• 𝓜𝓪𝓮 •

After Noah left, I knew he'd go straight to Kite and tell him that I was planning on killing Zero. It wasn't like I wanted to keep it a secret, so he could go on ahead. Maybe then Kite would realize I knew he reneged on our deal. He would drink my blood, And Zero would stay away from the kids.

Burn the world down to find me? I'd burn him. He had no idea what kind of person I was.

Ever since my parents died, I had this odd feeling in my chest. It was like a dull ache, and my therapist had told me that it was grief. I was missing my parents.

Of fucking course I missed my parents. Every moment between my finding out they were killed and me being able to see them one last time was like torture. I shouldn't have had to bury my parents at such a young age. I shouldn't have had to be put in foster care because no other family wanted the black sheep's kid.

But that feeling grew, and I knew my therapist had been wrong. Sure, I grieved them. But that moment I found out what had happened, I was filled with so much rage that I didn't even know what to do with it.

I had so, so many years of pent up rage.

I moved foster homes too often. My foster parents would wake up and find holes in the walls from when I let that rage slip momentarily. They said I wasn't sane, or safe, and they didn't want me near them or their family.

Noah had made me forget the anger for a while. Whenever I was with him - or Luca before he left - I let go of that feeling for a while. Forgot about why it was that I was so pissed off to begin with.

Zero had done so much to me in the years I'd been in the city. All just to watch that little bit of darkness in me rise to the surface so he could bask in it.

Zero took too many people from me. Not just Noah and the kids. There were so many more.

I blew out a breath and fell back on the bed, annoyed that it was more comfortable than anything I'd ever slept on. The mattress dipped ever so slightly, moving to cover my curves.

He liked me angry. He liked me sad. He enjoyed any negative emotion he could bring up in me like he was an incubus and my feelings were his sex. I genuinely believed the man got off on it.

Closing my eyes, I let myself relax into the mattress, trying my damndest to ignore the budding anger towards Zero for what he did to Noah. I'd need that anger eventually, but not now. I had so many things I needed to do before I was able to kill him. Including, but not limited to, figuring out a way to get Kite on my side versus Zero.

As far as I knew, he and Zero were close. That was the only reason why I believed Kite was capable of keeping Zero away from the kids, and the only reason why I practically sold myself to him. A lot of good that did me.

Sleep didn't come easily to me that night. And when it did? Well, I wished it hadn't.

Zero grinned at me, his hand stretched out. "Come on. I'll show you."

I took Zero's hand without question, following him as he dragged me down the street. I trusted him. Of course I did. He never gave me a reason to not trust him. I'd been iffy about the vampires when I first arrived, but after some time I realized that not all of them were as bad as Titus or the men who took Noah and I out of our foster home.

Zero was my friend.

He said that he had something fun to show me. That he started up on a new hobby that he really enjoyed and hoped I would enjoy it too.

He led me to a dark corner of the city and released my hand. He held his hands out to his sides, smiling widely. I should have known something was wrong. It took me too long to realize it though.

Someone was hogtied, a blindfold over their eyes and thick gray duct tape covering their mouth. They weren't struggling, but the blood covering the rope around their wrists and ankles told me they had been fighting the bindings pretty hard before.

I swallowed and looked at Zero, two things clicking into place at once. The first, the guy on the ground was the person I'd lost my virginity to only weeks before. The second, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Zero brought me here to make me watch him kill him.

I didn't ask why. I didn't tell him not to, because the look in his eyes was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Zero had always been kind, and a part of my brain couldn't believe he'd do something like this.

He'd joked once that he wanted me to save myself for him. That he'd wait until I was of age, and I'd be his. At least, I thought it was a joke.

That was the night I realized that Zero wasn't the person he made himself out to be. The Zero I knew was kind, friendly, and humorous. This Zero?

He was terrifying.

When Zero killed Tay, I was frozen to the spot. My mind screamed at me to run, to get help. But my feet remained planted in their spot, my eyes wide and full of horror as he mutilated the boy. He was still crying with his organs splayed across the grass, up until Zero's eyes flashed with something I'd never seen as he crushed his head beneath his boot.

When I woke up, I was covered in sweat and my clothes clung to my body like I'd jumped in the shower with them on. My throat ached, and I knew I'd been screaming.

I raised my hand up and massaged my neck, like that would help the pain.

"Nightmare?"

I searched my room. It was too freaking dark. I shouldn't have closed the curtains. But the voice...

"Luca?"

He hummed, stepping up to my bed. It was dark, but I could faintly make out the concern on his face.

"Why the fuck are you in my room," I asked, clutching the bed sheets in my fists.

"You were screaming." He said it like it was obvious that he'd come and check on me.

I blew out a slow breath. "Can you turn on the light?"

He did, and I was struck once again by how much he changed. He was so tall, and filled out nicely over the years. Whereas he used to be considered pretty for a guy - though he would more than likely hate that - now he was drop dead gorgeous.

Too bad he was a vampire.

He tilted his head like he could hear my thoughts. "Want to talk about it?"

I shook my head slowly.

He raised his eyebrows, like he was waiting for me to tell him what I needed. "Want something else?"

I blinked. "What do you mean?"

His lip twitched, but he bit down on it with a fang to keep it from going into a full smile. Then I realized what he meant.

I knew he was staring at me earlier, after Kite had bitten me. I just didn't know why at the time. Now? Now I'd like him to castrate himself and leave me the hell alone.

"You can go," I said. "That'll help immensely."

He didn't seem hurt at all. He just allowed his lip to curl up slightly before he bowed and left my room. I saw the lock click back into place and all I could do was wonder what the hell his problem was.