Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (26 page)

Z
ane cried out as he fired another round from the Beretta into his thigh and, feeling the burning of the beast threatening to break free, slammed the barrel against his temple and tensed his finger around the trigger.

“Give me a reason, you son of a bitch! You take one goddam step into the open and I’m blowing our fucking brains out! Do you hear me, motherfucker?”

The burning subsided and the tattoos faded back to black.

“Yea. Thought so! Let’s see how long you can keep it up!” Zane scoffed, moving the barrel back to his thigh and firing another shot; crying out once again
at the jolt of pain that struck his thigh.

Just then the door flew open, now wearing a foot-shaped crater where it had been kicked.

Serena glared in at him, taking in the scene and scowling more. “You idiot!” Serena growled as she stomped into the room, slamming the door shut behind her and latching it with her aura. Zane tightened his grip on the gun, bracing for her to try to pull it from him, only to have her yank it from him with her aura. “You fucking
idiot
!” As she closed the distance between them, she drew back her fist and punched him straight in the jaw, sending him sailing off the bed and straight into the wall. She stared down at her hand for a moment, surprised at her own strength.

Surprised, but not regretful.

Not in the least!

She narrowed her eyes and rushed at him
again, putting another fist into his stomach.

He wretched and whimpered.

She glared down at him and reveled in the bittersweet irony that losing Devon had actually made her stronger!

He
groaned and lifted his mismatched blue and silver eyes to her. “Serena…” he croaked, still in obvious pain from her attack.

“You bastard! What the fuck were you doing? Trying to
lure
it out so you could have an excuse to
kill
yourself?” She shook her head and spat at his feet, “You’re a fool! A goddam
idiot
! We need you right now! The clan needs you! God-fucking-dammit, Zane,
I
need you!”

He
looked down and frowned, the shame of Devon’s death still twisted on his face.

She rolled her eyes and
sighed, slumping down beside him. She couldn’t hate him; not even if she wanted to.

“I’m sorry, Serena. I really am.” He co
vered his face with his hands to hide his paint-filled eyes. “I—fuck!—I don’t even know what to say to make it better; I don’t even know if I
could
make it better. It’s never been like…” he sighed and started to chuckle, “I’m usually not
this
fucked up.” His laughs had no trace of comedy in them.

“
Zane… what happened to Devon?” Serena frowned, looking over at him.

“Do you want me to answer that truthfully?
” he shifted his gaze to meet hers, “Because I can’t say for certain. I don’t know where he is now. Fuck, I don’t even know if he’s
anywhere
; I didn’t think you could
destroy
energy—I mean, a goddam middle school teacher can tell you it’s impossible—but I’ll be damned if it”—he shook his head and corrected himself—“if
I
didn’t find a way! I just couldn’t control it any longer… I
wanted
to kill him; I wanted to get rid of him so you and I could…” He lifted his bloodshot eyes to hers suddenly before glancing down at her lips.

Realizing what he was staring at, she instinctively moved
to wet her lips, but caught herself in time to avoid a lewd display. She shook her head at her own reaction and looked away.

“Zane…
” Her mind was even more conflicted now. He was jealous of Devon! He had wanted her for himself and he’d killed Devon—a dead man—to get to her.

And she couldn’t bring herself to resent him for it.

And then it hit her…

She was attracted to Zane more than she
ever could have thought possible. She bit her lip, trying to think of when her feelings had really started. That time they were training she felt the attraction more than she cared to admit. Still, she needed to see if her attraction was genuine.

She
needed to see how far it went.

Lifting her head, she took his face in her hands and brought him to meet her gaze before she leaned in to kiss him, only to have her advance halted by his hand. Her eyes widened, startled at his intervention and she bit her lip as she saw that he was glaring at her.

A moment of silence passed, and as she studied his face she realized he wasn’t looking
at
her, but
past
her. He was staring at the door!

In a flash he was on his feet and planting himself between her and the door
as a blood-red aura passed through and unlocked it from the other side, allowing it to swing open on the warped hinges from Serena’s assault on it.

“Am I intruding?” Keith smirked, leaning casually ag
ainst the doorframe and eating an apple.

“How did you get
in here?” Zane glared, feeling his anger rising once again. Though he was eager to give in to it—to let the beast break free and do what it did best—and be done with Keith and his bullshit! But he had no way of insuring that it would stop there, and with Serena in the room he couldn’t risk a total loss of control. He scowled, but nevertheless forced himself to take a deep breath and suppress the urge to free it.

“
Ah! I see you’re learning to control it, eh? Pity. Seems like it could be useful, doesn’t it?” he scoffed, taking a bite from the apple and shaking his head, “A
fun
punishment. Sort of defeats the purpose if you ask me.” Keith grinned and looked over at Serena, “I’m sorry, sis, am I interrupting something? I wouldn’t have pegged you as the sort, but this doesn’t seem too far from
bestiality
, wouldn’t you say? First a human and now this.” He clucked his tongue, “What would our parents think?”

“Shut up
, you son of a bitch! Our parents are
dead
because of you, so I’m sure they’d have rather seen me hook on a fucking street corner before approving of your decisions!” She shot to her feet and glared, stepping beside Zane, “This is all your fault! Everything that’s happened—from the very beginning—has been entirely! You killed Mom and blamed it on our father to turn me against him! You’ve manipulated me every step of the way to trick me into believing you!”

