Claimed by the Prince of Darkness-Chapter 109: Errands Before the Ball

When the weekend arrived, only a handful of Groundlings took the carriage to visit their families, as though stepping away might cause them to miss the long-awaited Winter’s Ball.

But Ruelle had accompanied Hailey to Hushford town.

Right now, Hailey stood before the tall mirror in seamstress Madame Beaucroft’s shop, turning as the skirts of her newly stitched gown fanned softly around her legs. She asked brightly,

"How do I look, Ruelle?"

Ruelle smiled without needing to pretend. Seeing Hailey glow warmed something gentle inside her chest. "Like a princess," she said truthfully. "Do you have shoes to match?"

"I do have shoes," Hailey lifted the front of her gown, revealing the scuffed shoes.

"You need new shoes," Madame Beaucroft declared, as she made adjustments to the gown.

"Then perhaps you will offer me a discount, Madame?" Hailey asked, flashing a sheepish smile. The older woman gave her a pointed look.

"You bargained my price down to half and begged me to finish this dress in two weeks instead of a month. If I give any more discount, I might as well hang a sign outside that reads ’robbed’."

Hailey laughed, undeterred. "I did promise that once I find my prince charming at the ball, I shall repay you double and make your shop famous."

Ruelle watched Hailey disappear behind the wooden divider to change, while she stayed seated next to the window. Outside, the street had taken on winter’s edge. People passed bundled in wool and scarves.

It felt quiet here, away from people. This was what she had needed after the long week at Sexton. From behind the wooden divider, Hailey’s voice floated out, light and teasing.

"I thought Edward was going to come with us. Not to badmouth him, but he makes my heart pound like I’m being chased."

Ruelle laughed softly, her fingers subconsciously touching the scarf around her neck. She admitted, "He does wear his thoughts on his sleeve."

The first few days she had spent time with Edward, she had felt the same. That breathless sense of being cornered by attention that was too bright.

"Ruelle..." Hailey stepped out from behind the divider, now in her usual clothes, while Madame Beaucroft carried the gown away for final alterations. "Did you think about what he said?"

Ruelle knew at once what Hailey meant. She nodded, though the motion felt heavier than it should have. "I don’t want to be his mistress." She hesitated, then asked quietly, "Do you think that makes me foolish?"

Hailey tilted her head, wearing a deep, thoughtful look. She responded, "Honestly, my mother would call it foolish. He is the prince. But if it isn’t what you want, you should take advantage before Gemma brings the earrings..."

Ruelle nodded. "If I ever do agree to the prince’s terms," she said with a small, earnest nod, "I’ll ask him to release you from your contract."

Hailey laughed and replied, "Or you can just hire me as your lady-in-waiting. I would very much like to be paid for gossiping and eating for free."

When the gown was finally wrapped and handed over, they stepped out of the shop. The cold struck sharper now, slipping beneath their sleeves and collars making them tremble.

Ruelle turned left, and Hailey immediately caught her arm, tugging her the other way. "The local carriage stop is that way."

"I know," Ruelle replied, her smile turning a little secretive. "There’s somewhere I want to go first." Before Hailey could protest, she was already pulling her friend along. Soon they stopped in front of a shop with a painted sign that read Fallow & Sons.

A small bell chimed as they stepped inside.

"Look who it is!" the shop owner exclaimed, looking up from his workbench with raised brows. "I suppose it is too soon to ask if you’ve come back to work for me?"

The familiar scent of leather and polish wrapped around Ruelle like an old memory. She offered a polite bow.

"Good morning, Mr. Holis. Unfortunately, no. But my friend is looking for shoes for the ball. Might you have a pair that was returned?" she asked hopefully.

"With the season of winter, you would be surprised how many are made and sent," Holis replied. "One moment."

When he disappeared behind the curtain at the back, Hailey leaned closer at once. "Ruelle, how are we going to pay for this?"

