Blissful Bite ─ Venti x reader

6. ; ART OF PERCEPTION

As I followed Diona, the way didn't seem as gloomy anymore, maybe it had been for the bright flame of a lantern she used, but my nerves began to be soothed.

My gaze wandered off a few times, resulting in me stumbling once or twice. From that point on I tried to focus on Diona, she'd tell me about the extremely small village in front of the mansion-if it even counted as one, the main aspect was that she tried to guide me the best she could and convince me of investing into destroying the wine industry. The letter was a huge ambition, but I never fret about spending a coin or two on a good cause.

As she continued rambling, at some point I pretended to listen, as bad as I felt I had trailed off in thoughts to plan the next steps of the mission.

I looked at the figure from behind, I halted, and my heart dropped a beat.

Just as I was about to follow Diona and listen to her high-pitched voice again she pointed at a male, "...and that is Venti-the man who's part of the bad cause. He loves wine and oh he's the owner of this place." she rolled her eyes and glared at the male, with a certain spark of loathing, it crawled through my skin. Whether it was personal or something alone about alcohol. The girl seemed like a good first step to gaining intelligence on this place.

I caught myself glancing at him, my pulse slightly acted out for a second. I shook my head and turned away from staring at Venti, "So Diona," I began, "I assume you're the most knowledgeable about this place?" she nodded, stemming her hands into her hips with a smug prideness beneath that smirk. I chuckled at her gesture, that was easy, maybe she even had something useful in her hands.

"I- look, I'd love to know if.." I trailed off when I caught sight of the dark-haired familiar figure, the mysteriously comforting presence. I stopped with intention while my focus drew to his pair of emerald orbs. In the middle of it, he met mine.

Fuck.

Shit.

No, no, no.

He raised his hand and smiled,
"Hi, Y/n! I didn't know you'd come to know of that place." His voice was sweet as honey with bright energy underlining the mask of charisma he put on-an act, that's all it is-I told myself. My heartbeat quickened with hard protests against my ribcage and the blood filled my ears. I hadn't experienced what they meant when they said you could feel your legs grow wobbly, mine became liquid.

A quarter of a minute passed and it was dreadful. Everything was quiet-a few birds chirped, leafs circulated to the ground, the bushes, and trees rattled, and the wind howled, but no sign of the sweet voice I'd spent some time with out of free will.

Diona watched us patiently, she waited for a word to be exchanged seemingly. "We'll continue our conversation later Diona," I said with a smile, which was followed by silence finished with a soft hum of agreement from her. She left us alone to talk and I threw a look after the girl with the rose-pink hair.

"What brought you here, dear? The last time I checked you were a highly recognized vampire hunter." He raised a brow, "and not necessarily an outcast of society." Finally, his act had ceased and the mask had fallen. He propped his hands against his waist. A frown formed with a gaze that kept glued on mine.

He didn't give me the chance the avoid eye contact or avoid him as a whole without seeming rude.

All I could think of, was trying to come up with a good lie on how to disguise my intentions behind a good cause-heck this was a good cause from my perspective, but he or his shelter employees would agree less likely when judging from the reputation that they'd define from freedom.

"Uh well, there's been some complications with work." I lied, "and I've been fired." another lie.

"Additionally there's been an attempt on my life-" half-truth, that did happen a few hours ago. I held my hand over my heart pretentiously-which he couldn't have known-reenacting my discomfort. A heavy breath escaped my mouth, and my chest sank from rising.

"Goodness, that doesn't sound well." he mumbled, "how about you stay over here for a while?" he smiled and looked at me with high expectations as though I might disappoint him. Would I give him a different answer? Was that what went through his head? I didn't plan on declining his offer-it was a tempting offer and the one I aimed for. All I could hope for was that he hadn't caught onto my steps yet.

I walked a while with him and as the minutes passed, and silence lasted above our heads I protested against myself to say something. I'd scold myself, I didn't want to be the one to screw up, my eyes were weary and my consciousness flooded with dizziness.

Venti halted all of a sudden, and I did too. Caught off guard by his actions, I stared at him as he turned to meet my gaze. His jade eyes-friendly and beautiful-a distraction and trap I wasn't allowed to fall for.

The way he smiled was somewhat hypnotizing, inhuman. He continued to look at me a few seconds of silence passed between us and no major words other than a light breathing sensation were able to be heard.

He took a step closer and looked me up and down. Sweat pearls grew on my forehead while my body became incredibly hot.

"So why did you come here actually...?" he asked with a grin. To him, it seemed like this was the normal way of converting, to uncover another's secret and torture them with it, to the point your stomach turned.

--✧･ﾟ: ★,｡･::･ﾟ☆
RAINEE's NOTE; Another dramatic chapter and a good old cliffhanger. I'll see y'all next week and thank you for 31 votes and nearly 800 (now nearly 900 soon) reads<3 I appreciate it sm that people want to read my work or are at least interested in the plot somewhat to engage with it.