Chapter 28: Amri

"Are you sure you're okay?" Damion questions for about the thirtieth time since this morning.

"I'm fine, I'm more worried about Zain than I am myself."

At the thought of what happened, my hands once again move to my neck, to the bruises forming there. My throat is hoarse from the pressure and the screaming, but it hurts even more from the huge crying session I had in the clinic after it happened.

Zain just…snapped. I knew something was bothering him when we picked him up from his room this morning. He was being short and tense with both me and Damion, but I didn't think too much into it. Sometimes, Zain gets into these moods.

And then he attacked.

His hands closed around my throat, and he began choking me, slamming my head into the ground all the while screaming he was sorry, and he had to get the voice out.

"What voice do you think he was talking about? He wouldn't be saying that about Callyx, would he? "

Damion shrugs, opening his mouth before snapping it shut again.

"If you have something to say, then say it."

He sighs, pushing his water away from him. "I mean…we are in a mental institution, Ree. Isn't it possible that he…snapped?"

"You mean like he actually went crazy?"

Damion nods.

"Absolutely not." I shake my head. "I know Zain. Hell, you know Zain. Something is wrong. Something happened."

We both go silent, and I take the time to look Damion over. He jumped into the fight when he realized we weren't training and that something was wrong. Zain punched him good a few times, causing Damion to have his own black eye and busted lip.

Guilt eats away at me. It's clear something was wrong with Zain and as his mate I should have known. I should have questioned him more, checked on him more often, let him know I was there. Maybe it never would have gotten to this point. Don't get me wrong, I'm pissed as hell that he attacked me. I'm upset he tried to… kill me, but I also know better. Whatever was going on in his head wasn't normal.

That wasn't my Zain.

I proved that wasn't my Zain when I got him to stop. It took a few tries, but I finally broke through to him. I got him to focus on me and my voice instead of this supposed voice inside his head.

There are so many questions I have for him, but the more concerning ones are the ones I have for myself.

I…felt something when I was telling him to get off me. It came out as more of a command than I meant, and the po wer in my voice startled even me. My heart grew heavy, and I could feel something stirring not only in the air around me, but in my body. After the third time of telling him to get off me, it looked like he had snapped out of a trance. I'd like to think it was my presence and my voice that did it, but I'm not na?ve. I did something to him. And I need to figure out what.

"How long is he in solitary?" Damion went to his manager the moment he knew I was okay to find out Zain's fate. Luckily, Melford is not having him discharged, but I knew he would be in solitary.

"Three weeks. This is his second offense, Marissa said one more and he's out of here."

Looks like I'll be training alone for the foreseeable future. And tonight, we will be having a serious talk.

I'm sitting on the couch when Zain finally enters Vincent's room, his eyes red and puffy, dried blood coating his knuckles.

"I know the blood isn't from me, so who did you kill?"

A cheap shot, I know, but I'm done with the games. Zain, Vincent and Callyx have all been lying to me. This world I'm now a part of is more dangerous than I expected.

Zain jumps at the sound of my voice, running to me but stopping short when he sees that I've flinched.

"Sorry…I didn't mean – "

"No. You should flinch away from me. Amri…I…I almost killed you."

"Why, Zain? "

He points to the seat across from me, asking my permission to sit anywhere close like he's some kind of gentleman when we both know he's anything but. I nod, allowing him to sit.

"Balthazar came to me this morning, offered me a drink and wanted to talk to me. He told me to kill you."

Balthazar. I knew he didn't approve of Vincent's choice in mates, but I never thought he would go as far as to have one of us killed.

"I tried to fight it, Amri, I promise I did, but the voice…it hurts so damn bad. He said he could make it go away." The more he talks, the more I see the signs of pain. His face is constantly squished up, his eyes narrowed. A bead of sweat rolls down his brow as he clenches his fists over and over again.

"This voice…is it Callyx?"

When I mention Callyx's name, Zain's body doubles over in pain and he grabs his head as he starts to wail. The sound brings tears to my eyes. Forgetting my earlier hesitation, I rush over to him, putting my hands on either side of his face and looking him in the eye.

The power I felt earlier begins to rush through me. My heart beats faster, my palms heat up and something begins to stir in my chest.

When I speak, my voice sounds different – deep but much smoother than normal. "Focus on me, Zain. Calm yourself. You feel no pain. Calm."

With the sound of my voice, I watch as Zain's body slowly relaxes. Muscles I didn't even know were tensed even out underneath my hands.

"Better?"

Zain's eyes are wide as he looks at me. "How did you do that?"

I sit back on my knees, staring up at him as he stares down at me in wonder. "I don't know."

"Was I right in assuming the voice is Callyx?"

