Rolling it on her finger, she felt a lump form in her throat as her body shook from the flood of memories; memories that she didn’t want—didn’t need—to remember anymore. She’d been using those memories and the biased emotions they carried as a crutch for too long in the past. Now, she had to look at the reality of it all.
Devon was gone now.
Completely.
So what would he have wanted her to do?
She frowned at the question.
What would he really have wanted her to do?
In his final moments he had been so aggressive and uncontrollable—so not himself—in his struggle to get control of Zane’s body… and she’d fought him. Why? Just a few days ago she would’ve looked the other way and let Devon have any body he’d wanted—dead or alive—just so she could have him touch her again. But when it was Zane’s body he was after—Zane’s mind at risk—she had tried to stop him. Serena groaned and cupped her face in her hands again as she struggled with the realization that she wasn’t just in love with Zane’s body—hell, she’d been seconds away from having that all she wanted!—but that, for him in his entirety, she was willing to let Devon go.
Literally!
Years upon years of love and adoration and promise and effort put against several days of insults and banter and teasing and mocking.
And she’d chosen the latter…
She shook her head and cursed at herself.
When had she allowed herself to become a monster?
11
Pain
Zane cried out as he fired another round from the Beretta into his thigh and, feeling the burning of the beast threatening to break free, slammed the barrel against his temple and tensed his finger around the trigger.
“Give me a reason, you son of a bitch! You take one goddam step into the open and I’m blowing our fucking brains out! Do you hear me, motherfucker?”
The burning subsided and the tattoos faded back to black.
“Yea. Thought so! Let’s see how long you can keep it up!” Zane scoffed, moving the barrel back to his thigh and firing another shot; crying out once again at the jolt of pain that struck his thigh.
Just then the door flew open, now wearing a foot-shaped crater where it had been kicked.
Serena glared in at him, taking in the scene and scowling more. “You idiot!” Serena growled as she stomped into the room, slamming the door shut behind her and latching it with her aura. Zane tightened his grip on the gun, bracing for her to try to pull it from him, only to have her yank it from him with her aura. “You fucking idiot!” As she closed the distance between them, she drew back her fist and punched him straight in the jaw, sending him sailing off the bed and straight into the wall. She stared down at her hand for a moment, surprised at her own strength.
Surprised, but not regretful.
Not in the least!
She narrowed her eyes and rushed at him again, putting another fist into his stomach.
He wretched and whimpered.
She glared down at him and reveled in the bittersweet irony that losing Devon had actually made her stronger!
He groaned and lifted his mismatched blue and silver eyes to her. “Serena…” he croaked, still in obvious pain from her attack.
“You bastard! What the fuck were you doing? Trying to lure it out so you could have an excuse to kill yourself?” She shook her head and spat at his feet, “You’re a fool! A goddam idiot! We need you right now! The clan needs you! God-fucking-dammit, Zane, I need you!”
He looked down and frowned, the shame of Devon’s death still twisted on his face.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, slumping down beside him. She couldn’t hate him; not even if she wanted to.
“I’m sorry, Serena. I really am.” He covered his face with his hands to hide his pain-filled eyes. “I—fuck!—I don’t even know what to say to make it better; I don’t even know if I could make it better. It’s never been like…” he sighed and started to chuckle, “I’m usually not this fucked up.” His laughs had no trace of comedy in them.
“Zane… what happened to Devon?” Serena frowned, looking over at him.
“Do you want me to answer that truthfully?” he shifted his gaze to meet hers, “Because I can’t say for certain. I don’t know where he is now. Fuck, I don’t even know if he’s anywhere; I didn’t think you could destroy energy—I mean, a goddam middle school teacher can tell you it’s impossible—but I’ll be damned if it”—he shook his head and corrected himself—“if I didn’t find a way! I just couldn’t control it any longer… I wanted to kill him; I wanted to get rid of him so you and I could…” He lifted his bloodshot eyes to hers suddenly before glancing down at her lips.
