The Discarded

The Reject Chapter 8 - 3

Cesare caught Anastasia's eye with his own. That was all it took. A burst of heat rushed from her, Anastasia's skirt fluttering in the sudden torrent of scorching air, dark flickers dancing in the depths of her eyes. Her hands loosened, fingers opening and closing in readiness.

Cesare's center of balance shifted low as his boots slid across the ground. Fire ignited in his heart, hot and wrathful at the promise of blood. With each beat, painful threads of acid tipped adrenaline pumped through his body, muscles flexing in preparation. His eyes ran over the group, picking out the fighters, bullies, followers, and the weak. The knowledge coalesced into a picture of slaughter, who to take first and who to leave for the end.

After hours of sparring together, not a word needed to be said for Alexandra to pick up on his mood. Her own body slipped effortlessly into the loose, almost lazy readiness of a predator. Half hooded eyes fell on the group of boys surrounding them. Those that weren't stoned on lust, flinched back from her stare, knowing it meant mangled flesh and disfiguring agony.

Cesare started forward, the girls melding with him in an almost supernatural sense. The fruits of hours spent sparring, training, fighting, sweating, and working with each other. The girls could never have worked together alone, their loathing would strangle the fetal idea before it could birth, let alone create a gestalt like this. With him as the lynchpin, they were forged into something of terrifying power.

Kids are animals; they can sense power and fear. They're instinctively drawn to one and greedily exploit the other. It's what makes pack animals, and the reason kids never come out of school whole. Innocence is crushed, beaten and raped, by the mindless need to exploit weakness.

On the trios second step, the boy's eager grins faded as they pulled back. Feeling the vicious edge in the air, the fighters caught on first. Jerking back, they pushed into the other boys in their sudden need to fade into the group. Now they recognized the girls weren't meat to feast on. No, they were horrors of womanhood, devourers of men, queens of carnage. They'd cornered a rabbit, only for the shadows to peel away in tatters of darkness and reveal the monstrously hulking hyena, madness glittering in its eyes, rotting flesh gracing its teeth with unholy sacrament.

There was no need to cut through the crowd, fear sent them stumbling back. The room tumbled into silence, boys turning their eyes away, shoulders rounding in submission. Almost as one, the mass of kids slunk away from the three predators that stalked through their ranks. Closing the door behind him, Cesare faced the girls. "Why?"

Stepping forward, Alexandra met his eyes squarely. "I came here intending to hide who I was, I knew they'd never accept me." Looking away, her words trailed off. Blinking, she visibly pushed the memories down. "They suffocate me, strangle me with their whining voices and petty, selfish needs, until I hunger to rip them apart and hang them by their viscera. I've seen you grow stronger as you've embraced who you are. I want that."

He knew there was more, not that she'd lied, she just hadn't told him everything. He could hardly ask her to respect his secrets if he was prying into hers. If she wanted to keep the rest to herself, he wouldn't push it.

"I've been with you since you started working with Viktor and Tamlin," Anastasia said, drawing his attention. "I know how hard you work, and while I'm not following the same path, I see the benefits."

With Alexandra, he knew he was getting as straight an answer as she'd give. But Anastasia was holding more than a little back, she was holding the whole. The way her eyes shifted to the vampire let him know the reason.

Shrugging, he slung the duffel across his back as he made for the end of the hall. "I won't argue. You don't ask Mother Night to hide her silvered beauty behind clouds."