Married To The Mad Vampire Lord - Chapter 471

Chapter 471: Exposed_Part 2
Unknown to her, Rohan had not used any trick question; what he had asked was something his wife would never forget because it was important. There were five souls to take tomorrow from Rivercross, and this slip confirmed his suspicions and the words of his son and Rav.

“I see,” Rohan said simply as he spat his cigar into the fireplace. He pulled his hand from his pocket, removed her hands from around his waist, and turned to face her. A humorless, dead smile played on his face as he tilted his head to the side, and in the same motion his hand shot up to wrap around her neck without giving her time to react.

“Rohan…!”

Cordelia’s eyes went huge in astonishment, she had not expected him to suddenly seize her like that without warning.

Rohan didn’t tighten his grip to bruise; he held her just enough to keep her in place, not yet certain if the body before him still belonged to his wife and it was her soul that was missing or if everything about her was a lie. He wouldn’t want to scar his woman’s body in anyway, hence he chose to do it in his own way.

“What are you doing? Let go of my neck,” Cordelia said, trying to act calm when, in truth, she was alarmed by his sudden action of grabbing her neck.

Rohan clicked his tongue as he stared into her eyes, eyes that were as hazel as he remembered, but held none of the spark or warmth he loved about them. “When brains were being shared to everyone, you missed your chance, woman. Had you gotten one, you would have thought twice before trying to deceive me. Who are you?” he asked, his voice calm.

Cordelia’s initial reaction would have been more alarmed, but she toned it down to keep herself from exposing anything to him when he didn’t seem to know himself.

“What do you mean, Rohan?” she asked, acting clueless while internally cursing the demon for assuring her that there was no way he would ever see through the illusion. She had acted really well being that human, so there was no way he knew she wasn’t her! He was only suspecting, and without proof, he couldn’t do anything.

“Where is the gift I gave you on your birthday? You never took it off, but it’s missing on you,” Rohan suddenly asked. Cordelia instinctively replied without waiting to consider his words, afraid that hesitation would make him suspicious when, in truth, she had no idea what gift he spoke of.

“I forgot to wear it and put it away in the wardrobe. Is that what all this is about, Rohan?” she asked, forcing a smile to her face. But Rohan returned it with a cold, slow pull of his mouth as he asked,

“What was the gift again, darling?” Rohan already knew this person wasn’t his wife. What he wanted to know was if it was still her body, and what the motives behind all of this were. Had Belle been taken over by another soul from the land of the dead?

Cordelia swallowed hard. What was the gift? That damn ball of vision didn’t always show things; sometimes it went blank at the wrong times and made her miss visions. She truly had no idea what it was because she hadn’t watched the day of the human’s birthday.

When she hesitated without giving the answer quickly, Rohan’s expression darkened and turned hard, like his features had been dipped into gold to freeze them in all their sharpness.

“Rohan, I am your wife. Why are you suddenly looking at me like that? What has come over you today?” she asked, forcing a fearful expression on her face when she had no heart to carry fear in her true body as Cordelia, which gave her away yet again.

Rohan let out a dry chuckle. “How did I fail to notice this?” he said, more to himself than to the imposter. “Your heart beats in the same rhythm, without registering fear, even when I have my hand around your neck in a dead grip, and your face shows fear. The fear on your face should register in your heart. That means you are not her. You took her form to pose as her. You copied the form.”

The last words came through gritted teeth as his fingers tightened around her neck, not caring if he bruised it or broke it. “Who the fuck are you?!”

Cordelia fought for breath. The illusion had not yet broken, but he had seen through her somehow, and that wasn’t any good. Then the demon’s warning rang in her head.

‘If you act stupid enough and let him see through my powers, it will naturally lift every illusion like a veil falling away, and by then you should know you will be on your own. I will leave you to Rohan to die in his hands. So be damn smart and never let him see it.’

Even before Cordelia fully understood what was happening and how he had managed to see that she was a fake, she saw Rohan’s eyes suddenly narrowed as a look of surprise came to settle on his face. She knew without being told that the illusion had lifted and he had seen her for what she truly was.

“Cordie,” Rohan muttered as his hand tightened even more around her neck. “It was you all along.”

Never in his life had he suspected he had been living with Cordelia all this while; honestly, he had somewhat forgotten about her existence with everything else going on in their lives and him trying to protect the people he cared about.

Surprise curdled into rage as he realized she had been pretending to be his wife. The thought of what that meant for Belle made his anger boil over.