Realizing what he was staring at, she instinctively moved to wet her lips, but caught herself in time to avoid a lewd display. She shook her head at her own reaction and looked away.
“Zane…” Her mind was even more conflicted now. He was jealous of Devon! He had wanted her for himself and he’d killed Devon—a dead man—to get to her.
And she couldn’t bring herself to resent him for it.
And then it hit her…
She was attracted to Zane more than she ever could have thought possible. She bit her lip, trying to think of when her feelings had really started. That time they were training she felt the attraction more than she cared to admit. Still, she needed to see if her attraction was genuine.
She needed to see how far it went.
Lifting her head, she took his face in her hands and brought him to meet her gaze before she leaned in to kiss him, only to have her advance halted by his hand. Her eyes widened, startled at his intervention and she bit her lip as she saw that he was glaring at her.
A moment of silence passed, and as she studied his face she realized he wasn’t looking at her, but past her. He was staring at the door!
In a flash he was on his feet and planting himself between her and the door as a blood-red aura passed through and unlocked it from the other side, allowing it to swing open on the warped hinges from Serena’s assault on it.
“Am I intruding?” Keith smirked, leaning casually against the doorframe and eating an apple.
“How did you get in here?” Zane glared, feeling his anger rising once again. Though he was eager to give in to it—to let the beast break free and do what it did best—and be done with Keith and his bullshit! But he had no way of insuring that it would stop there, and with Serena in the room he couldn’t risk a total loss of control. He scowled, but nevertheless forced himself to take a deep breath and suppress the urge to free it.
“Ah! I see you’re learning to control it, eh? Pity. Seems like it could be useful, doesn’t it?” he scoffed, taking a bite from the apple and shaking his head, “A fun punishment. Sort of defeats the purpose if you ask me.” Keith grinned and looked over at Serena, “I’m sorry, sis, am I interrupting something? I wouldn’t have pegged you as the sort, but this doesn’t seem too far from bestiality, wouldn’t you say? First a human and now this.” He clucked his tongue, “What would our parents think?”
“Shut up, you son of a bitch! Our parents are dead because of you, so I’m sure they’d have rather seen me hook on a fucking street corner before approving of your decisions!” She shot to her feet and glared, stepping beside Zane, “This is all your fault! Everything that’s happened—from the very beginning—has been entirely! You killed Mom and blamed it on our father to turn me against him! You’ve manipulated me every step of the way to trick me into believing you!”
Keith shrugged and let the apple fall from his palm and roll across the floor as he took a step inside, “What can I say? I’ve always been something of a trouble-maker, right? Bit of a problem-child?” he sneered at them, casually glancing about the room despite their defensive stances against him, “I’m sure your new boyfriend has said it all; parroting all the same bullshit Daddy dearest crammed into his mind. An exaggeration on an exaggeration on an exaggeration… oh yes, you should most
certainly believe that sort of credibility! Leave now, Serena. The door is right there and I won’t do anything to stop you. My business is and always has been with your beasty boy-toy.” He glared at her, “But your safety relies on your abandonment of the Clan of Vail, so if you intend on rejoining them, you’re accepting their fate!”
“Do as he says, Serena! This doesn’t need to be your fight! Get out of here!” Zane growled, shaking as he said the words but never once relinquishing his death-glare on Keith.
“No fucking way am I le—”
Zane grabbed her before she could finish and shoved her towards the door. “I said get out NOW!” he fought the growing rage, holding back its efforts to take control long enough to herd Serena out, “Go! Find Zoey and Isaac; everybody! Tell them to get out of here—to abandon Vail and everything to do with it—and make new lives elsewhere!” Zane gave her another shove towards the door.
He watched as she stumbled through the door and turned to come back again, “No! I won’t leave you!”
