Destructive Embrace

by Robyn M. Pierce

  I chuckled. "Like I will ever make the mistake of trying to play with Elyssa again? You're a funny one, baby brother," I said. I wasn't sure if the words were true or not, but they needed to be said.

  Just wait until the kid's born, Reid, I thought, fighting down my laughter as I headed to the study. Will you want to kill me then?

  Elyssa

  I woke up from my deep slumber to find that Reid was lying beside me on my bed. What…?

  My face felt rough from scrubbing tears away, but other than that, I was comfortable.

  Reid had his arm around me protectively as he slept, and I couldn’t help but smile at his expression. He looked so peaceful and relaxed while he slept. It was the most precious thing in the world to me.

  He began to stir and I felt my face heat as his eyes opened so that he was staring at me. “Hey,” he whispered, a hint of a smile ghosting across his lips.

  “Hi,” I murmured back, taking his hand in mine and squeezing it gently. “Did you sleep well?” I asked him, rubbing the back of his hand with the pad of my thumb. He nodded and I smiled. “Good.”

  “Did you?” he asked me, leaning forward to touch his forehead to mine.

  Suddenly it felt like absolutely nothing had gone wrong, like Tywin hadn’t ever dared to interfere with our lives, like we were back in his room the day he died, the day I’d agreed to become his wife…

  He pushed my hair out of my face. I nodded, leaning into his hand.

  He sat up then, pulling me up with him so that I leaned against his side and his arm was slung around my shoulders.

  Briefly I wondered what he was doing there. Were we back on speaking terms? Let alone friendly, cuddling terms? And then I remembered.

  I was standing in the main hallway, staring up at the family tree. It seemed to be where everything started and everything came to an end.

  The pain had faded, and I was left sniffling at the realization at hand.

  I’d lost my baby.

  I didn’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden, about an hour or so prior to me finding solace in the main hall, I’d begun to cramp, shortly followed by uncontrollable bleeding.

  Confused and worried, I began to clean myself up only to notice various clumps and clots in the mess.

  I couldn’t hold the startled cries back as I realized that what I was seeing were bits of my child, my baby Lanistter, and soon I was screaming at the top of my lungs, crying loudly as I rocked myself back and forth on the ground.

  Soon, someone burst into the bathroom, only to come to a screeching halt at the mess before them. “Elyssa?!” Dmitri cried, kneeling beside me. As he set his hands on my shoulder, I couldn’t help but focus on the trembling of his hands against my shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

  I barely heard his murmured words as he stood and ran off.

  Before long, he was back, Zeke in tow.

  “I’m sorry,” I croaked, turning my head to look up at Zeke. “I’ve lost your Lanistter…”

  He was leaning against the doorframe, pale as a ghost. The terror on his face was easy to read, and only grew as I curled in on myself more when another wave of pain hit me. Soon he was kneeling behind me, his arms wound around my shoulder.

  “We’re here, Elyssa,” he murmured soothingly into my ear. “We’re here.”

  Just as he began to stroke my hair, another figure strode into the room. “What is going on here?” Reid asked. Once glance up at him showed me his startled horror.

  “Were you… Pregnant?” he asked slowly. Looking back up at him, I nodded once.

  Zeke and Reid exchanged a glance and soon, Reid’s arms had replaced Zeke’s hold on me.

  With one final stroke of my hair, Zeke whispered, “I’ll be around if you ever need to talk,” and left the bathroom, taking a distraught Dmitri with him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me before?” Reid asked. He had resumed Zeke’s stroking of my hair and I sighed shakily, leaning back into him.

  “You hated me enough already. This would have only made it worse…”

  I felt him stiffen behind me and a growl began to build up in his chest. “Was it… His, then?” he demanded.

  I swallowed the knot in my throat and took a few deep breaths before answering. “I don’t know. For all we knew, it could have been yours, Reid,” I told him honestly. There was no point in lying, especially if it would just make things worse.

