Chapter 10 The Vampire King

• UN NEFER
• “You know no safety!” I hollered at one of my stupid sire’s sires. The empty wine glass I held, with some droplets of blood in it, was hurled directly in his face. The broken pieces cut Abrax’s forehead and cheeks. However, they were immediately healed.
• My butler Geb’s sire closed his eyes. He lowered his head apologetically. “My deep apologies, Your Greatness. It won’t⸺”
• I ground my teeth. My fangs protruded as I hissed at him, cutting his words. In a split second, I was right in front of him. None of them saw me when I got up from my throne and descended the five steps of the platform. Right down below it was where Abrax stood. I grabbed him by the collar of his immaculate three-piece gray suit.
• “What? That it won’t happen again? How many times have you told me this? You can’t even rein in your sires, Abrax! It has been years since you started hunting for food like a sport!” I turned to Geb. “Have you taught them no better, Geb?” My voice was dangerously low.
• Abrax swallowed. I could hear it with my ultrasensitive ears.
• “And it was near our enemy territory no less!” My tone went higher as I seethed. Ancient Egyptian profanities paraded out of my mouth. With this, I raised Abrax up in the air and slammed him on the black marble floor. It broke into pieces, and Geb’s sire bled. Abrax’s spine was broken, and the back of his skull was cracked open. He seizured, but Geb did not wait for my order as I sat back on my throne that was adorned with gold and other precious stones.
• With Geb’s vampire speed, he was already standing next to his lying sire, looking down at him without emotions. He raised his foot and crushed Abrax’s skull until it was separated from his body; blood made a pool around it and his shoulders.
• It was not even enough as a punishment. Death was too good for Abrax.
• “You’ve gone soft or what, Geb?” I uttered in a low tone. I regarded him with squinting red eyes.
• My butler-slash-driver’s spine stiffened as his gaze bounced from me to the sword next to me. It was inside a scabbard that was made of wood, steel, and diamond. Geb knew I could use it anytime I wanted to behead my useless sires, and he had been my sire for more than a thousand years.
• “Your Greatness…” he trailed off.
• I waved my hand carelessly. “Just clean up all this mess,” I ordered him.
• Geb suddenly dropped to his knees, with his head bowed. “Your Greatness! I should be punished! They were my responsibility⸺”
• “If one or more of your oldest sires had been captured by our enemy, what do you think might have happened, Geb?” I drawled, giving him a measuring look.
• His head was still bowed. I could sense his reluctance to speak, knowing what the consequences were if his words came out wrong to my ears.
• “Had they been captured and had not turned to ashes at this time,” I paused, glancing at the small window of the throne room that let me know if it was daytime or not outside. “We could have a war at our doorstep anytime soon.” My hideout, ironically a huge manor, would be discovered by Alpha King Zoltán and the others, for all I know. I was not in the mood to have war with them yet, not until I found a way to get my wife back.
• “Your Grace…” Geb trailed off, couldn’t make up any more words.
• “So, tell me, what happened? Why were Alpha King Zoltán’s black sentinels out of their territory and going on a rampage in the forest with your sires as targets?” I questioned him, as Abrax was no longer with us to give us all the details. Geb was just too hasty to kill off one of his own sires. He seemed to get sloppier as time went by. Or was it the opposite?
• “I heard they were chasing an intruder, Your Greatness,” Geb replied. He slowly looked up at me.
• I scoffed. “An intruder? Isn’t it an unlikely scenario? How did the intruder get past those fierce sentinels in the first place? Was he captured and killed, too?”
• “Forgive me, Your Greatness. That wasn’t in Abrax’s report to me,” my butler answered.
• I gave Geb a penetrating gaze. With the sword in my scabbard in one hand, I slowly rose from my throne and made my way down the platform steps. Unhurriedly, I rested the sword, still in its scabbard, on his left shoulder. He then slowly looked up at my stoic face.
• “Are we sure that none of your sires have been captured?” I asked, almost in a whisper.
• “As claimed by Abrax, Your Greatness.” Geb swallowed.
• I stared at him for a full minute. “Very well.” I nodded. “But what if he was lying? Hmm, Geb?”
• His dark eyes flickered. His hidden anxiety rose to the surface. I could be unpredictable at times, and he knew that.
• “I trust what he said, even though⸺”
• “Trust?” I cut him off.
• His oval face reflected that of a determined man. “Yes, Your Greatness. Abrax had his lapses, but I trusted his reports.”
• I nodded after a second or two. True enough. On the other hand, I did not want to overthink what was to come. Geb already knew the laid-out plan, if ever enemies would arrive in our midst. Sure, it would be a bloodbath. Alpha King Zoltán was my most formidable enemy at the moment. I must find a way to eliminate him from now on, just to be on the safe side. But how could I draw him out of his territory?
• I must use every tool I can find to get rid of him.
• I watched as Geb gave orders to a couple of vampire attendants in my manor to clean up the mess he made in my throne room. I left to go to a private room, where no one was allowed in. It was a large one without windows. The lights were like in olden times⸺torches on the concrete walls.
• There, I stood and stared at my wife’s favorite wedding gift given by my mistress, a bowl of gold grains. The bowl was placed on a chest-high table, as though it was an altar of sorts. The gift symbolized fertility, good luck, and prosperity.
• My hand scooped some gold grains and let them escape through my fingers, recalling my wife’s happy and beautiful face.
• Where are you now, habibti? Haven’t you missed me?