Conquering His Cold Heart

104 Snuffing Out the Light

“Take her to Carl or call Carl here?” Vincent asked for more clarification because he wasn’t sure what Caspian wanted to be done to Ruby – actually let her go or pretend to let her go.

Caspian glared at the end of the dungeon when two of the vampire guards brought Ruby out of her cell.

They were tightly grabbing her by her arms. And one of the guards was standing behind Ruby with a clenched fist. He was ready to throw a fist on Ruby’s head if she tried to attack the vampires now that she was unchained.

Anastasia slowly turned her head when she saw her husband’s death glare.

She couldn’t see the subtle signs of hostility that the vampire guards were displaying, like their facial expressions and their tight grip. Ruby and the others were a little too far for her eyes to see clearly. So, she was relieved to see Ruby out of the cell.

Caspian took the chance to swiftly carry his wife in his arms. And he was startled to his core when her burning skin felt like the hottest day of summer when she touched his skin.

He glanced at Vincent and quickly added another instruction to let Vincent know what he really wanted to be done with Ruby. “Make sure that she doesn’t go anywhere until she is completely healed. I bet she will have to stay there for a long time for her wounds to heal completely.”

Vincent read between the lines and understood that Caspian was asking him to take Ruby to a place where she would be under constant watch.

And the only such place in the Kingdom was the Isolation Center where vampire criminals were kept. The security level of that Isolation Center was insanely tight.

.....

Once a vampire was sent in there, there was no chance of them escaping from that Hell on Earth.

Even then, those who hadn’t seen the ordeal of the Isolation Camp considered those prisoners to be lucky because their crime wasn’t severe for them to be tortured to death or put to an eternal slumber after being tortured. They were allowed to keep on living in exchange for their manual labor.

However, only the inmates knew how difficult their lives were. They were overworked and underfed. They were caged like animals in their individual cells which were as small as coffins. They had to do all sorts of jobs that the others wouldn’t even dream of doing like cleaning the sewers and hunting rats.

At times, the inmates wished that they were killed because death looked easier than this living hell.

Caspian wanted to send Ruby there so that she would be away from Anastasia’s eyes. And she wouldn’t be able to run away or run rampant. He thought of moving his interrogation session there to the Isolation Center itself.

“Okay, I will take her to the clinic. You take care of the Queen,” Vincent said to Caspian while giving an understanding gaze.

Caspian’s hands were now burning from Anastasia’s bodily heat.

So he quickly gave another order before finally rushing Anastasia back to her room, “And, ask Zenon to conduct a thorough search for the intruder, in case that intruder is still roaming around in our Kingdom.”

Vincent watched Caspian and Anastasia disappear from the dungeon.

Before doing anything, he heaved a deep sigh of relief.

He was amazed by the power that Anastasia held over that ruthless King. He was sure that if it wasn’t for Anastasia, all of the vampire guards would be lying dead on the floor. And he didn’t know how badly he would have been beaten and bruised by Caspian for doing something he didn’t like.

He sighed again and thought to himself, ‘How can someone like Caspian change so drastically because of a woman? I don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad in the long run. But for now, it’s thanks to Anastasia that I am saved.’

Vincent then turned to look at Ruby and the guards.

Ruby was really grateful towards the kind Queen for speaking on her behalf. She was already aware of how brave the Queen was. But today, seeing her going against that monstrous vampire made her respect towards the Queen leap even higher.

“Can I go home?” she asked Vincent in a feeble but hopeful voice.

She had thought that the vampires would let her leave for her home since most of the wounds on her body had almost healed on their own.

However, to her utter dismay, Vincent shook his head and said, “You’re neither going home nor going to the doctor. You are going to another prison where no matter how much you shout, there will be no one around to come for your rescue.”

“But... but the King just said that-”

“The King put up an act in front of his wife.” Vincent hardened his glare and said, “There’s no way you can now go back to your home again. You are a lone wolf in the Kingdom full of Vampires. It’s you against the world now.”

Ruby felt as if she had found a glass of water when she was extremely thirsty. But the water turned out to be sand when she tried to drink it.

“But the Queen just asked to free me. You can’t do this to me! You can’t go back on your words!” She shouted in protest.

“Leave my hand! Let me go!”

She screamed and tried her best to get away from the grip of the vampires.

“I want to go home... You can’t imprison me forever! This isn’t fair. It wasn’t my choice to turn into this hideous thing. You can’t treat me like an animal... I want to go home... Please... Leave me alone...”

The guard who was standing behind her punched her head to make her fall unconscious. He was afraid the King and the Queen would hear her screams, especially the Queen.

However, Ruby still kept on squirming and wriggling to get away from those monsters. But she was already very weak after the continuous torture from the guards and the King.

So after a while of putting up the fight, she accepted her fate and stood there like an emotionless doll.

Vincent felt slight pity towards Ruby. She looked like someone had just snuffed out the light out of her soul. However, there was nothing that Vincent could do when he didn’t have any say over the matter. He was simply following the order.

But he did give a few pieces of advice to the lone wolf, “Don’t let the false hopes get to you. It will be hard for you to survive if you cling to something that will never happen. You will never be free in this land. Learn to live by keeping that fact in your mind. And if you don’t want to get tortured till eternity, either wish that that werewolf who bit you will get caught. Or if you know something, speak it out loud.”

Ruby was as silent as the dead.

“Are you listening to me?” Vincent looked at her dead eyes and asked.

She was as unresponsive as before.

Seeing her unresponsive, Vincent snapped his fingers in front of her eyes. “Ruby? Hello?”

Ruby was still unmoving. She was staring blankly without even blinking. And her arms were dangling freely, almost like she had no control over her body.

Vincent could at least hear her breathe. So he assumed that Ruby had fainted or had fallen asleep with her eyes open.

The only thing that mattered to him was that she was still alive under his watch. So, he disregarded her dead fish eyes and ordered the guards, “One of you can carry her on the shoulder. And all of you can wait for me by the castle gate. I will meet Zenon real quick and then join all of you.”

“Where are we taking her?” One of the guards asked curiously.

Vincent took a deep breath in and replied, “We are taking her to the Isolation Center.”