CHAPTER 472: TOUGH LUCK

The prince leaving was a great thing for good enough reasons as it was, but it yielded yet another blessing by giving Silas an excuse to stay home and scour the library for the history of the Sterlings.

His conversation with Rubius bounced back and forth between the bounds of his skull, scraping at it with every collision. The curse never left his mind for a second. It ran in the background of every action, every discussion he had since hearing about it for the first time.

Little did he know, another opportunity would present itself in front of him as he made his way towards the library.

Rubius ambled the hallways seemingly with no clear goal in mind. His head went from left to right, up and down, wall to wall, admiring the beauty of the interior decor.

At least, that was the impression he gave off.

Silas stood in place for a few seconds, watching the old man’s every move, debating the best opening for a new conversation with the man, when the idea struck him out of the blue.

It was daytime and thus, no one would hear his screams if far enough.

Well, that was, of course, with the hope that no one lingered in the library at that hour.

The vampire locked every potentially horrid outcome to that plan in one of the deepest crevices of his mind then threw away the key.

With that, he flashed forward and grabbed Rubius at such a high speed, the human started to struggle in order to breathe.

Silas only stopped once inside the library then finally let go of the man who coughed and heaved for hair.

"That is... Such an unkind thing to put an old man through," he blurted between coughs, his hand on his chest.

"We both know it wasn’t undeserved," Silas spared him not a glance and began his march towards the human literature section, "Follow me. I don’t want to drag you further,"

Much to his Silas’ pleasure, Rubius did not yell for help or try to run. Instead, the man readjusted his garments, dusted his shoulders off then followed in his tracks as told.

Along the way, nothing was said between them until the targeted aisle was reached.

Silas called for the title of the book out loud and held his hand out until the tome landed right in his palm.

Upon turning around, it appeared Rubius no longer paid him any mind as his own was absorbed by the flying books all around them.

"My family does own a library as big as this one," the old man kept looking around, "Minus the floating books, of course,"

"Naturally," Silas said dryly.

"So," Rubius pushed a long sigh, "What is it you abducted me for?"

In response, the vampire held the book in hand a tad higher, "The Sterling curse. I wish to hear everything you’ve got about it,"

The old man opened his mouth, but his answer came with a few seconds delay, "Ah...," he walked closer to Silas before taking the tome out of his hand.

The nearest table was his destination where he placed and opened the book on the family tree page.

"There are a few discrepancies. It isn’t a hundred percent accurate but... If you take a look at the dates of birth of the women and then the dates of death you will start noticing a pattern,"

Silas approached the table too, his finger rising before landing on the first feminine name insight then trailing to the next under it, and then the next and so on and so forth...

"They all died young. Very young," Silas whispered.

Rubius took another look and started walking around, "Heart failure, suicide, murder and even dehydration and malnutrition... You name it. Now had they been from a poorer class, it would have been more or less justifiable since their living conditions are quite rough and life for such people tends to be quite short unless they serve a royal or a richer family,"

"The Sterlings have been one of the wealthiest families for as long as I can remember," His diamonds followed Rubius’ figure, his patience thinning with every second.

"Exactly," at that, the old man stopped and stared Silas dead in the eyes.

"So, how does this work? When did you figure it out and what kind of spell is it? I will need to know every detail about it in order to counter it. We have some of the best witches at our service. We should be able to find a way around it at least,"

Rubius stood there, mouth agape with the most irritating of smiles, "Why?" he blurted.

That one question pushed Silas over the edge. Throwing every ounce of good judgement out of the way, he dashed towards the old man before clutching him by the throat and slamming him against one of the shelves behind.

"What kind of question is that?" Silas hissed through gritted teeth, his contorted face inches away from Rubius’.

Chillingly, he did not scream, struggle or try to free himself, he burst into laughter instead which made Silas press harder on the man’s throat.

"You people..." he trailed off, "Give me one reason I shouldn’t end you right here, right now!"

As a reply, Rubius cackled even harder before simmering down, "Why search for what you already have?"

"I do not have time to play games with you, old man. Speak clearly or I swear, I will find a way to pass your death as nothing but a footnote in history!" he grunted.

"I already answered you," Rubius turned more serious all of the sudden, "Your wife is safe for as long as you make sure she remains content,"

The man dropped to his knees as soon as Silas released him.

"I asked for answers, not riddles," after a short pause, he added, "I want to know how to stop it once and for all,"

"Well, tough luck!" Rubius pushed himself back up on his feet, "You cannot. Not with magic or any of the nonsense you’re probably thinking about,"