Chapter Two- My Black Heart Bleeds For You

Burning INside The Black
EncoreDeZiZa

All Rights Reserved
2013

Chapter Two
My Black Heart Bleeds FOr you

 “Really? Really?!” He yelled, “Do you even care? Do you even F*****G CARE?!”

“It’s a f*****g lamp!” She yelled back, “What the hell-“ he cut her off, swinging the bat into the lamp, she flinched as the thing shattered into what seemed like a million pieces.

“LOOK AT THAT!” He yelled, his golden eyes practically blinding with all his pent-up rage. “THE LAMP IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!” This had gotten way out of hand. Zi and Hale had left to go shopping and in their absence Kale had picked up a book to pass time, when a cat came around, rubbing up on Moxxine, she’d given a disgusted face. The cat had meowed and so he’d said, ‘I’m sorry little kitty, you’re just not my favorite,’ Kale had then chucked the book he was reading at Moxxine and it escaladed from there.

            He seemed royally pissed that she hadn’t answered yet and stomped to the TV, “Do you feel anything for Zi? I bet you do!” He roared, before bringing the bat back.

“Wait!” Moxxine yelled.

“Oh so he does feel,” he snapped, “Welcome to hell!” He yelled, swinging the bat. Luckily, it stopped before it struck home, a small hand wrapped around the thick end before pulling it out of is hands. Moxxine’s eyes traced the arm to Zi, who passed her bags off to Hale.

“Sit.” She ordered, pulling up a stool. She sighed as Hale brought her a bottle of vodka. She placed the bat between her legs and closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath, “Welcome to ‘I Love You 101’,” She began, making Kale scoff.

“Don’t be rude,” She snapped.

“Rude?” He roared, sitting straight up, she couldn’t’ help but be drawn to his blazing eyes- he looked so sexy when he- “I’m the rude one?” And then he opens his mouth…

“Yes, she’s helping, trying. Even after you damaged her property. A normal person would’ve kicked you out. Show some gratitude.”

“Gratitude?” And now he was on his feet, “Listen here you black- hearted, soulless prick!”

“Are you f*****g kidding me right now?” Ashton yelled, jumping to his feet. “I’m a soulless f*****g prick? Is there an actual reason you’re mad at me or are you just full of s**t?!”

“Full of s**t? Full of s**t!” She gave a harsh, humorless laugh, stepping forward, “Damn you, Ashton Grey, damn you to Hell!”

He glared at her, stepping forward as well, as they battled for dominance, “I’ve said sorry! I said f*****g sorry! A thousand times! What do you want from me?!” He bellowed, throwing his arms out to the side. They both simultaneously stepped forward.

She pulled at her long, flowing black hair in desperation, her golden eyes never leaving his. “Everyday. Every f*****g day was agony, waiting, hoping, being disappointed, heart broken, time after f*****g time!” He stopped then, his anger slightly subsiding at the anguish in her voice.

“Richelle,” He whispered, it was plea, of desperation, of longing, he stepped forward as her fire-hatred seemed to simmer. His eyes flickered to her full pink lips, they were so close… “I thought we settled this,” He said mainly to himself as he drug his tongue across his bottom lip.

She swallowed, quite audibly, all sorts of emotions flickering in her golden eyes, “Dying changes things.” She whispered, “I ran into that fire after you, I-“ Her voice cracked, “I thought I’d lost you,” He snorted. And she cared? Right… Everyone cares for the soulless prick.

“My black heart bleeds for you,” He spat sarcastically before turning, inches from bumping their shoulders as he sped off to the garage.

