Lady Dhampir
Chapter 85

Every noble around were staring at the two young ladies in disbelief. The human women around looked horrified by all the blood, and Rachael's dripping chin. Milena was more concerned about where all of that blood had possibly come from! She exchanged a glance with Rayan. Another attack? Two maids from the royal palace ran to bring Rachael and Verona some towels to try and clean their appearance a bit, but the glare in Rachael's eyes was terrifying. Milena realized that her hand was dragging a dead man, in uniform again. The Duchess de Nova walked up to the Queen, and threw the body at her feet, making Queen Lyriana take a step back.

"That thing tried to attack me and my friend in the woods, your Highness," she hissed.

Though it could have been normal for someone to report this incident to the Queen, the defiance in Rachael's words and attitude had a much deeper meaning than that. Milena was shocked. This scenario was improbable. Another fake soldier, attacking the vampire candidate? That seemed like too big of a coincidence, but it also didn't make sense. Why would the same culprits attack both the vampire Prince and the vampire candidates? It made no sense!

The Captain of the Knights that had come back with them went ahead, to salute the Queen with a stern look. Apparently annoyed, the Queen gave him a glare, but he acted very professional anyway.

"Your Highness, I also have to report a similar incident happened to Prince Rayan! A man that had recently entered our ranks as a Knight turned out to be an assassin, this is my absolute mistake! We have been incompetent in enquiring about the backgrounds of our men, we should..."

"Silence," said the Queen.

The man obeyed, but remained in his officer stance, looking very upset by the whole situation. Milena didn't feel much sorry for him, it was indeed the Knights' mistake for letting potential threats in! Among the bystanders, she could see Valentin's furious stare, too. Her brother probably also felt infuriated as a Knight himself.

Queen Lyriana kept staring at the body, looking unsure what to do. As her reply started to be too long to come, many people around started gossiping and whispering. It wasn't like the Queen to be so flustered, and Lady de Nova was waiting, too. She didn't look anything like a victim with all that blood on her, but Lady Rachael was obviously angry at the Queen. Finally, someone stood out from the crowd, walking towards them. She pushed the body with her cane, having the body roll on it's back, exposing the large injury on its neck.

"What a sloppy job!" Said the Archduchess de Crescent.

"I thought of defending myself, Archduchess," retorted Rachael. "I swear I usually drink in a proper way..."

"Not you, child, whoever sent this man! Look at him! Such a skinny one! No muscles, short nails, bad bones! This man is no skilled assassin! I doubt he could even kill a bird!"

As her great-grandmother had come forward and the Prince been quoted, Milena got down Black Bella and stepped forward. The Queen gave her another one of her glares, probably pissed to see the De Crescent family involved in this mess as well. "Great-grandmother, what are you saying? This man wasn't trained?"

"Of course not! If he was sent to the Knights, whoever ordered this probably took some idiot from the countryside! To kill a Duchess or a Prince, to boot? This was a suicide mission!"

Milena was even more flustered than before. If they knew those people would have been incapable of killing Rayan or Rachael, what was their aim? It didn't make sense to send two people just for an aborted assassination attempt!

"The Captain of the Knights will take this under his responsibility and investigate," coldly declared the Queen. "Until the official results of this investigation, I will oversee this matter personally. Everyone, my deepest apologies for that tragic incident. Please feel free to leave earlier if you wish, and I suggest we move on quickly with the judges..."

Rachael remained silent, but she crossed her arms, unhappy while the Queen walked away, completely disinterested. Milena actually thought she was completely right. The Queen was just putting this whole incident under the rug! How could she do that when there were so many witnesses of this assassination attempts, including one on her own son? However, she had barely spared a glance towards Prince Rayan, and the Prince seemed actually so fine that no one really seemed to care either. In comparison, Rachael's gruesome appearance was getting her much more stares... Milena hated that. The human nobles, staring at the blood-covered duchess with looks of disgust. As if they had never seen a vampire before. In a situation of danger, just like any cornered animal, vampires would resort to using their fangs to defend themselves. For Rachael to have so much blood on her was just a representation of how horrible the scene would have been.

Yet, no one was approaching her, staying at a distance as if the young Duchess de Nova was dangerous. Philomenie's frightened eyes were the most annoying. The young Duchess de Winter looked on the verge of tears, so much that her friends were gathering around her to comfort her as if she had been some victim. Milena was just too annoyed at that attitude from their group. She glared at them and turned to Rachael. "Are you alright?"

