The Demon’s Bride

Ian had called him in front of the guests who was still swarming around the hallway. Most people watched the way Lord Garfon's smile fell, but it didn't stay long before he picked his smile. 

Instead of Lord Garfon to reply, the woman beside him who was his wife spoke, defending the Lord, "It must be because of the Lady's red hair, it is a very unusual hair color. It's very beautiful."

The woman smiled at her which Elise returned to, the woman continued, "My name is Rachel, it is nice to meet you, Lady Elise."

"Likewise, Lady Rachel," Elise return the greetings with a light bow politely. Unlike most ladies who showed a hostile expression toward her the moment their gaze fixed, Lady Rachel didn't. The woman had a very gentle smile and a bright golden hair. While watching how the golden hair curl and fall toward the side of her waist, deep somewhere, Elise felt as though she had seen the same hair color before.

It was then when Ian noticed Elise's gaze facing somewhere. He leaned beside her, his red eyes following her gaze which settled on the corner of the ceiling, "What's wrong, my love?"

The words tickle her ears, and Elise had to close one side of her eyes, "Don't you smell something?"

"Hm, your sweet smell?" Ian teased, even though he knew that wasn't what Elise was speaking of. "Where did you smell it?"

"There," Elise pointed the other end of the hallways, "It smells sweet, like Lilies." The scent was strange to Elise and she wondered if she was the only person who could smell the fragrant scent which filled the hallways. The smell certainly came from the flower Lily. When she was young, there was a time when she found Lily flowers and she knew the smell. But the scent currently filled the room very distinctively and quite strong which why she could pick the scent despite how the hallways was filled with many people who wore different perfumes.

Ian raised a single eyebrow, he turned to smell the scent Elise told him. But unlike her, he smelled nothing which was strange. As a Demon, his senses were far sensitive than Elise who is a human, yet he couldn't smell anything.

"How strong is the fragrance?" he asked her, his red eyes watching her expression but Elise shook her head.

"It suddenly disappear," she whispered, when the commotion on their left side turn rowdier which shifted her attention.

"Carlos! Carlos!" shrieked a woman near the glassless window. Seeing the body on the lowest ground smashes as if it was a pumpkin dropped from a high level, all colors on the woman's face faded, turning her whole body pale as sheet. She quickly took a hold of the man on her left side who had become the person to take over her husband's death. 

The person was the vampire, Edward Harland. Despite how murky he felt deep inside his heart with anger at boiling point, he still had a job to do and if he ignored his responsibilities, the Church would evoke his position. Therefore, he stayed at the place even when he wasn't in the mood to do so, trying to get to the root of the problem, while watching how close Elise and Ian was. 

All this time, the vampire denied his thought that Elise love the Lord or vise versa, thinking it was impossible with the different statuses the two people have. It was no less than a little girl's fantasy for a maid to marry the Lord, and he didn't know what happen that made the relationship between Elise and Ian worked out. It didn't make any sense to him, even more so when he heard about the marriage.

"My condolences for you, Mrs. Graham," stated the vampire tonelessly to the woman whose eyes were silver. "Your husband is presume to have taken his own life. Do you might know if his mental physic had been unstable during the past few days or weeks?"

"No! That never happen," the woman sobbed, her face was stricken with tears, "My husband had always been a very happy person, he always filled himself with nothing but good thoughts! He wouldn't kill himself. Oh, Carlos!" and the woman broke down in tears again.

Elise watching the scene could feel the heartbreak the woman shows. The ghost of her husband was on the corner of the room, but the woman couldn't see it. Ian told her the man was killed as for who, they still do not know for now.

"Are you curious who killed him?" asked Ian beside her ears, surprising her who was in a deep thought.

Her blue eyes met his red ones, turning it faintly purple as their eye colors hover over one another, "Do you might know of a way to find out who the killer is?"

"I could ask. In my entire life, there had only been a handful of people who did not answer what I ask them. He would surely reply," Ian offered, and somewhere Elise was completely sure the ghost would immediately tell him of who the killer was.

"If he isn't killed," came the voice from Lord Garfon who unexpectedly still stood not too far from them. As he was the Lord of Runalia, the moment he spoke most attention shifted toward the man. "Isn't it possible that he was killed? I have known Mr. Carlos before, he is not someone who would kill himself as what Mrs. Graham attest. I even more doubt he killed himself tonight when I had just heard of rumors that Mrs. Graham is pregnant."

Elise would have seen the lord of Runalia as a person with sharp instinct, that if is she didn't see the way Lord Garfon had been staring at Ian as he spoke. The Lord continued with a smile that was not pleasing to see, "To me, it is even more possible for him to die because he had offend someone rather than suicide as there had been a history like this happening before in the past."

Most people understood by who Lord Garfon had not-so-subtly mentioned between his words. It was Lord Ian, the man who was known to have killed people randomly even some times for the simple reason of not liking their expression or face.

The hallway was filled with noises a moment ago, but with the provocation Lord Garfon started the air turn still as if time had stopped. All eyes were on Ian and Elise lifted her chin to look at how his lips had curl high, a silver glint sparkled over his eyes.