Ruelle slipped her hand into her dress pocket and took out a gold coin. She said quietly,

"Lucian gave it to me. So I wouldn’t be short on carriage fare. I’ll return it once Christmas is over. So don’t worry."

"Lucian Slater?" Hailey blinked, as if she had misheard.

"Mhm," Ruelle responded absently, drifting toward the display rack. Her fingers brushed over smooth leather and polished buckles.

"I would never have guessed," Hailey muttered in surprise, it was because everyone was terrified of him, including the Elites who walked on eggshells around him.

"He’s a nice person," Ruelle said, picking up a shoe in her hand. "Dane has boots similar to this."

But Hailey wasn’t convinced. Lucian Slater wasn’t loud like Prince Edward. He didn’t smile, he glared hard as if everyone were a pest that needed to be eradicated. Hailey herself had been on the receiving end of that stare.

"Here we are, Miss Ruelle," Holis announced as he returned, an assistant trailing behind him with several neatly stacked boxes in his arms.

Ruelle watched her friend blush when the assistant complimented her feet. At the back, the doorbell chimed softly behind them as someone else entered the shop, letting in a brief gust of winter air.

Holis remarked, "Ah, Mr. Slater."

Ruelle wondered if Dane had come to buy more shoes, but when she turned, she found Lucian standing at the entrance instead. He had one hand still resting on the door handle, as though he had paused for a brief moment.

He remarked with his voice low and dry with sarcasm, "Of all places, you chose the safest town for humans."

"Hailey had her gown made here. It is cheap here," Ruelle explained quickly. "And she needed shoes to match."

But by then Lucian had already turned his gaze on Hailey, and the young woman froze under his narrowed eyes. That was what she had meant! Thought Hailey.

Lucian’s cold eyes then turned to the shopkeeper. He asked, "Is my order ready?"

"Yes, Sire—yes. Peter go get it," Holis ordered his assistant. The shopkeeper lowered his voice and asked, "Has there been any progress with the new case, Sire? The woman’s head they found."

"It belonged to a student from Sexton," Lucian replied calmly.

Ruelle’s attention snapped toward him. Hailey’s too.

"Did they find June’s body?" Ruelle asked in shock before she could stop herself.

Lucian gave a small nod. "Two weeks ago."

So June hadn’t run away but was truly dead...her stomach tightened at the thought of it. If she had still been in Brackenwell, she would have heard the whispers about it. She asked,

"Do they know who could have killed her?"

"Not yet," Lucian answered, before adding, "Don’t wander after this and head straight back to Sexton." It sounded less of a suggestion and more of a command. His gaze drifted to her hair and lingered a fraction too long. Three victims, all blonde women, who were around the age of eighteen or nineteen.

Hailey chose her shoes quickly and had them wrapped. When Ruelle tried to pass the gold coin to Mr. Holis quietly, he lifted it up between his fingers and said far too loudly,

"Oh—a gold coin. It seems like you won’t be turning to my assistant for a while."

Heat climbed up Ruelle’s neck. She could feel Lucian’s gaze on her.

"I’m not certain I have the change for this at the moment," Holis continued, before handing over the coin. "I will write it down and you can settle the payment next time."

"Thank you," Ruelle responded softly.

Slipping the coin back into her pocket, Ruelle and Hailey offered a bow each to Mr. Holis and Lucian before stepping out of the shop. They walked down the street, each of them carrying a box as they made their way to the local carriage stop.

Ruelle had just pulled her pocket watch from the folds of her skirt when the rumble of wheels reached them. She watched the local carriage roll toward the stop and slow down.

The door opened and a few passengers started to step down.

But when Ruelle moved forward with Hailey at her side, one of the men uttered, "Isn’t that Harold Belmont’s daughter?" as the person stepped down from the carriage. Her hands grew colder.

"Indeed, it is her," another man added, stepping closer. His breath carried the stink of cheap liquor. "Where is he?"

