Destructive Embrace

by Robyn M. Pierce

  "Alright," I whispered. I walked over to Annibel's body. She was knocked out by the toll of having Tywin take over her mind, in addition to the force of having Wyatt remove him.

  I wanted to give my brother s few words to think about, but I didn't know what to say, and there wasn't anything I really could say to him to make this alright.

  None of it was okay...

  So I took Annibel, lifted her potato sack style over my shoulder, and left the dungeons.

  As I left the vicinity of the silver, I briefly wondered how long it would take for the potion to wear off, and how long it would take for my scars to stop hurting after that. I was thankful that they were numb for the time being, though.

  I headed upstairs with Annibel, carrying her to Reid's room. I heard the whispering of one voice, a male voice, and pounded the door in.

  On the other side, I saw Reid and Elyssa flying away from one another. Elyssa hit a wall pretty hard and slid down to the floor, gasping for air.

  "Am I... Interrupting something?" I asked, looking between the two of them. I was confused. I'd expected a tearful reunion or one filled with static, but the blood-covered Reid seemed like he didn't give a damn that he was back to life, and Elyssa looked like hell in comparison to him.

  Which was amazing, considering Reid was covered in his own blood.

  "Not at all, brother. Good to see you again. Why is Wyatt's Mate with you?" Elyssa ran past me before I could answer, and I turned to follow her, only to be stopped by Reid's hand on my shoulder. He looked down at me coolly.

  "Leave her. Unless you've fallen for her as well in my absence," he said. I could tell it was just a cold joke, but I still froze.

  After a heartbeat, I chuckled. "Me? You know I wouldn't fall for that type. I have my woman already," I said.

  Reid nodded. "Good to hear that," he murmured.

  Since he'd mentioned someone else falling in love with Elyssa, I took that to mean that he was aware of the situation. "So what are your thoughts on it?" I asked him, trekking through the bathroom to set Annibel's unconscious form on Elyssa's former bed. "On Zeke and Elyssa screwing, I mean," I said as I reentered the room.

  Reid's outraged expression told me that he hadn’t known, and I nearly banged my head against the doorframe. I'm such a fucking idiot, I thought, observing Reid's reaction.

  "They... What!" he exploded. He turned to storm after Elyssa, but I stopped him this time, clamping my arms around his form as tight as I could.

  "Hey, Reid, stop!" I grunted, struggling to keep him there. "The way you were acting, what you said, it made me think you knew!" Reid stopped fighting with me and I loosened my hold slowly – if he was planning on breaking free, he would have a hell of a time.

  "Dmitri, stop," he muttered. "If I wanted to escape, I would just teleport."

  I released him immediately, feeling stupid. "I should have realized that," I muttered.

  "Yes, yes you should have," he replied, chuckling darkly. "So, tell me all that's been happening while I've been... Away." He sat on the edge of his bed, looking up at me with interest.

  "You don't want to clean off first?" I asked him hesitantly. He shook his head.

  "No, no. If I have to go on a rampage through this castle, I want to look as scary as possible," he told me cheerfully.

  I frowned, deciding that I definitely would not be telling him that Elyssa was pregnant.

  "Nothing much else has happened," I said with a shrug. "Just been trying to cope with your death, really." Reid nodded his head slowly.

  "Shall I assume that that is what ... They were doing when they did what they did?" he asked quietly.

  Thinking about it, I shrugged and nodded. "I think that would be the most logical reason, yes. After all, it isn't like they have anything romantic going on. But you really shouldn't be so hard on Elyssa, you know," I told him.

  He scoffed. "What do you mean, hard on her? Did you see something that I should know about?" he asked, smiling widely.

  Frowning, I shook my head. "I didn't see a thing, actually, but I could easily tell that you were either threatening her or already hurting her. Why?" Reid stayed quiet for a short while and I made myself comfortable leaning against the wall next to the bedroom door.

