Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) (30 page)

Serena shook her head and shot another glare at Zane, “Doesn’t have a thing to do with ‘calm’! Damn thing
knows
better than to show itself right now or I’d hand it its own ass, too!”

It took nearly an hour for Zane to coax Serena’s voice to a normal volume and pitch
, but in that time he wasn’t able to keep her from hurting him any further beyond the occasional slap when she was forced to pause long enough to draw a breath.

“Look,” Zane sighed when the rage in Serena’s eyes dimmed and turned to sadness, “I’m sorry that I made you worry. After I left, I realized that what we needed—what I
wanted
—was to be able to live
without
worrying about that goddam monster fucking up everything anytime I got upset. I’ve tried so many times to have the tattoos removed or the curse lifted; been to doctors, cosmetic surgeons, fortune-tellers, mediums, and enough aurics to repopulate those we lost the other day! But nothing works! The tattoos won’t come off and the magic in them has fused to my cells! I’m not even sure
dying
will work at this point or if I’d just be handing control over to it for good.”

“Why? Why does it matter who or what you are? You
’ve known for so long that they couldn’t remove the tattoos!” Serena frowned, slumping down on the bed beside him, “I understand that it’s important to you to
not
to be a monster for my sake or the sake of Zoey and the others! But did you ever stop and think that disappearing like that might hurt us
more
? I mean, maybe I
like
you the way you are! Did you ever think of that? Maybe you aren’t as bad as you or everybody else or even the
curse
says you are! Have you ever
once
looked in the mirror and
realized
that, behind all the fireworks and special effects, these are
still
just tattoos? And, let’s be honest for a moment, it’s not like they’re hard on the eyes; pretty far from it, actually!”

Zane gave her a look, “You can’t be serious!”

Serena smirked, “What? You don’t believe me?” she shook her head and stuck her tongue out, “Girls
love
sexy men with ink!”

Zane raised an eyebrow, “So you’re calling me ‘sexy’?”

Serena smacked him again, “Don’t be a prepubescent bitch-boy, Zane! We’re not in middle school and you’re not asking me to some spring formal!”

“Yea,” Zane frowned, rubbing his shoulder, “I’ll try to remember that. And I guess I see your point—about the tattoos and all, at least—but it just… well, it
sucks
! I’m not gonna sugarcoat it; it hurts so fucking bad, and I don’t know how much more fucking stress my body can handle before...” He sighed and hung his head, “I don’t like not knowing how much longer I’ve got.”

“Yea, because I wake up every morning knowing
exactly
how long I’ve got before I go tits-up!”

Zane frowned, “‘tits-up’?”

“Grow up, dick! You
know
what I mean! The point is that
nobody
knows when they’ll die! Some are given days and march on for years, and others who are seen as the fittest and finest end up choking on a damn Tic-Tac!” She shook her head at him, “You think everybody with some condition that
might
end their lives use it as an excuse
not
to live?”

Zane bit his lip and looked down, “I guess. It’s just scary to think that I might lose myself to that thing.”

Serena smiled and set her hand on his knee, “I won’t let it take you over. We’ll work together and you’ll get better. Even if you can’t cure it, you can learn to control it more.”

Considering this for a moment, Zane shifted his eyes to her hand on his leg—feeling the warmth and comfort from her palm starting to send ripples through his body—and realized it was the first time that a woman had touched him out of genuine affection and not just because he’d paid them or because they were afraid of him.

And he didn’t want it to stop there.

Not now.

“Serena…” He looked up at her, studying her and trying to see if her expression might answer the burning question. Even then, seeing her stare back at him without fear or repulsion, he couldn’t be certain. It had just been too damn long!

“It’s alright, Zane,” Serena assured him, her ruby lips curling up in an irresistible grin, “I’ll
never
be done getting under your skin.”

Zane felt his body go hot, and, though he felt a well of terror initially, he realized that, for the first time in a long time, it had nothing to do with the curse. “I want…” he scowled at the way it sounded and shook his head, “No! I
need
to touch you.”

Her smile didn’t waver or shif
t as her eyes shifted to his mouth and she moistened her lips, “Then what’s stopping you?”

