Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Omoară-mă

"What the hell?" Phoebe gasped. I made a move towards him and Phoebe clenched my arm. I looked back to her and she shook her head. I stopped and asked Anton, "What's wrong?" His head jerked up and I felt Phoebe stumble back and her grip on my arm tightened. His eyes were completely black, no white was left at all, and the hatred in them was seething.

"If you ask that idiotic question one more time I will kill everyone you ever loved. What the fuck do you think is wrong? What have we been talking about for the past—" his words cut off and he folded over to press his forehead into the cold stone floor. Suddenly his screams were echoing off the walls loud enough to make my ears ring. I felt tears burn in my throat and I wanted to hug him, I wanted to stop his screaming. This wasn't a sound of anger or even terror; this was a scream of pain that no human could ever imagine in their wildest nightmares. His arms came away from his torso and he pounded his fists into the concrete floor. Large fissures sprang forth in the stone and jagged pieces broke away from their spaces.

"Oh my God," Phoebe whispered her eyes wide as she watched Anton ripping away the basement's foundation. She didn't understand what kind of creature we were dealing with but now she did. All of a sudden his figure blurred and the chains clinked and he was four feet closer to us; the chains yanked to their full extent and particles of the stone fell from the ceiling and dusted the floor from the force Anton was exerting on the chains.

"Omoară-mă!" he roared his face twisted with anguish. I had no idea what that meant but the tone was one of pleading. Phoebe moved closer to me and I could feel the fear coming from her. I stared at the creature in front of me and I wasn't quite sure who I was looking at. Anton seemed to have some kind of twisted control over himself and this creature didn't, yet he was still speaking so he hadn't reverted completely, but he wasn't speaking English so I didn't understand what he was begging for.

"Omoară-mă!" he sobbed again his black eyes leaking furious tears. I shook my head confusedly. "Vă rog! Salva ma! Omoară-mă!" He tried to lunge at us, but almost like a rubber band, the chains ripped him backwards and he smacked into the wall.

"What is he saying?" Phoebe asked in a terrified squeak. I felt my head move in a way that told her I didn't know. Phoebe pulled her brand new iPhone out of her back pocket and said, "I'm going to find out." She fiddled around on her fancy phone that I always wished I had and then repeated the words that were most likely Romanian. She looked at the screen and I saw her blue eyes pop open.

"Oh my God."

"What is it?" I asked. She turned her phone so I could see and I read the Romanian to English translation provided by Microsoft Translator.

Please. Save me. Kill me.

Was there in bold type. He was telling us to kill him while he was trying to attack us. His brain was trying to remain while his instincts took over his body. I felt a lump rapidly forming in my throat threatening to suffocate me. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away from Phoebe and the phone she held. I looked at Zane.

He was Zane and Anton and a vampire. No matter how much I wanted them to be separate entities, no matter how much "Anton" didn't want anything to do with Zane, they were all the same person, they were all components of the creature I would do anything for and I was finally ready to accept that. I would accept him no matter how he acted or how he tried to rip me apart. I would love him for everything he was.

"Zane," I whispered. Please be the part that loves me. I thought to myself. His frame was quavering, his chest heaving, his fingers digging into the stone floor.

I took a step closer. "Zane," I said again. His head whipped up and Phoebe squealed in fright like a stuck pig. I stared at him and he stared back but it was like his eyes didn't see me. Hatred, fury, hunger, but no recognition. Not again. A wide smile marred his fallen angel's face and twisted his expression so that he didn't look even remotely human. I shook my head.

"No."