Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (27 page)

With his auric barricade receding, Serena’s ongoing assault on the door finally paid off and the door flew open on shrieking hinges.

“Keith! You bastard!” she shot forward and released a wave of auric arrows at her brother.

But he was already in overdrive and gone from the room and the safe house—leaving behind the lingering echoes of his laughter—by the time they found purchase against the far wall.

As she withdrew her aura back into herself and hurried to Zane, his vision faded and the world went black.

Zoey sighed,
“He’ll live through this, though we’re lucky he didn’t transform.”

“It was Keith… the bastard had nearly drained him to the point of death!
” Serena bit her lip, looking down at Zane’s unconscious body, “There was nothing to fuel the change!”

“I hate to say it, but he may owe Keith his life.”

Serena glared at Zoey, “Are you serious?
Look
what that fuck did to him!”

“
But it
could
have been worse!” Zoey sighed, wrapping the last of Zane’s bandages as an I.V. of enchanted synth-blood fed into his vein.

“What will we do next time if Keith appears
again? What
can
we do?” Serena growled, “He’s too fucking strong! The next time he might not stop at just
mutilating
us! Can’t we just
give
him whatever it is he’s after?” Serena growled, “He’ll have no reason to hurt us if we’re not standing in his way!”

“
It’s not that simple, Serena. Keith’s been playing with those at The Council; feeding them lies and using the influence they’ve given him so that he can acquire Vail and dismantle it from the inside.”

“Okay? So my brother’s a bitter, power-hungry, spoiled little bitch-boy!
” Serena sneered, “Tell me something I don’t know, like
why
we have to suffer any longer to protect a clan that’s
already
destroyed from being taken by a prick aiming to
destroy
it?”

“Because his efforts have labeled us as the bad guys to The Council, and
that
means we’re bad guys to
everyone
that serves them!” Zoey sighed, “But they’re organized. They have rules and regulations on how to approach these situations.
That’s
why Zane’s still alive! If Keith kills him now, he’s breaking protocol. If we hand Keith the clan, we hand him the
only
thing that’s keeping The Council from executing us on the spot!

“If we lose the title that Vail gives us—what it represents to The Council’s codes—then we’ll be deemed rogues and we’ll all be killed!”

“But there
is
no Clan of Vail anymore! How are we under its protection?”

“Because it’s
politics
, Serena! Until all the right steps are taken—all the paperwork filed and all the proper authorities notified and consenting—to
classify
Vail as a dead clan, then neither they
nor
Keith can act on it!”

Serena looked down at Zane, “So if Keith kills Zane before then…”

Zoey nodded, “Then
he
will be executed for breaking The Council’s protocol and killing a clan warrior without due cause.”

Serena sighed, “And killing Keith would give them due cause, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“So—what?—we’re dead if we hold on to the title of Vail and we’re dead if we hand it over, is that right?”
Serena snarled.

“Pretty much…”
Zoey nodded.

Isaac thought for a moment,
“But what if we can get to The Council and
show
them what a manipulative little shit Keith is? Obviously
we
have no authority, but I’m sure they’d be
pissed
if they saw how he’s been screwing with their system, right?”

Zoey smirked, “Oh, I can’t even
imagine
what sort of punishment they’d have lined up for
that
sort of an offense. Though they
do
love to make examples out of the more severe—”

“No! I
will
kill my brother for everything he’s done!” Serena snarled. “I don’t care if The Council executes me for it! It’s better that our bloodline dies with me avenging my parents!”

Zoey glared, “And what about
our
lives, Serena? What about
Zane’s
life? If you kill Keith, you validate every claim he’s made against us and we’ll all be killed!” she sighed, seeing the pain in Serena’s eyes as this fact dawned upon her and she offered a reassuring smile, “Look, The Council
will
deal with him when they see what he’s done. I promise. What they will do to him will make death seem like an act of mercy. If there’s anything The Council loathes over anything else, it’s anything that might motivate an uprising against them, and a corrupt influence in their ranks is a
severe
threat to their authority over the Mythos community.”

Serena
frowned and nodded, hoping that what Zoey said wasn’t just an empty promise to make her feel better. Looking down at Zane, she watched as his wound began to heal and let out a relieved breath.

