A Weapon of Kinship

A Vow of Consent

"You saying you are the one responsible for helping the prisoner escape?" Lord Ritcher asked and I nodded my head. I knew Lord Ritcher disliked me and assumed he would want to punish me first. He smirked and walked towards me. I glared at him as he approached me and grabbed my chin with his clawed fingers.

"You think you so bold, Lil girl. If I made my way you'd be drained of every drop of blood in your body." He said threaten me. I growled and spat in his face. He moved away, looking at me and pushed me into the guard's hands.

"Take them to the Lord." he growled and wiped the spit from his face.

And with that, we were dragged through the hallway to Lord Karlheinz's study. The guards pulled me by my arms. I didn't care how they treated me but I was applauded at how they handled Lord Shu. He was could keep up without falling or being shoved by another guard. I wanted to scream out how could they treated their Lord but remained quiet. Once we approached the door, the guard halted us while Lord Ritcher knocked on it.

'Enter."

They pushed the three of us through the door and we fall on the carpet. We looked up at Lord Karlheinz who was glaring down at us with his vampire eyes.

"As you can see Milord, what I said was true. This wench involved your son in her plan of helping this human prisoner escape without your knowledge."

"I did not such thing!" I shouted but Lord Ritcher kicked me in the side causing to me scream in pain.

"Silence!" he snapped, "You will not raise your voice before the Lord himself! You are disgraceful."

"Milady! Why-" Edgar cursed, glaring at the dark prince.

I looked up at Lord Karlheinz hoping that he won't believe what his brother said about me. But he stared at us with his calm yet intense golden eyes.

"It would seem so brother." He nodded his head to the guards, they forced us back on our feet.

"Now who can tell me what happened and why is the prisoner out of its cell?" He asked.

"As I said Mi-" Lord Karlheinz held up his hand and silenced him.

"I want to find out the truth from them. Why did you help the prison escape?" He asked. None of us spoke; Shu's eyes were glued to the ground while Edgar's body trembled beside me. I wanted to speak up but was scared, too scared of getting hurt again. My only fear was what would happen, to Edgar if we told him we sneak him into the mansion and hid him away. I wondered if could Lord Shu be punished along with us but I doubted Lord Karlheinz would do such a thing. When we didn't give an answer, Lord Karlheinz's expression hardens and his golden sparked with red.

"If no one will speak up then I will have to two accountable for what my brother say. Firstly, I applauded that you would do such a thing in my mansion and this will go unpunished. Especially you, Shu, to see you stand before me like this." He said bitterly to his son. Shu's hand clenched and he gritted his teeth together not saying a word to his father.

"Guards, take the prisoner to the basement and have the heating oil ready for his punishment." My heart dropped as he said those words and Edgar's face went pale with fear as the guard pulled him out of the room.

"Edgar no! Please Lord Karlheinz! Listen to me it-" I screamed but Lord Ritcher slapped again me across my face causing me to fall to the ground.

"Lies! You filth you dare lie to the Lord!" He growled and pressed his heel piece into my spine. I groaned out in pain and looked up at Lord Karlheinz hoping that he could reconsider but he just watched. There was no mercy in his eyes, he didn't care if I being insulted by his brother. It made me think that I was just an asset, a human servant that was meant to serve and protect them. Even if I died, I won't even matter to them