Zauran (14 page)

What?

Frowning, my stomach clenching and unclenching in nervousness, I don't like what I'm hearing.

Serbian women belong to Serbian men...
seriously
? How freaking medieval is this misogynistic creep!

“
I remind you Zaria...” he says as he steps into the room, pulling himself up to his full impressive height. “We can hear your every thought. Unlike a vampyre I don't have to kiss you to share your head. I don't have to bite you to feel the tension in your body or experience the lust licking your lips and permeating the room with your body's perfume.”

Oh god.

Stopping in front of me his eyes swirl with furnace orange highlights again, “You want to defend your friend Jowendrhan. The very friend who almost prevented Phoebe from turning Seithe into a mortal. He's selfish and narcissistic. He's on an ego-trip, one he needs to come down from. He has no plan to stop at Zena. He's planning a harem of female vampyre.”

He's
on an ego trip...
You need to look in the mirror, pal.

“
H-ow do you know?” I say instead.

This doesn't sound like Jowendrhan at all. Who's Zena?

He smiles, and it's cruel. “Zena is
Božena
. She got between you and Darise, and now she's coming down from her night in Jo's bed.”

I need to call Phoebe!

Urgency bitch slaps me into wide awake and on high alert.

Ignoring the shady character blocking my way out of the lounge, I turn to Aisyx, stopping short with my words hitched in my throat at the glowing ferocity in his eyes.

Oh GOD! Zena's now vampyre. The only one. His desperation is taking control of his calm, his restraint.

His hands are huge fists at his sides and he looks tense enough to unleash immeasurable pain.

I need Zauran. But he won't come when I call telepathically.

Panicked, I do the only thing my mind can grab onto.

JOWENDRHAN!

Inside a second I feel his presence, arms clamp me to his chest, and then I'm vanished from Zauran's home, finding the white tiles immediately under my feet ice cold.

Chapter 13

Zaria and Jowendrhan:

Before I can say a word, Jowendrhan has my hair locked in his hand to expose my neck.

“
What have you done?” he says, as if I just walked into court stark naked.

He's looking at the spot where Zauran bit me.

“
What have
you
done?” I shove back, not caring that my hair yanks painfully when I shunt him away.

Jowendrhan taught me how to be hyper-aware. We spent time together while he and Venix tutored me so I could be in a relationship with Darise. I needed protection from the red eyed vampyres but they've all left our territory now, following his sister Ellindt to greener pastures.

Jo is my friend. Granted, he did kiss me at the first available opportunity, and it's only because of it that I can summon him to me mentally. Once you've shared body fluids with a vampyre they can reach you anywhere and any time you call for them.

Neuri are restricted in that arena.

My mind is racing -  the only viable way for Sveta to know Jo's moves was either if he followed them and spied on their activities,
or,
he was eavesdropping on Jowendrhan's thoughts when he was in Pravus.

Unless neuri have other powers I'm not yet privy to, like premonition?

Staring at Jowendrhan's cold cobalt glare my thoughts are speeding, trying to organize the Jo-Sveta saga.

Same mate?

I'm neuri, when we set our heart on something it's a commitment we can't break.

Oh god. Jo just started the war again!

*

Zauran
:

I know something is wrong the second I kill the bike's engine, parking next to the other two motorbikes outside my home. I can hear the shouting from here.

Kicking the stand down, I bolt for the door, shunting it open  and charging inside, following the sound of raised voices to the lounge.

“
Sveta, god damn it you are such an ignorant moron! She's a fucking human! What part of that don't you understand?!” yells Ryan, shoving Sveta in the shoulder so hard he stumbles back against the wall to catch his balance.

Aisyx hems Sveta in. “Where does she live? Tell me!”

Ryan helps to corner him, “Aisyx calm down. You can't go near her until she's come into her power.” Then he flexes his arms aggressively at Sveta, “What the fuck did you do that for? How are you going to explain it to Zauran when he gets here?”

He smacks him hard in the forehead with the flat of his palm, drumming Sveta's skull into the wall behind him.

“
Tell me what?” I say, the bottom falling off my world with complete dread.

The three of them hinge like synchronized divers, staring at me as if I just pumped five shells from a shotgun between them.

Silence descends, so heavy it starts to squeeze my lungs.

“
What the fuck happened?!” I look to Aisyx, “Where's Zaria? She must think war broke out with you three behaving like delinquents downstairs.”

I can just picture her up there hiding, with eyes the size of golfballs, waiting for it to calm down enough for her to escape the crack-house.

They give each other the shifty glance, the kind that has a world of undesirable and unspoken possibilities.

Shit!

“
What the fuck happened?
” I yell again, ready to unleash my power and force it from them. “Start confessing before I begin tearing off limbs.”

Ryan steps forward with Aisyx, a wide muscular wall protecting the dipshit behind them.

“
Sveta, what the hell did you do?” I say to the coward shielded behind my kin.

Cocky as all hell, he pushes through, breaching between Ryan and Aisyx to stand in front of them.

He lifts his chin to stare down his nose at me. “Jowendrhan turned Božena last night. In a fortnight she'll be a complete vampyre, and I need to get to her before she starts to see through walls and vanish at will.”

“
Fuck that!” booms Aisyx. “She's mine! If anyone needs a vampyre it would be
me
!”