            Richelle closed her eyes, plopping onto the couch and laying her head in her hands. Zi just starred in a mix of awe, shock, and horror. They’d done it, by finally talking about their problems, they actually managed to switch back, on their own. Granted, they’d nearly killed each other, but still. She doubted they’d even noticed. Slowly she stood, locking eyes with Hale who’d been leaning on the island. He parted his lips, slowly mouthing the word ‘Intense’. She merely nodded before sitting on the stool and resting her head on the counter. When they argued the air became so thick, nearly smothering. But not with hatred. Richelle and Ashton were missing something- something they now had. A disapproval of the way the other one did something, anything really. They’d never argued, never even dared. They were both so scared to lose each other- and now, as they took that risk, their relationship grew, and that’s why it was so suffocating, not because of hatred or spite, but it was flooded with love, regret, and hope. It was beautiful, so tragically beautiful; nevertheless, it was still exhausting. And something needed to be done. Sure love-hate would work for now, but if they were going to be of any assistance, they needed to knock that s**t off, and fast.

 

 

            “This is ridiculous,” Ashton hissed, standing from the couch, Hale cocked his gun and Zi raised an eyebrow.

“Down,” She ordered and he reluctantly sat. The air shifted, thickening to the point of suffocation, he stiffened, his senses perking, pushing to new heights due to the up-coming presence of a Seeth. An aura, damaged yet slowly, slowly recovering, seemed to hit him with an abrupt and unforgiving strength.

            Richelle entered then, bringing the smell of fresh soap and something flowery. She took one look at the room before turning sharply on her heal. Zi grabbed her by the arm, pulling her to the couch, across from Ashton and sitting on the table that separated them. “Now,” She breathed, “Nothing is as annoying as a love-hate relationship,” She stated, “And frankly, I don’t have time for it. However, you two need to talk, your ignore-it-and-it-didn’t-happen strategy is juvenile, unhealthy, and not to mention stupid. SO. No one leaves until everything’s off your chest, am I clear?”

“I have to pee,” Ashton said, raising his hand.

“If you speak again, to anyone other than Richelle, I will personally light your balls on fire.” Zi snapped before drawing a deep breath, “Now, Richelle, why did you get pissed off yesterday? What set you off?”

Richelle flipped a pair of sunglasses over her golden eyes, her cheeks had a tinge of soft red to them and Zi could almost guarantee she’d been crying. She looked good though, for someone who’d obviously been pushed a little too far recently. She was wearing a soft white sweater that looked to be made of cotton, you could see a black shadow of her bra, her hair was up in a messy bun, she wore tight black pants and grey socks. She was rather cute as she gnawed on her longish nails. “I’d been reading the first book- I’d gotten to the second time Ashton screwed me and ran,” Zi didn’t miss the way Ashton cringed from her words, “I couldn’t’ remember at that point and he told the cat it wasn’t his type or whatever and I just… Snapped.”

“Okay, and Ashton, when was your breaking point?”

“I was fine until she called me a black-hearted, soulless prick.”

“I didn’t know!”

“You knew, at that point, you knew.” He rebutted, his cat slits narrowing, “You screamed Richelle, you screamed: Damn you, Ashton Grey, damn you to hell! Now am I imagining things or did that happen?”

“Oh it happened,” Hale spoke up, “That was my favorite part.”

“Yes, thank you, Hale,” Zi hissed, “Now shut up.” He gave an innocent shrug, “Guys, it’s possible that as your hormones sky rocketed and you came to, that you were slowly getting your memories back. It could be that when Richelle damned you to hell,” She stated, blinking, she tried not to think about how ridiculous this whole thing was, “She didn’t remember meeting Ashton a third time or his confessions,” She sighed. Ashton was leaning back on the couch, his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes trained on Richelle, “This was your first fight,” she continued softly, “It’s gonna be hard, it’s going to hurt like hell and you’re going to remember it forever. But please, I firmly believe it was, in fact, a simple misunderstanding.” She finished, looking between the two, “Is there anything you’d like to add?” The room was consumed with silence.

            “Do you really believe I’m a prick?” Ashton asked quietly.

“No!”

“Then why say it?”