  "Did you know that she's the one who shoved the blade into my heart?" he murmured. Well, when he put it that way, it sounded worse than I really thought it was. Although, killing one's Mate was pretty bad as it was...

  "I know," I whispered. "But she was doing it to set you free from Tywin," I said. "She did it to help you." My baby brother laughed once.

  "She couldn't have talked to me about it? She couldn't have tried to wait it out, to see if things would get better on their own? Was it really so bad?"

  I remained silent. I didn't know what to say because I didn't encounter Reid very much when he was under Tywin's control. "What all happened while Tywin was using your body?" I asked. "I can't properly judge the situation without knowing some more."

  Reid sighed. "I think he attacked her as me," he whispered, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.

  I grimaced. "Then can you blame her? You probably shook her up a lot, not to mention, who knows how that might have ended?"

  "She isn't dead, is she?" he hissed, narrowing his eyes at me. "I'm the only one who wound up dead," he mumbled.

  Shrugging, I sighed. "Yes, but you're also alive again, aren't you?" I asked him. A thoughtful expression crossed his face and then he nodded his head.

  "Zeke helped her do it, did you know that?"

  This stumped me. For someone who was all for the good of the family, killing a member of the family shouldn't have been an option for him. Yet he'd helped her...

  "I'm sure he couldn't think of another way," I said. Who knew I'd be defending Zeke one day? My brother laughed again.

  "Wow, things must have changed while I was gone, for you to be standing up for something that Zeke did," he said, echoing my thoughts. I could do nothing but shrug. "I don't think I can forgive him, Dmitri," Reid whispered after a few moments of silence. I nodded,

  "That's understandable. And Elyssa?" I prodded gently. He tensed up and I sighed. "I guess not..."

  Elyssa

  After my encounter with Reid, I was quite shaken. Not only did his actual assault bother me, but the fact that he was covered in his own dried blood made it that much more horrifying.

  The hatred in his eyes was burned into my mind, and I desperately needed to escape it. But what could I do?

  I didn’t want to be alone, but Dmitri was with Reid, and I most definitely wasn’t going back there. Zeke was probably still in his dungeons, but the question was, did I want to intrude on his privacy after having to deal with such an ugly ordeal?

  He’d just lost his fiancée, and was in the process of losing a brother. The only good thing that happened that day was Reid’s awakening, but Zeke had yet to see him.

  Not to mention, Reid would surely hate him as much as he hated me…

  I decided to head down that way anyway. There was no way I could stand to be alone, and I was dreadfully curious as to whether or not Tywin was dead – and Wyatt by association.

  I moved as slowly as possible so I could give Zeke as much time alone as he wanted, even though I planned to break his solitude purposefully.

  Besides, there was a lot going on in my head anyway. Too much, even.

  As I walked, I didn't even notice my pace slowing of its own will, until I came to a stop in between two windows on the second floor.

  Reid was back. What was going to happen? Surely he would find out about my newfound relationship with Zeke at some point, and then he would find out about the pregnancy, and that I had no idea at all who the father of my child was.

  "I have really screwed things up here, haven't I?" I chuckled darkly, pushing my hands through my hair in frustration.

  I had to stop thinking about it. If I let the guilt eat me alive, then I was bound to drive myself insane, with no other option b
ut to flee the castle.

  At that thought, my breathing stopped for a moment. "Tywin is gone, or, he will be after tonight... I should be able to leave the castle now," I whispered to myself.

  The thought was exciting, although it was a little terrifying as well. If I wanted to leave, I had to execute it in such a way that no one would be able to find out, lest Zeke discovered me leaving and put a permanent end to it with something as simple as an order as the head of the family.

  Shaking my head, I began walking again. I was getting ahead of myself. First, Tywin had to die.

  But that also meant that Wyatt would have to as well...

  I quickly made my way down to the dungeons, stepped through the still-open doors, and walked down the stairs slowly. The whispering voices told me that Wyatt was still alive, but when I stepped through the final set of doors, it was just in time to see Zeke cut Wyatt's heart out with a silver dagger.

