His Majesty's Devious Sins

Adeline woke up to someone pinching her finger. She groaned and groggily opened her eyes. She squinted, her vision blurry. When she realized a person was beside her, she shot out of bed, only to be warned.

"Don't move so much." Elias pushed her back onto the bed. He took a small sample of blood from her finger. He pressed it against the small vial. Once it was slightly full, he capped the vial and gently licked her finger, the wound instantly closing.

"What are you doing?" Adeline asked. She wondered what exactly he was doing this early in the morning. "You're not going to drink that, are you?"

"You flatter yourself too much." Elias stepped outside of the room, confusing her. She heard a quiet exchange of voices.

"Keep it confidential. I want the results back by tonight."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Weston muttered. Not a second later, he left to collect the other blood sample. 

"What was that?" Adeline asked once Elias came back. He closed the doors behind him and stopped at the foot of his bed.

"How are you feeling?" Elias asked.

"Confused." 

Elias quirked a brow and chuckled a bit. "It's just a paternity test. You don't have to worry about it anymore."

"You're doing a paternity test without my permission?" she hissed, sitting back up again. She clutched the blankets, realizing she had slept in his bed.

"Isn't that why you made the impulsive request for a divorce? Because you think you're Viscount Marden's child?" 

"I didn't want to burden you." Adeline lowered her head and played with the edges of the thick blanket. She felt incredibly small in his large bed that could hold a large family of four.

"I can never understand the thoughts that go through your head." Elias rolled his eyes and shook his head. He took a seat at the edge of the bed and reached for her face. She yelped when he pulled her eye bags down.

"What was that for?"

"Your eyelids are pale, you're low in iron." Elias released her face and frowned. 

She tasted substantially sweet, but healed slow. He needed to feed her even more nutritious meals if she was going to be safe by his side. It was quite difficult getting her to eat, since she treated it like a sinful act.

"Besides, I couldn't care less about your lineage. For all that we know, you were just tricked," he said.

"But my mother—"

"I knew Kaline and Addison." Elias pulled the blanket to her lap. She was a human and they were weak. He couldn't have her catching a cold and dying on him. 

"If your mother truly slept with the Viscount, it wasn't willingly. And even if it did happen, Kaline would've made her take the morning-after pill that prevents pregnancy from unprotected intercourse." 

Adeline slowly nodded.

"I'll get to the bottom of this heinous lie." Elias shifted the hair away from her eyes. 

He didn't like the bangs that framed her face, slightly tickling her chin sometimes. They were beautiful on her, but hid her forehead and eyes.

"My father loved my mother very much," she finally said. "Mother used to tell me that even before their marriage, he loved her dearly."

Elias sarcastically smiled. He patted the back of her head. She didn't know her father's true nature.

Elias knew what kind of man Adeline's father was. Kaline Rose was the most possessive and obsessive man that Addison could've possibly married. Without a doubt, Viscount Marden wouldn't be alive today if he had done something unfavorable to Addison. Kaline would've had the man whipped, skinned, and hanged, even if it violated all sorts of laws.

"Just trust me," Elias mused. "No harm will come to your reputation. Word of this incident will never get out."

Adeline tightened her grip on the blankets. "You speak as if you'd be embarrassed if the truth came out."

"What is the truth?"

Adeline bit her bottom lips. 

"We'll speak more of this tonight, once the results come out." Elias grabbed her hands and pulled her out of bed. 

Adeline was surprised by his action, her eyes widening a bit.

"Now come, let's get you fed." Elias shifted her hair over her shoulder, smiling when her neck was covered. He could hear the quickening of her heart when his fingers brushed upon her neck.

"Will you turn me into a vampire?" she blurted out.

Elias's finger stiffened. He peered down at her. He knew his next lineage of children wouldn't be a Pure-Blood. For their bloodline to be Pure, it'd take two Pure-Blood families to come together. Adeline was human. Their child would be hybrids, but if she became a vampire, it was a different story.

"You're a Pure-Bred…" Adeline whispered. "Y-you have the ability—"

"Never." Elias tightened his grip on her hand. "You will remain human and that is final."

Adeline's head jolted. She slipped her hands away from him and looked away in fear. Wouldn't that mean she would grow old and wrinkly, whilst he remained young forever? The idea terrified her.

"Elias—"

"You will spend the rest of your life by my side. Your eternity will be spent with me, until you draw your last breath. You will remain human forever. I won't turn you."

Adeline's mouth went dry. "Why not?"

Elias touched her face. He could practically feel her blood, warm and smooth, traveling through her body. Her rosy cheeks, the light in her eyes, the flush of life on her pale skin, only humans had this ability. 

He was entranced by her humanity, in love with it even. She was warm to the touch, like a fireplace melting the icicles in his heart.

Elias enjoyed her humanity. He didn't want her skin to turn icy-cold to the touch, didn't want to see the darkness tucked in her earnest gaze, or witness her cheeks lose color. 

He couldn't bring himself to change her, even if she begged him too. He couldn't turn her into something that she wasn't meant to become.

"Because you're better suited to be a human." Elias cupped her face. "You will be happier as a human than you will ever be as a vampire. I just know it."

Adeline touched his wrists, her fingers tightly gripping it. A part of her knew that as well. She could do nothing but close her eyes and shift her hands towards his waist. 

Adeline hugged him, burying her face into his chest. She tried to hear his heart beat and it terrified her that he had none. She closed her eyes, and heard the faintest of beat, but it was to keep him alive, and not human.

Adeline could hear her own heartbeat, loud and clear, in her ears. He must've heard it too, for Elias hugged her dearly. He pressed his face to the crown of her head, as if he couldn't get enough of her.

"Even if I am on my deathbed, will you not turn me?" she whispered.

"Even if you draw your last breath in front of me."

"But I will turn old and you will have eternal youth…" she protested.

"When you age, I will age with you. I will be a wrinkly raisin with you. My appearance can change as I please."

Elias slowly smiled, but it became sinister and crude. She was thinking of their future and growing old together? How adorable she was. 

He kissed the top of her head, his chest warming at the idea. It seemed she had come to accept they would rest the rest of her eternity together. And even if she were to die, he would wait for her to be reborn. She would always belong to him, even after reincarnation.

"But what if I want to become—"

"It doesn't matter."

"But what if—"

"To be turned into a vampire by a Pure-Bred, it is a painful and dangerous process. You could possibly lose your life or turn into a bat. And we wouldn't want that, would we?" he teased.

Adeline frowned. She responded by holding onto him for dear life, clinging onto his embrace. She could practically feel his arrogant smirk. She had come to accept him and all of his mischievous thoughts. But a small voice nagged at her, in the back of her mind.

'One day, you will die. And he will spend the rest of his life alone. Your children will die, and he will still live. What shall happen then?'