Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 137: Madness

"Do you think I am going mad again?" Rohan questioned Rav as he stood outside before the royal carriage waiting for them, while his wife was changing her dress.

After they had left the underground dungeon he was so familiar with, his wife had pulled him straight to the dining hall and began to force him into eating while ordering Rav to prepare his bath and attires.

Rohan had not spoken a word to her and let her serve him, and he ate every single meal passed to him without a word. He hated that she had seen him in such a state in that damned dungeon. He despised that he had found his way to it without even knowing how he had gotten there to begin with.

He was so angry with himself he wanted to kill someone, anybody, but the soft voice of his wife talking to him like nothing had changed snapped him back from the rage boiling inside him.

"Do you like the soup? It reminds me of the one I used to make in the Dawson house. One of these days I will make something for you. What do you think?" she had asked with a smile, like she had not just witnessed him go momentarily out of his mind.

She hadn’t screamed bloody madman in his face like he would have expected any lady to. In fact, she was being attentive to his food and things that took his exhausted head out of the fog clogging and turning it in a direction he recalled the doctor in the asylum yelling to him was madness.

He never believed himself to be mad, not once, but whenever he fell into such a state, it was like everything in him screamed madness. Tsk. He wouldn’t have fallen into it if he had just saved himself the trouble and killed Merchant, then lied to her that he had sent him home, Rohan thought. However, deep down, he knew he wouldn’t be able to deceive her like that.

He wished he could forget her face when they had climbed up out of the dungeon, her cheeks streaked with dirt and tears, her pretty gown ruined. She’d gazed at him in anxiousness, fear even, a look he never wanted to see again.

But now, she was gazing at him with that lovely shy smile of hers that reminded him of how beautiful she had been in bed with him.

His body warmed at the memory of her underneath him, how fine it had been to draw her back against his body when she fell asleep. He would have done more if they weren’t going out to a place he doubted he could stand if there were too many people.

But since he had done fine the last time they went to the banquet, he believed he would be fine this time too—as long as she stood by him with that lovely face and distracted his brain from the noise of people.

"I have a feeling your cooking would be awesome, Sweetheart," he had said with a face he believed was his normal, usual one.

"I will look forward to eating what you cook for me." He grinned, then resumed pushing down everything she fed him, just to keep her from getting worked up because of his unfortunate illness that always left him vulnerable and weakened in mind. This was one of those times he hated himself, and everything that made him who he was.

He was never the kind who harbored self-hate and loathing, but hell and damnation—he hated everything that made him. And if he didn’t care about scaring his wife away, he would have let out his rage on everyone around him just to soothe the feeling, he thought, as he tried to focus on his food.

He had always been a man who liked to eat anything as long as it was edible, and despite his current state, he’d been able to eat everything without looking like he was forcing it, perhaps to make her happy, and maybe even to help her erase the memory of him in that dungeon.

After their meal, and she had, to his astonishment, followed him to the chamber where he used the bath area to bathe, had said,

"After we come back from the hunt, I want you to move to my chamber... I will tell the servants to move your things there. I feel much more safe when I know you are beside me. Your presence seemed to wake me up faster when I go to the other world."

She had not waited to hear his answer on that suggestion to have him move to her chamber and left him to bathe. Despite himself, Rohan had chuckled in amusement.

"I hope you won’t regret that, little bunny," he’d muttered to himself.

She was inviting him to bed her every night, because after he had had a taste, nothing would stop him at night if they were to share a chamber.

However, a few minutes later, things shifted again. Rohan was slipping back into that terrifying mindlessness, feeling himself wading into a darkness he had no control over. It wasn’t until Rav’s voice reached him that he realized he had walked all the way to the carriage without being aware of it.

"How are you feeling now, my Lord?" Rav asked gently.

"Do you think I’m going mad again?" Rohan inquired instead of answering, his eyes narrowing on Rav.

"I do not think you were mad to begin with. You are different, but not mad, my Lord," Rav answered with calm sincerity.

