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Extra Chapter #4 Kana

My eyes hovered over the hairbrush in my hand. It was so cold, so hard. Somehow it took me back, reminding me of the icy touch of her skin. I had tried to console her, to bring her back to reality but there was a part of me that knew that it wouldn't happen. When she bit me the second time, it solidified my fears.

I rose the brush and took a good look at myself as I ran it smoothly through my dampened hair. I tried to smile, shot my signature dazzler right at myself in an attempt to look normal, anywhere close to my usual self. It didn't hold any happiness. Especially not as tears streaked down my checks in harsh clumps. It was so hard to keep it in. Though I was good at bottling things up and casting my light forward, right now, it was too hard to even try. I was so emotionally exhausted from the past couple days that all I could do was cry and zone out.

I missed my brother and I missed Roza. And it wasn't the burdens of leadership in Dominik's absence that made me dive deeper into my sorrows. It was seeing Giovanni's face after what he had done. His claim was that Amaria was behind it all, but this was what he had wanted for so long. I couldn't believe him, as much as I desperately wanted to, as much as my soul demand I believe him. I wouldn't let this ridiculous bond between us cloud my mind to things that were painfully clear. Not now, not while they had Roza in they're basement and I Dominik in mine.

What I needed to do now was think of a plan to break her free. And as my mind began reeling for the first time since the funeral, the door opened and interrupted its course.

"Master Kana, I have today's report on the master." Vera stalked in, eyes low, voice hushed. I didn't have to look at her to feel the heaviness of her shoulders.

I motioned for her to go ahead and continued brushing my hair while whipping away my tears with my free hand

"He hasn't shifted back yet and he's refused to eat today too. It's been three days since his last meal, he won't last as a wolf much longer." She sighed sorrowfully. "He's also broken his chains multiple time and injured both guards."

"Injured how?"

She looked at me through the mirror, meeting my eyes to convey the gravity of his attack. "He managed to rip Charlie's arm off, biting straight through the bone. And he malled Peter's leg as they held him down to get him restrained."

I set the brush down and took a shaken breath. There wasn't much else we could do right now. I was nearly out of options. The only two paths left either hurt my brother or Giovanni. But the worse of the too was to let Dominik free to slaughter the vampires. So, I collected myself and made my way down to the dungeon, still draped in my silken robe.

When I saw him, it broke my heart. He snapped and snarled at the bars, having broken free again. His teeth clashed with the metal and formed hard groves into the nearly unbreakable steel. And he was bloody. I couldn't tell if it was his blood or the people he had hurt. But it coated him a tint of red, distorting his true color.

I sat at the bars right in front of him. Daring, I placed my arms forward, toward his teeth and he stopped. For the first time he was still, quiet as he looked at me.

I tried to keep the quiver from my lower lip, I tried to keep the swell of tears in my head and tried to keep my hands from shaking as they slid onto his moistened face. I brushed my fingers through his black tufts of gruff and he finally settled down, a long and painful whine filling the dank, dark cell. I wanted to let him out, wanted to open the door even just to slip inside and spend the night to console him, but I knew as soon as I tried, he would attempt to escape, even if it meant hurting me. So, I settled in on the floor and beckoned him to join me.

He curled up against the bars, his fur sticking out against the metal. And we cried.

I pet down his back, soothing over the pain swirling beneath his skin. I could feel it squeeze at his heart with every whimpering breath that left his giant wet nostrils. They huffed against the ground as if letting out all of misery, but I knew all to well that it would just come right back and settle in his gut.

"Nikki, I know." My cheeks stung against the tightening of my face, the tears that slid over my skin for the hundredth time today, salting my tender flesh raw. "I'm trying. I'm trying so hard."

He let out a long whine and bucked his head back against the bars. It rung out with collision of his skull, sounding as battered as my soul.

"I need you to do something for me." I bit my lip to keep it from bowing into a frown. "Go to sleep Nikki. Sleep until I can get-"

Before I could say her name he jumped up and snapped at me. I nearly lost a finger, my arm still hanging inside his cage. He bore into me with his rage as he back up and nestled into the corner, onto the shadows were I could only see his eyes. They turned and shifted through sadness and fuming anger.

He couldn't hear her name. I knew now that it would break him. So, I pressed my lips together and left him.

All I could do now was plan her escape. That was the only way to bring back my brother and make things right.