Destructive Embrace

by Robyn M. Pierce

  I laughed at him humorlessly and he retaliated by lashing out at me with the whip once more. I could feel the tiny claw digging into my skin and pulling harshly as he yanked the whip back toward himself.

  When I thought the pain couldn't get any worse, I heard Zeke put the whip down and I sighed in relief.

  "Oh, no, no, Dmitri," he tsked me. I turned my head so that my peripherals could catch Zeke over my shoulder. He was grinning. "I'm not quite done with you. I've now tested my single silver tipped whip. Congratulations on being the first victim of it, by the way." small noises met my ears – the tapping of his foot as he walked over toward another wall, the soft noise of a whip being lifted off its holder, and the gentle clinking noise as metal came into contact with metal...

  "Three tips," Zeke whispered. I focused my eyes back on the wall, refusing to look at the weapon he had in his hands now. "All three with silver claws on them. Are you ready?"

  I snapped myself out of the memory, my back aching from reliving the time when I'd received the ugly scars on my back.

  Elyssa

  “Wait!”

  Turning around, I paused. Zeke was chasing after me. Actually running, even…

  That was odd.

  “What is it?” I asked politely, smiling softly. Zeke appeared uncomfortable as he thought about what he was going to say.

  “I sent her away to keep her safe… You can’t leave, which means you aren’t safe. So, at the very least, I would prefer it if you stayed away from anything that happens regarding my old man from here on out,” he spit out. Through his rushed words, I sensed his urgency at this topic.

  “Zeke, I… How can I stay away when this whole thing started with me?” Frowning, I sighed. “Tywin used my father as a way to test how much he could influence Reid’s decision all those years ago.”

  Zeke started. “What? The Blood Contract was because of Tywin?” I nodded. “I’m starting to think he might have been more of a power-hungry fiend than we ever imagined…”

  He trailed off, a saddened expression on his face. “What’s wrong?” I asked, touching his arm gently.

  He glanced up at me, chuckling sardonically. “Elyssa, if I’d believed Dmitri when he told me that the old bastard killed our mother, we might not have ever come to this point,” he said.

  A familiar pang resonated in my chest. “Without Tywin, I never would have come here,” I murmured thoughtfully. “I never would have met you.” I dared to peek up at him then, only to be startled by the intense look on his face.

  “You would be safe,” he whispered, lifting one hand to touch my face softly. “You never would have been touched by the woman-beater, never would have been scared out of your wits by the perverted and power-hungry old man who just refuses to die,” he said.

  I opened my mouth with the intention of protesting, but Zeke pressed a finger to my lips. “Stop. You know it’s true,” he said sadly, tracing gently the outline of my lower lip.

  “No, I don’t. I don’t believe that for a minute,” I said, brushing his hand away. “Just because a lot of bad things have happened, doesn’t mean there haven’t been any good memories, Zeke.” I realized that I was essentially taking back my previous wish of letting Zeke run me out, and paused.

  “Besides, since when are you this nice, emotional guy?” I teased. He rolled his eyes and shrugged.

  “Just because you are incapable of evolution, doesn’t mean we all are stunted,” he drawled, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

  Rolling my eyes in return, I chuckled. “There we go. A bit of the normal Zeke everyone knows and loathes.”

  Just then, the little monster inside me decided that it was hungry, causing my stomach to growl, loudly. I shot a glare down at my belly and sighed. “Time to feed the monster, I suppose,” I chuckled, glancing up at Zeke.

  Without missing a beat, he held out his hand, and I placed my palm against his instantly. “Shall we?” he asked, a mischievous shimmer in his eyes.

  I should have known by then that I could not really trust him, but the part of me that truly felt for this man didn’t care, so I smiled up at him and nodded.

  “Come on. We’ll find you something that you can snack on, and then we’ll get you guys down to the dungeons,” Zeke said.

  At his words, my eyes widened, and I began to jerk my hand away from his. He chuckled and held on.

