Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 121: Distraction

A hand came around her, and a damp handkerchief was pressed against her nose before she realized what was happening. She inhaled the sharp, acidic scent on the fabric, it stung her nostrils and made her instantly feel faint and dizzy.

Alarm bells rang in her head, but before she could so much as struggle, her limbs had gone weak, and her eyes closed against her will to stay conscious.

Her unconscious body fell against the person, and just like that, she was carried out of the castle, unnoticed by anyone but a figure watching from the stairs with shocked, surprised eyes, but the surprised eyes quickly turned into a smile, then a laugh.

"It seems I don’t have to lift a hand to get rid of her. Someone else would do the job for me," Cordelia muttered to herself as she watched the human being carried away by an unknown person in a cloak.

She suddenly felt the heavy weight that had been pressing down on her since the day she began to realize her second cousin was slipping away from her, and that she was inching closer to becoming a poor woman with no possessions, lift from her shoulders as she watched the unknown person hurl the human girl away.

Most of the servants had gone out to the market to restock the kitchen and gather supplies, and she had seen Rav leaving earlier with a pile of rolled parchments, heading into town to run an errand for his master.

The only ones left in the castle were her, Rohan, and the human girl—who was now gone.

Cordelia felt so elated she wanted to celebrate. And to ensure the cloaked person who had taken the useless girl wouldn’t be caught or interrupted, she made a decision: she would go and keep her second cousin from leaving the castle—at least not until it was far too late.

She hoped the person would have murdered the human by the time anyone would realize she was missing. She had never believed in divine miracles, but it seemed miracles existed, as only it could make another person want to get rid of the human at the same time she was planning to do it.

Cordelia made her way up the stairs, knowing where to find her second cousin. She had pretended she was deaf and blind when the two were being foolish in the dining hall, with her cousin serving the human and tending to her every weep like her slave. Cordelia had almost injured her hand with how much she was clutching her spoon in annoyed irritation.

She walked up to the dark unlit corridor of the painting chamber where she had only once in her life been allowed entry, and even then it was because she had pestered him to paint her.

He hadn’t painted her as beautiful as she was, but made her into a fat old woman, and then gave her the painting to go home with. He had done it to annoy her for disturbing him.

Cordelia had been mad, but she had taken the painting, and the moment she got home, had burned it. She had never asked him to paint her again.

She walked to the door and knocked twice before turning the knob and stepping inside.

She was greeted with a displeased look of the man now sitting on the sofa that had been brought to the room, smoking, his coat discarded at the side, leaving him in his shirtsleeves.

He was barefoot. One leg was stretched lazily over the armrest, the other planted firmly on the floor, while he leaned back against the opposite arm like a dark stray cat sprawled in a shadowy alley, dangerous, unbothered, and completely at ease.

He was handsome—so her type.

"What are you doing here?" came his unamused question as she walked in and closed the door behind her.

Cordelia smiled as she looked around the room, now doubled in the number of canvases than the last time she was here, and said, "I just thought to come by and watch you work. I heard you plan to paint the human and—"

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call her any name she wasn’t given?" he cut her off, narrowing his eyes at her as he blew smoke out of his nose.

He did not bother to sit straight on the sofa even when she walked in, and regarded her like a pest he wanted to crush beneath his feet. It made Cordelia hate the human more, with how much he kept showing that she meant more to him than herself, who had stood by his side when many insulted him as a boy. They used to be so close.

Though back then it was only because he was her betrothed, and that she wanted to be a queen, that made her stick around with him. He was always allowed to roam the castle twice in a week because of his anger issues that had slowly began to turn to madness, and Cordelia was always there to keep him company. He never pushed her away even though he pretended to be annoyed with her all the time.

After all she was the only one who tried to indulge him in many things he was excluded in by the others.

"Apologies, I always forget she’s not any human but your wife. By the way, I heard you want to paint her, so I thought to come and see. Lady Dagon says it’s fine if you are all right with it. I just saw her leaving to get dressed." She added the last part as she had overheard him tell the human not to keep him waiting for long.

