Chapter Three~

The cold air chilled my lungs as I took deep exhausting breaths. Family? What did he mean by family? How could this boy who I had never seen before call me family?

He looked at me as though he were my shadow, his eyes as questioning as mine. I examined him to ward off the silence. Tall and muscular (like me), he was dressed in a semi casual suit of a light blue button up shirt and tan slacks. His feet were bare, which I found strangely unusual do to the cold of the night and the attire that he was wearing. His face was what kept me most intrigued though. Light red eyes pulsated me with as much curiosity to me as I did to him. High angled cheekbones formed his face and his long blond hair curled slightly as it hung past them.

"Who are you?" I managed to choke out over my exhaustion and doubt.

He tilted his face to me, as though he were trying to read the meaning behind my words. He smiled a few seconds latter, a full smile, as though he knew something very important and was trying to see if I knew the secret as well. "Who are you?" I yelled this time, my frustration overpowering everything else in me. "What did you mean by family?"

His smile widened. "Don't be angry. I'm not here to hurt you."

The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. His prepuce, whether for good or bad, I hadn't contemplated, and, for a moment, the idea of a fight between us probed into my brain. I wondered how good his fighting skills were.

I wanted to speak, ask who he was again, or what he wanted, but I didn't want to waste my breath. This boy, whoever he was, wasn't giving anything away, and I wasn't in the mood for games. He must have sensed the change in my demeanor, because his changed as well. He straightened his head so that it no longer tilted and his features relaxed, as though he was less alert to the danger that I might caused him.

"You truly don't know who I am?" he asked, his eyebrows lifting as he tested me.

"No," I sighed.

He let go of his smile. "You only saw me once, a long time ago at the Serpiente Keep. I was just a baby in my mother's arms." I smiled as I recognized his story. "My mother called me Zane then, but I am called Zachary now. Do you know who I am?"

I did know, he was Zane Jr., my sister the Lady Irene's son, and I had seen him once at the Serpiente Keep before I left those lands for good. "What are you doing here?" I asked, raising my arms up to embrace him, but he stepped away before giving me the chance.

"Don't!" he pressed. "Though we are kin, their is no friendship between us." I stepped away, hurt by his words and lack of trust. I saw it now, though, the resemblance and why he looked so close to me. His hair was from his father, the soldier who had stolen Irene's heart so long ago, and his features bearing so close to mine I could only assume was because of our bloodline. All of my brothers looked as I did, it only made sense that my nephew would carry with him the Cobriana face as well.

I looked him over once more, and began to see small hints of Irene in him as well. The curve of his smile was the clearest to me, and the image of my dear little sister came to me. Hers was a face that I longed to see as well. "Well, why have you com? Is your mother with you?"

He flinched slightly, like I had just pretended to slap him. He looked up at me with unforgiving eyes as he said, "My parents were killed long ago!" I hung my head low, and Irene's smiling face was replaced with a horrific death scene. I saw her lying dead on the throne room floor of the Keep, bloodied from too many wounds to survive.

"I'm sorry," I said to him sympathetically, trying to hide my own grief as I felt tears choke in my throat. I turned away from him slightly, "I did not know."

"No, you wouldn't, would you," his words were harsh, but he deserved to say them and I said nothing back.

"Well, where have you been all this time then?" I turned back around to face him.

"Danica Shardae raised me, and it is on her behalf that I come to you now."

I swallowed hard, "Then it was her that I saw last night."

"Yes."

I said nothing more, as I could tell that Zachary was protective over Irene, and I could only presume that he would be protective over Danica as well. He took a deep breath, preparing himself and me for what he was about to say. "Danica is being hunted, and it is only because we have no where else to turn that we come to you now."

"Hunted?" I questioned. "Hunted by whom?"

"Not now. All that I need to know is if you will help her."

I was silent for a moment. I couldn't even imagine who or what could be hunting her, and why. There was no choice for me though, without a second thought I answered: "Yes!"

"Good, now go back to your home, she will met you there in one hour and explain everything herself."

I wanted to ask more; I needed some kind of explanation as to what kind of situation I was getting myself into. "Is she all right?" I begged, grabbing hold of his arm as he prepared to turn away.

"One hour!" he said back to me, and within a flash he changed from his human form into his snake form. Black cobra. I watched helplessly as he slithered away into the forest where I knew I could not follow him.

I changed quickly as well, wanting to get home before the end of the hour had come. I knew what I was doing was wrong; it went against every rule that I had set for myself when I made the promise that I would never see her again. I hadn't even laid eyes on her and already all of my old feelings, longings, and desires were coming back to me.

I made it to my room with only minutes to spare, and alone in the darkness, with my window open I waited for her...