A MAZE OF GREED

A week had passed since Darius crashed into the hazel-eyed woman. And since then, she had not left his mind even for a second. He thought about her every time and all the time.

It was like she had bewitched him with only one smile. Her voice still ring in his ears as if she was speaking with him at that moment.

Her innocent hazel eyes had captivated him like never before. She was probably the most beautiful human female he had ever seen with no make-up on her face to portray her for what she was not.

Lisa's lips moved against his passionately, but soon she realised that he was lost... just like the other time. She tore her lips from him to call his name.

"Darius?!"

He brought back to the reality where Lisa lay naked under him, waiting for him to continue with what they were doing.

Darius sighed frustratingly and moved away from her. Lisa frowned at the loss of the touch of his body. Darius sat on the edge of the bed, his back facing her. He rubbed his face with his hands, not knowing what was happening to him.

Lisa propped herself on her elbows as she studied his side profile.

"What is wrong Darius? You seem lost since the past week. What is going on?" Lisa asked.

Darius thought he heard a tinge of concern in her voice, but then he shrugged that feeling as quickly as it came.

"Nothing." He replied absentmindedly and picked up the slack that was carelessly thrown nearby.

He began covering his lower half with it.

It was not the first time Lisa was asking him about it. She had tried multiple times before and every time he avoided that question and her.

But today, she was adamant about knowing what was running inside his head.

She followed him out of the bed after he was done wearing the slacks.

She wrapped the bedsheet around her naked body, leaving her shoulders bare.

"Do not tell me that. I know something is running in your mind. I want to know it!" She said boldly.

She expected him to either flip at her or just walk out of there wordlessly. But he did neither.

"You won't understand." He said while resting his hand on the window frame.

His dark eyes gazed out at the vast land of Kinsville.

"Still I want to know. Has something happened? Is it about your parents again?"

Although Darius was not very vocal about his feelings, Lisa had got to know about many things about this man. These things confused her. They confused her to the point where she could not decide if he was a bad guy or just a man who was always neglected by the world.

And that had brought Lisa to stand on the very dangerous and unstable territory. She did not understand what she was feeling about him. On one side, she was burning in the revenge and on the other side, she could not stop caring for him.

She was trapped!

"Do you remember when I went to a town about a week ago? To get the masking solution?"

Lisa nodded even though he was still staring outside the window.

"Yes, what about that?"

"I was leaving after collecting the things I needed. When I was walking through the market to get my horse..."

Lisa waited patiently for him to continue. Little did she know that his next sentence was going to take her by shock.

"I crahsed into a woman... a human."

Lisa tried ignoring the way his tone turned dreamy while mentioning that woman. He just crashed into a woman that was not a serious situation, now was it?

"Please tell me that she slapped you." Lisa tried sounding playful, but from inside, she wished it to be true.

Darius shook his head. And to her horror, a small smile made its way on his lips.

She had never seen him smiling like that... except a couple of times when he unintentionally mentioned Grace.

He shook his head lightly. "No, she did not. She apologised to me then walked away."

Lisa cleared her throat before saying, "It happens at crowded places. You do not need to think about it much."

Darius turned to face her, and the look on his face took Lisa by another shock.

She breathed heavily as he spoke. "You are not getting it, Lisa. She was a human yet, the aura around her... it was different... as if it was trying to protect her from the unknown. Something that shook me from the core. It warned my monster.

Yet, I was distracted by her smile. Her smile was genuine and innocent, something that has become very rare these days.

She wore a simple dress and yet she looked more distinct than the other women. Her beautiful hazel eyes..."

Darius cursed with a full smile on his face. He ran his hand through the dark curls on his head.

"I have never seen such beautiful eyes that are mirror to the person's soul. She was just... amazing!!"

Darius was not used to complementing things and thus was short on such vocabulary.

"Darius, I am sure there are thousands of such beautiful women in the world. She might not stand a chance in front of them." Lisa could not hold back her jealousy.

He had never talked about her so passionately. He even had never spoken about Grace with such excitement.

He thought for a while.

"You are right Lisa. There must be more women even more beautiful than her."

Lisa smiled, relieved that she managed to change his mind.

"But not everyone of them gets a chance to get close with Edwin O'Dell!"

Her smile faltered.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

Darius looked like the Darius who she was used to seeing. The previous version of him, who was gushing over the woman he met once like a teenager was gone, and what came out was this sinister monster.

"Her scent, Lisa... her scent. I got her scent on Edwin's clothes when I went to Ripon's oath ceremony as a Chairman of the Council. And guess what... it was not only her scent but also her blood on his shirt.

Oh, Lisa..."

He pulled her close to his chest as he hid his face in the crook of her neck.

"You cannot even imagine how intoxicating that scent was. I could not help but lick her blood from his shirt. Can you believe it?!!

And I swear... it tasted like an elixir. I have never, and I mean ever tasted the blood that is so sweet and..."

He sank his fangs in her neck ruthlessly as the reminder of Ruth's blood awaken his monster.

"Aaahhhh...."

Lisa had been bitten by Darius many times before. But since she had begun cooperating with him, he was quite gentle with her. But this was an exception.

His lips covered her skin as he began sucking her warm blood. Her eyes teared up due to pain. The way he hungrily sucked her blood and his nails dug further deep into her skin made her realise how hungry he was.

It meant that woman's blood must be as delicious as he had described it.

Lisa was jealous of that woman before, but now she was also curious about her after hearing her possible connection with Edwin O'Dell.

And then a thought crossed her mind.

Edwin although had a bad image for many people, could never hurt a human. She was sure about it by what she knew about him.

He was known as a womanizer. So she could digest the fact of a woman's scent on his shirt. But what about her blood?

Where did it come from?

Her mind could come up with only two possibilities- either he helped that woman when she was injured out of goodwill or... She must be very close to him.

What if... what if she was his mate?

Lisa's body went tense at that thought. Darius obsessing over Edwin O'Dell's mate sounded too crazy to be true in her head.

No that was not possible. How could it be?

She shook that thought out of her mind.

Her vision began to turn blurry as black patches covered her vision. Her breaths turned shallow, and she could feel her body going limp in Darius's hands.

He would kill her at this rate. And Lisa could not die before she either destroyed this man or saved him from his darkness.

"D-Darius... s-stop! P-please!" She whispered in his ear.

She felt his body stiffen before he slowly pulled his fangs out of her skin.

She saw his red eyes and blood-stained mouth through her teary eyes. Her eyelids began feeling heavy.

"Darius..." She again whispered his name.

Lisa blinked her tears back as she wanted to see his face. She wanted to see the look of regret on his face for drinking so much out of her.

Darius's eyes slowly turned back to their normal dark colour. Lisa could not figure out if it was regret or alarming look on his face. But when he got control over himself, he held her a little tenderly.

"Lisa... Lisa..."

He shook her shoulder as she fought to keep her eyes open.

Lisa's mind began shutting down. But before that, she wanted only one thing from him.

She pulled his head closer to hers so that their lips crashed onto each other.

Lisa tasted her blood on his lips, his tongue and inside his mouth. She smiled satisfyingly before she passed out in his arms.

She had painted him in her red!