A strangled scream tore from her throat as she flung herself backward, crashing into the firm chest of her husband. Rohan caught her effortlessly, his arms wrapping around her in a protective hold. The moment she screamed, a frenzy erupted outside, the crows shrieked and took flight, their wings beating furiously as they flung themselves against the carriage in a chaotic way with their black feathers.
Belle squeezed her eyes shut, trembling, her hands clutching tightly at Rohan's shirt. She did not dare move away from him to see what had jumped at the window screen to attack her. She clutched at his front shirt, buried her face into his chest, and shut her eyes, praying that it wasn't the lost, turned vampires in Raventown said to attack humans passing through the town.
She'd heard many words about curious lads who had traveled to explore the town and never returned again. Many who had been turned during the massacre still resided in the town and fed on humans; they were the ones who attacked traveling carriages.
Meanwhile, the man who held her was smirking in dark amusement. How easy was it to scare a human? What did she think, that with someone like him in the carriage, any rogue vampire would dare attack? Not unless they wanted to die; they would not come anywhere close to his carriage.
He could still remember when Raventown had once been a human land. He used to come there for midnight dessert. He was part of those who had made it into what it was now, and he wondered what his trembling wife would think when he told her the story of the massacre and how he had bitten off heads like they were vegetables.
For his amusement, he whispered into her ear, "Bloody hell, a vampire is clutching to the carriage window. He is looking at you, he must want a taste of your aromatic blood, sweetheart. Do you want to give him a taste? He will go away once he has had a little drop."
Rohan smirked when she shivered and clutched him tightly.
"Please don't let him in. Help me..." she cried desperately into his chest.
Belle could not imagine another attack from a vampire. The one that happened years ago had left her traumatized and with a scar that would forever remind her of that unfaithful day she had narrowly escaped dying. She had not been worried about another attack because she thought her husband was a vampire and with a vampire another would not attack them. She'd thought it was said that even the vampires were terrified of the mad lord but it seemed she'd thought wrong!
Rohan pulled her onto his lap and smirked at her fear. He wondered what that emotion felt like. Why do people fear? He did not understand it.
"Don't fright, little lamb, or he might come in. He doesn't want my blood, but yours. Not that I have blood to feed him, if I did, I would have saved you and given him mine."
Belle nodded, too scared to hear the amusement in his voice or realize, why would he sit there so calmly when a vampire clutched at their moving carriage window? She pressed her palm to her mouth to hold in her cries and moved closer into his protective arms.
A moment later, she whispered against his chest, "Is… is it still there?"
"Definitely. He's not about to leave. You'd best obediently stay like this for now." His lips brushed her ear as he raised his hand, stroking her hair and watching as his fingers threaded into the thick golden mass. She had lovely hair he would like to see tangled in his pillow.
"Is it an adult vampire? Can it break into the carriage?" she asked quietly, her fingers clutching his shirt like a lifeline.
He lowered his voice as if not wanting the non-existent vampire to hear him, drawing out each word.
"He is big, Isa. His skin is ashen, stretched tight over his bones. Dark veins run down his face, and his eyes are blood red… and staring right at you. You know, vampires can smell human blood from a distance. And yours, ah, it must be enticing because more of them are gathering outside and following us. The pain of their fangs could kill you. Let me tell you a story of how they can kill..."
He began to describe disturbing, scary things that made Belle whimper and tremble in his arms. She wished he would stop talking about blood and pain as they sent cold shivers down her spine.
"My lord," came Rav's voice telepathically. "You are scaring the human. I can feel her fear from here. She might pass out if you don't stop telling her these things. Humans are fragile."
Rav could not help but pity the human who was unfortunate enough to show an emotion his lordship could not comprehend. Now, he would make her feel it all over again until he understood it. He would study her until he understood how it felt.
"Oh, come, I am merely telling her simple things that will put her to sleep. Look at her, she reminds me of a little rat cornered by a cat," he smiled humorlessly. She looked exhausted but had been fighting the exhaustion since when he told her, how he wanted her with nothing on, what better way to put her to sleep than to tell her a harmless story?
Humans were complex creatures he found hard to understand, especially the little trembling bunny in his arms who happened to be his wife. She did not see what had jumped at her and believed him when he told her it was a vampire. How adorably innocent.
He'd seen somewhere a human parent telling their kids bedtime stories to put them to sleep quickly, and his adorable wife would forever be a kid to him, even though she'd grown into a woman now. How time flies for humans...
"I don't think the story of a vampire gouging out a human's eyes and eating them is simple."
"Sigh. Then should I tell her the one about meticulously slicing flesh to see how veins work? To drink straight from them?" His eyes narrowed in thought. "Perhaps she would like to hear that fucking story I told Kuhn about—"
Rohan stopped, tilting his head as Belle shivered slightly in his arms, curling deeper into his chest as if seeking for his warmth.
"Shhh, little lamb," he murmured, running a hand through her spine. "You're safe. No one can hurt you when I am here."
He barely held back his amusement when he realized she had somehow fallen asleep just like that, too scared to move, too exhausted to fight it.
Tsk. His human wife was adorable when she was terrified. Should he scare her more from now on?