“I’m your great-granddaddy, child. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? We could get to know each other. I can teach you a few—” Herbert didn’t just stop talking, but his mouth disappeared. Emmie walked to her daughter, putting her hands on her shoulders.
“Without him, I’d not have you. Without his so-called help, I wouldn’t have lived to have you and Michelle. Met and fallen in love with the Prince family. Fallen in love and married the greatest man I know. You’d not have the best dad there is in the world in Kylan. Without him, the start of this all, there would be no one to care for your sister.” She asked her what she wanted her to do. “I’m not going to tell you what to do with him. However, if you’re planning to kill him, which is what I’d do, then I’d make it quick. As we heard, he’s a monster and doesn’t deserve to live. It’s how he dies that will matter to you more than anything you have to think about in the future. Understand?”
“Yes, you mean what can I live with after he’s dead and gone.” Emmie told her that was right. “Can I live with him having a quick death? Or do I want him to suffer in the same ways you have since his family came into your life?”
“All the suffering disappeared the moment they laid you in my arms. All the bad things that happened to me, they went away when you looked into my eyes. Whatever pain had been put on me, it wasn’t an issue any longer the first time you called me mom.” Olivia asked her if that was true. “Yes. It wasn’t until this very moment, however, that I realized it. The moment you decided to avenge me. Don’t do this for me, Olivia. He was dead before he found us, and you killing him now will be no different. Kill him in a way you can live with.”
“I’ll do it.” Kylan walked up to the two of them, his family. Wrapping them up in his arms, he told them again that he’d kill the monster. “He means less than anything to me. Less than he does to the two of you. I will end his life before he can hurt anyone else. It would be my pleasure to do this for the two women in my life that mean more to me than my own life.”
Before any of them could come to a decision on how the man would be taken away, Kylan’s entire family, as tigers, stood in the doorway where Herbert had been. They must have spoken to Olivia, told her they’d take care that he never bothered them again. As soon as the fur on the backs of their necks stood up, Dad jumped up at Herbert, tearing his left leg off and dragging it away.
Herbert dropped to the ground then. Olivia turned her face toward Kylan’s chest, and he held her and her mother that way. As one at a time, his brothers and father tore the man apart, he knew for so long as he had lived, he’d never seen them kill like they did the monster that had tormented so many. As each part they tore off was carried away, he did wonder for a moment where they were taking them.
He knew they’d not eat him. First of all, they never did that for food anymore. Secondly, he was a vampire, and that would be poison to their systems for some time. It wouldn’t kill them, but they’d be sick. When there was nothing left but ash from the sun hitting the blood, he knew the body parts had suffered the same fate. There’d be no more than a pile of dust to show that he’d ever been around.
Going into the house when it was over, he sat them both down on the couch and went to get Michelle. Taking her to the women in his life, he simply handed her to them, and she seemed to know they needed cuddling. Mother and daughter loved on the child, and she loved them back.
Olivia called out to us. She told us what was happening and asked that one of us would come and rescue you. I think she was afraid you’d not take it well, killing a man. To be honest with you, Kylan, it was difficult for any of us to decide who would do it for her. So, in the end, we all did. It was one of the best pleasures I’ve had in slaying someone like that. He told Bryant what they were doing now. Good for them. And for you. I think all of you needed this ending.
I didn’t know when I invited him to live in our empty buildings all those years ago. I had no idea to even touch him, to find out of he was killing people. I was a sap. Bryant told him he’d seen him around too and hadn’t done anything either. Do you suppose he did that to us? Made us trust him? Even if you don’t think he did, I could live with that better than thinking he took me for a fucking ride.
I’m not sure, but you’re more than likely right. Honestly. They both laughed a little. I’m going to get in touch with his maker if he’s still around. He’ll have to be punished for the crimes against the wife. Someone needs to pay for her being changed against her will.
I hope he gets what he deserves too.
When Bryant didn’t say anything, Kylan laid back on the couch. He was suddenly exhausted, his body just beginning to realize how long he’d been awake.
His brother spoke to him again. What he said, he didn’t know. Not able to fight the way his body was shutting down, he knew if it was really important, someone here would shake him awake. At least he hoped so.
~*~
Benjamin hated waiting until the time he’d been told to be at the house. There was something going on, and he wanted answers, not time on his hands. Looking at his pocket watch, a holdover from his time as a human, he slipped it back in his pocket when he saw that no more than a minute had passed since he looked before.
“You’re very impatient.” He turned to look at a woman he’d not seen in centuries. Bowing down before her, he stood when Aurora told him to stand before she hit him. Again. “You’re going to see them then? To talk to the family that has suffered.”
“I’m not the maker.” She said she knew that. “I thought them all dead, to be frank with you, my lady. When I found out that Peter was making anyone who asked into a version of himself, I ended their lives as they wanted. I had no idea he’d made this couple vampires too. The wife, she suffered badly by him.”