She sighed, leaning forward, “Ashton, the witch told me something that day. She said you were waiting- waiting for me to make up my mind: Did I want you or did I want to ignore you and spend my time fighting over other battles.” She drew a deep breath, removing her shades to show strong red pools of dried up blood beneath her eyes and along her nose, they’d been smeared across her cheeks from hastily whipping them away. Zi watched as realization and sympathy washed over Ashton’s face, they were soon replaced by regret. “But see the thing is, I’d already chosen. I chose years, centuries, before hand. The first night we meant, I chose you. It had always been you. I reacted so strongly because the second time we meant, it really fucked me up. If it wasn’t for Iz and M….” She dropped the sentence, letting it hang in the air, “I didn’t mean it,” She summed up, “I was just being irrational and stupid.”

“Hey,” he cooed, crawling on the table and shoving Zi back. She bit back her retort as he sat in front of Richelle, “You weren’t. Far from it.” He added, affection seeping through his tone. Richelle’s eyes rolled lazily up to his eyes, where they froze. Just taking everything in. “I’m sorry,’ he added.

“What?”

“That you went through all that, in the fire and then the meadow,” He closed his eyes, hanging his head before shaking it, “God, I’m so sorry,” She reached up, grabbing his face in her hands, her eyes boring into his.

“Ashton,” She said harshly, but Zi could hear it, the love in her tone, in her eyes. “Don’t think that anything, anything the witch did w-“ Her sentence was cut off as he smashed his lips to hers. Zi looked at Hale, beaming with excitement. He gave a simple smile in return and turned to put the gun away.

           

 

            Before he had fully turned around a sudden and unexpected ground-shaking ‘BOOM!’ had Ashton on top of Richelle, partly form falling, partly from the need to protect her. Hale, who was laying on the floor, aimed the gun to the side of the house that’d been blown off. Zi cursed under her breath, standing from the table and drawing her guns, she aimed at the opening, flicking off her safeties. Unwilling to waste any bullets, she waited. They fire first, she’d counter- fire and aim for where ever their bullets came from.

            They stood there for a few seconds as the smoke began to clear. Richelle shoved Ashton off her, the movement provoking the enemy- they fired. Machine guns. The blasts were blindingly loud and bright- Zi did was she’d learn to do best- She fired. The sound of bullets piercing skin and snapping through bone was disgustingly amplified as her wolf woke. It loved action, loved violence, if anything else happened; it tended to get bored and indifferent to the point of sleeping. It was actually sad how blood-thirsty she was.

            With the first two lines down, the final ones stepped up- eventually Hale and Zi effectively killed them. All the pawns- dead. They waited, They’d been doing this long enough to know it wasn’t over. Nothing. Richelle stood, turning to look between Zi and Hale( who was now standing and reloading his gun). “What the f**k-“She was cut off by a fierce, hair-raising growl. ZI and Hale looked at each other as the blacks of their wolves eyes flashed. “Here,” Zi said, handing her guns to Richelle, unbuckling her belt.

“What are you-?” She cut herself off as Zi drooped the belt of bullets over Richelle’s shoulder. “Hey, this is act-“ Zi gave her a hard look as Hale passed Ashton his gun.

“This is my last round,” He explained, “If worse comes to worse, use it like a bat.”

“But what are-“ They were cut off by the heart-quenching, gut-wrenching sound of the breaking, twisting, healing and stretching of their bones as they molded into five-foot tall wolves. In perfect unison, Zi and Hale barred their teeth- on queue, the last of their fighters leaped into the house- Zi and Hale stepped forward, meeting them head on.

 

            Blood. It seemed for every species it tasted different. Human blood was sweet, sugary, like candy. She was quite found of it, honestly. But that was a horrid habit she’d picked up form her wolf. Long story short, she avoided humans. At all costs.

            Vampires were disgusting. T hey had a coppery, tangy taste that was just appalling to say the least. She hated killing vampires, but at the same time, loved it. Because the worse the blood tastes, the easier it was for Zi to gain control of her wildly unjust and darker side.

            Werewolves. She hadn’t tasted their blood till now. And as her canines greedily removed her enemies fur and sank into the wolf’s annoying thick sin, she found she was glad she hadn’t. It was warm, repulsively bitter, a lot like hot tea- Gross. Gross was a divine word that fit the taste of werewolf blood to a T. And she was glad.

