Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 129: Exhaustion

Jamie’s eyes fell closed against his will, and he fell unconscious. Rohan hurled him like a sack of hay onto his shoulder and then flew away from there. He flew for hours until he reached the land of the humans, where it was raining, and the rain made it so difficult for him to fly.

It took him longer than he planned to reach a safe place to drop the burden on his shoulder, and before the sun would rise, he left the man lying in front of his house unconscious in the rain. Someone would find him—or, better yet, he would die before morning.

The flight back wasn’t easy. Using his wings for long-distance journeys and having to fly in speed with another weight was another way to kill his energy faster than anything could ever have done.

On his way back, he fed on five different humans, but the exhaustion was too much.

Once such exhaustion set in him, he needed a few days of long sleep to regain it. He wouldn’t have gone through such trouble on a day before the hunt if it weren’t for his wife, and now he had to well damn go around with half of his strength.

By the time Rohan returned to the castle, it was morning, and when he landed, he staggered on his feet but quickly balanced himself. His bones were really quivering internally, but he paid no heed to them and made his way straight to his wife’s chamber, ignoring Rav, who was asking where he was coming from, looking pale.

When Rohan reached her chamber, she was still sleeping peacefully, curled on her side with her face looking more well than last night. She looked serene and lovely under the gold sheet. He couldn’t help himself from being drawn to her like a moth to flame.

He took off his damp shirt and trousers, kicked off his shoes, and without a second thought, got into bed and slipped under the covers behind her. He scooped her into his arms from behind and rested his head in the crook of her neck.

She smelled of roses, which he had used to clean her body last night. For the first time, she felt warm against his body. He usually had warm or even hot body temperature, but this time, his body was as cold as ice.

He closed his eyes, breathing in her scent. He would only rest his eyes for a little before evening, when they would have to go to the royal castle for tomorrow’s hunt.

She nestled more into him, and to keep her from moving about, he draped his leg over hers under the sheet and then sighed in contentment.

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Even before Belle opened her eyes, she could sense from her atmosphere that something was terribly wrong where she was. She wasn’t laying on the soft bed of her chamber, nor on anything remotely soft. She was laying on a hard surface with rough texture.

And the moment she opened her eyes with a groan, she froze and felt a cold shiver down her spine when she realized where she was. She had traveled to where she shouldn’t have. The land of the dead!

She bolted upright on the cold ground, her eyes scanning her surroundings. It looked as lifeless as everything else in the land of the dead, with a cloudless, starless night sky stretching above her.

The moon bathed everything in silver as she quickly pushed herself up from the cold ground. All around her stood tall, leafless trees, their bare branches reaching into the sky. She hadn’t woken up in the castle this time.

This place felt different, strange. She looked around again, trying to make sense of it, but nothing looked familiar. This couldn’t be anywhere close to the castle in the other world. It felt too empty, too quiet, like a forgotten part of the land of the dead.

There were no houses nor any signs of the nightmarish dead people who had chased her the other time she was thrust here. freewebnσvel.cøm

Belle did not want to experience what she had once here and began to find ways to wake herself before she attracted people she shouldn’t. She rushed to go and pick up a stone from the ground to cut herself, but then froze as her eyes fell on something glimmering under the moonlight.

Unable to believe her eyes, she walked closer to it and crouched down. It was a small plant exactly the same as the black plant in Rohan’s dead garden. Its black leaves glimmered like ebony, and she was about to reach for it when she suddenly felt herself begin to float and everything began to darken.

Belle gasped awake on her bed, breathing hard like she had run a race. Before she could register how she could have woken up so fast this time around, she noticed the face looming over hers.

Her breath caught and her eyes widened as they fell on the face of Rohan, who looked a bit concerned as he asked,

"Are you all right? Your breathing was strange, that’s why I woke you up." He said, his voice husky like that of a man who had just woken up in the morning.

Her heart trembled over as she became aware of his body half-pressed against hers on the bed.

Cheeks flaming, she nodded her head. "I am fine..." she whispered softly and watched his face relax a bit.

However, he did not draw back and stayed where he was. Her body was turned to the side, and he was propped on his elbow with his leg draped over hers under the sheet. Such intimate position was just too much for her heart to bear, and it began to race.