Hailey’s fingers tightened around Ruelle’s sleeve as she pulled her back.

"I don’t know where my father is," Ruelle stated, keeping her voice even. "...I have nothing to do with him anymore."

One of the men snorted. "Nothing to do with him? He spent it on all of you. If he isn’t there, you should pay for it."

"You never gave me the money. Take it from him," Ruelle replied, taking a step back and trying to get into the carriage, but the men blocked their path. The carriage coachman gave a look before riding the carriage away.

"Check their pockets," the bulky man said, jerking his chin who was a Halfling. "There may be something."

When one of the man’s hands reached towards her, Ruelle slapped it hard enough that her palm stung. "Don’t touch me," she said sharply.

The men laughed and one of them murmured, "Feisty."

The other person grabbed Hailey’s arm, making her gasp. Ruelle noticing this, her hand moved to her hair, her fingers finding the pencil she had twisted into her braid that morning. She yanked it free and drove it forward with all the force fear gave her.

The sharp end of the pencil pierced into the man’s forearm. He howled, jerking back.

"I told you not to come near..." Ruelle’s hand shook mid-air. The man she had stabbed clutched his arm, face twisted with pain and fury. He cursed grabbing her wrist, "You little—"

Suddenly a sharp crack split the air and the one cursing dropped to the ground like a stack of potatoes. She noticed the man now bleeding from his temple. Ruelle blinked not knowing what happened.

"I haven’t met anyone who finds trouble as easily as you do," a voice said far behind her, which was low and stripped of warmth. "It is getting tiring."

Ruelle flinched at Lucian’s voice. She turned and caught him walking toward them with a stone in his hand. When he came to stand beside her, she sensed something amiss.

It wasn’t that his eyes had turned black with no traces of red in them. But they looked empty. Like something looking out through him rather than him looking out at the world.

Hailey went rigid beside Ruelle.

"Jackel?" the other man shouted, shaking his fallen accomplice. "Jackel, get up—"

Lucian’s gaze stayed on Ruelle. "I told you," he said, each word quiet and sharp as his eyes fleetingly moved to her hand, "to get in the carriage and go straight to Sexton."

When his head tilted, her lips parted, "Our path was blocked...I was going to pick up the stone next." The game of Hunt and Stakes had taught her that much at least, she thought to herself.

It was then that Ruelle caught black tendrils slip out of his body. At first, she thought it was smoke. But it was too thick. It seeped out of him like ink seeping into water.

The debt collector, who was still conscious, picked up a bigger stone. He was about to strike Lucian when the pureblooded vampire caught the Halfling’s hand. The man yelped as his hand was twisted.

Lucian turned to his coachman and ordered, "Claude. Take these two to Sexton."

When Ruelle and Hailey didn’t move out of shock, Lucian asked Ruelle in a dry tone, "Do you need me to write it in his blood?"

Ruelle snapped out of her frozen state, her heart thudding louder than ever before. She reluctantly followed the coachman with Hailey right behind her. They got inside the carriage and it took them out of there.

"What was that?" Hailey burst out wide-eyed. "This is why people are scared of him! I thought my heart was going to stop. I can only imagine what will happen to those men."

Ruelle didn’t have to imagine what Lucian was capable of. There was something unnerving about his presence back there.

Back in Sexton, Dane walked in the corridor humming to himself as he made his way to the staffroom. When he arrived at the doorway, he caught sight of Ezekiel’s tense figure sitting in the room with parchments spread before him but he was staring at the wall.

"It seems that you will be earning the best instructor award of Sexton this year," Dane remarked lightly as he entered the room, catching Ezekiel’s attention. "Especially staying behind instead of going home."

Ezekiel smiled politely and replied, "These are the last papers. I wanted to make sure I won’t have any pending work left for tomorrow."

"Then I will look forward to your moves on the dance floor," Dane chuckled, before asking, "Where is the dearie wife?"

