Married To The Mad Vampire Lord

The journey to Aragonia was fun and filled with laughter and jokes for the family, until it became tiring and utterly exhausting. For hours they rode before it began to rain heavily, the fat drops hammering against the carriage roof and slowing the six powerful horses that pulled them. Being in the middle of nowhere, with no sign of civilization in sight and only halfway out of the border, they couldn't stop but had to keep going in the relentless rain.

The sky had darkened, looking as though evening had already fallen. The curtains and windows of the carriage were pulled shut, the lamps mounted on either side of the fancy carriage lit, casting a golden hue across the interior.

Since they couldn't stop for the night, Belle and Angel soon fell asleep, both of them leaning against Rohan. They had shared the snacks they had packed in a basket for just such times when they could not stop for food.

Belle now had her head resting on his shoulder, while Angel slept on the other side of him. With nothing to do and utterly bored out of his skin, unable to remember the last time he had ridden this long in a carriage, Rohan could only listen to the loud pattering of the rain, keeping his senses sharply alert to their surroundings as they moved.

He could feel his wife's warm breath fanning his throat where she rested her head, and both her heartbeat and Angel's were a silent, soothing rhythm that calmed him and kept him settled inside the confined space of the vehicle.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind, bringing a slow, satisfied smile to his lips. It was the memory of when he had taken Rafael to deal with those vampires who had dared to mess with his wife.

Rohan had known that killing them with his own hands would raise suspicion, and might implicate him, especially when he had sworn a blood oath not to kill anyone without the sanction of the law. Well, he hadn't used his hands. Instead, he had gone into Grimvale well prepared with chains to capture one of those savages alive.

The reason he had not included his cousin in the feast for the rogue was because she lived far from the three houses where he had taken the creature. Those three houses stood only a short distance apart in White Valley town, so close to each other that if a rogue was said to have attacked there, no one would suspect a deliberate hand behind it. They would simply assume it was an unfortunate coincidence.

And his plans had worked. The councilmen who came to report to him yesterday morning had assumed exactly that. They believed a band of rogues had infested the town and had been forced to close it off, evacuating many of the elites staying there.

Rohan had even made sure to release five more rogues that would show no connection to him whatsoever, and the councilmen had successfully captured them yesterday and blame them for the attack of the vampires. Now, there were only a few more names left on his list to kill, and very soon, probably after this Aragonia journey, he would deal with the rest of them.

Only then would he be at peace that no other treat would be on his family.

Thankfully, his wife had not pressed him about who Rafael was when Kuhn had mentioned the name and she had asked him that morning. She had dropped the topic after he simply told her it was a friend he had made and they had went out to deal with some pest.

Rohan was still smiling to himself in utter satisfaction when he felt Rav trying to reach out to him through their mind link. With a thought, he opened it.

"What's wrong?" Rohan asked. Though he was bored, he enjoyed the silent moment of having his wife and son lying on him while they slept and he thought back on things and make plans.

"I just want to inform you that we are getting to the border of Nightbrook. The soldiers will compel her ladyship, like every other human that's leaving Nightbrook," he informed.

"I know." Rohan said.

They had already talked about this last night, and he had prepared Belle for it as well, telling her exactly how she would act when they stopped at the border. Though the king had told him to compel her, the man wouldn't trust Rohan's words alone and would let his men at the border do it again just to ensure there were no errors once they arrived in Aragonia.

Rohan wanted to shut the link, but he had a feeling Rav had not opened it just to inform him about the border. "What is it?" he asked calmly.

Rav hesitated before he went on and said, "I... it's just that I am not used to riding inside a carriage, so I was hoping to ask if I can move to the coach once we pass the border. I will switch back inside once we approach Aragonia." He said this knowing it wasn't ideal for someone posing as a nobleman to ride in the coach front, but then—how could he ride inside with this silent tension that had been weighing in the air since the journey began with Lady Evenly?

They had not exchanged a word with each other since the journey started. She had been reading her book, and despite the fact that she wasn't talking, her presence was hard to ignore. He was a man who did not mind silence at all and could go without uttering a word for hours, but this silence was different, and the woman's presence was just too heavy to overlook.

Not having anything else to do, his eyes had kept wandering back to her where she sat across from him. Rav hated that he was noticing how small and pointed her nose looked, and how her brows drew together occasionally at something she read, and how large her eyes were when she became thirsty and reached to drink from the blood in the bottle. She was a lady in every way, and the way she drank and wiped her lips with a handkerchief was so ladylike and mannered.

She had slender, long fingers, and he noticed how elegant they looked as they turned the pages, or how her feminine fragrance had filled the air. With each breath he took, her scent invaded his senses. It wasn't strong, it was just so distinctly feminine and unlike anything he had ever perceived.

She made him uncomfortable for some reason. And he would grab at any opportunity to leave the carriage, even if it meant riding on the roof.

"No," came Rohan's curt words, shattering Rav's fragile hope of escape into pieces like broken glass. "You can't ride in the front. Get used to being a noble, Rav. I know you're trying to escape her." Rohan's tone carried calm authority, already aware of the tense, hostile air between the two.

Though he himself had not liked Lady Evenly when she first came to Bimmerville and complicated things for them, she had not done anything to make him wish her dead, especially not when his son and wife liked the woman, and she was willing to help them.

He knew Rav was trying to avoid her, and smiling to himself, Rohan continued, "Learn to be at ease in her presence before we arrive at my in-laws' place, where she will be your wife. That will help," he advised with a hint of mirth in his voice.

"I don't think I can be at ease, my Lord," Rav said uneasily as he watched Evenly dozing off in her seat now, her head swaying from side to side with the jolts of the carriage, her book sliding to her lap. Her being asleep did not help him in any way, because he didn't know whether to help adjust her head or to leave her be, letting it bump like that.

"Well, try to be, and stop disturbing me so I can think before I die of boredom. It will help you if you man up and take this opportunity to have an affair with her. Now that I think about it, it would be good if something else bloomed between you. She's no longer married, and you don't have any woman—"

"I will let you go and rest, my Lord. I will manage. Good night."

Rav hurriedly shut his own link before he could hear more of his master's unwanted advice.

He recalled the days when his master would send women to him, and Rav would always send them back without touching a single one of them. His master would be both intrigued and amused by his refusal, but Rav had never told him the real reason why he would never touch any woman.

Many times, Rohan had begun to advise him about his needs and how not having a woman for such a long time could affect him. Rav had always felt uncomfortable with those kinds of words and escaped them as much as possible, using the excuse that he didn't feel such desires toward any woman, nor did he have urges like others did.

And he wasn't completely lying. He had tried to make himself stop having those feelings for anyone anymore. To desire another woman would be a betrayal to the promises he had once made, promises he would never break.

Especially not with someone like the lady sitting in front of him.

He did not like her and did not believe he ever could. They were two different people with nothing in common in life.

However, despite his unease and dislike for his pretend wife, Rav looked at her guiltily when he noticed how hard her head hit the wall, to the point that she almost stirred awake before falling back asleep.

Sighing, he slowly moved forward, putting his hand to hold her head before it bumped against the wall of the carriage again. Gently, he moved and sat beside her, then let her head fall and rest against his shoulder instead of swaying like that and making him feel bad.

He heard her sigh softly and adjust her head properly against his shoulder. Her scent was much stronger now that he was sitting next to her, and immediately he regretted switching his seat.

"This is going to be a really long ride," he muttered in distress as he stared straight ahead, without daring to look anywhere else or even breathe with ease.