He's silent, watching me for a long moment before scrunching up his face in concentration. "Who's Callyx?"

Shock rolls through me. "What do you mean, Zain? Callyx is…he's your brother. He's the other half of your soul."

Zain shakes his head. "I would know if I had a brother, especially one that I was that close to."

I feel my body deflating. Whatever Balthazar did to Zain…it made him forget about Callyx. Obviously, Callyx still exists. Or…at least I hope that's the voice he's hearing in his head.

"Can you still hear the voice? After I... you know?"

He nods. "But it's not as – "

A rough laugh echoes around the room, making us both jump up and look around.

"Amri. Someone is in your room." Zain looks at me, fear staining his face.

That laugh…Royce.

"You need to wake up! You need to wake up, now, Amri!"

I don't know what gets me moving more. The sound of desperation in his voice or the fear of Royce being in my room.

I jump up from my seat on the floor and run to the mirror, jumping into its silvery essence headfirst and racing forward until I see the mirror showing me in my bed, with Royce hovering over me.

I jump through the second mirror, immediately sitting up in my bed and throwing out my fists, hoping to hit him anywhere I can while he's still surprised.

He grabs my hands in his, shoving me back down on the bed and pinning me there with one arm.

"I told you I wasn't done with you in that hallway, Amri."

"LET ME GO!"

I kick up, catching him in the groin with my knee. He groans, his grip faltering enough for me to roll out of his grip and off the bed. I land on the cold, hard ground with a thud.

He follows after me, falling to the floor and punching me directly in the face. I feel my nose crack, the blood pouring off my face and onto the floor below me. His hips straddle mine, his hand around my throat as he slams my head back into the floor.

My vision goes black, but the feeling of his rough hands intensifies on my body. I try to scream, but my voice doesn't work, the pain in my throat too much to bear from the earlier attack combined with Royce's current grasp.

I feel tears start to slide down my face, mixing with the blood, as my clothes stretch before getting ripped off me. Slowly, my vision comes back, tears and blood making things blurry, but Royce's face is clear above me.

Sobbing, I open my mouth to scream, but all that comes out is a whisper. "Why?"

He laughs as he continues to tear my clothes off of me. "You know, at first it was because you reminded me of my ex-wife."

He picks me up by my throat and throws me on my bed. I cry out as my head hits the wall. Opening my eyes, I watch him through blurry vision as he begins to rip my bed sheet apart .

"She was a bitch. Cheated on me with my brother and got pregnant. They got what they deserved, though."

He grabs my leg and pulls it down to the edge of the bed, using a ripped strip of my sheet to tie an ankle down to the bedpost.

He stands up straight, smiling down at me. "But now…you're going to make me a very rich man, Amri Glass."

"What?" My voice breaks halfway through the word, and I swear something in the back of my head feels broken as I sit up to look at him.

He shrugs. "You pissed off someone very rich and very powerful, Amri, and he's paying me to kill you."

I look down at my naked body, knowing damn well I don't have to be naked for him to kill me. The man who paid him, though…I would bet my life that it was Balthazar. His plan to have Zain kill me didn't work, so he has to pay someone else to do his dirty work.

"Oh no, this part is just for me. He never said I couldn't have my fun with you before I took your life." He walks closer, now hovering right above my head. "And I'm going to have my fun."

His hands move, and I watch with fearful eyes as he starts to pull his scrub pants down. Seeing that, being reminded of my father who used to stand next to my bed exactly like this, makes some kind of flip switch inside me.

He forgot to tie down my other ankle.

His dick now hangs pathetically out of his pants, and when he closes his eyes to stroke it, I strike.

I lean over, taking his dick in my mouth only long enough to bite it, taking the whole tip of it off with my teeth. Blood fills my mouth and his screams of pain fill me with newfound energy.

I sit up, reaching down to untie my one ankle before swinging off the bed and throwing my fist directly into his jaw. I smile as his head snaps back, and I watch as his blood now drips down to the floor.

"I'm going to kill you!" He roars, lunging toward me.

"Not if I kill you first!" I dodge his grasp, ducking low and swinging my legs out, catching him and making him fall to the floor.

I get on top of him, swinging my fists into his face over and over again until I can't even see facial features, I can only see blood. My body fills with that same mysterious power that filled me twice today, and I scream as my body begins to burn from the inside out, filling me, consuming me.

"Die you son of a bitch!"

A light explodes from my body, hitting Royce straight in the chest. I gasp, watching as his breathing slows…and slows…until his chest doesn't raise again.

My eyes widen as I scramble off his body, pushing myself backwards until I hit my bedframe. I killed him. I killed him. I killed him.

I killed him.

I wait for the guilt to set in, or the anger, but the only thing I feel as I drift off is complete and utter contentment.