"She was missing her parents and went home," Ezekiel answered, while internally he was irritated in frustration.

He had meant to take Ruelle home to speak with her, but she had slipped past his notice this morning. His hand clenched on the parchment. The entire week she had avoided him. He was trying to be understanding, but the patience he prided himself on was beginning to thin.

From what he had heard from the young man who hung out with her, she had gone out with the Elliot girl. Perhaps if the girl were no longer in the way, Ruelle would be able to focus on him, as she had trouble doing it now, he thought to himself.

Dane, who had pulled out a roll of written parchments, turned to look at Ezekiel. He openly watched the Halfling as he walked towards the door.

"Is there something you wanted from me?" Ezekiel asked, his tone courteous as ever.

Dane leaned one shoulder against the doorframe instead of leaving, his smile almost lazy. "You look a little stressed out. I do try to look after my colleagues and am happy to lend an ear."

"That is generous of you," Ezekiel replied, returning the gentle smile. "But I am quite well. Just finishing the last of these." His fingers rested neatly on the parchments, though the edge of one page had crumpled slightly beneath the pressure of his earlier grip.

Dane’s eyes had caught the crumple for the briefest moment. He hummed, "Then I shall not deprive you of your peace."

As the pureblooded vampire stepped out into the corridor, he sauntered down the path. People were often easy to predict in crisis, he thought. After the arrival of shock, people often adjusted to the situation. But Ezekiel looked like he was slowly spiralling from the inside and this piqued Dane’s curiosity.

When Dane reached the ground floor and turned toward the next building, he paused at the sight of Lucian’s carriage just ahead. But it was not Lucian who stepped down but Ruelle and Hailey did.

The coachman gave a brief bow before driving the carriage away, leaving the two young women standing there with boxes in their hands while wearing sombre expressions.

Dane arched a brow as he approached. He called, "I was under the impression shopping improved a lady’s mood. Did someone rob you?"

"Brother Dane," Ruelle greeted, managing a small smile.

"Did you two get everything you needed?" Dane asked, glancing at the boxes. "Do you want me to carry them?"

"You are very kind, Mr. Slater," Hailey said quickly. "They are light though." She turned to Ruelle. "I will go ahead and rest."

Ruelle nodded, watching her friend hurry away into the building. She turned back to Dane when he asked casually,

"Not a pleasant outing?"

"No—it wasn’t bad," Ruelle said, though her fingers tightened slightly around the box she held. After a moment, she added, "We ran into people my father owed money to. And met Lucian."

"That much I gathered from the carriage," Dane hummed. He noticed her purse her lips and he asked. "Something bothering you?"

Ruelle hesitated before meeting his eyes. "I saw something slip out of Lucian today," she said in a low voice. "Like... fog. Do you know what it is?"

Dane took a moment before answering, "It’s corruption."

Her eyebrow furrowed at this. She asked, "But corruption is supposed to affect a vampire’s heart, isn’t it?"

"Normally yes," Dane agreed. His voice remained calm, "When Lucian’s corruption first appeared, we tried to fix it. I had already lost a mother then. I wasn’t keen on losing a brother too." A faint smile ghosted across his lips, though it held no real warmth. "Young minds are very confident they can outwit nature. Lucian and I succeeded in not losing him, but the corruption on the other side continued to grow."

"I don’t understand," Ruelle’s brow furrowed.

"We separated the corruption from him, but it couldn’t be destroyed," Dane continued, his eyes drifting somewhere past her before returning to hers. "Over the years, Lucian has learned to make use of it. But there are times when the corruption feeds the parts of him he tries the hardest to keep buried."

Back in Hushford, the street had gone quiet.

The two men lay sprawled where they had fallen, the winter air carrying the metallic scent of blood.

Lucian’s eyes slowly moved from the men to the thin wooden pencil lying abandoned on the ground, its tip darkened from blood. He bent and picked it up between his fingers. He studied it for a moment before slipping it into his coat and walking away from there.