Chapter 153: No One Hurts His Little Lamb!
"Alain!" Madeline’s eyes snapped wide upon hearing her son’s panicked scream. In no time, she had made it to the upstairs corridor, but upon reaching where the sound of her son’s frightened scream came from, she noticed him hiding behind the curtains, and in front of him was a servant who was firmly wrapped in the embrace of a vine– another young woman stood at the front of the scene, and there was no reaction from her as she just watched the servant get squeezed by the vines embrace, her face contorting into agony, yet the other woman made no attempts to help her.
When little Alain noticed his Mother standing at the top of the stairs, he ran in her direction and into her embrace. Madeline crouched to her son’s height, her worried eyes scanning his face to confirm if he was alright before returning her attention to the unbelievable drama displaying in front of her. It barely took less than five minutes for the guards and everyone else to surround the upstairs corridor, and it was plain obvious that everyone came to witness the source of the Little boy’s scream but were met with something entirely different.
Cassian arrived at the scene on time, and a look of relief washed over his visage to see his son safely in the hands of Madeline. He crouched to his son’s level, his fingers caressing Alain’s fluffy hair before admonishing quietly, strict Amber-brown eyes staring into innocent ones.
"No more running around like that or I’ll take away your favorite toys! What if you got hurt? Stay with your Mother and no more mischievous tactics from you until we leave."
Alain, whose expression dropped into a sad pout, nodded his head at his Father’s clear warning. While everyone’s expression held awe and questions, the path immediately cleared for Ivan who unhurriedly made his way to where the servant was trapped, and he glanced at his little lamb before patting her head affectionately, his way of saying a job well done to her quick thinking. His little lamb developing her own powers no longer seemed like a bad idea since she can protect herself now when the need arrives.
"I’ll handle it from here." Ivan softly said to Samantha who immediately released the servant from the vines embrace. When the servant dropped on all fours, coughing for air while trying to breathe at the same time, her eyes held terror when Ivan knelt on one knee to pick up the knife she had planned on using to end Samantha. He rose to his full height afterwards and glanced at the young dark-haired woman who had a child with her.
"What happens next is not suitable for children to see. If you can excuse us and wait in the guest room. Herbert, lead them to the guest room on the opposite corridor." Ivan turned to Herbert who nodded his head in affirmation, and he led the three guests away from the corridor. Once they were out of sight, Ivan turned his attention to the servant whose heart was starting to drum in fear, but she was unaware that her fears only excited the man whose heart contained bloodlust. Ivan knew his little lamb would eventually become a target now that GreenHollow was restored to the kingdom, but he never imagined they’d strike so soon!
"Little Lamb, I think you should leave too." Ivan calmly said to Samantha, his voice softening, sounding almost harmless to her ears, but the forbidden darkness in his eyes didn’t go unnoticed by her. His irises had contracted, and his demon side was starting to awaken. "What I’m about to do... your eyes can’t afford to get tainted by my actions."
"She tried to kill me, I don’t care what you do to her." Samantha pointed out before mustering the courage to say. "I want to see how brutal you can get, so it is fine. I doubt I will be least affected by it since I’ve seen enough of you already. I’m staying, I’ll have to get used to this kind of thing sooner or later."
"How bold." The corner of Ivan’s lips twitched as he found her undeterred response quite attractive, and he turned his attention to the smiling Alistair who was waiting for him to get on with the punishment already. Dropping to his knees, the servant’s body trembled in fear as Ivan threateningly placed the knife in front of her, and she began to sweat profusely when he played with the knife in front of her panicked gaze.