Twisted Tales: Vampire Bites By Midnight (Malleus x Reader)

Fang 24: Guest of (Dis)Honor

After the maids left, you and Grim simply sat on the bed.

A pit grew in your stomach as you thought about everything so far:

It beat getting dragged out of your house by possessed blankets, but it was far from what you would call normal.

Everything about this place felt invasive, from the maids washing and brushing you to the invisible vampire watching your every move.

And now you were heading to a banquet with that surveillance tenfold.

It was enough to make your head spin.

No matter what that guy says, we're just prisoners in the end.

You turned to see Grim adjusting his bow collar, the small silver bell chiming violently as he attempted to adjust it.

"This stupid thing's choking me!"

The abrupt knock at the door startled the both of you and you hopped to, and you cupped Grim in your arms as a servant boy in fancy black robes came in.

"Honored guests, your dinner is ready," he said with a bow.

You wordlessly followed him downstairs.

  The walls of the hallway leading to the dining room were lined with pictures.

They were just as creepy as the ones you saw upstairs, with the eyes seeming as though they could follow you wherever you went, with the dim lighting from the green lamps making it worse.

You did your best to look ahead to avoid them, staring into the back of the servant as you kept up with him.

Once you entered the dining hall, it was a stark contrast to the hallway:

The large candelabra hanging from the ceiling emitted a warm, bright glow, and the pictures were nonexistent.

The dining table was long and was covered in an elaborate grey cover and had a heap of foods from all across Wonderland lining its surface.

Lilia wasn't there yet.

Despite the many rows of black chairs, only a few people filled them, with one of them being Julian, who was nervously picking at his plate, and across from him was...

The man who spotted you on the balcony.

Oh crap.

Now that you had a good look at him, you could see that his light green hair was slicked back, with one of the bangs shaped like a lightning bolt.

He was wearing a similar suit that Silver had on, though his was black with green trimmings and had a ruffled tie instead of a bow tie.

Despite your wishes, he looked at you almost immediately and his face hardened.

He stared at you while you sat down.

You decided to ignore him as you let Grim go and watch as he climbed into the chair, a smile on his face as he examined the food before him.

"Ooh! This is a nice selection we got here! This takes me back! Hey, Y/n, remember Kalim and them let us try these in the Scarabia dorm back at the academy?"

You took a glance at the green-haired man and saw he was glowering at Grim.

"Uh, yeah, Grim. I remember. It's one of the baguettes–"

Your voice caught in your throat as the air tingled, your hair visibly standing on end.

Grim's fur did the same, as well as many other guests' hair.

It felt as if the air in the room had been laced with electricity.

You dared to look at the source of the numbing feeling, who was glaring daggers at Grim, his face red and his eyes wide with anger.

"Silver," his voice was a hiss.

The aforementioned person appeared in the seat right next to the man on cue.

His lack of expression surprised you.

"What is it?"

"Why did you not inform our guest that familiars eating on the dining room table are strictly prohibited?"
His voice was uncomfortably calm despite his expression.

The man's attention was on Silver but you couldn't relax due to the electricity getting worse by the minute.

"I simply didn't see any need to, seeming as Lord Lilia didn't say anything about it, sir" Silver responded flatly.

"You didn't see any need to?!" The man's voice finally raised, causing everyone in the room to get electrocuted.

Silver was the only one who didn't move an inch.

"In that case, why not just let the dogs and rats climb up on our walls and dance on our fine china?! Oh, while you're at it, why not let the roaches and other bugs too? Surely we'll have a grand old time as the fleas and mice eat at our scalps while we become the laughingstock of the Kingdom!"

This guy really knew how to make the worst out of a situation.

"Oh, stop it, Sebek!" A voice reprimanded him from afar, which caused the lightning to die down.

When you could finally turn, you saw Lilia with a very crossed expression on his face.

"That's no way to act among guests and you know it!"

You winced, though you weren't sure if it was from the utterance of the word "guests" or the pain of the shock.

Sebek's face fell at the sight of his master and he sat down, sulking in his chair.

He took a narrow-eyed glance at Grim before talking again.

"I believed that only the Child of Eden was to attend our hall this evening, my Lord."

Lilia sighed.

"Given that the monster had accompanied them, it's only natural we treat them as a fellow guest as well."

Sebek's eye twitched at the thought.

"An animal?"

"Sebek!" Lilia's voice lowered to a growl, which caused Sebek to drop the matter entirely.

Everything returned to its tranquility, or at least attempted to as Lilia cleared his throat.

He turned to the rest of the table while displaying a more cheerful disposition.

"Ah, yes, before we begin our banquet, I wanted to inform you all the Lord has decided not to join tonight.