And suddenly his fear was gone.

God damn if she didn’t do it again!

Smirking at the bizarre power she had over him,
he pushed her to her back with one arm while using the other to pull her face to his, finally getting a chance to taste and feel her. That contact, like the first drop of blood on a parched tongue, sparked a raw need that transcended any previous desires.

Suddenly
any
distance between them—any part of her that wasn’t held against him—was an even greater curse than any the tattoos had ever been or could hope to be!

Suddenly the deaths of many and the destruction of all were distant concerns when compared to the collapse of the current moment.

Suddenly he understood.

Struggling to pull his lips from hers, he looked into her face, seeing her for everything she was and would be from that moment on.

“What?” She smiled and started to move her face towards his again.

“You…” he blushed as she paused to hear what he had to say, “You love
d me.”

She smirked, “
Dummy. I still do!”

He shook his head, “No. Before—back in the forest that night—you
showed
me love; showed
him
love.”

She blinked and leaned back, “What do you mean?”

He smiled, “That first night… I couldn’t remember what had happened; how we ended up waking up together like that.”

Serena blushed at the mention of that night and she began to stammer, “I… I’m sorry. Devon and I nee—”

Zane’s smile widened and he squeezed her hand, “No, I know, now! I
understand
, Serena! Devon possessed me—took control of my body so you two could have a physical moment—and, in doing so, you showed me—my body and the curse
tied
to my body—something that I’ve
never
had; something that the curse was never ‘programmed’ to understand!”

Serena stared at him, blushing and smiling, “Then you…”

He nodded, “I
remember
that night! Remember
letting
Devon in; letting him control us… because of how you looked at us. The curse was made to destroy and cause suffering! It was never supposed to
get
far enough with another to have what you gave us that night!” he beamed, “You—your
love
—
is
the reason you can control it! You are a
cure
to the rage!”

She blushed, arching an eyebrow, “Oh? And what does that mean for us now? With me being a cure, and all?”

He stared at her a moment longer and smiled, letting his hand trace over her cheek, “It means that, right now, I’m taking my first dose of a lifetime remedy!” His hand found her shoulder and pulled her into him once again, slamming his lips to hers and taking in all of her essence with a greater understanding of what it meant.

Moaning, Serena lifted her chin
more to match his efforts and deepened the kiss. Neither of them were used to giving in; had never backed down in a challenge, and it showed then and there. For every ounce of pressure one put in, the other matched and surpassed. Their combined efforts—a violent eruption of passion and desire and need—had them clawing each other’s clothes from their bodies in a mad-dash effort to rid themselves of
anything
that could come between them.

As the last burden of fabric was cast away they began to worship every inch of the other’s skin; nipping at necks and kissing along the length of exposed shoulders and down further to
flesh that, despite the rising heat, had become tight and puckered. Their senses were overwhelmed by the sound of their racing hearts and the torrents of blood coursing through veins and further fueling their mutual need.

Serena groaned as his mouth paid homage to her heaving chest and she moved her hand along his side until she had his length throbbing in the palm of her hand. The
sexual energies increased as their contact grew. Zane gasped at the contact, his warm breath rushing over the lingering moisture his kisses had left on her chest and causing her to shiver and writhe beneath him.

Not ready to give him his victory, she met his passion with her own; pumping her hand along her prize and biting her lip as she watched his face shift into a mask of ecstasy; the first bead of moisture surfacing against her palm
and trailing back down its length.

Refusing to succumb entirely to her skill
s, he countered her touch with his own; letting the fingertips of his right hand trace down her stomach and into her depths. Heat and moisture enveloped his advances and he felt his breath catch in his chest as he watched Serena’s face wash over with pleasure as she leaned her head back in a silent moan and exposed her throat in its entirety to him. And, though he ached to taste more of her—to take more of her into him—he was more driven, at that moment, to fill her with himself instead.

No longer able to keep score over whos
e passion had tipped the scale, they offered one another a silent draw as their mouths found one another again and they became one.

N
ikki sighed as she watched the group finalize their plan against the Keith-vampire that had seemed to make quite an impression on
all
of them.