Zone Zero: Vengeance (Book 3 of 3)

Bonus Chapter: Evie

Evie's POV

I breathe a sigh of relief as I realise that Annerley is finally asleep. She has had a cold for the last three days which makes her falling asleep awful. She is blocked up and can barely breathe through her nose and will only fall asleep if I lie next to her.

In a way, I love the cuddles that she gives me. Now that she is 10 I rarely get the same amount of cuddles that I once did.

I stroke her hair once more and smile down at my angel. This sweet little girl has brought me so much joy that i could find myself getting lost just watching her.

Alex appears at the open door and smiles as he watches me tenderly kiss Annerley on the head once more before lifting from her bed. I make my way over to him and close the door behind me so that we are alone in the oversized hallway.

"How did your meeting go?" I say as I wrap my arms around his neck and lean up for a gentle kiss. He returns it with a smile and snakes his arms around my waist.

"It was more like hearing out a list of demands." He says with a defeated tone.

"I take it that this rebellion is serious then."

"Yep. Looks like it. They are just a bunch of people that used to follow Cail and have gotten tired of the regime. The thing is, I don't know how to appease them."

He sounds so tired and I can understand why.

Ever since news of Annerley and I resurfacing became public, Alex has been met with all different reactions. Some were happy to see their king with a queen at his side while others were furious about the human child that we protect. Some vampires just couldn't understand how we can have a human child yet no other humans are allowed to be outside of their zone.

When Alex took over and made a deal with the humans to let all of them live within their walls as long as all vampires were freed, he didn't expect everyone to be happy. But now that vampires have no choice but to drink synthetic blood, some of them have begun to rebell against the crown and against Alex. They want human blood bags again and seem like they won't take no for an answer.

I grasp Alex's hand and begin leading him to our bedroom. He needs to relax and I want to know more about this meeting.

We enter our room and he heads straight for the small loveseat in front of the already roaring fire and takes a seat. I snuggle beside him and rest my head on his chest as he holds me close.

"What did they say?" I finally ask after moments of silence.

"They demanded that we speak with the humans about blood donations. They want me to threaten the humans with war if they don't agree with the entire population donating blood once a month."

"The humans will never go for that." I say shaking my head.

"That's what I said. I told them that it could start a war but they didn't care. They would be happy to go to war."

Flashbacks of almost losing Alex during our last battle 10 years ago cross my mind and I have to fight against the pain it causes in my chest. I almost lost everything that night and wouldn't want to relieve it ever again. Especially now I have so much more to live for.

"They also want to reinstate the redemption trials and public executions of disobedient vampires."

Another memory flashes across my mind of my time in the redemption trials and how I had to kill my very own brother. Again, not something I would ever wish to relive.

"But that isn't the worst thing."

"What is then?" I ask as I snuggle deeper into his side.

"They want us to either return Annerley to the humans or turn her into a vampire."