  "I'm sorry this had to happen," he choked out, tears streaming down his face.

  The expression on Wyatt's face told me that he hadn't expected it to hurt as much as it did, but he also appeared to be at peace; accepting of the fate he had chosen in order to save the woman he was in love with.

  "Zeke," I whispered, unable to tear my eyes from the scene as both brothers dropped to their knees. One continued to fall to the floor while the other remained standing on his knees, the dagger still clutched in his trembling hands.

  "I am such a monster," he breathed, staring directly at the wall in front of him. He thrust the dagger away from him and it clattered along the floor until it collided with the dead body of Roxann.

  My eyes were stuck on Roxann for a few moments after that. She looked awful. Covered from head to toe in her own blood, and then there was that hole in her chest...

  I couldn't bear to look at her any longer. That could have easily been me, I thought. The thought terrified me, and I placed my hands over my stomach gently.

  There was something inside me that was already becoming adjusted to the feelings and thoughts that came with being a mother. The sudden relief that I had managed to protect my offspring – along with the help of my child's family – was overwhelming, and tears filled my eyes.

  "She shouldn't have died," Zeke croaked, interrupting my tender moment with my fetus. I snapped my gaze back to him, sniffling to control the sudden flow of emotions. "It should have been someone else, or no one else. She should have been able to escape!"

  I walked over to him and dropped to my knees as well, grazing my fingertips along his shoulders. My caress made him snap his eyes to mine. Their red-rimmed appearance broke my heart, and I knew that it would take quite a while for Zeke to get over this hardship that his father caused him.

  "Why didn't I let her go sooner?" he demanded, glaring pitifully at me as I knelt beside him.

  "You loved her," I murmured. It was both an answer to him, as well as an explanation that I needed to hear. His tears, his anguish over her death... Both were proof that, no matter how he felt about me, he had come to love her. Another human woman that had managed to escape his clutches somehow...

  "I'm sorry for your loss," I whispered, wrapping my arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. He tried to jerk away from my touch, but I held on tighter, unable to allow him the escape he seemed to want so desperately. "No," I said into his ear, running my fingers along his scalp. "I'm here for you. Let it out."

  After another moment where he seemed hesitant to take me up on my offer, he finally relaxed against me, placing his full body weight into my hold. The force of it sent me dropping from my knees so that I was sitting flat on the floor with Zeke halfway lying across my lap, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

  "I didn't want her to die," he said. His voice sounded dead, and if it weren't for the tears still streaming down his face and onto my shirt, I wouldn't have thought that he actually cared at all about what had happened to Roxann.

  "I know you didn't," I replied, still running my fingers along his scalp. He leaned his head back into my hand and I paused to let him relax again. Silence fell around us.

  "I didn't love her, though."

  This shocked me, but I didn't press him to elaborate on his words. Instead, I held him still, trying to keep him calm with small touches.

  "I know you think I did. I know everyone thought that I was in love with Roxann, but," he paused, shrugging one shoulder. "I didn't. I couldn't. There was still too much space in my head being taken up by you."

  I wanted to feel guilty by this, but something inside of me prevented it. "That's your head, silly," I said shakily. "Your head was consumed with thoughts of breaking me. Your heart was full of Roxann, though."

  Zeke shook his head, prying himself up from my lap and out of my hold so he could glare at me again. "You're an idiot, no matter the circumstances," he accused, sighing. It was my turn to glare.

  "No, it's true," he insisted, sitting up on his own. "No matter how much I tell you how I feel about you, you always deny it. You push me away and that's what made me seek out Roxann's embrace in the first place. But, no matter how often I was with her. No matter how much I enjoyed spending time with her..."

  He sighed, looking down at the floor. "You were still the one woman in my mind."

  I nervously ran my fingers through my bangs, not talking.

  "And now you have nothing to say," he chuckled. "That's fine. I didn't intend to tell you any of this anyway. I just can never hold my tongue around you...

