His Lingering Charm

Although Elle thought she had successfully ran away and escape from Magnus' sharp gaze, she wasn't aware that his scarlet eyes could see her and track her even when she had ran far away from him. As she held Lucas' small hands, Elle turned her head behind, finding Magnus who had stared back at her. Spark seemed to fly when their eyes locked on each other. It took time until Magnus became the first one to turn his face forward. With a chuckle, he whispered, "So the cat's fur is baby pink. That's quite adorable."

"Pink cat?" Asked the man who had been carefully gouging his behavior out of fear.

Magnus didn't respond. He merely stared at the man's nervous eyes, making him feel more unnerved as he had uttered nothing but stare at him.

"I- I am glad to finally meet you for the first time, Lord Magnus," stated the man whose hands had been trembling the whole time. His brown eyes appeared clear as he was a human and perhaps that was the reason why he felt pressured to talk with the red eyed lord. "There must be a lot of places you wished to visit so I am over the moon to know that you would like to come to our office first before anything else. Have you came to pray in the Saint's temple?"

"No, I came for a different reason. You see, there was a few complaints I have received even before I came to Raindawn. It appears that there is a well known phantom thief who had been creating trouble wherever he goes," Magnus heard the heartbeat that paced aloud starting to disappear as she left the market and softened his grin. "I wanted to see if you have any informations regarding them."

"If that is the case, I should call Zennox. He is the churchman responsible for uncovering the phantom thief's identity," replied the man in a hurry.

"Oh Zennox, I have met him before. That would certainly be pleasant after all, I wouldn't like a thief continue to run loose on this land," Magnus had stated his words aloud, enough for the busy street to hear his conversation. As some people had stopped on their feet to stare at his face, the once loud street was quieter than before, ringing his voice even more. "Tuesday," called Magnus for his servant who had turned out to stand behind him all this time to march quickly following his every two steps.

"What's your name?" Magnus inquired for the man to reply,

"Morris. Morris Fawn."

Magnus didn't repeat his name and smiled, "Although I wasn't quite upset today, Mr. Fawn. If next time this happened again and I should waste even a single precious minute on the churchmen, I won't promise that I won't destroy your church to the ground."

Upon Magnus's ultimatum, Morris's body shivered and he nodded his head profusely. He thought to himself if Magnus were to visit their office again even if his legs were lost in the sea, he would drag himself to greet the man. It was because Magnus seemed like the type of person who would chase others to the depth of hell for simply ruining his mood.

In the meantime, Elle who had reached home still couldn't forget the interaction she had with the man from earlier. They called him "Lord Magnus" so he must have been the vampire who she had met in the carriage! Although she had forgotten the details of their interaction, she had heard his name and was certain "Magnus" was that vampire name as well.

He had saved her twice, but why?

Elle didn't believe that there would be any creature who would help others merely for "kindness". She would feel her skin crawl thinking that others help her for such a pure purpose, not because she didn't like kindness, but because she knows no one in the world would help others without getting any benefits for themselves.

Judging by how his title was a "Lord", he was also someone with a high position…

Come to think about it, Magnus had talked with the werewolf churchmen who had chased her that rainy day. Was he related to the church? If not, why would he take it as his business to find the phantom thief? Or was he one of the people she stole from? If that was the case then he must be one of those greedy wealthy nobles who stole from the poor...

But he had helped them earlier, seemingly unconcerned even though the shopkeeper had told him they came from the slums. Usually people in his position would drop their kindness and instead looked at her in utter disgust. He was different. Also… if he knew she was a thief that day in the carriage, he would have sold her out! Perhaps that was why she can't forget his face, thought Elle to herself while touching her cheeks.

"Elle, the churchmen..." said Lucas with worries. He thought the silence that came from Elle was because she was shocked, brushing so closely to the churchmen who were hunting for her.

Elle turned her face and beamed her lips, "Don't worry, I have quit. I promised you to stop stealing and I don't plan on going back on my own words. Even if they were to investigate it they would find nothing. I've done this for three months and so far no one had pointed toward us."

Yes, if the churchmen were really so capable, they would have uncover her identity. But due to their proudness, they didn't think the people of the slums would have the capability to steal in such a meticulous plan which became their greatest weakness.

But even though she had made sure to erase all trace that would bring problem to the slums, she was still concerned of how the churchmen would one day come to her doors. Perhaps, this was the right time for them to move out of the slums.

"Be at ease, Lucas," Elle smiled while patting the boy who seemed to agree with her as the phantom thief's face had never been seen before and no one know even their gender, making the fact that Elle, a woman, being the thief even slimmer.

"Uh.." a small footsteps resounded from the bedroom. Her bright blue eyes glittered eyes she looked up at her taller siblings. Marcie smiled widely upon seeing that Elle and Lucas had came home, "Sister, brother!"

Elle felt as if her soul had been cleaned upon hearing Marcie's adorable voice. She walked forward and picked Marcie to her arms. "Did you sleep well, Marcie?"

"Mhm I did!"

"Marcie get down," came the sudden cold voice from Lucas. "Elle haven't healed her wounds yet. She just got into an accident before remember?"

Marcie pouted her lips but felt more panicked upon thinking that Elle was hurt. Before she could got down, Elle patted Marcie's back and stopped Lucas, "Marcie is too small to be heavy so I won't hurt myself. Also, my wounds are already healed since this morning."

"There's no way..." Lucas felt the need to take back his own words upon seeing Elle who had undo her bandage, showing her flawless fair skin. Even though this wasn't his first time seeing Elle's amazing capability in healing herself, he still couldn't got over the speed recovery she had. "Wow.. how is it healed... I heard from the books that bruises could last for weeks, three or four weeks."

"I've always healed faster than others, you know that too. Though these days I feel a bit scared with it," Elle found Lucas' questioning eyes and she sighed, "Usually it will heal in two days or three. Then it shortened to a day, and now overnight. I thought I should be grateful that wounds don't affect me for a long time but my recovery is just going even faster."

She was almost crushed by horses and ran over by the carriage's tires, something that would instantly kill anyone. Although she managed to save herself from more pain, the wounds which came from bruises, cuts, and fractured bones should have kept her bedridden for weeks but everything disappeared so quickly, making her wonder if this was something she should be grateful of or something she should be frightened of.

"Maybe visiting the doctor would be a good idea," Lucas said with his eyebrows tightened again. "I've never read anything like a fast recover so I can't give you any advise."

"No, it's alright. I'm sure this is a good thing." She couldn't trust the doctors. If they know she has the power to heal herself faster than others, they would try and sell her to those savage supernaturals. She couldn't afford herself to lose her guard now as no one cares about them except themselves. She then placed Marcie down and adorned her face with a smile to dispel worries, "Lucas, how about you bring Marcie to take a bath with you and we go to sleep?"

"Okay," Lucas agreed at once and held to his younger sister's hands tightly. "Let's go Marcie."

"Brother brother can we bring the ducky?"

"Of course we can," Lucas said patiently like the good older brother he was.

Elle watched from afar, feeling the warmth of their small family enough to make her heart at peace. This was her home, she thought, her solace. She walked out of the house to take a fresh breath, staring at the starless night sky without being aware of the group of knights that had gathered all over her house, eerily watching for her...