Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 173: A way to help him_Part 1

She took his hand, and for the very first time, the boy left that room and stepped out into the beautiful castle, where the movement of people startled and unsettled him. He did not like them, he did not feel comfortable, and he tightened his hand in his mother’s hand as he warily looked at every person who was staring at him.

But very soon, as he began to tighten his hold in his mother’s grip, she pulled her hand away from his and allowed him to just follow her.

When they stepped into the celebration hall where he was to be introduced as the prince, Rohan wanted to run back to the safety of his dark room and hide forever in there. He did not like it here. He clutched his mother’s skirt, but she jerked it away from his hand without losing the warm smile on her face as she looked down at him.

"Mama, hold my hand," he cried internally, but she did not hold his hand. Instead, she told him to follow her.

That night, after the introduction was made and he was officially called Prince Rohan, he was given another room, this one far more beautiful than the dark, cold one he had been locked in for five long years.

By the time he was left alone in the lavish chamber, the boy was shaking, trying desperately to calm the raging noise that had overwhelmed him in the grand hall. But he had held it in—for her. Because his mama was there, and he wanted to be good.

Now, alone in the silence, he couldn’t calm it down. The storm inside his head roared louder, and it hurt so much his head throbbed. The pressure behind his eyes grew unbearable, and the urge to hurt someone began to rise within him like a scream.

When a maid came in to help him change, he had silently followed her into the bath. But when he removed his clothes and she saw the brutal scar where his wings had once been, she gasped. Her face twisted with fear and disgust, and she dared to call him a demon.

The young boy snapped. He attacked and killed her, without a word, without a sound.

He was punished that night.

He was taken back to that dark room without food. His mother had said, "Even though I love you, I cannot tolerate your behavior. You will stay here from now on and will be allowed out once in a while."

The door had slammed behind her as she walked out, and the boy had curled himself into a ball and fell asleep to recharge his energy, not feeling guilty for killing the maid.

When he woke up again, he hadn’t realized he had been asleep for months until he saw his wings had began to slowly regrow.

The boy decided to hide the wings so they wouldn’t be taken away from him again. He was allowed out of the dark room twice a week, until he killed his grandfather, his mother’s father, by pushing the man from the top of a balcony and then flying off with his wings.

Nobody knew why he had killed the man, but that was something his mother could no longer overlook.

"He is a monster, Zach. You can’t keep that monster anymore. Can’t you see? His wings have regrown," Galina cried, brokenly, in her mourning black clothes. He had killed her father... she would never forgive that. She would never forgive him.

"We need to cut the wings from the root this time. We have already given him a betrothed; he is going to marry her when he comes of age."

"What if the wings regrow and people see it? We have managed to hide his beating heart until now."

"If his wings regrow, we will have to let him go."

---

Belle sat still without making any sounds as she listened to the account of the story Rav had been telling her for hours now. She couldn’t even blink her eyes as tears had filled them, her hands clasped to her mouth.

"What did they do to him again?" she whispered, agitated from everything she had listened to until now. They couldn’t have killed him, as he was still alive, so something must have happened.

Thinking about how they had locked him up alone made her feel sick to her stomach.

"They could no longer tame him, so the queen talked the king into ending it all and sending him back to where he belonged, because to her, he was the son of the devil and he should be in hell. They got men to remove his heart in order to end his life... but I am not sure what really happened, as many of the things I know were based on rumors and the words of the witnesses.

"People say he died after his heart was removed. He was dead for a day and then he suddenly came back alive.

"Many couldn’t believe it. From what I have heard, the prince was obsessed with his heart and always liked to cherish the beating as he was fascinated at the fact that he was the only one with the beating heart in that time. He liked it so much he tried to protect it when he heard they would take it from him to send him back to hell.

"When he came back to life, he grieved for his heart for days. His cries echoed in all of the halls. They say it was sorrowful and haunting to listen to—it was like that of a ghost, whose soul was filled with pain and anguish.

"However, when he finally stopped crying, the boy became a completely different person. Though he came back to life, his body got corrupted, as he wasn’t meant to live without a heart. Once a vampire’s body turns corrupt, they turn into rogues. He occasionally turned into that but had control of himself to not become the living dead completely.

"After he lost his own heart, he became obsessed with heartbeats and wanted to have as many as he could, like he was trying to replace his. That was when people began to say he was going insane.

"I am not certain how he could have come back to life after his heart was removed, but whatever had happened turned him unfeeling. He was like a rock with no emotions.

"He hated his parents from then. And when his mother’s birthday banquet was taking place... he attacked them all and killed them to avenge his heart, which he had lost."

Belle could not put a finger on her exact emotions as she listened on. All she could do was silently shed tears for the boy who had been born to go through all that. How dare they treat him like that? How dare the queen seek for a son and then abandon him like that?

He had not asked to be brought into existence, the queen had brought him to life due to her selfish goals and it was the same selfishness that caused her to despise the boy she brought into this world.

The rage she felt on behalf of her husband was so much she thought had he not killed his parents then, she would have found them herself and shown them what it was like to be in his place.

"His corruption had lain dormant for years, but then he was bitten by a rogue some years ago, which intensified it slightly but not entirely. However, after being attacked by the rogues again yesterday, it escalated further and transformed him into a complete rogue.

"That’s why I told you we cannot help him, not when he has turned. It is far beyond you and me. The only way we can help him now is by keeping you safe, my lady. I need to send you out of Nightbrook before sunlight tomorrow, when the hunt will be over and the king would decide to send men here to check if his plan has succeeded."

"What do you mean?" Belle finally found her voice at those last words about the king sending men here.

"The king had ordered his lordship to be killed in the forest. Since he hadn’t found any excuse to send him to the asylum, he had decided to end his life instead. As his lordship had survived the removal of his heart, the king must have known that the only way to eliminate him was by dismembering him. Thus, His Majesty sent creatures more powerful than he to carry out the task."

Rav explained to her why this marriage had happened in the first place, and Belle’s eyes widened in shocked disbelief.

"You mean they thought he would kill me so they could label him a madman and execute him..." she stated, unable to believe that just like the humans had their motive for this marriage, the vampires also had theirs, only theirs was to get rid of her husband and her altogether.

The king was so afraid and intimidated by Rohan, he wanted him dead even though Rohan had not gone out to claim the throne.