Chapter 44

44 A Cold Body

The next morning, Zenon, along with a few of the vampire servants, went down to the dungeon that was under the central courtyard of the Kilerth castle.

As they walked down the cold stairs of the rocky dungeon, their senses were overtaken by the sweet and metallic smell lingering in the air.

Zenon widened his eyes and sped towards the passage that was in between dungeon cells.

And he came to a halt when he saw a dead body lying there on the cold passage. ‘Why is it here? And since when?’ he thought to himself as he ran possible scenarios in his mind.

Zenon glanced at the cells that were on his left as well as his right. He saw the prisoners cowering together at the furthest corners of the cells. They all looked scared out of their minds.

Soon, Zenon was joined by the servants. Their reaction didn’t change much even after seeing the cold blood-drained body. They knew that only one man would be bold enough to leave a dead body after helping himself.

“One of you can take this body out of here. Dump it somewhere where it won’t rot and start to smell,” Zenon gave out the order in a cold and indifferent voice.

The moment he gave the order, some of the prisoners inhaled sharply and stiffened their bodies, some didn’t even dare to breathe, while some of them wet themselves.

As if it wasn’t already enough for them to witness a blond man drag a prisoner out of the cell and brutally kill that man by drinking his blood yesterday, they heard that that dead man was going to be ‘dumped somewhere’ as if his life had no value.

.....

One of the servants picked that body on his shoulder as ordered by Zenon and disappeared from sight.

Zenon was staring at the blood stains on the floor when he heard someone whisper from the cell, “Monsters. They’re monsters. He murdered. The so-called King murdered him. He’s a bloody monster! He drank that man’s blood!”

Zenon glared inside the cell and spotted the man who was whispering just now. It looked like he recognized Caspian as their King.

That man was crouching in the middle of the other human prisoners and he looked as if he was in trauma after witnessing something which he shouldn’t have.

Zenon sighed and thought, ‘Why did His Majesty have to drain that man right here? Now today’s blood is going to taste bad. All of these pigs look scared... Well, better drain that man who looks the most scared. If he’s kept here with others then eventually he will end up scaring everyone and spoiling everyone’s blood.’

Zenon pushed his light brown hair away from his forehead and ordered the servants while pointing at that whisperer, “For today, bring that man.”

All the prisoners in all the cells got scared to their core, especially the man that was chosen.

“No! Please spare me. Please!” That man went down on his knees and bowed to Zenon. “I will never-”

Before he could plead and scare the others even more, one of the servants unlocked the door of that cell and the other gagged that man and carried him on his shoulder. And that servant leisurely walked away with that prisoner as if he was a human and not a vampire.

The vampires were forbidden from showing their powers down here because, yes, they didn’t want their food source to get scared and their food to taste bad.

And it had worked, more or less.

Most of the prisoners knew that they were vampires anyway.

The only difference was that they had not witnessed the vampires hunting down their prey and drinking their blood, which was until yesterday.

Some of the prisoners began to silently shed their tears because they now knew what was waiting for all of them. They knew that once they were chosen, they would be killed like that prisoner yesterday and their family wouldn’t even get to see their bodies.

Zenon held his arms behind his back and started to walk towards the stairs of the dungeon. The remaining servants also followed after him.

He was thinking hard about how to make the situation right. And after a while, he ordered, “Ask the human chefs to prepare decent food for the prisoners as well. I hope they’ll stop whimpering if they get to eat cooked food instead of raw.”

“I will pass the message, my lord,” the servants bowed and went away.

Zenon then took a mental note to himself, ‘And if some more prisoners arrive here then I will have to prepare a separate place for them. This batch is already ruined; I don’t want them to ruin the newcomers as well.’

He climbed some more stairs while narrowing his eyes. ‘And I will have to reprimand His Majesty for killing that man in the dungeon. And also for drinking too much blood in one sitting.’

‘Ah! Why does he act so recklessly at times?’ Zenon reached the door to Caspian’s private chambers and knocked. “Your Majesty?”

However, he got no answer. He thought that the King was probably brooding about something and walked inside the antechamber.

‘Whoa! Even this room smells of humans. I hope he didn’t bring a human here and drank their blood.’

He knocked on the bedchamber’s door again and called Caspian once more, “Your Majesty?”

He waited for a while but still, there was no answer.

‘Is he trying to avoid me on purpose? He knows that I am going to nag him. Well, he brought it upon himself.’

Zenon sighed and reached out his hands to push the door open without waiting for Caspian to answer.

“Your Majesty! Why did you-”

“What?” Caspian’s hoarse morning voice interrupted Zenon.

Caspian was sitting on his bed with one of his legs hanging out the bed. He was all naked if it wasn’t for the blanket covering his lower body. His blond hair looked disheveled. And he was yawning and rubbing his eyes.

“Your Majesty, you should be more responsible. How could you leave the de-”

“Mm... is breakfast ready?” Suddenly Zenon heard a female voice which was already enough to startle him.

Caspian never brought women inside his bedchamber.

For a second there, he forgot that his King had a wife now and was ready to walk closer to the bed to prevent another murder.

But he got startled again when he saw the Queen waking up. She was stretching her arms and was yawning with her eyes half-closed.

Zenon’s mind was bombarded with all kinds of thoughts. ‘Queen! She was sleeping right beside the King! The King is naked! Did I just walk in to disrupt their... their... their heir-producing activity?’

‘Ahhhhhh!’ Zenon felt like tearing his hair off for not waiting outside. He screamed in his mind demanding his legs to move but he just froze.

Caspian, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind Zenon’s presence there. Caspian had nothing to hide. And Anastasia was fully dressed.

However, the way Zenon kept on staring at Caspian as if there was something wrong in the bedchamber ticked him off.

“What is it, Zenon? Did you come here to stare at me or do you have something important to say?” Caspian asked again in monotone.

And his voice suddenly woke both Zenon and Anastasia.

Anastasia flung her eyes open to see Zenon near the door. She instantly flopped down on the bed and covered herself with the blanket as if to hide from Zenon.

Zenon, on the other hand, finally got control over his body and shouted awkwardly, “I will be waiting in your study. But you don’t have to come right away if you don’t want to. Your Majesty.”

And he disappeared from the room in a flash.

‘What was that about?’ Caspian frowned and turned to look at his wife.

She had curled herself into a ball.

A smile automatically appeared on Caspian’s face seeing the human cocoon. Yesterday night’s wonderful memory made his smile even broader.

He leaned down and merrily whispered to Anastasia, “Good morning, dear wife.”