“
Get the next one and stand in line! I found her first. I found her before she became vampyre, she's mine!” says Sveta, like a kid who seriously needs a good ass whipping.

I cut their conversation off, “I don't give a flying fart about Božena. Where is Zaria? What happened?” Then I glare at Sveta, “And for the record I found Božena first and this is MY territory. I decide who
and
when.”

Stepping closer I stare my little brother down, “Unless you'd like to fight me for the right to call the shots around here? Until you best me you are under my law and you will behave accordingly.”

Looking tense enough to wrestle me if I start losing it, Ryan answers, “Zaria called Jowendrhan to save her from
this
fucker.”

And he slams his palm against the back of Sveta's head, shunting him halfway to me and flopping Sveta's anarchist hairstyle all over his face.

“
She's with Jo?” I clarify; iced rage begins to pump through me. “Why?”

Aisyx manages to look guilty when he says, “She wanted to warn her friend, but Sveta just told me about a new lady vampyre and I kinda lost my sense for a while there.”

“
Nice going Sveta. You cornered my mate in
my
home and then scared the shit out of her so bad she defected back to the vampyre camp to get away from you.” I am losing it, I can feel the turquoise flooding my eyes, burning and hazing the world into pure energy.

“
Get out! Get out of my territory! Don't you dare step back in it!” Striding, I'm beyond the ability to be amicable, gripping his hair and escorting him out, desperately wishing I could thump him into a bloody bag of compost.

“
Zauran, don't be stupid dude, Jesus she's just a chick...”

“
My
fucking chick!” Hurling him at his bike, I walk out with him to stand in sunshine, effectively using my bulk to block my doorway, “Fuck off! Fuck off before I kill you!”

“
Zauran, you can't do that. You're his alpha. He needs a leader, guidance...” Ryan's tone is soft, private, but I am way too pissed off to give a shit.

“
Ryan, how long have you waited? How long have
I
waited? And then the youngest has to screw it all up for us!”

“
Shit,” he mutters, rolling his sleeves up again and aiming for his own bike. Slapping the back of Sveta's head when he reaches him, Ryan snaps, “You, me, mountains, now.”

Sveta honestly looks like a teenager again, staring at me with embers in his eyes, holding back tears.

Manipulative little prick.

Turning my back on them I go stalking inside, “Aisyx, at least tell me she was dressed and fed before you exiled her.”

You made her feel so unwelcome and threatened.

I picked up enough of what happened from Sveta's guilty conscience. An ass whipping wouldn't cut it. Not the way I'm feeling right now.

I need to calm the fuck down before I hurt somebody.

Her jeans catch my eye as I'm stomping through to the den to get a potent alcoholic sedative. Stopping abruptly, I'm blinded with the green rage overwhelming me.

“
You made her flee...
naked
?”

My voice is tremulous and hoarse. Snapping back, I stampede through the house in a rage.

I'm going to fucking kill him!

*

Božena:

I'm not sure why I lied to Darise about where I'm staying. Maybe I was testing him to see if he'd take me home instead of automatically assuming he could pitch up on my turf to screw me over again, literally.

Sitting up, I can hear the traffic from
Mije Kovačevića
Street. As Zira Hotel is on a corner it's probably also traffic from Cvijićeva Street.

The style of this hotel is modern, angular, monochrome and cold. Lying here on sterile white sheets, I wish my head and heart would catch up.

I need coffee, that will make the room stop floating.

Sitting up, I have that unsettling sensation of weightlessness. Clutching the sheets with sweaty palms I wait for it to subside, using the grip to steady myself.

My head is buzzing, it singes my ears and spikes my eyes, and I grit my teeth to slip off the bed and stand, hoping fresh air will settle me.

Can I go in the sun?

Agony splices my head right down from my crown to the bottom of my spine. The sear makes me gasp; bending, gripping my head and applying pressure.

I'm going to be sick. I need to eat.

Oh god!

Oh god god god god...

Please tell me I don't need to find a chamber maid and bite her to feed.

The thought sends lurgy through every blood corpuscle and I launch for the en-suite bathroom to retch drool into the lavatory.

Shaky, lightheaded, I slide to sponge up the cold of the white tiles. I'm slick with fever and need to cool down – I need... need...

Oh hell, I don't know what I need.

I'm no longer human and I haven't a clue what's normal, what's not. I could be dying, I could just be adjusting, I could need food, or drink, or blood, or...

Oh god.

*

Sveta
:

“
Listen to me...” says Ryan, as if he's still my alpha.

Cutting the throttle on my customized chopper from a bike dealer in Krnjača, I refuse to remove my sunglasses as I glare at Ryan, “No
you
listen to me. Zena and Zaria are different. I can't touch Zaria, but Zena is free bait right now. No vampyre has the right to this land, Venix ensured it. They were ousted, and Zauran was given the authority to expel any vampyre misbehaving. I would say turning a human inside our territory, into a vampyre, qualifies as grossly overstepping the boundaries.”

“
Sveta, that's exactly what Zauran did to Zaria last night. That's the pot calling the kettle black–”

“
And he wouldn't have done it if you hadn't shown up and threatened him! This is our turf! The vampyre don't belong here! And before Zena becomes vampyre I need to investigate. I need one on one time with her to decipher exactly what it is that makes those girls different.”

That shuts him up, he has the same question he wants answered.