The Vampire King's Possession
Chapter 668. The Ham

Chapter 668: 668. The Ham

Mauve sat upright suddenly, and Jael, who was sleeping next to her, stirred. His eyes flew open before he slowly sat up. "What’s wrong?" he asked, sounding pretty sleepy.

The room was mostly dark, with the candle on the bedside table as the only source of light. From the size of the candle, Mauve could tell she hadn’t fallen asleep for long. It was most likely still morning and the sun hadn’t been out for too long.

"I don’t know," Mauve said. "I just suddenly felt weird."

"Weird?" Jael asked with concern as he scooted closer to her. "How weird?"

Mauve grimaced. Her stomach felt off. She should have known from the fact that she hadn’t really been able to eat even the fruit. She had just taken a few bites to avoid answering too many questions from Jael.

"Does your stomach hurt?" Jael asked as he saw her touch it.

"Not exactly, more like a little nauseous," she said.

"Nauseous?" he asked with a frown.

"Yeah, nau—" Mauve didn’t finish the word before she realized she only had a few seconds to make a fast decision. She couldn’t hold it, and there was no way she could open the window.

She clamped her hand over her mouth and stared at Jael with fear in her eyes. He understood immediately and jumped out of bed, but it was too late. Mauve hurled her guts over the side of the bed, memories of doing the same thing while she was ill rushing through her mind.

"Mauve," Jael called as he rushed to her side of the bed.

"Don’t," she cried mid-retch.

Jael stopped and turned to the wall, pulling on the string to call for servants. Mauve lifted her head, wiping her mouth with her hands. She would need to wash them, but it would be better than getting anything on the bed.

"What happened?" Jael asked.

She wanted to yell that it was pretty clear but held her tongue, knowing he meant what could have caused her to throw up. She didn’t know; she just knew she had felt really nauseous and needed to empty the contents of her stomach immediately.

He rushed back into bed using his side and touched the top of her head. "I am not sick," Mauve said and almost started to gag again. The smell of the retch was nauseating.

"You can’t say that after you just threw up," Jael said.

A knock drew his attention, and Jael was out of bed again. He pulled the door open, and a servant appeared. They bowed, but Jael didn’t pay any attention to this. "Get Mill, a bowl of water, and some rags. Get someone to clean this mess now!"

The servant jumped and rushed down the hall without knowing what sort of mess it was, while Jael returned to the bed. Mauve was still sitting upright with a disgusted look on her face. "It smells," she replied.

"Yeah, that’s expected," Jael said as he got back into bed with her.

"My mouth tastes awful." The taste from the last meal she had was back in her mouth. It no longer tasted like food, not to mention the bile from throwing up.

"I’ll get you something to eat," Jael said, looking very worried. Mauve realized she just wanted to go back to sleep, but there was no way she could with the smell that clung to her body.

Mill showed up not long after with water and some other servants. Mauve smiled as she looked at her. "What happened?" Mill asked, rushing toward the bed with water.

"I threw up," Mauve said with an embarrassed look on her face.

"Are you sick again?" Mill asked, worry written all over her face.

"I don’t think so. My temperature is fine; it’s my stomach that’s the problem. It might be something I ate. The last meal tasted a bit off, I told Jael."

"It did?" Mill asked with a frown. She glanced at Jael as if expecting some explanation.

"It didn’t," Jael replied.

"It did," Mauve insisted. "Then why did I throw up?" she asked as she let Mill clean her up and watched the servants mop the floor clean.

"That’s not enough," she said when Mill pulled away. "I need a proper wash; the smell makes me want to throw up again."

"Please don’t," Mill and Jael said simultaneously. "I will bring you some water to wash up."

"Still, this is worrisome," Jael said.

Mauve didn’t think so. Now that she had thrown up, she felt much better. The only bother was the smell—it was disgusting and hard to ignore—but she figured it might not be the smell that lingered around her that made it worse.

"It is," Mill said.

"Fine," Mauve said. "If it persists, I will make some herbs tomorrow. But now that I have thrown up, I feel better. I think it was just the meal I ate."

"I would feel better if you took the herbs regardless of whether or not you feel better," Jael insisted.

Mauve gave Jael a stern glare before nodding. "Happy now?" she asked.

"Yes," he said.

Mill got the water, and soon enough Mauve was clean and back in bed. But the smell didn’t leave even though the servants had cleaned and Mill was gone. Mauve tossed and turned as she tried to go back to sleep. The smell persisted, and she was sure it wasn’t from her.

"At this rate, you won’t get any sleep," Jael commented.

Mauve laid on her front and sighed. "I don’t want to be a bother, but the smell of the room is killing me. Do you mind if we sleep in my room tonight? I don’t think I can bear this any longer."

Jael gave her a stare. "Since when are you that sensitive to smells?" he asked.

"I don’t know, but it really bothers me," Mauve said. She wondered if this was how vampires felt. All the times she had thrown up and been messy, she could only imagine what Jael had to go through.

"Sure thing," he said and grabbed her. He got out of bed with her in his arms.

Mauve didn’t complain even though she could walk. If he wanted to carry her, she would let him. "The light," she cried as he started walking away from the bed.

Jael turned around and walked close to the light. He picked it up while holding her with one hand and handed it to her. She accepted it as he carried her to her bedroom. He placed her on the bed and took the light from her.

Mauve got comfortable, and as soon as Jael settled in, she cuddled up to him and closed her eyes to sleep. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, and the next time she opened her eyes, she was on Jael’s lap and he was looking down at her.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

Mauve sat up and stretched. "Good," she grinned at him. The incident from the night before was somewhat forgotten.

Usually, she would be completely mortified that she had thrown up all over the side of the bed and given Mill more work to do, but surprisingly she didn’t feel as awful. She felt bad and hated that she did that, but it wasn’t enough to consume her thoughts.

"Mill should be here any moment now. I will leave as soon as she gets here." Mauve nodded and looked at him happily while he stared at her oddly. "You seem to be in a good mood," he commented.

Mauve stretched and leaned against him. "I have no reason not to be," she grinned at him, turning her face to look at him.

"I am glad," he said and kissed the top of her head, about to kiss her on the lips when a knock could be heard and the door opened to reveal Mill.

Jael left them alone for her to get dressed and didn’t return until it was time to take her for the first meal. He led her to the dining hall, and Mauve sat down, preparing to eat. Throwing up must have helped with her appetite because it felt as if she could eat a full horse.

The servants started serving breakfast, and as soon as the meal was placed in front of her, Mauve knew she wouldn’t be able to eat it. Her nose scrunched up as she picked up the smell that was driving her crazy. The reason why the food tasted off and was most likely the reason she had thrown up.

Mauve poked the fork into the strip of meat laid on her plate and brought it to her face. She took a deep breath. "Aha!" she screamed. "It’s the ham!"

The dining hall descended into silence at her outburst, and Mauve reddened immediately. She had been so engrossed in trying to figure out what the problem was that she forgot she wasn’t alone.