Of Noble Chains (The Ventori Fables)

by Miles, D. L.

  Zia was staring at him now, as if she had gone into a catatonic state. He was glad that she had stopped struggling to get away, and that she had yet to remove his hands from her waist, but she didn’t even seem to be all there.

  “Kehzia?” Hayden asked, testing the waters. Taking a risk, he snapped his fingers in front of her face and she finally blinked at him.

  “Huh?” she said, still looking dumbfounded.

  “I just…I said…” he couldn’t say the words again.

  “Right, love,” Zia let out a frantic laugh, “Right, it’s a joke, right?”

  Hayden shook his head, and refused to back out now. “It’s not. I want to be with you.”

  “You’re seventeen, what do you know?” Zia had yet to slide down from the bannister, and Hayden placed a hand on the concrete. She smelled so good, it was hard for him to keep his hands off of her.

  “I’m eighteen, actually,” Hayden said, “and I think you like me, too.”

  Another frantic laugh and he was beginning to think she had lost her mind.

  Zia wasn’t handling the news well, she knew that. But nobody had ever just confessed their love for her, and Hayden was the last person she thought would do it. They had always tried so hard to one-up each other since childhood, how could he just say he loved her? Zia was beginning to feel just like she had with Aeryn when he had kissed her; she had lost all her power. And for some reason the fact that the Incubus had shifted his hair colour to Hayden’s bothered her.

  “I can’t deal with this right now,” she declared, and shoved him away. She was no longer going to jump from the balcony, and moved into Cal’s room when Hayden caught her wrist again.

  “I’m sorry,” he started when Zia yanked from his hands.

  “Just not right now!” she shouted and when Hayden tried to protest a hand was on his throat, holding him an inch above the carpet.

  “She said not now,” Mal’s eerie eyes stared up at Hayden, his hand clutching at his throat. Hayden grabbed onto Mal’s arm just above the elbow trying to free himself, but it was clear who was stronger. The Caster tilted his head, too calm.

  “Mal!” Zia yelled and she grabbed onto the arm that was strangling Hayden. “What are you doing?”

  Hayden’s face was turning red, his eyes rolling back in his head. Zia ordered, “Put him down!”

  Mal shifted his eyes in her direction, and they changed to a single ring of violet, as they met hers. His fingers loosened, and Hayden fell to the floor while his hand went to his side. He questioned, “Are you safe?”

  “Safe?” Zia yelled. “Have you lost your mind? He wasn’t hurting me!”

  Mal looked down as Zia rushed to this Hayden’s side. He sat on the floor, sputtering for air and probably trying to figure out what had just happened. Mal’s hand clenched into a fist when he saw how much Zia cared for this boy, and his knuckles were still a little white from when the boy had kissed her.

  “I apologize,” Mal said quietly, “I had thought his actions were unwanted.”

  That deflated Zia’s anger. She knelt on the floor next to Hayden, and he almost seemed to be trying to get her away from Mal; too bad she didn’t know if she should get away from him. Zia said, “It wasn’t…thank you, but I wasn’t in any danger.”

  Mal looked to Hayden, and Zia caught something she thought seemed like anger in his eyes.

  After a heavy cough, Hayden climbed to his feet, and Zia with him. “Stay back.”

  “No, it’s fine,” Zia placed a hand on his shoulder, “this is…a friend.” Mal looked up at her.

  “Friend?” Hayden questioned. “He’s a Caster!”

  “I know!” Zia yelled, crossing her arms now that Hayden was breathing normally. “It’s really complicated!”

  “But,” Hayden stammered, “you hate Specters!”

  “I know that too!” she said. “He sort of…helped me out a bit…with a case.”

  Hayden furrowed his brow at her, and then to Mal. The Caster said through gritted teeth, “I apologize, again.”

  “Right,” Hayden touched his throat. “Understandable mistake.”

  “Mal, stop following me,” Zia ordered him, “I’m at a party, not facing off against a werewolf in the South Quarter. I can look after myself!”