“Oh, I will so enjoy skinning you alive and dumping you into the flames behind me if you don’t start telling me what this is all about. Where is my wife?!” he demanded, his voice trembling with fury as he choked her of air, letting his claws sink into her neck, just enough for her to know that he wouldn’t spare her for this deceit.

It was then that Rohan thought he he heard a girl’s scream come from somewhere outside, but he couldn’t leave Cordelia to go and check who had screamed, not when he knew his wife must be in some kind of danger from the schemes of his second cousin, who had a dark, dead heart and wouldn’t hesitate to kill anyone to get what she wanted.

He had once kept her close because of that very ruthlessness, but that same behavior would now be the reason she shouldn’t live anymore. He had planned to kill her after their journey from Aragonia and once the talks about the rogue attack that had killed her friends had settled, so no one would suspect him of their deaths. However, he never got the chance to put her in her grave, but of course, she just had to go and provoke him again by touching someone he placed before anyone else in his life.

When she didn’t speak and kept trying to pry his fingers away from her neck, Rohan shook her like a rag doll. “Don’t fucking play with me, Cordie. You know what I can do better than anyone else, where is my wife?”

Dark veins began to curl and spread across his skin, something Cordelia had never seen until now. Her eyes widened in alarm. Yes, she had known her second cousin better than anyone, but she didn’t know the man he had become now. She had lived with him for days, pretending to be his wife, and she had seen that the cruel, selfish man she once knew was gone, replaced by a lovesick family man whose only concern was to protect his wife and son, instead of chasing his next experiment on human bodies or taking whores to bed every night.

No, she didn’t know who this new Rohan was, but the look in his eyes told her he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. She should have known the moment he mentioned Rivercross, this man was not easily fooled. And without that cunning demon, she would never have made it this far in deceiving him.

But instead of pleading for her life now that she was exposed, Cordelia looked into his eyes and laughed. “Go ahead and kill me. Take my life, cousin Rohan… but just so you know, you’ll be killing your wife as well.” Her bloodshot eyes burned as she struggled for air, laughing right in his face when she saw her words strike him. The Rohan she knew would never have been affected by such things.

“You really have changed, cousin Rohan. I never in a million years would have believed a human would be the one to tame you into this… we once shared so much in common,” Cordelia rasped, then began to laugh mockingly in his face. “Poor, stupid human, taken away right under everyone’s noses. You will never—ahh!”Her words cut off in a scream as Rohan’s other hand came up and his claws slashed down the length of her face, tearing her flesh open from forehead to chin without hesitation.

Cordelia was caught off guard by the searing pain that ripped through her. She let out a strangled cry, her voice cracking in her throat, and looked up at Rohan’s face in shock.

“Go ahead and laugh again,” he hissed. “And just so you know, any mark I leave on your body will be permanent, with no way of healing it. Try me again, Cordie. Go ahead and fucking try me, and I’ll show you just how mad I can get. What did you fucking do to my Isabelle?!”

Cordelia’s eyes went wide, not because she feared his threat, but because of something he’d just said. Leave a permanent mark that wouldn’t heal? He had just slashed her face, and the pain felt like boiling water had been poured over her skin, yet no relief came from her fast-healing ability. That meant he was telling the truth!

Cordelia, who treasured her face and beauty more than anything, could not imagine living a life with a permanent scar on her face. No! Her face was her everything! She thought, still believing there was a way she could survive after stepping on the tail of a sleeping lion inside his den.

“How… dare you scratch my face?! How could you do this to me when all I did was put you first?” she cried out, still believing in her own mind that everything she had done was not worth his reaction or what he had just done.

“Put me first?” Rohan would have actually found it funny had it been under other circumstances where Isa wasn’t involved. “Since when have you ever put anyone first in your life, Cordie?”

“Since when you chose that human over me! I did this because I wanted to make your life better, to carve a way to the throne for you! I wanted you to be king and me your queen!” she cried, her voice shrill with rage and disbelief.

“Then you are not just delusional but stupid, Cordie.” His tone was sharp as a blade, and it sent Cordelia scrambling, fighting to get away from him before he did her any more damage.

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A/N

Something came up today, so I wasn’t able to write much. I’ll only be uploading one chapter this time. Honestly, I wasn’t even planning to update at all, but I couldn’t bear the thought of keeping you waiting. I really hope you understand. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you have a wonderful day! ^⁠_⁠^