Daphne pushed Damien and stepped back from his hold, she said angrily, "Calm down?, how dare you ask me to relax and calm down, after what I just saw."

Damien let her push him off, he was perplexed at her sudden switch in emotions. First she was scared, frightened and now she was angry and indignant? Women truly confounded him. But she should have listened to him and relaxed, not the opposite. He had used his powers of compulsion on her.

He quickly grabbed hold off her arms again and said in the same soothing and hypnotic voice as earlier, "Miss Bridgerton, I order you to forgot that you saw anything in this garden tonight. I want you to return to the Gala, immediately; with no memory of having seen me or Miss Freya and what we were doing. Go, now!"

Daphne more vexed then earlier, pushed him away with much more force than before and stepped back, away from his grasp and said, "Your audacity astonishes me, Your Grace. You cannot order me to do anything and how can I just forget the scarring sight, I witnessed? What even are you?, because you are most definitely not human!"

If Damien had a heart, it would be beating in overdrive. His powers of compulsion did not work on Daphne and she just witnessed him sucking the blood of the young debutante. She would most definitely tell the Ton about it, his monstrous identity would be exposed and he would be hunted and burned at the stake.

He needed to rectify the situation, somehow.

At Damien's continued silence, Daphne's mind started reeling and she realised that, this was the opportunity she was looking for, she could blackmail and threaten, The Duke.

Damien quickly went towards Freya, she was where he left her, on the ground. He helped her stand up and removed a velvety piece of Black silk and tied it around her neck artistically and intricately. It concealed the bite marks.

He now used his powers of compulsion on her and said in a hypnotic and smooth voice, "Miss Freya, forgot any and everything about meeting me, in the garden. Only remember my instructions of not removing this piece of silk from around your throat for an hour, for after that the bite marks would have healed, completely. Remember, don't let anyone see the marks. Thank you and goodbye."

With that, dutifully and blissfully in a trance - Freya walked away obeying Damien's orders. This made him realise that only Daphne was immune to his powers of compulsion.

Irony, the one person who caught him mid-feeding was the one who was immune, fate truly was a bitch!

He had to use some other powers to control her, he decided to go with the most obvious one, Fear.

He menacingly advanced towards Daphne, with fangs extended and got all up in her personal space and said, "So Miss Bridgerton, it appears that you can't be mind controlled. As for your earlier question, I am what is known as a 'Vampire', a monster, a beast who feasts on the very lifeblood that flows through the veins of mere mortals like you. So now, the question is what are you going to do with this knowledge?"

Daphne was slightly overwhelmed, her heart was beating very fast. She knew it and he could hear it. She was unaccustomed to being in such close quarters with a man, who was not family and especially in a secluded area so far away from everyone else; let alone the fact that he was a bloodsucker who was intimidating her.

But she was courageous and now was not the time to be frightened, rather it was the time to make her move.

She said, "Your Grace, I have a proposition for you. Abide by my terms and I will not reveal your secret to the Ton."

Damien laughed, "You truly are brazen or should I say foolish, Miss Bridgerton?, what makes you think that I will abide by any of your conditions?. I have super speed, and strength. I'm a monster and I have you here all alone with me."

Daphne now looked up at him and took what would be the biggest gamble of her life, she said, "If you were truly a monster and were going to kill me, you would have done it by now. You would not be trying to intimidate me."

Damien angrily glared at her, but internally he knew he was trapped, he couldn't call her bluff. He had never killed another person before, he always drank only a limited amount of blood which would not be dangerous or affect someone's health significantly.

He knew he had only 2 choices, kill her and be done with it or negotiate with the little she-devil. The first was not really an option, so he realised that he was backed into a corner.

He asked her in a way, that still portrayed that he had the upper hand. He said, "You are lucky, that I'm not in a mood to get blood on my exquisite attire today, otherwise I would been enjoying you as desert by now. So, what is it that you want from me?"

Daphne heaved out a breath, that she had been subconsciously holding. Her gamble had paid off, especially since she hadn't even known what kind of a person or rather man the duke was.

She then said, "I want you to court me, or rather pretend that we're courting."

Just as Daphne had been heading towards the doors to the garden, she overheard a piece of gossip from the infamous Lady Arnold saying that the Queen's unmarried nephew - The Prince of France was going to be visiting London very soon, in search of a wife, his future Queen.

Also, the very sight she witnessed and the fact that The Duke was a vampire, made her realise that she couldn't marry him. Therefore, she made an impromptu plan to ask him to court her, so that she could fool the entire Ton, Lady Whistledown, the Queen and the Prince by pretending to be courting - the current most eligible bachelor and that would result in making her the most eligible bachelorette, in all of London.

A man always wants what's not his. The Prince would definitely take a shining to her, especially if she was unavailable and courting another man. She still had the favour of the Queen, after all.

The Duke, couldn't fathom the nature of the request that Miss Bridgerton had just made, especially after witnessing what she had just witnessed. She knew for a fact that he was a monster and instead of running for the hills, she wanted them to pretend to have a relationship.

He needed to know her true motive behind this proposition and come to think of it, it actually seemed like she had come into the restricted garden in search of him.

That vixen had it out for him, from the beginning.

Damien said, "I must say, this was a truly devious plan, Daphne. You wantedly sought me, you are here unchaperoned. You wanted to entrap me, only the blackmail material changed after you realised that I was a Vampire and you could leverage that information and force me to do your bidding. But know this, I will not be played like this or succumb to your conniving desires."

With that he started walking away, knowing that she would pursue him and offer up the real reason.

As expected, she chased after, "Your Grace, please, listen to me, give me a chance to explain, please Damien."

The sound of his name from her mouth, stopped him in his tracks. She did have a beautiful voice and his name sounded, oh so nice and regal, when she pronounced in her British accent.

She caught up to him and said, "You are right, I had come into the garden with very purpose of entrapping you because I needed a best suitor and you were it, until I heard that the Prince of France is soon to arrive and also, I saw that you were not human. That's why I need us to form a temporary relationship because...."

Damien interrupted her and completed the sentence himself, "Your unavailable status will make you all the more desirable to the Prince, it'll entice him."

Daphne said, "Precisely, Yes!"

He retorted, "But what is this desperate need to make such a high ranking match, that you needed to form and execute such a devious plan? Your father is the Viscount and your family is one of the wealthiest and noblest family's in the ton."

She then proceeded to tell him about her past and about the vow she had made to her father.

That swayed this alleged 'monster' who supposedly didn't have a 'heart'.

He said, "Alright Miss Bridgerton, I'll help you. But in return, I need you to swear - that you'll never use the fact that I'm not human to blackmail me by threatening to out my identity. I'm choosing to help you out of my own free will, don't make me regret that or ever break my trust."

Daphne thrilled at this outcome, eagerly said, "I swear, Your Grace."

He smiled at her and said, "Since we are going to be pretending to court, I insist that you use my name and not my title to address me."

She smiled back and said, "Alright, Damien."

Damien then put his hand out and said, "Daphne, let us rejoin the gala and debut our 'relationship' to the ton."

Daphne put her hand in his and they walked hand in hand towards the crowd who had now moved to the other side of the estate and were enjoying a show of fireworks. As people started noticing them, they parted like the Red Sea and gawked at this handsome couple.

Daphne and Damien made their way to the dance floor and danced not once, not twice, but three times!