Destructive Embrace (22 page)

“It is as I thought,” he said slowly.
“Reid is not dead.”

Elyssa’s gasp startled me, and I nearly
dropped Annibel, only barely managing to catch her as Wyatt glared
at me.

“He was placed in suspended animation.
Only, instead of using extreme cold, Tywin used a lot of magic to
keep his body alive. He was only going to use Annibel long enough
to heal Reid’s wounds so he could jump back into that body. That
and, to make you guys suffer, of course.”

“Oh, of course,” Dmitri said, rolling
his eyes. I told him to be quiet, and waited for Wyatt to
continue.

“Is there a way that we can reverse
this on our own?” I asked when he did not resume
speaking.

Wyatt ignored me, turning to look down
at Annibel with loving eyes. “Do not let her feel guilty about what
I have done,” he pleaded, leaning down to place a gentle kiss on
her temple. When he straightened his back once more to meet my
eyes, he was silently telling me goodbye.

“You,” Wyatt pointed at me. I jumped
but stepped closer until Zeke grabbed my arm.

“Don’t forget: Tywin is in there,” he
muttered. I nodded at him and faced Wyatt, who rolled his eyes at
Zeke’s words.

“You are Reid’s Mate, are you not?” he
asked me. I nodded, gripping Zeke’s hand tightly. “He is not dead.
Since my mind is stronger than that of our lowlife father, I retain
control of my body in this situation, so I can access his thoughts
with ease.”

Even though he had just finished
explaining the process behind suspended animation, I was stuck on
‘he is not dead’. A ball of hope burst into my chest, taking my
breath away. “What can I do to bring him back?” I asked eagerly. I
barely noticed as Zeke let go of my hand.

“His wound is great, but Tywin managed
to use some kind of spell to perform suspended animation on him. I
can reverse this, but Reid will certainly die; he will only survive
if he is able to have his wounds healed. I will not lift this spell
off of him unless you have a way to accomplish this,” Wyatt
said.

My mind couldn’t come up with a
solution, but a small pressure on my back made me turn. Zeke stared
at me, his expression soft. He took my hand and gently pulled me
toward his office.

“Elyssa, here,” he murmured, releasing
my hand. He bent behind his desk and produced a large jar full of a
reddish liquid. “This is a healing solution that I’ve created. I’m
not sure how much it will take to heal wounds like Reid has, but it
didn’t take too much to heal your wounds, if you
remember.”

My mind raced back to my first visit to
Zeke’s dungeon, where he’d tested his newest concoction on me. I
remembered my outrage at being his guinea pig…

A popping sound met my ears and I
looked at Zeke, who was uncorking two empty vials. He carefully
filled them both with the potion and re-corked them. “Just in case
you need more than one. Also, you should take a bottle or two of
the blood in the freezer out there. He’ll be needing nourishment,”
he told me.

I tried to look into his eyes to thank
him, but he refused to meet my gaze. “Thank you,” I whispered
before leaving the office. I did as he recommended and took two
bottles of chilled blood, and then ran from the dungeons without
looking back.

“Five minutes!” Wyatt called after me.
So I had five minutes to get the potions into Reid’s
body…

By the time I got to his room, I was
breathing heavily and my hands were shaking furiously. Somewhere in
the back of my mind, I felt bad that I’d never moved his body from
his room, but I focused instead on uncorking the vials and pouring
them, one by one, into Reid’s mouth.

Nothing was happening, but I figured I
had to give it a little more time to work.

When I’d just about given
up, tears stinging my eyes from the failure, Reid began to
stir.
First it was just a twitch of his
fingers. Then, his whole body lifted off the bed as he sucked in a
large lungful of air. His hands grasped at his chest like it was in
pain. I didn't know what to do, so I stood there, my hands
outstretched helplessly.

Reid's face contorted in
agony and his eyes were clamped shut. I wasn't sure that he even
knew I was there, so I kept silent during his recovery.

I was also stunned. It
worked. It had actually worked! Reid wasn't dead. I could almost do
flips, I was so happy. But I refrained, remembering that there were
a handful of reasons why I shouldn't be happy at the same
time.

Wyatt was going to die in
Annibel's place. Another brother was going to be taken – this time
permanently – from this family.

Also, I was pregnant, but
didn't know whose baby it was.

