The two therions quickly snatched up one body each and went to work dismembering them in their own, personal preference.
Zane, sighing—again—turned to Golem impersonating elderly corpse, “Sorry, Granny, it ain’t personal.”
None of the three could take any pride in what they’d accomplished, still burdened with the awareness that Maledictus had escaped. Zane, however, wiping the blood from his katana and sheathing it, was already beginning to think of—
Zane, the others are taken care of! Get up here and he—
Before Zoey even finished her auric message to him, Zane had already rushed up the stairs—ignoring his body’s screaming muscles and burning exhaustion—to the bathroom, where he scooped up Serena in his arms and held her so close to him it hurt.
“Serena! I’m so sorry… I tried; I tried to find you. I looked every—”
Serena ran her fingers across his face, smiling as her fingertips met warm flesh and blood. “Shut up and kiss me, Zane… I’ve waited too long and fought too hard for more misery.”
He didn’t need to be told twice.
Leaning down, he pressed his lips to hers.
As the kiss parted, the two of them seeming suddenly lighter with the passing of the act, Serena smiled up at him. “I was so afraid. I was… I was worried we would die without you finding out.”
“Find out? W-wait… did you say ‘we’?” Zane blushed.
“I’m pregnant, Zane,” Serena beamed. “You’re going to be a father.”
~ONE WEEK LATER~
“SERENA, SHOULD WE REALLY BE DOING this with your condition?” Zane called out as he fought to catch up to her.
“Just try to stop me!” Serena grinned, jumping off another rooftop and scaling up the ladder before hurling her body onto the neighboring rooftop. Still hauling in a full sprint and using the momentum of her consecutive jumps to propel her further and further to each new rooftop.
She was free!
Truly free!
Jumping on the ledge of a building, she paused to let Zane catch up and took a deep breath of the crisp night air. As Zane jumped to the ledge beside her, she smiled over at her lover. He grinned at her, shaking his head as he sat back against the edge of the building’s roof and let his legs dangle over the edge.
“You know, this parkour thing… I am still getting used to it,” he shook his head, chuckling. “You think that maybe you can cut me a break and—you know?—not move so fucking fast?”
She smirked, winking at him, “You’ll never learn that way, baby; you gotta feel forced to keep up, or else you’ll never feel driven to even try. Trust me, it’ll come eventually.”
“Uh-huh,” he sighed, shaking his head, “This coming from a natural who was trained by a parkour-pro rogue, my confidence is an overflowing cup. Hoo-fucking-ray!”
Serena smirked, “You know, technically it was your aura inside that parkour-pro’s body at the time.”
“Now that’s not fair,” Zane scowled. “It’s obviously the body! Just look at Raith! This parkour shit wasn’t a thing—least I don’t think it was—when he was in his original body, but the moment you put him in Mister Parkour-pro he’s bouncing around the walls like fucking Spider-Man! It’s obviously not the driver in this case, it’s the vehicle. And, while we’re on the subject, are you sure it’s alright to be doing all this bouncing and running when you’re pregnant?”
“The baby is fine, Zane! He’s barely a bump in my belly yet,” Serena sighed, absently rubbing her still-flat stomach, “The only condition I should be worried about is a lover who can’t keep up!”
“He?” Zane grinned, “Were you hiding something from me?”
“I may have been,” Serena smirked, “Damn! I was hoping to surprise you with that!”
“How long have you known?” Zane raised an eyebrow.
“A few days now. I don’t know, I can just sort of feel it, y’know?” Serena smiled.
He nodded and scooched closer to her, wrapping his arm around her.
“I’m so happy to have you back,” he whispered. “I was a total fucking wreck without you. I swear, I was so close to just starting an all-out assault on the city; kicking in every door and ripping everyone inside-out until I found you.”
She giggled at that, “Only you could make mass genocide sound romantic.”
“I doubt that,” Zane confessed. “Plenty of charming-yet-sick fucks out there. We have our own union and everything.”
Serena laughed, “Don’t make it sound that easy. Maledictus certainly can’t woo me with his filthy mouth.”
“I’d fucking hope not,” Zane faked a gag.
Serena smirked over at him, “You wanna know something else I can still do in my ‘condition’?”
Zane looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. “I have a few guesses.”
Serena winked, “The first few don’t count.”
Her lips slammed against his then, and suddenly free running across rooftops sounded like the least painful activity of the night.
This, however, was a contact sport he was more than apt at participating in.
He groaned, loving the taste of her and relishing in them being together once more and pulled her tighter to him.
Finally.
Things were finally coming together.
She ran her hands down his chest, and Zane groaned, looking down at her and grinned. “You want to do it right here, huh?”
“No one can see us,” she smirked, then immediately faked a pout. “Plus, it’s been too long, Zane!”
“Too long? It’s been less than three hours!” Zane chuckled, looking over, “Do you realize that you use something to the tune of ‘here’s a nice pregnant activity’ or ‘I’m not too bloated to do this one’ or ‘Wanna know something else I can still do?’” he said with a laugh. “You being pregnant has made you hornier than ever! You almost fucked me in the car the night we brought you back to the clan.”