"I'm about to have indigestion, but I'm alright," hissed the Duchess.

"How much did you drink?" Asked Prince Rayan with a low voice.

Milena froze. She hadn't thought about that. The Wendigos situation! Could their enemies have been trying to..... turn Rachael? What if that man had been injected with vampire blood? Milena was unable to tell just by the smell, it only reeked of human blood. Rachael shook her head.

"I was careful, I tried to throw up the most I had drunk..."

Milena suddenly realized this meant Rachael de Nova was aware of the wendigos, already? She glared at Rayan. Couldn't he have told her when he gave that kind of information to others! This was no small matter!

"What?" He asked as Milena kept glaring at him.

However, the young Duchess ignored him, pissed, and walked to her great-grandmother.

"Are you going to stay for them to give the prizes?" She asked.

"Do you think I care about any of that stupid show? This old crone was just waiting for her only granddaughter to return safely! What do I care, they probably have nothing interesting anyway."

"I understand, but I wanted to gift you my winnings, grandmother," said Milena with a little smile. "Will you accept them?"

"Did you? Well, I guess I could use a new hat, then. You better not send them to a crappy tailor! Anyway, the old hag will go back. Anton will make a fuss if I tear that wretched woman apart in public. Not that I don't want to, but your father is the one who will be nagged in the end. So disgraceful! I hope the House de Nova will not let this matter go!"

"We won't, Archduchess!" Yelled Rachael who, despite being a few steps away, had obviously heard that.

Milena suspected those two were talking loudly so that Queen Lyriana would hear, but if she did, the vampire Queen didn't show it. It was so obvious that the Queen wanted to forget this whole assassination attempt thing, but this wasn't going to be that easy for her.

Valentin and his fiancee came to bid goodbye to Milena as well, asking her to be careful once again. They would see each other very soon for the Bridal Selection anyway, but her older brother seemed reluctant to leave her alone in the Royal Castle again after what had just happened. Milena had to promise to be careful, and only when the Archduchess started to show her impatience did they finally leave. She let out a long sigh, watching the carriage leave. Why were things always so tense? "Lady de Nova, are you alright?"

Milena turned around. She hadn't expected to see Ellias run to Rachael's side! The human Prince seemed genuinely concerned, handing her a towel while staring in awe at all the blood.

"I'm fine, brother, thank you for asking," said Rayan in obvious irony.

"You do look fine," retorted Ellias. "I know you wouldn't be killed so easily, Rayan, I'm just worried about Lady de Nova. This is so insane that those kinds of things keep happening... Lady De Crescent first, and now..."

Milena frowned slightly. Was Ellias referring to the previous hunt? That was indeed another tragic episode, but unrelated to this one. However, the one thing in common to all those episodes were that the vampires and herself were targetted, like the poisoned blood from that morning. Someone clearly didn't want a vampire queen, or a vampire king. She glanced towards Philomenie. She was still with her friends, but clearly sending some glances towards their little group. Of course. The two princes were standing and chatting with her two rivals... However, between the blood on Rachael's dress that made her sick and Rayan's presence, she wouldn't approach. Good grief, thought Milena.

"That attack was too strange," said Rachael. "That guy had absolutely no chance, but he threw himself at me... What happened to you?"

"The fake knight I was with tried to shoot me at a very close range," replied Prince Rayan. "I suspected something, so I was able to react quickly and disarm him. We exchanged a couple of shots, but he only injured my horse. Lady de Crescent was nearby so she arrived right at the scene..."

"You were there?" Ellias suddenly exclaimed, turning to Milena, looking shocked.

She didn't suspect his reaction at all and jumped a bit. Truth was, so many people had returned from the hunt at the same time, it wasn't that surprising that the Prince hadn't noticed she was with his twin brother all along. Milena tried to regain her composure and nodded, a bit unsure on how to respond to his sudden reaction.

"Yes... I only heard the gunshots, everything was over when I arrived at the scene, though."

However, it didn't seem right to Ellias, who went from worry to anger, turning to his brother.

"Rayan! Lady de Crescent could have been injured!"

The vampire prince raised an eyebrow, a bit annoyed.

"I did not choose to exchange shots with my assassin in the middle of a forest, Ellias. It was a hunt. Lady de Crescent could have been anywhere in that damn forest. Moreover, as you can see, she's just fine. What do you have to act all flustered for?"