  “For some blood, you silly woman.” He glanced down to my stomach. “As much as I loathe you, I do care about that little monster you are carrying,” he chuckled.

  I stopped walking, and he sighed, glancing back at me. “What is it?”

  “You loathe me?” I asked, ashamed that my tone sounded a little sad at his sudden declaration of his feelings.

  His eyes widened as he realized what he said, and I started to walk backward away from him. "Elyssa," he murmured softly.

  I almost didn't want to hear anything that he was about to say. What if he said that it was true? If he despised my very being, what was I supposed to do then?

  But what if he claimed the opposite and declared that he loved me...

  Again.

  Could I really handle that?

  There were only so many options for where this conversation could go, but it was enough to send me running for the hills. There was no way in hell that I was ready to talk to him about this right then.

  "I think I'm just going to go eat on my own," I whispered, turning around.

  Zeke grabbed my upper arm and stopped me from going any further than the few steps I'd already taken. "No," he said firmly. "I cannot trust you to feed yourself and my son, so I am going to monitor your eating habits personally from here on out."

  His statement shocked me. "What do you care? Honestly?" I asked, scoffing. I yanked my arm out of his grasp, and he let his hand hang there in the air. "You may have sent Roxann away, but that changes nothing about how you feel. And even though I'm carrying a Lanistter child, you have done some pretty awful things in your long lifetime, Ezekiel Lanistter. What the hell do you honestly care if I feed myself and this child?"

  My words obviously stung him, but I stepped further away from him anyway, not caring. If he was going to push me away, then I was going to help him with it.

  For a moment, his true nature shone through, and I could clearly see Zeke-The-Sadist lurking just beneath the surface. That might be the key, I thought, grasping onto that idea as though it were my only lifeline.

  "Hell, I bet you never even loved me or Roxann. You are Zeke the cruel, Zeke the woman beater, after all," I sneered. "How could you possibly love a few humans all of a sudden?"

  He shot forward then, grabbing me by my shoulders as he so often loved to do. "Are you calling me a liar?" he hissed, leaning down to touch his forehead to mine.

  Even though his words were angry, his body language spoke in other ways, and I could tell that he was fighting hard to play along.

  Both of us needed that distance from one another, and we both needed it in the most desperate of ways.

  "I am," I murmured, holding his gaze with a glare of my own. "After all, you have been a Sadist for the longest time. There is absolutely no way that, after centuries of beating, maiming, and killing women for fun, you suddenly found two that you could love."

  I took a long pause before continuing. "It has to be some kind of cruel joke. Against your brothers as well as the two poor, pitiful women who fell victim to your ways," I finished.

  His hand was at my throat then, a loud snarl ripping free from his throat. "You have no idea how I feel, you wretched little bitch! Whether or not I am playing a game, who are you to try to read into how I feel or what my thought process is?" He snickered darkly.

  "You are no one. You are just some woman who came along and changed everything. If the changes were even a little good, then maybe I could have been more accepting of it. As it is, though," he paused, chuckling mirthlessly. His grip on my throat tightened, and I struggled to try to breathe.

  "Y
ou are unworthy of even the lowest of our kind to prey on. You have ruined my family, and you have ruined me!" He thrust me away from him harshly, and I was able to breathe again.

  I massaged my throat silently, digesting his words. Angry words were usually the thoughts that went unspoken. Or, at least, that psychology worked for humans. Vampires couldn't be too different...

  His words hurt, though.

  "I love you," I breathed out, barely managing to put any volume behind the words that I suddenly knew to be true.

  As much as I tried to avoid those feelings...

  As much as I longed for them to be lies, crafted wickedly well by the cruelest parts of my mind...

  I finally knew that those feelings were true, and that the way I felt about Zeke was the only thing keeping me grounded.

  "I love you. But you despise me. So kill me," I whispered. He appeared startled, and I let a small, humorless smile make its way onto my face.

