“If you had not left, we would have been happy together. But you did, and somewhere along the way, it faded. And I hadn’t known until today, until it was completely gone…” He looked into her eyes. “…and I realized that my heart already belongs to my pet.”
ZARI
“You’re not going after them?” Erou asked.
I shook my head, not even looking their way as I heard their footsteps fade.
Erou stopped walking. “What’s going on?” he asked quietly. “All this time, you’ve been talking to me about silly things—-”
I reddened. It was the truth. I had babbled endlessly, just so I wouldn’t think about the fact that Alexandru and Katarina were walking side by side – and there was nothing I could do.
And then she ran away, I thought nastily, leaving him no choice but to—-
I paled when I realized where my thoughts were heading.
Again.
Was this how it started, I wondered crazily. Jealousy, vindictiveness, and finally murder? If I thought about it now, I couldn’t see myself killing Katarina simply because Alexandru loved her. I just couldn’t. But what if I did end up doing it? I was already changing, unable to recognize myself. Who knew how much worse it would get?
“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.