Chapter Four: Old codes

Grabbing what was left of the list Giselle had put in his head, he put them in the cart and pushed it to the check out point. There appeared to be a long queue and Lucien shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, while stealing a look at the leather wristwatch adorning his wrist.

It was five minutes to 4pm and he couldn't believe that two hours had been wasted shopping for food. Time was a meaningless blur these days. In his defence, food was a delicate thing and selecting ingredients for it required patience and articulation, observation and survey. The canned food took most of his time in honesty. He had carefully read the branding on each can of food that piqued his interest. And from the queue, he could tell another hour in this store is guaranteed.

Placing himself on the other line that had just been created to make the check-out process faster, he scanned around for any tall black haired lady clad in a yellow tank top and ripped baggy jeans. He had expected that she'd have finished faster than him. So much for shopping expertise, he thought.

He spotted her standing afar, flickering her eyes around in search of him. Her eyes finally landed on him and a smile graced her lips. She carefully pushed through the space of people and was by his side in no time.

"Did you get everything?" Giselle glanced at the filled cart in front of him and she wore an impressed smirk. "I see you added a few things of your own. Finally getting a hang of shopping I presume?"

His eyes flickered down, dragging around a lazy gaze over the items he had indeed found interesting and decided to try. Also, he added a few colours that he had found on a section that read, 'art and craft'. He had run out of some colours in his palatte a few days ago and decided to restock.

He resisted his urge to roll his eyes at the woman who squeezed herself in front of him. He rose his eyes again to find most women staring at him. He supposed it was the price to pay for his height, dressing and looks. But he looked away, itching with irritation.

"I see the women already have eyes on you." Giselle silently giggled when she caught sense of his discomfort.

"Till I drain their necks out. Hopefully they'd still ogle me." When he spoke, plain coloured his voice, leaving Giselle to ponder if he meant it or not, making her smile falter.

He felt an intense stare boring into the side of his body. He hissed to himself, figuring it might be from one of the ladies ogling him. But something told him there was something different about this stare but he brushed it off, not caring to look. He looked down at Giselle who scowled at him and rose a brow at her.

His eyes glanced up again, staring lazily around and in a split second, his eyes landed on her. The lady he had seen earlier. With his eyes on her, haunting thoughts creeped into his mind. A vampire never forgets, they say, and it's true. Even if it was smell or taste, their memory always collect it, most especially touch. He swallowed dryly, realizing that this girl was the one he had saved that night.

He watched her stand impatiently on the queue with earphones plugged into her ear. She was wearing a baggy hoodie and shorts, which revealed her pale, slender legs. Her wild locks were barely contained by the scrunchie. Her hoodie did no justice to her small frame because he remembered how small and delicate she felt in his arms that night. So small, tiny better put. And human.

As if feeling his intense stare, she looked back but he had long adjusted his gaze. But somehow, her eyes fell on him and remained there for a while before she looked away. He could feel her gaze faltering and blocking out all other emotions in the space, he concentrated on hers. She was swimming in anxiety, stress, impatience, frustration, worry and oh, uncertainty. Her hands tapping by her side gave away her discomfort.

She fiddled with her phone, adjusted her earphones and continued standing. She'd raise to her toe to peep at the counter and heave a long sigh. She was going to die on this queue and if it wasn't on the queue, then her boss was sure to wring her neck this time, she thought. Lucien watched her all the while with an unreadable expression. She glanced back again and her eyes involuntarily strayed to him. Her gaze held something within, like she was trying to figure out something.

He sighed deeply with sudden realization creeping in. The night he came in contact with her, it was a full moon, a star less night, though she didn't see him but her body sensed him, how could he had been so careless? How could he not have remembered? He had forgotten the old code of Vampires. When a Vampire comes in contact with a human, the human is bound to always remember his presence. Now, when a Vampire intervenes with the life of a human, the human owes him their life. It creates a bind. An eye for an eye, the code was know as. Or in his native language, Ornatae.

He cursed inwardly, knowing what it meant. The girl kept intruding his mind because she was now binded to him by the old codes. It wasn't so hard for Vampires to forget whatever they wanted to forget, in as much as they have good memory. But when she kept ruining his thoughts all night yesterday, Lucien knew something was up. He should have just let her die. Now she was tied to him by the useless code.

He looked up again and the girl was no longer on the queue. Odd, she's not yet due for check out, he thought. His eyes scanned around for her and found her returning to the queue with another item in her hands. She should have just used a cart, he thought. She squeezed herself back into the queue and swiped her head fast enough to meet his gaze on her.

He averted his gaze immediately, scolding himself for even sparing her another glance. Feeling uncomfortable, he quietly excused himself, slipping away quietly. He didn't want Giselle to sense what was going on and he needed fresh air because he was beginning to feel suffocated.

