Coveted [New/Revised Version]

DABBLING WITH THE DEVIL

     "You're burning a hole in that rug, pet." Kay commented as Zairian paced his office relentlessly. She was sitting with her legs crossed and dangling over the edge of his desk.

He'd felt triumphant when she approached him earlier in the week with news the eldest Jayden, Skylark, wanted to make a deal with him—the Chancellor witch in exchange for them leaving his territory. At the time, it appeared so feasible that he hadn't questioned it. Who could ever betray the infamous hybrid? Right then, Zairian wasn't so sure the young vampire was above deceiving him. He strode with a renewed vigor, his movements so swift he was a haze of moving black.

The more time that elapsed, the more anxious he grew.

"They should be back by now!" he exclaimed. "How hard is it to get the girl from one vampire?"

"Perhaps the boy got greedy," Kay suggested, "and needed to be taken care of."

"No, there's more to it than that. It's been hours!"

"Calm down, pet." She said, annoyed. "I'm sure the hurricane you started isn't helping."

Zairian looked daggers in her direction, too wound up to focus on one point in the room. Kay raised a defiant eyebrow at him before starting a steady strumming on the desk's wooden surface with her long fingernails. The sound was becoming exceptionally irksome to the all too overwrought Zairian. He turned with every intention of saying something when he heard the sounds of the rest of his clan's approach.

"You see?" Kay beamed. "It was nothing."

Zairian waited as patiently as possible for them to make it to his study. Light knocking sounded on its door and he brusquely ordered whoever it was to enter. Galilea slowly came in alone. She had a peculiar expression on her face Zairian recognized instantly.

Failure.

Anger threatened to erupt from him as he strolled over to her. "Where's the girl?"

"We went to retrieve her like you asked," she began, "but it was her sister standing with the vampire when we got there. We demanded the real girl and they ran from us. We chased after them—even in this weather."

"'Even in this weather?'" Kay resaid. "We're vampires. Weather shouldn't be a factor."

"So where is she?" Zairian asked measuredly.

His voice was eerily calm when he looked down at Galilea with cool, gray eyes of a loon. She met them and shifted her weight uncomfortably. He waited for her to reply, to say anything but she remained silent. His hand began twitching on its own desire.

"T-the girl came." Galilea finally stuttered. "We fought and during the fight, I was injured—"

Zairian's hand sliced through the air, promptly cutting off her words, and forcefully connected with her temple in a vicious backhand that knocked her to the ground. She gasped as her head was thrusted into the alternate direction.

"You've failed me!"

Galilea lay crumpled for several minutes. She didn't move. Had any other vampire struck her she would have done a number on them but not with Zairian. She was wise enough to know she wouldn't last more than half a minute, if even, with the primordial being. He stood seething, glaring at the fallen vampire at his feet.

Galilea spoke in a whisper without looking up at him. "I was decapitated and it took me minutes to become whole again. I had to revive the others when I did. That took longer."