Serena raised an eyebrow, “Are you complaining?”
“Hell-fucking-no!” Zane shook his head, “I actually am loving every minute of it and hope to see if it’s possible to double-impregnate somebody.”
“Oh?” Serena chuckled.
Zane nodded, “Yup. I just wanted it recognized that you playing this ‘it’s been far too long’-game won’t hold up; that is perjury, and it is wrong!”
Serena sighed, “Will you shut the hell up and fuck me on this rooftop already?”
“Yes, ma’am!” Zane pulled her to him then and kissed her again.
She moaned, loving the feeling of him against her and the urgency began to grow.
Using her aura, she ripped Zane’s shirt off and he looked down at her, his eyes blazing with just as much passion as she felt.
“That was one of my favorite shirts,” he smirked.
“I’m not sorry,” she smirked, pulling him across her body as he reached up and began to rub her breasts through her shirt. She moaned, arching up more against his touch and he groaned in her mouth as she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist.
Zane groaned and began to pull the remainder of their clothes off with just as much urgency as she’d ripped off his shirt. She ran her hands across his chest, taking more attention with his tattoos, his now-normal tattoos.
She smiled running her hand down his torso, following the “landing strip” where his torso met his thighs to guide her hand to his shaft and smirked, wrapping her hand around him.
Caught in the addictive rhythm, she lost track of time as she played.
“F-Fuck! Serena!” Zane clenched his teeth, “If you stroke me anymore I’m going to lose it!”
“Then lose it inside of me,” she moaned, directing his shaft to her entrance. “I can’t wait any longer, Zane!” She pushed up, pushing his length inside her. “Now make love to me, or I swear I’m going to just tie you up and take all reigns!”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” he groaned as she began to slide down, taking all of him into her.
<
br /> Serena cried out and arched back, letting herself become one with her lover.
Together, the two were unstoppable.
Serena felt true love she had never known was possible before. All the past lovers she had were all there to lead her to him.
She cried out, allowing her to climax to take her over the edge and looked into Zane’s eyes as he followed right beside her. Pressing herself against him, she kissed him passionately as they both saw fireworks go off behind their eyes.
Together.
As it was meant to be.
“I love you,” she whispered against his sweat-soaked chest.
“I love you too,” he smiled, falling beside her and she grinned, snuggling against him more.
“Do you think we woke anyone up with our moans?” she giggled.
“Shit, I hope so,” he smirked, leaning his head against hers. “I’d be kind of disappointed with myself if I didn’t. I’m sort of hoping we also corrupted a youth.”
“Oh, you naughty boy!” she smirked. “Is this the new Zane I am seeing here?”
“I don’t know, is this the new Serena I’m seeing?” he smiled.
“Here to stay,” she winked, beginning to collect her clothes and dress. He followed suit, throwing on the shirt she had ripped.
She looked over, realizing the shirt was more vest now. She had ripped it clean down the center of his chest and she grinned.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“Just that I made a fashionable improvement of that shirt,” she laughed.
“Only you would think this an improvement!”
“Is it not?” she purred, moving closer and running her hands across his chest.
“Careful,” Zane growled, leaning down and whispering in her ears. “I’m close to bending you over and taking you again!”
“Catch me and you’ve got yourself a deal!” she giggled, skipping past him and jumping off the ledge.
IT WAS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE…
Serena frowned, looking over at Zoey’s troubled face and turned to Zane, who hadn’t stopped clenching his fists since the news came out.
“Zane, we need to think about this for a minute,” Serena frowned, turning to Zoey. “We can’t just rush into this! I feel we should call The Council in on this!”
“Serena, it might be too late if we wait for their arrival,” Zoey shook her head. “We need to move fast.”
“You can’t be serious! I am usually all for jumping into a situation…but this?” Serena shook her head, “It’s suicide!”
Zane shook his head. “We need to destroy him.”
“Are you serious? By now he’s probably got an army of dead minions!” Serena bit her lip, the sudden churning in her gut causing her to groan and clutch her stomach.
She knew this feeling.
She was afraid.
It was almost laughable if it weren’t so frightening.
The great Serena Vailean—the beautiful, blonde, busty badass clan leader—terrified.
And all it had taken was a murder-happy death-wizard rapist gradually modifying a six-foot lizard into a devil-on-Earth.
Serena recited that back to herself.
Suddenly it didn’t seem so foolish.
“It doesn’t matter either way, Serena, because you are staying here,” Zane said.
Serena blinked. “Wh-what? You expect me to stay while you go and—”
“Zoey? Can you give us a moment?” Zane took a deep breath.
Zoey, biting her lip, nodded and started for the door.
“You can’t be serious!” Serena whimpered, “We’re finally together again; we’re about to have a family together… and you want to go off on a mission that you might not come back from?” Serena whimpered, “Please, Zane—please—don’t go back out there! He’s not your responsibility; he’s not your fucking problem anymore!”
“But he is, Serena,” Zane pressed his hands to either side of her face and forced her to look up at him. “I can’t allow my son—our child—to be born into a world with something like that in it. I need to do this for us. And that’s why I’m going to succeed.”
