Suddenly she dropped from Draven’s grasp, hitting hard surface. Draven was gone. Seth was gone.
She awoke on the floor of her small apartment with a groan unwinding the covers from her feet. She wasn’t going to even begin trying to make sense of the dream she’d just had.
Climbing back into the bed, she threw a pillow over her until she heard the shutters roll back again as nightfall descended. She still didn’t move though. Why bother when Seth probably already told everyone they were all staying in from now on anyway? She just didn’t have the energy at the moment to go check to see if it was true. If they were going to go on rounds, someone would come get her. Thirst gnawed at her but she didn’t move.
As if reading her mind, someone did barge into her room a few seconds later without bothering to knock. Again. She would have to remember to start locking her door from now on she thought to herself as she frowned, but remained buried beneath her pillows and didn’t bother to look up to see who it was. She didn’t have to look up to know. His scent was enough.
“Intend on staying in bed all night?”
Zarah heard Draven’s tender voice beside the bed. She could picture him smirking down at her as she lay there tangled up in the sheets on her stomach, her hair in disarray, and two pillows haphazardly thrown over her head while her arms dangled at the sides. His usual sweet scent of cherries hit her senses, hinting again at the growing hunger inside her. She slowly rolled over and looked up at him with a tired gaze.
Draven wasn’t smirking as she had pictured. His expression was blank, cold. She missed his smile.
“Are we going on rounds?” she asked hoarsely.
He shook his head and then sat down on the bed. He didn’t bother for an invitation for that either.
“No. It’s been decided that it is probably best for our own safety we should all stay in the confines of the Compound for a while.”
“Then why are you even here?” she snapped angrily, yanking her covers from beneath him and laying back down.
“I heard you scream.”
Scream? Zarah frowned at her pillow. She didn’t remember screaming, but apparently she had when she’d fallen during her dream. Looking over at him again, she no longer saw the coldness, and saw genuine concern as he continued to sit and stare down at her. She swallowed nervously.
“Yeah, I guess I might’ve. I fell out of bed.”
Draven pressed his lips together.
“Zarah, you do know that we are supposed to be a graceful species don’t you?”
With that comment, he snickered, and she gasped in mock offense. Using her foot, she playfully shoved him causing another eruption of laughter as he hit the bedpost. She began giggling, too.
As their laughter died down, she continued staring at him. Glad to see that he was smiling, he was as handsome as the day she’d been teamed up with him. Of course, the days that they’d first started working together wasn’t on friendly terms in the least bit. They had hated each other at first actually. After working as partners for some time, they learned there was more to the other than what they thought. During that time, she had also learned he was in a Bonding Pact with her. It had been another one of Nathanial’s plans.
A Bonding Pact was a blood-bonding process made between two vampires in which they are bound emotionally and physically. Should she or Draven ever die, the other would feel lost without the other half and eventually starve themselves to end their own life. Most Bonding Pacts were made between lifelong Mates—lovers that knew they wanted to spend their eternity together. Zarah had no choice about the Bonding Pact with Draven.
Shaking her thoughts, she forced a smile back at him.
“Seriously, it was just a bad dream. I’m fine though.”
His smile faded and turned back into worry. Suddenly his arm had found its way to resting on the other side of her waist as he leaned over her. Her breath hitched as she tried to ignore the intimate gesture.
“Are you sure? Do you want to talk about the dream?”
“No, it’s fine really. You can go. I do need to get up and get dressed so I can grab a drink. Thanks.”
She quickly lifted herself from the bed causing him to move back as well. Here was her chance to pull him to her once and for all, and she was pushing him away.
Draven shrugged and stood when she did.
“There’s one more thing I wanted to ask you while I was here,” he stopped her as she grabbed an armful of clothes from her closet. She turned and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue.
“What’s going on between you and Seth?”
Three
“What?” Zarah asked in alarm.
Draven raised his eyebrows, still waiting for an answer.
“Nothing!”
She was beyond yelling at this point. She wanted to clutch him by the shirt collar and punch him in the jaw if it weren’t for the fact that it would mess up the face she enjoyed admiring. Instead she clenched her fists at her sides after dropping the clothes into a nearby chair, and glared at him from the doorframe of the closet. There were no jokes in his eyes, and his face had returned to the cold, blank expression as before. He was obviously serious in asking that question.
“Why would you even think that?” she asked, finally calming down enough to speak again.
“I saw you two at the party. And then last night, I saw him coming out of your room. Come on, Zarah. I’m not stupid. I know that Fallen has it bad for you. Why can’t it be possible? Just be honest with me.”
She scooped up her clothes again and threw them on the bed before rubbing at her temples due to an oncoming headache. Draven wasn’t helping matters either, and his accusations were making her angry.
“Draven, I am being honest. Nothing is going on with Seth. I was simply talking to him at the party. I didn’t ask him to kiss me on the cheek, and I’ve never led him on otherwise. Last night, he came in my room to tell me about how we’re all going to be confined to the Compound now and that’s it. You’re taking things out of proportion.”
“Alright,” he said softly.
His tone didn’t change things though. Zarah was mad. She looked up at him and hissed, baring her fangs.