  "Don't you worry, though, my dear. Sadist Zeke will come back with a vengeance now that there is nothing around threatening his family and making him go soft," he said with a wink.

  I scowled at him and fought the urge to hit him.

  I knew he needed to convince himself that he was going to be the same vampire that he used to be, but I wasn't buying it.

  Zeke

  She held me against her chest, where I could hear the faint beating of her heart. How could I not tell her, again, what I felt for her?

  In the end, I also told her that I would be returning to who I was before. That wasn’t a lie, either. I fully intended to become Sadist Zeke again, even though that was what led us here in the first place, to her being in the state she was in now.

  I didn’t want her to see me in the state that I was in, but I knew that neither of us could really stand to be alone.

  And since we were being exiled by the rest of my family for the actions we performed in the wake of Reid’s death…

  We had only each other to turn to.

  As I tried to convince her that I was fine, that everything was going to be alright, I was trying to convince myself of the same thing. The only way that I was going to be alright at that moment was if…

  “Elyssa,” I said suddenly. “Would you care to accompany me to the attic?” I asked.

  She appeared confused for a moment before it dawned on her. “That attic,” she murmured. “Are you sure you want to go there with me?”

  It felt like she was asking me if I was certain that I wanted her to be the first person I bring back there after Roxann’s death, but there was no way that she could have known that I brought Roxann there…

  Except that she knew me fairly well, and she would know that if I wanted to impress a woman, I would let her in.

  “I would never have brought it up if I was unsure, Elyssa,” I chuckled.

  She sighed softly and rose to her feet, holding out a hand toward me as I’d done so many times for her when she needed it.

  I stared at her hand for a few moments, trailing my gaze up her arm until it landed on her face. A small smile lingered on her mouth, but her eyes carried the pity that first set me off that night in these dungeons.

  “You still pity me, I see,” I murmured, ignoring her hand in favor of standing up on my own. Her hurt expression didn’t go unnoticed by me, but I ignored it. “Have you not learned your lesson, pet?”

  Elyssa’s green eyes widened, and she turned her body away from me as though t
o run. “Why would I have to learn my lesson?” she asked. Her voice shook. “Haven’t we learned already that you are unable to kill me?”

  I chuckled, shrugging a shoulder carelessly. “You never know,” I said thoughtfully. “I might be able to claim your life one day.” There was a teasing edge to my words, and she picked up on it, her shoulders sagging in relief.

  “Come on,” she grumbled, turning her back to me and walking toward the door. “When we’re done up there, I’ll help you down here with what needs to be done.”

  I was startled. “You want to help?” She couldn’t even manage to move Reid’s body. “You do realize that you never even moved your Mate’s dead body?” I had no qualms about letting her know that she was suddenly being ridiculous.

  “Besides, if you couldn’t manage to do that for your own Mate, you definitely shouldn’t offer up your services to help me out,” I chuckled darkly.

  She looked sad, letting out a sigh. “Come on.”

  I followed her out and we slowly made our way up to the attic, taking the staircase painfully slow. The silence was odd; heavy but not awkward.

  I handed her the key from my pocket, and she carefully opened the door, letting us both in. Elyssa closed the door behind us, and lit a few candles in various places in the room.

  Our eyes both landed on the portrait of my mother, and then we stared at each other. “If you need privacy, I can leave so you can talk with her,” Elyssa offered, surprising me once more.

  “I’m sure whatever I have to say to her can be said in front of you,” I murmured, though I wasn’t entirely sure about that.

  After all, how was I supposed to rant about this woman with her standing right behind me? I guess I just wouldn’t.

  “Reid’s back to life, Mom,” I murmured, kneeling before the portrait. “Tywin didn’t quite kill him all the way. He wanted to be able to come back to the body at a later date.”

  I paused, drawing in a shaky breath.

  “Mother, I’ve let my whole family down,” I cried. Elyssa drew in a startled breath behind me, and I struggled to continue despite her presence.