Ties To The Blood Moon

by Robin P. Waldrop

  Chapter 56

  I scrambled to my feet, but it was too late. Lycan were all over the tunnel behind me. It had been a trap. Zane knew I was there the whole time. He just pretended to be angry about something to keep my attention while the lycan moved in behind me.

  I could have fought my way through the lycan, but Zane would have probably killed William to get me to come back.

  I stepped out into the room. Lycan from the tunnel circled around me.

  “Well, well, Genevieve. What a pleasant surprise,” Zane said, grinning madly as he crossed the room to where I stood.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Go to hell you bastard!” I spat in his face, and one of the lycan lunged at my back. I quickly moved to the side, grabbed it by the head, and snapped its neck while taking it to the floor with my knee planted in its chest. I glowered up at Zane briefly, then ripped off its head, and sent it rolling like a bowling bowl toward Zane’s feet.

  The other lycan snarled and growled, gnashing their teeth in the air, but I didn’t cower.

  “Enough,” Zane shouted. “Stand back,” he ordered, and of course they obeyed.

  What I didn’t get was there were enough lycan slaves to easily kill Zane, so why didn’t they? He must have done something really terrible to make them fear him.

  I nodded toward William, then glared back at Zane. “Let him down.”

  Zane’s smile faded. “Are you quite sure that is your wish?” He asked, staring hard into my eyes as he played with his goatee using the long fingernail of his index finger. I glared right back at him, never wavering. “Very well,” he said flatly, waving his hand.

  A Lycan raked his claws over the lever holding up the chain, and William fell to the ground landing head first. I rushed to help him up, but there was a lock holding the chain around his ankles. After taking a deep breath, I pried on the lock until it popped loose, freeing William.

  William looked at me strangely, flitting his eyes around like crazy, almost like he was trying to warn me. He whispered something breathlessly before rolling onto his back, but I couldn’t hear what he said.

  “Come on,” I uttered, and tried to help him stand, but he jerked away. “What are you doing?” I asked, incredulously. He wouldn’t even look at me. It wasn’t out of fear, but like I disgusted him or was beneath him.

  William stood, brushing off his clothes, then acted like I wasn’t even there. He kept his focus only on Zane. “I was beginning to wonder how long you were going to leave me hanging,” William said, smiling at Zane.

  I peered at William. “Why are you acting like this? What did you do?” I was stunned. I couldn’t understand how he could betray my love for him. Joseph tried to tell me, but I had refused to listen. I was just too naïve to think he could ever hurt me after the intimacy we shared and him saying he was in love with me. My eyes burned hot, but the tears didn’t come. I just stood in the center of the room glaring at him. “I trusted you!”

  William laughed. “That was your first mistake.”

  “I hate you,” I screamed as loud as I could.

  Zane approached me and grabbed my wrist, leading me to a chair and made me sit as William headed toward the door. Two lycan started to follow him, but he objected.

  “You need them more than I do. I can handle myself,” William said sternly. “But she can be a handful.”

  Zane simply waved his hand and the lycan returned to their places. He pulled a chair close to mine and sat down, quietly staring at me, his eyes narrowed and the corners of his mouth curved up into a evil grin.

  He was trying to get under my skin and I wasn’t about to let him, so I leaned in even closer to him and whispered, “You better kill me, because if you don’t, you’re a dead man.”

  His smile disappeared and he pulled his hand up over his shoulder. I knew what was coming, but I didn’t flinch. His hand came down fast and hard, backhanding me across the face. My head spun to one side. I slowly turned back to face him, my hair covered one eye, but I didn’t push it back. Instead, I glowered at him with my uncovered eye, daring him to do it again. He cleared his throat, and turned away.

  “Zane…,” William shouted as he pushed through the door, hurrying back into the room. “The twins are gone!”

  Zane jumped up from his seat. “What do you mean, gone?” He asked in a low growl.

  “They escaped,” William said, and I felt his heartbeat rising. All of the lycan seemed to feel whatever Zane was feeling, and he was irate. They slowly started across the room toward William, growling and snarling. His eyes turned dark, and he held his ground, hissing at them. He stood ready to attack if they got any closer.

  When Zane turned his attention to the lycan, William quickly shot me a wink, making my heart stop, and confusing the hell out of me. I wished I could read his mind, like I did Luna.

  Zane stomped over to me snatching me out of my chair by grabbing a fistful of hair. “Where are they, you little bitch?”

  I looked at his eyes, but not into his eyes. They were completely black and his face had contorted into something evil. “I don’t know,” I shot back.

  “We’ll see about that,” he snapped, slinging me to the floor. “If she moves, kill her!” He ordered the lycan before turning his attention to William. “Come with me,” he ordered William.

  Zane shoved the door open so hard it slammed back, hitting him in the shoulder. I snickered, and the lycan moved a bit closer to me.

  “Stop,” I shouted, holding up my hand. “Why do you let him make you his slaves?” I asked, and they all looked at me skeptically. “Your numbers are great. You could defeat him, and be free. Is that not what you want?” I thought I had their attention until one of the bigger ones, a scraggly one-eyed alpha male, let out a ferocious howl, and the rest cowered, lowering the heads.

  My heart rose and fell after Zane snatched the door open and came in. He had my aunt by the hand, followed by my mom who he had in hand chains. William walked in right behind them, and his face was saddened. I knew whatever Zane had in store it couldn’t be good.

  “Mom! Aunt Bev,” I screamed, and my mom’s face brightened when she first saw me, but then it changed to a mesh of pain and fear when Zane snatched on the chain, causing her to fall. Aunt Bev’s eyes looked downward toward the floor, and never even attempted to look at me.

  Zane slung my mom onto the floor in the corner by his bed. When she hit the bookcase against the wall, it moved slightly, but thankfully none of the books fell on her. I quickly noticed he was much more gentle with my aunt, and I wondered if maybe he’d grown tired of my mom and that was why he had kidnapped my aunt.

  I almost puked when he gently kissed the back of my aunt’s hand before placing her in one of the chairs close to me. I tried whispering to her, but she never raised her eyes from the floor. I figured he must have told her if she looked at me he would kill me or my mom. I could understand Aunt Bev’s fear. Zane was very intimidating. Even though he was gorgeous to look at, he was the definition of evil. In my eyes, that alone made him a hideous looking monster.

  He leaned over and whispered something in my aunt’s ear, and the corners of her mouth curved up in a tiny smile. Before straightening, he looked over at me with a sneer that sent chills down my spine. My heart stopped as I watched him walk to where he’d thrown my mom onto the floor. He grabbed her by the hair, pulling back on her head to expose her neck. I held my breath and looked on in horror as he unsheathed a large knife and raised it above his head, looking just like one of those crazed psychos straight out of a horror movie. He placed the blade against her throat, and a tiny line of blood trickled down her neck. He stopped and looked at me to see if I was watching, then laughed eerily.