Bite Me.

6.

Marzia returned to the palace clutching in one hand all the things she had been sent to buy and in the other the hand of a grossly sobbing Karim. These were probably the last few minutes of Karim's life; she had scratched Levi's car. It had been an accident; just one of those freak moments that occur at the worst possible moment. The black Maclaren had questionable brakes at times, since Levi never appeared to use them. She had moved just a little too slow turning out of the car park and been very lightly bumped by another car. The scratch was hardly noticeable, but Levi adored this car. He'd see it immediately. He was stood in the kitchen when they entered the house, his shirt hanging open as usual. He seemingly still didn't know how to finish dressing himself. Marzia dropped Karim's hand and took a step back, awaiting the onslaught and hoping to stay out of range. There was no telling how he'd react; he was volatile at the best of times. When he saw the car through the window, his face went blank.
'You scratched her,' his voice was eerily calm.
'I'm so sorry, it was all my fault- a total accident but-' Karim began, her hands flying to her face.
'It was an accident,' he agreed, keeping his expression neutral. Karim breathed a sigh of relief and started apologising profusely, promising that nothing like this would ever happen again. She didn't even have time to finish her sentence before Levi backhanded her so hard she went flying to the ground. She looked up, a look of utter horror coming over her. Yep, she was a goner. She tried bargaining for her life, but she had no chance now. Nobody survived when they had invigorated the wrath of the King. He followed up his hit with a kick to her stomach that forced her to double over, the wind knocked out of her. She tried to crawl away, but he kicked her arms from under her and her face smacked onto the ground. She pulled herself to her knees, spitting blood and clamping her hand over her temple.

Eren heard all the commotion and went running downstairs, terrified that somebody was being murdered. In this house, it wasn't unlikely. A blood-chilling shriek emanated from some room to his left, and he ran towards the sound. What the hell was happening? The scene he came upon was something that he'd never erase from his mind. A small girl was cowering against the wall, blood dripping down her face. Levi was towering over, a murderous look etched on his face. He aimed a kick into her ribs and watched with indifference as she hacked up congealed blood, resigning herself to her fate and no longer even trying to block him. Marzia was looking away, her face conflicted. She knew that if she stepped in she'd pay with her life, and Karim would die either way.
As Eren watched the life being beaten out of her, he knew he couldn't just sit back and watch like Marzia. Even if he got hurt in the process, even if he died, he'd rather that than just let her be killed. That would be almost like killing her himself.
'Stop!' His voice was barely even a whisper, and he felt his knees go weak as the furious eyes turned their attention to him.
'P-please,' he tremored. 'Leave her alone...'
'This doesn't concern you,' Levi spoke as if he was conducting a business meeting rather than committing murder or grievous bodily harm. 'So go back to your room before you join her. I can just as easily slit your throat.' He nudged her barely conscious form with his boot as if to reiterate his point. Eren didn't even care at this point; he may have been currently doing stupid things and allowing bad things to happen, but he liked to think his moral compass was still intact.
'I don't care!' He blurted out. 'Please, stop! I'll call the police!'
'What makes you think you'd get that far?' Levi nerved, leaving Karim alone and storming towards him. He grabbed him by the collar and pulled him so close that they could hear each other's racing heartbeats. He glared at him until Eren looked down, uncomfortable.
'That's what I thought,' Levi slowly let him go, still not taking his eyes off him.
'Marzia, take him back to his room and make sure he stays there.'

Eren sat in his room pensively waiting for a chance to escape. He couldn't stand another minute in this awful place. He wanted to go home. He'd never do a bad thing, he promised to some nonexistent deity, if he could just go home.
'There's something you need to understand,' Marzia came and sat next to him, her voice uncharacteristically hard. 'Levi is not your friend. However nice he might be one moment, he could kill you in the next. He acts like he's just ruthless and does it all to keep his position, but there's something seriously wrong in his head. You learn to just do what he says and accept that you can't change it. This is no place for a human as young as yourself.'
Eren was silent. He didn't know what to say.
'If...' He wasn't sure how to phrase this, and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear the answer. 'If you know that, why won't you let me go?'
'Because I'd rather you than me.'

Levi stared down at the girl, his shoulders heaving from exertion.
'Get up,' he spat. She couldn't even lift her head. 'Why won't you get up? You're not even trying!'
'Sorry,' she managed to croak.
'Stop apologising!' He growled. 'You're so weak! Just look at you! You're a vampire, you're taller than me, and yet still I can kill you just as easily as this. It's pathetic.'
She sniffled and curled up, waiting for the killer blow. When it didn't come after an eternity of half wishing it would just happen and the other more instinctual half wanting to fight, she raised her head. He was gone. The extent of her injuries- mainly internal, she guessed, owing to the fact that she was coughing up blood- meant that it would take at least four hours to heal. Did this mean he had spared her? He could have killed her, right there and then. He'd never done anything like this before, as far as she knew. He always finished people off. She picked herself up off the floor, her head pounding like a bitch, and made for the door. She'd return to her room and assume that she had just been dealt a punishment rather than a death sentence. Oh god did she hope she was right. She would have remained in the kitchen to regain a little more strength, but she would only get in more trouble if she kept bleeding on the floor. She'd have to return at some point and clean it up. Levi despised uncleanliness of any sort. That was probably a more likely reason to have so many maids than just an excuse to have pretty girls everywhere. He felt nothing for the girls he hired other than irritation whenever they failed him, even in the slightest way. He just expected them all to eventually get it wrong. People were just objects to him. She wondered frequently what on earth could have happened to him to make him the way he was today; it was too closed off to even be about the power. Somebody had betrayed him and lost his trust in the worst imaginable way at some point in his life. And now that he had power over everyone, nobody dared hurt him like that.