Vampire King Chapter 37

An Imminent Threat
*Emory*
I run off behind Nellie as she leads me to Kane’s office where I see a telephone sitting on its side. I’ve never been in here before, but I know it’s his office because it smells like him. My stomach clenches into a tight fist as I make my way across the room, terrified that something has happened on the battlefield, and this is how they are informing me.
Sitting in his chair, I take a deep breath and reach for the receiver as Nellie turns to go. “Wait!” I say a little too harshly. She spins back to look at me, her eyes wide, “Sorry. I just… will you stay?”
Nellie nods and turns to face me, folding her hands in front of her, but not speaking or sitting in the chairs that are closest to her on the other side of the opulent, carved, gold-gilded desk.
Kane’s tastes are not reflected in his office, at least, not from what I know of him.
I lift the receiver to my ear and say quietly, “This is Emory.”
“Emory!”
The sound of my own name explodes into my ear through the receiver, and immediately, I burst into tears, holding a hand over my face like a small child, unable to control myself.
I can hardly believe what I’m hearing the sound of that voice. I’d thought perhaps I’d never hear such a sound again, the melody dancing through my mind and drudging up a thousand memories and all of my pain of the past several weeks.
No response will form on my lips as I do my best to control my tears and get myself together.
“Emory? Are you okay?” she asks, and I hear the concern in her voice.
“Yes, yes, I’m okay, sweetie. I’m okay! Oh, Goddess-how are you? How are you doing?” I’m sputtering now, picturing the beautiful face of my little sister. Nellie comes around the desk and places a hand on
my
shoulder, producing a tissue from somewhere, and I am eternally thankful for her again, even though it’s clear she had something else she needed to do and didn’t want to linger in here with me. She is my friend, after all, and she’s here for me.
“I’m okay, s**y, but listen, something bad is happening, and I had to call you really quick to tell you before it’s too late!” I can hear the panic and desperation in her voice, and it has me sobering up. No longer crying, I prepare to face the problem head-on, no matter what it is.
“What’s going on, Lola?” I ask her.
“It’s Father. He’s got a whole bunch of soldiers ready to march on Crimson Peak. He even got guys from other packs to help. They all know that King Kane is busy right now fighting some other mean vampire guy, so they’re trying to get him while he’s not looking.”
Her words rip through me the same way that Opal and Jacob used their fangs to rip at my flesh. “Are you
sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive. They don’t know I’m calling you. I know King Kane is a bad man, but I didn’t want you to get hurt. Can you hide or something?” Lola sounds so scared, and it makes me long to take her in my
arms.
An Imminent Threat
+25 BONUS
I don’t want to worry her either. “Yes, of course. It’s fine. And King Kane isn’t a bad man, honey. You’ve been told a lot of lies over the years, same as me, but assure you, he’s not bad, and when I get a chance, I’ll prove it to you. For now, you just take care of yourself. Don’t do anything silly, okay?”
“I will try not to. I just… Oh, no, someone’s coming. I have to go. I love you so much, Emory!”
“I love you, t-” I don’t get to finish the sentence before hang up the phone, praying to the Moon Goddess that she didn’t get caught. I can only imagine what my mother or father will do to her if they find out she called me.
Turning to Nellie, I say, “Where’s Rainer?”
Her eyes widen slightly as that must not have been the name she thought I was going to say, but Kane is busy, and the last I heard, Rainer was still here.
“He’s… out working on gathering blood, Princess. That was your sister?” Nellie is all kinds of confused, and I can’t blame her. I would be, too.
“Yes.” Taking a deep breath, I blurt out to her what the major problem is. “Moonraker and other packs are getting ready to attack Crimson Peak while Kane is gone. I don’t want to draw his attention away from the front, but we need to move quickly to organize the guards that are left here to be able to defend the castle. The wolves won’t be able to get over the walls like the vampires can, but they will find a way in.”
Nellie’s mouth is agape as she considers what I am saying. “Most of our army isn’t here, Princess. We have the reserve guard, but… if they attack now…” She stops speaking and simply shakes her head.
She doesn’t need to explain to me what can happen. I’ve seen it enough times with my own eyes.
Not the battle itself, but the aftermath.
Rows and rows of limping, bloodied, mauled wolves stringing their way back to the village, many of them collapsing and dying along the way.
That’s what my people see when they think of Crimson Peak. They see a legion of vampires that overran us, that obliterated our once-strong army, tore us to shreds-and for what?
