The Crown's Obsession (WN)
chapter-251

When the time of evening had arrived, James sat in front of the grave of his father whom he had buried a few hours ago after finding him dead in his room. With everything that was going on, the loss and grief had been too much for him to handle.

"Sir, the cost for the work is twenty-four coins," came the voice of the caretaker, who was the person to look after the cemetery. James turned, putting his hand in his pocket to give the money to another man who had helped him in putting his father in the casket and burying him in here.

James' eyes looked bleak as they stared at nothing in particular. The caretaker left with the other man, who had come to take his money, leaving James alone in that part of the cemetery as there were no other visitors. Fresh flowers had been placed on top of the grave. When his mother had passed away, it had been difficult, but he had his father with him, who had also left him alone in this world.

The sorrow he felt in his chest, turned to hatred because it was always easier to deal with emotions like pain by replacing it with anger and hate. Giving reasons like his father would have still be alive if he were there to take care of him. Since the time he had found his father dead, James tried to find reasons and solutions of if's that was of no use as his father was long gone and dead, and his father was not going to return.

If he had not gone to visit Lady Catherine's mansion, if he was not forced to marry her, this would have never been the case. At least he would have been next to his father's side, to hear his old man's last wishes. As hours passed, James came to despise the Barnes' family, and on the other side he despised the King of Devon who had disrupted his life by his mere presence.

James had accepted defeat when it came to the love he felt for the girl, Madeline Harris, but the King had played dirty. The vampire had made sure to corner him to the point where he would have nowhere to go. It was because of his meddling that things had turned this way. James had never meant ill or any harm towards anyone. He was a man who his mother would be proud of, but it seemed like goodness brought nothing but bad luck to him. The King had snatched the girl whom he loved, wasn't the King happy? That he was now involving himself in matters that didn't concern him?

Blood started to boil under his skin as more minutes passed. The sky finally turned dark. James didn't know how long he sat in front of his father's grave. He stood up when he heard a loud howl coming from the forest which was behind the cemetery he stood in.

James took note of how the night had arrived quickly, and the crickets had started to chirp behind the bushes. Hearing another loud howl that followed with the previous one, he decided to leave the cemetery so that he would meet the King.

With nothing more to lose, James didn't care about the King, nor did he care about Mr. Barnes. James was a simple man, and he was living his life peacefully until the time of the Hallow that took place in Devon. Starting to walk away from his father's grave, James almost made it through the cemetery when out of nowhere, a wolf came to stand in front of him. The wolf growled, and James looked around scared and in worry. There were wolves in the forest, but they didn't often come out to the village or the town because of the people who normally chased them away. The wolf looked feral, baring its teeth for James to step back and keep a safe distance, but then came another growl from behind him.

Before James could do anything, the wolf at the front jumped towards him, biting his leg and making him cry out loud in pain as its teeth sunk into his flesh. Hearing him scream, the cemetery caretaker quickly made his way there with the torch of fire in his hand. The wolves growled again, but they didn't stay near James as they promptly fled back to the forest.

In pain, James fell on the ground, holding his leg.

"Are you alright, Mr. Heathcliff??" the caretaker came running, swishing his hand that had the torch of fire left and right up in the air.

"Argh!" James had never been hurt this bad before, and it almost felt like he was dying. He felt his body turn hot, making his skin feel as if it was on fire, and his vision had turned pitch black. Pain shot up through his body, making him writhe on the ground.

Seeing James on the ground, the caretaker offered, "Let me go find something to aid you!" and he quickly left after noticing the blood on James' pants.

James huffed for air, his entire face contoured in pain as he continued to cry. Blood was gushing out because of the large bite the wolf had taken, James tried hard to breathe.

The caretaker arrived with a box of first-aid, "I forgot to light the torches around the house. Recently, there have been growls and howls coming from the forest. Here, let me help you to sit up," said the caretaker, lending James a hand so that he would get up from the ground. "There's too much blood! I will wrap your leg with cloth so that you don't lose more blood. This will help you stop the bleeding until you go and see the doctor."

