Free Scarlet Night (Limited Edition) by Megan Parker Page A

holding her own throat where his hand had clutched her. His hand had softened before Serena came in and Zoey wondered what he had planned. She shook her head quickly; knowing it was better to forget him and move on.
    “God! He really did a number on you! Good thing I came after you, huh? You would’ve been killed!” Serena walked over, brushing her fingers across Zoey’s already bruising neck. “Come on, we should tell Zane.”
    “No! Don’t!” Zoey frowned, panicked, before forcing herself to smile softly, “I mean, he doesn’t need any more issues than he’s already got. He’d only start to get angry and probably end up breaking something. Besides, you were here to help out and I’m safe now because of that.”

    Serena frowned and looked over at Zoey. Something told her it was a bad idea not to tell Zane, but Zoey looked so nervous about his involvement. Besides, she’d known Zane longer and probably had a better idea of how to handle him. She sighed and shook her head. “Let’s head back now. He might come back with others, so it’s not safe to stay here anymore. You really need to be more careful. Also, if you ever need help when I’m around, you can call out with your aura.” Serena started to lead the way and frowned when she realized she was giving survival advice to a clan warrior. She bit her lip and shook her head at herself. Though she wasn’t used to trying to help others and sticking up for somebody else, she already saw Zoey like something of a younger sister and felt driven to help protect her.
    Zoey followed after and smiled warmly at Serena as she wrapped her arm around Serena’s. “You’re a true friend, you know that!”
    Serena rolled her eyes; “friend” was the last thing she wanted to be right now to anyone. Though, she knew that gesture had made her feel wanted, and that, she couldn’t deny, had made her happy.

    Z ane growled as he sat in his room looking over Gregori’s old notes. Without meaning to, his right hand fisted in his hair as he glanced through the handwritten documents over and over again; the calculated and meticulous writing of the Vail Clan’s old leader only serving to remind him of what they’d lost. This reminder, coupled with Zoey’s disappearance with the Vailean girl, was enough to make the raging creature within him shriek and thrash about. Zane shook his head and growled; leave it to a woman he barely even knew to urge the already-begging-to-be-freed beast to fight that much harder.
    The letters, from what Zane was able to gather from them, had nothing important hidden within them. He growled again, this time hard enough to make his throat hurt.  How did Gregori expect him to understand any of this? He continued through the pile of notes and letters and documents; flipping through page after page of Gregori’s thoughts and research. But it all might as well have been written in the language of the ancients; none of the words on any of the pages held any clues of what they were supposed to do now; what he was supposed to do now!
    He sighed, looking at the last page in the stack and frowned, chewing roughly on his lip as he toyed with the idea of starting from the beginning all over again and absently letting his torn lip flood his mouth with his own blood. While he wasn’t usually one for dramatic self-destruction, the taste of his own blood gave him something to focus on and provided an illusion of nourishment for the time being. And at least it would put a cork on the beast’s appetite…
    … for now, at least.
    Shaking his head, he pulled one of the yellowing pages from the pile and, rubbing a layer of exhaustion and irritation from his vision, began to read once again:
     
    Zane,
    As my most trusted and powerful protégé, I’m entrusting you with a most imperative order.
    In the event of my demise, I’m leaving control of the clan to my daughter, Serena. While she is brash and untrained, her strengths lie with her intuition and instinct.