Rohan threw his head back and laughed, a hollow sound without mirth.

"I used to think that too, remember? But then why does the medicine given to lunatics work on me? Why does it make me feel better?" he asked, his tone as even and composed as always without any bitterness and emotions.

"It makes one wonder if they’re not becoming like them, the mad ones whose screams echo through the halls and disturb one’s head. Sometimes I think perhaps it’s their screams that are making it worse for me now. Those fuckers." He clicked his tongue, referring to the mad people in the asylum, and shook his head, as though in idle pity.

He had taken the dark concoction a little, not the right dosage, after he finished bathing in the room. It had calmed the rising madness he was feeling in his head, the urge to kill and to cause pain to anyone available, the feeling of being lost and unaware. It had calmed it down.

Though he was still feeling that deep exhaustion and slipping in and out of unawareness, he could tell the concoction had worked just like it had always in the madhouse, and if he could lay down to sleep, he would be normal again. But sleep was the last thing he wanted when he had to be with his wife at all times when they will go to the castle.

Before Rav could find words to tell his master that he wasn’t mad and that perhaps his deep exhaustion was the cause of everything this time around, Rohan had shifted the conversation like he did not want to talk about it.

"Did you submit the list of the victims who had fallen prey to rogues to the magistrate’s office yesterday?"

Rav nodded his head. "I did. He looked surprised that you gathered the names of the dead so fast alone without needing his assistance."

"When one has too much time on their hands, it’s not a big deal to find the remains of the humans who fall prey to the rogues in the forest. Grimvale is becoming more of a danger zone to the humans, and yet they still go there to hunt for meat."

Rohan clicked his tongue. When he had left his wife to train with Cordelia, he had focused his mind on getting many works done in the land out of boredom. fгeewebnovёl.com

He had had many reports, and in his meeting with the councils, they had talked about how many had gone missing in the past few days—including vampires. If it had been only humans, it wouldn’t have been brought to his notice, as they were considered less important. Rogue attacks were much more dangerous to vampires.

"My Lord, with the rogues being this much in Grimvale, do you think the king would change the forest where the hunt will take place this year?" Rav questioned, only to have Rohan shrug as he tucked his hands into his pockets.

"I don’t know how the hunt works. I have never been a part of it. But if his majesty is smart enough, he will know better than to send people deep into Grimvale.

However, on my search into the forest for missing humans—as the magistrate is as good as useless in his position to look into why people are being reported missing these days—the rogues are only in the inner part of it. So the hunt won’t be affected by..."

He trailed off as he heard the soft clicking of his wife’s shoes approaching them, and he looked in the direction at the same time Rav also turned around at the feminine sound and scent of her lavender perfume.

She was smiling, and Rav could not help but feel a great deal of respect towards her for how she managed things today without being dramatic and making a big deal of it like he expected any human would.

She had not run from his lordship or called him a madman for how he had closed himself in that darkness and almost killed Rav. She had not even tried to avoid him but instead took care of everything without even telling his lordship that he had told her about him not having his chamber.

She looked petite and timid, but Rav now believed beneath that was a smart woman who knew what she was doing.

He bowed to her even before she reached him.

"My lady."

Belle gave Rav a curt, acknowledging nod and then turned her gaze to her husband, who was watching her closely as she approached him.

He had bathed and changed into a formal black suit, with his overcoat hanging on his forearm, his blue hair swept smoothly back on his head with no strands out of place—letting one see his unique dark eyes that always looked like they couldn’t stay focused on one’s eyes.

His skin, as she noticed with worry, still had that paleness to it that made him look more his kind, and when she saw his lips pull into a smile at the sight of her, her heart made a flip and her insides warmed up instantly.

At least he did not look like how he did when they walked out of that dungeon, confused and shocked.

He looked handsome standing there waiting for her, and when she came just closer to him, he held out his hand to her. Blushing shyly, Belle placed her hand into his large gloved one that enclosed and gripped hers tightly like he would never let go.