Zane shot her a glare, his aura already shifting red and giving him the ability to slam the door in her face, lock it, and barricade it against her enraged shrieks and brutal assault to try to get through. Keith smirked at the racket and arched an eyebrow at Zane as her futile efforts resounded within the room.
“Zane! Goddam it!” She screamed through the door, “Let me in!”
Keith chuckled, “Tenacious little bitch, isn’t she?”
Zane continued to glare at him, not offering a response.
“Ah yes, straight to business, right? My father has taught you well. Alright then, if that’s how it must be…” Keith inhaled sharply as his aura extended from each wrist and his hands began to glow as he wrapped each fist in it.
Zane glared and pulled his Beretta into his hand with his own aura and took aim at Keith’s head. “I should warn you: though it’s the beast that you’ve come to recognize me for, I was recognized by your father and many others as a capable warrior on my own. Allow me to demonstrate my marksmanship.”
“Not fighting fair, I see.” Keith glared.
“I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t either.” Zane spat, letting the burning of his tattoos envelop his arms as he guided his aura towards the Beretta, “Now let’s see if there’s any merit to your sister’s methods!” as he spoke, one of his auric tendrils covered the gun and wrapped around the round already waiting in the chamber as he pulled the trigger. Keith glared and moved to dodge the shot, but Zane, anticipating this, redirected the bullet in his aura and drove it into Keith’s shoulder. Hissing in pain, Keith glared down at the wound and gaped at the sight of Zane’s auric tendril still clinging to the burning metal inside him. Zane grinned, extending another auric tendril to the next waiting round. “Oh yes! Definitely on to something here!”
He twisted the slug within the meat of Keith’s muscle, causing his shoulder to spasm violently as he hissed in pain.
“AH!” he gritted his teeth and glared at Zane, “So, you are learning to control it?” Keith growled and, focusing past the pain in his shoulder, charged at him in overdrive.
Zane frowned, caught off guard by Keith’s swiftness, and cried out as he was thrown against the wall. Appearing in front of him a moment later, Keith grabbed him by the throat and drove his aura into his chest, pushing him harder into the wall, twisting and crumpling its surface as he did.
As Zane’s aura shriveled with a loss of focus, his hold on the slug in Keith’s shoulder slipped, allowing Keith to pull it out with his own aura and let it drop to the floor.
“Now that was rude!” he hissed, extending his fangs as he drove more pressure into his assault on Zane’s body.
As the last of his breath was forced from his lungs, Zane gasped and struggled to keep his focus against Keith’s efforts to crush him.
He couldn’t let him win!
Not now!
“You knew this was coming, beast! You’ve been waiting years for it, right? Waiting for the day you wouldn’t have to suffer and grieve and feel?” he leered and began to drain Zane’s aura with his own, taking away the rage and stifling any hope of transforming, and chuckling as his eyes began to lose focus.
Zane gargled on his words; both his intended message and its delivery a mystery to both of them as his mind grew too hazy to think. Keith began to laugh—the sound echoing and rolling irregularly in Zane’s ears—and, taking Zane’s gun from his flaccid grip, brought it to his stomach.
“I can’t kill you just yet; not if I hope to achieve what I’ve worked so hard towards. But, in case you doubt my sincerity in this issue, here’s a little souvenir.” He wrapped his own aura around the gun as Zane had and pulled back the trigger, sending the aura-laced bullet into Zane’s guts and twisting and stirring it about as emphasis. Zane whimpered and shook as Keith released his hold and allowed him to fall to the floor, sneering as he began to heave and cough up blood. “Yes, it is quite painful, isn’t it? I thought it was unfair to savor all of that on my own.” He laughed and stood up, leering down at him. “I hope I’ve made my point, Zane.” He poked the toe of his shoe into the gunshot wound and smirked at the pained grunt, “It’s better if you stay out of my way.”
With his auric barricade receding, Serena’s ongoing assault on the door finally paid off and the door flew open on shrieking hinges.
“Keith! You bastard!” she shot forward and released a wave of auric arrows at her brother.