“We need to be more careful from now on.” Serena frowned.

“Agreed.” Zoey nodded, and Isaac smiled and nodded as well.

Isaac smirked and nodded as well, gesturing towards some of his pack mates that stood with the remaining Vail warriors,
“And you’ll have plenty of help, too.”

Zoey frowned, “You know you don’t have to help us, Isaac. You and your pack aren’t a part of this.”

“Like hell we aren’t!” Isaac growled, “That bastard’s vendetta dragged my pack into this shitstorm! He’s gotten our brothers and sisters
killed
so that he could exact some petty revenge in response to a family feud! Oh you bet your ass we are a part of this!”

Zane let out a small groan
and his body was beginning to shiver as his wounds continued to knit closed. His mismatched eyes shot open then and he cried out as his tattoos began to glow.

“H-hot
!” He groaned.

“
He should be healing faster than this.” Zoey frowned, chewing at her lip.

“It’s okay, Zoey. I think I might be able to
help him this time.” Serena smiled at them and nodded.

Zoey
blinked for a moment, caught off guard by the response, but finally smiled and nodded. “Sounds good. We’ll go get some towels and ice.” She motioned for Isaac and the others to follow her.

When they were alone, Serena looked down at Zane, laying a hand on his sweat-covered forehead, “It’ll be ok
,” she whispered as she pulled several strands of his hair from his face, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Before long Zoey returned with several clean
towels and a bucket of ice and they began to work on relieving Zane of his burning skin. As the cool cloth touched his forehead, he let out a startled gasp and began to shiver; the glow of his tattoos starting to dim. Serena smiled at the progress and continued, leaning down to examine his wound and discovering that the synth-blood had run its course and healed him.

“Serena…” Zane smiled as his eyes focused on her
.

Serena
couldn’t help but smile as she found herself staring back into his eyes, and Zoey, seeing that she was no longer needed, made a quick-but-silent exit to leave them alone.

Overwhelmed by her emotions,
Serena leaned back in the chair that she’d pulled up next to Zane’s bed earlier.

“I’m glad you’re ok n
ow,” she whispered.

“Yea. All thanks to your stubbornness!” Zane sighed
, “You shouldn’t have stayed!” though he fought to keep his eyes away, she could see he didn’t believe what he was saying.

“Fuck that! I
wasn’t about to let you have all the fun!” she smirked at his resulting sneer, “I’m going to help one way or another! After all, he
is
my brother and Vail
is
my clan!”

“So you’re
not
going to kill him?” Zane gave her a skeptical stare, “Be honest.”

She sighed and nodded, “Yea, I guess if The Council can do better than I can it’s worth it to let them do their job.”

Zane smirked, “It
will
be impressive.”

“And
I should stick around to keep you from going Hulk and spoiling it all! Guess we’re lucky your curse-beast has a hard-on for me,” she smirked.

Zane
blushed and bit his lip, sitting up. “You know… he’s not the only one.” He frowned and shook his head, “Not that that’s the only thing I care abo—”

“
It’s okay, I understand. I just… I need a little more time to get over Devon.” She bit her lip and turned away, feeling the tears starting to well in her eyes. “I hope you understand.”

There was no response.

Frowning at the silence, Serena turned back and frowned, realizing that Zane was gone.

“
S
erena! We need to do something! We can’t wait for Zane anymore!”

“How far are we going to make it without him, Zoey?” Serena glared, “I won’t reconsider this
! We
have
to find him!”

“
If we waste any more time it might be too late for
any
of us.” Isaac growled, slamming his fist into the walls, “He knows where we are and how to get in, and we can’t just keep sleeping in shifts and hoping we’re not attacked again! Waiting on him isn’t an option!”

“It is for me!” Serena growled at both of them, “He left
because
of me! I can’t just—”

“Will you stop being so goddam selfish just because you
’ve suddenly realized and admitted your feelings for him! We can’t wait anymore! We have precious little time and far too many things to do in that time!” Zoey cried out, tears growing in her eyes, “I
know
Zane! I’ve known him far longer than you’ve known him and I can tell you with all certainty that, wherever he is, he’s doing something
stupid
. And with Zane, stupid gets people
killed
!”