Married To The Mad Vampire Lord
Chapter 176: The heart_Part 1

Chapter 176: The heart_Part 1

Belle knew, as clearly as she knew she couldn’t stay here for long, that the place where she had seen the plant was not inside this castle ground.

There had been tall dead trees around the surroundings, and the plant had been the only thing alive. However, since she couldn’t tell where and how to get there, they searched the entire castle ground and the dead garden, but to no avail. There was not a single plant that looked alive there.

"You can’t be here for long. The Watcher will soon sense your presence," came Kuhn’s warning in that strange dialect she seemed to understand in the land of the dead as they searched the last place that a plant could grow in the grounds, with Belle trying to catch her breath as she panted from all the running and searching.

"I can’t return without the plant. We should step out of the castle and look." She began to run towards the gate, but Kuhn caught her wrist.

"This land is dangerous. It’s superior to the land of the living. If you or I get caught, it will be the end of our lives. The punishment of the wanted is so severe. It will erase your complete existence, and every person who had known you will forget about you. It will be like you never existed in this world."

"But I am not wanted, you are the wanted one. I think you should go and let me handle—"

"You are wanted. The most wanted, more than I am. Look," Kuhn gestured towards the gate, where creepers had curled all around the iron, and Belle looked towards it and let out a gasp at a sight she had failed to notice until now.

"Oh my..." she muttered as she stared at carved written words planted on the gate that read, "The living girl who comes into this land must be apprehended when seen. Wanted by the elder."

"The elders want you," Kuhn added. "And this is not only written here, but in every place of this land. I have been wanted for a long time, but you have sparked their curiosity enough to get the elders’ attention."

None of them could afford to get caught, Kuhn thought. If he got caught, the elder Grim had the ability to see through the memories he had gathered throughout his entire life. They would look through it and trace the human to the living world. Not only that, he had too many secrets about his master he could not afford to give away.

His memories must not be seen by the elders.

The Grim Reapers could not identify a human by their face but by their aura, not unless they died and their soul get harvested would their appearance be clear to them. To the Grims, all humans were the same, which was why the Watcher had not been able to give what she looked like to the others to find her.

But Kuhn couldn’t let her fall into their hands, as it was as good as him falling there. Their lives were intertwined in a way that if one got caught, the other would get caught.

Belle had so many questions she wanted to ask the creature about why they wanted her and what made it possible for her to be able to come into this land when she was very much alive in the land of the living, but then she knew it wasn’t the right time to stand and talk when she had a purpose for being here this time.

She asked instead, "How long does it take the Grim Reapers to sense someone’s presence?"

"The longest is one hour, not unless you cause chaos that will make them notice you quickly. You have one hour, and you have used thirty-two minutes," he told her.

Reapers and their pets were good at keeping track of time even without their watch, as it was their life duty to keep time of the living until the day they would die.

Every single person, from the moment they were born, their time began to count by the reaper assigned to them. When the clock ticks, it would be the end of their time in the other world, and their souls would be escorted here by the reaper.

Knowing she did not have much time left, Belle and Kuhn hurried out of the gates and stepped out of the castle into a dense, cold fog that swallowed them and made it impossible for her to see where she was even going. She turned to see that Kuhn was lost amidst the fog, and she could not see him.

"Keep going. I will find you," came Kuhn’s words from somewhere in the blinding thick fog.

Belle did not waste time looking for the creature and continued to hurry, believing he would indeed find her. She was at ease not seeing any of those dead souls who had hunted her the last time she had been here. It seemed like Farrah and her lackeys had been put to rest as she did not see them—not that she could see anything through this fog.

Belle tried to think of what else she had noticed that day she fell back into this land and saw the plant. There wasn’t any building around the place, and the moon had looked the brightest there.

"Where should I go that will lead me there? What way should I follow?" she muttered to herself as she closed her eyes to revisit the place in her mind’s eyes.

And then she felt something strange inside her and began to feel her way through the fog. She saw a path in her mind’s eyes—it was like her subconscious knew the way there, but she didn’t—but she followed her instinct because it brought a very strong feeling inside her, a weird certainty that it would lead her to what she was searching for.

She walked through the fog, and the more she walked, the less dense it was becoming, and the path was clearing.

It was when she walked and felt something wet on her bare feet that she opened her eyes and looked down, only to hurriedly step back.

Water. Belle thought as she raised her head and looked at what was before her.

A river. A very vast river with light-hovering mist above it. The large moon in the sky did not reflect on the river, and it made it look ominously dark, like an abyss was below the surface of the still water. It was so still she took another step back but stopped when her feet grazed a rope.

She glanced down and saw a rope close to her leg, and the rope was attached to... a boat!

Belle’s eyes brightened subtly at the sight of the boat. She didn’t know why, but something inside her knew whatever she searched for was beyond this vast river, and if she could get across it, she would find it. The feeling was so strong she did not realize when she bent down and began to untie the knot of the rope to loose the boat.

But before she could finish loosening it, Kuhn appeared and stopped her.

"It’s the River of Soul. Many reapers travel through it to the land of the living to bring back souls. The River of Soul has many paths that only a reaper can navigate. If you take the wrong path, you might end up lost forever, or worse, fall into the hands of the Watcher or a reaper," Kuhn warned with a raspy, emotionless voice, as though something was choking in his throat.

The thing was that he was speaking that same language which she hadn’t been able to understand before but understood now. His small red eyes watched her from within his round hooded head, and his grip around her wrist seemed to tighten, wanting her to step back from the boat that belonged to the Grim reapers.

Belle knew she should back off after hearing Kuhn’s words and looking at the dreadful river that was still and dark. She wanted nothing more than to go far away from it, but the feeling in her was too intense to ignore.

"You said it wound to several paths?" she asked, and Kuhn nodded.

"Then one of those paths will lead me to the plant. I have a feeling in me that I know where the plant is. Believe me," she said and was surprised to feel the creature slowly release her wrist.

"Your subconscious is remembering. It’s not good," Kuhn rambled more to himself than to Belle.

"What?" she asked as she missed his words because she was loosing the boat.

"We should hurry. You only have twenty minutes before your scent spreads around."

Once inside the boat, Belle did not even need to paddle, as the boat began to move by itself across the surface of the still, unmoving water. And looking down at the river when inside the boat was nerve-wracking, as the below was so dark like ink it made her feel sick. She shuddered at the thought of falling inside such water.

"Give directions. The boat will take you," Kuhn told her, and Belle nodded before she began to give the