Destructive Embrace (19 page)

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.

"You 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?

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, no 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.

“We could die in there,” I whispered,
placing my palm against her cheek. She leaned into my touch and
nodded. “I want you to promise me that, if something happens to
Dmitri or me, you will try your damnedest to escape and take our
child to safety.”

When she looked like she was about to
argue, I cut her off, as I was prone to doing since Reid’s death.
“Elyssa, please,” I begged, holding her face in between both of my
hands now. “I need to know that if I meet my demise, you will take
our baby away and raise him without me.”

Tears shining in her eyes, she nodded.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was feeling or what was
going through her head. I wondered if my request was difficult for
her to acquiesce, but couldn’t bear to dwell on it.

After all, if she didn’t get away,
there would be no child to take care of…

“One last thing,” I paused. “If we
live, I’m going to stop making things hard on you… I know that I go
back and forth, and that must wreak havoc on your feelings. I will
just be your brother-in-law after this… The uncle to your
child.”

Her jaw dropped as she began to speak,
but I pressed my mouth to hers one final time.

“Just one more kiss,” I whispered into
her mouth, delving my fingers into the roots of her hair at the
nape of her neck.

“It’s been two minutes!” Dmitri shouted
from down the hall.

Elyssa pulled away from me as though
she’d been burned, brushing her fingertips across her lips. Her
expression was one of acceptance, and I trusted that she would not
fight me on my decision to leave her be.