A MAZE OF GREED

"Mr Hilton, may I have a minute please?" A Vampire asked respectfully after knocking on the open door.

"Not now!" Hilton replied without looking up from what he was scribbling on the paper.

He had his glasses placed on his nose, his brows knitted in the middle of his forehead in concentration.

"But it is urgent, Mr Hilton." The Vampire persisted.

"I am busy right now!" This time Hilton's voice came annoyed.

But the Vampire was not ready to give up. "He has given another list."

That made Hilton pause. He looked up at the Vampire to see his face set in seriousness.

"Show me."

The Vampire walked to where Hilton sat. He pulled out the list from the pocket of his jacket before handing it to Hilton.

Hilton adjusted his glasses before holding the list in front of his eyes. As his eyes travelled down on the piece of paper, his expressions kept changing.

"What rubbish is this?!" Hilton hit his fist on the table before throwing that list on it.

"Why does he need all these things? I do not understand!" He asked the Vampire.

The man shifted his weight from one foot to another. "I asked him about it Mr Hilton, but he said not to ask him questions about his field of expertise. This is the fifth list he has given in only three weeks.

Our people are getting frustrated with his demands because things he mentions in these lists are very difficult to get. And some are even difficult to find. We have lost one man in this task.

And pardon me for saying this, but if this continues, then there are chances we lose more of our men, Mr Hilton." The Vampire was concerned.

Hilton sat drumming his fingers on the table while lost in thoughts.

A minute later, he asked, "Does Lord Darius know about it?"

The Vampire shook his head.

"I informed him when Reznor gave the first list. Lord Darius said that we should tend to Reznor's every demand."

"Hmm" Hilton had a weird feeling about this. He did not trust that dark wizard.

According to Hilton's knowledge, Reznor was infamous in the magic world for his manipulative ways. And Hilton's sixth sense told him that he was fooling Darius in one way or another.

"Inform Lord Darius about it." Hilton told the Vampire.

The Vampire hesitated, scratched the back of his head.

"What happened?" Hilton asked, seeing his hesitation.

"Pardon Mr Hilton, but Lord Darius has not visited this place recently. And he has given strict orders to not discuss anything related to this experiment in the Garfield masnion."

Hilton had almost forgotten about that.

"Alright. For now hold onto this list and do not do anything unless I order so. I will go speak with Darius." Hilton ordered.

"But Mr Hilton, Reznor will demand these things soon."

That made Hilton narrow his eyes in anger. "We don't pay you to complain such nuisance things, now do we?!"

The Vampire looked embarrassed. He bowed respectfully. "Apologies Mr Hilton! Excuse me."

With that said, he left. Hilton stared at the list for a long moment before he decided to see what those things were that Reznor had mentioned in his list.

He wanted to make sure and find some clues before discussing this matter with Darius. Unlike Ambrose, Darius always believed what he saw, heard and thought was right.

*

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*

After an unpleasant interaction with Theodora, Ruth waited for Thea as they had planned to take lunch together. After a few minutes, she calmed down a bit. Yet Theodora's every word kept playing in her mind.

Her face scrunched up as she felt pain in her hand. She looked down at her hand to see the marks left by Theodora's long nails. Some marks even bled. And they all looked bad with the bluish-purple marks on her fairer skin.

"Hello Ruth, were you waiting for lo- Oh my God! How the hell this happened?"

Ruth startled at the loud voice of Thea. She looked up at her best friend, who had her eyes wide open and her mouth agape in shock.

"Shhhh! Thea!! Will you please lower your voice?!" Ruth shushed her friend by placing a finger on her lips.

"Don't you dare shush me! Tell me how it happened?" Thea still panicked as all the worst scenarios came to her mind.

Ruth tried hiding her hand behind her back. "That is nothing Thea. I... I actually-"

Ruth could not complete her sentence as before she could, someone grabbed her hand from behind, making her turn around.

Ruth's eyes widened in shock to see Edwin staring at the nail marks on her hand.

Thea instinctively stepped beside Ruth as she could imagine what was going to happen next by looking at changing expressions on Edwin's face.

"Who did it?" He asked through gritted teeth.

His eyes were still stuck on Ruth's hand. He could hear how her heartbeat in worry.

"Erm... its... erm... n-nothing." She tried finding an excuse, but his entry was so sudden that her brain failed to function quickly.

Edwin was silent for some moments. Ruth could see his chest heaving up and down in anger as he kept staring at her hand. She was about to open her mouth and tell him that he should not worry about it when he looked up.

Both Thea and Ruth gulped in nervousness as obsidian orbs with electric blue streaks stared back at them.

"Aunt Theodora?!"

The way Ruth's heart skipped a beat confirmed his guess. Edwin did not wait for a moment longer and turned on his heels quickly.

Alarmed, Ruth ran behind him to stop him.

"Edwin! Edwin, please listen to me. Edwin!!" At this point, Ruth did not care if anyone heard her calling him by his name.

All she cared about was him.

Edwin's wolf was too furious that he did not listen to the arguments by his human. He could not tolerate seeing his mate attacked by someone.

Only Edwin knew how difficult it was to control him when Ruth was stranded in the woods because of Eloise's vile plan.

That was the time when Edwin and his wolf had reached an agreement that they would not stay silent the next time someone dared to hurt their mate.

Edwin gladly cooperated when those three rogues attacked at the waterfall. But now, he knew the consequences of the direct confrontation. So he wanted his wolf to calm down.

"Edwin please listen to me once. Stop please!" Ruth pleaded.

But Edwin was too enraged to hear her pleadings. It became hard for Ruth to keep up with his fast pace. She paused when he took a different turn and began walking out of the building, but he was not heading to his office or his chamber.

Instead, he left the residential area of 'the great manor' behind as his feet directed to the cobble path.

He was going to the old building.

Thea, who had somehow managed to run behind them, stopped beside Ruth.

"Thea" Ruth called in a panic.

"Ruth go get him. I will go and call Rees and Lord Lester. If he lose his control again to his wolf then..."

Thea did not need to say much as Ruth ran behind Edwin immediately. The guards and the servants passing by watched Ruth questioningly. They did not understand why she was running like she was chased by a tiger.

Ruth had no idea how she was going to calm Edwin, but she was adamant about doing so. She saw him knocking on the door, and it was opened by a guard. Ruth increased her speed as she saw the door closing after Edwin entered the building. She did not know the secret pattern they used to open the door.

Unfortunately, the door shut before she reached it. Ruth still climbed up the stairs and began banging the metal door with her fists.

"Open the door! I said open the door. please!"

The guard inside heard her cries, but after seeing his master's state, he was not sure if he should let her enter the building.

Ten minutes passed, and still, the guard remained indecisive. Nobody dared to go to Edwin and ask him if they should open the door for Ruth.

But they could not just ignore her pleads.

"Ruth!" Rees ran to her side and pulled her in his arm as she cried in panic.

"Rees... Rees please open this door. He is.. he is losing his control."

Lester and Thea also reached there. The smell of blood hit their senses.

"What is this sme-"

Lester's eyes widened in shock to see the blood on Ruth's hand. He took her hand in his to inspect it. And when they realised that they were nail marks, Rees and Lester shared a knowing look.

"No wonder that idiot is raged!" Lester muttered before knocking on the metal door.

Ruth tried concentrating on the pattern of knocking, but her mind was focused on only Edwin and his safety.. The guards inside heaved a sigh of relief before hurrying to open the door.