Page 12 of Rutger

Colton woke up in a strange field. He didn’t know where he was, but he knew that the young vampire was close. Almost as soon as he saw the older vampire, Beast tried to pull him back in. But Colton wouldn’t allow it right then and begged to be killed.

“I cannot kill you.” He asked why not. “You’ve done nothing to me or mine. The king is going to do it.”

“Tell him to do it while I’m at my weakest. There will be no more chances like this. He’s getting stronger by the hour.” Screaming out in pain, Colton held onto his chest as the beast took him over. “Hurry. There is no time left.”

Peace. It was the first feeling that touched him as he fell to the ground. On his knees before his king, he dared to look up. His eyes watered as he looked at the woman with the sword in front of him.

“I know not you.” She said her name was Kimmy Smith, slayer of the vampires that have gone rogue. Second only to the king of vampires. “A woman. I would not have guessed that.”

She lifted the sword again, and he waited for the blow. In order for his beast to be gone, he had to die as well. And he knew this more than most. He and his beast had been around for centuries.

“Rise.” He looked up at the king and decided that he’d wait for him to speak. The woman, while carrying the sword right now was of no concern to him. “She will end your life only at my say-so. Rise and be judged by myself and my laws.”

“I have committed crimes that I’m unaware of, my lord. I wish to die by your hand rather than your second.” The sword smashed into the dirt, sending things flying around it in no order. “It is my request, sire, to be killed by the man who would be king.”

“She is more honorable than most. And she will do the deed if I say so.” Nodding, he lowered his head to the ground and asked what had happened to his beast. “He has been killed. Kimber Smith killed him with one use of the sword and ended his reign of terror.”

“How is that possible? I am but an old vampire with an equally old beast. There is no way that she was able to separate us from each other. I could not do it, and I was his master.” The king laughed while the second stood there with the sword. “I demand that you take my head.”

“I will tell you what’s going to happen. You’re going to go to the dungeons of my keep and stay there until you agree to meet the sun. Removing your head will not suffice those who have lost families because of you. You will die by your own hand, and you will meet the sun to do it.” He thought that the cruelest judgement of all. When he stood up when the guard came to get him, he spit in the direction of the second. “That will get you nowhere, I’m afraid. Kimber Smith is made of sterner stuff than allowing someone spitting on her to bother her.”

Her laughter made his skin crawl. She sounded full of mirth and humor. Like she thought it was funny that he dared spit at her. He wished then that he’d not warned the king of him coming but had kept his beast going until everyone was dead.

“Where is the upstart that took my marks? The least I should be able to do is meet him.” The king said he was at home, in his lair with his mate, and they didn’t think anything of him being killed. “So they care not that an old ancient vampire will die by his own hand because you decreed it to be so? He sounds as heartless as my beast. At least he had a reason for wanting death to the others.”

“By a law that no longer exists. He no longer wears the mark of the vampire because I have taken the ruling out. The council has been disbanded to do other, more useful things. He will be the last to wear the marks, and when he is no longer the richest vampire in the world, the marking will no longer be used. However, I see him having it for quite some time. He’s really good with his money.” He asked if he’d been born rich and that’s why he has money. “Nay, he came from nothing and has built himself up to being what man he is. And he’s not a baby as you have presumed but an ancient older than even you are.”

“I don’t believe you.” The guard shook him hard at his words. “I still don’t believe that he’s anything but a baby vamp, more than likely made by you. You lie to a man on his deathbed? What a cruel king you are. The least you could have done was give me something to go to my death in. I shall avoid the sun as much as I can. My death will be on my own terms. And it will not be because you decree it so.”

Of course he was going to be taken to the dungeon where he’d more than likely starve to death if not for the sun. Either way, it was going to be on his terms. But then that’s what the king had said. He was to die when he wanted. His mind was more confused now than it had been when his beast had come from him.

“You will be taken away now and never heard from again. I have decreed it so.” Screaming out his anger at the man, he looked to the second. A woman of all things. They were only good for one thing, and it wasn’t killing vampires for the king. “She will end your life now if you were to beg her prettily. She might be good at what she does, but she has a heart as well.”

