“Zane!” Bree rushed past Jasmine and nearly ran to him.“You’re back!Oh thank God you’re back.”But when she was about ten feet away from him, she stopped.He did not greet her or speak to her for what seemed like a long time.Then, when he did speak, his voice was laced with ire. “What do you two think you are doing?”
Bree suddenly feared Zane.His eyes were black and glinting and there was even a spark of red.She backed into Jasmine who then held her close.Jasmine could feel Bree trembling.
Zane, seeing Bree’s reaction, calmed down but only slightly.He looked squarely at his mother, knowing that this most likely her doing. Bree not only had no knowledge of Zane’s private passage to the dungeon, but she would have no way of finding her way around down there once she got in.
“Mother, what in god’s name did you take her below for?” Zane was glaring at Jasmine and she looked at him back sternly.
“Zane,” Jasmine controlled her voice.Yelling at her son proved to be futile as she had learned centuries ago, “it was to see…. Mitzi.” Jasmine did not fear Zane, but she feared for Bree.Zane could be very unpredictable and there was no telling what he could do at any moment.He could lose his violent temper and although do no physical harm to either of them, the fear he would put into Bree would be enough to shake her for a while.
“Mitzi.Mitzi?Why? I demand an answer for this and it better be good!”
Bree moved back to Jasmine’s side, then approached Zane a few steps and stopped.“I – I wanted to – thank her. Please don’t be upset with your mother.It was my idea.”Zane knew then that Bree would now know that he had beaten Mitzi. In his mind Mitzi was still the enemy even though she had nothing to do with the conspiracy.He had destroyed every last one of them with the exception of her.But, she was going to be next.That is why he was heading down to the dungeon.Now that he was rid of the filth that tried to destroy him, he planned on draining her.
“You used her and now you are going to eat her, aren’t you, Zane?” Bree’s voice sounded more confident but when Zane seethed she shrunk away.
“That is none of your concern!”
Bree ran to Zane then and fell to his feet. He just looked down at her, unsure of what to expect. She began to cry as she thought of poor Mitzi.She couldn’t bear the thought of Zane eating her.Mitzi was only nineteen and so timid.She had saved Zane, for goodness sake!The poor girl lived a life filled with abuse and torment before this.She didn’t deserve to die that way.She didn’t deserve to die at all!“Oh Zane, I beg of you!” Bree momentarily buried her head in her hands which were clutching Zane’s boots, then looked up at him from her place on the floor.Jasmine looked on silently and fearfully.“Please spare her, please!” Bree’s sudden tears were streaming down her face as she looked up at Zane. “I’m begging you!”
Zane softened a bit. “Why would you wish her to live a life alone and miserable in the dungeon?” He took Bree’s hands in his and held them.“I will be doing her a favor by killing her.” Bree burst into sobs.She put her face into Zane’s hands then fell to the ground to kiss his feet.
Zane became a little frustrated then. “Stop it Bree.You are not a slave to me.You are going to be my wife for heavens sake.Get up and I’ll consider what you have to say.” He then turned to his mother.“Leave us now.”Jasmine exited the room, irritated. She looked at Zane and shook her head somberly before she left.All those centuries, a millennium to be exact, she had been trying to teach Zane to stop hating humans so brutally. And now it seemed he hated them all the worse.