  Mal flinched, nodded, and vanished into blue dust.

  “Blue?” Hayden jumped back. “Zia do you have any idea—“

  “I know what it means,” she said, “but don’t say anything!” Zia looked down with a grimace at the ring of blue, and thought of her mother. “My parents don’t know what I’m doing…they can’t know.”

  Hayden’s eyes softened on hers when she faced him. He asked, “He’s been following you?”

  “He just wants to keep me safe…for some reason,” Zia admitted, “he wants to convince me that we can work together…or something.”

  Hayden pursed his lips when shouts erupted from outside. Someone shouted, “Alright! Strip!”

  Zia’s stomach dropped and she pushed past Hayden to the balcony. Down below she spotted Iscah as she started to lift up her shirt, with a few boys around her ready with their phones. She gave up getting it over her head, and began to fumble with the buttons as someone offered to give her a hand.

  “Iscah!” Zia screamed across the party. A few people nearby looked up at her, and she was already moving.

  “Noble, it’s too high!” Hayden tried to grab her but she launched herself from the balcony. The wind rushed against her face, and the crowd cleared for her as she landed, rolling into a summersault and standing with ease. One of the many reasons she kept her hair on the shorter side. Her heels clicked furiously as she ran for Iscah.

  The humans had begun to whisper, but Zia kept her sights set on the boy trying to undress her clearly drunk friend. Where had Cal gone? He knew better than to leave a girl like that!

  “Just a couple more buttons,” the boy laughed, his hand snaking around Iscah’s waist. Zia recognized him from one of the Academies sports teams, and she had never liked him. She yanked on his shoulder and whipped him around. He said, “The Hell?”

  The next thing he saw was Zia’s fist coming at him, and she connected her knuckles with his nose. The crunch she heard wasn’t nearly as satisfying as it should have been, and she took her jacket off to cover Iscah. The girl mumbled, her hair flopping in front of her face, “Zeeeeeah? Was happnin?”

  “We’re going home,” Zia declared, and zipped the jacket up. The boy stumbled backwards and landed on his tailbone, which was when his teammates decided to put their phones away and take part.

  “Hey, watch it!” one of them said. “We were just having a little fun!”

  “Fun?” Zia turned on him, a guy twice her size. “She’s drunk, and you call watching her strip ‘fun’?”

  “It’s not like she didn’t want to,” he held his hands out to the air. Zia was officially pissed off, and after the day she had had, she just didn’t care anymore. The guy went on, “So why don’t you apologize?”

  “Alright,” Zia smiled coyly, “maybe you can take it as a physical apology?”

  Cal had finally shown up, and was trying to push through the crowd because he knew what was coming. He knew what happened when Zia lost her temper, though it didn’t happen often. Somewhere near the patio door Hayden was trying to get to her as well.

  “I’d like that,” the guy said, and reached out for Zia.

  She laughed. “I thought you would.”

  In seconds her forehead connected with his nose, and he was stumbling backwards. His friend leapt towards her, but she quickly dodged and countered by smashing her elbow into his throat. As the boy whose nose she broke came up to grab onto Iscah, Zia spun and knocked her foot against the back of his knees, toppling him.

  “Stop!” Cal cried just as one boy, one Zia had taken classes with, grabbed a nearby chair. His lifted it over his head, Zia looking the other way, and brought it down towards her; she easily turned and blocked it with her left forearm. B
ut the force was enough to knock her down, and as she fell she swiped her foot beneath his. Cal had arrived on the scene, and screamed, “I said stop!”

  Hayden was there too, and he helped Zia stand. She shook him off and they both went to Iscah, who was cowering by the table of drinks. Everybody was watching Cal.

  “We were just having fun!” one of the boys shouted, and Zia raised her fist to hit him again. Hayden grabbed her arms and kept her at bay while Cal controlled the situation.

  “Get out! You could tell she was drunk,” he said to them, “you were taking advantage of her!”

