Destructive Embrace

by Robyn M. Pierce

  Sighing, he moved toward me. When he was within hugging range again, he lifted his wrist to his mouth and bit down hard. Quickly, blood flowed to the surface and as I opened my mouth to ask what the hell he was doing, he pressed the bleeding appendage to my mouth and held the back of my head with his other hand. I fought against him, but had no choice but to drink what flowed into my mouth.

  "Sorry, Elyssa," Dmitri said cheerfully; the bastard wasn't the least bit apologetic. "But my blood is regenerative – everyone in the Lanistter family has blood with regenerative properties – and I figured that even if you couldn't heal properly on your own, having blood in your system would speed it up. Especially blood such as mine."

  I glared at him and he released my head, leaving me to swipe at some stray droplets of blood that had pooled around my mouth. "You could have just told me. It's not quite the same as the idea of hunting, you know." I wondered what I looked like then. I knew there was dirt all over me, and now there was blood on my face and hands. Count in the bite wounds and how ugly my ribs must have looked, I would have bet everything I owned that I looked like a wreck.

  "You should probably go get cleaned up now," he said, reading my mind. He was coughing behind his hand to hide his laughter. I glared at him again and shoved him away from me, grimacing at the pain again. Not healing fast was getting old quickly. "Come on, I'll help you down to your room."

  He carefully slung one arm around my waist and as we walked I leaned against him, my arm braced against his shoulder for support. "Thanks," I mumbled.

  We arrived at the main hall after a few minutes and I dreaded going down the many stairs to the room I'd chosen, but then realized that it would be infinitely harder for me to go upstairs at the time, so I was glad that I'd relocated to Zeke's area.

  Dmitri walked me to my room and I let myself in. He left me, saying he would be right back. I had a bad feeling that he was going to go give Zeke a piece of his mind, but couldn't do anything about it since he had already taken off. Instead, I made myself comfortable on my bed, propped up against the headboard with one pillow at the small of my back. I lifted my shirt up so that it was folded over my breasts and revealed my ribs and stomach.

  Drinking Dmitri's blood had already begun to work, I realized when my prodding at the vicious purple bruise only produced a little pain. Before my eyes, I watched the bruise change color, adopting a reddish hue as it healed more. "I'll be damned," I muttered just as the door opened.

  "Jesus, Elyssa. And you yelled at me for lifting your shirt up when you're trying to flash me?" Dmitri asked, grinning widely at me. I hurled one of my other pillows at his head, squealing when my ribs ached in protest. He caught it as he had the last time I threw something at him, and tossed it onto the bed. I'd anticipated him throwing it back at me and had tensed up, which made my body hurt even more.

  "Well, my brother wasn't in his bedroom, but I heard noises coming from his dungeons, so I let myself in. I found his backup stash of potions. He had a spare vial of his numbing shit there, so this should at least make it to where you won't have to feel it. Although, from the looks of it," he paused, brushing his fingertips around the edges of the bruise, "you're already healing nicely thanks to my blood. I suppose you won't be needing th–"

  I snatched the bottle from his hand with a sweet smile before downing the disgustingly thick solution. "While I thank you for the blood, I would really like to not have to deal with the pain of my shattered ribs, thank you."

  We sat there in silence for a few moments. It was broken when Dmitri reached his hand out to shove my hair aside again, this time without hurting me. "These are healing up nicely as well. I'm surprised he was able to even bite you, to be honest," he muttered.

  I frowned. "You look confused. What has that expression on your face?" I asked, wincing as his fingernail caught a little on the edge of one of the prick marks on my neck.

  "Well, you're Reid's Mate," he began. A beat of quiet followed, a moment of silence for my dead Mate. "No one else should be able to lay their fangs on you. I never did fully understand how that was supposed to work, though, so maybe I'm mistaken."

