Destructive Embrace Read online

  More tears stung my eyes and I swiped at them furiously. I wanted to be alone. But maybe Ollie was right – maybe that wasn't what I needed. But there was no one I could visit.

  An image of Reid's body entered my mind. He was lying on his bed. His expression was peaceful, like he was just sleeping... If it weren't for the blood everywhere, and the obvious wound in his chest, I would have assumed that he died naturally. Even vampires could die in their sleep if they were old enough.

  I wondered who had stabbed him in the heart. Who had the cowardice to do such a thing to him? I thought back to the problems that were going on around the castle. Tywin had possessed Reid's body and had been wreaking havoc on his life for who knew how long. It was despicable... Maybe stabbing him was to put him out of his misery?

  The mess that Elyssa was in. Her hair caked with blood... It was Reid's blood. Did that mean Elyssa had been the one to drive the blade into Reid's heart? I couldn't imagine that. She loved him so much...

  I sighed. I was getting nowhere in my lonely musing. I needed to get out of the castle, to go somewhere else. But where?

  I hadn't had fresh blood in a long time. It was always the bottled blood that we had at the castle. Donated blood from vampire-obsessed humans who desperately craved the lifestyle we had. I didn't like feeding on humans, for the simple fact that it was messy and one had to be certain that they didn't leave behind any memory of the action.

  That, or just kill them.

  The memory of fresh human blood entered my mind, and my body craved it. My throat burned with longing at the memory or the taste.

  So I headed out into town, to a bar where I could find a human to feed on.

  The trip was uneventful, everything going according to plan. My first hunting trip in fifty years, and it was perfect. I might have considered it to be boring, but with the things going on back at the castle, having at least one thing go off without a hitch was good.

  It was nearly dawn when I returned to the castle. The silence was stifling, so I headed to Reid’s section of the castle, ignoring the painful twinge I got, in search of Elyssa.

  After searching the whole area, I cursed. Where the hell was she, if she wasn’t there? Could she have moved into my area? Or Wyatt’s?

  I frowned. “Or Zeke’s?” I asked aloud. There was no way. He’d beaten her. She hated him – didn’t she?

  She had to hate him. There wasn't really another answer that was plausible. If Elyssa didn't hate Zeke – who'd drugged her on her first night here, along with beating her later down the road – then she was crazy. So when I stepped into the main hall and caught a whiff of her scent leading down the hallway beneath the stairs, I shook my head. Elyssa was crazy, for sure.

  I followed her scent to the room she chose, and knocked once. I heard grumbling on the other side of the door and chuckled quietly. Still the same old grumpy Elyssa. When she threw the door open, eyes fixed in a dangerous glare, the laughter fell from my face. She looked more vampiric than I'd ever seen her.

  "Elyssa," I said quietly. She lifted her eyebrows and made a motion with her hands for me to get on with it. I frowned. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

  "Absolutely nothing, Dmitri," she trilled, turning on the spot to traipse over to her bed. The springs groaned as she sat down, and I followed her into the room, glad that I'd fed on fresh blood. If it was what it looked like, and Elyssa had released her emotions to become a true vampire, then she might not have any qualms about attacking me, and I would need my strength to fight her off without hurting her seriously.

  "Then why are you acting like this?" I asked, knowing the answer already. Elyssa shrugged, flipping her hair over her shoulders. I noticed that she'd washed up and wasn't covered in Reid's blood anymore, which reminded me of why I was there.

  Before I could speak my mind, Elyssa spoke. "Maybe I'm acting like this because you came knocking at my door at the crack of dawn and it's annoying?" Her tone was sarcastic and a playful smirk touched the corner of her mouth. Her smile was alluring…

  Great. She was a flirty vampire.

  Shaking my head free of her nice little smile, I asked, "Who exactly killed Reid?" The question made her snap her eyes up to mine, and all signs of a smile – of her pleasant attitude, even – disappeared. I braced myself for a possible attack from her.

  "I did," she said. Her tone was dead, like she didn't care that she'd been the one to end my brother, her Mate. It only confirmed my theory that she'd turned her emotions off in favor of being a true vampire. It only served to piss me off, though.

  "Do you even care that you're the one who ended Reid's life?" I asked harshly. "That you took your silver Kodachi and drove it into his heart?"

  "I ended his suffering, thank you very much!" Elyssa snapped, jumping to her feet to stand before me. She was over a head shorter than me, so I turned my head downward to meet her gaze. "Tywin was ruining his life and making him a prisoner in his own damn body, so I ended that. I set Reid free."

  I shook my head. "Who made you believe that?" I asked bitterly. "Did Zeke tell you it would be better for Reid that way? Was this just cooperation between you two? What's in it for Zeke, huh? His family just lost one of the Master-rank vampires, so that isn't good. So what is he getting out of this?"

  I should have stopped, I knew it. But something urged me on, and I kept talking. "Is he getting you?" The disgust on Elyssa's face made me smirk, and I sighed. "Oh, Elyssa. How could you have been so easily swayed by Zeke? He isn't that good looking," I teased.

  Before I could continue my stupidity, Elyssa rammed her body into mine, sending me flying backward. I hit the stone wall of the hallway with a painful cracking sound, and hissed. "You bitch," I coughed out. "How dare you?"

  Her anger was almost tangible, even across the room and hallway. Elyssa's chest heaved as she breathed heavily, and her glare was fierce. Truly, she looked like a vampire. I brought myself to my feet, groaning as the few broken ribs I'd earned from the attack set themselves once more. "Good hit," I grunted.

  This seemed to catch her off guard, and she straightened her posture, regarding me with an expression of curiosity and wariness. Her green eyes were darkened with suspicion. "Why are you complimenting that?" she asked me quietly. "I just hurt you."

  I lifted my shoulders in a shrug and, brushing my clothes off, began to walk back toward her. "Not only did I deserve that hit," I began with a grin, "but that was a very good hit, for someone who doesn't really know how to fight." She scowled at me then, and I chuckled. "Admit it. You don't know how to fight. If you did, you would always have your weapons on you. There's a general rule about not letting your guard down and having your weapons on you at all times. Otherwise, you'd better know how to fight hand-to-hand. Which," I added, preparing myself to dodge another attack, "you don't know how to do."

  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 a
ttack. 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.

  Zeke

  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 mon
ster 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?