  “Kiss me, or kill me, Zeke. It’s as simple as that.”

  There was barely a beat before he was on me, his hands wound around my throat once more. But instead of strangling me, he lowered his face to mine and barely touched his mouth to my forehead.

  “Do not tempt me so, woman,” he breathed against my skin. “For I desperately long to wring the life out of that pretty little neck of yours.

  “But I also crave the feel of your flesh against mine…” His tone sent a shudder down my spine. “So do not tempt me with these two evils, Elyssa.” He pulled away and looked into my eyes.

  “Now, if you don’t mind… can we please go feed my child?”

  Somehow, the tension between us dissipated immediately, so I nodded once.

  And then we were off to the dungeons for some bottled blood.

  Along the way, however, we came across an unusual sight: Dmitri stood just outside Zeke's dungeon doors, a perplexed look on his face.

  Zeke and I shared a look; anything that involved Dmitri actually venturing down to the dungeons and lurking outside Zeke's doors could never be a good thing. We both knew that.

  Apparently, so did Dmitri, for as soon as our footsteps met his ears, he turned to us, a look of horror on his face.

  "You mean that isn't you in there?" he stammered, eyes trained on Zeke. "I mean, I thought that Roxann had broken you of it, but I also knew that no one else would ever use the dungeons for... For that," he finished quietly, swallowing what seemed to be a lump in his throat.

  "What are you talking about?" Zeke asked.

  I could hear the beginnings of a growl escape from his throat, but knew he was holding himself back. He didn’t want to jump down Dmitri's throat, any more than Dmitri wanted it or the rest of us wanted to see it. He truly had become a kinder man...

  "I walked past here earlier – was just wandering, really, I had no real destination in mi–"

  "On with it!" barked Zeke.

  Dmitri flushed. "Right. Sorry. Anyway, as I walked past these doors, I heard the very distinct sound of a woman's screams."

  It was my turn to be confused. "But the dungeons are sound-proof," I murmured. Glancing up at Zeke, I added, "Aren't they?"

  Zeke's expression twisted. "They are... When I am the one using them. It's a spell that is specific to my aura. Very complicated," he murmured.

  My heart stuttered. "But that would mean that someone else is down there, torturing a woman..."

  Dmitri and Zeke exchanged looks. Somehow it felt like the night I arrived at the castle, with the two of them communicating silently. Back then, it had been clear that they were murmuring to each other, just at a volume and speed that I couldn't quite catch. This time, they were truly on the same page, as was evident by the expressions on their faces.

  "What is it?" I asked. My tone betrayed my unease at the situation, and I waited for the bad news.

  Zeke looked at me, while Dmitri trained his eyes on the floor. "It means that Tywin is in there, beating someone. And Dmitri doesn't know anyone by their screams as I would have, so he cannot possibly identify who it is. If only I'd gotten here sooner, we would know," he said under his breath.

  "Hey, you can't blame yourself," Dmitri muttered, cutting a sharp look my way. "You were sort of busy up until now, it would seem."

  Zeke sent a short glare at his brother that clearly read: Don't start with me.

  "Anyway, what matters now is that we’re here. This means we might be able to interrupt this before it is too late. Before another woman dies at the hands of a corrupt Lanistter," Zeke said.

  At his choice of words, I longed to embrace him, to make his pain disappear as best I could, but with Dmitri present, there was nothing I could do. As it was, Dmitri's gaze had wandered and was pointed very obviously at mine and Zeke's intertwined hands.

  I could feel the judgment rolling off Dmitri in waves, and chose to avert my gaze elsewhere so I wouldn't have to face it directly. The last thing I needed right then was to have to deal with his thoughts on the situation between Zeke and myself. It wasn't even his business, anyway...

  "We have to go down there and stop it." Zeke's words interrupted my thoughts, and I held my breath.

