The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 169: Exposed (2)

Chapter 169: Exposed (2)

Madeline stumbled back in a staggered motion, her eyes wide with shock at the whoosh sound of the blade slicing through the air and piercing straight into something - but.... But it wasn’t her. The blade.. it was heading right for her, she saw it, the reflection of the twin blade were visible in her dark orbs, but if she got stabbed, why isn’t she feeling any pain?

Recovering from her numb state and letting out a harsh breath to have her senses working again, Madeline could feel the arms of someone wrapped around her, pulling her close.

It took a moment for Madeline to realize that it was Cassian, the familiar warmth of his body was pressed against hers. But then, she felt the shock of pain coursing through his body, and she immediately knew what he had done.

He had taken the blade for her.

"C...Cas?" His name could barely leave her lips as her voice sounded croaked, her heart beating frantically against her chest. With her arms around him as well, Madeline could feel something wet seep between her fingers, and when she raised her trembling fingers to look at her hands, it was smeared with blood.

Not just anyone’s blood, but Cas’s blood!

"Cas... there’s.... there’s blood!!! There’s blood! Cas!" Madeline tried to push him away, horrified that he had chosen to take the blade for her. But Cassian only held on tighter, refusing to let her see the blade that was still connected to his skin, obviously worried that it might trigger her trauma once again.

Taking her back to that suffocating state was the last thing he wanted, and she was already starting to get better.

Silence reigned in the hallway, and Elijah, who had been calculative with his plan all this time, could feel his face blanch when the least person he expected to come in between his perfect plan was no one other than Cassian.

Subconsciously, his fingers trembled until he balled them into a tight fist, not particularly sure of the emotion that surged within him.

Was it guilt? Whatever it was, he didn’t like it.

As if on cue, the sound of a gunshot was fired at Elijah who masterfully dodged it, he did a stunt and lifted himself up in the air till he landed smoothly on a window sill, unharmed. The earlier wounds he recovered while battling Elian had healed up.

Inna and Orson froze upon seeing the face of Elijah. Orson was meaning to pull the trigger for the second time, but his hand automatically paused itself when he assumed the one he was staring at was Elian.

Elijah’s disgruntled expression was locked on Cassian, ignoring the two people who had the intention of shooting him. His red eyes flickered with an emotion that disappeared the minute it came, and he gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"If you make it out of this," he began in a soft tone, "I’ll let you keep that sword." His eyes shifted to the twin sword that had pierced Cassian from behind. "The only difference is, I won’t be the one to kill you, but your own people. You must assume I’m insane because I am, but I have a reason for being what I had chosen to become, and I won’t stop until I accomplish my mission."

"Elijah!!" Elian roared his name as he lifted one of the heavy pieces of the wall building that had shattered, hurling it at Elijah, but the skilled vampire swiftly evaded it as he threw himself off the window, bursting through the glass and he was immediately out of sight.

Shocked, Elian ran to the edge of the window, he peered down, but there was no sight of Elijah anyway.

He had escaped.

"Darn it!!" Elian silently cursed as he moved away from the window, running his fingers through his hair and grabbing a handful of it to keep himself sane.

"Are you... alright?" Cassian asked in a soothing tone, feigning ignorance to his own pain, and Madeline, who couldn’t believe he was still asking about her health tried to make him pull away, but he stubbornly refused to detach himself from her.

"Hold on." He whispered quickly, "just stay like this for a minute. There’s something I don’t want you to see, so let me hold you." He requested in a sincere whisper, and Madeline felt her body comply with his wishes, even against her will.

Slowly, Cassian’s right hand reached for his back where the blade was still connected to his skin. In a swift movement, he pulled it out of his back, eliciting a painful groan from him that startled Madeline, almost like she felt his pain, and it took a lot of her willpower to not react out of her emotions.

The blade that had been intended for her lay discarded on the ground, glinting in the moonlight that penetrated in through the windows.

"Cas..." Madeline’s eyes widened with alarm when she felt him sink to his knees in front of her, and she followed him, pulling him in for a hug as the tears in her eyes dropped.

"Cassian!" Inna handed her gun to Orson and hurried to the side of her brother. She went on her knees beside him along with Madeline, her brain muddled as she tried to think of how to get her brother to stop bleeding.

Orson still stayed on guard in case of any more Fiends. His eyes shifted from Cassian time to time, his worries unable to let him concentrate properly.

"Don’t joke with us Cas! I’ll kill you myself if you don’t hold on a bit longer!" Uttered Orson whose threat only made Cassian chuckle weakly.

"Cas..." Pulling back, Madeline cupped his cheek with her palm, making her meet his eyes, and she took notice of his Amber-brown eyes turning crimson.

It dawned on Madeline that the only way he could reach her so fast to take the hit for himself was when he took the form of a vampire.

"Cas.. listen to me, please turn back, no one must see you like this." Madeline tried to plead with him, her voice quivering with her emotions. "They won’t understand if they see you like this, you need to be human again, please..."

Madeline looked around quickly, making sure no guard was in sight. Her heart drummed rapidly, both in fear and exhaustion. If Cassian is seen like this, no one will ask what happened, he could be blamed for the disappearance of those people, and no one would listen to his own tale of the story.

"Cas....turn back please!! You have to turn back!!" She looked into his red eyes, silently pleading for him to take his human form, but Cassian was too exhausted to even turn back.

That twin blade, it wasn’t any normal blade.

"Shit!" Elian picked up the twin blade Elijah had left behind, staring at the blood that was smeared on the edges. "He used the twin blade on you, there’s no chance of quick recovery unless you’re a high vampire." Elian explained, "If Madeline got hit, she would have died instantly."

"Cas.." Inna studied where he got stabbed, her hands taking the color of his blood. She ignored the fact that her brother had turned into a vampire before her eyes. She cared about nothing except his health currently, and the only thing that went through her mind was how she was going to reveal this to her mother if something terrible happens to him.

"What..what do we do?? Vampires can’t die right? My brother...he won’t die right?" She asked Elian with her eyes filled with water, and to her dismay, Elian didn’t respond, more like, he couldn’t bear the risk of lying to her.

"Cas isn’t a pure-blooded vampire, I can’t give an answer considering if his body can handle the effects of the twin blade. Let’s try to stop the bleeding first."

Inna immediately nodded, and Madeline proceeded to rip her dress in order to provide a material they could use.

It was then that Alaric arrived on the scene with three guards, his eyes scanning the chaos around him, as well as the destruction that took place.

He spotted Madeline first, and then the figure whom she cradled with his head resting on her thighs. But as he approached, he suddenly stopped in his tracks as he caught sight of a mystic change in Cassian’s appearance.

His eyes had turned crimson, and when Inna raised his shirt up to tie up his wound, the young lad hissed out in pain, his fangs becoming visible to Alaric who’s face paled at the unimaginable sight.

It was then that Alaric knew the truth about Cassian.

He was a vampire, one of the creatures of the night.