Married To The Mad Vampire Lord

The night sky was clear with stars glistening and a half-moon illuminating the land. The tower city clock chimed ten o'clock at night, and many people still moved around, going on with their nightly business in Aragonia, many hurrying back home after the day's work.

Coaches and horses, huffing and gulping, could be heard, and the flashing lamps hung on the sides of the coaches occasionally illuminated the dark figure standing on the side of the street, with the orange glow of his cigar flashing in the night and smoke puffing out of his mouth.

He blended smoothly into the night, if it wasn't for the light that occasionally fell on him and the orange glow of his cigar. Behind him, the Marquis house stood tall and silent, with only the faint movements of the servants, as the nobles must have already retired for the night, unlike the vampire land where activities happened at night.

He stood there, waiting, until the carriage he had been expecting finally turned toward the gate of the Marquis mansion. Only then did he push away from the wall he had been leaning on and step forward, walking deliberately into the path of the vehicle. He stopped directly in front of the horses, forcing the coachman to pull back hard on the reins, cursing loudly as the startled animals reared.

Inside the fancy carriage, the Marquis, who had been resting and enjoying his pipe, frowned deeply at the sudden stop, the jolt nearly making him choke on the smoke. Irritated, he banged against the wall that separated him from the coachman and demanded sharply, "What's wrong with you, Gaston?!"

The coachman's apologetic voice quickly came. "I am sorry, Sire, but a man is standing in front of the horses and blocking the entrance to the house." His tone was uneasy, for the light at the front of the coach did not reach the tall shadowy figure, save for the faint glow of the cigar burning in his mouth.

The Marquis, a short man in his early forties with light brown hair and light beard, scowled as he moved to open the door. Who would be so insane as to stop his carriage and block his way to his own home, knowing very well who he was?

However, the marquis did not get far in his effort to open the door, because just then he heard his coachman gasp in alarm. Before he could react further to the gasp, the carriage door was yanked open, and the man standing there appeared with a smile.

"Evening, Sire. If you have a few minutes to spare, I need to have a word or two with you. Move over," Rohan said casually as he entered the carriage. The Marquis, startled, instinctively shifted aside to give him space. Rohan sat down with ease, closing the door behind him, his cigar held lazily between his lips as his dark eyes fixed on the stunned nobleman.

"Who are you? And how dare you stand in front of my house and enter my carriage uninvited? Do you even know who I am, and what I can do to you?" the marquis recovered in time to shout in indignation, unable to believe that anyone in Aragonia could dare such audacity.

But when the lights inside the carriage settled on his uninvited guest's face, the marquis's outrage turned to startled terror. He saw immediately that this was no ordinary man from his land. The unsettling glint in those black eyes that stared at him deadpan, as though he cared nothing about who the marquis was, made him instinctively shift back to the end of the seat.

"I know exactly who you are, which is why I am here, Sire," Rohan mused, his tone carefree, almost harmless. "But if you don't want me to show you who I am and what I am capable of doing to people who refuse to listen, then I suggest you sit quietly and answer my questions." He leaned back with ease against the soft carriage seat, his posture relaxed as he took a drag from his cigar and blew out a ring of smoke that circled around his face before drifting out the window.

The Marquis stiffened when he noticed the man's blue hair, and his brown eyes rounded subtly in terror as he realized who this person was. No high ranked nobleman who worked under the king would fail to recognize that shade of hair. They had all been present a year and a few months ago when the vampire and a human from their land had been married in the name of peace, and they had seen the groom.

And from the news going around, that same groom was currently in Aragonia for the visit agreed on paper at the Duke's house. The Marquis almost fell off his seat as he realized the mad vampire was currently inside his carriage!

"Wh-what do you want from me?" Marquis Hart demanded as he played with the idea of screaming for his guards inside the house or calling his coachman. But the silence from his coachman was a clear sign this vampire had done something to silence him. He was a man with a thick, hoarse voice that wouldn't carry past the carriage to reach his men inside the house if he were to scream. Thus, he was literally trapped with a crazed vampire!

"Answers to some questions, that's all I want, and I will be gone, and you can proceed inside your house," Rohan said without turning to look at the frightened man, keeping his eyes on the glass window of the carriage and looking at the street that had been busy a moment ago with fancy coaches but was deserted now, with only the street lanterns and the breezes that smelled like rain, rattling the carriage roof.

"I...I don't know anything about wh-what you want to ask, I-I don't have any answers for your questions," Marquis Hart stammered, believing the vampire wanted to ask him questions that would make him betray his land, which he would never do.

Rohan finally looked away from the window and turned his head to the man beside him, blowing the smoke of his cigar in his direction as he said, "How about we start by having you hear the question before you decide you don't have answers, hmm?"

The man parted his lips to deny knowing anything, but Rohan beat him to it and said, "I want to know about how your family came to have the title of the Marquis when you haven't always been. Who were in that position before your family?" Rohan asked, his expression and eyes calm as he watched his words register in the frightened man's head, and his fear seemed to reduce as confusion settled on his face.

"What does my family history have to do with you, my Lord?" The Marquis asked, forcing himself to relax and not embarrass himself by showing how frightened he was.

"I simply find it odd. Curious, even. That a Marquis would allow his daughter to be engaged to a nobody. Doesn't it strike you as strange? A dressmaker and a nobleman's daughter? That doesn't sound like a normal thing to me. It sounds… fishy."

This afternoon, when they had arrived at the Dawsons' house and had been left in the hall to wait, Rohan had left the house. Being the creature that he was, he wasn't as tired as the others, he still had his energy in him. Hearing the deceit in the heartbeat of his so-called in-laws and how they were deceiving his wife with their stupid act, he couldn't stand it. He could see how much she had fallen for it and longed for that affection.

He had been there before, where he had wanted his parents' affection so badly and knew how it felt when they manipulated you into believing what they showed was genuine. He had left the house knowing that if they got under his skin and kept reminding him of the late queen and her deceit, he could really kill them.

Rohan had gone on to start his investigation about the Marchant and why a Marchant was in his wife's dream. He had found his way to Jamie's shop by compelling a few people on the way, only to find it closed, and then heard from a little boy, who hadn't grown enough not to trust strangers, that Jamie Marchant was now a very wealthy man and would be marrying Althea Hart, the Marquis' daughter.

Interesting, Rohan had found it. Now he wanted answers as to why a Marquis would give away his daughter to a man in Jamie's status, and the only way to know was to ask the Marquis himself.

Marquis Nathan Hart shifted uncomfortably in his seat as the vampire pinned him down with a stare that made him want to dig a hole and hide in it to escape those dark eyes.

"I... I was only keeping a promise my grandfather made, that's all. I had no choice but to give him my daughter to marry."