The Vampire King's Possession
Chapter 197. By Sundown.

Chapter 197: 197. By Sundown.

Mauve stared hard at Jael as she rested her chin on his chest, she squinted her eyes directly in front of his face making sure he could see her as she stared hard at him.

"What?" He asked with a frown.

"Nothing," she mumbled and turned away so she had her back to his chest.

It was annoying that she could not talk about it as he had threatened to not allow her leave if she dared bring it up again. Knowing Jael, he would do exactly that. However it has been over two days since the proposed time the physician said she could leave and the topic hasn’t been brought up once.

She was starting to fear he was messing with her and he really had no intention of letting her go. It annoyed her to no end but she couldn’t even complain about it.

"Are you sure?" He asked, raising his head off the pillow slightly to look at her.

"Hmph," she scoffed and folded her arms. There was no way he could say he did not know what the problem was.

"Your arm," he said and touched the wound directly. Mauve shivered a little as his cold finger rested on it. He traced her arm from the top of her shoulder to the end of the wound. "It is healing nicely."

"It doesn’t even hurt anymore." This wasn’t a complete lie.

Her arm itself no longer hurts but the healing wounds still hurt. However, she was not going to tell him this part just to be safe. He might use it as a reason to not embark on the journey. He did say he would determine by himself with the state of her wound.

"That’s good," he said and dragged his finger upward before pulling away.

Mauve rolled her eyes and puffed her cheeks. If she could not speak directly about it, she intended to make it known in any other way she could.

"Are you sure there is nothing on your mind?" She could hear the amusement in his voice and this pissed her off even more.

"There is nothing," she said sternly. "Sleep tight." She said with finality.

"We leave for the castle as soon as the sun sets," Jael said casually.

"What?" Mauve yelled, turning around suddenly. She narrowly missed brushing her wounds against him.

"Be careful," he warned sternly.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"That could have turned out horribly wrong. You could have worsened the wounds and caused them to start bleeding."

"I know but are we really leaving by sundown?" She knew he was concerned but she was not about to act like she did not just hear him say they were leaving. She needed to confirm her ears weren’t lying to her.

Jael sighed, "Yes but be more careful and aware of your surroundings."

She made a celebratory sound, completely ignoring his warning. Suddenly, she frowned, "Why didn’t you tell me before now?" She looked at him with a questioning gaze.

Jael looked away, "I didn’t see the need."

Mauve blinked twice, "What do you mean you didn’t see the need? How would I be able to get ready if you’re telling me at the very last minute?"

"Don’t worry about it, Mill has taken care of anything that needs to be done."

She glared at him and then laid back down, "Still, it doesn’t mean I should be the last person to know or be told so late." She actually thought he had no intention of letting her go but she did not add this part.

It felt a little hurtful that he was telling her this but she was just glad she could leave and in a few hours too. She should be used to this but now after all, he tended to keep a lot of things from her.

"Does it really matter when I tell you?" He asked.

Mauve eyes turned to slits, however, her expression immediately fell. "Of course, it does," she said with a sad tone to her voice.

"I did not want to worry you unnecessarily."

"What’s there to worry about?" She asked with a puzzled expression.

"Get some rest," he said instead. "The journey back is going to be stressful, you need all the sleep you can get."

"I don’t need you to tell me that," she said and closed her eyes. She knew exactly what she needed to do and getting enough sleep was part of it.

Even though she said that, she found it very difficult to fall asleep and spent most of the night tossing. She eventually fell asleep only to hear Jael speaking to her barely four hours later.

"Mauve wake up!" His voice echoed inside her head.

She groaned and rolled to her side as she instinctively moved from the loud sound. She wasn’t nearly ready to wake up yet and she voluntarily sunk deeper in her sleep.

"Mauve," he tried again. "Wake up."

She merely adjusted but was fast asleep again. Her eyes were closed and her chest lifted and dropped in a steady manner.

"Mauve," he shook her vigorously but it made no difference. She briefly opened her eyes only to fall back to sleep again.

Jael scooped her off the bed and held her in his arms. "Well then if you are not awake, I guess I will just have to cancel the trip back. It must be better this way."

Mauve eyes flew open instantly. Her bright eyes stared at him and it was hard to tell she had been asleep a few seconds ago. She had a shocked look on her face but it was more from holding her eyes wide open.

"I am awake," she announced.

Jael threw his head back and laughed. "I knew I should have held out longer before telling you."

"You can’t be serious," She yelled. "It is your fault I couldn’t get enough sleep. If you had told me before this morning, I wouldn’t have been as deadly excited and maybe I would have been able to sleep." She barely finished speaking when a yawn ripped out of her.

"Let’s get you cleaned up and dressed." He said ignoring her complaint.

"Don’t ignore me," she blurted.

"I am not ignoring you." He said and started walking toward the door with her in his arms.

Mauve’s head spun and she started to struggle out of his hands, "Let me go." She yelled and kicked her legs.

He carefully placed her on the floor and for a couple seconds Mauve was stunned. She did not expect him to adhere to her wishes that easily. She stood unmoving for a few seconds but quickly recovered. She headed to the door with him walking closely behind her.

"You don’t have to walk so closely," she said as he stretched out to open the door.

"With you, I can’t be too careful."

She turned to look at him with a sneer and then turned back to the door which he held open for her. The only way she could go was out as he stood like a huge rock behind her.

As she stepped out she saw Mill standing with a lamp a couple of feet away from her. Mill was standing in front of the door to her room and she looked like she was waiting for Mauve. Mauve increased her speed to catch up to Mill.

"Sire," Mill said with a bow when they got close enough.

"Mill," he said.

"Mill!" Mauve called with a huge smile.

"Mauve," the vampire smiled subtly at her. "How was your rest?"

Mauve pouted, "Short," she said while throwing a glare in Jael’s direction.

"Sorry about that," Mill said with a small knowing smile.

Mauve realized with her gesture that Mill had interpreted what she meant as something else. "No, Mill. that is not..."

"Mill," Jael called sternly, cutting into Mauve’s words. "We depart in an hour. Surely, that is more than enough time for her to get ready?"

She nodded, "Yes Sire. I will get her ready by then."

"Okay, Mill, I leave this to you." He turned his head to Mauve and with the hint of a smile he said, "If you are late the trip is canceled."

She gasped, "You wouldn’t dare."

"Watch me.’

She opened her mouth to protest but he closed the gap between them and kissed her square on the mouth in front of Mill.

"I will come get you myself in an hour," He said as he broke the kiss.

Mauve nodded, all her anger was forgotten as her cheeks slowly turned bright red. He tucked her hair behind her ear and pulled her to him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly to his chest.

He pulled away, and Mauve stood watching as he walked away from them.

"Mauve," Mill called to her after what felt like an eternity. "We should go into the room. Your bath water is ready."

She nodded and let Mill lead her into the room.