Unclaimed(10)

“Lady Zari? Is everything all right?”

I forced myself to nod. “Let’s not wait for them,” I muttered. “They know where to meet us.” I started walking, not bothering to wait for him.

Faster and faster I walked, trying to outrun the guilt, but it was impossible. It dogged my footsteps, and its weight grew heavier on my shoulders as we neared the hospital where I had the vision.

I shouldn’t be doing this alone. Master should be with me, but where was he now? Back with his trollop, the woman who had left him first. Why couldn’t he understand that I was the better choice?

The hospital loomed before me, decrepit and abandoned still, but now I saw it with new eyes.

No one would know if I did it here.

No one—

STOP IT, ZARI, STOP IT!

I covered my ears and closed my eyes, willing everything to be blank.

“Lady Zari?” Erou demanded.

But no one would know if you did do it here. You’re a good girl. Everyone knows you’re a good girl. Why won’t you just do it and end your problems?

I shook my head wildly. Why was I thinking such thoughts? Why?

“Zari?” But the voice didn’t belong to Erou this time.

It was Alexandru.

My eyes flew open.

I almost cried out in relief until I saw her.

Jealousy, vindictive, murderous, evil, screamed inside of me like a banshee.

I knew then that the visions were true.

I will kill Katarina, sooner or later, and then it would be over for all of us.

I had to be free of Alexandru. I had to make sure I never saw him and Katarina together, and I prayed that it would be enough to stop this poisonous feeling inside of me from spreading.

My decision made, there was only one thing left for me to do.

Spinning around, I threw myself at Erou and kissed him.





Chapter Six





ALEXANDRU AND ZARI





The worst things in life always seemed to happen in slow motion. He had learned this in the hundreds of years he had spent hunting down outlaws and seeing comrades fall in battle, often without warning.

None, however, had been as excruciatingly slow and so agonizingly painful as seeing his pet suddenly fling herself into another man’s arms and place lips that should have only been his on another man’s mouth.

“NO!” Alexandru did not hesitate. In the blink of an eye, he was there, throwing the younger man aside. Erou flew through the air, landing over a dozen feet away, his back hitting the second floor window of the hospital before crashing back to the ground.

If he had been human, he would have been dead.

Fury iced his veins, threatening to unleash the demon side of him that Alexandru always kept chained. With a curse, he turned his back on Erou. He dared not spare the other man a glance, and that alone was already an act of mercy. If he took another look at the baby vampire, Alexandru knew he would end up killing Erou Damaschin.

His head snapped towards Zari. “Why did you do it?”

He was angry, Zari realized shakily. But under the rage, she saw something else – pain. Her heart broke at the sight of it, but she knew this was how it should be. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she ended up killing Katarina just because she couldn’t stand the thought that Alexandru didn’t love her.

“I want to be free—”

He whitened. A second later, and he had her in his arms, his mouth covering hers, his lips swallowing the rest of what she had to say. Kissing her hard, he snarled in her mind, Never. I will never let you be free of me.

She tried to struggle away, tried to wrench her mouth from his, but it was no use, Alexandru no longer bothering to temper his strength even the slightest bit. She opened her mouth to scream, but he only used it to drive his tongue inside, further deepening the kiss.

Only when she gasped for breath did he lift his mouth. But he didn’t let her go, his arm even tightening around her waist as, without taking his gaze off her, Alexandru commanded, “Leave.”

He didn’t turn around to ensure that his order was obeyed. It was already a foregone conclusion because with the mood he was in, only the world’s greatest fool would have dared disobey him.

Zari couldn’t believe it. “Lord Erou!” she screamed.

But Erou had already started walking away, and the other enforcers trailed behind him.

Her head snapped towards Lady Katarina, and she couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw that the other woman was also walking away. “Don’t you want him back?” she shrieked.

“Enough.” Alexandru’s harsh voice had her head snapping towards him, and Zari gasped when she saw the lust glittering in his eyes.

“I should have done this the moment you started pushing me away,” Alexandru rasped.

Her eyes widened, her Master’s words the only warning she was given before he sank his fingers into her hair, gripping her in place before his mouth slammed down on hers again. She gasped into his kiss, stunned at the speed in which her body betrayed her. She had been wet the moment she felt his touch, but now she was soaking, the wetness even dripping down her legs.