Married To The Mad Vampire Lord
Chapter 182: His prey

Chapter 182: His prey

Shivering from the cold rain seeping deep into her bones, and from the pain throbbing in her exhausted body and broken finger, Belle bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying. As she watched him approaching, she parted her lips and said, "You don’t want to hurt me."

"Eat you..." he growled deep in his throat, his lips almost seemed like they were pulled up into a smirk at the side.

Belle could hear the approaching rogues, and she knew if she didn’t make him stop, make him see who she truly was, it would only be a matter of minutes before the others arrived and swarmed her alone.

She stopped moving backward, her heart thundering as she looked deep into his unfamiliar eyes, desperate to reach whatever was left of the man she loved.

"It’s me, Rohan," she said, her voice trembling with urgency and aching hope. "Your wife... your Isa... and your little—"

But before she could finish, he was in front of her in a blink, and with a terrifying strength, he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground.

"I want... eat you," he growled, bringing his head closer to her, his breath hot against her rain-soaked skin. He leaned in, sniffing her neck and wet hair with a slow, deliberate drag of his nose that made every hair on her body rise. The sensation sent a chill through her spine, not from fear, but from the horrifying intimacy of it. It was him. Her Rohan... and yet, not.

Belle fought for breath, kicking out frantically and clawing at his hands, trying to pry his fingers from around her throat where his claws were digging in and bruising her skin.

"No... you don’t. Let go of me!" she choked out, her voice breaking. A strange déjà vu swept over her, it felt like reliving a moment from her childhood where he had held her by the neck. Only now, there was no deep fear gripping her chest, just a raw desperation to reach him. To save him.

"Rohan..." she gasped his name with all the breath she could manage.

He stilled.

She watched as his head pulled back from her neck slightly, as if something about the way she said his name had struck a chord. He stared at her with his head tilted, his white-fogged eyes narrowing.

Then, without warning, he let go of her. Belle dropped to the ground, coughing hard and clutching her throat, her chest heaving.

But before she could lift her head, she felt a gust of wind as he ran past her.

She blinked in disbelief, thinking for a second he was running away, but to her astonishment, she turned to see him launching himself at the other rogues. The ones who had answered his call for meal. The ones who had come to feast on her.

He was attacking them.

Many of them were rushing to get her, but he did not allow them to pass him. He caught them and fought them off. She stared at him in disbelief. He was doing it again.

Years ago, when he had attacked her family’s carriage and grabbed and took her to the other rouges, he had not allowed them to touch her as he fought them off. It was like he wanted to show her to them and let them know she was his prey, and when they tried to still get her, he killed them.

It was happening again. But unlike in her childhood, she did not try to crawl and escape him. She moved back and watched him fight instead. He looked more alive than the rest of the rouges as he fought, and seeing he was almost done killing the ones who had run to them, Belle fumbled with the bag that hung around her waist where his heart was, trying to prepare herself.

Finally, he finished killing every single one of the rouges who had come, and then when she thought he would turn back to her, he stood where he was and made the cry again like he was calling out for more of them. Belle almost picked up a stone and threw it at his back to make him stop the cry of calling. What was he trying to do?

When he didn’t stop, she picked up the stone right beside her leg and hurled it towards his back, cutting off his cries and causing him to turn around to face her with a growl of displeasure and narrowed eyes.

"Stop that... you are calling them."

"You my food. My prey, mine alone. No one touches," he rasped thickly and possessively as he watched her from where he stood ten feet away from her.

Belle could not help her smile as she nodded her head. "Yes, I am only yours. Now can you stop making that noise and come here?"

He shook his head. "I will eat you later after I kill them." He turned away from her and began to make the noise again, causing Belle to cover her ears and to frown at his back.

Not long after, more of the rouges from another direction came running to him again. And just like earlier, he began to fight them off, killing them. Belle had not expected this. It seemed being a rouge had turned him into something else. As amusing as it might be, she was freezing and cold to the bones. She needed to end this and take him back before he truly decided he would eat her.

From the looks of things, he had not turned completely rouge. He still had some senses in him to still be able to be possessive. As much as it hurt to see that he did not recognize her as his wife, she was glad that he had not lost his complete senses yet.

Rav had said he would become like the rest when he finished rotting, and the rotting process only takes three days, which meant two days left for him to rot away.

By the time he finished fighting off the batch of rouges and was preparing to cry out again, Belle managed to stand to her feet despite the dizziness and cold and yelled out, "That’s enough, Rohan! If you want to eat me, do it now!"

He turned to her with menacing slowness that made her swallow hard. He did not look pleased that she interrupted his cry of calling. In fact, he looked mad and more frightening.

"Food do not command. I eat when I want. And I will eat now," he gritted, and then with that fast movement she had noticed he used to kill the rouges, he pounced on her, momentarily knocking the breath out of her lungs and causing her to hit her back on the muddy, wet ground.

His weight pinned her down, and she stared up at him with wide, breathless eyes as his fangs grew larger.

She had to do something now, but she was becoming paralyzed with panic. He had knocked the bag where the heart was out of her hand when he pounced on her, and now she could do nothing but watch as his jaw widened.

"Don’t eat me. No, you don’t want to," she cried, heaving in terror. But even if he heard her, he made no indication that he understood.

When his head descended on her like he would bite off her head, Belle did the unthinkable.

She raised her arm that was surprisingly not caught under his weight and wrapped it around his neck. Then she leaned up and pressed her mouth to the side of his lips, causing him to stop. He literally froze, seemingly taken aback, and his jaw returned to normal. She took that opportunity and kissed him right on the lips as his fangs retreated into a smaller size.

She did not know what came over her or what gave her the courage, but she knew if he would kill her here, she wouldn’t die without feeling his kiss again. She’d die knowing she had at least kissed him after a long time.

She did not care that that same mouth had eaten raw meat or whatever else. She just allowed herself to go along with her instinct.

At first, he did not move. He remained just as he was while she continued to kiss him, her lips trembling as she tried to find the familiar warmth in the mouth that had once taken her to paradise and brought her back again.

Desperately, she slid her hands around his head, pulling him closer as she tried to deepen the kiss, searching, aching, for her Rohan. But when she couldn’t feel that comforting heat, that spark she had always known, her heart sank. Slowly, she pulled back, her vision blurring with tears as her throat tightened painfully.

He just stared at her, his head tilting slightly to the side.