My Most Precious Human novel Chapter 77

I stared at my hand, petrified. A minute after sitting on the bed motionless, I got up and looked at myself in the mirror as if I wanted to check if there were no changes in my appearance. My human-like reflection didn't dissolve my restlessness entirely, but it was a start. I took a deep breath and made a strong resolution to ignore the problem for the time being, or at least until I talked to Will about it. Of course, it didn't change the fact that my mind was filled with restlessness, and even the logical argument that it might be a temporary side-effect didn't make my frantic heart calm down.

I grabbed my purse and a coat and went outside. Mike was already there to drive me to the bank's headquarters. I realized that I hadn't been there since my kidnapping. So many things had happened in that short time. I had changed from a simple employee to Mistress of the House of Calvet… although I still wasn't certain what the hell my position meant. I was wondering if any of this had an impact on my status at work. I would rather be treated just as before. I was sick of incessant adapting to new situations.

"Good morning, Miss Calvet!" Mike called out, waving his hand like crazy as soon as he saw me in the doorway.

"Good morning, Mike…" I smiled awkwardly, "Please, don't call me "Miss Calvet", call me just like before."

"But Ms. Lilith… aren't you going to be the Duchess soon?" he asked excitedly.

"Geez… You're like Martha," I sighed, muttering under my breath, and then added louder, "I haven't heard that Duke Calvet was planning to marry me, so please don't say such nonsense." I frowned at him.

"Fine, fine, Ms. Lilith," he grinned while opening the door for me.

He filled our way to the company babbling about the weather, how the autumn wind was getting colder, and that I should wear warmer clothes. I didn't prevent him from talking. It took my mind off of my anxieties.

When I got out of the car in front of the bank entrance, everything looked as usual. Perhaps that fact made me lower my guard for a while… I walked inside just like I used to and froze. Everyone inside the hall stopped, turned my way, and bowed down as if it was a queen entering, not some mere employee. I hesitantly took a step forward and observed those people. As I was getting closer to them, I heard them greeting me.

"Good morning, Ms. Leber," someone called out.

"Have a good day at the office, Ms. Leber." The voices were coming from each side of the hall.

"G-good morning…" I tossed to whoever was there and ran towards the elevators.

There was a line of people who waited to get to their floors, but as soon as the elevator arrived, they all stood aside, letting me in first… No one joined me. I looked, awkwardly smiling at the people outside the elevator. They all bowed down, waiting for the door to close. I also waited for that moment to happen, because only then did I breathe again.

"What the hell is going on in here?!" I asked myself while riding the elevator.

It all felt so awkward. I had no idea how I should react to their sudden, overly-shown amount of so-called respect. I wished I could shut myself in my office and have zero contact with others. Unfortunately, I had to talk to Gabriel and thank him for helping me with Sariel, and that forced me to walk through the corridor, meeting a whole lot of people, acting as weird as those in the entrance hall.

"Good morning." I kept muttering while dashing through, hoping to become invisible.

Finally, I knocked on Gabriel's door, and he let me in. I closed the door to his office, looking as relieved as if I had found a shelter that kept me away from danger. Gabriel chuckled.

"Mistress of the House of Calvet… What brings you to my office?" he grinned.

"I came to thank you for your help back then at the night of the attack…” I said with a slightly shy smile on my face.

"You are welcome, Mistress of the House of Calvet," Gabriel snickered.

"And I would appreciate it if you didn't call me by this strange title… Marquese Foubert," I smirked at him.

"Oh, come on, it's more fun this way," he snorted, "and you're one step closer to being a member of a noble family."

I sighed, "I think I'll pass on that. I've seen all the so-called noble families at the gathering, and I'm not sure that I would want to be part of it all."

Gabriel laughed while walking towards the sofa and inviting me to sit there with him.

"Having a position in a noble family is not a bad thing," he winked at me.

At that moment, I suddenly realized something that I hadn't thought of before…

"Can I ask you something, Mr. Foubert?" I gazed at him cautiously.

