The Blood Contract
Chapter 73: No need

Chapter 73: No need

Serena couldn’t help the tears that welled up in her eyes while Marlowe was speaking. She, however, didn’t let any drop as she blinked them away.

Her situation was undeniably bad—painful and unfair in so many ways—but at least she didn’t have to live and grow up under the same roof with the very people who murdered her family. That, to her, would have been the worst kind of torture.

She moved her eyes from one picture frame to the other, finally resting her gaze on the largest portrait holding the entire family of five. Their smiles were so bright and heartwarming, it would break any heart to know that only one person in the picture was still alive.

"Why are all the pictures kept here?" she asked, and Marlowe let out a sigh.

"That question can only be answered by Lucian himself," Marlowe replied. "He had them removed from around the house and brought here."

They exited the room shortly after and returned to the living room, where they saw Darrell working on his laptop.

Serena frowned, her brow furrowing in confusion. Wasn’t he supposed to be with Lucian? So why was he here, sitting alone, working on his laptop instead? The thought made her uneasy.

Darrell lifted his head the moment he heard them arrive, his fingers pausing over the keys of his laptop. His eyes met theirs, immediately picking up on the unspoken questions written all over their faces.

"Lucian?" Marlowe asked before any of them could get a word out.

"He’s asleep. He asked me to leave," Darrell responded, and Marlowe nodded.

"Go have some rest. I’ll go eat now," Marlowe said to Serena, her tone firm yet gentle. Serena didn’t bother to argue, her body feeling weary after everything that had happened. She simply nodded and made her way up the stairs, her steps slow but purposeful. Meanwhile, Marlowe headed toward the dining room, tired as well from the day’s activity, while her stomach rumbled from lack of food.

Serena arrived at the top floor, but instead of going to her room to rest as she had been told, her legs took her in the opposite direction, toward Lucian’s room.

When she arrived in front of his door, she hesitated for a heartbeat only before pushing it open without knocking. He was already asleep, so knocking would wake him up, and she didn’t want that.

Stepping in, she was met with a dark interior—darker than the other times she had been there—a stark difference from the well-lighted hallway. Pausing by the door, she took a short while to adjust her eyes to the low light situation.

Unlike the last time when she saw him seated on the floor, he was lying on the bed this time. He didn’t move, and his face was turned away from her direction.

As soon as she caught sight of his figure on the bed, she took slow steps toward him, being as silent as she could to avoid waking him up. She arrived at the edge of the bed and moved to place her fingers on his neck to ascertain he was still breathing, since she couldn’t catch any sign of his breathing as a result of the low light.

But just as soon as she made contact with his skin, Lucian opened his eyes and grabbed her hand by the wrist. He pulled her forward, causing her to lose balance and fall right on top of his body, forming a cross shape.

Only when she fell did he realize it was her, and a surprised look settled on his features for a moment. The next moment, he put on a frown, letting go of her hand.

"What the hell?" Serena heard him say, her widened eyes still blinking out of surprise. "What are you doing?"

At that question, Serena regained her tongue and her senses. "What did you do that for?" she asked, lifting her body off him, only to wince slightly when she felt a dull pain in her rib area as soon as she stood up.

"Are you hurt?" Lucian asked, seeing the pained look on her face and how she was already rubbing the area that felt sore.

"What did you expect after pulling me like that?" Serena asked him, shooting him a glare.

"I’m sorry," Lucian uttered, moving to get up from the bed, but Serena was not having it.

"Hey, hey, hey, what do you think you’re doing? Lie down," she abandoned her pain and pushed his shoulders back to the bed. "I’m fine. It’s just the pain from the impact. Nothing’s broken."

Lucian didn’t understand why she was pushing him back to the bed, but he didn’t resist. "You shouldn’t sneak up on me like that. It’s not a wise thing to do," he said to her.

Serena frowned. "I wasn’t sneaking up on you. I only wanted to check... umm..." She trailed off, not knowing how to tell him she wanted to check if he was still breathing. "Your temperature," she finally said, deciding to stick with that.

"You didn’t knock. Are you beginning to unlearn your manners?" Lucian asked, a ghost of a smile crossing his features.

"Darrell said you were sleeping already. I didn’t want to wake you up," Serena answered, the frown on her face lacking its usual bite.

"How is my temperature?" Lucian threw another question after a while.

"You didn’t let me check."

"You can check it now," Lucian said, turning his head slightly to the side so she could have access to his neck.

"No need. I can see you’re doing alright and even strong enough to pull someone. I’ll leave you alone to sleep now," Serena remarked, turning toward the door and walking away. She hadn’t wanted to check his temperature anyway. She wanted to be sure he was still alive, and he had proven that already.

As soon as she shut the door again, leaving him alone, a small smile settled on Lucian’s features, but it didn’t last. It soon faded away, as if sucked by some invisible straw.

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