Destructive Embrace (9 page)

I glanced up at Dmitri. His face was
hard. I paused, frowning. “Oh, right,” he muttered coldly. “Because
you can’t imagine why anyone would stay here.” He began to walk
away, but I grabbed him by the arm and hauled him to a
stop.

“
I didn’t
mean it that way, Dmitri,” I said. He moved to tug his arm away,
but I duh my heels in and held on tight.
“
No
,” I
said sternly. He glared down at me fiercely. “Annibel told me
herself that she desperately wanted out. My reason for wanting to
leave is different, you know that…”

He sighed and nodded. “I know,” he
whispered. His voice told me how much pain he was in talking about
it, so I released his arm and hugged him tight. He wrapped his arms
around me and squeezed.

A few minutes later we were at the
training grounds, preparing for my first official fighting lesson.
I knew my hair would get in my way, but tying it up meant revealing
the bite wounds on my neck from my time with Zeke.

I absolutely cannot do
that
, I thought, biting my lip.

Dmitri looked at me oddly, holding back
a smile. “If you don’t out your hair up, I won’t be able to resist
using it against you,” he chuckled, stepping closer. I tensed when
he played with the ends of my hair, worried that he would move it
out of the way.

“
I uh,
don’t have any ties,” I stuttered breathlessly. “And I would need
two, if I want to be comfortable sparring.” It wasn’t necessarily
the truth, but it I didn’t feel like having my hair used against
me, it was going to be going into two low ponytails, one on each
side.
That way the marks are
covered… Damn Zeke and his potions!

Dmitri patted his pockets and shrugged.
“Sorry. Don’t even have one. Guess I’ll have to try my damnedest to
not use that long hair against you,” he said, grinning.

Making a face at him, I pushed him
away. “Like you need even more of an advantage right now?” I asked.
He seemed to think about that for a moment before nodding
energetically. I scowled at him.

“
What?” he asked, laughing.
“You’re the one who said it. I just agreed.” I sighed; there was
just no winning with him. “Anyway, let’s get started?”

I nodded, and then checked to make sure
my new set of blades were on properly before looking back to
Dmitri. I froze as he lifted his shirt off over his head, tossing
it off to the side before strapping the long sword onto his back.
From the front, you couldn’t even tell that he had horrible
scarring from Zeke using silver-tipped whips on him.

Before my thoughts could run away from
me and lead me down a dark path, I refocused myself on what was
about to happen. Learning how to fight. Training so I wouldn’t ever
forget my blades again. Being able to properly defend myself.
Starting now.

I heard the air whooshing around his
body before I could look up in time to see him. Automatically, I
dove out of the way. The ground met me unpleasantly, making my
shoulder ache as I collided with the hard surface. As I rolled over
to haul myself up, a blow to my ribs knocked the breath out of me.
A sick crunching sound accompanied the fierce pain.

I folded one arm over my side, hugging
myself tight as I fought to breathe through the pain. I was used to
pain – Zeke’s beatings weren’t exactly walks in the park – but
suddenly having broken bones was different.

Dmitri allowed me the time that I
needed to recover. He stood off to the side silently, eyes trained
steadily on me. When I was able to stand upright without bracing
myself with my arm, he moved to stand beside me.

“
I’m sorry,” he said
quietly. I knew he meant it, so I nodded. “In my experience, people
learn best when they’ve had a taste of what could happen to them in
a real fight. It shows them something they don’t want to feel
again. You understand?” I nodded again, lifting my hand to wipe
sweat off my forehead. I moved slowly, my breath hitching as waves
of pain rolled through me; the potion was preventing my broken
bones from healing as fast as they could, and it hurt to lift my
arm.

“
I think I can deal with
it,” I told him. He pushed some hair out of my face and froze. My
body went cold in the instant I realized that he’d seen the
marks.