  “That’s a part of why we were all so attached to the little fiend,” I continued, a hysterical giggle escaping my lips. Reid relaxed a little more, continuing the little things he had been doing in an attempt to relax me again.

  “Why were you all so attached to it?” he asked. He sounded genuinely curious.

  “We thought there was a huge chance it was yours, and that we would be able to take care of something that had more of a tie to you than the material things you’d left behind,” I said, smiling. “At least, that’s how I saw it…”

  Reid’s voice snapped me out of the memory, and I looked at him with tears in my eyes. He quickly wiped away any that fell, and spoke again.

  “So I have a proposition, Ely,” he began, taking one of my hands into his free one. I stared up at him, smiling weakly.

  “What would this proposition be?” I asked, smiling wider.

  "Why don't we start over?" he asked me. "You came here under horrible conditions. But you're a vampire now. You can do whatever you like... I've been thinking. If we leave this place, maybe we can put it all behind us..."

  I froze, my smile feeling mechanical and creepy as it stuck to my face.

  Leave them behind?

  I knew that was always the goal in some form or another, but to have it come upon me so soon, when I was least expecting it?

  “Of course,” Reid rushed on to add, “we’ll wait until you’re able to move around freely again after this incident.” He tenderly placed his hand against my stomach and rubbed my belly slowly.

  The smile slid from my face as tears filled my eyes. “I’m sorry for everything that happened while you were gone,” I whispered, leaning forward to tuck my face against his shoulder.

  I was ashamed of my behavior while my Mate was gone, and there was nothing I could do to make up for everything that I’d done to wrong him. He made soft shushing noises and stroked my hair, rocking me in his arms slowly.

  “It’s fine, Ely. We’re going to put this all behind us now. That is, unless you don’t want to be with me anymore?” His voice took an uncertain tone and I threw my arms around him suddenly, catching us both off guard.

  “No, I want you,” I whispered into his shoulder, sniffling as I fought to keep the tears in.

  “Then what is it?” he asked.

  I paused. “I’ve grown to be a part of this family… Are we going to keep in touch with them? They lost you, and then they lost Wyatt as you were returned to them. Are they going to be able to handle us leaving?” I asked quietly, pulling away from him.

  His expression was thoughtful and he chuckled. “They’ll deal with it one way or another sweetheart,” he promised. “But if it makes you feel better, we can wait until things have settled back down around here.”

  I was nodding before he’d even finished his sentence, squeezing him tight with my arms while I drew my face up to his and pressed my mouth to his in a wonderful kiss. He chuckled against my mouth and pried me off him.

  “If you continue down this road, then we’ll have children running around here long before we are ready for them, love,” he teased. I felt my face flush and shoved him off the bed. I yelped when he took me down with him. “Did you think I was going to leave you up there, all by your lonesome?” he asked me, smiling roguishly. I stuck my tongue out at him and his smile softened.

  “I love you, Elyssa.” I met his eyes and smiled a little, too.

  “I love you as well, Reid.”

  “Then what say we get re-Mated? I am very sorry for how I handled the annulment, and I have to make this up to you one way or a
nother,” he said, dipping his head to kiss me on my cheek.

  I smiled. “You’re already on the right path. But to answer your question, I would love to be your Mate again, Reid Donovan Lanistter,” I told him sweetly, giving him an Eskimo kiss.

  “Good. I don’t know what I’d do if the woman I am in love with did not want to be my Mate. I’m so very glad you have made this choice, Elyssa Jane Smith.”

  I’m glad, too, I thought.

  But somehow, my mind drifted back to Zeke and Dmitri – the men who had taken me in as a part of their family; would they truly be alright? – while I kissed my future full on the mouth.

  Zeke – Epilogue

  I sat in my study, listening to the nearby candle crackle as the flame danced. Other than that, the room was silent.

  I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

  With the loss of Elyssa’s baby, I didn’t know what there was to look forward to, exactly. Not to mention, it would be very lonely here at the castle…

  Dmitri and Olivia would be running off to live their lives together as a married couple. No doubt off to run some kind of floral shop or an art gallery or something.

