Chapter 63: Pistol Under the Skirt

"It should be fine. Don’t forget you didn’t marry a weak vampire, Lauren. When I said using it too often would drain my energy, what I meant is doing it every day but I don’t use it that often," Alec said before snapping his fingers.

The blue fire portal appeared in front of them instantly.

"Tell me, where do you want to go?"

"Hayford Cemetery."

Alec wondered what she would do in a cemetery in the middle of the night but he didn’t ask.

"Shall we?" he gestured to let her go first and this time Lauren didn’t hesitate to step into the portal.

Just like how she took one step from the castle to Alec’s mansion, the next moment she was standing in the middle of the dark cemetery. Alec followed her shortly.

"Is what you told the officer true? About your sister bearing his child," he asked while walking beside her as she followed a certain path.

"Do you think I just made it up to make him spill the beans?"

"You may not be as evil as me but I know you are wicked. You want to do things your way and I think you won’t hesitate to make up stories to get what you want."

Feeling the cold breeze, Lauren pulled her gloves from her pockets and wore them. As they walked, every dry leaf they stepped on crackled under their shoes.

"As much as I want to say I only made it up, that is not the case. This morning after breakfast I sensed something different in Eloise. I let Sally check her things while she wasn’t in her room and she found a medicine that will kill a child in a woman’s womb. A child dying isn’t something to be taken lightly. I won’t dare make a story about it."

Lauren paused for a moment. "If she is turning into a black mage, why is she capable of being pregnant?"

"She hadn’t fully become a black mage yet so her body composition is different. Only black mages who had gone through the whole transition process are not capable of reproduction," he explained.

Lauren stopped in front of a tombstone. Alec looked down and saw the name written on it.

Mildred Thudor.

Lauren stood there in silence and Alec stepped back to give her some space.

It was the day of her mother’s death. As Lady Mildred was just a lowly concubine and the King didn’t marry her, her body wasn’t buried in the royal family’s cemetery. The King didn’t care much about Lady Mildred’s death and just let the Queen have her body buried in the farthest cemetery.

Lauren could still remember how hard she cried during the burial that was only attended by some servants. Even her father didn’t attend. She stood in the same spot with no one by her side to comfort her.

When she had grown up, every year she stood there in the same position but she never said a word to her mother like how most people pretend that the deceased could hear them in their graves. Perhaps she wasn’t doing it to visit her mother but to reminisce about what happened in the past. To remind herself of the people who owed her a life.

"So, you visited your mother’s grave," Alec said when she turned to him after a long minute of staring at the tombstone. "Death anniversary? You didn’t even bring flowers. How unkind of you."

"She doesn’t like flowers."

"It is customary to bring flowers on the deceased’s grave, Lauren, if you don’t know."

"Let’s just return to the castle."

Alec was about to make a portal when several flying daggers came out of nowhere. He pushed her behind him and created a temporary barrier using the wind to block the daggers.

Silhouettes moved in the dark and when the people who attacked them showed themselves, they realized what they were.

Black mages. There were four of them.

"How unfortunate. I didn’t bring my pistol with silver bullets so I guess I have to use my bare hands," Alec muttered coldly.

"Where are they from?" Lauren asked.

"From the graves?"

"I don’t need your humor right now, dear husband."

He shot a brow at her smugly. "Scared?"

"Since you said I didn’t marry a weak vampire, why don’t you get rid of them as fast as you can so we can go back to the castle and I can have my good night’s sleep."

"You sure know how to make use of me, huh?"

The black mages ran towards them and although Lauren was confident that it wouldn’t give Alec a sweat, she pulled the pistol on her thigh under her skirt loaded with silver bullets to protect herself.

While snapping a black mage’s neck, Alec caught a glimpse of what was on her hand.

"You are quite resourceful, princess. I didn’t make a mistake choosing you. Now on your back."

Lauren turned and saw one female black mage sauntering towards her while the other two were fighting Alec. She quickly shot the black mage in the head and after two bullets, the black mage’s body fell to the ground and turned into dust.

They were just normal black mages and it didn’t take Alec long to kill the other two.

"Who taught you how to shoot? You have good marksmanship," he said, wiping off the dust from the black mage’s remains on his black coat.

"I taught myself," she replied while looking around. When she saw nothing strange, she turned to Alec. "I think we should go back to the castle now before another batch would attack us."

When they got back to the castle, Lauren said, "Those black mages looked like they just went through transition recently. The old ones, when they run wild, they act like feral monsters. The black mages who attacked us still moved like humans, so they must be new."

Compared to deranged humans, when black mages run wild, they could still return to their original forms once they consumed souls. However, even though they kept on consuming souls, they would keep on running wild until they lost their own souls in the process. By that time, not an ounce of sanity would be left in them.

"Yes, they must be running around the small villages at night to feed," Alec said, taking off his coat.

"What happened to that deranged human you imprisoned? I didn’t see him in your dungeon. You killed him?"

"No, I gave him to Doctor Bentley. He’s a good subject for his experiments."

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read