In their minds, it was to get their grubby, claw-clad hands on our resources, our land, and our people as feeders. Not the reality of the situation where Kane was simply trying to get what had been promised to him for the investment that he had made in our pack.
I understand so much more now than I did before. But my people won’t, and it doesn’t matter whether or not someone from the vampire clan stands up and tries to explain to them the truth of the situation or not.
I know these people. I grew up with them. I trained right alongside them. I was meant to rule them one day, in my head and in theirs. They will never back down just because a vampire spokesperson tries to explain to them that they’ve been misled.
Images are so much more powerful than words, and coming from an enemy, words are meaningless… “Princess, what shall I do?” Nellie looks so distraught now that I want to do or say something to make her feel more at ease, but I have never been the type of person to use my words to persuade people. I’ve been taught to fight, not to debate, so it makes even soothing someone in their distress difficult.
Except for Lola. I always knew what to say to her…..
An Imminent Threat
#25 BONUS
“Uhm, where is Rainer? Gone?”
She nods. “Yes, for a day or two.”
I doubted we had that kind of time. The wolves would find a way in before then. If they were already am**g to the point that Lola could see what was happening, my father was already on his way.
“Who is in charge now? With Rainer and Kane-King Kane–both gone?” I blush a little when I accidentally forget his title, not out of disrespect but out of familiarity.
I almost see a smile crest Nellie’s mouth as well as she wants to join me in our little secret, that he is more than just a king to me, but she doesn’t. Instead, she says, “I will tell you, but I’m not sure it will do us any good.”
That answer has basically already been told to me.
Lex.
“Okay… where is the prince?” I sigh and wonder if it’s even worth my time to discuss the situation with Lex; I have no idea if he’s on my side or against his entire clan. But with him being left in charge, suppose I have no choice.
“I can summon him, if you’d like.” Nellie looks a bit reluctant to do so, and I imagine the only other time she’s spoken to Lex telepathically is when I was being killed. The two of them probably had to discuss their plans silently so that Opal and Jacob wouldn’t know.
“Please do,” I tell her, and then I go to Kane’s bookshelf and begin looking for a volume that might help
me.
I find it quickly enough. An atlas. I pull it off of the shelf and carry it over to the desk, opening it up to a page that shows a recent map of the border between Moonraker pack lands and Crimson Peak.
Within a few minutes, I’ve got a pretty decent handle on the topography from the opposite direction-how the wolves will come-and I think I even know where they will attack.
There’s a higher portion of land in the middle section of the wall that surrounds the castle.
My father will not bother with the outlying villages when the king is away from the castle. He will strike here while Kane and his army are away; I’m certain of it.
Lex walks into the office, a cautious air about him as he approaches me. “What’s going on?” he asks me. “My father is getting ready to attack,” I tell him.
His eyes widen only slightly before he says, “That shouldn’t be too much for the remaining castle guards to handle. Your father’s army was basically decimated In the last war, right?”
His nonchalant mention of all of those people that I know, people I cared about, dying is a bit like a knife to the heart, but then, Lex isn’t exactly known for being polite when he speaks.
“Yes, but he’s somehow managed to get other wolf packs to join in with him, probably by spreading the same lies to them that he told me and my family for all of those years.
This has his interest a bit more. “How do you know all of this?”
An Imminent Threat
+25 BONUS
“My sister called.” I don’t bother to tell him her age. He might decide it’s a made-up story, dreamed up in my little sister’s mind.
“I see.” He strokes his chin and looks at the map.
“I think they’ll come through here,” I tell him.
He nods. “Yes, I believe you’re right. We only have about a thousand, maybe two thousand troops at the castle, and most of them are much further away to be easily called back, but we need to let Kane know so that he can decide what to do.”
I shake my head. I don’t think we should do that. I think we need to leave him be. After all, his attack has already begun, correct?”
“Yes, but Emory, I’m not capable of leading a defensive stance like this. I’ve always just stood back and let others fight. Kane wanted it that way, and I’ve never been one to argue with him when it comes to putting myself in a position where I might die.”
I nod at him. “I understand. I’m not asking you to lead the defensive stance, Lex. I’m just asking you to order it into existence.”
“But all of our leaders are out in other parts of the kingdom. If I don’t lead it, who the hell will?“
I don’t hesitate when I tell him, “I will.”