The Vampire King's Possession
Chapter 479. A Tragedy

Chapter 479: 479. A Tragedy

479

"Did you sleep well, love?" Was the first thing Mauve heard as she opened her eyes to see Jael staring down at her.

Her eyes widened slightly and she fought to keep her expression neutral but it was hard to do when he called her that.

She couldn’t believe he was still talking to her like this. At this point, she was starting to get concerned that he might have hit his head on the way here.

"It was fine," she whispered, turning away from his bright gaze.

Even though she thought that she couldn’t help the happiness that was spreading in her chest. She knew if she kept looking at him, he would clearly see this.

"I’m glad." He was resting his elbow on the bed while his palm held his head.

"How about you ?" She asked, glancing away. "Did you sleep well?"

She was hoping he could catch some sleep. She must have been very tired but she didn’t even realize when she fell asleep and she had slept without waking up the entire time.

"Better than I expected." He rolled, lying on his back as he stretched out his arms. He made a soft stretching groan and Mauve held back her chuckle.

"That’s good," she replied and her expression turned sad. "I realized that you didn’t get any blood last night. I forgot to offer even though you needed it."

He turned his head to glance at her, "If I wanted some blood, I would have taken it. You wouldn’t exactly put up a fight, would you?"

Mauve glared at him, "It’s still my blood."

"Are you saying I need permission?" He moved closer, his eyes burrowing into her.

"Not exactly," she said, annoyed that she didn’t have anything to say because he was right. "Why didn’t you?" She changed the subject.

"Well, are you sure you want to know?"

She gave him a look that asked if he was serious. "I literally told you to not keep anything from me."

"Well, since you insist. I didn’t because I wouldn’t have stopped with just drinking and I could tell you had a rough day yesterday."

Mauve blushed and looked away, hating that she understood what he meant. "You didn’t have to tell me that."

"You just told me to."

"Whatever," she replied out of embarrassment. "How about this morning?" She asked.

Jael smirked, "Are you saying it’s fine if I do it this morning?"

"Jael, that’s not what I mean." She tried to smack him but he caught her hand.

He chuckled, "I am joking. Unfortunately, it is too early, I need you to eat something first."

"Oh, okay. After the first meal then."

"Oh, someone is eager."

She gave him a stern look, "You need to feed and you know this."

"I know and yes, after the first meal." His voice dropped a little, "Don’t expect it to be just feeding."

Mauve took a deep breath, he was still pretty much the same but did people change this fast or did something happen? She glanced at him and he smirked.

"I know you said you didn’t want to talk about what happened in the estate before we slept, is it too early to ask about that now?"

He gave her a quizzing look. "Are you sure you want to hear about that now? It might ruin your appetite."

"I can take it," she said and braced herself.

"I’d rather you take something more fun but since you insist."

"Jael," she cried.

He smirked and then his expression turned serious. "We got to Francine’s estate less than two hours after sunset."

Her eyes widened slightly. She wasn’t really familiar with the name but it was easy to tell it was a Lord.

"It was a mess," he ran his hand through his hair.

"Two Palers had attacked three hours before sunrise. This is unusual because considering how susceptible Palers are to sunlight, Palers are usually very scarce during this time. You can therefore imagine they were caught unawares and didn’t have any time to go into battle mode before the attack."

Mauve brought her palm to her lips to stop from gasping out loud. From the tone of Jael’s voice, she could tell just how terrible it was.

He glanced in her direction before adding, "The castle didn’t receive much damage, it was the servants and the common residents of the estate."

"How badly were they injured?" Mauve asked.

"It is best I keep this information private, it would only spoil your mood and unfortunately, there is nothing we can do for the lost."

"Oh no," Mauve cried and moved closer to him.

He rubbed her back as he tried to comfort her. She could imagine what was going through his mind when he appeared on the scene.

"A number of them were injured but at least, the injured ones could be saved."

"Do they have enough blood?" She asked.

"Why do you want to donate yours?"

She pulled away from his chest to look at his face. "If you need blood, I will be more than willing to—"

"No!" Jael said without hesitation. "We have enough," he replied. "I made sure to take even more on our way there."

Mauve nodded, "I am glad."

Jael palmed his face and sighed, "A large percentage of the attack could have been prevented but the guards miscalculated. They had thought it was just one Paler and had moved all their force in one direction. It wasn’t and it was the unnoticed Paler that had caused the majority of the damage."

"Unfortunately, the Palers had escaped but only for that night." Jael curled and uncurled his palm. They need a lot of supplies and security. I shall assign these when Danag, Erick, and Damon return. That’s it."

"It sounds awful,"

"I know."

Jael had obviously kept the gory parts from her and just given her the clean version. She appreciated this but no amount of sugarcoating could stop her from seeing how bad the situation was.

"I am sorry," she whispered.

"What for? You didn’t do anything," he said.

"I know how hard you’ve been trying to fight off Palers and this disaster is the one thing you have been trying to avoid," she responded.

"Still, it’s not your place to apologize." He kissed her on her forehead and rolled out of bed. "You should go to your room, Mill will be there any minute now."

Mauve wanted to say more but she didn’t. She wanted to comfort him. He might act like the incident didn’t get to him but she knew Jael was more pissed than he would show and she was worried he might do something drastic.

"Okay," she said. "But you must come to pick me up for the first meal."

"Like I’d let Louis do that again. I will see you in a few minutes."

She nodded and carefully got out of bed while he just stood in the corner watching. She wondered what he wanted to do now. Did he just want some time to himself?

She gave him one last look before she went out the connecting door. As Jael has stated Mill was already waiting for her with her bath water. She wondered if he could sense Mill before he asked her to leave.

Mauve immediately noticed the glum expression on Mill’s face. She wondered if the vampire was fully aware of the incident or if she was just sad.

"Mauve," Mill called gently. "Did you have a good sleep?"

Mauve nodded, "You don’t look like you got much sleep," Mauve chirped.

"I did, I am just a little tired this morning."

"You can get some rest and leave me to bathe myself. You spoil me too much."

She was once a peasant, it didn’t mean it was wrong that she took advantage of the service she was provided but it meant it wasn’t a necessity. She could do without it.

"Of course not, you’re a priority. I’ll just not do anything else."

Mauve wanted to push but she had learned the hard way that Mill could be quite adamant about caring for her.

"I am guessing you heard about the situation in Francine’s estate," she whispered as she got into the water.

Mauve wasn’t sure if she should tell Mill about what she knew but she wanted to offer some comfort to someone willing to accept it.

She was as sad about the situation as can be and she really wished she could help in more ways than feeling sympathy.

"You know about it?" Mill asked, not hiding her shock.

"Yes, Jael told me."

"Wow and yes. The situation is unfortunate. I do hear that some servants and guards would be sent to the estate for some time. Just enough for them to recover from the damage."

"It’s indeed a tragedy. I hope they get all the help they need.

Mill paused for a second and Mauve could tell she was lost in thought. "Yes," she finally said. "I hope they do."