Rose Thorn

This is a perspective change from the last chapter so I will issue the same warnings

This chapter contains blood as well as suggestive themes

view at your own discretion and feel free to skip

happy reading!

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Ever since they brought Lord Dante's body back from the border I felt dead inside. I knew that it was impossible dream but a part of me still had a crush on the young lord. I tried to bury these feelings as a maid or servant shouldn't lust after their master. No matter what I tried I seemed to find myself drawn to him. My parents had died years before and I came to live in the estate with my grandfather as a servant. The master had been very kind to me. I could tell that we shared the same pain when I heard that he had lost his mother around the same time. I think it was those feelings that made me start to have an interest in him, and as more time passed that interest became an obsession. I was immersed in my depression when I was told to go check the master's body. "Rose, you need to go check the master again?," one of the older servants called out. It wasn't a long walk and the crypt was located on the family's estate.

The difficulty of getting to the crypt was mainly because of the snow and the cold. When I arrived I grabbed one of the torches held by a sconce near the entrance and descended into the darkness. I had made this trip at least twice by this point and knew where to look for the lord's tomb near the back. As I passed through I noticed the sarcophagi that contained the bodies of the late Augustus family members. The closer I came to the back of the crypt the more my heart began to beat in my chest.

A part of me hated making this trip as I would have to look at the young lord's body. The other part of me liked this job because at least in death I could be a little closer to the man that I dreamed about every night. I knew that this was a morbid thought to have but it was intrusive. When I arrived at his coffin I could feel a little part of my soul leave. Laying the torch down I slid the large stone lid off to the side a little bit and picked the torch back up to get more light. When the light shined on his face my heart stopped for a moment and I thought that I was hallucinating. Sure there had been cases of mistaken death in the empire before. My heart stopped mostly because I had been happy and excited that he was alive. I stared into glowing red eyes, eyes that I remembered being a distinctive gray. I thought that maybe someone or something had taken my master's place. All doubts were cleared when he sat up and his face came into full view. I was so happy and in that moment I felt tears well up in my eyes. Suddenly and without warning I felt my master bring me into his embrace. A slight pain followed as I felt the blood rush out of my body but I didn't care as I could feel the warmth of Dante's body and I knew that he was alive. I felt the life that I had as it rushed out of me along with the blood and into my master.

After a moment I could feel Dante bringing me out of his embrace and I saw the look of horror he gave me. A horror that I couldn't share as I was just glad that he still existed. I felt nothing but bliss in my final moments and my eyes closed. For some reason I was still conscious, but I could still feel myself at the precipice of death, as Dante placed my body in his coffin.

It was a little while later that I began to feel pain all over my body. It felt as though every inch of my body had been covered in fire. The pain reminded me of my life. For some reason I still couldn't move no matter how much I wanted to trash and turn. I simply couldn't.

After an eternity of being bathed in fire I could suddenly move again. The once dark crypt seemed to be filled with light in my eyes. I stumbled out of the coffin and it seemed as though the feeling of fire that had burned my body was concentrated in my throat. Almost instinctively I knew that my body craved blood. I now understood why my lord had 'killed' me. My body itself seemed to be on autopilot as I made my way out of the crypt the same way that master had done before.

When I reached the exit I noticed that the day had become night. With my improved vision I could see a set of tracks in the snow left by my master and followed them. When I reached the estate I made my way back inside through the opening to the cellar from the outside. Most of the time this door to the cellar from the outside remained locked, but since I was a servant I had been given a key to access it. As I opened and descended into the cellar I saw torches leading back to the tomb as several soldiers passed by. I worried for Lord Dante's safety. If they had found out that Lord Dante had become a monster then it was likely they were looking for me.

After descending into the cellar I closed the door behind me and settled in. The passage of time didn't really seem to have an effect on me except for the growing thirst. No servants came down to the cellar for a long time and this was normal. Most of the time the bottles here wouldn't be opened unless it was for a celebration or a guest had arrived at the estate.

I found myself unaffected by the cold and the dampness of the room and my eyes had long adjusted. I knew it was morning when the rays of sunlight would shine through the crack in the cellar door that faced outside. I could feel my eyes burn at the ray's presence and moved further into the back of the cellar to avoid them.

Eventually the sunlight faded once again and my calmness returned to me. By this point I could feel that my thirst had become insatiable and that staying here would bring danger to any servant that happened to wander in. However I couldn't go out of the cellar lest I attacked indiscriminately and caused more harm. So I remained in the cellar as I thought about Dante and the thirst seemed a little more manageable. At some point in the night I could hear footsteps from the kitchen descend down into the dark cellar. I had thought it would've taken longer for someone to come down here. I crept up closer to the noise as the servant was picking bottles and the glass clanged together. Slowly as if I was a hunter that stalked its prey a maid came into view. Though I was a maid myself I didn't recognize her, and even if I did this hunger would've caused me to not care. I tried to pull my gaze away from her, but the scent that wafted in my direction wouldn't allow me to.

