The Vampire King's Possession
Chapter 426. Close Enough

Chapter 426: 426. Close Enough

The silence dragged on for a while and Mauve could do nothing but stare back at them with a curious expression on her face.

She looked up at Jael expecting some kind of explanation but he kept his gaze straight and his expression didn’t give anything away.

Danag was the one who broke the silence, he looked at her with a sad smile. He neither looked grateful nor appalled by her gesture.

"Thank you for your offer Mauve but we aren’t far from the castle. I am sure you’re tired from the trip. There is no need to put you through more stress and pain. It’s not that bad. I can hold out."

Mauve nodded, somehow it was a bit sad that she was offering help and no one wanted it. But this wasn’t the first time this had happened so she had an idea as to why.

She wondered what would have been the case had Danag suffered severe injuries. She couldn’t see him refusing her offer, right?

She winced as the memory of Damon popped into her mind. Things would have gone very differently had Vae not been with them.

To think she didn’t see the maid or hear anything about her. Malcolm assured her that he would give her more information once he heard anything.

"We will have to leave you behind, Danag," Jael said, pulling Mauve out of her thoughts.

"I understand, Sire," Danag replied without shock or disapproval on his face.

Mauve wanted to protest but she kept her mouth sealed. They weren’t out of the woods yet, wouldn’t it be best to stick together especially when they had an injured Vampire in their group?

"Louis and I will go ahead. The rest of the guards can move at your pace. Try not to die," Jael said.

"You have my word, Your Grace," Danag nodded.

Mauve watched Jael give Danag a stern look before he turned to Erick. "I leave him in your hands."

"You can count on me," Erick replied. "You weigh a ton," Erick grunted to Danag who looked at him with a sad look.

"Sorry to make you do this," Danag said.

"It was my decision," Erick replied.

Jael looked hesitant for a second and then turned away from them as he set off with Louis next to him. Mauve closed her eyes, praying they would all get to the castle safely.

She thought the roads were safer now. It was just as bad as before. Palers were rampant. She was such an idiot just because leaving had gone smoothly she had thought the same thing would happen while returning. As if she wasn’t already used to the unpredictable paths things tended to take in her life.

She was quiet for most of the rest of the trip and so was Jael. She was sure he was concerned about the rest of the vampires.

They still had a while to go and Danag would certainly slow them down. She hoped Palers wouldn’t see this as a weakness in their defense and try to attack them.

They would probably be safer once they got to the Vampire Regions. She wasn’t sure about this. She just hoped that would be the case because at least in the Vampire Regions there were more places to take cover.

Mauve looked around instantly, noting there were more trees. It also looked less barren than the Nolands did. Were they in the Vampire Regions?

"We have arrived," she heard Jael say.

He was slowly down as he spoke to her before coming to a full stop.

"We have?" She smiled brightly as she asked the question. They weren’t out of the woods yet but at least they weren’t on the land of the Palers any longer.

"Yeah, we should get to the castle soon enough." He looked backwards as he spoke just as Louis came to join them.

They were standing by the foot of the tree. The tree was pretty tall like most of the trees here and Mauve knew it had been growing for a long time.

She also noticed that some of the branches were intertwined. The roots of the trees were sticking out and it covered a huge space.

"Jael," Louis said as he got to where Jael stood. "Why are we stopping?" He asked.

"No reason, I figured we could take our time now. We should get to the castle in less than an hour. That’s definitely enough time."

He looked at Mauve, "Would you like to step down."

"Yes, Please." She said a little too happily.

She was surprised Jael was willing to wait after what had happened but she wondered if he was trying to slow down for Danag’s sake.

"Try to stretch as much as you can. We won’t be stopping again until we get to the castle.

She nodded and tried to take a step forward but he caught her hand. "I said stretch, I didn’t say you could walk around. I want you close enough for me to reach you.

She nodded again, looking at where their hands met and then back up to his face. She did not need anyone to tell her he was really concerned for her.

"I just wanted to step down from the roots." She replied.

"We should go," he announced.

Mauve pouted at him. Why did he stop if he was going to continue the journey so quickly? However, she didn’t say her complaint out loud.

Instead, she slowly nodded and walked back to where he stood. He pressed her body against his before he lifted her into his arms again.

As soon as Jael did that Louis took off, jumping to the top of the trees as he ran ahead of them.

"We should get to the castle very soon. Hang on until then and you can move around all you want."

She nodded, he didn’t need to explain but she was glad he did.

Mauve felt her stomach knot a bit. Now that they were this close. She was sure the castle had changed to a significant extent since she left. She couldn’t help but brace herself.