Out of Time 01 - Out of Time

calmly, his back still to Simon. “If you were ever going to arrive.”
    He turned around slowly, his white teeth gleaming in a wickedly perfect smile. “Not that you would have been missed.”
    Simon’s fingers tightened around the handle of the gun and he cocked the trigger. “Where is she?”
    King laughed softly. “Waiting for me.”
    “Waiting to tell you to go to hell, I’d imagine. In fact, it would be my pleasure to give you a hand with that,” Simon said and pulled the trigger.
    The first bullet was high, and the door jam next to King’s shoulder exploded in a shower of splintered wood. King didn’t flinch and started forward. Simon strode forward meeting King step for step, the distance between them swiftly closed.
    The second bullet hit King in the shoulder and knocked him off stride, but only for a moment. Simon fired again and again; both bullets hit King square in the chest. The impact stopped King in his tracks, and his shoulders rolled forward as he struggled to keep his legs under him.
    The metallic click of trigger against empty chamber told Simon he’d run out of bullets. He tossed the gun aside and reached for his stake. King staggered, and Simon lunged forward, prepared to drive the wood into the bastard’s cold heart. But King’s reflexes were too fast, and his hand shot out and held Simon’s forearm in a crushing grip.
    King’s face twisted into a mockery of a smile. “Pathetic,” he sneered and squeezed Simon’s wrist. The bones almost snapped under the pressure, the stake fell uselessly to the floor. An icy pain shot up his arm. King tossed him aside.
    Simon crashed into the wall. Ignoring the screaming pain in his wrist, he pushed himself up.
    King watched, clearly amused and pleased to have a chance to play with his prey before the kill. “I wasn’t going to kill you,” he said calmly, nearly recovered from the onslaught of bullets. “I thought it might curry favor with Elizabeth to keep you alive, but I think I’m going to enjoy listening to you beg for mercy. Not that you’ll get it,” he added with a grin.
    He stepped forward and hit Simon with a brutal backhand that sent him rolling along the wall.
    Spikes of pain lanced through Simon’s temples, but he regained his feet. He stood tall and as firmly as he could. “You do know you’ll never get what you want.”
    King stalked closer. “I always get what I want.”
    “You’ll never have Elizabeth.”
    “I already have her,” King said, punctuating the statement with another cruel blow.
    Simon could barely stand. It took all his energy to keep from giving in to the welcoming darkness that slowly pressed down on him. He lifted his chin and met King’s eyes. “You don’t. You might kill me—”
    “I think I will.”
    “But I’ll take the one thing you want with me to my grave,” Simon said, finding an untapped well of strength in the force of his words. All of his weapons had been useless against King, except for one. It was an astonishing epiphany—simple and pure. Father Cavanaugh had tried to tell him, and he’d been too stubborn to see it. Elizabeth had given it to him, and he’d denied its power. Until now. “Her love will always be mine.”
    King’s mouth twitched with anger, and his fists clenched. Eyes once black now glowed an unearthly yellow. Bulging veins popped out on his neck and sharp white fangs curved over his lip. Face to face with one of the creatures he’d searched for all his life, Simon wanted nothing more than to destroy him, to obliterate the grotesque perversion of life.
    “She will love me!” King snarled. “As I love her.” He grabbed Simon by the arms and held him in a vise-like grip.
    Simon shook his head. “I feel sorry for you.”
    “For me? You’re the one that’s about to die.”
    Simon managed a weak smile. “But I’ll die for love.” King’s eyes flashed brighter, but Simon kept on. If this were his final piece, he would say it. “You’re not even capable of it. You may exist forever, but you’ll never live. Not even for a moment. You’ll never know how love feels.”
    A deep, demonic growl rumbled in King’s chest and he bared his fangs, prepared for the kill, but drew up short as a voice rang out in the darkness.
    “King!”
    The vampire turned. Sebastian Cross stood only a few feet away. King threw Simon against the wall and then advanced on the old man. He’d barely taken a step when Sebastian tossed the contents of a glass jar at King. A