She shook her head, allowing the tears to finally fall, “And what if you don’t succeed?”
“I can’t allow myself to think like that, Serena.” Zane sighed.
He began to pace for a moment, and she could tell he was working towards something and shook her head.
“Zane, what is it?”
Before he was even halfway down—before the knee of his pants had had a chance to marry the floorboards—Serena’s eyes had flooded with tears as her body began to shake with both excitement and panic; her lips parting in shock, however no words were able to form as she watched in shock.
“Serena,” Zane reached into his back pocket and produced the box, “I spent a lot of time wondering what I’d say if this day came”—he frowned and shook his head—“when this day came, and I’d always been so terrified that, when I finally pushed myself to be brave enough to get down on one knee, I wouldn’t be smart enough to know what to say. Well, that day is here now and…” Zane stammered and chuckled at his own nerves, “And I can see that all of my fears—every concern I ever had about being too stupid to offer you the eloquence that you deserved—was every bit as accurate as a prediction could be…”
The two shared a nervous chuckle at that.
“But,” Zane cleared his throat and looked up into Serena’s eyes, “I’m also proud to say that, now that this day is finally here, I am smart enough to know that, now that I’m here, it isn’t about how many poems I could—or, let’s be fair, couldn’t—quote that make me want to write hundreds more about you, or about how many years I can—or wish I could—calculate in my head I’d want to share with you, or even about the names of great men I’d never be able to memorize who’ve come before me who had changed things for the better so that I could be here, saying what I’m about to say to you. Now that I’m finally able to speak these words, I know that no vocabulary that I’d made myself memorize would make a difference today could adequately say what the three most simple words could convey when each one carried with it the truest depth of its meaning: I love you.” Zane opened the box then, and the ring caught the light as he held it up. “I truly love you, Serena Vailean, and I want to marry you.”
Serena took a deep breath through her tears and looked up at him, “Zane Murdoch. You are more of an idiot than I thought if you think I’m going to let you go now.”
“Then I guess it’s good that I don’t need your permission to let me go, Serena,” Zane bit his lip. “I need to do this; I need to kill Maledictus. And I will not fail.”
Serena whimpered as Zane slid the ring on her finger. She didn’t want to admit it—didn’t want to give in to the truth that she could see in her now-fiancé’s eyes—but she couldn’t bring herself to fight it.
“J-just swear that you’ll come back, you asshole,” Serena sobbed.
Zane nodded. “You know I will, baby, because I’m your asshole for life.”
Frozen in shock, she watched as Zane pressed a kiss to her cheek, stood up and walked out the door.
“Zoey, keep an eye on my future wife, please; she is carrying my child.”
And, just like that, he was gone.
Gone to kill a monster.
SO MANY YEARS OF HIDING AND PLAYING IT SAFE after that one stupid mistake had left Celine desperate for the protection of anybody stronger than her.
When she and Kristine had been caught feeding off of the then-human Zane—the act that had turned him in the first place thanks to Raith’s interference—by Serena’s younger brother, she’d thrown herself at his mercy. In exchange for safety from punishment for both feeding on a human and, ten times worse, actually siring a new vampire in the process, they’d gladly tossed the others in their group to Keith as a means of impressing The Council. For them, having a connection to somebody steadily climbing the ranks of the mythos government meant protection for
them, and if all Keith demanded in exchange for absolute protection was their compliance, who were they to question it?
So when Keith ordered Celine to stick around the newly-turned Zane and his loyal lapdog buddy to make sure that no dangerous revelations were had, she didn’t question the order. She’d actually gone above and beyond and gotten engaged to her unknowing “son”—though she hated to look at it like that—just so she could be certain that she was safe from recognition.
But the more she saw of what was becoming of Zane and Raith’s friendship—the partnership they’d formed as mythos mercenaries; solving all sorts of mysteries and taking out all sorts of dangerous rogues—made Celine all the more nervous that she and Kristine might be found out. And if she and Kristine were found out, it wouldn’t be long until Keith’s deceitful efforts were brought to light, and so Keith ordered her to do the one thing she couldn’t bring herself to do.
He told her to kill them.
All her life, Celine had just wanted to have fun. She lived to party and get crazy; never to fight or play the role of the dangerous life-taker. She might’ve been born a vampire, but all of her friends had teased that she was the most human of all of them. What had happened with Zane had been a stupid mistake; an accident brought about from too many stupid vamps in one place at one time and too many enchanted drugs in their systems. She couldn’t bear to see her life ruined, or worse, because of one stupid mistake, but she also couldn’t bring herself to remedy the risk by becoming a murderer.
So she did the next best thing: she arranged to have the taroe tribe Zane and Raith intended to steal from catch them. The taroe were a self-contained tribe of magic users up in the mountains; nobody bothered them and, in turn, they didn’t bother anybody. But if they caught a pair of thieves in their village—if they discovered a plot from a couple of mythos to steal from them—then there was no reason to assume that they wouldn’t just kill them as an example of what happened to any outsiders who came poking about.
It could’ve been so simple!
Scarlet Dusk Page 21