The lapse in concentration allowed for me to make a tiny noise. It was probably that noise that saved the maid's life. As she looked over in my direction I could smell the fear, and hear her heartbeat as it sped up. It took everything in my power to prevent myself from pouncing on her right then and there. Fortunately she had made a quick escape back up the stone steps. I could hear an almost frantic cry come from her direction. I just stood there and waited. I couldn't move, otherwise I knew that I would go on a killing spree. Later I heard another set of footsteps, but this time I could feel a connection to them as they approached. This connection almost seemed to become clearer the closer they came. At that moment I knew that the footsteps belonged to my master. Strangely I knew that he was the only one who could've helped me in that situation and I couldn't control my voice as I called out, "Ma..Master, I..I..NEED IT!"

When Dante heard my cry I could see his steady approach. He looked much the same as he did when he left me in the tomb. His clothes were much cleaner and his eyes were a dull amber instead of the bright red that I remember, but I knew that it was him. When he was finally in front of me he grabbed me by the arm and brought me into his chest. His neck that flowed with blood smelled so good! I couldn't help but pant a little. When his words echoed in my ears and said, "Go ahead and feed." I could not control my exhilaration and quickly bit down into his neck. With each mouthful of blood I could feel our connection becoming stronger and after a little while he bit into my neck as well. I let out a moan of surprise and ended up spilling the blood in my mouth. After a moment I bit in again and started taking more gulps. I could feel Dante getting heated, but suddenly he stopped and pushed me away. I still wanted more but Dante leaned and whispered into my ear and said, "Rose, MY Rose, that is enough sleep…sleep."

I felt a power come over me and my eyes slowly shut, however I didn't care about that as the last thought in my mind was, 'He said I was HIS ROSE!'

The next morning I felt my head pounding as I woke up in one of the other rooms inside the estate. There were several birds chirping outside the window and I wished that I could've just gone out there to wring their necks. Thankfully whoever placed me in this room had pulled the curtains so that the sunlight wouldn't be a problem. A basin of water sat next to the bed and I began to wash my face. I was still wrapped in the thoughts of what happened yesterday and my face flushed at the memory. After the water settled I saw my reflection in the bowl of water and couldn't help but marvel at my changes. My eyes were still their original blue but I could see streaks of red mixed in; when I smiled I could see the sharp fangs that I had used to feed yesterday. More importantly after inspecting my body I noticed that my figure had improved to that of a perfect hourglass. It also seemed as though my bust had gotten slightly bigger which I wasn't complaining about. All of the back pain was gone after all and it would just serve to make me more attractive to my master.

As I was marveling and appreciating these changes there was a knock on the door and my grandfather entered the room. Almost as though he was slightly afraid of me he entered cautiously which caused my heart to ache a bit.

"Rose my dear, how are you feeling?," he asked with concern.

I couldn't say that I wasn't glad to see that he was still concerned about me. To allay his fears I said as I normally would've, "I'm fine gramps, in fact, I would say that I'm more than fine." It seemed as though my comment had eased his worries a little and a little relief covered the fear.

"I've spoken with the young lord about your 'condition' and he's asked you to go speak with him right away.," Renlf ordered me having replaced his grandfather persona with that of the head servant. Though I didn't mind the tone, because I knew my place as one of the servants of the estate. Grandfather always treated me normally when we had time off together and I was glad that he still did so. After laying a change of maid clothes on the bed my grandfather left the room so that I could get dressed. All of the maid outfits had the same familiar black and white design. After putting the clothes on I checked myself in the mirror to make sure every hair was perfect. I didn't need to put on any makeup because of the changes that I went through. I already looked beautiful and didn't need to cake my face to look like a clown in front of my master. I used to wear makeup before all the events that lead to my change. So I had nothing against putting some on, but after my change I wouldn't even know where to start making improvements. It was like I knew that this was my face, but it also wasn't. Therefore instead of looking like a fool I just chose a natural look.

After leaving the room I saw that my grandfather was waiting for me to lead me to Dante's office. Most of the servants wouldn't directly deal with the master in his office, and the duty of serving him was left to my grandfather during that time. This was a very unusual situation, and I'm sure that it would start some rumors, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to see Dante and serve him. With my improved hearing I picked up a conversation between the maids, "Did you hear? The young lord is getting married!...She just arrived yesterday afternoon." I was shocked at the words and wished I could've heard more. Unfortunately these senses were all new to me and I hadn't gotten used to them yet. I dared not ask my grandfather about these rumors and eventually their veracity would become apparent.

Eventually my grandfather and I arrived at the master's office on the second floor. After my grandfather knocked, Lord Dante summoned us into the office. When we walked in I studied the surroundings, because I was never allowed into the room in the past. The most important documents in the county were located here, and common servants couldn't enter without permission otherwise they would receive harsh punishments. I saw several bookshelves that contained scrolls or tomes. Glancing off to the left of the room closer to the windows. I saw there were a pair of velvet sofas that were used to receive guests. These sofa's were separated across from each other by a small table. In the center towards the back was where I saw Dante sitting while reading documents at his desk. When my grandfather and I entered Dante looked up and straight at me. I could feel my throat parched and my knees threaten to give way at his obsessive stare.

"My Rose, you've come.," Dante said to me gently.