Chapter 370: Wings_Part 1
Rav returned to the room after some moment and went to stand next to Evenly, who was still trying to keep Angel’s eyes away from his unconscious mother, even though he was fighting her fiercely to look in that direction.
Evenly’s eyes were fixed with both concern and dread on what the duke had just done to his wife. She had heard about vampires marking each other in the past, but she knew it was no longer in practice, as many people had forgotten what true love was and only married for benefits.
Furthermore, no vampire in his right mind would mark a human, for they knew how the human’s short lifespan could shorten their own. Though she herself saw nothing wrong with marking a human, many vampires did not share that mindset. However, the duke had done it without a moment’s hesitation, only to save her friend’s life. If that wasn’t a love any woman would envy, then perhaps that woman had no heart at all. She admired the couple as much as she worried for Belle’s condition, which was completely new to her.
How could she bleed so much when she hadn’t been hurt? How could her soul have left her body for another to possess? And most importantly, why wasn’t she waking up after the mark?
"Why isn’t she waking up, Rav?" Evenly finally asked worriedly when her friend still remained motionless with only a faint heartbeat. She knew the first mark could heal wounds when the other partner was a human. But even though Belle’s wound had healed, she wasn’t waking.
"It takes time," Rav said quietly. "She must have suffered internal injuries that are slowly healing as well."
Rav couldn’t help but think the marking was the only way that could have saved her life. A doctor would have missed those internal injuries, and she would have died, and Rohan would never have spared any doctor who dared to tell him his wife was no more.
Rav himself had gone through the loss of a wife, and though he couldn’t say he loved his late wife as his master loved his, it was still a very terrible, even miserable, feeling to lose someone close to you. Lady Belle was a very kind and gracious person to him, and just like the duke, Rav respected her and wanted no harm to befall her.
Minutes passed and Belle’s eyes didn’t open. However, knowing that she was out of danger now, as her complexion had already improved, Rohan stared at her face, trying to swallow the damn lump in his throat, but it refused to go down no matter how much his throat bubbled to swallow.
He gently stroked her blood-drenched hair, still trying to wrap his mind and fingers around the fact that he had come so close to losing her just now. He had been only a breath away from becoming a widower, from falling back into his darkened world without the only light that guided him, without her.
He had always known humans were fragile, but never having been in such a situation before, where he cared about a person this much, he hadn’t known the feeling could be this miserable, where even though that person was out of danger, you still carried the fear in your mind.
Not wanting her to wake up with this much blood around her and on her body, Rohan dismissed Rav and Evenly so he could bath her without even sparing them a look. Only when Angel suddenly cried out in protest of being taken away did he turn over his shoulder and say, "You can keep him and go." Then he added, "Get me some warm water and any rag you can find in the house before you leave, Rav."
At this moment, where Belle was all he cared about, he didn’t give a damn if the duke and his wife would come in and find him here.
Rav nodded and left to do as he was told, while Evenly, who was eager to leave the room as the scent of blood was making her throat itch and her fangs push out, hurried to the sofa, put the baby down, stroked his cheek, and rushed out before she lost control of herself.
Rohan slowly moved Belle’s head back onto the pillow as he stepped away and stood up to get rid of whatever had blood on it. He took off his nightshirt first and used it to wipe the blood from his hands and chest, where it had seeped through his clothes onto his skin. From the corner of his eye, he noticed his son attempting to get down from the sofa and said,
"Stay there. You can’t be close to this blood."
Angel, who, as much as he didn’t know how to control his thirst, knew his mother’s blood by scent and wouldn’t take it unless given, moved back onto the far end of the sofa and looked toward his mama with tearful eyes. He might be young, but he knew something was badly wrong with her. His young mind could not fathom what was actually wrong, yet his little heart carried a deep fear.
Mama had never lain still like that while he was in the room. She was always awake, smiling and tickling him to make him laugh and feel happiness. Now, he felt no happiness but only sadness and fear, an emotion that was very new to his fast-developing mind.
Rohan knew he should console his son, but he couldn’t waste another second not attending to Belle. Hence, he looked away from his saddened face and went on to search for a change of clothes for her in the trunks.
When Rav brought the warm water and clean rag, Rohan spent the next thirty minutes attending to his wife, cleaning every trace of blood from her body and hair. It was while wiping her shoulder that he noticed the new mark on her skin was no longer as dark as it had been when he first made it. Instead, it looked light and faint, like something that could easily be wiped away.
The mark was supposed to stay dark, growing even darker with time as a symbol of him, but it looked faint now, like fading ink.
He used the wet rag to wipe at it impulsively, and his eyes narrowed when the color darkened and then turned faint again. Rohan ran his finger against it, and the mark flickered, disappearing and reappearing, causing him to wonder what could be the cause of it acting like that, or if it was supposed to behave that way.
"Strange," he muttered softly to himself, though unease gnawed at him. But, putting aside the thought of why it was behaving that way for now so he could finish attending to her, he ripped off her ruined dress and helped her into a fresh set that hadn’t been touched nor chosen by a filthy soul.
When he was done changing and cleaning her body, he bent and gathered her in his arms, carrying her out of the room and leaving his son, who watched him go with sad eyes, alone inside.
Angel’s little brows pulled together as the door closed behind his father. Had he been forgotten? The boy wore the look of wondering on his face as fresh tears welled in his eyes, but he didn’t make a sound from his mouth as the tears rolled silently down his cheeks. Without a word, he lay himself down on the sofa, feeling tired.
Still so young, the energy of being in the land of the dead was draining to his small body.
It was when he was about to close his eyes to sleep that Angel saw a figure appear in front of him, and he sat up quickly, believing it was his father because of the blue hair and dark eyes. But his brightened expression slowly turned dull and then wary when he realized the person only looked like his papa, yet it wasn’t his papa.
"No..." Angel moved away when the person walked towards him and stretched out his hand to pat his hair, stroking it gently.
"Hello, grandson," the demon king said with a smile on his face, a smile that made him appear strangely friendly and even younger. Angel’s tense body slowly eased, and he relaxed, leaning into the stroking hand, comforted by the fact that the person carried a scent so similar to his papa’s.
"Papa," Angel whispered with a small smile.
Rohan carried his wife into another guest room that was on the same corridor as the one given to him. He placed her on the bed and tenderly tucked her in with the blanket. Then he left the chamber and went back for his son in the other room.
When he entered, Rohan’s brows shot up in astonishment at what he saw. Angel wasn’t sitting on the sofa, he was in the air, flying around the room and giggling, little wings flapping brightly behind him.