  I sighed, lifting one hand to trail my fingertips along the bite marks. "Or maybe he was able to because Reid is dead now," I whispered. My voice caught in my throat and I cleared my throat, tears blurring my vision. "It's hard to handle at times, still. It doesn't feel fair, that he isn't here anymore, all because your father had an obsession with living forever."

  Dmitri scoffed. "I would rather you not call him my father, thank you," he said stiffly. I pursed my lips. "Regardless of the fact that he is part of the reason I exist right now, he was never a real father to us. Even to Reid, his supposed favorite, he wasn't very kind. It's no wonder Mother was going to leave him and take us with her."

  I started. "You knew that she was going to leave?" I asked. He looked at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  "Why else do you think I was around in order to kill Tywin after he brutally murdered our mother?" he asked. His voice was quiet, a faraway look in his eyes. I imagined that he was recalling the memory of the day the brothers lost both of their parents.

  "How old were you?" I asked. They had to have been minors still, to have their mother threatening their father with taking them away, but yet old enough to where Dmitri knew how to fight – and kill – his father.

  "I was nearly of age," he murmured. "Zeke and Wyatt were old enough to come with us of their own free will, although neither wanted to leave this place, for obvious reasons," he said, referring to Zeke's obsession with the dungeons, and Wyatt's need for an environment full of history.

  "Wow," was all I could say. I hadn't ever heard the full story, and I supposed that I didn't even have all of it then, but I had enough to where I could imagine how hard things were for them all.

  Zeke

  I didn’t see Elyssa at all for the next week, but that was fine by me. She’d left without even trying to talk to me about what we’d done.

  Plus, I was spending tons of time with someone else.

  Somehow, Roxann made the decision to stay at the castle. In our spare time, she liked to try to persuade me that I wasn’t a monster.

  I even managed to open up to her about sleeping with Elyssa.

  The shame was evident in my voice as I told her, but not once did she show signs of judging me.

  “The way I see it,” Roxann said as I finished telling her, “is that Elyssa,” she flinched at the mention of the vampiress, “was trying to help you. But in the process, she brought out the worst in you, as she tends to do.”

  I blinked. Something about what she said bothered me, but at the same time, I knew it to be true: Elyssa did bring out the worst in me. So why did it bother me to hear Roxann say it?

  Are we forgetting that a sick little part of you loves her? A nagging voice teased inside my head.

  For the briefest of moments, I worried that Tywin had dared to possess me. No, he never exactly loved you, I reminded myself.

  The next time we spent time together, it was in my study. I glanced over at Roxann as she plucked books from the shelves. We were just enjoying each other’s company. She was reading through books that randomly caught her eye, and I was researching.

  Or, I was trying to research. It was hard for me to concentrate with Roxann around that day.

  That was the first time we hadn’t been deep in conversation with one another about whatever tickled our fancy. The range of topics we’d covered was vast. We’d thoroughly gotten to know one another in the days we spent together. Everything from favorite things to our talents; we’d touched on what felt like everything. Even though I was a vampire - one who had beaten her, even - she seemed fairly comfortable with me.

  We’d gone over the family situations of one another. She had been orphaned at a young age, her parents murdered gruesomely. She had no siblings, but had been raised by her grandparents, who knew about and hated vampires. It was a wonder that Roxann Thorne hadn
’t been to our castle sooner in an attempt to figure out what was happening there.

  That was why I was making an attempt to research with her around. There was something about her name that seemed familiar to me. Perusing the name index Tywin had made before his first death, I didn’t come across the name.

  However, the name Hawthorne stood out to me. It wasn’t a direct variation of the name, but if something had happened, it was easy enough to change one’s last name from Hawthorne to Thorne…

  I found the tome that my father’s index directed me to and froze. A family of hunters. Of course, I thought grimly, looking up at Roxann. I wondered if she’d been lying this whole time, if she was a trained hunter.

