Marrying the Vampire Prince
chapter 43's

Dressed in a fluffy and thick white robe, Evie stood at the top of the highest watchtower at the entrance of the City. Gavriel stood beside her – a sight to behold as well as she stood upright and graceful in her all-black clothes – held her hand, and saw her silvery hair blown behind her by the gentle cold wind.

Evie's eyes were fixed on the vast snow-white meadow lying before them, realizing from what her eyes had seen, that Dacria was truly a fortified city. The gigantic ancient wall that seemed to be made of black stone looked so formidable and impenetrable. No human army could successfully break through this fortress and seize a place like this.

Now that he had seen the entire fortress, and seen how powerful the Dacria fortress was, Evie could not help but look in surprise. Why did the Dacrian people ever think of making and building such a giant wall? Is there an unknown reason that prompted this decision? These walls were clearly not made to stop human invasions, given how sturdy and durable they were. Clearly they were built with the consideration of withstanding not only ordinary physical attacks, but more of a more supernatural and magical attack in nature.

She looked at Gavriel, curious and wanting to ask more about the questions that were running through her mind, but when their gazes met, Evie found that she was unable to speak. Her gaze was so intense and beautiful that Evie was speechless and motionless because of it. Then his face slowly turned hot as images from their previous intimate encounter only a few hours ago flashed across his head.

"Yes?" he said after a while, a slow and sensual smile spread on his lips.

Evie blinked and her eyes floated, completely embarrassed by her own thoughts. "I just wanted to ask." He managed to choke, trying his best to clear his mind.

"Please, Evi." He pushed, not taking his eyes off her.

"Why...why is the wall here so big?"

Gavriel finally averted his gaze and glanced at the wall below them. "They had built this wall a long time ago when beasts were still roaming around the Northern Empire."

"Institute?"

"Yes. The beast that lives in the Middle Lands. Once upon a time, they were notorious vampire enemies. There will always be clashes and bloodshed whenever a savage beast comes into contact with any vampire and vice versa. However, at some point, and for reasons still unknown, the monsters suddenly stopped setting foot on the ground claimed by the vampires. Since then, they have only wandered in the Middle Lands and within the confines of the Valley of Darkness to this day."

Evie had heard about the ferocious beasts living in the Middle Lands even while she was still living in the Southern Empire. He was told that these ferocious beasts were not only extremely powerful but also extremely destructive in nature and were all man-eating monsters. However, this is now not the main concern of mankind and it seems that the same is also the case with vampires as ferocious beasts do not seem to pose much of a threat to anyone living outside the territory they occupy any more.

"Do you think .. there will come a day when a savage beast suddenly leaves their territory and starts attacking again?" Evie asked in a daze while staring at the steep tip of the iceberg from afar. He did not face Gavriel and thus, did not see how his question instantly changed his expression.

"What do you think?" her question instead of answering, made Evie return her gaze. "Do you think there's a chance it might happen someday?" his voice was deep and somber.

Gavriel grabbed his hood and gently covered his head. "Alright, the air is getting colder and it's time for you to go back and rest. I just brought you here to take you around for a while." She said, after which she lifted him into her arms safely and jumped down as she spoke.

In a short time, they returned again to Gavriel's residence located in one of the towers closer to the gate. The place was small compared to their rooms in the castle, but it wasn't too bad at all. In fact, it looks quite comfortable for a room in such a location.

Secretly, he grabbed his robe and took it off, surprising Evie. He then brought both of their robes out of the room, and Evie suspected it to be to drop the snow that had gathered above them and also to allow them to warm up and dry up a little. When he returned to their room a while later, he asked her to come with him and she simply nodded obediently without question. He thought that he must have just wanted to take her somewhere else to look around for a while before returning to his room.

He saw her put her cleaned robe on the chair and also hers. He became dazed just by seeing his long tapered fingers manipulating their robes and wondering how could a male finger be so attractive and able to hold someone's attention? Blushing towards his mind, Evie shook her head mentally and directed her gaze towards his face, which seemed deep in her own mind.

Noticing his questioning gaze, Gavriel approached him and bowed. "We're not going back to the castle, wife. So, you'll sleep here with me."

___

Evie glanced at the bed and innocently nodded. But the next moment, his expression changed.

"But why?" he asked doubtfully. "Did something happen between you and the duke?"

"No, hon. Nothing happened. I just said a few kind words to him as a reminder and everything is fine now." He answered immediately with a smile. "I'm needed here and since I don't want to leave you alone in the castle, I've decided to bring you here with me. Besides, I don't want any more misunderstandings between us. Given our track record, I'm afraid something will happen again if I leave you, so I better keep you close to me. It's okay with you, right?" he gave her a mischievous grin, letting her know that he was teasing her and took out his words, just in case she felt slighted to him referring all their previous misunderstandings to each other.

When Evie just looked at him without answering, Gavriel stuck her head out and brought her face closer to Gavriel's until her breath fanned her face. A thin line appeared between his eyebrows as he scanned his face. "You don't like it?" he asked, his face darkened. "Is it because this room is shabby—"

Gavriel chokes on the rest of the words he was trying to say when Evie's body suddenly crashes into his body. Her fragile arms wrapped around her waist as she buried her face in her chest.

And he stood frozen, expecting absolutely no reaction from this wife at all. However, he is not a person who likes to complain and is very happy with Evie's proactive response to him.

"It's okay with me. L like it. This place is not shabby at all." His voice was slightly muffled as it buried his face in his chest as he responded in haste, his fingers gripping a handful of his clothes. "I'll stay here with you." He added gently, his voice becoming emotional.