11. Under My Skin.

Zayden's POV

Heat exploded across my chest. It was sudden, violent, and far worse than anything it had ever done to me before. It wasn’t the usual low pulse or unwanted warmth. It felt like someone had pressed a heated brand straight into my heart and held it there. My knees almost gave out. The pain tore through my ribs, quick and consuming.

One of my hands started shaking, then the other one.

Why the hell is the Veilbrand acting up?

A rough sound tore from my throat as pressure built behind my teeth and under my nails. My fangs forced themselves down without permission. My claws pushed through my fingertips in an insanely painful, uncontrolled shift. My vision blurred. For a moment it felt like my heart was actually on fire, like the mark was trying to burn its way out of my chest.

I staggered back a step from the bed, my breath coming harshly.

This had never happened before.

It was burning as if the Veilbrand was punishing me from what I did to the girl.

By the time I reached my quarters upstairs, the heat had grown worse. I ripped my shirt open desperate for a cold bath. My claws dragged an ugly scratch across my chest in the urgency. The mark was glowing an angry orange light, pulsing over my heart.

I barely made it to the bathroom before the door behind me flung open, Kael standing right outside. His eyes move from my face to my chest.

"Zayden.” He called firmly, his expression asking me what happened.

"Kael, the girl, do not lay a finger on her without my permission.”

"You're shifting” He walked in.

I grabbed Kael's shoulder, squeezing hard." Get the medical kits and treat her. I can handle myself.”

I said no more words and walked past him, heading to the bathroom before I collapsed in front of him.

I stepped into the wooden bathtub, sinking in until the water rose to my jaw. But the cold water did nothing.

"Damn it-”

The burn only deepened. I braced a hand against the wall as my claws scraped over the tile. For a moment I wanted to put my fist through it, anything to distract from the fire under my ribs. Instead my legs gave out and I slid down, back against the cold wall, water still pouring over me.

I spent several hours sitting there, letting the Veilbrand deal with me. There was no way I could fight it. It always did whatever it wanted. But its effects are not all bad, maybe much more bad than good.

And the Veilbrand's whispers had been messing with my head. Not with the creepy voice always urging me to stop resisting and let the Veilbrand merge with my wolf, and promising tempting powers that hadn't existed yet.

The voice always come whenever I'm breaking down like this, because it knew I would not be able to block it.

I never told anyone about this voice in my head. Not even Zira. My life was thoroughly fucked up without mentioning it and the atrocities it whispered in my head.

They had wanted me dead just for a mark alone. If they had found out the the Veilbrand was way beyond just a mark, that it was more a parasitic power and ward than a curse, then I would surely be dead already.

It was using her voice again.

‘ Zayden, you want it to stop don't you?”

"Shut up” I snarled under my breath.

The mark pulsed harder, heat rising more in my chest.

‘Isn’t it burning too much?’ The voice was soft, shaped exactly like hers. ‘ It's okay, let me in, I can make it stop.’

It wasn’t her. I knew it wasn’t her. But the Veilbrand had found a new way to dig its claws into me, and it was using the human girl downstairs to do it.

Things in my sight began melting as my body was dangerously close to its limit.

_____

I didn’t realize I had passed out until my eyes opened again, lungs burning with a desperate need for air.

Water filled my mouth, my head was underwater.

I pushed myself upward fast, reaching the surface with a rough gasp. My back slammed against the wooden tub as I dragged in air.

My claws and fangs had already retracted, and the burn in my chest had faded completely.

For a few seconds, there was only the sound of my breathing. Then her voice slid into my head again, still using the human's voice.

‘See, I told you I'll make the burn go away.’

My hands clenched onto the edge of the tub.

‘ What the hell did you do?

‘You should have stopped resisting earlier. The more you fight the merge, the more it will hurt. Next time, I might not pull you back’

‘ Stay out of my head.’

I pushed myself up and stepped out of the tub. Water ran off me onto the floorboards, as I took off my wet trousers and head into the room.

‘I am not in your head,’ it replied. ‘I am under your skin. There is a difference.’

"Try as hard as you want,” I muttered, pulling a clean shirt from my closet. “I'd rather burn to death than surrender my wolf"

‘ You mean your half-blind wolf? That foolish wolf that doesn't even recognize its own mate?’

My hand stiffened on the hanger.

‘ What rubbish are you trying to pull now?’

‘You felt it when you hurt her, didn't you?‘ the voice continued. ‘ You shut me out when I tried to warn you. You pointed a blade to your mate's throat you babaric fool.’

Then a wicked laughter filled my head.