The Duke's Passion

Chapter 735  Suffocated to death

"Lakresha."

Lilou held her breath while Samael stared at her carefully, but nothing. She frowned while he let out a deep exhale. "It didn't work," she mumbled, a little disappointed at not retrieving her memories. Lilou was slightly nervous, but at the same time, she wanted to become that version of Lilou her son was talking about. "That's fine." Samael breathed out, watching her raise her head only to see the deep frown plastered on her face. "Lakresha will eventually respond to you."

He sported a smile on his face, nodding at her encouragingly. But that didn't appease her. So he let out another faint breath and approached her. However, as soon as he took a step forward, Lilou mumbled, "Lakresha," one more time, and his pupils dilated.

Not just him, but Lilou was just as stunned as a dark shroud wrapped around her hand that was holding the necklace. It crawled from her fist up to her arms, and then neck. Lilou panicked and yelled, "Sam!" but as she did, the dark shroud entered her mouth.

At that moment, Lilou's breath hitched as if someone suddenly strangled her. Her eyes were forced open while her limbs stretched, making her stand on her toes as if she was being possessed by the devil.

"Love!" yelled Samael, taking another step, only to halt as she raised a hand to stop him from approaching. He balled his hand into a fist, watching her stumble back, gagging, hunching in as if she was in pain.

"Ah..." came out a helpless scream, scratching her neck to stop the invisible force that was strangling her. "Ah...!"

'It's killing me,' her brain screamed at her, but Lilou could only continue hunching in until she was on the floor. 'Make it stop!'  As Lilou balled on the floor, she took a peek at Samael. She stretched her hand to him, asking him for help silently. She was being suffocated to death for real. It wasn't painful, but she was losing oxygen. "Help." Lilou forced out a word, but her heart sank when Samael simply looked at her. Seeing him watch her suffocate to death, tears formed in the corner of her eyes, blurring her vision, and thus failing to notice the pain and anger in his eyes. Knowing he wouldn't help her, Lilou crawled away. She dug her nails into the floor, ignoring the scratches and splints. Her fingertips soon bleed as her face dyed a deep red. She was at her last straw and at the second; she knew she would die. Literally.

"Help..." another whisper escaped her mouth before darkness embraced her like she was its old friend. As soon as those last words slipped past her lips, Samael hang his head low. His eyes were blank while listening to the sound of her fading heartbeat. It didn't take long when her heart pumped one last time before it stopped beating. She had suffocated to death.  "Those bastards..." he whispered, balling his hand into a fist. "... I'll fucking kill them all."

His eyelids drooped as he moved his gaze on Lilou's back. She died crawling, and the stench of her blood from her fingertips prickled under his skin. Samael slowly shoved his hand inside his pocket, taking out his cross ring in his hand. For minutes, it was nothing but silent, but the aura he exuded continued to grow, catching everyone's attention in the manor. When a glint flickered across his eyes, his fangs grew longer, hissing, "Catharsis."

CLANG!

A bright spark flashed in their eyes as a set of different colored eyes — green and deep red — glowed between his heavy sword and a scythe of death. Their metals rattled with the increasing force in their grip. "Samael Vaughnn Caecilius La Crox," came out a shaking voice full of anger, hissing as her fangs grew longer. "I will kill you."

*****

Minutes before Lilou and Samael's confrontation...

Fabian stood in the middle of the garden while staring at the thick darkness covering the land of Karo. He blinked ever so slowly, rubbing his ring with his thumb. "Oy!" Klaus called from behind him, strutting his way towards Fabian's figure. He stopped at a safe distance, hands on his hips. "I do not have time to apologize to you, Your Highness," Fabian replied, raising his head without taking his eyes off the direction he was looking at. "Hah! Do you take me for a fool? I would rather believe the angels would crawl underneath the ground than hear a sincere apology from you." Klaus clicked his tongue in irritation, studying the butler's back. "I'm still fucking angry that you abducted me and bound me in that filthy place. But my angel told me to behave, so I am behaving, alright?"

Klaus ruffled his hair in irritation. If not for Lilou and her kindness, he would've challenged every single one of them in here. Sure. He might lose, but the result didn't matter. Klaus simply had to preserve his honor. "It's about the goon," he continued. "That one with a thick untrimmed beard. He keeps calling me uncle, but I don't know him. However, his name is the same as Lucia's child."

Klaus took a deep breath and huffed it sharply. "Was it true?" he asked solemnly. "About the reversal of time. Is it true that we were simply back in the past?"

"Yes," Fabian answered without beating around the bush, but he kept his attention on the darkness ahead. "Ten years from now, you... will become the captain of the knight brigade of the Earl of Monarey. Before that, you'd be the captain of the knight brigade of the Duchess of Grimsbanne..."

Fabian and Klaus furrowed their brows as they both looked back at the sudden burst of aura between Samael and another person. Without thinking twice, Fabian advanced in the direction where the clash of dominance was coming from. But then he halted when he noticed Klaus not moving an inch. When Fabian looked back, Klaus was looking in the same direction where Samael and Lilou were fighting with blank eyes. To his surprise, Klaus suddenly whispered.

"Lilou..." In a snap, Klaus disappeared from his spot like a shadow. His movement and speed, and his reaction time, were what stunned Fabian in his spot. The latter, instead of rushing in the same direction, narrowed his eyes. "During this time... he shouldn't be that strong," whispered Fabian with narrowed eyes before a thought crossed his head. Klaus... was Lilou's vassal. Even when Klaus vowed to Claude, the Earl of Monarey, Klaus had sheltered Lilou's blood back when she was the Duchess of Grimsbanne. "Oh..." Fabian tilted his head, idling instead of coming to Samael's rescue. "... that's interesting."