Zane disappeared into the anti-room then returned to the balcony as the sky began to lighten ever so slightly. He had put on another jacket, a plain black light leather jacket that zipped up the front. He had replaced his boots with all black converse.
After several minutes, Bree followed him.She watched his back as he looked out to the sky.The stars were slowly fading. He had his head turned up to the heavens.His ebony hair moved slightly in the breeze and his shoulders looked small because of the spiked height of it. She couldn’t see him now as the same vampire that she saw him as only days before.Right now, watching him, he seemed so fragile.She knew he still had deadly power, but she no longer feared it as much as before. Everything made sense to her now…Why he hated her before.Why he didn’t kill her.Plus, he had told her everything, the secrets that only his family knew.
“Zane?”He didn’t answer her.She called his name again and once again he did not reply.She felt fear rising in her, maybe he regretted telling her his deepest secrets and was going to kill her now to silence her?She knew now the truth about his future, he would become ever weaker.If she told the humans, they would come in and kill him to keep him from ever having a child.There would be another war.
“Zane?Are you ok?”She walked up to the balcony’s edge close to where Zane stood.“Something’s wrong.”
Zane spun around on Bree. “Of course something’s wrong!Everything is wrong! You’re the only human I no longer hate and your blood is the most strengthening to me.I don’t want to have to feed from you over and over, it won’t be good for you.As I become stronger, you will become weaker.And then, one fine day, I will also begin to weaken without hope of ever renewing my strength, and it is all over from there.”
“But until then, there is still hope.”
“Bree, please.” Zane looked exhausted. “Please don’t give me false hope. You could never love me.Look at what I have done to your friend Megan.Look at what I have done to you!I’ve hunted you, tortured you, and injected my venom into you at a dose I had never used before.It is a wonder you are still alive.”
“Zane-.”
“Please, Bree.I need to rest so I can be ready for that damned birthday party my parents are putting on for me tomorrow evening.I have a smaller bedroom, I’ll sleep there and you can have my master bed.You can’t lie to me and tell me you aren’t tired.”
“I am tired.Tired of crying and hoping and then hurting when those hopes get shattered. I’m tired of everything, tired of life.I’m only one insignificant slave.” Bree burst into tears.
Zane walked over to where Bree stood.When he faced her, he commanded her to kneel before him.She did, her face turned up to his.He reached out and put his fingers through her hair, caressing the softness of it.He cupped his hands around her face and beheld her innocent beauty.With his thumbs he brushed the tears from her smooth cheeks.“You are not insignificant. In this short time you have become more to me than you could ever know.” Then he took her hand and held it in front of him.“But how can anyone human love me.How can anyone love this!” He then put her hand to his mouth and opened his lips, holding her fingers to his fangs so that she could feel them. His eyes became dark.Bree gasped as her fingertips felt the points of Zane’s razor sharp fangs.She looked at them fearfully, her mouth open.She tried to speak but nothing came out.
When Zane spoke again, his voice was dark and slightly angry. “Do you realize how many people died by these very fangs in the last thousand years?How many men, women, and children? Do you have any idea how much blood has passed through my lips, how much blood of others has coursed through my veins to give me life by their death?” Bree remained silent. “Do you have any idea, Bree?”