The cemetery caretaker helped James to walk and get inside his house, which was close by. The man started to help James in cleaning the wound.

"Why don't you complain to the magistrate about the wolves?" asked James, his eyebrows furrowed deeply in pain.

"We did. Some even went in search of the wolves, but the men and boys never returned. We don't know where they went," replied the caretaker as he tended James' calf muscle that had been injured. The caretaker didn't let people visit the graves after evening, but it was hard to shoo people away who had lost their dear ones and were trying to spend their time in front of the tombs, "Let me get you a pair of pants to wear."

"No, that won't be necessary," James stood up. He had somewhere to go right away.

"Please, Mr. Heathcliff. It would be dangerous to be walking with the smell of blood that might attract those animals as well as the vampires who are looking for blood," the caretaker spoke in a whispered voice as if someone would hear his words even though they were the only ones in the small house.

James borrowed the pants, and when he was about to wear them, he realised the pain suddenly felt negligible.

His hand reached out to place it on the wound and then press it. As if in curiosity, he pulled out the bandages that the caretaker had put around his leg, and he noticed the wound was healing. The injury wasn't as wide as before. Suddenly his body went through another pain, and James' eyes changed its colour without his knowledge. The anger that had been lurking in him came out in full force, and his hand went to smash the lantern that was in the small room.

The caretaker waited for James to step out of the room. Hearing a crash, the man knocked on the door and stepped inside the room to notice the place to be empty. Where did Mr. Heathcliff go?

When the man turned around, he was pushed against the wall with his neck being caught by James.

"M-Mr. Heathcliff!" the caretaker gasped for air.

As if coming back to his senses, James suddenly let go of the caretaker who coughed while holding his neck.

James' face held the expression of shock, and he quickly stumbled back with terror in his eyes. Before he knew it, he had bolted out of the house, running away quickly and catching the carriage to visit the vampire who had turned his life into hell. On the way, James picked up a stake for his use.

For some odd reason, his vision had turned better, and he was able to pick on things around him much more clearly. Slipping into the castle ground, he looked around for the King by taking the back route. When he saw him walking in the corridor, James' blood boiled even higher, and he wanted to kill the vampire. With a stake in his hand, James followed the vampire to only be struck on the head and end up in the dungeon.

"Tea?" asked the vampire and James growled in anger.

"I will kill you! Let me out of this!" shouted James, trying to pull his hands and legs off the iron shackles that were drilled and attached to the walls of the room.

Calhoun stood in front of James with a calm expression on his face, "Madeline will be very disappointed if she saw you in such a state. You are supposed to be the polite person Mr. Heathcliff and not angry young man Mr. Heathcliff." Calhoun wondered what was wrong with James as until now, he had appeared to be nothing more than a human, "You appear to be in bad shape."

This earned him more growls from James. The way the tailorman was behaving now, Calhoun doubted that James was a human anymore. By the look of his eyes that were gold and yellow, Calhoun's lips twisted in distaste.

"Did you get bitten by something you were not supposed to?" hummed Calhoun to receive a glare from James.

"It's because of you, my life has turned to be miserable! Why don't you tell Madeline about what you did?" demanded James.

Hearing Madeline's name come from James' mouth, Calhoun was not pleased, "And what is that?"

"Of how you were the one to push Mr. Barnes to fix the marriage between his daughter and me. I have been silent all this time, but you have crossed the limits!" James spat. No matter how much he tried to get away from the shackles so that he could get to the King, he was unable to free himself.

"Miserable?" asked Calhoun, "I believe your father died out of old age and not because someone killed him now, is it? Humans have fragile lives Mr. Heathcliff. You should have known that already when your mother passed away. And about your marriage with Catherine, I believe you brought it upon yourself."

"Bullshit!" came the angry word from James' mouth, his eyes flaring bright yellow and Calhoun looked at the man with lack of interest.