  Zia began to move Iscah out of the party, everyone easily clearing for her. As she passed by Cal she whispered, “Where were you?” And as she glared at him, she thought he looked guilty.

  Hayden escorted them out, and drove them home, nobody saying a word until they arrived at Iscah’s house.

  “She’s out cold,” Hayden stated, looking at the girls through the rearview mirror. “Do you want help getting her in?”

  Zia glanced out the window, at the porch light that was left on for her. Iscah’s father was probably still awake, and she knew her friend would be grounded for a lifetime when her father found out she had been drinking.

  “No,” Zia said, “I’ll just be a minute.”

  It only took thirty seconds for Zia to get her friend in the door, and explain to her father that she had accidentally gotten drunk. He seemed more worried than anything, but Zia knew that would change in the morning.

  She hopped back into Hayden’s car, feeling the tension in the air.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, not driving off as she had hoped. “This was a stupid idea.”

  “Take me home.”

  Hayden parked in front of Zia’s house in the common, and his heart was beating so hard in his chest that he thought it might manage to crack a rib. She just stared out the windshield, and he tried to apologize again.

  “Stop it,” she ordered him, holding up a hand. “Just stop it.”

  He sighed. She sighed. And suddenly she said, “I just need a second to deal with everything, okay? I just found out that my brother…” her voice choked off.

  “Donataen?” Hayden asked quietly, understanding just a bit better. When he was a kid, Zia’s brother had been his hero, and when he had been murdered…that was when Hayden had truly decided to become Ventori. It was the same for her. “What about him?”

  “Nothing, I just…” Zia looked at him, and her eyes seemed to be glowing under the streetlamps. “I think I’m getting close to who killed him.”

  “It was a Specter,” Hayden stated, “you think you know who?”

  “Yeah, I do. Aeryn is…we’re working on it,” the corner of her lips curved upwards, and Hayden felt his chest tighten. He didn’t like it when she smiled at the thought of another guy.

  “Rinehart,” he breathed, facing the steering wheel. When he faced Zia, ready to confront the issue, he found she was kissing him. It took him a moment to realize what was happening, but he quickly kissed back. Her hands were on the sides of his face, and before they deepened the kiss, she pulled away. He was left a little awestruck, “What was that?”

  “I’ll talk to you later.”

  Zia jumped from his car, and tried to not run for her house. Her face felt as if it was beating along with her heart, and she didn’t want Hayden to see it. But what had she been thinking? She just kissed him! Willingly!

  The door to her bedroom shut gently, and she flopped onto her bed with a moan. What was she doing?

  First she had kissed Aeryn, although it was by complete surprise, and she thought she liked him. But then Mal was confusing her with how she should feel towards Specters, and now Hayden was kissing her? And she him?

  She tried to tell herself it was the stress of everything getting to her. But when she rolled over and puffed her bangs out of her eyes, she had a feeling that Iscah had been right. Maybe she had liked Hayden all along. Even the Incubus seemed to think so; he had shifted his appearance to the boy after all.

  Knowing she would never be able to sleep, she took off her makeup and started doing a little research on her computer. She wanted to stop thinking about relationships, and focus on business, so she began looking into the latest Ventori death. And that led her to her brother again, when she found the last case he had been working on was Donataen’s.

  Chapter 19:

  The next day Zia was surprised to find she had actually managed to get some sleep after everything that had happened. But she groaned overtop of her morning coffee, trying to count how many bones she had probably broken at Cal’s party. She owed him an apology, but she was still mad that he had left Iscah alone after giving her that drink. And she wondered if anyone had called the Guard; her eyes shot open when there was a knock at the door, and the image of the Light Guard coming for her filled her mind. Clan members weren’t supposed to beat the heck out of humans! Even if they were jerks.

  But it wasn’t armoured guards that stood on her doorstep, it was Iscah.

  “What are you doing here?” she questioned her hung over friend. Iscah was wearing loose jeans, and an even looser sweater, with her hair tied back to drape over her shoulder. She had large bags under her eyes, and let out a groan.

