Louis cleared his throat, "I'm fine. The venom should be out soon," he said to which I gave him a wary look. He definitely didn't look fine.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him softly to which he nodded as he let his back fall towards the bed so that he was facing the ceiling now.

"You have no idea. If I weren't your knight to protect I would have killed you by now because of my thirst and it isn't helping your an angel," he let out a sigh of frustration. I didn't know how to respond to it.

"I can get you a glass of blood if you want," I offered him and saw him smile from where I stood.

"That's not going to curb my thirst or hunger, Eve. Take a seat. Ruka is talking to Annesana about what lady Lark said," he said looking towards the door and back at the ceiling. I walked towards the bed and raised my hand over his face.

"You can drink my blood if it's going to dissolve the thirst you feel," I said and saw him roll his eyes.

"Eve, the saver. Your mate will have my head on a platter if I bite you, you know that right?" he asked with his brows raised at me. I didn't feel Ruka would go to such extremes though I had a feeling he wouldn't like it as he had never bit me himself.

Taking a broken glass which was lying at the end of the room I cut the skin on my hand quickly as blood pooled on the palm of my hand with a sting. Taking an empty cup I poured the little amount of blood and passed it to Louis.

"Here," I said and saw his eyes glow at the sight of blood.

He didn't go crazy like the vampires in the movie at the smell and sight of it but I didn't miss the way he drank the blood out of the cup like it was the only thing that mattered. When I glanced at my hand the cut seemed to be healing right away.

"Thanks," he muttered placing the cup aside and went back to lying on the bed.

"Louis?" I called out who only hummed as a reply, "How are you related to Ruka?" I asked him.

"My father was a second cousin to Ruka's father Victor and Sebastian's mother is my father's sister. You want to know why Ruka doesn't address Lady Lark as his aunt Layla?" he asked hitting the question on the nail to which I nodded, "I guess you are aware of what happened years back. After the death of Ruka's parents and the death of the other sisters, Layla was the sole survivor apart from Ruka. She was too young to bring up a child and therefore Ruka was brought up in the Igorn family while she disappeared from the kingdom. None of us know what she did in that time but few tell she lost her soul. When Ruka and Layla met after years she preferred he called her 'Lady Lark' than by her name. Personally, I feel their relationship is more of a formality."

"I see," I replied thinking about what he said. I found it strange and wondered what happened after she left the kingdom. As Ruka was the closest blood relative who was alive I would have expected her to shower him with care after all he was her sister's son. But after remembering the whole atmosphere in the Lark mansion I felt she might have sold her soul but why? I didn't get it. And maybe Ruka wasn't comfortable talking about his parents and what happened.

"I heard you fought with a fake me in the sword fight today," Louis said changing the topic.

"You missed it," I said, smiling, as I thought about it. I had fought against a dead being with all my might and had made slashes on the body. I felt proud of myself. Deep down I wanted to fight against Mischel so that I could put her in a place she deserved to be.

"You turned out to be a decent student unlike Lizzy," he commented with a chuckle. At that moment I noticed Louis did look more of his age right now than the grumpy one I knew.

"Glad to hear it," I said with a soft smile.

Later that night, after a warm shower I sat on the bed holding a pillow while Ruka sat next to me crossed leg talking to Leo and giving details on where Olivia might be. It was raining outside heavily when I looked out of the window, thunders, and lightning going nonstop. I saw the raindrops slide down the window slowly, each drop racing the other.

With the conversation that was going on, I got to know that two bodies of the staff were found in the janitors closet with their throat slit. Shivers ran through my body thinking about it which resulted in Ruka drawing me closer to him by circling his arm around my shoulder. Once he was done talking on the phone, he threw the cell on the night stand and pulled me on his lap.

"Are you catching fever, love?" he asked brushing my hair back with his long fingers. When he pulled his hand away I let my head rest on his chest, yawning like a cat.

"Ruka?"

"Hmm," he responded.

"I feel like Olivia has something else in her mind than just get into the land of dead," I said as one of his hand found mine, intertwining our fingers like a set of puzzles.

"I know," he said and I pulled back to look into his amethyst eyes.

"You do?" I asked him as I felt I was just over thinking things.

"Olivia wouldn't wait so long to get into the land of dead because if she wanted to she could have gathered the stones a few centuries back when she found the opportunity," he said playing with the ends of hair and spoke, "I haven't given you a haircut yet," he murmured and I yawned again, "Let's get you into bed, love."

"I have questions to ask you," I said biting my inner cheek. He smiled at me and leaned in to kiss on my forehead.

"I'm aware of it, sweet Eve," he said, "Questions can wait for tomorrow. Today was a long a day, come on."

When I woke from my sleep and opened my eyes, I shut it again groaning. You must be kidding me, I thought to myself. I was in the forest instead of sleeping next to Ruka. Now that I knew it wasn't a dream my nerves felt jittery. Taking in my surroundings, I took a step forward to feel the wet ground below my feet. Unlike my previous dreams where the trees had lush full of green leaves in them, this place was dry as though it was undergoing draught but the ground was wet. A loud thunder was heard suddenly making me jump. There was no single being in sight but I could hear the faint cracking of twigs.

I began walking trying to find an exit out of this haunted forestry place but it felt like I was walking in circles. I wished someone woke me up from my sleep. Going further I found something glitter on the ground and realized it was a lake which was as blue as the ocean. Strangely even though there was water all the trees around were leafless or more like lifeless.

Getting nearer to the edge of the river, I saw something glitter again. Having a closer look my brows furrowed to see a large oval mirror like object at the bottom of the lake. Why was a mirror placed there? The glitter caught my eye again which circled at the corners of the mirror. Curiosity getting the best of me, I stepped into the lake and walked towards it. The water reached up till my waist. Before I could reach the object, the lake began to move like waves and soon started to swirl, creating a suction at the center.

Cursing I turned around to get out but it was too late. I felt myself pull at the center at one second and the other second I was lying on something cold and white.

Snow.

I was no more in the draught like the place but was sitting on a snowy ground surrounded by trees that blew the coldest wind making me shiver. Soon my upper and lower teeth were clattering with each other like a typewriter. Something snapped behind me that led to a drop in my heart rate. When I turned back I gulped. It was the shadow like creatures I had come across in the dark forest. The dark like a shadow with its face completely hidden in its ragged hood stood right behind me with its feet not visible as it floated just above the ground.

"Welcome to the land of dead, Eve. We were waiting for you," it whispered making my eyes go wide.