Destructive Embrace (3 page)

She growled at me and I
took a stance that would allow me to catch her if she charged at me
again. "Bring it on, girly," I taunted. She hissed before launching
herself at me once more. Her form was sloppy, and I grabbed her by
the shoulders and tossed her off to the side easily.

"Let's go outside if you
want to try your hand at fighting me, Elyssa," I told her,
straightening my posture. "I would really like to not owe Zeke for
broken items in his section of the castle." I reminded myself that
we were, in fact, in Zeke's portion of the castle, and set the
thought aside for after my little spar with Elyssa. There was no
way I planned to let her get away with staying in Zeke's area of
the castle without finding out why.

"Fine," Elyssa said,
jumping to her feet. She sounded eager, but the light in her eyes
was still gone. She was interested merely because it would be a way
to hone her skills. I sighed quietly and we began the trek upstairs
and out into the barest part of the gardens.

As soon as we arrived, she
tried to launch a surprise attack on me, but I dodged neatly,
toppling to the ground. "Your form is poor, Elyssa," I told her, my
tone even. I wanted to get her mad and lay her flat on her back
when she really messed up an attack. It was unfair, really,
fighting a novice when one was as experienced as I. But she was the
one who drove the dagger through Reid's heart. She deserved
whatever pain – regardless of the fact that it would be temporary –
I would inflict on her.

She screamed in frustration
as she rose from the ground, covered in dirt. I laughed at her
appearance – she was thoroughly ruffled, with dirt smeared across
her face and body – and saw the anger flash through her eyes. "Stop
laughing at me," she demanded with a snarl. I raised my volume,
pressing my hand against my stomach as I pretended to be overcome
by the laughter coming from my lips.

Elyssa tackled me before I
could stop her, pinning me down as she snapped at me multiple
times. Her fangs had dropped, and I observed her movements. It
would have been too easy for me to overturn this situation, but
when she was back to normal, I would take her in as a student. She
needed training and bad. The only way I would be able to give her
guidance would be to study her movements and her trouble
areas.

When I tired of keeping her
snapping jaws away from my neck – I had no doubt that she would rip
my throat out if she got the chance – I kicked her off me, sending
her sprawling on her back. I rose to my feet, grimacing because
dirt was all over the nice outfit I'd worn out to the bar. "Damn
you," I muttered, advancing on her as soon as she was back on her
feet.

I darted my hand out to
grab her by the throat and lifted her off the ground. Her mistake
here was clawing at my hand to make me release her. Vampires didn't
need to breathe, so she should have just resumed attacking me from
a closer range until I let her go. Instead she left long, deep
scratches on my arm in her frenzy make me release her. I held on,
using my other arm to throw out dummy punches at her side and
stomach.

When I released her, she
just stood there, looking up at me with that same dead expression.
"How did you become so good at fighting?" she asked. I rolled my
eyes.

"Elyssa, I have had over
three hundred years to learn how to fight. It comes in handy to
know how to defend myself. While we do have enhanced strength,
there may come a time where we will wind up fighting another of our
kind, which means we will need to know how to use our enhanced
abilities. Otherwise, we're just like children. Albeit, very strong
children," I chuckled. "But still children. Untamed and rather
sloppy." I patted her on the head. "It's okay, kid. I'll train you
properly." She growled at me and shook my hand off her
head.

There was nothing for me to
do. I thought I'd heard some noise earlier in the evening outside
my doors, but hadn't felt particularly compelled to investigate.
After all, if there was someone outside my door trying to talk with
me, they should have knocked or barged in.

The sun was beginning to
rise, and it irritated my eyes as I wandered through the hallways.
The windows were large and let in an annoying amount of the
sunlight. I'd gotten no sleep, and my thoughts about Reid hadn't
let me relax even in my lonely time awake. Why was I wandering the
hallways? There was nowhere in the castle that I had yet to visit,
since I'd been living there my whole life, so there wasn't going to
be anything new just from roaming the halls. Or maybe there was, I
decided.

