"Is there something on my face?" Grace asked with a slight smile, as if she didn't notice how frightening Lucas's eyes were when he looked at her.
Honestly, Grace's body trembled slightly in shock at Lucas's gaze, which was exactly like the vampire she had first seen near her apartment, causing a commotion with the death of an animal and a man.
She tried to ignore it. Because for her, it wasn't Lucas who was scary. It was the vampire's desire that forced Lucas to do something so terrifying.
"No," Lucas replied, staring back at his food.
Grace clutched the dried rose that had fallen from her mouth, feeling uneasy. She felt as though she was being watched and was in danger. She didn't know where the pair of eyes was coming from, but their negative aura felt so strong around Grace.
"What's wrong?" Ezra asked when he returned with a glass of drink.
"I'm thirsty," Grace said, immediately taking a sip of her drink.
Seeing Grace's strange behavior, Ezra immediately turned to Lucas, glaring at him when their eyes met, signaling a threat to Lucas if he did anything to scare Grace.
Grace could see the eye contact between Lucas and Ezra. However, she still felt that it wasn't Lucas who was sending the negative aura towards her. She felt that Lucas also seemed to be wary of something.
"Can you hide your dislike for Lucas a little?" Grace whispered.
"You always defend him." Ezra clicked his tongue.
"I'm not defending anyone!" Grace denied Ezra's accusation that she would always take Lucas's side no matter what happened.
Not only Lucas, but Ezra also seemed to be on guard. He always looked at the people around him with a threatening gaze. Ezra was like that, but he didn't usually do it to everyone.
"Are you two hiding something from me?" asked Grace, who couldn't stand her two friends' strange behavior anymore.
"Who do you mean by 'the two of you'?" Ezra replied.
"You and Lucas, of course."
Ezra laughed with a disgusted expression because he didn't like being called by a name that linked him to Lucas, as if the two of them were good friends. Even if he had to, Ezra would never forget that Lucas had let him live back then. That didn't change the fact that Lucas had hurt his father.
Grace just rolled her eyes, clearly displeased with Ezra's open hostility toward Lucas, whom she knew had never caused any trouble for Ezra.
"Lucas and I aren't that close that we'd have to keep something like that from you," Ezra retorted.
"Really? I don't know why I feel like you two are so wary of each other."
"Yes, it's necessary. Lucas could attack me to get your blood."
"Haha... that's impossible." Even though Grace knew Lucas was a vampire, she still didn't feel like Lucas wanted to hurt her.
Yes, the dried rose that came out of his mouth was unclear in meaning. It could be a threat, or it could just be a message that Lucas couldn't say directly to her. Grace didn't mind finding out what it meant on her own.
What was certain was Grace's belief that the dried red roses were connected to Lucas, who was very similar to that scent.
"Oh, Ezra. Do you know what the dried roses mean?" Grace tried to uncover the truth gradually.
"In what way?"
"Your world. I mean, the world of darkness."
There was no immediate response from Ezra, who instead looked thoughtful and hesitant to say anything.
He didn't want to involve Grace in his world at all. Even if it weren't for Grace having followed him during the full moon and seen him transform into a wolf, Ezra might still have kept his true identity a secret from her.
And when Grace started asking about the world of darkness, Ezra grew even more worried.
"Where did you hear about the connection between dried roses and the world of darkness?" Ezra asked before explaining.
"A history book," Grace answered casually.
"Don't find out anything about it." Ezra stood up from his seat, carrying the tray with his leftover food, avoiding such questions.
Seeing that the clock on the wall indicated that lunch break was about to end, Grace quickly finished the food left on her tray.
However, she caught a whiff of a strong, blood-like smell passing by, causing her to turn around to look for the source of the scent. No one seemed to have passed by. A few moments later, the back of her neck felt cold.
It felt as though a pair of cold, bloodthirsty eyes were staring at her.
"This feeling is bothering me," Grace muttered as she immediately left her seat.
But she accidentally almost bumped into Lucas, who was standing not far from her seat, startling Grace.
"You scared me, Lucas!" Grace scolded.
"Please listen to me carefully," Lucas said, holding Grace's shoulders with a worried expression.
"What?" Grace asked, confused.
"I love you. Will you go out with me tonight?" he blurted out, leaving Grace speechless in disbelief.
Their eyes locked for a moment, as if Lucas was waiting for Grace's answer while Grace waited for her mind to process Lucas' sudden confession. The problem was that Grace felt that Lucas would never do something like that to her.
"No." For some reason, Grace decided to reject Lucas even though her heart couldn't lie about her feelings for him.
"But why?" Lucas asked, looking panicked.
That face was unlike Lucas, who was usually very stiff when showing his emotions.
"I don't know. But I feel like I don't want to date you."
"Please reconsider."
"My answer is still no."
"Please..." Lucas brought his face closer, ready to kiss Grace, whose body was frozen and couldn't move at all.
Her body truly wanted to resist, but she couldn't move. Grace felt something was off about Lucas this time. Lucas wouldn't do that without a reason.
Grace was sure it wasn't Lucas.
"J - don't do that..." Grace stammered.
But Lucas didn't direct his teeth toward her lips, but toward her neck, causing Grace's eyes to widen in fear as his fangs appeared and blood dripped from them.