Zone Zero: Vengeance (Book 3 of 3)

Bonus Chapter: Cail

A/N - So I actually wrote this earlier in the year as part of a writing contest and thought that everyone might want a little bit more insight into Cail.

This is Cail's execution scene but from his POV.

Enjoy!

The moonlight shinning down from above causes the cobblestone floor to shimmer. What little of it I can see anyway.

I am standing in shackles of silver in the courtyard of my castle. Well, at least it was my castle. My once loyal subjects have formed a circle around me and all cheer for my death. It will come soon enough, that I'm sure.

I study the faces of each of them as they send slurs of obscenities my way and find they all look the same. The same tortured eyes and angry smiles. The same rage plastered on their faces to mask the true fear the dwells beneath. Fear of me and fear of themselves. I'm not sure which one is more dominant.

They all called me thier King once. They would bow to me and fear my wrath. They would smile to my face and cower when I was in a mood.

I was always in a mood.

I guess this was always the way it was supposed to end. Me, surrounded by enemies I never considered a threat.

I should have seen this coming.

Two large hands press down on my shoulders forcing me to my knees. Even if I wasn't badly injured, I still would have obeyed them. The grip is far too strong for me to break hold of in this condition.

My leg was broken in 3 separate places and has now reset incorrectly thanks to my advanced healing and lack of medical assistance. At least 2 ribs were fractured and a my left collar bone shattered.

I haven't had any blood in days either so the pain that came with those injuries is still very prominent. But I guess I deserved it after all I have done.

What could I have done differently?

Its funny how in this moment I choose to ask myself that question. I should have asked myself that question years ago when I first became a vampire or even when I was still a human. Either way it doesnt matter now. Nothing matters now.

The rough and calloused hands remain on my shoulders to hold me in place. The fear I may escape is evident in the way his fingers dig into my collar bone. If he pushes any harder I'm sure the bone will snap again.

Silence soon begins to fall over the crowd as my successor comes into view. I should have known it would be Alex.

He walks toward me but doesn't lift his eyes from the floor. I know just from looking at him that he didn't want it to end this way. But it has. We both chose our paths and this is where they led us. My path was fueled by the need for power while his, the need for love. At least we both found what we wanted.

He stops next to me, his head still hanging low. He finally looks my way and our eyes meet for the briefest of seconds before he forces himself to look away once more.

The silence that has fallen over the crowd has been lifted as they all eagerly await what happens next.

One of Alex's trusted men deliver the weapon to him. A sword so large that it takes two hands to hold. It has been forged from silver and once served me well. By him taking this sword it means that he also takes ahold of my  kingdom with it. My vast empire becomes his.

A commotion from the back of the crowd catches my ear but I don't pay it any attention. That is until it gets closer and the person making the fuss is heard more clearly.

Sabina makes her way forward and stands between Alex and myself, protecting me from his wrath.

"You can't do this! You can't kill your own brother!" Sabina's words fill my ears but not my heart. Her words never filled my heart.

She calls herself mine and Alex's maker and mother, yet I call her my creator and nothing more. She tore me from my human life and cast me into this cursed one. She molded me into her submissive all becasue she sensed I was special. But when we, her children, needed her most she left us. What type of mother would leave their own children?

Alex tells her to stand aside, more than once, but I know she won't stand down. I am her favourite and my brother knows this. There is only one way to make her step aside.

"Enough. Just stop." I mutter to my absentee maker.

The look of confusion doesn't suit her delicate features. Tears welling in her golden eyes that are eager to be shed. She doesn't want to watch me die but I am already gone. There is no saving me now.

"I don't want you to die." Her voice is wavering and filled with fear.

"And I didnt want to live but you forced me to. I should have died all those years ago. You should have let me die. I didn't want this. I didn't want any of this." The emotion is thick in my voice as I speak my truth.

"I always checked in on you. I checked in on all my children."

"It wasnt enough. Your absence forced me to become this monster. I lost myself the day you made me a vampire. I can never forgive you for that."

I let my eyes drift to the girl that started my downhill spiral. The girl I killed and forced into the life of a vampire purely to spite my brother. The girl that I wanted to be mine but she always belonged to Alex.

Evie.

"I just hope that my own protege doesn't harbour the same ill feelings that I do." I say to Sabina while staring only at Evie.

She holds back a tear as she stands behind my brother. I hope that their love is enough to keep them happy in the long life they will have together.

Alex steps closer and raises the sword well above his head. His face is sullen and filled with sorrow. He doesn't want this anymore than I do, but what's done is done.

I think back on our expansive life we shared side by side as brothers in arms and in life. All the places we went and all the things we saw. Too much for one person's lifetime really.

I inhale deeply and accept my fate. In a few moments it will all be over. I wonder if I will see my human wife Isolde again?

I hear the whoosh of the sword as it slices through the air followed by darkness.

My world is black.