."
As Eve waited for time to pass, the stress she had been holding on exhausted her, she closed her eyes. Vincent stepped away from the piano room while keeping Alfie to guard the corridor so that no one would go near the room.
A bat flew at the height of the trees before dropping on the darker side of the street to turn into a person. Vincent walked on the street with his hat that covered his silver hair and a black coat that covered his casual clothes. His coppery-red eyes swept across the streets ahead of him and the few people heading home.
Soon he noticed Lady Camille's carriage parked outside Lady Layla's mansion. He pulled his hand out of his trouser pockets and stepped next to where the coachman was idly waiting for his mistress.
"Mr. Moriarty," the coachman quickly recognised Vincent and bowed.
"There is something I would like to ask you, you wouldn't mind coming with me for a bit, do you?" Vincent stared at the coachman with a pleasant expression.
The coachman looked slightly apprehensive but couldn't refuse the pureblooded vampire. He gave a nod before following him.
