707 How long?

It looked like he was about to fall over. The two of them went to his bed and gently laid him down. Looking around the room, there seemed to be multiple empty packets, and there was even a strange machine that had been filled with red liquid, it was clear that it was blood.

Getting onto the bed, a needle was injected directly into the king's arm and blood started to enter his body from the machine. The pained and weak look he had on his face started to disappear.

'Has he really already gotten this bad?' Sunny thought. 'He should have gone into Eternal sleep years ago.'

"I know what you are thinking, but maybe this was how Eno felt like when he was king, I wished to see the vampires heading in a clear direction before passing my time. At the moment, things are still difficult."

Sunny went by the king's side and started to do a few checks on him. She closed her eyes and was trying her best to see if there was anything she could do. After a few checks, the king spoke.

"That's enough." The king said. "There is no reason for you to do this, I know my time is already short."

"But your majesty," Dwight interrupted, "If you went into eternal sleep now, then you would no longer be in pain."

"But the pain in my mind for leaving this place, in the state that it is in at the moment, would haunt me forever." The king replied. "Tell me, do you have any news about the Crazed?"

Sunny stood up from the bed, and felt like it was her time to leave. Perhaps it was a discussion that was not meant for her ears, but the king raised his hand informing her to stay.

"There is no point hiding our troubling matters, soon you will all learn and need to deal with them." Said the king.

"We thought that eventually the Crazed would end up starving to death, especially since there should be no source of blood on the planet apart from in the castle." Dwight replied. "We are still keeping an eye on them and they are certainly still active. They have made no such move, apart from killing beasts here and there, but if they still have the strength to fight, then it means they are getting a supply of blood from somewhere."

The king shook his head in disappointment. If the Crazed were getting the blood from somewhere, it meant there was a traitor who was going against their orders in the castle. If someone was ignoring the orders and working with those that couldn't even be called vampires anymore, it meant they planned to use them somehow.

"Don't say that." Dwight came forward with a pained look. "If it weren't for you, I'm sure the leaders would have clashed several times already."

Sunny, who had been listening in on the conversation, knew what they meant by this. If the king was to give up his seat, then a new one would need to be elected. In the past there were two types of kings that ruled, one that had favour with the majority of leaders. They were either a charismatic or smart person, who helped advance and better their lives.

Or the second type of king that had been elected in the past, was one that was far stronger than any of the others. For the current king, king Numan, He was a person who excelled in both.

The vampires respected him because he was stronger then any vampire in his current generation, and he also had a good head on him. However, out of the current set of leaders, although Bryce may have been considered the strongest, it wasn't overwhelming enough for him to sway support with everyone.

At the moment, there wasn't a clear idea of who would become king if the current one was to pass. This means the tradition would begin again. A tradition in electing a new king. Sunny shivered thinking about this, the mess it would cause.

When leaving the room, Dwight had followed her out and stopped to speak to her.

"Tell me, how long do you think he has left?" Dwight asked.

"It's hard to tell, but he definitely doesn't have more than a year, and if something occurs where he has to use his powers, then it could turn out to be even less. Every bit of blood aura that leaves his body is leaving it permanently," Sunny explained.

Thinking about what to do, Dwight had originally wanted to go into slumber when the current king did after selecting someone as his replacement. But the way things were looking, if the king was to pass, he would have to remain to see what happened.

Although everything was kept in secrecy and Sunny had told no one, news about the king's condition was spread to the other castles. The leaders had found out, but it wasn't new news to them.

From a single look they could see the king's condition with their own eyes.

Jin, Cindy, Sunny and Muka had called their own meeting together. Sunny wanted to tell them the probability and time frame of the king passing soon, she was deeply worried.

"Why didn't you try calling Lee and David here?" Muka asked.

"I did, but they refused to come. They didn't want to make it an us versus them situation." Sunny replied.

"Well, it certainly seems like it will turn out like that." Jin said. "The problem is, if a new king is to be selected we need to convince Lee of the 13th family and David of the 11th family over to our side. As we agreed, we will all vote for Cindy to be our next leader."

"I think your maths is a little off there." Cindy replied. "Even if we manage to get the two of them onto our side, that is only six seats out of the thirteen. We would need seven, and that is a big if. What happens if they chose to pass up their vote, then the selection process will begin, the tradition."

"I hope it won't come to that." Muka said. "I think we might be able to convince the young boy. Remember he is now a leader as well and his vote will be accepted just like ours. It has to. Unless a certain someone decides to go against the rules."

"Bryce will follow the rules and accept the result." Sunny replied. "Even though his thoughts and ideals don't line up with ours, he is one to follow the rules."

Although the others thought this, Muka disagreed greatly, he was still sure that Bryce had killed his vampire knights that were looking over Fex. He had no evidence, so he decided to leave the matter, but if he broke the rules before, then perhaps this righteous rule-following fool, was all just an act that he had everyone tricked with.

"I think we are getting ahead of ourselves here." Jin added. "The reason I didn't even put the yong boy in our calculations to begin with, is because we're not even sure if he will choose to come back, or if he will even make it back."

*********

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