Married To The Mad Vampire Lord

"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."

Rohan's brows arched as he asked, "And how does your grandfather happen to know about James and make this marriage arrangement?"

"It's a past history that has nothing to do with you, my Lord. I don't see how my family history concerns you," Marquis Hart said uneasily but firmly.

"I am just curious, Sire, and once my curiosity is piqued, unless I get the answers, I get so restless that I kill a noble before I feel better. You are the only noble here, help me soothe this curiosity," Rohan said with a look so harmless one would think he was not capable of killing, but even the Marquis knew better from those eyes.

To protect his life, he decided to speak.

"Many years ago," the Marquis said, "the Marchant family held the position of the Marquis before my family."

It wasn't a secret, it was just that only the elders knew of this, and many of those had died. The new generation came to know the Hart family, not the Marchant family as the marquis.

Marquis Hart thought as he continued, "When the Marchants were still in the position, my family held the position of Baron. We were close friends and even had a connection through marriage, my grand-aunt was married to the Marquis then and they even had a son."

Rohan frowned. He was not pleased to know that the Marchant in his wife's dream was real, but he wanted to hear what had happened and asked, "And what happened to the Marchants that made them lose that position?"

"I wasn't born when it happened but... I only heard about it. The family got entangled in a scandal with the Duke's family that brought their end and death. The entire family died, and people said it was because they were cursed. Their death was unexpected, every single one of them was gone except a little boy sired by Deven Marchant. Harrison was his name, and he survived.

They died in an unusual fire and everything burned down, but when the fire happened, the young boy was at a friend's house and missed the fate. Harrison was Jamie Marchant's grandfather, who was taken in by my family, being the only distant relative he had left, as his grandmother was a Hart. He lived with the Harts and became friends with my father. But something happened that made the boy run away without telling anyone, and he was never found no matter how my family looked for him.

Years later, Harrison returned to Aragonia with his new family, having married so young and grown up on a farm somewhere in Barbara. They had a son, and he swore to have nothing to do with his family's fortune as he believed it to be cursed, like the rumors said. Even though my father talked him into rising back to power, he had grown without education and was no longer interested in the Marchants' lost title, as many had forgotten about them by then.

He raised his son without telling him about his past, and then it was said Harrison died of illness and was soon followed closely by his wife, leaving the boy they had sired behind. The boy grew up in Aragonia but had little to no education just like his father, and he took on the farm and ranch work Harrison left behind and got married.

That was how they had Jamie Marchant and a girl, Lilly Marchant, you see. But as much as my family didn't want anything to do with the Marchants anymore, as they had distanced themselves, my father, who has been disabled in bed for so long, met Jamie when my wife invited him to make a dress for him for my daughter's debut season to be matched for marriage."

The Marquis' face scrunched in displeasure as he continued. "That's when my father remembered his friendship with the late Harrison Marchant, because the boy looked so much like his grandfather. And now he is hellbound on making it up to him by having me help the boy, to give him a title and a marriage proposal."

The Marquis turned and looked at the vampire by his side and added, "So you see how I have no choice? My father means a lot to me, and I will fulfill his wishes no matter what society thinks. I will make that nobody my in-law."

Rohan, who had been listening silently, let the man's word's settle in his head before he asked, "Do you by any chance know anything about Deven Marchant before his death?"

"Everything I told is all I know. I don't know anything about him or his family then, as I wasn't there," the Marquis said quickly, hoping the vampire would leave and spare him.

Rohan could tell the man was telling the truth. Now that he already knew the dream his wife was having was not just a dream but something that had seemed to happen, he wanted to know the details and what role Deven Marchant had played.

He never believed in past lives and all that humans say, but he was starting to think his wife must have lived before, or that she had...

He did not want to think about the second possibility. Right now he needed to know what had happened then and why it was haunting her now. But the Marquis was no longer the man to answer the rest of his questions. The Duke and his wife also knew something, and he would wait for their turn.

Looking into the Marquis' eyes straight and holding them with his, Rohan compelled him, "You and I never met, we never talked."

He left the carriage, blending into the night again.

---

In the Dawson mansion, where the torches burned brightly in every corner, as the Duke had ordered for every light to be left on because of the fear of the creatures inside his house creeping in on them, guards were kept in the hallway that led to the Duke and his family's chamber.

But inside it, his wife paced the room, holding a cloth around her bleeding wrist, where their family doctor had been summoned to treat and stop the bleeding an hour ago. But the throbbing and pain made her held the cloth around the wrist.

"We shouldn't let him do that to us again, My Lord" Lady Louisiana gritted, feeling humiliated and disgusted at how the arrogant vampire had cut their wrists and taken their blood.

The Duke massaged his temple. "What do you expect me to do? To challenge him and let him kill inside my house? Not a chance. The king has ordered me to entertain him and make him feel at ease so he won't hold any suspicions."

Lady Louisiana turned on her husband. "Then you will let him feed on our blood every day until we have none? I won't stay for that if that's what you plan. I will take my daughter and go back to my family's house for some time if—"

"Do you hear yourself, Louisiana?" The Duke narrowed his eyes at his distressed wife. "Do you think I also like the fact that we are housing such creatures in our home? I am only doing this for our land and for the recognition it would bring us if Aragonia finally gets to make a vampire-killing weapon."

He had restlessly worked alongside the court and king to let a single vampire ruin it for him now. "If it's blood he wants, we can take from our servants and feed him before he takes from us next time. They will only be here for weeks, not forever. Once we get everything we need from Isabelle, they will all return to their land."

He assured his wife, not wanting her to act rashly and leave the house to him alone to handle the creatures, not to mention the wagging of tongues it would cause if it became known that the Duchess left her husband's house and returned to her family's. He did not want people speculating about his family like they had done many years ago. He had worked hard to clean the Dawson name, just as his own father had done, and he wouldn't let anything ruin it again.

He had been given the honor to help his land and to keep the vampires at ease, and he wouldn't let anything get in the way.

"The sooner the weapons are made, the faster we can protect our citizens from these savages. Because of them, kids are being kept at home and locked away. Yesterday I heard in court that ten young girls had gone missing again, and there are words that the vampires were behind it. You have to rein in your emotions in their presence, Louisiana," the Duke encouraged. "You have to stay here and do your part."

"Isabelle will get the report ready by tomorrow. I spoke to her, and she assured me that she has the knowledge our people need to protect themselves from the vampires," the Duke added.

"Have you given her the parchment to write them?" Lady Louisiana relaxed, hearing that there was a chance for them to succeed in this. And once they did, their family might rise as high as even the king.

When the Duke gave a nod, Lady Louisiana finally sat down at the edge of her bed. "Good that we gave her the education to read and write. At least it's paying off now. I can't wait for her to also go away. She still unsettles me. The more I see her, the more I remember what happened years ago. I don't want her beside me or anywhere close to Eve.

We should have listened to your uncles when they told us not to name her after that crazy woman. Now you see what we get for it, someone who died and came back looking like her."