Keith shrugged and let the apple fall from his palm and roll across the floor as he took a step inside,
“What can I say? I’ve always been something of a trouble-maker, right? Bit of a problem-child?” he sneered at them, casually glancing about the room despite their defensive stances against him, “I’m sure your new boyfriend has said it all; parroting all the same bullshit Daddy dearest crammed into his mind. An exaggeration on an exaggeration on an exaggeration… oh yes, you should most certainly believe
that
sort of credibility! Leave now, Serena. The door is right there and I won’t do anything to stop you. My business is and always has been with your beasty boy-toy.” He glared at her, “But your safety relies on your abandonment of the Clan of Vail, so if you intend on rejoining them, you’re accepting their fate!”

“
Do as he says, Serena! This doesn’t need to be your fight! Get out of here!” Zane growled, shaking as he said the words but never once relinquishing his death-glare on Keith.

“No
fucking way am I le—”

Zane grabbed her before she could finish and shoved her towards the door. “
I said get out NOW!” he fought the growing rage, holding back its efforts to take control long enough to herd Serena out, “Go! Find Zoey and Isaac;
everybody
! Tell them to get out of here—to abandon Vail and everything to do with it—and make new lives elsewhere!” Zane gave her another shove towards the door.

He watched as she
stumbled through the door and turned to come back again, “No! I won’t leave you!”

Zane shot her a glare, his aura already shifting red and
giving him the ability to slam the door in her face, lock it, and barricade it against her enraged shrieks and brutal assault to try to get through. Keith smirked at the racket and arched an eyebrow at Zane as her futile efforts resounded within the room.

“Zane! Goddam it!” She screamed through the door, “Let me in!”

Keith chuckled, “Tenacious little bitch, isn’t she?”

Zane continued to glare at him, not offering a response.

“Ah yes, straight to business, right? My father
has
taught you well. Alright then, if that’s how it must be…” Keith inhaled sharply as his aura extended from each wrist and his hands began to glow as he wrapped each fist in it.

Zane glared and pulled
his Beretta into his hand with his own aura and took aim at Keith’s head. “I should warn you: though it’s the beast that you’ve come to recognize me for, I
was
recognized by your father and many others as a capable warrior on my own. Allow me to demonstrate my marksmanship.”

“Not fighting fair, I see.” Keith
glared.

“I’m willing to bet you wouldn’t either.”
Zane spat, letting the burning of his tattoos envelop his arms as he guided his aura towards the Beretta, “Now let’s see if there’s any merit to your sister’s methods!” as he spoke, one of his auric tendrils covered the gun and wrapped around the round already waiting in the chamber as he pulled the trigger. Keith glared and moved to dodge the shot, but Zane, anticipating this, redirected the bullet in his aura and drove it into Keith’s shoulder. Hissing in pain, Keith glared down at the wound and gaped at the sight of Zane’s auric tendril still clinging to the burning metal inside him. Zane smirked, extending another auric tendril to the next waiting round. “Oh yes! Definitely on to something here!”

He twisted the slug within the meat of Keith’s muscle, causing his shoulder to spasm violently as he hissed in pain.

“AH!” he gritted his teeth and glared at Zane, “So, you
are
learning to control it?” Keith growled and, focusing past the pain in his shoulder, charged at him in overdrive.

Zane frowned, caught off guard by Keith’s
swiftness, and cried out as he was thrown against the wall. Appearing in front of him a moment later, Keith grabbed him by the throat and drove his aura into his chest, pushing him harder into the wall, twisting and crumpling its surface as he did.

As Zane’s aura shriveled with a loss of focus, his hold on the slug in Keith’s shoulder slipped, allowing Keith to pull it out with his own aura and let it drop to the floor.

“Now
that
was rude!” he hissed, extending his fangs as he drove more pressure into his assault on Zane’s body.

As the last of his breath was forced from his lungs, Zane gasped and
struggled to keep his focus against Keith’s efforts to crush him.

He couldn’t let him win!

Not now!

“You knew this was coming, beast! You’ve been waiting
years
for it, right? Waiting for the day you wouldn’t have to suffer and grieve and
feel
?” he smirked and began to drain Zane’s aura with his own, taking away the rage and stifling any hope of transforming, and chuckling as his eyes began to lose focus.

Zane gargled on his words; both his intended message and its delivery a mystery to both of them as his mind grew too hazy to think. Keith began to laugh—the sound echoing and rolling irregularly in Zane’s ears—and, taking
Zane’s gun from his flaccid grip, brought it to his stomach.

“I ca
n’t kill you just yet; not if I hope to achieve what I’ve worked so hard towards. But, in case you doubt my sincerity in this issue, here’s a little souvenir.” He wrapped his own aura around the gun as Zane had and pulled back the trigger, sending the aura-laced bullet into Zane’s guts and twisting and stirring it about as emphasis. Zane whimpered and shook as Keith released his hold and allowed him to fall to the floor, smirking as he began to heave and cough up blood. “Yes, it
is
quite painful, isn’t it? I thought it was unfair to savor all of
that
on my own.” He laughed and stood up, leering down at him. “I hope I’ve made my point, Zane.” He poked the toe of his shoe into the gunshot wound and smirked at the pained grunt, “It’s better if you stay out of my way.”