I'd never been awake so
early – lower rank vampires couldn't stand the sunlight, and its
brightness was downright annoying for Master-rank vampires and
their fledglings – so the light flooding the hallways was different
to me... But I soon grew bored of it.

"Maybe I'll leave the
castle for a while," I murmured to myself. A set of footsteps met
my ears and I turned in their direction. It took a few moments for
the owner of the footfalls to step into my line of sight, but when
she did, she froze. I stared at her, blinking rapidly.

"What are you still doing
here?" I asked Roxann, frowning. "I thought you would take your
chance to leave as soon as Reid –" his name made my chest ache "–
saved you from me." She stared back at me warily and I rolled my
eyes. "If I wanted to hurt you, you should know that it would be
all too easy for me. Please relax, Roxann. There's nothing that I
want from you right now. I'm a bit troubled by my own issues,
thanks."

Roxann looked surprised. I
fought to keep my expression from mimicking hers. Why the hell had
I opened up to
her
, a lowly human? I was about to take it back, to tell her
that I may change my mind and beat her for the hell of it if she
didn't get out of my face soon, but she spoke.

"What's wrong?" Her voice
was throaty, like she was either a smoker or often had to raise her
voice. I didn't care which; it was a pleasant sound.

I looked away, staring out
the nearest window at the island below. It was a cloudless day, a
perfect one for if I felt like getting off the island, actually.
"My brother Reid is dead," I told her. I knew my tone and
expression were both dead, and Roxann's gasp made me look up at
her, startled. There were tears in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry," she said.
The sincerity in her voice was new to me – I was too used to liars
and backstabbers – and I didn't know how to respond to her
condolences, so I nodded once, murmuring a thank you.

Slowly, the human woman
moved toward me until she stood right before me. She wound her arms
around my shoulders. I nearly shoved her away to ask what she was
scheming, but realized that she was trembling. The damn human was
terrified, yet she was still trying to comfort
me
? How unusual. I slowly wrapped my
arms around her and squeezed her.

She was fragile, unlike
Elyssa, so I put my strength in check as we embraced. The warmth of
her body was nice, and I sighed. To think a human's touch could
relax me so quickly... It was unusual, to say the least. I wondered
if I was sick.

Roxann pulled away after a
few minutes, and smiled up at me tentatively. I let my arms drop to
my sides, and she bit down on her lip. "Why do you look like you
feel responsible?" she asked. The tears had dissolved. She wasn't
prying so much as she was genuinely curious about my thoughts, so I
answered her.

"I
am
responsible," I told her, laughing
darkly. She frowned. Before she could ask what I meant, I rushed
on. "I was the one who convinced Elyssa that it was the way to help
Reid, to set him free."

"But did you actually kill
him?" Roxann persisted. I frowned at her. So what if I hadn't
driven the dagger through Reid's heart with my own two hands. I was
the one who told Elyssa that it would be best.

"No, but you're missing the
point, I'm afraid," I told her, pinching the bridge of my nose
between my thumb and forefinger. A headache was brewing. Probably
because of the sun. Or maybe it was because I was talking about
something that I wasn't ready to talk about yet.

Roxann laughed, and my
heart stuttered; such a beautiful sound... "I think you're the one
who is missing the point," she told me, turning on the spot. "But
I'll let you think what you want." With that, she began to walk
away, and I found myself reaching out to grab her arm.

The trembles had ceased,
but as soon as I touched her, she wheeled around, fear evident in
her eyes. I flinched, pulling my hand back. "Sorry," I muttered.
"I'm such a damn monster," I said under my breath. Roxann leaned
forward to hear, but appeared confused.

"What did you say?" she
asked softly. Her voice warbled, and I grimaced. "I didn't quite
hear you," she said.

