Married To The Mad Vampire Lord-Chapter 167: Memories_Part 2

He turned his eyes to her again. He stared at her for a long, silent moment, and slowly his lips curled up in humor. "You are the first human to ever speak to me like I am normal, little bunny. How adorable of a little thing."

"I am not little, and I am certainly not a bunny, young sir. I am Isabelle Dawson. What is your name?" she asked, her hazel eyes shining brightly from across the space between them.

He stared at her like he wasn’t going to answer, and then, after she began to part her lips to speak again, he told her.

"Rohan."

"Rohan..." she echoed with a nod of her head and a small smile. "Rohan, I like how it sounds. And I can spell it. Rohan, will you come home with me so I can tell Papa you saved me from those monsters? He will reward you with many gifts." She said seriously then showed a kind smile that made her cheeks round up.

The young man could not quite seem to believe the girl could still be kind and smile after everything she had just gone through. But then maybe little humans had not grown enough to sense danger, because this one certainly was clueless.

"Little one, can you come over here and help me with this?" said the young man as he lifted his arm, where he was halfway trying to tie a piece of clothing around it but couldn’t do it as he was weakened.

"Don’t stand, your ankle. Crawl," he ordered firmly when she began to attempt to stand.

The young girl had lived through a horror she could not imagine was possible, but waking up to see another human with her, who must have lived through the same horror as her, she thought it was best to stay with the person, as he was older than she was and would take her back to her mama, and they could treat him for saving her life from those monsters.

Her head felt so heavy on her that it took time to crawl to where he was sitting. It was when she was close to him that the girl realized he was sweating profusely even though it was cold inside the cave. There was blood on his body that made her gasp and move back for a moment, and then she muttered,

"You are hurt badly, Rohan," she said quietly, her large eyes that looked too big on her small face watching him.

"It’s not my blood. Tie this for me here," he instructed as he lifted his arm and showed her the end of the cloth he wanted her to tie.

She did as she was told, and then after that, she sat next to him and stared at his face, where there was sweat. Recalling how her mother used to wipe away her sweat when she had a fever, Belle moved closer and used her sleeve to wipe at his forehead.

He jerked his head back as if surprised, but then, after a moment of contemplation, he moved closer and allowed her to wipe it for him.

"Do all little humans have the same large eyes like yours?" came his question that made the girl pull back to sit down, and then she pouted and looked away from him.

"Humans? Why do you keep saying that when you are also one?" she asked, and without waiting for his reply, her eyes began to fill with tears again.

"Those monsters, are they still outside this place? Will they attack us if we leave?"

She moved closer to him as if she felt safe and protected being close to him, while she warily stared at the entrance of the cave.

"Are you scared of them?" he asked, and she shuddered even before she answered the question.

"I do not like them. They are monsters." She moved closer to him and laid her head against his arm to rest her heavy head. She was still staring at the entrance of the cave when she felt the young man next to her swirling a curl of her hair around his finger, playing and touching it like he had never seen anything like that before.

He pulled it and then let it go and watched it bounce. He repeated the action until the girl moved back to say, "You will ruin the curls. Mama told me to let it be, and... what is wrong with your face?" the girl asked as she pulled back in horror upon noticing his face was changing and dark veins were now showing.

Just like that, his face began to transform into the same monster that had terrorized her.

"You are a monster as well..." she cried and then screamed, trying to get away from him, not fast enough because he pulled her back.

---

Belle’s eyes snapped open, and for a moment, she had no idea where she was. Until a few moments later, as she took in slow breaths to calm her frantic heart, she began to notice details in her surroundings.

She stared at the familiar brown ceiling of her chamber in the castle and listened to the light drops of rain against the roof, and the light cracking of the burning log in the fireplace. She was home, but for some reason... it did not feel like home enough, and like something was terribly missing—something she couldn’t yet point a finger at in this very moment.

She stared unblinkingly at the ceiling until her eyes filled with tears. They rolled down her cheeks as she revisited her childhood nightmare, which had turned out not to be as bad as she had always thought it to be. She remembered him...

She recalled everything about that incident. She recalled from the moment she woke up to Rohan to the moment he compelled her and sent her towards the search team of people looking for her in the forest. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Though he had been the one to first attack their carriage, he had also been the one to save her from the others, even though he had scared the living soul out of her by saying he wanted to eat her.

But knowing Rohan’s personality now, she realized he had wanted to terrify her and instill fear into her young heart. Her husband was twisted, and she loved him just like that. Nonetheless, not knowing him then, he had traumatized her soul to no end.

She had not really known the trauma of what had happened to her when she first woke up in that cave and spoke to the young man. She had not hated those monsters but only feared them, until she saw how her family had changed towards her and how everything seemed to be different after she was taken back to the Dawson house.

She had blamed it on those vampires for many years and hated them, to the point that when she had stood in that forest and watched her husband struggle, she had not attempted to step forward to help him, to hold him. She had foolishly stood, allowing her fears to overrule her love for him.

Rohan...

Recalling the last image of him in her mind’s eye in that forest, she jerked to a sitting position and attempted to stand, but she swayed the moment her feet touched the cold floor. Darkness swirled in her vision, and everything went blank for a moment until she sat at the edge of the bed to calm the rising throb in her head.

She grabbed her head in her hands and took in deep breaths. It was then she realized she was wearing a nightdress, and her body, which had been covered with dark blood, was now clean, and she smelled of lavender instead of the rotting stench she last recalled.

Her head was pounding, but the thought and memory of Rohan running without looking back at her, and the words he spoke amidst the pain he was in, crushed and squeezed her heart. She belatedly understood she had wronged him for standing there without doing anything.

The sorrowful look in those eyes... the way he said her name... and the way he said farewell.

Belle’s throat clenched with emotion, and her eyes filled with tears as she bit down on her trembling lips.

"How could you, Isabelle? How dare you not try to understand him and stood there like a fool? He was clearly hurting and you were..." Her voice was painfully hoarse, regret formed a sharp dagger that sliced into her chest, tearing her heart open it left her breathless.

She suddenly stood up from her bed, not caring for the pain in her head or her throat. She ignored the dizziness and ran towards the door.

She had to make it right and tell him she was sorry, that the past was in the past, and that she had forgiven him—and also ask him for his forgiveness. He had fought to come and save her from those rogues despite looking broken. That was enough to make up for everything in the past. She had to tell him she did not mean to fear him.