10. Hyacinth #3
Either way, Zane doesn’t give him the chance to answer. He turns on the burner.
Fire jets up from the burner, and the man screams. Zane holds him there for several seconds before letting him up. “What. Are. You. Doing. Here.” The words are harsh, clipped, and he pushes the man’s cheek back against the live flame.
The smell of burning flesh joins the scent of blood. I inhale, a smile dancing on my lips, before I hop onto the counter so I have a better view.
“Please!” the man begs in between screams.
He’s not going to be able to answer much.
I pick up the nearby bottle of olive oil. “Should we season him? The oil will help him cook more evenly.”
Zane lets out a surprised bark of laughter. “Grab the salt and pepper while you’re at it.”
Stefan gets up from the floor. “Boss,” he warns. “We should get out of here.”
“We need to find out why they’re here,” Zane says, but I don’t think his focus is on getting information at all.
I lean closer to Zane and drape an arm across his shoulders. “You wanted something from Dante. Why?” I lift the olive oil and let a few drops land on the flame. The fire flares up, and the man screams in agony.
Zane glances at me, but beside the quirk of a brow, he doesn’t interject.
If the veil wasn’t in the way, I could kiss him right here.
I want to kiss him.
I lean in closer despite the veil.
More shots ring out in the adjacent room, getting louder.
Zane’s face gets closer to mine.
Stefan grabs Zane by the back of his shirt. “Boss,” he hisses. “We don’t have time for this.”
Zane shoots a nasty glare at Stefan.
“You hired me to watch your back,” Stefan says. “Let me do my job.”
He and Zane stare at each other, then Zane lets out a disgusted sound and pulls away. He lets go of the man he’d been holding against the stove.
“Let’s go, then,” Zane says.
I pout at him. “Really? You’re going to leave it here? He’s not even dead yet.” I motion to the man with his face half burned off.
“You’re a bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you?” Zane remarks, like he hadn’t been the one casually torturing the man who’d tried to shoot me. “Gut him, then.”
I pick up the knife again. Without any fanfare, I stab it into the man’s side and drag up.
The man is too hoarse to scream anymore, but he still lets out delicious little pained gasps.
Whispers of agony.
“What do you think?” I ask, motioning to myself with the bloodied knife. “Red is more my color than white.”
“It is,” Zane says, his eyes raking over my body. “You should lose the veils, though. They only get in the way.”
He grabs it and yanks it off of me, and I blink at him.
I can finally see his clear brown eyes, unobscured and wild with lust—bloodlust, maybe, or something more.
He’s starting to lean in when Stefan’s hand grabs my wrist.
“He has a fucking knife, Boss!” Stefan growls. “Can you stop thinking with your dick and get out of here now?”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t be such a cockblocker, Stefan. I could have stabbed him while we were torturing the guy.”
Stefan’s face is red, apoplectic with rage as he sputters out some nonsensical response.
While he’s busy trying to speak, Zane grabs me by the hair and twists it. “You’re lucky I don’t have time to take care of you right now,” he tells me with a dark laugh. “But we’ll see each other again very soon. Won’t we, Sin?”
I shudder at the delicious pain. “Definitely. I still have to kill you, after all.”
“We’ll see.” Zane pulls away from me.
Stefan has a gun in his hand, pointed at me. “You stay here,” he orders.
Zane casts an annoyed look in his direction. “Forget him,” he says dismissively. “All three of us are leaving.”
“You’re including me?” I hop off the kitchen counter and do a small twirl. “I’ll get your car dirty.”
“I always did like the color of blood—” Zane begins.
The door to the kitchen swings open, and Avery rushes in. “What the fuck are you doing in here?” he begins, only to stop outright when he sees Zane and Stefan, who has leveled his gun on Avery now.
I sigh and raise my knife at Stefan. “Leave now. I can’t have you threatening my—”
Fuck. I stop myself, but of course it’s too late.
Zane’s eyes snap from me to Avery, then back, and a smile slowly spreads across his face. “We’re leaving. Don’t worry. But I’ll see you again very, very soon.”
Stefan keeps the gun leveled on Avery and me, ushering Zane out of the kitchen and through the back door.
Avery stares at me as soon as they’re gone. “What just happened?”
I shrug. “Whatever Dante wanted to happen.” I look at the dead guy slumped by the stove. “I refuse to clean up this mess.”
“This is up to the hosts to clean up,” Avery says. “So let’s get out of here before anyone decides it’s our responsibility to help.”
I follow Avery to the back door.
A familiar voice wafts through from outside the kitchen.
Keith.
Shit.
I glance down at myself, wearing a blood-soaked dress, and shake my head.
This is public enough as it is.
“You coming?” Avery asks, already halfway out the door.
“Yep.” I step into the back alley and let the door slam shut behind us.
I’ll kill him next time.
Maybe Zane can be there to watch.