  With the things that happened during Reid’s absence, there was no doubt in my mind that he would be leaving the castle soon as well. Whether he brought Elyssa along with him was up to them, but either way, I doubted that the green-eyed beauty would be sticking around much longer.

  “So what am I to do with my time…?” I pondered, creating a steeple with my fingertips and leaning my chin against it.

  “Whatever you choose to spend your time doing, I do hope you won’t be torturing young women anymore.”

  I snapped my gaze up to see my two remaining brothers standing in the doorway. From the grin on Dmitri’s face, I could tell that he was glad that we had come to a truce in the dungeons. The dead look on Reid’s, on the other hand, worried me about our future as siblings.

  We had never truly been close. He and Dmitri were always the best of friends, Wyatt was always locked away in his tower, and I had my own idea of fun…

  But I would regret that I’d possibly made an enemy out of my brother for a long time coming.

  “We thought we should say goodbye,” Reid said. His tone was calm, almost peaceful, and I wondered what he had planned since he wasn’t staying. “We are both moving out soon, and we didn’t want to leave our last encounter as the brothers Lanistter to be that God-awful meeting in the main hall the night Elyssa was turned…”

  I stared at him curiously. Before I could ask what he wanted to accomplish, he spoke again. “So come, brother. Let us venture to the kitchens so that we may toast over some blood-wine.” Reid held his arm straight out.

  I slowly got up from my seat and ventured over to them with caution. Reid slung his extended arm over my shoulder and the other over Dmitri’s.

  As we walked down to the kitchens, I kept glancing over to Dmitri, looking for any signs that this was a trap from the two brothers I’d wronged over the years. He seemed fine, but my eyes kept getting stuck on the scar over Reid’s heart.

  His shirt was halfway open as he tended to wear it, leaving the left area of his chest open for me to see.

  Suddenly, I knew what I would be filling my time with after everyone moved out.

  We arrived at the kitchen and Dmitri retrieved a bottle of blood-wine. He uncorked it at poured three hearty glassfuls. After we all took our glasses, we held them up toward each other.

  “To life,” Reid said, smirking at the two of us.

  “To love,” Dmitri said.

  I paused as their eyes landed on me. Dmitri, forever scarred and hurting due to my own ignorance and anger. Reid, the walking dead, brought back to life because I made a rash decision; forever haunted by the scar where we plunged the dagger into his chest.

  A cure.

  I would devote the rest of my life toward finding a cure for silver-inflicted wounds.

  The scars would never fade or diminish, of course. They would be ugly reminders of horrible events until the day our lives come to an end.

  But I could find something that would take away the pain of being around silver.

  “To the future,” I said finally, clinking my glass against the glasses belonging to my brothers.

  The Lanistter Chronicles #3

  Look out for

  Masquerade

  Coming Halloween 2013

  Acknowledgments

  There are a number of people who helped me push through and get Destructive Embrace finished.

  Kayla Rohweder-Adamakis: Threatening my life on an almost-daily basis for me to keep writing and editing really helped. Some days, I was really scared that you would follow through… O,o

  Mom & Gram: You guys kept asking away at the progress of my stories, along with the rest of our crazy family. Thanks, because it gave me a reason to keep going so I could make sure progress was made every time I would report back. I love you guys.

  Zachary Rohweder: Thanks for shaming me into working! Whenever you asked how was the book coming and I would have a not-so-good answer, you weren’t mean about it. You were rather nice and it made me feel guilty for not working harder. Thanks. I love you.

  About the Author

  Robyn M. Pierce lives in Las Vegas, where the night is never-ending. There are no vampires in Las Vegas, except the ones on the pages of books. She loves music, and loves cuddling with her two cats, Joy and Hiroki, while lying down to read a good novel.

  Destructive Embrace is Robyn’s second novel, directly following Darkest Embrace in her series, The Lanistter Chronicles. Look out for book 3, Masquerade, coming Halloween 2013.

  Check her out online at http://www.RobynPierce.com