  The Hawthorne family was rumored to have been taken out by a rogue bunch of vampires a handful of years ago. It was hard to believe at the time, but now that I knew they’d had a daughter, they probably were easily distracted. Why did they leave the child alive, though? I wondered. Wait, it isn’t even certain that this girl is the youngest member of that clan.

  “So tell me more about your family,” I said. Apparently I’d startled the girl, because she jumped and her face flooded with color. “I’m far more interested in hearing about your family than I am in conducting this research.” You have no idea.

  She seemed hesitant to part with the book in her lap but quickly complied and patted the cushion beside her. I moved to sit next to her and waited patiently for her to begin telling me her story.

  “Well, I don’t remember much about my parents… But I do remember growing up and being the kid everyone made fun of because my grandmother was ‘that crazy lady who believed in vampires,’” she began, shrugging one shoulder.

  “I never really believed in them, until shortly after I began my work at the newspaper. I mean, what evidence did I truly have before then, you know?" she asked softly, tucking a stray curl behind her ear. "My Gran never did seem to be the sanest of people, and while it was amusing as a young child, it made my life hard as I grew up. So, naturally, I did everything I could to keep out her words, and to make sure everyone knew that I didn't believe her lies."

  Sighing, she started chewing on her lower lip. "But when I got my job, I noticed just how many women tended to go missing from the mainland, and they almost always happened shortly after an ad was placed by someone on this island," she whispered.

  I tensed. Did I really want to listen to her berating me for all that I had done in the past? But Roxann seemed to be thinking carefully before letting her next words out.

  When she finally opened her mouth and began speaking once more, I was surprised. She went back to talking about her family history. “Anyway, I never believed in any of it, nor did I pay any attention to her rants about our family history,” she said, smiling.

  I tuned her out as she spoke more on her family. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested in her family history, of course. I just had all the information I needed right at that moment: she didn’t know that she was a descendant of great vampire hunters, and even if she’d heard of it, she never would have believed it.

  But I had the information finally. She was a descendant of the greatest vampire hunting family there was. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing. On the other hand, since she never believed in vampires until she was an adult, there was a chance that even if she knew, she wouldn’t care and wouldn’t be interested in learning how to do what her family did in the past.

  The good news was that she was untrained, and rather scared of everyone in the castle.

  Almost on cue, Roxann regained my attention when a name slipped from her mouth.

  “…Elyssa.”

  Snapping my eyes to hers, I stumbled for a response. I needed to know what she said in order for me to reply. But then I would have to admit that I wasn’t listening in the first place.

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I got lost in my own thoughts for a moment. What did you say about darling Elyssa?”

  Roxann opened her mouth to speak in the middle of my sentence, but as soon as the adjective ‘darling’ slipped from my lips, she scowled and looked away, becoming silent once more.

  I smirked. “What is with this reaction, dear? Are we jealous, perhaps?” My tone was purposefully teasing, but I was genuinely curious. Was Roxann jealous of a simple word that was, for just a moment, aimed toward Elyssa?

  “O-of course I’m not jealous,” Roxann stammered. The jump in her heartrate told me she was lying.

  I moved to sit beside her, slipping one arm around her shoulders smoothly. “Sure you’re not, dear,” I placated, whispering into her ear. “Now, what were you saying about Elyssa?” I asked again, neglecting to include the word that seemed to have ticked Roxann off the first time around.

  Roxann eyed me for a moment before repeating herself slowly. “I was just saying that she is a rather odd girl. Kind of broken, and yet intimidating,” she murmured.

  I frowned. “Has she been treating you badly?” I asked, the barest hint of a growl creeping into my words from my throat.

  Roxann flinched away from me at the low snarl, and shrugged her shoulders. “Mostly she just sends me glares and then walks away. Ever since that time,” she flinched again, probably from recalling the dungeon encounter we had, “and I ran away from her and - and your brother, she just doesn’t seem to like me very much.”

  I frowned again. This was a situation I’d hoped would never happen. Both of them were inhabitants of my castle, and I wished for them to get along.