Actually, the human had gone to dress up since the moment he left the hall, but then making him believe she had just gone was another plan—to make him not become impatient enough to go and look for her, and to also make him believe she did not value his words enough.

"Hmm, let her take her time. And about you being here—you are not welcome. Go find something else to do with your time, or better yet, daydream about the hunt and you being the winner again. Don’t come back here," he warned nonchalantly as he brought the cigar to his lips and took a drag, then blew the smoke out.

Cordelia did not leave. She stood there, clenching her fists and looking at him with tear-glistening, red eyes. "Why are you being like this to me? I thought we used to be close..." she whispered, her voice quivering slightly.

Rohan chuckled dryly. "Close? Hell be damned." He crooked his head to the side and arched his brow. "Did you really think you were different from all the others I keep around for amusement, Cordie? Just because I let you linger near me in the past doesn’t mean we were close. You were always just someone who amused me—and now the amusement has faded. And don’t think staying under my roof means anything. You’d do well to remember the warning I gave you a few days ago."

Cordelia remembered the warning so vividly that her blood boiled. After they’d returned from the boutique that day, he had come to her chamber. For a moment, she had believed he wanted to be with her, but instead, he’d grabbed her by the neck and shoved her against the wall with a sadistic smile on his face.

’Tsk, tsk, tsk. You’re crossing lines, Cordie. Today makes the second one. Don’t let there be a third. Stay the fuck away from my wife and quit your little damn scheme. If you cross her again, I won’t spare you, I swear it.’

Remembering it now, she fought the urge to touch her neck, which had turned red where he’d gripped her. Thankfully, she healed quickly and had managed to hide the marks from the human at dinner. She had truly thought he might kill her that night.

He had warned her, yes—but she hadn’t harmed the human this time, so she felt no fear whatsoever.

"You’re being cruel to me, Cousin Rohan. It’s unfair. Have you so easily forgotten all the times I shared my candies with you, brought you gifts when we were children in this castle?"

Rohan’s lips twisted into a snarl. He remembered, but the memories meant nothing to him now. "That’s all in the past. And if anyone forgot, it’s you. You pretend to care, but not once did you set your pretty feet in the asylum to visit your so-called betrothed. Tsk. You, my dear cousin, are a two-faced bitch."

He laughed humorlessly. Not that he would have welcomed or even wanted her to visit him back then, but the way she now acted like she’d been wronged, like she deserved anything from him, disgusted him.

If Cordelia had a heart, it would have been broken into pieces by his words. She had not bothered to visit the asylum because the moment he was tagged a madman, she had removed and washed her hands of knowing him. She had even begun to send people after those who gossiped that she was his wife-to-be and that she was close to him.

He had killed the queen and king for amusement—who would want to claim they knew such a mad person? Who would even want to be associated with someone who had, in one night cause a massacre in the castle and killed important people for his fun?

She had forgotten about his good looks and his existence until he was released and brought back to prepare to marry a human. She had realized then what a fool she was to break that acquaintance, what a foolish mistake it had been to sever that tie so quickly.

However, she did not believe she should be held accountable for all that to the point he would be this cruel and unfair to her. Cordelia believed If anyone were in her shoes, they wouldn’t have wanted to stay in touch with someone in the madhouse. That would have been unreasonable.

But now that he was out, she believed everything should be in the past and forgotten. What was done was done.

She had rebuilt the dreams of becoming his wife, just as his late parents had planned, but his words were shattering.

"I hate you for saying that," she gritted, and to her dismay, he grinned.

"Thank you. Now leave me be."

She did not leave, not when she knew if she left, he might go looking for the human. If he didn’t want her and marry her to save her from the dooming life of having nothing, she wouldn’t let him be with that human either.

Without hesitation, Cordelia reached out and swiftly unfastened her dress and then pulled it down her body. "At least grant me this one wish. Fuck me for once, Rohan."