Chapter 208

Chapter 291: All the Wrong Things

Nani was vexed.

Fortune had disappeared.

At first, the aged woman assumed the parrot had gone on his morning adventures and would be back by afternoon, but when he had not showed up at his favourite hour of the day, teatime, Lady Deviyani was convinced something was wrong.

She had sent servants and family members scouring the territory of the Castle and, some servants even went as far as down the hill and around it just to assure the flustered Lady Mother that the bird was not in the vicinity and had finally decided to take flight to freedom from human relationships.

"That is ridiculous!" announced Lady Deviyani when Lady Manorama opined that the parrot had probably found a secret mate and had gone to begin a home and family elsewhere. "He would never leave without a word. Something has happened...I am certain of it."

All this while, when involving with the search parties themselves, Kushi had often glanced in the direction of the General who appeared to be very cool about the whole matter. He betrayed no signs of having even known a parrot of that sort existed and, least of all, his current whereabouts.

Kushi was convinced, like Nani, that Fortune would not fly out without saying goodbye. She was certain the General had gone about and done something to him.

She cursed herself for not having found the courage to pick herself up and go find the bird as soon as she had left the horrid scene of the morning. But there was also the matter of hiding the truth that she was privy to. It agonized her to see Nani in the state she was in, lost of her beloved pet and without her reliable friend to give company in her occasionally self-imposed solitude. But Kushi was afraid to reveal that the last time she'd seen the bird was when the General had smacked it out the window.

Many times, she imagined herself telling the truth to Nani. But the mayhem that would unfold after it, kept her mouth shut and she breathed no word of it to anyone. She wished she could atleast tell her husband but his flat refusal of wanting to hearing about the General, which would reignite his rage, had made her swallow the episode of the morning and conceal it for the time.

Night-time came and Nani's sombre mood flourished. Her sorrow of losing Fortune gravened into more dismal memories. After draining herself wailing about the parrot, Nani began to lament about her daughter, long lost to death.

All the while, Kushi remained by her side, listening and consoling but there was little she could do to abate the remorse the woman underwent.

Being the least she could do, Kushi offered to give Nani company until the latter fell asleep.

She helped Nani to bed, draped the blanket over to her shoulder, blew out the candle and sat down on the armchair, looking at the grandmotherly figure reclined in the bed.

But, contrastingly, listening to the emotionally exhausted Nani mumbling memories, Kushi's mind drowsed and, before long, she was dozing in the armchair.

Lord Arnav turned in his bed, nightmares raking his mind and rendering him restless. Beleaguered scenes from the past flashed behind his closed eyelids and his hands gripped the sheets in an attempt to block out the phantasms.

Suddenly he froze, his eyes shot open and he stared at the ceiling.

The blood in his heated veins curdled and awoke bringing with it a darkness he had for long managed to curb.

His hands trembled and his legs weakened, signs that he was too familiar with.

His desperate hands floundered in the darkness, hopefully reaching for the other side of the bed, but the emptiness that greeted him shattered his resolve.

The darkness broke forth and he was thrown backwards on the bed, cold sweat breaking on his heated skin. Wildness roved in his burning throat and he bit the pillow to appease his searing tongue.

Don't, he pleaded to the savage spirit in him but he was too powerful to listen to his human vulnerability.

Lord Arnav did the next thing he had oft done when in distress of such danger.

He slid one unsteady hand in the direction of the bedside table and, tugging open the drawer, put his hand in for the belt. His head, pressed against the pillow, paled when he realized there was no belt within the drawer, perchance removed from not having needed it for long.

He tried to remember where the next nearest location of a handy belt was, but he couldn't tweak his mental faculties anymore. They would soon be victim to wild blindness and hunger.

Sliding down the edge of the bed, he fell onto the rug with a light thump.

His breath came out in heavy rasps and his head dizzied as a powerful force tried to clamp down on his sanity.

Suffocating the human in him, he felt himself arising with breathless rage and mighty hunger. Every sense in the room magnified and he heard the hurried scuttle of anxious ants from the corner of the room.

A wild cry resounded from his depths and he narrowed his eyes to listen more clearly. The sounds of people breathing reached him through the walls. The man in him surfaced in violent protest, trying to drag him down to the floor, to contain him, but he pressed his fist down and reared for the hunt.