Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 348: The body.

Zevran.

I was at home, tossing and turning on my bed because for some reason, I was too restless to fall asleep when I heard the news.

"Leilani’s house is on fire."

It seeped into my room like the night wind, disrupting what was left of the already imperfect night I was having.

And as soon as I heard those words... those words which were so carelessly spoken, I was effortlessly pulled out of my very many thoughts. I rushed out of bed so fast, I nearly stumbled to the floor, only for me to literally run out of my room and find my brothers talking loudly amongst themselves, their faces the most accurate depiction of despair.

At first, I had hoped that it was my imaginations playing tricks at me... that was until I saw the expressions on their faces.

I froze. "What did you just say?"

"Where did you hear about that?!" Caelum yelled, sounding so high pitched, it made me almost squirm.

Due to our shared panic, no one deemed it fit to necessarily answer my question. No one even spared me a glance and Hades from the pit of gallows, my heart raced when instead of responding right away, Kael didn’t.

In fact, he couldn’t even bring himself to look at any of us as he turned, lowered his head and mused; "Brothers, it is on the news."

On the news.

My heart fell. Like absolutely, practically crushed in my chest.

For a moment which wasn’t brief, I forgot all about breathing. I forgot how to move, breathe or speak. And goddess, I even forgot how to live too.

My legs gave way and I almost crashed to the floor, whilst holding my chest to stop the pain there from growing very fast. That is before a very loud cry slipped past my lips.

"She made it to the news?" It was a rhetorical question borne out of fear. So I hadn’t expected anyone to respond to that.

However, Kael did. He sighed. "The fire was so great, it made it to the news. But... but she hasn’t been found yet..." he trailed off, seeming quite unable to bring himself to finish that statement, but for some reason, I already knew where this was headed. I already knew why it meant, and I swear to the moon goddess, I didn’t like the sound of it at all.

Blinded by fear, I ignored the fact that I was clad in nothing but my gray sweatpants. I didn’t even have my flip flops on, and I didn’t care about that as I dashed for the stairs, my heart racing with each step I took.

When I arrived at the living room, I froze.

Why?

Because it was exactly what was being shown in the news. The fire outbreak.

The location was exactly Leilani’s, and I needed no soothsayer to know that the burning building in the background, right behind the reporter was hers. And to top it all, the headline read:

Home of Popular technology expert and leading scientist at Frostclaw. Inc, Miss Leilani Sinclair on fire. Her body is nowhere to be found.

And goddess, as soon as I saw that headline, it felt as though something inside of me had snapped. My already broken heart bled out and I could swear that for a moment, my vision waned.

What was more disturbing however, was not the news itself, it was the static image playing in the background. It was the overwhelming fire that I could see engulfing the house and filling my skin with heat even though I was several miles away.

My legs began to move on their own accord towards the door and I didn’t stop even as I walked past, barefooted and all into the chilly night.

"Zevran, where the fuck are you off to?" That was Kael. I knew, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. Hell, I couldn’t even bring myself to respond and was only snapped back to my senses when I felt something heavy run into the back of my ribs.

The sharp pain made me stumble as my back hit my car and I winced, turning around just then to see Caelum pressed into my back with his arms wrapped around my waist.

I sneered; "What the hell?!"

"Where the fuck do you think you are going?!" He screamed back at me, and for a very brief second, I wondered if he was mad.

I wondered if the shock had rendered him stupid, but deciding not to push this, I shoved him away, pointed back to the house and yelled;

"Didn’t you see that?"

"See what?!"

"Didn’t you see the news? Isn’t that enough reason to go to her? What if she is in pain? What if—"

"Did you even stop to think that perhaps I wish to go with you? That we wish to go with you? Why the hell do you always enjoy doing things on your own?!"

I almost told him that it was because I had learned too early in life to rely completely on myself, but deciding that my stupid life’s history was insignificant compared to Leilani’s current struggles, I sighed and turned away to open the door.

"You should both come with me then."

I hadn’t even finished saying the word when they both rushed into the car, and while Kael got into the passenger side of the car, Caelum went straight to the back.

I rolled my eyes and immediately got behind the wheel and then began to drive like a mad man out of there. My unhealthy speed made the journey quite fast and in a short while, we were rounding the last turn leading to her house.

A gasp that sounded from behind me was what finally snapped me out of the many thoughts swirling around my head as I drove past the familiar roads leading to Leilani’s house; And just as I snapped out of my inner rubble, my hands froze against my steering wheel.

Why?

Because goddamn, the fire was massive.

Even from this far, I could see the orange flames lighting up the sky. The smoke that emanated from it was another case entirely. As we drove closer, we noticed that fire fighters were already swarming around the building, looking for means to quench the angry flames. But the more they tried, the angrier the flames became.

I drove over slowly, partly due to the crowd in front of the house and when I got down, the first person I noticed standing with the fire fighters and screaming at the top of his lungs was Alpha Jarek Frostclaw himself.

His eyes were wide with fear and his body shook so wildly, I feared he would lose it. And as I stepped closer, our eyes met for a brief moment... but for the first time in my life, it wasn’t anger I found in his eyes, it was respect and fear... and something else that looked like regret.

"She’s not out yet," he drawled in a voice that was the complete opposite of the cold indifference he usually regarded me with. "She’s been trapped in that raging fire for so long."

I do not know why that was the first thing he said to us as soon as he saw us but for some reason, something about that news plus the panic already searing its way through my veins made me snap. It made my wolf go haywire and before I knew it, I was charging at the house, panting like my life depended on it and screaming, hoping that the thoughts in my head were false.

"Hey, young man! Please you are not allowed to—" a firefighter began to say to me, but pushing him off, I ignored and continued to run, only to halt so abruptly in my tracks when I saw a middle aged firefighter walking out of the burned house...

But he was not alone—

He was carrying a body. A body that was burned beyond recognition and a body that was unmistakably feminine.

My heart dropped.

"No!"