Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 200: The plan for the future

Belle couldn’t keep her eyes away from the window of the moving carriage as she looked around the city of Bimmerville. Snowflakes made a gentle, swaying descent from the heavens, layering the ground in a soft, shimmering blanket of white, but the snow soon stopped falling after the sun began to slowly paint a hint of orange across the horizon.

She noticed how many of the houses were built the same, how workers were busy clearing the roads and the front porches. Unlike Nightbrook and Aragonia, this kingdom was a sight to behold, alive and bustling, with people going about their day and carriages steadily moving along the streets.

But while her eyes were turned to the view outside, she couldn’t ignore the presence of her husband beside her.

Rohan sat so close that his thigh pressed against hers, and her gloved hand was cradled in his. He wordlessly rubbed and massaged her fingers, his thumb moving in slow, thoughtful circles, making it nearly impossible to stay focused on the world beyond the glass of the window.

It got to the point where she was looking out, but her mind no longer registered the scenery.

His fingers had slipped inside her glove, drawing random circles into the middle of her palm. The soft strokes tickled, sending a warm bloom through her chest and downward, heating her from the inside out. She felt breathless all of a sudden.

She could no longer pretend to be watching the city. Her head turned towards him, and there he was, finally gaining her attention which he had been trying to earn by tickling her hand.

He was already staring at her with a small smile playing on his breathtaking face, and the smile widened when she looked at him. Perhaps her mind was becoming dirtier, but whenever she was in a carriage, it wandered off to a certain memory, and from the look on his face at this very moment, Belle could tell he was thinking exactly the same thing as she was.

"Bimmerville is a beautiful kingdom," she said, trying to sound casual as she cleared her throat. "Such a well-organized city..."

But her voice gave her away. His eyes were melting her, even though he wasn’t looking directly into hers. His gaze wandered, but it always found its way back to her lips.

It made her feel a deep, fluttering anticipation. Excitement curled low in her belly just imagining him kissing her right here, in the moving carriage.

"Hmm," he hummed, not looking away. "Yeah, so beautiful."

She was the most beautiful thing to him. And if he could keep her to himself, all day and all night, he would. But today... he had to reign in the hunger. Let her enjoy this special day, her first birthday as his wife. Let her make memories before he selfishly claimed her again.

"But I can’t help but worry..." Belle said, brows drawing together. "How long can we keep the truth hidden, that you’re a vampire?"

Her words tugged him back to the present.

"What will happen if the king finds out?" she asked softly, her voice edged with slight unease. This thought had been crossing her mind since when Rohan had woken up, and though she did not believe anyone would find out, she still wanted to know the consequences of their actions, of not telling the king that vampires were here.

She had many things on her mind that she didn’t want to worry about too much. She wanted to live in the moment. She wanted to understand herself and what was happening to her, but not when this question weighed more heavily on her head than anything else.

Rohan had pulled his hand from inside her glove at her question and now simply held it in his, both of them wearing winter gloves that made it impossible to have any skin contact. But his fingers gripping hers made her feel more at ease with everything that bothered her.

"If the king finds out we’re fugitives from a land he has no ties to, there’ll be two possible outcomes," Rohan said at last, his voice calm, too calm. "One, he’ll hand us over to the vampire king and demand we be punished for entering his land without permission. Or two, he’ll punish and sentence us to death himself."

Belle’s eyes went wide. "You mean... he can kill a vampire?"

She couldn’t believe it. In Aragonia, no one had ever discovered a way to kill a night creature without getting themselves slaughtered first. Vampires were too superior for any human to be able to kill just like that.

Rohan gave a lazy shrug. "This kingdom is advanced. From what I know, they have the weapon to do it. That’s why the king of Nightbrook has made sure never to cross them. No slaves have ever been taken from this land. He fears what could happen if Bimmerville sides with the other human lands... and wipes us out."

Belle swallowed. "How did they get a weapon like that?" she couldn’t believe this as Aragonia had never succeeded in finding it.

"It’s said that Bimmerville was founded by a nobleman who once lived in the vampire lands, centuries ago. He studied us, closely. Learned our secrets. And then he left with that knowledge and built this town. Over time, it grew into its own kingdom. A place with power... and protection from vampires."

"It was due to that that the vampires kept the rules that no human would walk out of Nightbrook with their secrets, and the king began to keep soldiers to compel travelers at the borders. Though that nobleman had held a great secret, he made a threat to the vampire king of that time that if he were to die mysteriously, he had kept men who would take those secret weapons to the vampires’ enemies.

Which was why, up until now, vampires had grown wary of this land—they would not want them joining hands with people like the Aragonians and others.

"And now, no vampire ventures into the land without going to offer peace to the king, not that any vampire has visited in a long time. When I bought the manor here, I came in disguise as a nobleman, and I never thought I would be living in it. All I wanted was to have a safe place for my wife when something would go wrong with me, because you never know when the king would decide to get rid of me, like he had attempted."

Though Rohan spoke nonchalantly, his eyes darkened, as whenever he recalled what the king had done, he wanted to kill the man.

"But I want you to be rest assured that as long as we are here and no one gets the words out of what your husband is, you will be safe. I will keep you safe, even if I have to leave and get away—"

Belle pressed her palm against his mouth before he could complete the words, and she glared at him in displeasure.

"Don’t say that. I have gone through hell in the couple of months without you. If it comes to anything, we will leave together."

She had done her best all this while to have him here with her again. Thinking about separating from him again made her heart squeeze with panic. If one thing, she was certain that no one would take him as a vampire or a demon, he did not look the part of any.

Belle could honestly not handle another hell without him, she was still recovering from this recent one.

Rohan grinned behind the palm she had pressed to his mouth, and he reached out to pull it slowly down as he said,

"Tsk, I wasn’t going to leave you, Isa. It’s just a precaution if things turned out for the bad and the king finds out."

Belle shook her head in protest to his words. "Even if a day comes and he finds out, I am going with you wherever you are going to. I won’t stay here—"

Rohan’s amusement faded, and his eyes narrowed. "I would rather go away than have them find me under your wings, because that will be a death sentence on all sides. You will be on a constant run, where no other place will be as safe as here. I won’t put you in any death-threatening trouble again, do you hear me? And if things turn out for the worst, I am leaving you here."

He said, his voice taking a serious note as he reached out to touch her cheek, which had turned red, either from anger or fear of what was to come. He couldn’t quite tell, as he sensed both emotions swirling within her. Still, he tried to soothe the flush by gently caressing her skin, his thumb brushing in slow, calming strokes.

"It’s the only way I know you will be safe. That house is yours now, it’s under your name, not mine. If they were to want an investigation about the people you house because they suspect something to be amiss, you will get more in trouble, and I don’t want that to ever happen. You wouldn’t want them having me in their custody, would you?" he coaxed gently, as he looked down at her beside him in the jolting, moving carriage.

She shook her head, but her throat tightened with painful emotions. He was right. If that ever happened and he decided to stay to be investigated and was found out as a vampire, he would be at their mercy. But if they did not find him there to go through any interrogation, they would never know what he was.

"So that’s why, if ever things go wrong, Rav and I—and Gwen—will have to be away from there for a while," he told her.

Though he never hoped for things to ever come to that, if it ever did—which he had already planned out in his mind what he would do—he would have to leave her and return to Nightbrook sooner than later to take his revenge, and the golden seat that comes with the crown.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l