Read The Return for Free Online Page B

consuming, all reason lost. Lunging for her, his hands grasped her neck, squeezing.
    "How could you?" he heard himself saying. "Murderer. Murderer!"
    "You're a killer Zachary," Victoria gasped, her fingernails raking at his hands. "And you're mine. I made you.  I made you !"
    "I'm not yours!" he spat at her, letting his rage overwhelm him. Feeling his fingers sink into her flesh, he tore her neck open, his fangs sinking into the open wound, tearing out anything they clasped hold of. With a roar, he tore her head clean off, casting it aside as her limp body fell to the ground, blood pooling in the dirt.
    He watched numbly as her body turned grey and withered, his chest heaving, covered in her blood. Victoria was right; he  was  good at killing. It was  easy . A piercing scream brought him back from the edge of his frenzy. Samuel!
    Turning back to the manor he ran, needing to get to his brother before he did something he'd regret. He needed to explain to Sam, let him know his options. Give him the choice he never had.
    Running up the long driveway he saw his brother in front of the house, clutching a young woman to his chest, his head buried in her neck. Zac couldn't smell her blood , he hadn't fed yet . He pushed himself to run faster than his vampire feet had ever taken him.
    "Sam!" he yelled, but was too late. He watched helpless as his brother sunk his newly grown fangs into the woman's neck. Stopping dead in his tracks, he could only watch his little brother, twenty years old, toss the woman aside as if she were nothing.
    Sam looked confused as he stumbled down the driveway, blood dripping down his chin, the ground littered with the corpses of the massacred slaves and servants. Zac could only fall to his knees, silent tears streaming down his cheeks.
    "Zac..." Sam was gasping, clutching his chest. The change was on him.
    Roaring in pain, he collapsed, writhing on the ground, subdued by Zac's hands on his shoulders. When he finally slipped into unconsciousness, he let his grasp slacken. It was his fault. All of it was his fault. If he hadn't of defied Victoria then she wouldn't have come here. His parents would be alive and Sam would be human.
    Zac could only do the one thing that was left in his power. Picking up his brothers limp body, he carried him down the driveway and away from their home for good.

     
 
 
 
 
 

CHAPTER FOUR

 
 
 
    Z ac had become a permanent fixture at Max's. He no longer cared about the scandalous gossip he was perpetuating as Ashburton's latest alcoholic train wreck. He just wanted everything to go the hell away and the more alcohol he could consume, the better. For the first time since setting foot in this stinking town, he'd had to compel the bar staff. Otherwise they'd cut him off. He was turning into the worst kind of drunk.
    The only kind of control Zac wanted was the numb inebriated kind.
    He sensed her concern from across the room before he heard her approach. Gabby sat at the bar beside him, worry set in her features as he rolled his eyes.
    "You're better," he said, still staring straight ahead, fingers grasped tightly around his glass.
    "Much," she replied, eyeing the drink in front of him. "Zac, I'm..."
    "I know," he interrupted.
    She was frowning at him. People frowned a lot in his direction lately. Why were they saying sorry to him? He hadn't had his heart torn out, but he may as well have. They'd all heard, all saw. She'd told him she loved him. They were sorry for him now that she was gone. She made him a better person, now he didn't know where that left him. He snorted, closing his dry eyes.
    "What are you doing?" Gabby asked, as if she didn't already know.
    "I'm just sitting here thinking about all the choices that I made to get to this point. The pathetic, lonely, homicidal maniac." Because it was true.
    "You're not alone, Zac. You have Sam and Liz. Alex. And you have me," she said, firmly.
    "Pfft. Sam doesn't want to help me, he wants to change me."
    "Zac.