.

It was as if there was a sudden time skip when it came to the time of death of Mrs. Adams but she wasn"t the only one, it included the maid who had appeared in the dining room with the deserts.

As if one skip wasn"t enough, he saw how the hand of his watch skipped forward to another turning it to two hours and then moving it to one hour. Lucas flipped the watch close to put it back in his pocket.

This never happened and if it did there was only one answer to it. Someone had done something they were not supposed to do and it wasn"t him nor anyone in the mansion here. Someone had changed the course of time which now moved the time of death by nearly three days leaving it with only an hour before chaos would leak down in this place.

He would have taken the blame if the time had jumped when he had killed the witches and the magistrate but nothing had happened then. Until this very morning, it was still showing three days which made him question what exactly happened between that time and now.

"I forgot to tell you that Mr. Quinn offered to help us but I told him it wasn"t necessary as we got our mansion back and the Stlinksons" are still waiting to find out about their daughter," said Mr. Adams at the table.

"Gerald has always been nice to us," stated Mrs. Adams as the maid pa.s.sed her the bowl of steamed vegetables when she raised her hand to take it, "There are only a few pureblooded vampires who we know are nice though I wouldn"t tell the same to his wife or wives. Even his late wife was intolerable when it came to people who weren"t pureblooded vampires who didn"t belong to the first or second generation. It is still a mystery how a woman like her fell ill so suddenly."

"Indeed that is true but I heard many of the first generations were hit by an unknown illness which even the white witches didn"t know what the cause was," answered Mr. Adams.

Belle didn"t find it comfortable to hear them talking about death when something was lingering around her mother. She stood up from her seat and bowed her head, "I am feeling slightly unwell. I will be retiring to my room."

Both her parents nodded at her and Belle left the food untouched on her plate as she was only drinking the water that was poured by Lucas earlier without even touching the blood that had been poured in a thin long gla.s.s. She had lost her appet.i.te before she could take a bite and right when she had noticed the black vapors around her mother.

She found it to be very unsettling as she paced back and forth in front of her fireplace.

Why was it around her mother?! Belle didn"t know what to do. The maid had it too and she had fallen suddenly ill. She heard her parents speaking about Gerald Quinn"s late wife who had suffered from an irrecoverable illness. Would her mother share the same fate? Asked Belle to herself.

Barron who had been sitting there against the wall saw how the young girl walked front and back to only pause herself from walking as if she was trying to figure out something.

"Why?" he heard the girl whisper, "It"s not too much so maybe it should go away right?" she said to herself.

"What is going on with you?" asked Barron, his words, as usual, going unheard.

The reaper had spent a decent amount of time with the vampiress in this room, forced to listen to her as he had nothing better to do thanks to the lowly butler of this mansion who had trapped himself in this stuffed rabbit. He had come to learn that compared to the stuck up vampiresses he had come by this one was more like a human and less like a vampire.

Belle stood still, her hands turning cold as the thought of her something happening to her mother engulfed her. Wanting some fresh air for herself, she stepped on to her patio. Her hands clutching the railings to finally get back inside and out of the room to head down again to where her mother was. She didn"t know how far her speculations were wrong but for the time being, she wanted to spend time with her mother.

Her parents had only finished eating and were standing out in the hallways, talking to each other when she reached where they were, "Are you feeling alright, Belle?" her mother asked, her hand reaching to place on Belle"s forehead to see if she had caught a fever. There were times when even vampires and pureblooded vampires feel sick. Maybe not as often as humans but it was possible.

Belle felt her stomach drop as the vapor of the black shadow around her mother continued to increase and she somewhere started to feel helpless. Stepped forward, Belle put her arms around her mother so that she could hug her.

"Belle?" her mother questioned who gave a questionable look at Mr. Adams who shrugged as he didn"t know what happened, "Is something wrong dear?" her mother placed her hand on Belle"s back, rubbing it gently.

Mrs. Adams didn"t question and let her daughter hug her, making her wonder if something had happened today. The vapor-like black flames were only increasing in time and it made Belle worried, "I was missing you," whispered Belle softly that brought a gentle smile on her mother"s lips.

"We spoke a few minutes ago," her mother chuckled to see Belle pull away who looked sad, "Come let"s go to the drawing-room," her mother said putting her arm around Belle"s shoulder to be followed by her father. Once they were settled in the room, Belle sat too close to her mother which her mother noticed, and Mrs. Adams took hold of Belle"s hand so that she could hold it in both her hands.