Soulless (Book #2 of Hunted)

Child

"Zane," I finally said after deciding that bashing my head against the wall wouldn't really help the situation. His eyes left the pile of paper and slowly fixated on me.

"What?" he asked. I almost jumped out of my skin with excitement. He had actually acknowledged that his name was Zane. I walked over to him so that I was just within his reach if he stood up and really stretched the chains to their full extent. His eyes fell down to my feet and he split the pile of paper into two smaller piles.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked quietly. He stared at me for a moment in bemusement and his eyes clouded with foreign obstruction until there was nothing there...his eyes were empty. Then all of a sudden he was back in a matter of seconds so brief I would've thought I just imagined it if I hadn't seen his face drop all emotion once before. Looking into your lovers eyes and seeing nothing there is the most terrifying thing in the world. He smiled brightly and shrugged.

"I don't like making decisions. Plus I hardly think I'm in any position to make a rational one anyway. You were gone a long time, Lori...I missed you," he mumbled, switching subjects exactly like I did whenever I didn't feel like making a serious decision and what he said was exactly something I had no idea I wanted to hear so desperately. He missed me. 

I felt my face grow hot and my heart started pounding louder. He stood up and walked towards me, stopping just in front of me with a tiny bit of slack in the chains. Phoebe opened her mouth to tell me I should back away slowly with my hands in the air but before she could Keegan casually reached out and covered her mouth with his long, cold fingers. Zane reached up slowly and I felt his thumb on my cheek.

"Why are you crying?" he asked pulling his hand away from my face and glancing down at his thumb. I followed his gaze and saw a tear glittering on his skin. I shook my head and looked down at the floor.

"I'm glad that you missed me," I whispered before looking back up at him. He was smiling again and it made my heart thunder.

"So they're happy tears?" he asked barely keeping a laugh at bay. I sniffled and nodded. Suddenly his laughter was bouncing off the walls and he reached up to pinch my face rather roughly.

"You're so cute!" he trilled with a wide smile that seemed too big for his face. My cheeks burned almost as red as my burgundy hair and I had to wonder why he was acting like this. He was behaving like a child.

There was funny rumbling sound and Zane's hand slid down to his abdomen. His eyes widened innocently and he giggled. "Wow, that was loud!" he exclaimed in something resembling embarrassment. I stared at him trying to keep the look of utter confusion off my face. He leaned forward on his toes and peered into my eyes. His were still black as a starless night but the darkness had shrunk down so that it was only his irises affected like he was wearing 14mm circle lenses in the deepest black.

"You smell nice," he whispered his eyes holding mine in an iron grip. I saw his hand out of the corner of my eye and soon felt his ice cold fingers stroke my face with tender affection. His mouth pulled down in a devastating frown and a look of painful sadness twisted his young face.

"You'll never leave me, right? Please don't ever leave me." His voice, so raw and emotional, speared my heart, splintering it with barbs of pain. I shook my head and mumbled, "Never." His lips turned up in a pleased smile and just as that smile began to mend my speared and splintered heart, it disappeared and the hand caressing my face dropped to my shoulder. His fingers curled like claws digging into my sleeve and the pain drew a small gasp from my mouth. His head dropped down parallel to the floor and I felt either a sob or laughter rock through his body.

"You're lying," he whispered his voice dropping at least a fourth of an octave.