But he was already in overdrive and gone from the room and the safe house—leaving behind the lingering echoes of his laughter—by the time they found purchase against the far wall.
As she withdrew her aura back into herself and hurried to Zane, his vision faded and the world went black.
Zoey sighed, “He’ll live through this, though we’re lucky he didn’t transform.”
“It was Keith… the bastard had nearly drained him to the point of death!” Serena bit her lip, looking down at Zane’s unconscious body, “There was nothing to fuel the change!”
“I hate to say it, but he may owe Keith his life.”
Serena glared at Zoey, “Are you serious? Look what that fuck did to him!”
“But it could have been worse!” Zoey sighed, wrapping the last of Zane’s bandages as an I.V. of enchanted synth-blood fed into his vein.
“What will we do next time if Keith appears again? What can we do?” Serena growled, “He’s too fucking strong! The next time he might not stop at just mutilating us! Can’t we just give him whatever it is he’s after?” Serena growled, “He’ll have no reason to hurt us if we’re not standing in his way!”
“It’s not that simple, Serena. Keith’s been playing with those at The Council; feeding them lies and using the influence they’ve given him so that he can acquire Vail and dismantle it from the inside.”
“Okay? So my brother’s a bitter, power-hungry, spoiled little bitch-boy!” Serena sneered, “Tell me something I don’t know, like why we have to suffer any longer to protect a clan that’s already destroyed from being taken by a prick aiming to destroy it?”
“Because his efforts have labeled us as the bad guys to The Council, and that means we’re bad guys to everyone that serves them!” Zoey sighed, “But they’re organized. They have rules and regulations on how to approach these situations. That’s why Zane’s still alive! If Keith kills him now, he’s breaking protocol. If we hand Keith the clan, we hand him the only thing that’s keeping The Council from executing us on the spot!
“If we lose the title that Vail gives us—what it represents to The Council’s codes—then we’ll be deemed rogues and we’ll all be killed!”
“But there is no Clan of Vail anymore! How are we under its protection?”
“Because it’s politics, Serena! Until all the right steps are taken—all the paperwork filed and all the proper authorities notified and consenting—to classify Vail as a dead clan, then neither they nor Keith can act on it!”
Serena looked down at Zane, “So if Keith k
ills Zane before then…”
Zoey nodded, “Then he will be executed for breaking The Council’s protocol and killing a clan warrior without due cause.”
Serena sighed, “And killing Keith would give them due cause, wouldn’t it?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“So—what?—we’re dead if we hold on to the title of Vail and we’re dead if we hand it over, is that right?” Serena snarled.
“Pretty much…” Zoey nodded.
Isaac thought for a moment, “But what if we can get to The Council and show them what a manipulative little shit Keith is? Obviously we have no authority, but I’m sure they’d be pissed if they saw how he’s been screwing with their system, right?”
Zoey grinned, “Oh, I can’t even imagine what sort of punishment they’d have lined up for that sort of an offense. Though they do love to make examples out of the more severe—”
“No! I will kill my brother for everything he’s done!” Serena snarled. “I don’t care if The Council executes me for it! It’s better that our bloodline dies with me avenging my parents!”
Zoey glared, “And what about our lives, Serena? What about Zane’s life? If you kill Keith, you validate every claim he’s made against us and we’ll all be killed!” she sighed, seeing the pain in Serena’s eyes as this fact dawned upon her and she offered a reassuring smile, “Look, The Council will deal with him when they see what he’s done. I promise. What they will do to him will make death seem like an act of mercy. If there’s anything The Council loathes over anything else, it’s anything that might motivate an uprising against them, and a corrupt influence in their ranks is a severe threat to their authority over the Mythos community.”
Serena frowned and nodded, hoping that what Zoey said wasn’t just an empty promise to make her feel better. Looking down at Zane, she watched as his wound began to heal and let out a relieved breath.
Scarlet Night: The Complete Trilogy Page 16