Claimed by the Prince of Darkness novel Chapter 195

Chapter 195: Taken Back

With one hand pressed against his bleeding arm, Ezekiel ran through the forest that was located behind the Belmonts’ residence.

Blood soaked through his fingers and it wasn’t from the beating but because the skin he had worn had begun to turn unstable. His breath came harsh as he stopped against a trunk of a bare tree, his vision turning hazy. When he pulled his hand away, there was blood on his palm.

Damn it, Ezekiel cursed. Just one more hour was all he had needed for the treaty to break.

He regretted fleeing from the debt collectors now. Instead, he had endured the beating for Ruelle’s sake, thinking he could still hold the dead man’s face long enough. But right now, Harold Belmont’s skin was turning unstable. He could feel his flesh burn as if something alive were chewing through the corpse from the inside. Rejecting him.

He had slipped out through the window before the ministers and others could see him.

He tried to clench his jaw only for the skin at the corner of his mouth to sag like melting wax.

Lucian Slater. Ezekiel had underestimated the bastard. He hadn’t expected him to gamble on something as petty as debt collectors. His fingers dug into the bark. He turned his head, staring back in the direction of the mansion through the dark trees, his half-melted mouth twisting.

Ezekiel gritted his teeth and swore in rage, "I’ll pay you back for this."

Back at the Belmonts’ house, the guards moved in and out of the corridors and rooms, their heavy footsteps echoing through the place. The sound made the mansion smaller.

Ruelle stood next to Lucian beside her. She glanced back at the room. There was too much blood on the mattress, and the sheets were damp with sweat where her father had lain. To think just a few hours ago, her father had stood in this corridor arguing that she wasn’t allowed to leave the mansion.

Mrs. Belmont fretted, her hands twisting together and she explained, "He was resting in the room when we last saw him. I don’t know where he could have gone when he could barely stand."

"It looks like someone butchered him. How badly did the humans beat him?" Elder Minister Carnifex frowned as his eyes moved over the blood-stained mattress. "A man in that condition should not be walking."

"Mr. Belmont must still be somewhere in this mansion. Unless all of this was planned," Minister Sylvan remarked before his eyes drifted towards Ruelle and Mrs. Belmont, as if weighing them.

Ruelle had expected this. She asked the minister, "Are you trying to say my mother and I had something to do with it?"

Minister Sylvan replied, "Of course not. But someone might benefit from your father’s absence, no?"

They did... her mind whispered. But she wasn’t going to say that to this man. Her father’s absence meant one less person trying to sabotage the treaty. When her eyes met the minister’s cunning ones, she disliked the way he smiled. He looked as though he was waiting for her to trip and make a mistake.

"The debt collectors must have seen us when we arrived," Ruelle explained. "They even came after me once when I was still in Sexton but thankfully the prince was there to take care of it. Which is why I don’t see who else would care enough to go that far."

"Are you sure?" Minister Sylvan asked her.

"Yes, why?" Ruelle asked as she stared back at the minister.

She hadn’t forgotten his remark on Lucian’s corruption. For such an old man to be intimidated by Lucian, she wondered if there was something deeper in play. After all, the Slater brothers would have their foot in lordship as well as in the courthouse.

"And why weren’t you inside the room with the patient?" questioned the elder minister with clear annoyance on his face.

The physician quickly bowed and replied, "Mr. Belmont didn’t want to get treated and he said he wanted you to come first. So I was waiting outside..."

After several minutes, the guards returned, and one of them bowed. The guard reported, "There is a trail of blood leading into the forest, sire. But it stops halfway in the forest. We do not know where Mr. Belmont might have gone after that point."

"How can a blood trail simply stop? Go check again!" Mrs. Belmont demanded with a bewildered expression. "Or I can go look for him."

"The guards are doing their best, Mrs. Belmont," Minister Gaile tried to pacify her. "If your husband was truly taken it is not safe for you to go out right now."

Ruelle caught the slight frown that formed on Elder Minister Carnifex’s face and the question continued to sit in her mind too. Where had her father gone?

She doubted he had simply wandered off. Not with the way he had been limping earlier. Not when he had been so determined to drag them before the ministers and end the treaty.

Had Lucian prepared for this too? The thought came fast enough that she turned to him. But Lucian looked almost as still as ever, save for the faint crease between his brows. It was barely there, but enough for her to know he had not expected this either.

A loud sigh left Elder Minister Carnifex’s lips.

"First the entire family disappeared. Then the daughter. And now the father." His old eyes looked tired, as though he regretted the decision of choosing the Belmonts for the treaty. "Send word out. Harold Belmont is missing and is to be searched for right away."

Before the ministers could leave, Lucian spoke, "Minister," halting them.

Ruelle’s eyes moved to him.

"If someone truly kidnapped Mr. Belmont, then this is a security issue. That means your guards are failing at their duty." Lucian’s gaze shifted. "I doubt you would enjoy the scandal if Mrs. Belmont or Ruelle were to disappear next."

Ruelle held her breath, her eyes shifting to the ministers whose eyes narrowed.

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