Checkmate

𝐟 𝐢 𝐯 𝐞

05 | Zara

**TW - Mature Topics**

Zara Delcour had come to the conclusion that even air parted for her.

She felt as if she had no air to breathe in this cramped corridor.  The vest she wore had extra padding, bullets, tasers, and nail polish. Her father had given her the vest moments before she'd left on the jet.  She had had just enough time to slip a bottle of ruby-red nail polish into her front pocket, yet none of it was helping whatsoever.  Even the nail polish was not giving her any sense of calm, and usually nail polish was a last-resort type thing.

Zara glanced over at Kaspian to see him pressed up against the side of the wall, a gun to his chest.

Honestly, this was pointless.  She could fight just as well with her nails and fangs as any man could do in a gun.

After all, she was Zara Delcour; how hard could this possibly be?

With no hesitation, she slipped the annoying (and decently heavy) vest off her body and slowly set it on the floor.  With her new freedom, she rolled her shoulders and finally reached down to pull the dagger out of her boot.

"Why in God's green earth are you takin' that off?" Kaspian demanded.

Zara glanced up at him in confusion.  "Pardon?"

His American slang often confused her, even though she'd had 1000 years to learn it she still couldn't understand him.

Kaspian's lips parted into a smirk.  Zara watched his lips in a daze before she moved her eyes back onto his blue ones.

"Why are you removing that?"

"Oh!' she grinned, relieved to be free of the extra material.  Not only was it thick, but it was hot as well.  Zara was still amazed at how little the inventors of their empire have done to make things more effective and a lot less of a hassle.

Sure they'd come up with things like ever-full cups of blood for newly turned vampires and daggers disguised as lipstick (per Zara's request) but it looked like she would have to do a lot more requests for they still weren't thinking of things quite quick enough for her.

It was exhausting really to come up with the ideas for the inventors, figure out every sdastic gang member and what their motives were, capture mob members, and of course be the backbone in any argument the Elite Four ever had with anybody.

Really, if anybody else but her had to be Zara Delcour for a week or more, they would most definitely quit.

She even wanted to quit sometimes, although Mackenzie would probably lose his mind if he did.

Zara already knew he was angry at her for her lifestyle.  For the happiness, she carried with her despite all the horrible situations around her.

She didn't particularly care though.

It wasn't like the "all-powerful" Mackenzie Rousseau could control her.

She was Zara Delcour if anybody had forgotten.  Nobody could control her.

"Zara," Kaspian whispered under his breath.  Any human wouldn't have been able to hear that low of a tone, thankfully Zara wasn't quite human.  "Z they just left.  I think only the un-sub is left."

Zara nodded her head and tucked a pistol into her leather pants.  While she would rather use a dagger, a pistol was always an easy way to get out of a situation.

"If he starts yelling we can... you know," she made a cutting motion at her neck.

"Shoot 'em?" Kas guessed, trying to hide his smile.