For some reason, she thought he looked strangely pale, and without thinking about her actions, she slowly raised her hand and cupped his cheek. He blinked at the touch and leaned his face into it.

His skin was not as warm as it used to be, but she didn’t dwell on it because he turned his mouth into her palm and kissed it, and then murmured into it, "How are you feeling this morning?"

Belle wanted to impulsively pull her hand away from the touch of his lips, but he caught her wrist with his other hand, pressing her palm to his cheek and mouth, making her flush to the roots of her hair.

Waking up to find him on her bed had taken her mind off things so much that she had completely forgotten about what happened the other day—until he asked the question. She became aware of the little aches on her shoulder and knees.

Memories flooded her until she trembled. She recalled everything that had happened the day before with astonishing clarity, despite the drugs that had been in her system—the pain of Jamie’s actions and words, and the stranger who had called her names and hurt her both physically and mentally.

She felt a prick at the back of her eyes. However, she refused to give what had happened yesterday the power to make her cry or feel bad.

She had already decided that the moment she left Jamie last night, it would be over. What they had in the past would no longer be something she held dear.

What he did had hurt so much, she knew that if she gave it a chance, she would cry. So she didn’t give it that chance. Instead, she forced a small smile at her husband and said, "I feel much better."

She wanted to ask what had happened to Jamie, as she couldn’t remember much after he slapped her, but she bit the question back.

As if reading her mind, he told her, "I sent him back home. Damn, my love, I am exhausted. I want to sleep so bad." He groaned as he dropped his head against her chest, and she gasped in surprise and stilled.

But then, she did not push him away. Instead, she dipped her chin down and looked at him, his deep blue hair in disarray as if the wind had put them in such state.

If he had sent Jamie back, it meant he had flown to Aragonia in one night—a journey so long they had taken days by carriage when they were coming here...

Belle felt her heart quiver. Raising her hand gently and hesitantly, she ran her fingers into his smooth hair, and she heard him moan softly.

"It feels good. If you don’t mind, do it again." He readjusted his head against her chest so he was using her breast as his pillow, making sure he didn’t put all his weight on it so as not to cause her any discomfort.

Belle bit back a small smile and then massaged his scalp and ran her fingers through his hair. She let her hand explore as she moved it to his nape and massaged it. She knew he was enjoying it with the little sounds he made in his throat—it almost sounded like a purr. She looked down to see his eyes were closed and his arm was tightening around her.

"Would you like to lie down so I can massage your back as well?" she asked in a quiet voice. The windows were closed and the drapes drawn, making the room dim, but she could still see his tired face and knew a massage might help him more.

"If I do that, I might fall asleep," came his husky, muffled reply that made Belle purse her lips and say, "Then sleep."

"I can’t..." If he dared fall asleep, his sleep wasn’t like the normal vampires’ nor humans’. It didn’t take hours, but days—sometimes even a month. He couldn’t dare fall into sleep, or no power would be able to wake him until his body got the energy it needed.

"We have to go to the royal castle in few hours. I better not sleep," he told her instead.

"Oh, the hunt is tomorrow. I almost forgot," Belle muttered. She had forgotten about this hunt because she wasn’t looking forward to it. She had trained for it for a month, but even then, it had seemed so distant she couldn’t think of the day. But now that it was only a day away, she couldn’t help but feel a thread of nervousness.

"Don’t worry, I will be there. It’s just to hunt an animal. I will help you kill and give it to you," Rohan spoke, hearing the sound of her heartbeat against his ear. For someone who he had seen just a few days ago saving a damn rat from the kitchen, he knew she wouldn’t be excited about killing any other animal.

Rav had wanted to kill the rat, but his wife had seen that it was a mother with tiny babies, and she had jumped in protest. Instead of letting him kill it, she fed it, saying it would be taken out once the babies were old enough. How could someone like that hunt another animal?

"Can you do that?" Belle asked. "I mean, kill the animal for me? Wouldn’t it be considered cheating?"

"Not if they don’t catch me cheating. It’s the forest, we’ll have plenty of chances to sneak it to you." He chuckled softly, the sound hitting her chest and his warm breath fanning the exposed flesh of her breast, causing gooseflesh to rise on her skin and her toes to curl.