ZINA
"I am sorry."
Three most unexpected words that took the fight out of Zina.
"Why?" She whispered, because as she stared at the chaos around them, she felt like she was the one that was supposed to be sorry.
She had pushed so hard to know what it was that Daemon knew about her. She had always known that there was so much to her ever since that night she died and sohow resurrected, and she had seen it in Daemon’s eyes that he had the knowledge that she lacked.
But now, after her scream decimated all the glasses in the room, she suddenly didn’t want to have any inkling of that knowledge that pressed against her back like sothing terribly uncomfortable.
Daemon once again looked frustrated with himself, like he didn’t know how to quite summon the words and force them out of his lips.
He rubbed one hand against his face and the strands of hair that were peppered about him.
"The things you want to know about yourself... I myself hardly know anything about them. I can’t share half knowledge with you, not when I don’t think it is sothing that you can bear.
An objection was tied on the tips of Zina’s tongue as she stared at the man’s surprising concern for herself. "I am not weak, Daemon." She said in a small voice even though she well understood where Daemon was coming from.
Just the re knowledge of what she had just done with her screams was startling enough, and the thought of knowing more only made her fingers clammy with sweat. But she could not always run away from herself and the knowledge tied to her existence simply because she was scared of what she might discover.
Even though it was still a blurry ss in her mind, she rembered that night the monster had reared up to attack Daemon and how she had expertly manoeuvred their bodies out of the way. Ordinarily, she could not have been able to move Daemon out of harm’s way so easily, and yet that night she did just that.
More than that, she was well aware that Daemon was yet to address the appearance of the deford, almost as if seeing one suddenly appear out of nowhere was a fact that wasn’t exactly foreign to him.
As Zina stared at the hard contours of the man before her, she rembered the rumours that carried on about the death of the late Luna Queen and Daemon’s mother.
Could they have been true? And how did one child manage to survive the knowledge of such contrived brutality?
"Do not ever think about breaking our bond, Zina." He finally said in a deathly low growl as hot coals were fanned within his beautiful eyes. "I can stand for much, believe I can do, but one of them doesn’t include you wanting to refuse our bond."
Zina smiled sardonically. While she had said those words and had ant them with the ruthless resolve she reserved for when she gave her harsher tis, she truly didn’t have the heart to cause herself that kind of harm again. However, regardless that her anger had cooled down, it didn’t prevent her from seeing that the problem between her and Daemon was still there.
But instead of pushing too hard, she resigned herself to only asking for little, and then little, until what he could give her grew to beco ’more’ altogether.
Zina stepped away from his touch, needing the space to think for herself and say words that ca from her heart. Daemon didn’t look too happy with the gesture, but to his credit, he didn’t try to tug her back.
"My first fated mate rejected in less than two minutes of our first and last encounter." She said as mories took her back to a ti that she thought she was alive but had only been dead inside. "His na is Jacen Vampage. The son of the Beta of the Vampage Pack and the adopted son and heir of the Alpha of the pack."
Ice cooled in Daemon’s eyes. "I know."
Zina smiled, knowing that Darmon simply wasn’t referring to the fact that she had been rejected, but the fact that he possessed the knowledge of the man who had been responsible.
Opening her mouth, Zina spewed hard words that literally speared at her heart. "He wanted to beco his mistress despite our mate bond for the re fact that he didn’t see a future with ."
Daemon said nothing.
Zina twisted her fingers as her emotions were laid bare before him. She hardly ever spoke of Jacen Vampage and the coldness of their encounter, but that was one event in her life that she could never forget even if she forgot all else.
"If I had accepted to beco his mistress, then who knows, he might not have rejected ."
Tears ford in her eyes, and the sight of them caused sothing dark and sinister to flare in Daemon’s eyes.
He took a step forward to her, while Zina took one back. "The point is, I am an utterly prideful woman, even when I am left with nothing, I have always held onto the delusion that I’ve a choice."
"I know."
"I can’t accept pieces of you, Daemon. I would rather have none."
"I know."
"Neither can I accept another Jacen Vampage in my life."
"I know."
"So do you think our bond can be more than it is now? Or are you content having it as one other piece in your ga?"
"It is true that this has always been a ga...." He said seriously, the sight in his eyes, too heavy for her. Zina almost staggered beneath the weight of them as his intense stare spoke more to her than his eyes ever would.
"...but now, it is no longer just a ga."
He took another step forward, glass crunching beneath his boots, but Zina didn’t back off again as she twisted her fingers while a rose thorn blood in her heart.
"What about you?" He asked, eyes brewing like sea tides on a full moon night, "will you still keep yourself away from ? Do you still intend to keep your vow and beco a high priestess forever severing yourself from ?"
The questions were delivered harshly, and sothing like frustration trailed behind them.
This ti around, Zina took one decadent step forward, her eyes brewing like storms too as she intended to convey to him the true extent of her bare needs.
"As long as you don’t sever yourself from , I too will not, Daemon."
His hand crept up, resting against her cheeks. It was like sea waves clashing against each other, like the eting of the sun and moon into rging as an eclipse, like the yearning of two lost souls.
"Zina..." he said in that voice that spoke directly to her heart. Zina involuntarily shut her eyes, revelling in the sound of his voice like music to her ears. "Will you be my mate?"
Her eyes flared open, and before her was the intensity of his need for her.
"Believe , I will try not to sever myself from you. But for now, just be my mate."
Her heart thumped, beating like loud cultural drums.
"I know there’s so many questions that you have for . But slowly, I will surely answer all of them. I know you’ve your reservations for , but know that I do trust you so please trust ."
Her breath stuttered... he trusts her?
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