Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 78: Zevran’s fury.

Kael.

I broke every damn road rule as I raced to the hospital which Zevran had asked us to meet at. But before going, I had sent a text to Caelum— the exact one that Zevran sent to me, so it was no shock when I stepped out of my car moments later at the hospital’s parking lot to find Caelum coming out of his as well.

His expression was stony. His eyes had lost every damn spark, and that stupid grin he always had on was nowhere to be found.

His eyes immediately found mine when he got out of his car, and a conflicted emotion, one that was akin to regret, flashed on his face before he marched over to me. "I killed her."

No preamble. No nothing.

In fact, that was the last thing I’d expected to hear from him, and no matter how true that possibly was, now was also the worst time to hear it. I gritted my teeth, forcing down my anger, my despair... my rage, to the deepest part of my soul, and drawled;

"Don’t ever say that."

"Why?"

I rolled my eyes, ignoring him as I stepped into the brightly lit hallway. And after a moment, I spat; "Just don’t say it, especially in public. It should always remain between us."

Caelum’s red rimmed eyes snagged on mine as he nodded, and I knew then and there that he was just as shaken as I was about the entire event. He may try to act nonchalant half of the time but he had truly cared for Leilani.

Or maybe he hadn’t. He’s only afraid that she may be dead right now.

"Brother..." Zevran’s deep voice flitted into my ear as soon as we stepped into the freezing cold morgue. His eyes darted between Caelum and me, and then he drawled; "I don’t remember sending a text to you, Caelum. Why are you here?"

I stopped in my tracks to turn to Caelum whose face had now gone chalk white— probably due to rage or fear. He snapped; "Is she dead or not?"

"Are you here to see if you’ve finally succeeded in destroying her?"

"Zevran!" He hissed, but I didn’t miss the slight panic in his eyes nor the way his Adam’s apple bobbed. "Don’t say that!"

But Zevran was not done with him— us. He folded his arms across his chest, glaring at us with contempt as he asked; "Oh wait, aren’t you satisfied with the extent to which you’d tortured her? Do you want to torture her more?"

And right then, I knew I should stop this banter between them. I knew that this was the part where I was meant to call my brothers to order. But strangely, I had no strength left in me. Maybe it was panic or something else but my limbs trembled. My heart wouldn’t stop pounding against my chest, and I couldn’t stop sweating profusely, even as I was in this extremely cold room.

"Zevran, what happened was a mistake!" Caelum’s voice snapped me out of my reverie, and when I turned to him, I realized for the first time tonight that he looked like he was about to cry.

His bottom lip trembled. His usual prideful stance was gone, replaced with the worn down stranger before me whose shoulders were hunched over. "I only wanted to teach her a lesson for hurting Chalice. I didn’t mean to hurt hurt her. You know, I’d never do something like that."

"I don’t know what you can and cannot do to her." Zevran simply drawled, his voice cold. "You shouldn’t even be explaining all of these to me when the person you should be explaining to is in there. In one of those fridges... looking all blue and grey because for some sick twisted reason, you decided to drain her clean."

"I didn’t mean to—"

"She was anaemic!" Zevran growled, "...with an extremely rare blood type. But instead of taking all that was needed for Chalice’s transfusion, you took more... all. You completely drained all the blood from her body. And yet you have the audacity to look remorseful now."

"Please..."

"I could rip out your face right now and that will not be enough punishment for what you’ve done. You and you!"

Zevran words were like glaciers. Sharp and cutting. It stung. And when it finally dawned on me what each word meant, especially when he said that Leilani was ’now in one of those freezers’, my heart plummeted.

I saw the moment that realisation dawned on Caelum as well. He staggered backward, his back hitting the wall as he slowly began to shake all over.

Seeing him like this ripped at me. It made my heart ache and made my wolf cry out, but I couldn’t bring myself to go to him. Not when my chest felt like it was on fire. Not when my heart felt like it’s been wrung out of my chest and stomped against the floor.

Not when I felt guilty and filthy... and lost.

Not when I’d just killed my mate...

A small cry slipped past my lips, but ignoring the look on Zevran’s face, I stumbled back, pressing myself against the wall as I struggled to control my composure. It was difficult.

It was painful. The pain was too much.

The heartache was raw and excruciating.

Between the tears blurring my vision— the one I was refusing to let drop, my eyes darted to a writhing Caelum and then to Zevran who looked very unaffected by the entire thing.

Isn’t he the one who openly cared about her the most? Isn’t he...?

Wait, is this all a lie?

My eyes thinned as I regarded him solemnly, not missing the way he kept glaring at us— not in the usual way but with something darker. Way way darker.

I rasped. "I want to see her."

At that, he blanched. His expression shifted infinitesimally before he finally nodded. "Check the freezers to your left. There are names on each of them. Her name is on hers."

That had whatever doubt I had going down the drain. Caelum’s cry was loud, gut wrenching. But I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t bring myself to when I knew that this was all my fault.

That this would’ve never happened if I wasn’t so blinded by my rage.

Shakily, I brought my hands up, inspecting them, as if checking on a murder weapon, and seethed; "I did this... it was all my fault."

"You weren’t the one who asked the nurse to drain twelve bags of blood from her, are you?" Caelum asked from the floor where he was now sprawled but I didn’t respond.

This was all my fault as it was his.

"I can never forgive myself. I cannot." I stuttered. Wiping away the drop of tear that had slipped out of my eye, I rose to my feet and staggered towards the freezers, wanting to see her for the very last time. Hoping to ask for forgiveness now that her ghost may still be hovering around.

I found her name a few seconds into searching as it’d been written on the newest tag in the entire section. My heart raced. My wolf howled, and goddess... everything in me felt stretched taut.

Felt withered. I felt like a walking corpse.

Could I ever recover from this?

I closed my eyes as my hand wrapped around the handle, and with all my might... plus holding my breath... I pulled it open, sneezing when a gust of cold air hit my face.

I slowly peeled my eyes open to look into the freezer and to my surprise... It was empty.

I turned to Zevran and snarled; "What the hell is the meaning of this?!"

"The meaning of what?"

"Why would you point me to an empty freezer? Where the fuck is she?"

He clucked his tongue at me, his eyes darkening in pure rage. "She’s there."

"There’s no one in there. Stop fucking lying!"

"Oh, were you looking for Leilani?" He mocked. "So you really wanted to see her?"

"Zevran, what are you saying?!"

"What I’m saying is that Leilani is somewhere upstairs receiving treatment... and don’t you dare look at me like that, because that—" he snarled, pointing at the open freezer, "...that would’ve been her condition if I didn’t find her on time after you both left her to die!"

"So you’d go this far just to prove a point?" Caelum finally said from behind me. "Why? What is the reason?"

"You of all people, brother, do not have the right to talk to me about proving points. What was the reason you drained her of twelve bags of blood when four would’ve been enough for Chalice. Huh?" He growled, and Caelum, obviously cornered, bit his lower lips but said nothing.

"Exactly."

"But this isn’t right. This isn’t..." I began to say but stopped when Zevran pinned me with the hardest glare I’ve ever seen on him.

He nodded, a small dark smirk appearing on his lips as he drawled; "Next time you both decide that you want to go extreme with her because of whatever reason you have, never forget that what I just did today may come to pass... that you may kill her for real... and I, your brother, will sell you out."

I froze.

"Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have matters to attend to. And while you’re both here, staring at that empty freezer, you can take your time to reflect on your petty actions." Zevran seethed, and with that, he stormed away from us without sparing us a second glance.