"Of course," he chuckled, "but you need to start calling me Gabriel."

I smiled nervously. "Fine… Gabriel. Why weren't you at the gathering? You are a noble of high status, aren't you?" I inquired.

"Actually… the Foubert family status is a delicate matter," he started reluctantly, "There was a rumor going on that my great-grandmother was mix-breed. She didn't live long and was burned after death, so no one could prove whether it was true or false. In the end, our family kept their title, but we were no longer considered a pure-blood family. The only family that supported us in that difficult situation was the Calvets. Our families were in close relationships, and the late Duke of Calvet even married my father's sister…" he paused.

"So, Sariel's mother was originally Foubert?" I tried to put his words in the right order.

"I told you, we are cousins, didn't I?" Gabriel smirked.

"But… if she wasn't considered pure-blood, wouldn't it mean that Sariel and Dominique could also have mixed blood in their veins?" I asked, curiously.

"I doubt if there is any real pure-blood living in this world," he smiled sourly, "It's all politics. King Mael decided to check the noble blood going back six generations, but it's hard to keep records from the fifth or fourth century…"

"So basically, this "nobility" thing is kind of a fake…" A wry smile appeared on my face as I recalled Princess Elora's speech, filled with superiority.

"At the end of the day, it's all a matter of strength. If you have power and abilities, you can set your own status in this world," said Gabriel while patting my shoulder.

"It's easy for you to say…" I sighed, "I am only a weak human."

"But you are also a very powerful vampire's woman. That can give you more power than you think," he smirked.

"I'm not so sure about that… I don't even know how this works. I feel like I am merely his lover, usurping status that doesn't really belong to me…" I laughed nervously.

Gabriel suddenly became serious. He looked me up and down suspiciously.

"I guess you don't know much about vampire history, do you?"

I raised my eyebrows at him. "Seriously? It's not exactly something that would be taught in human schools, you know?"

"I guess you are right," he snorted, and then cleared his throat, preparing to give a lecture. "A few centuries back, it was common for every noble family to have a harem. All the human females there had the status of a lesser wife or a concubine, and usually, the status of the main wife was reserved for a vampire. Of course, if the vampire wife died, then one of the humans had a chance to raise her status, and then that human was treated as the main wife."

"And you are telling me this because…?" I still wasn't certain what the purpose of this history lesson was.

He frowned, then locked his eyes on me. "All the humans in the harem were the marked ones, just like you. Sariel doesn't want to build a harem, so it is only natural that you have the status of his main wife," he explained.

I gasped. My head started to spin. It all sounded so serious. Until that moment, I had no idea what being marked meant.

"Wait… but that doesn't make any sense…" I smiled hesitantly, "So every woman bitten by the vampire automatically becomes his wife?"

"No, of course not!" Gabriel burst out laughing, then gazed into my eyes with a sly smirk. "In the old days, if the vampire didn't treasure his snack, he could always drain the human till death. A female human could become his wife if he wanted to taste her again and again. Certainly, killing and covering human bodies has become slightly more problematic nowadays. I mean, it's not illegal to kill a human in a vampire world, but it is harder to keep our existence secret if someone keeps leaving a bloody trail." He shrugged.

"The way you described it didn't sound too encouraging," I said with a nervous grimace.

"Don't worry, Lilith," Gabriel said, grinning. "First and foremost, I'm sure you're far too tasty to kill. And second, Sariel is not into polygamy. He is the guy who always wanted to choose and be with his one and only… and I believe he finally found one." He teasingly pointed at me.

I smiled, along with flushing all over my face. I wanted his words to be true, especially since as days passed, I could no longer deny I had feelings for Sariel, even though I was yet to know how to name them. I began to realize that being marked for vampires meant something like taking vows in the human world. Whereas I would expect an oath written on paper, I disregarded the fact that I already had Sariel's name on me, written in blood…