Zora did not waste any time. As soon as she heard that the Duke was back, she moved quickly. She took the back door and ran through the quiet stone hallways of the mansion.
She reached the entrance of the North Wing just as his carriage was being put away. She made it to the hall right when he was walking through the front doors of the building.
The head butler was already there. His personal aide, Gideon, and the other attendant, Damon, were standing in a perfect line.
Zora felt a small splash of worry in her chest as she took her spot at the end of the line.
She wondered if she was already slacking off on her very first few days of work. She tried to catch her breath and stand perfectly still, keeping her eyes on the floor so no one would see how fast her heart was beating due to the dream and rush.
The Duke entered the building. He looked polished and intimidating, just like he always did. His clothes were perfect, and his face was like a wall of stone.
His eyes were usually unreadable, but when his gaze landed on Zora, she felt her body freeze.
The look in his eyes was not the same as before. It was not the curious look or the bored look she was used to. For a split second, it looked like he was full of anger. It even looked like hatred.
Zora blinked her eyes, and suddenly the look was gone. She stared at him, but his face was calm again. She wondered if it was just her imagination playing tricks on her.
A lot had happened today. She had ridden a horse for the first time, she had been nearly hit by an arrow, and she had experienced that very strange dream in the woods.
She told herself that maybe the long day was finally taking a toll on her. She brushed the feeling away and focused on her job as the Duke walked past the line of servants.
The Duke walked ahead toward his private room. His usual group of aides and guards followed right behind him like a shadow.
When they reached the big double doors of his suite, he stopped suddenly. He didn't turn around to look at them. He simply said that only Zora should attend to him for the rest of the night. He told everyone else to retire and go to sleep.
The hallway became very quiet. Zora could feel the eyes of the others on her. The person who looked the most worried was Kyle.
The Duke's vassal stood there with a very serious face. Zora felt like Kyle was saying a secret prayer for her in his heart.
Everyone could feel that the Duke was in a very bad mood. Zora was worried too. She didn't know what had happened at the palace, but the air around the Duke felt heavy and dark.
The Duke entered his room without looking back at her. Zora let out a long, quiet sigh. She tried to prepare herself for whatever scolding might be coming her way. She stepped into the room and slowly closed the heavy wooden doors.
The click of the lock felt very loud in the silent room.
The Duke was standing patiently near the tall clothes hanger.
He was waiting for her to come and help him. Zora walked over and stood right in front of him. She had spent a lot of time observing Damon when he did this job, but this was the very first time she was doing it all by herself.
She felt a bit nervous. This was the first time she had seen Duke Avner act like this. Usually, he was aloof and indifferent.
He was always stoic and didn't show much emotion. But the vibe in the room had changed tonight. It felt like a storm was coming. She thought that maybe something bad had happened when he went out to the palace.
She brought her hands up to his heavy coat first. To take it off, she had to move very close to him. Being this close made her realize how tall he truly was.
She could smell his scent much more clearly now. It was a smell of cold wind, expensive soap, and something else that was deep and masculine.
She worked the buttons slowly, her fingers feeling a bit stiff.
Next, she began to unbutton his white shirt. She moved from the top button down to the bottom.
Each one felt like it took many minutes to undo. The room was so quiet that she was sure he could hear her breathing. Finally, she reached the last button. As she leaned in to pull the fabric off his broad shoulders, she felt him move.
Avner leaned his head down. Zora felt her breath catch in her throat as he moved his face toward her neck. She swallowed hard and felt a shiver run down her whole body.
She could feel his warm breath against her skin. Her mind started to spin. 'What is he doing?' she thought to herself.
She tried not to focus on the strange feeling of him being so close. Instead, she wondered why he was acting so strange all of a sudden.
She had heard many stories about rich nobles in the capital. People said they often took advantage of their maids and servants. She couldn't help but think that this was just how things worked in a kingdom where the strong ruled over the weak.
Zora didn't know the rumors about the stone-hearted Duke. She didn't know that most people thought he had no interest in women at all because he turned away everyone who tried to get his attention.
She also didn't know that he was a very dangerous man with a special bloodline. He had the power to know exactly what she was before he had even laid eyes on her back in the village.
Most importantly, she didn't know that he hated her kind. He hated vampires because they were the ones who killed his father right in front of his eyes when he was a child.
But when he saw her his curiosity won over his hate. Something about her was pulling him in, even though he didn't want it to.
"Wha—what are you doing, Your Grace?" Zora asked. She spoke softly and took a small step back.
Avner seemed to realize what he was doing at that moment. Tonight, for some reason, her scent seemed much stronger than usual.
It was a scent that seemed to calm his darkening mind. When he inhaled it, he felt the anger from the palace and his own dark thoughts start to fade.
He had leaned in without even thinking about it. But he was not a man who liked to explain himself. He didn't deny what he was doing. Instead, he took a slow, predatory step forward.
He forced her to take another step back toward the wall.
"Don't you want to know why I came to your village myself for the search?" he asked. His voice was low and dangerous. He took another step forward, closing the gap between them again.
Of course Zora wanted to know. She had been curious about that since the very first day. She took a deep breath to steady her mind. She decided to stop moving and stand her ground. She looked up at him.
"I would like to know, Your Grace," she said.
He smiled at her. It was a hollow smile that did not reach his eyes at all. It looked cold.
"Because I heard a rumor that there was a little vampire in that village," he said.
Zora's heart skipped a beat when she heard that word. She felt a cold wave of nervousness, but she did not let it show on her face. She kept very quiet as he continued to speak.
"And there is no supernatural creature I despise more than them," he said. He was staring straight into her soul. "So, I took the bait. I wanted to see if the rumor was true." Then he asked her a question that made her blood run cold. "Did you know about it?"
Zora shook her head. She didn't trust herself to speak right now. She was afraid her voice would shake and tell him the truth.
She wanted to ask him why he only came to her house if he was looking for a vampire, but she had a feeling that would be a very terrible idea.
It was better to keep her mouth shut and stay quiet.
He hummed a low sound and took a step back. He told her to get his bath ready and then leave.
Just like that, his mask was back on his face. He looked like the same cold Duke from before, as if he hadn't been acting intense just a second ago.
Zora went to work right away. As she prepared the warm water for his bath, she started to rethink her choices. She wondered if it was a mistake to come here and work for a man who obviously hated her kind of people.
She let out a long breath. She didn't know what she was going to do. She was starting to feel very tired of all the secrets and the games.
When he finally entered the washroom, she left the room as fast as she could. She walked back to her own room to retire for the night.
She lay in her bed and thought back to the conversation they just had. She thought about how nervous he made her feel.
She also thought about how that nervousness had turned into something else when he had come closer to her neck.
She shook her head and told herself to snap out of it.
She scolded herself for having such thoughts. That was just fear and nothing else, she told herself firmly. She tried to push the memory of his warm breath away.
She started to wonder why he hated her kind so much. Was there a way for her to get more information on the man she was working for?
She wanted to know the facts about him. She wanted to know the rumors and the truth about his life. This was the first time she had thought about doing this.
She felt a little bit stupid for not thinking of it earlier. If she was going to live in this house, she needed to know everything she could about Duke Avner. She needed to know what kind of man he really was if she wanted to stay safe.
Zora stared at the ceiling for a long time. She realized that she was in a very dangerous position. She was a vampire living in the house of a man who hunted them.
She needed to be smarter. She needed to listen to the gossip in the kitchen and talk to the other servants.