Chapter 84: Haunted by the Past
Irene.
Zayn’s hands shook as he stared at the glass tube. The scent was unmistakable. Sweet lavender with undertones that were uniquely hers.
Memories flooded his mind. Xavier would poison him with concoctions that made Zayn believe his mate was still alive. He would blindfold him and manipulate his senses. Using his mate’s scent from the lock of her hair, Xavier would taunt him about taking her.
“Fuck, she’s so tight, Zayn! Do you hear her screaming my name?” Xavier’s taunts echoed in Zayn’s mind.
The sounds of lust and love making clouded his mind, pulling him into a nightmare he had long buried in the vault of his mind. Zayn’s grip tightened on the glass tube, his knuckles turning white. He didn’t respond to Ezra, he couldn’t trust himself to speak.
While Zayn was being tortured by nightmares from his past, Xavier became transfixed on the belongings laid out on the tray. He lifted his head to take a closer look. Something shifted in his expression. He crawled forward, but was pulled back by the guards who held onto the chains.
The sound of chains clinking echoed through the dungeon. A smile formed on his filthy face as he looked at Zayn’s tortured expression, then at the glass tube in his hand.
Laughter bubbled up from his throat. No one took notice at first, thinking it was just his mad rumblings. But when the laugh continued, echoing the dungeons, the guards yanked his chain. It only made him laugh louder, more manic.
“Shut him up!” Ezra ordered the guards.
They tried, pulling harder on the chains, striking him with the whip, but nothing stopped Xavier’s hysterical laughter. If anything, it grew more frenzied, more taunting.
Xavier’s laughter further amplified the nightmares swimming through Zayn’s mind. Something snapped inside him.
The guards had no time to react. In one fluid motion, he grabbed Xavier by the throat and slammed him face-first into the stone floor. The sickening crack of jaw against stone echoed through the dungeon. Blood splattered across the filthy ground.