He stepped outside to be kissed by fresh air and the raging storm of questions and inward cursing began. As if helping her that night wasn't enough, he had to help her fetch her bag of chips. And oh, she didn't say thank you. He hissed inwardly when the 'thank you' thought crossed his mind. She had said thank you, his found his mind screaming at him. Dispelling it immediately, he balled his hands into fists by his side because thank you was the least of his problems. He wished he could compel away the bind but of course, it can't be compelled away. Also, binds created on a full moon, must be broken manually.

He ran a frustrated hand through his hair, retraining himself from raining a strom of curses. Just when he thought he couldn't despise his nature more, this just had to happen. He wondered if she felt the bind too, maybe she didn't. But the distinctive look in her eyes when he had met her dull blue ones, showed curiosity and confusion. Her body recognized his presence. Her mind subconsciously aware about him. It was the dumb binding at work.

"Fuck!"

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, taking a sharp inhale of air. There was one question tormenting him and he wasn't ready to confront it yet because he knew what it would mean. To break such a bind, close contact is needed. She owed him her life involuntarily and she was just going to keep feeling his presence till he frees her. Once he frees her, she'd completely forget about him. Every recognition of him would vanish. It would be like he never, ever encountered her.

Good. He didn't need her remembering him in any way. Now how was he going to free her when he didn't want to encounter anymore humans. She was a human, who lived with her fellow humans after all. Vampires are supposed to be a myth, humans are forbidden to know they exist. Funny thing about Ornatae is, both parties should be aware of the binding and the one who owes the life, should with all permission, give her life in payment.

It was easy to save human because humans are fragile, mortal, easily acted upon and what not. But a Vampire? A creature a little beyond mortality, with crazed strength, heightened senses, reflexes and speed? How on earth was she going to save him? He can't free her of the binding if she can't save his life in return. She was now a slave to him, and he hated it. No one should be a slave to him.

He didn't realise how long he had stayed in the car or when he had gotten into the car till the light tapping on the window brought him away from his reverie.

"For fuck sake Lucien, why did you leave me in there alone like that? I had actually been talking to you, only for me to turn and realise you had left." Giselle raged on.

She slammed the door shut, turning herself to glare at him. "Incase you didn't realise, it was rude, disrespectful..."

"Giselle please..." he cut her off with a deep voice on a the brink of losing it's cool.

"No Lucien, a simple notification of you about to leave would have been nice..." she cut him off.

"Giselle..." he cut her off, with a slight plea in his tone for her to let him be.

He turned on the car, quickly driving them out from the parking space and onto the road. He had a tight grip on the steering, his sleave rolled up to reveal veins bulging on his arm. He gently pressed onto the acceleration, adding more pressure with his footing till the car was faster. He turned on the radio to drown out her voice.

Giselle who had been busy ranting, noticed how fast he was driving and stilled. She turned to Lucien who had a stern grip on the steering with the other released to rub his chin. His eyes were fixated on the road. He wind blowing through his hair only made the appearance mouth watering. But no to Giselle who was afraid of how fast he was going. Bruno mars wasn't helping the situation when his song, 'Wolf comes out tonight' was blasting through the radio. She knew he turned on the radio to block her out.

She turned to the road and instinctively grabbed onto any handle nearby. She turned to Lucien who's jaw just clenched even tighter, his eyes rid of the shades, were a darkened shade of grey with the red flecks sprinkled scantily around his grey, growing even more visible and alive with a darkened glow.

"Lucien please slow down. Fuck, you're going too fast." She pleaded but his attention was far from her.

"Slow down please..." though they had long left the occupied roads and were now on a lone roade that lead to the woods, she was still worried. He looked viscous and pissed. "Please slow down, you might run into something."

Her pleas fell on deaf ears because rather than slow down, he went faster, zooming through the clearing in the woods and onto the familiar route to their house.

He came to an abrupt hault in front of the cream coloured mansion and turned off the car. He stayed silent for a while, his chest rising and falling in rage and Giselle's rising and falling in fear she was trying to get a hold of.

Still, Lucien wasn't satisfied. He didn't feel satiated enough. His anger still needed to be vented more.

"Lucien what the hell was that?" Giselle screamed at him.

He didn't spare her a glance, he just gritted out, "get out of the car Giselle. Now!" He growled.

"What the hell is wrong with you Lucien? Were you trying to get us damaged? What were you thinking?" She screamed at him.

"What was I thinking Giselle?" He said in a maniacal tone. He got even more infuriated because he never knew what he was thinking most times. It felt like decisions sometimes dropped in his dead but he always seemed to carry it out before giving further thought to it.

"Yes. What. Were. You. Thinking? You could have run into a car or ran someone over with the way you're driving. Do you think..."

"Sae feneri ornatae?" He growled out to her which made her gasp.

Lucien never really spoke the native language of the Vampires. He only did that on rare notes and when he did, it was never a good sign.

Not only that, he mentioned Ornatae. Was he bound to someone? The questions were obvious by the expression on her face.

"What? What do you mean by how do you break an Ornatae? Are you bound to someone?" She asked astounded, staring wide eyed at him.

He sighed deeply then turned to her with eyes boring into her soul, "No, someone is bound to me."