The twin brothers were almost glaring at each other now, leaving Milena and Rachael completely lost between the two of them. It was even more embarrassing that, compared to Milena who had come out without a single scratch, Rachael was a complete mess, but no one seemed very worried about the Vampire Duchess. She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, men! Anyway, I hope they are counting that guy into my hunting, because I'm not leaving here without being recognized as the first place."

Milena, a bit annoyed too, decided to follow Rachael to the judges' area, where the soldiers had gathered all of their winnings. Only then did the twin princes stop glaring at each other, Ellias following Milena's course with a bit of a surprised look. "Lady de Crescent... You're going with Lady de Nova...?"

Milena stopped, but she wasn't flustered. Prince Ellias had never seen her and Rachael de Nova interact, probably. Or at least, never acted as if they got along at all. Rachael ignored them and kept walking away, but Milena turned to him, crossing her arms. "We are still ladies, your Highness, no matter how we don't agree with each other on other matters. I'm not as petty as to ignore Lady De Nova when we're in the middle of a conversation, am I?" "No, but..."

Next to Ellias, Rayan didn't hold back a snicker, annoying his human twin even more. Milena shrugged. She was now used to seeing Rayan replace any occasion he could to piss off Ellias. Hopefully, that would end in a couple of days. However, there was one question she had been waiting to ask, as the Captain of Knights was no longer with them.

"Prince Rayan, you said you had noticed that knight's attitude before the hunt and asked for him to accompany you, but do you know whom he would have been assigned to, otherwise?"

Putting on a serious expression again, Rayan nodded.

"To Lady de Camellia... the younger one."

Milena frowned. Aurora de Camellia was the target, then? Why was anyone worried about that girl... Was she considered a dangerous candidate, perhaps? For her to be targetted, out of all the candidates, felt a bit strange. So far, that young countess had only shown interest in becoming a Princess, she didn't belong to either of the Duchess' entourage. Was that the reason? Rachael, Milena, Aurora... All of them, could they be targetted as the most influential candidates, the ones who had managed to grow closer to the Princes? Milena glanced at Rayan, as they were walking to join the rest of the participants and listen to the results of the hunt.

She had only discovered recently Prince Rayan's relationship with Rachael de Nova. Were they closer than she thought? Was there something else she didn't know? After all, Rayan wasn't always in her line of sight... Just like Ellias, could the Vampire Prince be playing more games than she thought?

Milena's thoughts weren't there. She kept trying to contain her emotions, but she barely listened to what was going on. Even her friends that had come to her didn't dare bother her, as she seemed lost in her thoughts. She only heard she had gotten something like the fifth or sixth place, while Rachael de Nova was congratulated for her win. The young Duchess de Crescent couldn't have cared less about the results of that stupid hunt... As soon as they ended with the long list of results, she turned back, ready to go back to her apartments, followed by the De Iris sisters and Bella, once again. Milena had no wish to linger around for anyone to gift her something she didn't want to receive from them, and she had seen two young dukes with their eyes on her during the full congratulation speech. "Lady Milena, would you allow me to accompany you back?"

Milena was surprised to see Ellias by her side again, and offering his hand to walk her back. While the girls exchanged surprised glances, she frowned a bit.

"Your Highness, how come...?"

She glanced behind him, but Philomenie was nowhere to be seen, perhaps still with her friends at the banquet or already back inside the Royal Castle, if she had felt too sick. However, Prince Rayan was standing a few paces back, and clearly, he had seen his twin brother move towards Milena.

For some reason, that made the young Duchess smile a little. She used that smile to answer Ellias.

"If you wish, your Highness. It's a short trip anyway..."

She turned her back to Rayan with a little amused smile. After the dirty play he had put on her earlier, Milena was only too happy to have an occasion to make the vampire Prince jealous a little bit. She was also still a bit annoyed by that spark of jealousy from earlier...

The two of them started walking side by side back to the Castle, very aware of the stares following them. Milena was curious as to why would Ellias try to spend time with her now... In public, too. Their conversations and interactions had been mostly private, so far. What was going on?

"I can't believe you were put into danger once again," he suddenly said. "I feel terrible, every time something happens, I am not there."

"Don't worry about me, Your Highness. Lady de Nova probably experienced the worst of it. Prince Rayan handled it very well without my meddling."

"Mh..."

The mention of his twin had Ellias frowning, and he stopped walking to turn to her.

"Lady Milena, I... I'm a bit confused as to your relationship with my brother," he declared. "I had never expected the two of you to be close, but recently, it changed, right? I can tell. You and my brother are interacting differently around each other, aren't you?"