Once Bitten *On Hiatus*

𝕱𝖎𝖋𝖙𝖞 𝕹𝖎𝖓𝖊

• 𝓚𝓲𝓽𝓮 •

When Seraph stiffened in his chair, I glanced at him. He'd been quiet since Mae left, but I could see his uneasiness growing as the minutes passed. He was becoming twitchy. Nervous. But he didn't speak.

The longer it went on, the more his nerves traveled to me. "What's wrong?"

He glanced at me. "I'm not used to feeling people. But she seems scared."

"Of course she is," Luca drawled. "You put an image in her mind of what the fucking psycho wants to do with her. She's probably overthinking it and making it worse."

Seraph's eyebrows furrowed. It was the most emotion I'd ever seen from him. He was concerned for her, and why shouldn't he be? There was a reason I didn't want to say anything about what Zero wanted from her.

She hadn't wanted anyone to go with her to her room, and I'd only been fine with it because Zero was supposed to be out in Central District with his father. He wasn't due to come home until a day or so.

If Zero reacted the way he did when he found out that I had feelings for Mae, it would only double when it came to Seraph. They had been friends longer than I ever was with him, so that betrayal would hurt that much more. And then he'd try to take it out on Seraph the best he could. Though I was learning Seraph was stronger than Zero by quite a bit.

Seraph's head shot up and he looked at the door. "She just spoke to me. She said Zero's there."

I stood, as did Noah and Luca. "There's no way, he's not in South District."

Seraph stood and went to the door, pulling it open and rushing through. It took all of one second for me to follow after, pushing away the tinge of jealousy that came with the realization that she could speak to him through thought. It wasn't the time. If Zero really was here...if he really was in her room...

Oh, fuck.

Seraph was slamming himself against the door, his face twisted in something akin to pain.

And there was screaming. She was screaming.

"Mae," I yelled. "Zero, open the fucking door!"

Luca and Noah reached us, and Noah looked like he was going to pass out from the fear. From the unknown. She wouldn't be screaming if he was just sitting in there with her, and Seraph wouldn't look so panicked.

Finally, Seraph stepped back and I saw his normally reddish-purple eyes glowing pure red before he put everything he had into kicking the door off of its hinges.

The smell of blood - her blood - was the first to hit me as I entered the room. And then it was the way Zero pulled a blade from Mae's stomach with so much ease and with so much giddy excitement that I almost missed the flash in his eyes. Almost.

She was screaming, and then she wasn't. Zero moved too quickly, slicing the blade deep across her throat. After what he just did finally registered, Luca and Noah pushed past, going straight for Zero, but my eyes were on her. On the way her hands clutched at her throat to try and stop the blood.

There was so much blood. Too much blood. All over her. The carpet. Zero. The knife.

She tumbled and fell to her side, going limp as her eyes went lifeless.

Everything came into focus at once. The sounds of Luca and Noah subduing Zero. Seraph murmuring under his breath. The way more people poured into the room, helping grab Zero. And I just stood there, staring at Mae as more and more blood poured from her.

She wouldn't want to be a vampire.

But I didn't want to lose her.

I barely had a chance to show her how I actually felt.

I reached out to Zero, my mind made up. I'd kill him for her. She didn't want to be a vampire, so I'd kill him for her and let her rest.

Let her die.

A hand grabbed my wrist to stop me as I went to snap his neck, and I froze. I knew the hand.

I turned, my blood boiling at the way that Zero merely laughed as he was carted off. It didn't matter where they put him, I would find him and I would kill him. I would make him beg for her forgiveness, and none would be found.

My father stared down at Mae, his head tilted ever so slightly. He took in the gruesome sight with barely a hint of emotion.

"You four may go," he said simply. "I'll take care of it."

I opened my mouth to argue - because what the fuck was he going to do with her? He didn't deal with corpses. He let the castle maids or the humans deal with it.

But he glanced at me, a simple gesture to shut me up.

I closed my mouth. I didn't want to leave her. Especially not with him. But the ruler had spoken, and if the blazing anger I felt at my side was any indication, Seraph wanted to go rip Zero apart right along with me.

I looked over at Noah and Luca, and my chest tightened at the tears streaming from Noah's face as he looked down at his childhood love. Luca had his arm around Noah's shoulder, rubbing it and staring at Mae, who was now so pale I knew most of her blood was gone from her body.

I blew out a slow breath and turned. "Come on. Titus, may I request something?"

My father hummed.

"Please be gentle," I murmured, watching as the other three left. "And don't throw her in the fire. She doesn't deserve that."

He didn't respond, and I really didn't know whether he would honor my wishes or not. I wanted to trust that he would. That he'd bury her - or even have someone else do it - besides putting her in the fire they used for other deceased humans.

I exited her room, feeling completely and utterly empty besides a burning anger. Towards Zero, for killing her. Towards her, for making it clear she'd rather die than become one of us. But most importantly, towards myself, because for most of her time in South District she thought that I hated her. And I allowed her to believe it.

Titus closed her door, and Noah collapsed, crying, his hands covering his face as he sobbed. And while I wish I could say I understood even a portion of that grief, he'd loved her for years. I'd only loved her for a short time compared to him.

But even I felt a tear slip from my eye as I looked back at her door.