Conquering His Cold Heart

219 Guilty Conscience

Tilla couldn’t believe her ears when she heard Vincent asking her to choose a body part where she would want to get bitten.

She pulled her hand away from Vincent’s loose hold and pressed her arm against her chest. The part where Vincent held her earlier was colder compared to her normal body temperature. Thus, she gently rubbed the wrist to warm it up and then mumbled in her shaky breath, “I choose not to get bitten by you.”

“Tilla...” Vincent closed his eyes and tried to convince her again while breathing restlessly, “I can assure you that it won’t hurt as much as you imagine. It will just feel as though you were pricked by a needle.”

Tilla obviously knew for sure that the bite didn’t feel like how Vincent explained it to be. “I’ve been bitten before, Lord Vincent!” she spoke out loud in an assertive voice.

“I know how it feels like because everything is still very fresh in my mind!” She sounded scared as well as angry at the same time.

She recalled the night in the garden when she had thrown herself to the vampire who was trying to bite Anastasia. She felt chills in her bones when she remembered how she had literally felt her blood getting sucked out of her body. She hadn’t forgotten how she thought she was going to die when her consciousness was slowly slipping away.

And in no time, her already weak knees began to tremble like a leaf. She didn’t want to go through that pain and trauma again.

She hung her head low and opened her fists to press her palms on her chest. Her heart was hammering so loudly in her chest that she could feel the beats with her palms.

Tilla closed her eyes and began whimpering, “Please let me go... You said we were friends... Friends don’t hurt each other, do they?”

.....

“Tilla...” Vincent gulped again and sighed deeply to calm himself down.

He didn’t want to let his hunger control him anymore because he could feel Tilla trembling badly.

After all the time they had spent together, back in the castle, and during the journey to Xanmar, he had assumed that Tilla wouldn’t get this scared of him when he asked to feed on her. However, he could see how wrong he was.

Furthermore, when she mentioned that friends don’t hurt each other, he could sense the betrayal that she felt. He had never felt this guilty before.

Remembering the state she was in after almost getting killed by the psychopathic vampire, he didn’t dare to forcefully feed on her or ask her permission to feed on her again.

‘How could I even ask such a selfish question?’ A deep frown settled on his forehead as his guilty conscience took over him. ‘She’s terrified of me now. And why wouldn’t she be? You sound and look like a predator. You are a predator!’

Needless to say, Vincent’s hunger suddenly vanished. And so did his sharp fangs; the fangs immediately turned into regular canines.

‘I had to ruin everything when I had started to regain her trust again!’ he cursed himself in his mind.

He thought of storming out of the room because he was too ashamed of himself now. However, he resisted doing that.

He clenched his fist and thought to himself, ‘The least I can do now is apologize. Please don’t be a coward and run away after scaring her like this.’

Vincent wasn’t sure if Tilla would ever forgive him for pulling this stunt. He wasn’t sure if she would ever start trusting him again. But he was still determined to save their budding friendship.

Thus, he held Tilla’s waist with both of his hands and then turned her around to make her face him. He immediately felt a pang in his heart when he saw her terrified of him. Scaring her was never his intention, and yet, he was doing the exact same thing.

Tilla was avoiding looking at him directly thinking that she was now about to get bitten. She whispered as a drop of tear escaped from one of her eyes, “Please don’t... You are scaring me...”

Vincent felt yet another pang in his heart as if her words were penetrating his heart mercilessly.

“Tilla, I’m really sorry for acting instinctively,” he whispered back to her.

He lifted his hand and brought it close to her face to wipe her tears.

However, she breathed in sharply and stepped behind until her back was pressed against the door. She avoided being touched by him because she was still afraid of him. Why wouldn’t she be? He was still towering over her.

Vincent pulled his hand away and apologized again. “Tilla... please forgive my behavior just now. But I think I can understand even if you don’t forgive me this time. Though I was being driven by my hunger, I should have maintained my distance from you. Asking you for your blood was the worst possible thing I could say to you. So... I leave the decision in your hand. I won’t force you into forgiving me like the last time.”

Tilla didn’t say anything. She simply kept quiet, wishing in her heart that he would stop blabbering and would leave her alone.

Vincent finally stepped away from her and then waited for her to step away from the door too.

Tilla took a few deep breaths in. She lifted her head and then took a peek at Vincent when she didn’t hear him speak anymore. She noticed how he wasn’t baring his fangs anymore. She let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Vincent was glad to see her gradually getting calmer. Since she was still standing in front of the door, he asked her, “Umm... will you step aside? I want to leave before my hunger starts resurfacing again.”

Tilla didn’t need to hear that twice. She quickly turned around and opened the door for him. However, since she had already lost her trust in Vincent, she was the first one to step out of the room and stand at the other end.

She was afraid that he would pull her back inside the room and attack her if she kept on standing at the door or inside the room. So, as she stood out there in the open, she hoped that he wouldn’t attack her in a place where others could see him.

However, she quickly changed her mind when she saw his fangs elongating again.