  “I’m sooo sorry,” she said, “I don’t know what happened last night!”

  Zia waved her friend inside, and got her a cup of tea. They both sat at the kitchen table, Win sleeping soundly upstairs and Cash already gone to work. Zia rested her head in her hands and sighed, “Do you know what happened last night?”

  “Not really,” Iscah confessed, “I remember Cal talking to me, and handing me a drink. And then it just goes blank. My dad is pissed.”

  “I bet,” Zia laughed, knowing how her own father would feel if he had found out. But she wasn’t sure if she should mention the stripping, or what she had done to protect Iscah. With another heavy sigh, Zia told her everything; Cal or Hayden would probably open their big mouths sooner or later anyway. Zia’s face flushed at the memory of Hayden’s mouth, but was brought back to reality when Iscah moaned again.

  “I can’t believe it!” she cried, throwing her arms on the table and burying her face into them. “I’ve never done anything like that! Cal must hate me now!”

  “If he hates anyone, it’ll probably be me,” Zia tried to make her feel better, “I’m the one that beat on his guests. And I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have left you alone.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Iscah leaned back up, “you didn’t make me drink.”

  “But I saw you doing it,” Zia pulled her lips towards her teeth, “and I got distracted when I went to stop you.”

  “Distracted by what?”

  Zia wasn’t sure if she should tell Iscah about kissing Hayden, or that she had done it more than once. The only part she knew she would leave out was Mal showing up, and threatening Hayden. But he had done it for her, and she wasn’t sure what to think about that. Instead, she asked Iscah, “Do you think all Specters are bad?”

  Iscah flinched, and wrapped her hands around the cup on the table. She quickly said, “No. I mean, they’re just like me, like humans I mean, right? Some are good, some are bad.”

  “But Specters kill people,” Zia argued and Iscah looked down.

  “I know you don’t like them,” she said, “after what happened to Donataen…but you can’t hate everyone because of what one person did. Not everyone is evil.”

  Iscah seemed so honest, and Zia didn’t have anything to say back. She had known her best friend was the type to say that everyone was good, they had had plenty of conversations about it. And Zia hated to admit that she was right, and that Aeryn was right. She couldn’t keep hating Mal because of what he was, but she could hate him for stalking her.

  “Maybe you’re right,” Zia whispered.

  “How’s your mom doing?” Iscah suddenly asked, as if to avoid the topic. But as soon as the words left her mouth, Zia felt even worse. She didn’t just have to face
her problems at work, she had them at home as well.

  “Five months,” she looked away, “maybe less.” She could feel the tears stinging at her eyes, threatening to fall, but she managed to hold them back. She had never told Iscah any real timeline before; she had never told anyone.

  “Oh Zia…I’m so sorry,” Iscah stood from her chair and wrapped her arms around her friend. There was silence in the kitchen, a very long silence that Zia knew she would have to get used to very soon.

  Win stood at the top of the stairs, listening as her daughter had retold last night’s events to Iscah. She was happy, for a brief moment, that Zia seemed to be coming out of the shell she had been hiding in for the past two years when it came to Specters…but that quickly went away. Iscah had asked the question, and Win knew what her daughter had done.

  Five months, maybe less. That was all she had left now, thanks to the sickness. Five months of hospital trips, and sudden attacks. Five months of watching her little girl have to watch her mother die, and watching her husband do the same. Five months of pain, and sleeping, and nothing to help.

  “There is one way,” Iscah said down the stairs, “that she might be able to live.”

  “What?” Zia asked. Win inched closer to the stairs, unsure of what this could be. Nobody had ever told her there was a cure, or any way she could live. Ever since she was a little girl she had known that she was sick; nobody had ever mentioned the possibility of her survival.

  “I’ve been reading,” Iscah went on, nervously, “that when a human becomes a companion then they get a prolonged life, to match their…their master.”

  Chairs screeched clattered and Win heard Zia slam her hands on the table.