Chapter 127
“The guards at the front side of the dungeon haven’t seen her. She’s hiding somewhere on the inside!” One of the guards passed the information to the other guards.
“All the cellrooms have been checked and they are clear,” said another guard.
“Keep searching for her. She cannot hide for too long. Look at the cells once again and lock the ones you find to be open,” ordered the guard, who had spoken first. He moved along with the other guards, with their footsteps receding from there.
Eve stood behind a thick pillar, where no light came to fall on her. Though she tried to calm her breathing, her heart didn’t stop beating louder than usual. To her luck, the vampire guards in the dungeon were all low-grade vampires who couldn’t hear her movements.
When another guard came searching near the pillar where she stood, Eve moved herself to the side, making a half circle around the pillar to avoid the guard from catching her. When the guard went back to look into the cells with the fire torch in his hand, she quickly left the spot and stepped into another passage, not knowing where it would lead as she had never walked through this place.
Eve didn’t know how much longer she could do this because the stress was getting to her head, making it hard for her to think, knowing the guards were looking for her. There were one or more guards everywhere she went, and she fell back further away from the dungeon’s entrance.
She ended up somewhere dark and cold, where the torches were left cold for quite some time now. Her ears tried to pick up any sounds, but she only heard her laboured breathing.
A gasp escaped her lips when a rat moved near her leg, startling her. The rat squeaked, moving across the ground before escaping through the crack in the wall.
Eve’s legs trembled.
Not because of fear but because it was losing energy. She turned anxious and pulled the beige skirt to look at her legs. Bending down, she noticed the light appearance of patches of scales on her skin.
What was she going to do? It seemed like she would be killed either because she had been falsely accused as a murderer or because of being exposed as a mermaid.
Hearing footsteps coming from one side, Eve quickly took shelter in the shadows. When she took a peek, she noticed it was the head guard searching for her with his eyes moving across the area. She brought her hand and covered her mouth and nose so the vampire wouldn’t catch her even by mistake. After a few seconds, she heard his footsteps turn distant as if he left.
Deciding to leave this place, she stepped out, but Deacon stood right in front of her and glared at her. She turned, ready to flee from him, but the vampire was quick to catch her and he pushed her harshly to the ground.
A shriek escaped from Eve’s lips and she tried to get away from him.
“Did you have fun playing hide and seek?” Deacon questioned her and walked toward her.
Eve crawled backwards, and her hand picked up a stone in her hand. She said, “I did not kill anyone, you have found the wrong person. Let me explain and let me go.”
“Tch,” Deacon clicked his tongue, “Forget about explanation, because you are going to be severely punished by none other than me for trying to escape from here.”
Trying to talk sense to this guard was useless because he wasn’t willing to understand.
He said threateningly, “You are dumb to think you could outsmart me? It is good that you escaped from your cell. If you didn’t, we wouldn’t be here alone. Looks like the whip was useless on you and I will have to discipline you another way.”
When Deacon grabbed Eve’s legs, she screamed, kicking and pushing him. But the vampire was strong, and he dragged her towards him. At the right time, she struck the stone against the vampire’s eye with force.
Eve pushed the head guard away from her and started to run. But she didn’t go too far as Deacon caught up to her and held the back of her neck, squeezing it. He pushed her against the wall, making it difficult for her to move her head.
“You have some nerve to keep hitting me, when you know that it is only going to worsen your time in this dungeon,” Deacon whispered those words into Eve’s ears.
“AHH!” Eve screamed in pain when Deacon twisted one of her arms painfully, where she felt if he turned it anymore, it would break. Pain contoured her face.
Eve’s eyes started to burn, her eyes glistening every time the guard turned her arm to show who had the upper hand here and the pitiful state she was in.
“You fucking bitch. I will break a limb of yours and no one will find out what happened. I will claim that you broke it yourself while trying to flee,” Deacon continued to threaten, trying to fill her mind with fear.
Deacon wanted to enjoy her as it wasn’t often they had such a beautiful woman in the dungeon, and this woman was in a different league. But one hand of his held her neck, and the other had twisted her arm to touch her. He pulled her away from the wall and roughly pushed her to the ground with force.
Eve scraped her palms against the uneven ground. She tried to look for anything to protect her, and in the end readied her fingers. She would peel this man’s skin if she had to defend herself.
Deacon licked his lips, wondering how this woman would taste. He unbuckled the belt around his pants and approached her with a sneer. But before he could get closer to this human, a stone flew in his direction and hit his temple, which had him stagger to the side.
The head guard angrily turned, not knowing which person had interrupted him.
A look of shock which was replaced by confusion entered Deacon’s eyes when it fell on Vincent Moriarty standing at the end of the passage.
Eve had never felt more relieved to see Vincent as much as she did now.
When Vincent’s eyes moved from the low-grade vampire to his high-grade mermaid, he noticed bruises on her arms and one side of her face swollen. She was in a beige inner dress, and her shoes were missing, leaving her feet bare. She looked vulnerable.
Deacon tried to hold back his disappointment and said, “You seem to have caught me during work, Mr. Moriarty.”
The guard spoke with utmost care because he was no idiot to not know who this person was. This man was Vincent Moriarty, a pureblooded vampire, who ran in high circles and though not part of the inner circle in the council, he was regarded as a highly influential man. And as Vincent had visited the dungeon more than a few times in the past, where his visits concerned cases for Deacon to be familiar with him.
Vincent’s eyes didn’t leave Eve and he turned annoyed.
“What brought you to the dungeon Mr. Moriarty?” Deacon asked in a subservient way to gain favour from the pureblooded vampire. “Can I help you with something?”
“You are standing too close to what is mine. Step away from her.”