The Duke's Passion

"So?"

I raised my brows, helping myself with food, as it seemed this would be a long dinner date with my clan. They just watched me while I shamelessly fill my plate with food like a glutton.

"Oh, don't worry. I tend to stress eat and with the atmosphere here? I'm confident I need food for comfort."

"What a shameless child, indeed.!" A woman with a fan, who had been slandering me since the beginning, remarked. She looked at me with disgust in her eyes, but I didn't care about her. "We should've planned to raise someone with a bit of tact!"

I paused at her last remarks, making me gaze at her coldly. "And how will you raise someone when you're already dead?"

"Hmph! Are the generation of these days don't respect their elders anymore?"

"If you want respect, you should've respected that my mind is my own."

"Child, even though we don't have physical bodies, do you think I can't hurt you?"

"Enough!"

I flinched as someone suddenly slammed his fist against the table, causing the plates and cutleries to clatter. I looked at where the sound came from, setting it on the man sitting at the end of the long table. There, a man had a neat beard from across his jaw matched his long tied hair. Dressed formally as if attending a banquet, and aura befitting of that a noble.

Was he the clan leader? It seemed so.

"Gracia, I had kept an open mind with everyone's opinion. Alas, I do not condone threats on this table." His deep baritone voice was enough to intimidate anyone who was listening. Even I bit my tongue, afraid I would offend him.

"Apologies, Leader." Gracia, the woman who had spouted all that nonsense, back down and bowed.

"We had been at this table for a long time, waiting for the day the next bearer of Lakresha will come," he uttered while everyone kept silent and attentive. "Although we didn't expect she would show up in here, conduct yourself properly. Refrain from spewing snide remarks."

He looked at me and I nearly jumped as soon as our eyes met. Was he siding with me? That was what it sounded like.

"Please, child. Eat to your heart's content." His tone grew gentler, but it somehow made me feel even more cautious.

This wasn't poisoned, was it?

"It isn't poisoned. We're technically all dead." He clarified as if he could hear my thoughts. But then again, they were inside my head, so they could hear my thoughts.

Well, he made a point, though.

"Thank you." I lowered my head slightly as I picked up the cutlery to eat. Just when I thought they would start talking again, they didn't. Instead, everyone's eyes were on me wordlessly.

Surely, this felt like deja vu. My first dinner in the palace two years ago, the La Crox's also watched me intently as I ate.

"Err... if you want to say something, say it now," I said, breaking the silence when I couldn't take it anymore. "You've been whispering in my head all this time, so why are you being shy now?"

The silence was the last thing I expected from them. It was better if they tell me everything now since we've already come to this.

"Who is it?" The clan leader asked, causing my brows to furrow as I gazed back at him.

It seemed I wasn't the only one who was puzzled, as everyone turned their attention to him. The clan leader traveled his eyes across the table before fixing them on me once again.

"Who is it?" he repeated in a more stern tone. "The one who had infiltrated this dinner and acted as a Bloodfang."

Again, silence ensued. It took me a minute to understand his query, but at that minute, some of them already raised their complaints. Their voices were louder this time around, not holding back at voicing out their thought. The man was unmoved, though, as his gaze never left me.

"Child, the Bloodfang is your ally, not your enemy. You've been through a lot of pain because of our foolishness and selfishness, but we never intend to hurt you." I heard his voice directly in my head. The side of his lips curled up into a subtle smile, nodding at me encouragingly.

"As you've noticed, there is something wrong with the will we had left. However, I couldn't detect who are the culprits in this table," he added, ignoring the enrage clan members around us. "Lilou, child, let me correct this for you."

I stared at him for a while and noticed the sincerity in his naturally intimidating eyes. I took a deep breath and nodded, putting my trust in him since I had this gut feeling I could trust him. He gave me the same connection I had with Lara, which I couldn't describe with words.

"Uh," I peeled my eyes away from him and looked around the table. How could I know if someone didn't belong here?

I just followed my instinct and studied each one of them.

My brows furrowed upon laying my eyes on the person sitting six seats across from me. I couldn't pinpoint this feeling, but there's just something in him that smelled different. I was uncertain, though, so I planned to study the rest only to get shocked after a second.

The person I looked at suddenly coughed out blood and collapsed on his plate. My pupils instantly dilated, a little confused at what just happened. It was not just me who was surprised as loud gasped resonated in the air.

"Leader! How can you doubt us like this?! We've been with you and followed your decision to die...!"

I looked at the clan leader, ignoring the series of complaints. He looked back at me with calmness in his eyes.

"Why did you..." I couldn't finish my sentence as his eyes already told me the answer.

The clan leader already had suspicions. He simply needed confirmation so he wouldn't eliminate the innocent.

I gulped hard, hearing it in my ear. My hands were unconsciously gripping my skirt while I bit my lower lip under his gaze. After a while, I nodded and took a deep breath.

Just like what I did the first time, I assessed everyone. Bodies started dropping one after another, and the voices slowly subsided until it was only silence. The last person who dropped dead was Gracia. She looked at me with abhorrence and then... she was gone.

"That's..." I looked around, seeing that there were only five people left, including me. ".... A lot."