Blanket of Fear

Eliza knew that she had pissed Zacky off, and she also knew that she was going to have to deal with it later, when they were in their room tonight. She hadn't meant to upset him, but in her own way, she couldn't help but think that she was right for wanting to learn how to use the gun. Despite the fact that she loved and trusted Zacky, she didn't every want to become the kind of woman who was dependant on her man to keep her safe. She wanted to know how to defend herself, even if she never needed to actually use the information she was learning from Leana. Zack's argument that he was always going to be there simply didn't make sense to her, because neither of them knew for sure that he would be there forever.

He might be a vampire, but it had been proven to her that that didn't mean he was immortal, like Hollywood would have people believe. He was just as mortal and just as capable of dying as any regular human, and that was what scared Eliza. She didn't want to lose Zacky, but in the case that it ever happened, she needed to know how to fend for herself. It was only sensible and logical, and that was what mattered to her. It wasn't a trust or a love issue: it was a safety issue.

"Stop thinking about it," Zack murmured into her ear as they walked into the house, holding her wrist tightly in his hand, although she knew he wasn't trying to hurt her. Zack wasn't the kind of man who would ever harm her on purpose; he wasn't an abusive asshole like Sean had been. But even so, she didn't like the fact that he was holding her right now, especially when he was so livid with her.

"Let me go, Zack," she snapped at him, narrowing her eyes angrily. "I don't want you to be touching me right now."

"We're going to talk," was all he told her before leading her through the living room and towards the stairs that led to the attic, where the two of them were staying while they were in Canada. Zack wanted her, along with all the other women, to be sleeping in the attic in case of a sudden attack. They knew that it was imminent and that Val would help them find the cabin, and he knew that it would be an all-out bloodbath when they did get here. But until that happened, Zack wanted to make sure that everyone was as safe as they could be. And that meant harboring them in the attic.

Once they reached the attic, Zack shut the door behind them and locked it before he took Eliza over to the window seat, making her sit down before he moved so that he was on his knees in front of her. "Why don't you want to listen to me about this, baby?" He asked her quietly, reaching up to push his hands back through her hair before he pressed his lips softly against her hand. "Why do you insist on learning?"

"Because you're not always going to be there!" She yelled at him, not caring at this point who heard them fighting. It wasn't exactly a secret that their tempers had flared with one another before, and she didn't see why they should hide it anymore. She was angry and upset with Zacky for trying to shelter her, and she was damn well going to let him know it.

"How can you say that?" He asked her quietly, running the pad of his thumb over the top of her hand as his green eyes searched out hers. "How can you say that I'm not always going to be here to protect you; to make sure that you're safe and that we can have a future with one another?"

"Because you're not invincible," she retorted, pulling her hand out of his grasp and crossing her arms over her chest before she shook her head. "And you're a fool if you think you are, Zack. You're just as mortal as I am."

His nostrils flared in anger, and she knew that she had definitely said something that upset him, but it was too late for her to care. She wanted him to understand where she was coming from on this. He had to understand that just because she wanted to know how to protect herself didn't mean she wouldn't still let him keep her safe as well. But she wasn't about to sit by in the midst of a war without trying to do something to help--especially when this entire fight was her own fault in the end.

"No it's not," Zack shook his head as he grabbed the sides of her face with both of his hands. "Don't you ever think that, Eliza. This would have happened regardless of whether or not you were here with us."

"Don't lie to me."

It was a statement, and she wasn't going to take it back. She knew damn well that it wouldn't have happened or escalated to this level if she wasn't involved. Even if Sean didn't want her anymore, he was definitely a jealous man. She had learned that when she'd been with him. She knew that he would stop at no lengths to take her back into his possession; if not for anything else other than to make sure that he had bragging rights of taking something that belonged to Zack.

"I'm not lying, Eliza," he shook his head as he looked up at her with a soft frown on his face. "None of this is your fault. I mean, I admit. You might have had something to do with it, but you're not the sole cause. And even if you were, that’s not what this is about. The reason we're up here now is because you went against my orders."

"Oh, so now you can order me around?" Eliza asked him, arching her eyebrow before she narrowed her eyes at him. "I am not a fucking employee, Zack. And I am not a child. Don't you ever say something like that to me again."

Zack groaned, knowing that he had stuffed his foot in his mouth with saying that to Eliza. He stood up and glared angrily down at her before he pulled away, turning around and beginning to pace for several minutes. "It's not my fault I want to try and protect you, Eliza. I love you too fucking much not to," he tried to explain to her.

"I know you love me," Eliza told him before she looked up at him, shaking her head. "But that doesn't mean I'm a fragile doll. I'm just as capable of taking care of myself as you are of taking care of yourself. Just give me the fucking chance and back me up on this!"

Zack turned around and looked at her, seeing the urgency on her beautiful features, the anger in her eyes, and her mind whirring with thoughts that had him scared. He knew that she was furious with him right now, but until this last few seconds, he hadn't seen how truly upset she was with him. She seemed angry enough right now to call their entire relationship off, and that wasn't something that Zack was prepared to face.

"Sweetheart, I don't want to even think of you having to be in a situation where you'd have to learn any self defense," he muttered under his breath as he looked up at her, turning to touch her hip with his hand softly. "Don't you understand that?"

"You don't have to think of me being in that kind of situation then, Zack," she told him softly before dropping her hands to her sides.

“I can’t help it, baby,” Zack muttered as he looked down at the floor before raising his eyes to look at her. “I don’t want to ever think of you getting hurt, because…I fucking love you and it’s just too hard to think about.”

“Then don’t think about me getting hurt,” she told him with a small smile, touching his shoulder before putting her other hand on the side of his face. “Think of me taking that gun and shooting Sean where it hurts. Isn’t that a good visual?”

Zack thought about it for a minute and then smirked as the visual formed in his mind before he nodded slowly. That was when Eliza knew that he wasn’t going to make an issue out of the fact that she was learning how to shoot a gun. He wasn’t completely on board with the thought of it, but she knew that he wasn’t going to get angry with her about it anymore.

“Alright, baby,” he murmured as he pressed his lips against her forehead. “I’ll let you learn how to use the gun. But in return, you’re gonna have to do something for me,” he murmured into her neck, his teeth just barely scraping the flesh. Eliza’s breath hitched in her throat as she clutched tightly onto Zacky’s shoulders, and then she let out a small moan as his two sharp teeth started sinking in carefully.

“What’s that?” She asked him.

He just pulled his mouth away, a small trace of blood on the corner of his mouth before he wiped it away to speak. “It’s been far too long since we’ve made love, Eliza.”

Her stomach churned with thoughts of what Zacky was going to do to her body, and all she could do was nod as he picked her up and carried her over to the double-sized bed. She knew that it had indeed been too long, and she couldn’t help but feel excited about feeling Zacky’s hands on her in such an intimate way again.