“Even so, if there was something going on, it wouldn’t be your business. Would it? It’s not like we’re a couple either.”
A low growl erupted from him and he headed for the door. “You’re absolutely right.”
When the door slammed, she let out a frustrated scream and threw her book at it. Yelping, she picked it up and stroked the cover apologetically. It was a copy of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream—one of her favorites.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t abuse such good literature, even if I am angry,” she said out loud before laying it gently down on a nearby table.
All the while she got dressed, she couldn’t help but think how close he had been to her on the bed. The first time in months, he had smiled, joked, and leaned over her. What does she do? Push him back away. Maybe it wasn’t him after all being the distant one pulling back, stopping. Maybe it was her.
No. He’d had his chances plenty of times to move anything forward if he’d wanted. She’d given him opportunities. After the party even, she tried approaching him alone in his room only for him to shun her.
“Hey.”
She walked in, closing the door behind her, and sat on his bed. He was standing at his window looking out over the city.
As she kicked off her shoes, she let out a short laugh and started playing around with a remote.
“Come on, Draven. You can’t stare out the window all night. Let’s watch a movie or something. We have all these neat gadgets now.” The sound blared to life over the speakers and she began to flip through a screen to choose a movie.
“No.”
His abrupt, harsh tone hit her, and caused her to stop. She turned back to face him and found him looking at her. His gaze was dark, unhappy. Her smile faded as she slowly sat up from her positio
n.
“What?” she asked in confusion.
“I don’t want to. I think it’s best you just go. You should have a room next door ready for you.”
With narrowed eyes and an angry huff, she threw the remote at him—which, of course, he’d caught effortlessly—and gathered her shoes before stomping out of his room. She also may have let a few curses fly at him along the way.
Later, thinking he had simply been in a bad mood over the fight or the party, or just something recent, she had tried again two weeks later only to get a similar result. It had become apparent that he just didn’t want to be around her. Perhaps he didn’t want her at all, and she quit trying. She distanced her emotions and only began working with him when necessary from that point. So maybe he had distanced himself from her after all, but she had done the same, too.
So, why couldn’t she forget him? His laugh echoed in her mind and his smile played on repeat in her dreams. Whenever she smelled cherries, she thought of him. When a cheesy horror movie came on, he was on her mind. She knew those were his favorites, and on some nights when she felt particularly down, she’d put one on just for the sake of a laugh or smile—even though he didn’t watch them with her anymore.
Tying her boot laces, a tear escaped and slid down her cheek. Snorting in disbelief at her weakness, she quickly wiped it away when a knock came at her door.
“Yeah?” After her voice stuttered, she took a moment to cough and clear her throat.
“Hey, Sunshine.”
Zarah looked up to see Seth standing above her and nearly gaped. He was shirtless, wearing only baggy jeans, and smiling down at her. She quickly clamped her mouth shut and frowned. Could it be true what Draven had said earlier? Did Seth like her? If it was, she really didn’t know what to think of that yet.
“You look like hell, you know that?” He joked when she didn’t say anything.
“Oh, that’s what every woman wants to hear. Be still my barely-beating heart.” She responded sarcastically, standing. Beside him, she didn’t quite reach his shoulders. He let out a loud laugh and something strangely fluttered inside her. He had a nice, energetic laugh, and it made her want to smile. Studying him carefully, she noted the glittering gold in his eyes that twinkled when he was happy. They changed constantly with his emotions. She slowly found herself wondering what else he was like, the things he was interested in, and what made him Seth. Only on friendly terms, of course.
“So…what is it?” she finally asked after an awkward silence. Her voice came out raspy and she had to clear her throat with a cough.
As if suddenly remembering his reason for coming into her room, he snapped his fingers and nodded.
“Oh right. The guys want to work on some training tonight. I was sent in here to tell you that they’ll be in the gym whenever you’re ready.”
She nodded while crossing the room to her vanity to start brushing through her hair. The tangles in her long mess were making things difficult and every few seconds she winced.
“I’ll be there as soon as I’m done getting a drink, thanks.”
Seth continued to stand behind her at a comfortable distance. He looked to be considering something else to say. She stopped brushing and raised her eyebrows in silent question, waiting for him to continue.
“Have any more dreams lately?”
His question made Zarah tense. Glancing at him through the mirror’s reflection, she remembered last night’s dream where he had made his appearance behind Draven. She remembered the wings…and the hurt expression on his face as he stared down at the two of them holding each other. But something odd happened there, she felt compelled to let go of Draven and try to reach out for Seth. That was when she fell. The dream had felt so real.
Slowly, she shook her head. “No,” she lied and returned to brushing out her hair.
When it was tame, she set the brush down and began to head for the door, hoping he would follow. Instead he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Please don’t lie to me, Zarah. I can see it in your face. If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But don’t lie.” His eyes were soft, sincere and pleading as they scanned her face. He held onto her arm lightly.
She pulled away.
“Alright. Fine. I don’t want to talk about it. It was just a dream, okay? Nothing to worry about. If I have more Mom moments though, I’ll let you know.”