“
Elyssa.” His voice sent
chills down my spine. I made a move to get away from him, but he
slipped one hand into my hair, gripping by the roots. He jerked my
head to one side. I held in a yelp of pain, but winced when Dmitri
touched one of the marks.

“
Why did that bastard bite
you?” he demanded, a feral growl ripping out of his mouth at the
end of the sentence.

Part of me wanted to tell him to mind
his own business, that whatever went on with Zeke was my problem,
but I knew he wouldn’t let it go. I couldn’t very well reveal my
shame and tell him what had happened, either. But another part of
me desperately wanted to defend Zeke; he was in pain like the rest
of us were, wasn’t he?

“
I-I don’t know,” I told
Dmitri. My voice had hardly any volume, so I cleared my throat.
“But I was embarrassed by them, so I hid them…” He nodded
impatiently and I thought of what else to say.

Oh, and the reason I’m
embarrassed by them is because he bit me while I was moaning in
pleasure,
I thought sarcastically.
That’ll go over real well, I’m sure.

“
Don’t do anything stupid,
Dmitri,” I said. He released me with a scoff. “I’m serious. He
isn’t in a good place right now. Everything that happened with Reid
and Tywin took a huge toll on him.”

My friend looked at me, a disbelieving
expression on his face. “Zeke has never been in his right mind,
Elyssa. Why would Reid’s death make any difference to
him?”

“
He feels like he should
have been able to save him!” I blurted, taking a few steps away
from Dmitri. I covered my mouth with one hand, breathing heavily
while I ran my other hand through my hair. “I mean,” I spoke
through gritted teeth, the pain of my ribs still kicking me, “he
thinks he failed his family for not being able to save
Reid…”

Dmitri shook his head. “He’ll go into
an emotional dead zone over Reid, but not care that he beat me
senseless for the death of our mother, a death I wasn’t responsible
for? Lovely.”

"You know Zeke," I
muttered with a sigh. I wrapped my arms around Dmitri's waist
loosely, gasping in pain when he hugged me back. "He goes off of
whatever evidence his tiny little mind conjures up. In his mind,
you murdered your mother. Until someone else comes forth to tell
him otherwise, to say that
they
did it, he will always believe that you were her
killer." My words were breathy from the pain, and the feel of sweat
coating my face made me grimace.

He sighed and released me,
brushing my hair out of my face. "Yes, I know. It just isn't
right," he whispered. His voice was thick with emotion, and I
wanted to distract him, but couldn't think of anything that would
accomplish that task. Before I had the chance to say anything at
all, his face cleared up and he began to lift my shirt
up.

I didn't know what he was
trying to do, but trying to take my shirt off was definitely a bad
move. "Dmitri!" I shrieked, shoving him away from me. I could feel
the blush on my face and knew that my eyes must have been as big as
saucers. "What the hell are you doing?!"

The vampire looked
startled. Suddenly he began to laugh, and I glared daggers at him.
"Calm yourself, Elyssa. I want to look at your ribs. You really are
taking too long to heal from these wounds and the marks that Zeke
gave you should have been gone already as well. How much of his
potion did he feed you?"

I found that I couldn't
recall the amount and hoped that the additional heat on my face
didn't intensify the color that my cheeks were sure to be. Every
time my mind wandered to the latest dungeon session, it conjured up
images of Zeke's body, hovering over mine as he drove into me with
his –

I quickly expelled myself
from that recollection, coughing a few times to clear my head. "I'm
not exactly sure," I said, shrugging. "Hopefully it doesn't take
too much longer, though... Unless there is something that we can do
in the meanwhile to counteract the potion?"

Dmitri shook his head.
"Usually Zeke's potions are very careful, and cannot be countered
with anything else in order to reverse their effects. Although, I
suppose that having blood in your system would help you. How long
has it been since you've last fed?"

This time, I knew that my
embarrassment showed even more. I chuckled nervously. "I can't
remember?" I said weakly. Dmitri glared at me and I shrugged. "What
can I say? It just doesn't appeal to me right now... Feeding off of
someone else? Yuck."

