Chapter 385: The Smallest Quiver
"You would do that? You would let them go?" Penelope asked, not ready to believe anything Zagan had to say. He had a peculiar look on his face right now like the cat that ate the canary, and she didn’t know what to make of it.
His black eyes were locked with hers, and she shivered imagining how he had compelled her. She did not want that to happen again. She wanted to look away, to hide herself from him and stay safe from whatever unspoken plans he was formulating and would not say, but this was too important. The lives of the others hung in the balance, and if he was truly willing to let them go until the time that August was able to successfully end his existence for him, then she needed to make sure he went through with it and didn’t change his mind.
"Yes, I will let them go," he finally said.
Penelope was frozen in disbelief. The words were too easy to say.
"You do not appear happy," he remarked, his eyes scanning her face.
"They are just words. I don’t know that I can believe you," she replied.
"I don’t just say words. I have no reason to lie," he told her.
"And yet you are not entirely truthful, either," she said.
"What makes you say that?" he asked, his head tilting slightly making him look like a curious puppy.
"Is there nothing you are keeping from me?" she asked.
His change of heart was too fast, too peculiar. There had to be something else going on that he wasn’t saying. He did not seem that eager to die before. On the contrary, he wanted to draw out the process with August—taking her memories and testing her first to see what capabilities she had. This was a game to him, as he said. So why was he willing to let the rest of the alyko go now? Was this a trick of some kind? Another part of his game? Would he let them go but only to another place where they would continue to be locked away?
"There is a difference between lies and that which is not said," he said, a smile teasing his lips.
"This is a game to you," her face twisted in disgust. "You are just playing with me."
"I am not lying about letting them go, I assure you. It is a significant decision, but it is one I am willing to make," his voice dropped in an attempt at reassurance.
"You will let them go back to their families or wherever they wish? They will be totally free? They will never have to fear you again?" she asked, eager to clarify his meaning and try to tease out any tricks that he may be hiding.
"Yes," he said simply, a muscle feathering in his jaw at his dislike of being questioned.
"I don’t believe you," she shook her head. "I don’t. Why would you just suddenly do that because I suggested it?"
"Perhaps your opinion holds more sway than you imagine," he replied.
Her face twisted in disbelief. He sighed, seeing he would not gain her trust easily, and picked up the phone to dial Seth.
As he waited for his second to answer, he addressed her, "I don’t suppose you would know a faster way to send them home, would you? Perhaps through some vanishing method that accomplishes it in a blink of the eye?"
She frowned, not understanding the joke that caused his lips to twitch into the beginning of a smile.
"We still have not found her, boss," Seth reported when he answered the phone.
"Forget it. I need you to make your way back here. You and your team are to go to the facility and release the rest of them. They won’t know how to exit the island, so you will need to lead them out," Zagan told him.
"Boss?" Seth asked, not understanding this drastic change. He was set on having Zosime back, and now they were abandoning that objective and returning to let the rest of them go?
"I will be keeping the Luna, the Winter, and Nedra of course. The rest are free to go," he clarified.
"Is this real?" Seth asked, squinting into the air as if it would help him hear the truth more clearly, because this did not sound like the vampire he knew.
"I do not like being questioned," Zagan’s voice dropped, and his eyes unlocked from Penelope’s so that he could glare into the distance where he imagined Seth to be. "This is paramount. Get back quickly."
"Yes, boss," Seth replied, bewildered but unwilling to question the vampire further. If that was his wish, then that is what must be done. He only wished Nedra was included in it.
Zagan ended the call and tipped his head in deferment to Penelope as if her wish had just been granted.
"Why can’t you do it yourself?" she asked.
"You are a hard one to please, clearly," he mumbled to himself and rose from his desk.
She stood quickly as well, not wanting to be left alone in this office again. His eyes narrowed to her quick, nervous movements as he made his way around the desk and she backed away, watching him with suspicion but not with fear, he noted.
"You have just traded your blood for all the rest of theirs," Zagan said, prowling toward her. "You will need to learn not to react this way to the smallest of movements from me."
"I—I understand," she said, pausing her retreat and gulping as he came closer.
He was so graceful in his movements, like a perfect predator—beautiful and deadly in the way he was designed to lure in prey. Her heart sped up as he moved within inches of her, his eyes somehow devouring her before he even had the chance to sink his fangs in.
"Y-you are hungry now?" she asked, her lashes fluttering as she tried to remain calm and brave. She would endure whatever she must if it meant the rest of her kind were free, never to fear the vampire hunting them again.
"I am always hungry," he answered, leaning close enough that she could feel the icy breath fan across her forehead and then down the side of her face until it paused at her neck.
Would he bite her neck? Her heart sped up in anticipation of the pain that was sure to be unbearable as her eyes squeezed shut. She was determined to handle it.
Zagan watched in amusement as the delicate alyko pressed her eyes tightly, stealing herself for the bite she thought was coming. Her heart was thrumming like a welcoming purr, but he was only teasing her. He had no need for blood at the moment, and for some reason he was not enticed by hers like before. It was a relief. He didn’t want to be tortured by the scent of her.
He stayed poised over her, smiling until he saw the smallest quiver of her bottom lip. The little tremor of her lip did something to him, and his eyebrows cleaved in concern as his chest began to ache—not in the way that it had before when his heart thundered to life. This was different. It was sweeter.
He found his head lowering to hers, drawn to her in a different way than before. He wanted to run a thumb over that sweet quivering lip to stop it from fearing him.
Instead, he leaned down and unplugged something from the wall that was right behind her. Penelope felt him move away and her eyes slowly opened to see the map on the wall that had been twinkling with little lights go black.