 

            She didn’t stop till it was empty, turning to face Hale (Still in wolf form), she shifted, not really caring that she was naked as the brisk, late-night breeze hurriedly surrounded her, cloaking her. Hale turned back too, and she kept her eyes above everyone’s shoulders. Zi knew they weren’t finished, but she wasn’t stupid. They needed to ditch fast before this whole thing turned out to be more disastrous than necessary. She led them to her trap door, dropping to the game/music room. She went to her dresser, grabbing clothes for her and pants for Hale, as she ignored the satisfied purring of her wolf. She ground her teeth, tossing the pants to Hale, who she could sense behind her, and walking to her old writing room.

            It’d been redecorated recently, shelves aligning all three walls, from top to bottom. In the center of the room was a lighted glass cabinet full of the best equipment- explosives. Explosives, poison, flaming bows, and purified, silver swords. “How did you…?” Richelle breathed.

“While you were out playing human, we’ve been under constant fire.” Zi informed, placing her hand over the sensor. The alarm buzzed and the doors opened, welcoming them. She glanced over her shoulder, “You’ve missed a lot.”

“Care to share?” Richelle retorted, Zi’s jaw locked as she dove into an inward battle with her wolf.

“Don’t,” Hale warned, shoving weapons into a suit case. Well it looked like a suitcase, but conviently there were indentations in the velvet lining that fitted perfectly with the weapons he was gathering.

“Absolutely,” Zi snapped turning on her heal, her eyes pitch black, “You were out committing adultery and murder while the rest of the witch’s creations went hay-wire. Vampires vanished off the face of the Earth for the beginning of it. Every single last witch was killed, thy went after mermaids next, killing off three-fourths of the species-“

“Those are good things, this war isn't that bad. My God, you people are just sad."

"What you saw up there," Hale rebutted, pointing to the ceiling, "Isn't over. It just began, we just got out while we could because-"

"You don't owe her any explanations," Zi glared, her eyes narrowing, continuing to darken, “The rest of the mermaids ran, it took Fae, Hale, and I forever to find one and when we did we wished we hadn’t. The vampires had split in two, the second learned with mermaids- they created a pretty sexy species-“

“If by sexy you mean repulsive,” Hale added, swinging a large gun over his shoulder, he had two hand-held guns sticking out of the hem of his pants, he swiftly bent at the waist, placing another in his boots as well as two shiny daggers. Under his watch, he had another. He pulled a thick leather jacket over the whole thing and began loading that, “Then quit conceivably.”

His actions seemed to snap Zi back to reality, she stepped forward, taking her bullet belt and looping it through her pants before putting her guns besides her hip bones and a third in front of her belly button before tightening her belt and grabbing more accessories. “The mermaids and vampires have created a mutation. The first group of vampires are aiming to stay pure, but they took to the lab, and we don’t know what they’ve got under their hood.”

“Nice example, but you molded two together,” Hale critiqued, “You might just wanna stick with the car one or the evil scientist next time, don’t mingle.”

“Eh,” Zi replied a certain carelessness to her voice that drove Richelle off the roof, “Desperate times,”

“What of the rest?” Ashton quizzed, already snatching up weapons like they were going out of style.”

“Some extinct, few in hiding, most?”

“Shredding each other to pieces.” Hale added, Richelle couldn’t help but feel slightly over whelmed and dizzy as Hale tossed Ashton a duffle. “By the way, your Chevellian friends are cowards.”

“Seeth are everywhere,” Zi continued, “But the strongest are the dragons.” She smiled softly, sweetly, and for a moment Richelle felt bad for resenting her- the new her. “They only came out once,” She added and just like that, it was back. The blank mask and quick, tense movements as she layered herself with weapons. She shrugged on a coat similar to Hale and continued packing.

“Once was all they needed,” Hale inputted.

“God! How long were we gone?”

“Too long,” Zi snapped as Hale politely stated, “Just over a year.”