“I don’t believe you. A heart? No woman has a heart in their chest. Even my own mate had no such thing. She told me from the beginning that she was only in my life because of the fates. The same fates that decided that you were to be king. How fickle can they be by putting a woman in charge of killing rogue vampires?” He laughed. “Not very smart at all, I believe.”

As he was being dragged away, he screamed at the king and his second. He was still confused about how she’d been able to kill his beast and not him. Magic was all he could think of, and since she had a great deal of it, he could taste it in the air surrounding her; he thought her stronger than any vampire, including the king around. Yes, that was it; she was stronger than the king, and that was why she’d been able to separate him from his beast and kill him.

The dungeon wasn’t all that special. The walls were made of old stone, and the building that held it was a castle that needed to be repaired. However, the closer he got to it, the faeries appeared, and he could see that they were indeed working on the castle to make it in its full glory again. Colton was impressed, if not for the fact that he was going to die.

The stone room was only four by four. In the center of the room was a large hole in the ceiling that was darkened tonight. He knew as the sun came up it would fill the hole and he’d either step into the light to die or he’d just stay along the edges so that he’d not turn to ash. He thought it to be the cruelest form of punishment around.

But he’d show the king. He’d last forever in the small area, and he’d be telling stories of him from now on that would have others jealous of him. Colton was going to live to fight another day, and that was final.

~*~

“It took him ten days to finally die.” Rutger wasn’t happy either with the nearly two weeks before Colton walked into the sun. They’d had cameras on him since the first day, and it had been hard to believe that the man had such willpower. Brew looked at him and sighed. “Ten days he had to be in that little room, and I would have thought that it would have taken him only a few hours. The man drove me crazy, reaching out to me and telling me how he was going to outlast me. I wonder what made him finally do it.”

“Boredom? He fell asleep and fell into the light? I don’t know. I’m just glad it’s over. I know that Katlynne is as well. She kept thinking he was going to be set free after the first couple of days and he’d come after us.” Brew told him that wouldn’t have happened. “She doesn’t know you like I do. She thought that you’d let him go simply because he was driving you insane with calling on you all the time.”

“I don’t work like that. I would have had him down there for decades if that’s what it took. And I could have blocked him, but I didn’t. I don’t know why, but I just let him go on and on, and that’s my fault.” Rutger asked what sort of things he was talking about. “How it was unfair of me to allow you, a new vampire, to have the status that he deserved. Not only that, but he seemed to think that I made you. I couldn’t get him to understand that you are older than him by centuries and that you came from nothing as a vampire. He kept calling you an upstart. I have no idea where he got that in his head that you were new blood.”

“I don’t either. I knew that he was younger than me by some years, but I didn’t know it was that long.” They talked about how he also wanted it addressed, how he’d been the richest vampire for so long, and suddenly he wasn’t. “He’d been broke for some years, I heard. Not just broke but without the money coming in monthly for his status, then he’d have not been able to afford to pay his staff and have the lawns taken care of.”

“I got my first bonus. It’s quite a bit of money. Not to mention coupons for some of those ‘posh’ stores that you were telling me about. When I showed them to Katlynne, she said that she’d never shop there because they were specializing in one-of-a-kind dresses that would be suited more for a runway than going out to lunch with them on. The other shops are no better. I’ve never shopped for women’s clothing before, so I have no idea what to look for in them.”

“The only shopping we’ve been doing of late is baby shopping. And I find that to be more fun than anything I’ve ever done.” They both laughed, and Rutger thought about Katlynne having his child. “You should talk to Katlynne about those shops. Maybe she can get them to change up what they carry. I don’t know what that would be, but that’s just an idea.”

“I’ll talk to her. She’s working today. She told me that she’s planting trees all day and will be gone most of the afternoon. I told her to be careful of the sun; her skin burns a little but not so bad that she blisters.” Brew said that it had been a long time since he’d done anything in the sun but knew that it wouldn’t burn him either. “I’ve been working in the yard too. We have that garden that I love so much. Anything outdoors is something that we both enjoy. I think that’s why this house means so much to us. It has a lot of outdoor things we can get into.”