  But if Elyssa couldn’t be nicer to my own personal guest, I would have to take action.

  “I’ll talk to her,” I murmured to Roxann, leaning my head down so it was lying on her shoulder. I sighed. “This is your home now, too. You should be comfortable here, and the likes of Elyssa should never make you feel unsafe.”

  As unresolved as my feelings for Elyssa were, Roxann was truly my priority, as she was directly under my care.

  That and, as scary as it might seem, I knew I was starting to develop very strong feelings for the woman before me.

  …Elyssa was just a complication in all of our lives. We might even be better off without her around entirely, I told myself.

  Somehow even a semi-positive outlook from giving Elyssa the boot didn’t stamp down the twinge of guilt that I felt at the thought of sending Reid’s Mate packing.

  Or the little flicker of pain that came at the thought of banishing the newest member of the family.

  “I’ll handle her,” I said quietly. “She can’t mistreat you. She of all people…”

  Roxann paled. “Don’t, you don’t have to, I mean. She isn’t outright mean to me. We avoid each other mainly. I would hate for anything you say to cause her to seek me out,” she added quickly.

  The part of me that still distrusted what most people said made me think that Roxann was just trying to use reverse psychology on me. Telling me to not speak to Elyssa, but using her own fear as a reason to goad me on.

  I brushed off my paranoia. I’d been looking for a way to get rid of Elyssa since the day she set foot in my castle. I wasn’t about to pass up such a lovely opportunity now that it had presented itself to me to do so.

  My ears began ringing the more I thought of it. Could I truly treat Elyssa that way, if it came down to it?

  Roxann appeared worried and I offered her a weak smile. “Don’t worry. She won’t know that we talked about her,” I assured her. “And anyway, I don’t think she’ll be coming after you.” She won’t even be a resident at this castle when I’m done talking to her.

  A few hours later, Roxann was in her room, safe and sound, and I was off to find Elyssa.

  At every turn I had to stop and hold myself up with a wall. Somehow the thought of it was making me sick, and I wasn’t sure that I would, in the end, have the stomach to actually go through with kicking Elyssa out of my castle.

  She belongs here, one half of me argued. She was Reid’s Mate. Lanistter blood made her a vampire.

  The o
ther half of me retorted, she’s a bitter little witch, and one who doesn’t know how to treat guests who are more important than her.

  …She’s Reid’s Mate…

  Roxann is in your life now.

  But I still l–

  I cut myself off before my insanity made me go off and kill myself.

  Here I was, in the middle of trying to rid our lives of the worst thing to ever happen to us, and I was arguing with myself about it.

  And losing, might I add.

  Sighing, I started moving forward again. I needed to get it over and done with and then maybe I could deal with the aftermath of my feelings – as well as the feelings of the rest of the castle inhabitants – when it was all over.

  Naturally, in my rush, I happened to run directly into someone.

  Glancing down at the body sprawled out in front of me, I ignored the skipping of my heart in my chest.

  Elyssa…

  Elyssa

  For a bunch of vampires, we weren’t very coordinated.

  I sighed as I picked myself up off the floor for the millionth time since my arrival at Castle Lanistter. I glanced up at whoever I’d run into and held back a grunt of displeasure. Of course it would be him.

  He seemed just as surprised to see me as well. “Elyssa,” he murmured, eyes wide. It was almost like he’d forgotten I was even at the castle.

  “Hello, Zeke,” I said quietly, looking away from him. “How are you today?”

  He started, appearing as though he was about to dodge off down a hallway in order to avoid talking to me, but ended up holding his ground.

  “I’m alright. Just relaxing and spending some time with Roxann…” He looked away awkwardly as he said that, and I mimicked the action. Ah, her.

  “Fun, fun,” I muttered. We still hadn’t spent much time together since the incident, and all the time we had spent together was full of awkward silences, much like that one.