“As I was saying,” Zi continued, gently placing the explosives, poison, gasses, ad anything related to fire in the cooler, “The dragons are bad a*s, don’t underestimate them.”

“Lucky for us,” hale inputted, dropping the ground to continue packing another bag, “They only come out when it’s bad- and they finish it.” Zi shut the cooler, giving Richelle a respectful look before getting her own ‘suitcase’ and duffle. She didn’t hesitate to begin packing.

“Where’s Fae?” Ashton asked thoughtfully.

“Jail.” Zi replied swiftly.

“Why?” He asked, sounding a lot like a kindergarten teacher whose student had just eaten a crayon.  Zi and Hale froze, they shared a knowing look before simultaneously returning to packing, “Ooookkkaaayyyyy…”

“She’s waiting, like the rest of them,” Zi continued on, avoiding the question, “Till it gets bad, then she’ll return, when she’s needed.”

“It must be a dragon-radar thing…” Hale mumbled.

“She refused and denied every offer I gave and honestly, all she has to do is shed her clothes and she can leave, so I’m not worried,” Zi added, standing abruptly, “Ready?”

“Absolutely,” Hale grinned, standing as well, snatching up his many, many bags.

“Mhm,” Ashton agreed, throwing the duffle over his shoulder and that’s when she realized. She bit her lip, trying to decide if it was okay to ask or not…

           

 

            Her thoughts were somewhat scattered when Hale shoved a bag at her face, “Stay on your feet, Love,” He advised, “You’ll be dead before you know it.”

 

 

 

Author's Note:
                           YAY! THE FIRST ONE!!! Which means ((Drum roll please)) that I'm finally getting into this book. Yes, I, Ziza Blackburn, am officially, undoubibly, and inevicably inlove with Burning In The Black. Every single part of it. 
Fortunatly, it also means that it's time to get serious. That means, I'll be constantly thinking of the book, ways to improve my writing for this book, thinking of drastic twists, dents, and heart-stoppingly beautiful tragedies for this story plot. Any recomendations? Try my inbox, message boared, or simply comment below.

Not gonna lie, I didn't think this chapter would be the one I'd fall in love with, simply because of the beginning (Which in my oppinnion, sucked) but apparently, i'm over it. 
                 So, question time, Zi's transformation: she was socially awkward and kept to herself in the last book, but a combination of her crazy-as-hell wolfy friend  and the year she's been at war has changed her, drastically. So why's Zi a wolf? And why's Fae in jail? One hint: They may or may not have everything to do with each other.

So vote, comment, adn add to your reading list, because we're just getting started.

Now before you go, imma sing One Last Breath by Creed. Feel free to leave whenever you chose.

Please come now, I think I'm falling, I'm holding onto all I think is safe,
It seems I found the road to nowhere and I'm trying to escape.
I yelled back when I heard thunder, but I'm down to one last breath.
And with it, let me say, let me say,
Hold me down, I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking
Maybe six feet, aint so far down...
I'm looking down, now that's it's over, reflecting on all of my mistakes,
I thought I found the road to somewhere, somewhere in his grace.
I cried out heaven save me! But I'm down to one last breath, 
And with it let me say, let me say,
Hold me down, I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking
Maybe six feet aint so far down...
HOLD ME DOWN! I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking
Maybe six feet aint so far down...
I'm so far down.
Sad eyes follow me, but I still believe there's something left for me
So please come stay with me, 'Cause I still believe there's something left for you and me
You and Me
You and Me.
Hold me down, I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking,
HOld me down, I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking,
Maybe six feet aint so far down.
Hold me down, I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinking,
Maybe six feet aint so far down.
Please come now, I think I'm falling, I'm holding onto all I think is safe..............

Author's Note

So I left My author's note from my last site up on here, because knowing the lyrics to that song is important. Plus, it's kinda funny when I read my own thoughts they're so random and scattered. But hey, that's me I guess. lol, and for the record, I'm no longer in love with the book. Just decided to throw that in there. Later darlings!