Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 340: Vampiric Toxin II

Chapter 340: Vampiric Toxin II

"In the end, my sister had to help me behead the mice," Prince Nathaniel said and sighed, remembering Aurelia’s frantic screams. "They had drunk the blood of their fellow kind, and they just... kept on screaming, trying to squeeze through the bars to get to me. If not for my sister, I might not even be here."

Aurelia wasn’t scared of the bloody mice, but she was terrified that her brother could have been bitten or hurt. Since their mother had passed away, Aurelia had grown increasingly overprotective of him, especially after they realized that his magical abilities had not grown stronger with time.

Back then, he had foolishly put the mice in his bedroom, with a net to cover the top of their enclosure. He had assumed that the experiment had failed when no mice showed signs of anything out of the ordinary.

Nathaniel even harbored the thought that he might keep the barn mice as pets. They were cute.

However, he heard frantic screeching in the wee hours of the morning. He opened his eyes, only to be greeted with multiple bright red eyes, luminous even in the dark, staring unblinkingly at him from their cage.

He shakily lit up the candles, only to see a more terrifying sight.

The barn mice that were so docile before screamed at him, their bloodshot eyes growing impossibly wide. They flung themselves against the bars of the enclosure, and Nathaniel was horrified to realize that said bars were splattered with blood.

He reluctantly stepped closer for a better look, and the gory sight almost caused him to hurl. The sawdust layer on the cage floor was soaked with blood, and there were decimated body parts of other brown mice laying on it.

Some of them looked like wrinkled prunes, as though something had sucked all the blood from them.

No prizes for guessing what. The mice that were still screeching had blood around their mouths, staining their brown fur into a dark red.

Nathaniel shuddered. After that incident, his tolerance for blood and gore had become nearly non-existent. It was disgraceful for a crown prince to be so affected by blood, but thankfully the only person who knew about this weakness was Aurelia.

It was Aurelia who gathered him in her arms and promised to handle it, and handle it she had. The mice were dealt with swiftly; Aurelia had their bodies dismembered and burnt.

Now that they were apart for so long, he was starting to miss her.

"After that incident, I stopped that line of research for good and searched for alternative ingredients," Nathaniel confessed. "It was simply too dangerous. If a small amount of cinnabar back then could incite such a drastic transformation in docile mice, I fear for what Alistair might be capable of under the influence of such a large dose."

Everyone fell silent as they contemplated the grim picture Prince Nathaniel painted with his words.

In the end, Jonah was the first to speak.

"Well, if that doesn’t teach people not to experiment on strange substances, nothing will. It’s pretty lucky that you experimented on mice instead," Jonah said.

"Funny that you said that," Atticus said with a glint in his eyes, and Jonah paled, wordlessly asking Atticus to shut up.

Of course, Atticus did not. "Sirona, did you know Jonah actually tested Alistair’s treatment on himself? He poured it on an open wound."

"You traitor!" Jonah hissed, yet he could do nothing more but wince as Sirona immediately hauled him up by the collar to shake him like a cat who found her kitten misbehaving.

"You colossal moron! What’s rattling in your skull? Potatoes?!"

To their surprise, even Prince Nathaniel joined in the scolding.

"How did you even make it to adulthood with such recklessness?!"

Then both of them proceeded to team up and lambast Jonah for his poor life choices, leaving Jonah spluttering. He cast Atticus a pleading look, but Atticus ignored it, choosing to sit by Daphne’s bedside.

"I can’t believe you betrayed Jonah like this," Daphne whispered in amusement.

"He’ll live," Atticus said, gazing warmly at her, "Just like you did."

Daphne leaned back, but she sighed in worry. "What do you think will happen to Alistair?"

"Knowing him, nothing good. If the gods are good, they’ll make him explode into smithereens," Atticus said darkly. Then his face cleared as he decided to focus on more important things, namely his wife. "Say Daphne, are you feeling up to eating? I’ll get you some food."

Daphne’s answering grin was all the answer he needed.

***

Meanwhile, Hazelle was having a decidedly worse time with her husband― if she could even call Alistair that. Their earlier lovemaking was rough, but it had still been pleasurable. Her body was pleasantly sore, but Alistair still wasn’t done, his fervor for her undiminished.

Hazelle was initially delighted. Finally her husband would be hers, after years of being the poor neglected wife, her husband had returned to her arms.

It made her feel adored.

However, his loving embrace did not last for too long. They had gone round after round, and hours later, Hazelle was sore all over and she wanted nothing more than to rest. Yet, her husband acted as though he had been doused with a lethal amount of aphrodisiacs― no matter how many times he had found release, he remained unsatiated.

Every time they kissed, it was as though it was the first. He remained hard as a rock even after their seemingly endless lovemaking and Hazelle was already at her limit.

"Alistair," she said, her voice an octave higher, paired with a short whine. "Let me rest for a bit. You’re an absolute beast tonight."

She swatted his arm lightly, gently pushing away, but he did not budge. Alistair pressed his head down and crashed their lips together, kissing with great enthusiasm. She returned it but quickly pulled away to gasp for air.

"Alistair, I mean it! Just give me a couple of minutes."

Again, her husband ignored her pleas. Since she was unwilling to share a kiss, he dipped his head and buried it into the crook of her neck. When his actions stopped, Hazelle thought that he had finally listened to her requests and was settling for a cuddling session before continuing.

However, a sudden sharp pain had her yelping out in pain.