“No more so than the child when she was caught by them. Did you know that people thought her a hero? Right up until the time they found out she carried a child. Then they wanted nothing to do with her. Some even went so far as to take back the medal of honor they pinned on her while she was in the hospital.” Benjamin said he’d not known. “Nor did you try to find out, did you?”
“No. I was neglect in my duties as a vampire. I will tell you, my lady, I would have ended their lives as soon as I knew. All of them. I might be a monster of the night, but I do not condone taking and hurting small children.” She asked him to have a seat. It was only then that he figured out she’d moved them to her estate. The bright light of the day didn’t bother him here. However, he was almost afraid to get too comfortable. Aurora, the queen of faeries, was the most powerful being he’d ever encountered.
“Why have you not become my friend, Benjamin? Why have we gone this long and not at least had tea together? Talked about your role in the world?” He told her that, quite frankly, he was afraid of her. “As you should be. As well as the child Olivia. She will be my second in command soon enough. I have already formed an army with her family. You’d not want to fuck with me.”
She was pouring tea from a lovely teapot into equally beautiful cups. The fragrance was something floral, like roses, he thought. Aurora had said he’d not want to fuck with her as if she were asking him how many lumps of sugar he wanted in his tea. With trembling hands, he took the cup when it was offered and waited on her to drink first. That was the way he’d been taught from the time he was a very young man. Never do anything before the queen in the room.
“Do you think I should kill you? I had it in my mind to do so when I heard of what happened today.” He told her he was profoundly sorry. “Yet that doesn’t seem like enough to me. I’m sure it won’t to Olivia and her family. What are you going to do for them? Remember, too, that I know of all your misdeeds, Benjamin. Just as I know of those you’ve made.”
“Money?” Aurora said she didn’t need it. Nor magic, if that was what he was going to say. “Then I don’t know. I have nothing left to offer her.”
“You do
. And to think I thought that would have been the first thing you offered for her. My goodness, have you become selfish in your old age?” His castle. He had a castle almost as beautiful as the one he was in now. Surely she couldn’t think that he’d— “Yes, I do think that is what you should offer her. I mean, she did have to do your dirty work for you. Her mother suffered needlessly because of you. Benjamin, think of the things she could do to you. If you have trouble with that, let me help you.”
The pain behind his eyes was excruciating. But it was the images that hurt him more. The ways he was to suffer. Not die. Nay, she’d not allow him to die before she got what she wanted from him. While he had no idea why he was to suffer so badly, it mattered little. His children had hurt her.
“What will a child do with a castle?” Another round of images flashed, these no less painful to his head, but better in that he wasn’t being taken apart by her. “Make it a summer home? Are you mad? What kind of idiot do you take me for?”
His words spilled from his mouth before he could stop them. Even as he was being ripped apart on the inside, he knew she’d not kill him either but would make the suffering he was to endure from Olivia like child’s play. He begged her to stop. When she did, he was in no less pain, but at least he knew he’d heal from this. For now.
“I will turn it over to her immediately.” She asked him what he would do for the tigers. “What tigers? I have had nothing to do with your precious tigers since you warned me away. Do you think to make me a pauper? Someone without the simple things, such as a place to rest or money to buy myself a nice place to live now that you’ve taken my home away?”
“I took nothing.” The heat that accompanied her words burnt at his face and hands. The teacup, so delicate in his hands, shattered as he tried to hold onto himself. When she seemed to gather herself up, her anger gone for the moment, she handed him another cup and leaned back in her chair. “I took nothing from you, Benjamin. It is what you owed them that you need to give over. Nothing you have will make up for what was done to her mother, but since there was a child born, one that I’ve taken into my heart, I will allow you to live for another day. However, there is the matter of my tigers. They destroyed the monster you allowed to be created. Even if what you say to me is true—which, I don’t believe you did try to find them all…you let the biggest monster slip by—do you know how many children he killed before I was able to keep them away from him? Thousands, if you want the truth.”
There was nothing he could say. She was right. He hadn’t done nearly enough to keep the world safe from the monster that had been made. Looking at her, he was sure this side of the queen was one that few saw or even encountered because they’d pissed her off.
“You don’t want to see me angry, Benjamin. You might think you have, but you’d be wrong. I am. Angry, I mean. But I know you’re going to do the right thing and make sure my family is taken care of.” He knew better than to argue with her now. Whatever she wanted, he’d give her. As the mother of faeries, she’d be one to kill him without a second thought. “What are you going to do for my tigers?”
“They will have all that I have.” She nodded, and he knew it wasn’t enough. Not yet. “I shall be at their beck and call, any time of the day or night. I will gladly be a slave to them.”
“Good. Now that we’ve reached a good understanding of what you will do, you will go to the king of the tigers and tell him what it is you wish to do. Do not mention my name, Benjamin, or it will go badly for you.”
He shivered at the face he saw there. No beauty in it. Nothing but pure anger. Whenever anyone thought of a monster, he knew they’d come nowhere close to thinking of the beautiful woman sitting before him. When she stood, so did he. The small faerie that came to sit upon his shoulder had him thinking she wasn’t done with him just yet.
