• 𝓚𝓲𝓽𝓮 •

The word help echoed through my head. I stood from my desk at the same time Luca stood from the couch, ready to go help Noah. It hadn't come across as urgent, but he wouldn't have just said help if he didn't need it. Maybe Mae was being a pain.

Then came the two other words that had both Luca and I breaking out into a run.

Zero's here.

When we got to the restaurant within the castle, it took me a moment to understand what was going on. Tomas holding Noah down, Noah's look of rage as he tried to fight against the hold, Seraph watching Zero with a bored expression on his face, Zero missing one eye and holding Mae up by her throat.

"Drop her," I said, "and get your hands off of Noah before I cut all of your hands off."

Zero didn't even look at me, but I could tell he heard me by the way his hand tightened even further into Mae's neck. She had tears streaming down her face, her mouth open as she attempted to draw in breath.

Luca was beside Zero in a moment, his fist flying towards Zero's face with a speed only vampires knew. There was a crack of bone - from my location, I couldn't tell if it was Zero's face, Luca's fist, or both - and Mae crumpled. I took a step forward to catch her, but Noah was suddenly there, holding her.

She was coughing in air like she'd been starved of it for too long. When she hid her face in Noah's shoulder, I about lost it.

Luca knelt by her side, reaching out to her and touching the dark red marks on her throat.

Zero held his hand over his bleeding nose, staring at Mae. Not me, not Luca - who literally just shattered his face - not Noah. Mae. At her shaking form. And on his face was nothing short of euphoria.

"Get out." My voice finally brought his attention to me. "If you get within one hundred feet of Mae, I'll see to it that you're punished according to our law."

Mae was mine. I brought her back under the pretense that I would take over providing for her and her well-being. My father reluctantly agreed, stating her living within the walls of the castle shouldn't deter me of my duties as heir. If it did, he'd cast her out. Back into the forest. But to a part where he knew the wild animals would kill her.

Our law stated that if any vampire touched a claimed human, without the consent of the one who claimed the human, they'd be killed. It was as simple as that. It was a threat, and Zero knew that.

"How long do you think you can sit on that high horse," Zero asked. "Waving to all us peasants as you ride past, thinking absolutely nothing in the world can touch you?"

I stared at him, my face blank.

Man, Mae losing her virginity really did a number on him. This went far beyond jealousy and obsession. The Zero before wasn't completely sane, don't get me wrong. But this Zero?

He needed to be put down like the rabid dog he was.

"I believe I've earned my high horse," I finally replied. "What you're riding on is an overgrown pack mule, and will stay as such until the day you die. Don't forget your place, Zero."

He laughed so loud that Mae flinched. Noah pulled her closer, eyeing Zero warily.

"My place," he said, chuckling. "You should be more aware of your place, Kite. How it's slipping from beneath your fingertips and you can't even see it."

And right back to me questioning who the hell was turning their back on me. On my father.

No one liked Zero enough to see him as a ruler, and his father was too close of friends to mine for him to take over.

Unless that was the guise he was using.

Through all of these thoughts, I kept my eyes on Zero, a careful mask of disinterest on my face. Like what he said didn't rattle my nerves and make me want to kill anyone close to him just to get rid of the threat.

"Out." I motioned towards the door with my head. "I won't say it again."

Zero held his hands up in mock surrender before he left.

Seraph stayed behind, watching Mae. Though the way he looked at her was nothing like how Zero did. He looked on with mild curiosity for a moment longer before he followed behind Zero and Tomas.

That concerned me almost as much as Zero trying to one up me from under my nose. But as much as I hated to admit it, while Mae was mine to protect, I didn't have the time to watch Seraph. Plus, he didn't necessarily worry me.

"Can someone explain how Zero is missing an eye," I asked.

Noah smirked over Mae's head. "She stabbed him with a fork."

Ouch.

Mae pulled away from Noah, and I finally saw just how red her throat was. Fingerprints marred her skin, and I knew they'd turn an ugly purple within the next day unless it was healed. I just doubted she'd let me close enough for that.

She wasn't shaking anymore, but I could tell she was still rattled by the fact that Zero had hurt her directly. He had never actively gone after her, instead going to the ones she cared about to get to her. That was more his style. What she did or said to him - besides the fork in the eye - may have just let another screw slip from whatever sanity he was trying to hold together.

'Don't be a pussy,' Luca teased in my head. 'Ask if she wants you to heal her.'

I shot him a glare. 'She's fine.'

At that moment, she decided to prove me wrong by touching one of the marks and wincing.

Luca looked at me pointedly. 'Pussy.'

For fuck's sake.

'She's fine,' I insisted.

"Does it hurt," Luca asked, making a show out of reaching out and touching just between two finger marks. I wished I could say the concern in his eyes was fake, but once his fingers grazed one of the angry red imprints and she flinched? That was actual concern.

"Yes." She moved away from his touch. Her voice was hoarse.

I sighed and looked away.

Fuck me.