  "We?" I asked quietly, hoping that they would allow me to go down and assist in any way I could. It wasn't like they had much of a choice in the matter; Dmitri was severely allergic to silver, after all, and Zeke's dungeon was chock full of silver weapons, which would no doubt bring Dmitri to his knees in a matter of minutes.

  "We," Zeke nodded. His breathing pattern altered as he confirmed what I was hoping, and he squeezed my hand. "You had better be careful with the newest Lanistter prodigy being inside your womb, woman," he said gruffly.

  For a moment, it appeared as though he wanted to say more, but a quick – almost unnoticeable – glance at Dmitri told me that, like I was, Zeke was holding himself back from behaving toward me as he desired.

  All of a sudden, worst-case scenarios played over in my head. What if we all died down there? What would happen to the rest of the world once Tywin was free and able to roam without worry of us interfering?

  Zeke

  As I stared back into Elyssa’s eyes, I knew what she was thinking. Somehow I did, though it made no sense.

  She wanted to be able to say goodbye in case something happened… But more importantly, she was terrified that something would happen, and that Tywin would be able to terrorize whoever he wanted to when we were no longer in his way.

  Our most recent little pow-wow left me with an unusual array of emotions. Disbelief, cockiness, anger… Those three warred with one another, but were mostly overshadowed by the absolute sense of adoration that I felt toward Elyssa.

  Elyssa… The woman who finally loved me back.

  Just in time for all of you to die, that annoying voice said. I quickly told it to shut up, and continued with my silent conversation with Elyssa.

  You know, I still don’t want you going down there, I communicated to her, squeezing her hand.

  The slightest lift of the corner of her mouth gave away her smirk. I know. But you know that I won’t let you go without me.

  I know. That doesn’t mean that I don’t wish you would change your mind.

  She nearly laughed out loud. I could tell from the way she pursed her lips and cut her gaze to the side, where Dmitri stood. She was clearly reminding herself of the inappropriate nature that would go along with laughing out loud at our conversation.

  I know. Such a shame I don’t listen well, isn’t it?

  The way we were conversing silently, one might have thought that we were Mates, connected by the Mate’s bond.

  Dmitri was looking back and forth between the two of us. His eyes were narrowed; obviously he realized that we were communicating. His gaze dropped down to our hands, and I fought the urge to release Elyssa’s hand in favor of not aggravating my brother even further.

  “I think it’s time to go in,” I whispered to Elyssa. She looked terrified, but knowing her, it was probably for the wrong reasons. She did, n
o doubt, not fear for her own life – or the life of my child – but scared for myself and Dmitri.

  As that registered, I looked at my younger brother. “How do you plan on being of any use?” I asked softly. I did not wish to criticize him, nor was I trying to insinuate that he was not helpful. “You are deeply allergic to my lair…”

  His gaze clearly said that it was my fault that he was so allergic, and I didn’t even try to defend myself. It was the truth, and nothing I could say or do would ever make up for it.

  Unless… I cut the thought off before it could flourish. What use was it to me if I was about to die? I would revisit it if I made it out of that little scenario alive.

  “I will fight through the pain if it means I have a hand in the final demise of our dear old dad,” Dmitri said, straightening his posture until his eyes were on the same level as mine. I smirked, holding my hand out to him.

  He hesitated, shooting a glance at my other hand, which was still intertwined with Elyssa’s, but eventually grasped my hand and gave it a firm squeeze while we shook.

  “Nice to finally have a big brother,” he joked. A part of me felt bad, but I knew that with this, our feud was over, and we would truly become brothers once more.

  “We shall have our brotherly bonding when we finally get rid of this bastard,” I assured him, releasing his hand.

  Her silence was getting to me, and I turned toward Elyssa again. “Dmitri,” I murmured, not breaking my eye contact with her. “We will be right back. I need two minutes with her…”

  She looked shocked, and shot a distressed look toward Dmitri. Judging by his silence, he was not going to help her get out of this – Wise decision, brother, I thought, smirking inwardly – so I carted her away, dragging her along by her hand until we were just out of earshot.