He nodded. “I’ll accept that then.”
“Speaking of Mom moments…I should really tell Thomas soon. See you later, Seth,” she added before she continued out of the room and toward the kitchen, as he followed out and headed to the gym in the opposite direction.
Four
Despite the constantly-growing war, the Compound still had a good stock of bagged and bottled blood for the Guardians. Zarah knew it wouldn’t last forever though. It was going to be problem when they ran out and would have to hunt for the first time in decades. Under normal circumstances, they ran scams of blood donor drives to get human blood without the need of actually hunting. Things weren’t normal anymore. They could no longer do that without suspicion. Even humans who really did try to run a blood drive were taken in by the Hunters for questioning now.
Zarah grabbed a bottle from the refrigerator and started drinking. Taking in long gulps, she hadn’t realized how thirsty she had been until she had it. When was the last time she’d fed? A couple of days ago at least. Everyone was trying to ration themselves to make the stock last as long as possible. Some of the Guardians were only taking drinks a couple days a week. It was definitely going to be a growing problem. They would get weak. She knew they should all be at their full strength, always prepared for anything.
Without any guilt, she drank down a second bottle before discarding both, and headed toward the gym to meet up with the others. On the short walk through the hallway, she silently hoped that Draven wouldn’t be present at training.
“It took you long enough.”
Unfortunately she didn’t always get what she wanted. He was standing by the door when she stepped inside. Taking a moment to glare at him before turning back to stare around the gym, she found that everyone had gathered and she really was the last to arrive. Even the Fallen were there, casually standing against the far wall and visiting amongst each other. Seth looked up as if he had sensed her presence and waved enthusiastically. If she had one way to describe it, it looked kind of ridiculous. Like an overgrown child. His large hand flapped side-to-side wildly in the air and he had a huge grin pasted on his face. She suppressed a laugh. What kind of human movies had he been watching to learn from? She returned the wave with hesitation and forced a soft smile. Draven let out a snort of disgust beside her.
“See, I told you. Exiled Boy has it bad for you.”
Zarah spun and stared at him incredulously. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you need to just drop it already.”
She spoke low and through clenched teeth with a hard, threatening edge to her voice. She didn’t want to stand there and argue with him in front of everyone so she stood close, pretending to have a private, soft conversation instead. He stood with his arms crossed at his chest, peering down at her in mock amusement, and shrugged. She wanted to reach up and slap the look off his face as her anger rolled into waves again.
With a frustrated growl, she turned away in time to see Thomas approaching with his mate, Alyssa, and managed to fake a grin.
“Hey sis, what took you so long?”
“Oh, a little slow moving tonight I guess. I had to stop by the kitchen, too. Are we ready?”
Thomas nodded and reached for Alyssa’s hand as they made their way toward the center of the gym. Draven walked beside her in silence. Oftentimes, no matter how many others she was surrounded by in the Compound, Zarah felt lonely. Her brother had his mate, who was the only other female in the building at the current time but not particularly sociable, the Fallen had each other, and the Guardians were all good friends. Even with the changes, she s
till felt like the same outcast she had always been.
Two of the original Fallen had left shortly after their arrival to the new Compound, wanting to go back to their own mates wherever that had been. So now they were down to six Fallen and seven Guardians living in the Compound, each one having their own separate apartment. The building was several stories. The rooms along with a lounge that had a game room and attached kitchen were on the top floor. The gym occupied much of the floor below. On the first two stories were a hidden garage and weapons storage, and extra rooms for future additions if needed. While it wasn’t as private as the old underground Compound had been, it was still comfortable living for the large group.
Through the last four months, Zarah had managed to learn more about the Fallen, including their names. There was Seth, of course, who seemed to be a bit like their leader. Or it appeared that way since he made most of their decisions and they followed in everything he said. Then there was Aiden, Landon, Cam, Daniel, and Heath. Albeit all sharing the same trait of bright gold eyes and massive black wings, they were each unique in their own way still. They also never shared full names. Something about it being sacred to them. She didn’t fully understand that part yet.
One was loud, always prepared for a fight and had a bit of a temper—that was Cam. His wild, shaggy blue hair matched his personality. He was fun to be around though and always knew when someone needed to be cheered up. Landon and Daniel were mostly quiet and reserved. They were twin brothers, both with short cropped black hair but with notable differences. Landon had neon green highlights in his hair, and Daniel had bright red highlights and facial hair subtly growing along his chin. Despite their loud appearances, they kept mostly to the sidelines, only speaking when necessary or spoken to, and watched a lot of television. She only assumed they might be good listeners if needed, but never really talked much with the twins. Heath was emotionless. Rarely smiling, cold and distant. He was shorter than the others but more toned. His white-blonde hair fell straight, thin and long just past his shoulders. Seth had told Zarah once that Heath’s closed behavior was due to an event in his past. He’d lost his mate several years ago due to Rogues and didn’t carry a particular fondness to Vampires in general. Still, he hung around at Seth’s request and he was an amazing fighter. Zarah intended on getting to know him better with time.
Through These Wicked Nights (Guardians of the Night Book 2) Page 2