Sighing, he moved toward
me. When he was within hugging range again, he lifted his wrist to
his mouth and bit down hard. Quickly, blood flowed to the surface
and as I opened my mouth to ask what the hell he was doing, he
pressed the bleeding appendage to my mouth and held the back of my
head with his other hand. I fought against him, but had no choice
but to drink what flowed into my mouth.

"Sorry, Elyssa," Dmitri
said cheerfully; the bastard wasn't the least bit apologetic. "But
my blood is regenerative – everyone in the Lanistter family has
blood with regenerative properties – and I figured that even if you
couldn't heal properly on your own, having blood in your system
would speed it up. Especially blood such as mine."

I glared at him and he
released my head, leaving me to swipe at some stray droplets of
blood that had pooled around my mouth. "You could have just told
me. It's not quite the same as the idea of hunting, you know." I
wondered what I looked like then. I knew there was dirt all over
me, and now there was blood on my face and hands. Count in the bite
wounds and how ugly my ribs must have looked, I would have bet
everything I owned that I looked like a wreck.

"You should probably go get
cleaned up now," he said, reading my mind. He was coughing behind
his hand to hide his laughter. I glared at him again and shoved him
away from me, grimacing at the pain again. Not healing fast was
getting old quickly. "Come on, I'll help you down to your
room."

He carefully slung one arm
around my waist and as we walked I leaned against him, my arm
braced against his shoulder for support. "Thanks," I
mumbled.

We arrived at the main hall
after a few minutes and I dreaded going down the many stairs to the
room I'd chosen, but then realized that it would be infinitely
harder for me to go upstairs at the time, so I was glad that I'd
relocated to Zeke's area.

Dmitri walked me to my room
and I let myself in. He left me, saying he would be right back. I
had a bad feeling that he was going to go give Zeke a piece of his
mind, but couldn't do anything about it since he had already taken
off. Instead, I made myself comfortable on my bed, propped up
against the headboard with one pillow at the small of my back. I
lifted my shirt up so that it was folded over my breasts and
revealed my ribs and stomach.

Drinking Dmitri's blood had
already begun to work, I realized when my prodding at the vicious
purple bruise only produced a little pain. Before my eyes, I
watched the bruise change color, adopting a reddish hue as it
healed more. "I'll be damned," I muttered just as the door
opened.

"Jesus, Elyssa. And you
yelled at me for lifting your shirt up when you're trying to flash
me?" Dmitri asked, grinning widely at me. I hurled one of my other
pillows at his head, squealing when my ribs ached in protest. He
caught it as he had the last time I threw something at him, and
tossed it onto the bed. I'd anticipated him throwing it back at me
and had tensed up, which made my body hurt even more.

"Well, my brother wasn't in
his bedroom, but I heard noises coming from his dungeons, so I let
myself in. I found his backup stash of potions. He had a spare vial
of his numbing shit there, so this should at least make it to where
you won't have to feel it. Although, from the looks of it," he
paused, brushing his fingertips around the edges of the bruise,
"you're already healing nicely thanks to my blood. I suppose you
won't be needing th–"

I snatched the bottle from
his hand with a sweet smile before downing the disgustingly thick
solution. "While I thank you for the blood, I would really like to
not have to deal with the pain of my shattered ribs, thank
you."

We sat there in silence for
a few moments. It was broken when Dmitri reached his hand out to
shove my hair aside again, this time without hurting me. "These are
healing up nicely as well. I'm surprised he was able to even bite
you, to be honest," he muttered.

I frowned. "You look
confused. What has that expression on your face?" I asked, wincing
as his fingernail caught a little on the edge of one of the prick
marks on my neck.

"Well, you're Reid's Mate,"
he began. A beat of quiet followed, a moment of silence for my dead
Mate. "No one else should be able to lay their fangs on you. I
never did fully understand how that was supposed to work, though,
so maybe I'm mistaken."