“This is Cart. He was once faerie to Olivia, but when she came into her power, he knew she was beyond what he could do for her. So he will be…how should I explain this? He will be with you forever. Watching over you. Taking care that you will do as you promise. Also, you should be aware I’ve taken the ability to meet the sun from you. I don’t wish you to be able to have an out when they need you most.” He did have a thought that she’d been planning this for some time now. That after putting all of it together, she knew just when to approach him.
Bowing before her once again, he found himself at the front door to the home he’d been waiting to enter—the house of the king of tigers. Benjamin wondered if the man knew of his title but decided he didn’t want to know. Whatever Aurora had planned for him was between the two of them.
Knocking, he smiled a little. Benjamin would never play chess with the queen. Nor the young woman, Olivia. He knew of Kylan, his part in keeping his family safe. He knew all the Princes. However, he thought he didn’t know half as much as there was to know. Not even close.
“You will behave, will you not, vampire?” He told Cart that he would. And that he’d not give him any trouble either. “You’d better not. These people are the only thing between life and death for you. It would be good for you to remember that.”
“I shall. But I doubt you’ll allow me to forget it, will you, Cart?” He said it was his job. “Thank you for being here with me. I know it’s not your want in life to spend days with a vampire. But I thank you for it.”
“Do not suck it up with me, sir.” He corrected the faerie. “Whatever the term is, do not do it to me. I am much smarter than you might think. While I don’t think we’ll be friends, we might just come to an understanding someday. Is that all right with you?”
“Very much so.”
He was laughing a little when the door was opened. The man there, a butler he thought him to be, said he’d get the master of the house. Benjamin thought he’d like to start off on a good footing here. To do what he was told to do, but also make the king feel as if he could really depend on him. Benjamin thought perhaps he might enjoy having a friend or two for a time. He saw the big tiger coming toward him with his wife, the two of them looking like well-bred humans with a great deal of money.
Benjamin smiled at them. “You don’t need to invite me in. If you’d like, we can talk here.”
“Come in. You’re invited to come in and have a conversation with us for just today.” So he’d been told about that little trick, had he? Good. Trust was something he’d have to earn from them. “Benjamin, I’m afraid I have some news for you. Concerning a child of yours.”
“Yes, I felt his death. Herbert Landry. I have been negligent in keeping an eye on him. I’m also to understand he has caused more than a little trouble for you and your family. I will make restitution on both his behalf and mine.” He could tell the man was confused by his readiness to take care of things. Good. He wanted to be one up on someone today. “I know you’ve no need for it, but you shall have all his funds given to your family to be used as you see fit. I’m afraid there isn’t nearly as much as I’d like, so for my part of his idiocy, I’m giving over my entire estate for the deeds his family forced upon one of yours as well.”
He didn’t know what the tiger was going to say, but his wife put her hand on his and smiled at him. “That would be good. What else will you be handing over for what trouble he’s caused? You should know that there is a child from his children. One that was conceived by rape. A brutal one too. I should think something more should be set aside for her.”
He thought about what he’d told Aurora. Being around for them should they need it. He didn’t know that the child was conceived in rape, a brutal one at that. He might have been told but had forgotten about it. Getting down on his knees, he asked her what she’d want of him. Even, he told her, if it was his life. He’d gladly give it to her.
“I don’t think there needs to be any more deaths because of this, do you?” He didn’t answer. As he told her, anything she wanted. “There is a man, his name is Collier, father to the woman they hur
t. You can help him. Give him a clear mind so he can live his life with his child and grandchildren. You can do that, can’t you? If you cannot, please tell me now.”
“He has dementia? The issue lies with his brain?” She said it did. “I can help him have a clear mind, yes. But you need to understand, he might lose a great deal of his memories. To take him back to the time when he was only a little bit harmed by it would mean a great many memories would need to be remade for him.”
“I have spoken to his daughter, the one that has cared for him for so long, and she said she would just have to fill in his blanks with newer memories. Ones that he could smile and laugh about now.” Benjamin sat back on his heels and looked at the beautiful woman before him. “Also, I would very much like it if you were to become a part of our family. Someone we can trust. Someone we can call on as a friend. Do you think that would be something else you’d like to do with us?”
“Why?” She asked him what he meant. “Why are you doing this? You know I’m a vampire. That I made the very person that has harmed so many of your family members. Why would you like me, of all people, to become a friend of the family? I don’t understand.”
“Perhaps I can explain.” The woman that entered the room startled him. He knew Kylan’s wife was a beauty, but this woman, even in her first stages of having a child, seemed to glow. “My father means the world to me. I’ve lost a bit of him over the years that I thought I’d never see again. If you do this for me, for us, then I should like for you to be someone that would be around, to remind us how fragile life can be. Someone that even my father would know he could call friend too.”
Benjamin didn’t know what to say.
The child that was with her, Olivia, he’d bet, came to sit on the floor in front of him. She looked deep into him, reaching a place that once held his heart that had long since died. Or so he thought. When she smiled at him, he couldn’t help it, he smiled back at her.
Kylan: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 14