Then there was the death of
Roxann... Zeke's face was stuck in my mind.

After a few moments of
being lost in my thoughts, I realized that Reid had opened his
eyes. He was staring at me, his expression unreadable. I could see
something in his eyes, some unidentifiable emotion that was dying
to escape.

Finally, he sat up and
slowly raised himself so that he was standing, towering over me as
he always had.

"Here," I choked out. His
stare was strangling me, and I needed to get his eyes off of me.
"Blood," I held the bottles out to him. He didn't react to them for
a moment, still staring at me blankly. Suddenly, he snatched the
bottles out of my hands and sat down on his bed, which was still
stained by his blood. He downed the bottles quickly, never taking
his eyes off me.
So much for a
distraction,
I thought.

"Reid," I began, bringing
my hands up to play with the ends of my hair. I didn't know what
else to do. Reid sat there expectantly, waiting for me to finish
saying whatever I was going to say.

I didn't exactly know what
I was going to say, so I just remained silent, biting my bottom lip
as I stared down at my Mate, who had just returned to life. He
looked like hell. There was more blood covering him than there was
clean skin; it was matted in his hair, all over his front, and even
some in his ears – my guess was that it had pooled and the level
had risen, but I wasn't sure how it would have done that without
flowing over the edge of the bed.

"You look –"

"You aren't allowed to tell
me how I look, Elyssa Smith," Reid said coldly. I'd expected his
voice to be rough from disuse, but it was still as smooth as ever
as he stared at me.

What I'd seen in his eyes
was now mostly identifiable as anger, hate, hurt, betrayal... And a
few others that I couldn't place. His stare pinned me to my spot.
Reid lifted himself off the bed and stepped right into my body
space.

"You killed me," he hissed
darkly. The shadows of his bangs darkened his eyes and I swallowed
the lump of fear that had balled itself up in my throat.

"Rei–" I was cut off by his
hand wrapping around my throat, and began to sputter as I tried to
keep talking. I brought my hands up to his and tried to pry his
hand off my throat, but was unsuccessful as he grabbed my hands
harshly and gripped them until they hurt.

"I should kill you right
here, right now, in the same place that you killed me, for what you
did," he whispered into my ear. His cold breath sent a shudder down
my spine and I struggled to think. "Don't you think I deserve to
kill the woman who plunged a silver blade into my heart?" he asked
nonchalantly, moving his head back so that he could look into my
eyes.

I felt tears well up and
spill down over my lashes, and I managed to nod once in agreement.
"Ah, such a smart girl for agreeing with me," he
breathed.

He lifted me off the floor,
his fangs slowly descending so they were at their menacing full
length. The hand around my throat tightened as my feet left the
ground, and I fought to move my hands up so I could claw at his
arm.

"Stop. Struggling." he
ordered, rearranging his hold on my hands so that his large hand
encircled my wrists and squeezed to the point of pain; I worried
that they would shatter.

Reid lowered his mouth to
mine for a quick kiss before baring his fangs at me and moving his
face to hover over my shoulder. In the process, he placed me back
on my feet and released my hands so that he could grip my back.
There was no way I was getting away from him, I
realized.

Just as his fangs touched
my skin, his door burst open. Reid sprang away from me, shoving me
away from him as he moved. I hit the wall hard and hissed in pain.
Dmitri stood in the doorway, an unconscious Annibel hoisted over
his shoulder.

"Am I... Interrupting
something?" he asked, glancing back and forth between me and
Reid.

I shook my head
frantically, trying to breathe; Reid had put a lot of pressure on
my windpipe. Reid was smoothing down his stained clothes as he
started speaking. "Not at all, brother. Good to see you again. Why
is Wyatt's Mate with you?"

I left before Dmitri could
reply, excusing myself quietly as I tore from the room, back down
the stairs, and into the dungeons in time to see Zeke fall to the
floor.

"Take Annibel and go," Zeke
told me. He didn't look at me, and I knew that I wouldn't want to
see his face even if he did look at me.

The emotion in the air was
palpable and suffocating. I desperately wanted to stay there and
watch the demise of our father, but I knew that Zeke felt bad
enough about having to kill our brother. Add onto that the fact
that his fiancée was dead now, a result of our deranged
father.

"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.