The Survivor (Book 2)

Chapter 22

We were kept in the prison over the next week, and I was thankful to be taken out of the hell of a cell. Zack was quiet, and when he wasn’t, he lusted after me. Eros was quiet, spending his time pretending to sleep on his cot. We were taken out in the evening of the seventh day, but that wouldn’t give me enough time to emotionally process what had happened that morning.

I rolled over onto my back, staring at the ceiling and breathing in the stale air. Zack was on his back, too, and I hummed to myself as I sat up to stretch out my stiff limbs. Fifteen gave me a quick wave as he passed by our cells, and I smiled at him. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“Hey, Treble?” Zack asked gently. He had his arms over his eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I think we should take a break,” he said. “Like…from us.”

I gulped loudly, and Eros stirred in the cell next to mine. “You’re dumping me?”

“No…Yes…I don’t know,” he confessed. “I just feel like we aren’t a couple any more. I never get you like I want you, and you’re busy with the humans. Hell, the humans have a more intimate relationship with you than I do.”

I blinked at him. “You’re a coward.”

“I am?”

“You can’t even look at me,” I laughed. “Of course you’re a coward. And all you want is my body anyway. Can’t have a relationship if half of it won’t put forth the effort to be a relationship.”

“I did put forth the effort.”

“Zack, sex isn’t love.”

“No, but you have sex when you’re in love,” he retorted, still not looking at me.

“That’s not always true,” I shook my head. “You know it’s not. My lifestyle was different from yours. You can get laid just by asking, and I was a virgin when I met you. Sex isn’t love.”

“Fine. Okay, you got me there. But I did try.”

“No, Zack, I tried,” I twisted my ring off my finger, holding it in my hands. “I said so many things just to keep you with me in the past week. I lied so damned much about how I thought we were, or if you were abusing me, or if I was your slave.”

“Then you’re the problem for lying.”

“Are you serious?!” Eros shot up. “You can go straight to Hell, Zack Wells, if you think she was a problem.”

Zack laughed quietly into the skin of his arms. “So I’m the problem?”

“You had sex with Seven in the past week,” I shrugged my shoulders. “Not pointing any fingers, but there are totally fingers pointed at you.”

“I only did that because you wouldn’t. I wanted to make you jealous. Wanted to make you want me again,” he sat up finally, staring at me with harsh, blue eyes.

“In a cell right next to me?” I asked softly. “No, that was intentional, and you intended to make me hurt.”

“Consider us even for the Saint thing.”

“The Saint thing happened a year ago, and he put me on drugs,” I reminded him.

Zack laughed, “Hey, Lionel?” he called out, voice echoing down the hall.

“What?” the dragon-blood snapped. So everyone was listening in on our conversation. Great.

“Who makes excuses?”

The dragon-blood was quiet for a minute, “Do you honestly want to play that game with me, Wells? You’ve made way more excuses than her in the past argument alone.”