"I said that I'm a
monster," I told her unflinchingly. She winced and I shrugged.
"It's the truth. I've managed to mess everything up because of my
hobbies or my tendencies. Even trying to be nice to you isn't
working out so well," I laughed darkly. "I'm a damn
monster."

She shook her head, brown
eyes shining with unshed tears once more. "Oh, no. I'm sorry to
make you feel that way..." She didn't say anything else, so I
chuckled.

"It's just the truth,
Roxann. You can't even say that it isn't, so it's fine to just
admit it." I was lying, though. If she came out and said I was a
monster, I didn't know what I would do. She watched me silently for
a few minutes, chewing thoughtfully on her bottom lip. Finally, she
opened her mouth to speak.

"You aren't a monster,
Zeke. You didn't kill your brother. Regardless of your... Hobbies,"
she flinched. "You didn't murder your own family member. So you
aren't a monster."

Funny. By her standards,
Dmitri was a monster and I wasn't. "I may not have slain my kin,
but I do torture them from time to time," I bit out. I wouldn't let
her convince me that I wasn't a monster. I had to hate myself; I
deserved nothing less than self-hatred for my actions toward Reid,
Dmitri, and Elyssa.

Elyssa...

Before I could let my
thoughts travel down
that
path, Roxann scoffed and crossed her arms over
her chest as she stared up at me with a glare. "Bullshit," she
said, leaving it at that as she turned around and walked away. This
time I let her. The problem with that was that I no longer had
anything to distract me from thinking about Elyssa.

I wondered what she was
doing and how she was feeling. I laughed at myself as I turned
toward the window. Certainly she wasn't feeling much better than I
was. But there was no way I was going to go find out. I needed to
leave her alone, to not betray my dead brother by pursuing his
Mate.

The words I'd said to her
in my dungeons rang through my head and I nearly beat my head
against the wall in frustration. I didn't need to constantly be
reminded that I'd told my brother's Mate that I loved her. Nothing
was worse than that, except maybe killing one's family
member.

Check that off the
list.

Noise from outside met my
ears and I looked down at the grounds, curious as to who was up
this early. I saw Dmitri, who appeared to be training. But he
wasn't alone. Elyssa was sparring with him. "She's learning how to
fight?" I whispered, setting one hand against the window as I
leaned forward for a better view.

She wasn't bad. Her form
was sloppy, and I wondered how long they'd been outside working on
it, but for a novice – which she so obviously was – it wasn't
horrible form.

Part of me longed to rush
downstairs and join in the training, but I knew that would ruin
everything. I was barely holding myself together as it
was.

Elyssa, however, appeared
fine. Whether all was as it seemed or she was very good at hiding
her problems, I wasn't sure. I wondered if Dmitri knew. Did he know
that Elyssa had driven her silver Kodachi into the heart of our
little brother, or was he training with someone who hadn't shared
the truth with him?

The more sinister part of
me wanted to go downstairs and wreak havoc – a far cry from my
previous longing to join in the fun – but I held myself
back.

If Elyssa was suffering, I
didn't really want to hurt her more. It was already my fault that
she was in pain, since I
was
the one who had convinced her that stabbing Reid
– taking his life – would free him from Tywin's hold.

Tywin. That bastard. I
hoped that he was gone for real this time. I wasn't sure what I
would do if he somehow managed to revive himself again. Knowing the
old man...

"It's not an
impossibility," I muttered. My eyes followed Elyssa's movements as
she trained with Dmitri. He was showing her the basics of blocking
and attacking. Watching her defend herself from Dmitri – who was
most certainly holding back anyway – was amusing and made me
smile.

I turned from the window
and began walking through the halls again, peering out each window
as I passed it to catch glimpses of Elyssa again. I reached the
stairwell and went down a floor so that I could see better. It was
relaxing to watch them train, to have nothing clouding my mind as I
watched her throw herself into learning the techniques that Dmitri
was showing her.