Chapter One-Hundred-And-Thirty-Two

Chapter One-Hundred-And-Thirty-Two
Ryder

I was startled by the admission and his capacity to find a direct link without any blood bond—potent little bugger.

I can’t be.

Never in my life had I ever loved anyone, and indeed not a woman I’d met the day before. I felt loyalty and kinship to my family, but it wasn’t something I considered love per se.

If it hadn’t happened in over six centuries, then why now?

Well, you do. Matthew’s delighted voice filled my mind. Don’t mistake me. I am pleased and do not want to take her from you. It’s about time she found a little happiness. Keep her safe, brother. She means the world to both of us.

A wealth of sadness and regret flooded between us. It peeled back another layer of Catalym’s past in a delicate situation that enraged me so much, but this time, from someone else’s perspective, it made it that much worse. I ruthlessly thrust it aside.

I’m tired of how they mistreat her for the things she cannot control. I am too young, so what can I do? No matter what I say, it falls on deaf ears. Even as Heir to the Coven, I’m not of age for another four years. I don’t have a remote chance to save her until then.

He was filled with regret and self-hatred for something we both knew he couldn’t do anything about. It wasn’t fair of him to put this on his shoulders when he tried so hard, even if it accomplished little to nothing.

I will forever be thankful to Matthew for keeping her company or fetching books when she wasn’t permitted out of her room.

“Come on, honey. You can’t honestly want to stay with these children? Most of them can’t even approach half your age, even if you added them together,” Judo pleaded with Cat while I was occupied with her brother.

My possible future stood right before me. The sick obsession in Judo’s eyes scorched her very soul and terrified her beyond reason. She couldn’t keep it off her face.

Would I come to look at her like that one day?

“If I didn’t want to stay with them, I wouldn’t be here. I like these people. Please, Judo. We have nothing now, and we both know that. Just go home. I have a right to go where I want, just like everyone else. I’m a vampire and haven’t broken any laws to prevent me from traveling.” Her eyes pleaded for an understanding that she wouldn’t receive from these people, especially not from him.

“You haven’t even been gone a week, and you’ve already turned against me!” he screamed.

Judo had had enough of this. He leaped forward to painfully grip her arm, her skin turning snow white from the pressure.

I growled as Holly and Marcus stepped to flank me. I no longer cared what the Council had dictated. This was unforgivable to me. The moment my foot left the ground to launch, a shriek stopped me.

“That is enough!” Corrine thundered at an inhuman level. Her voice echoed through the alley and preceded her as she and Max stepped out of the side entrance to the shipping bay.

They surveyed the chaos with dead eyes. Max’s accompanying snarl raised the hair on the back of my neck.

Judo’s answering roar shook the very foundation of the building on either side of us.

“Fuck you, Corrine. I’m taking my woman, and we are returning to California today. I will not sit by while you pass her off to the men in your Coven, adopted son or not.” Judo violently tugged Catalym away from me.

Her expression shut down. Her mind was now locked up tight. My gut wrenched at the sight, and I knew I wouldn’t care for her following words even before she said them.

“It would be better if I did.”

She winced again when Judo’s fingers tightened, and I growled. Control was becoming a commodity in my head as Corrine tried to regulate my actions. The keyword was tried.

“No,” I said quietly, and then my voice picked up speed and volume. “I will not allow this!”

“You have no choice.” Judo smiled viciously. He had thought he had won.

It wasn’t over yet.

“Judo, you’re hurting me,” she whispered.

She gripped his unrelenting hand on her arm to no avail. I stared at it, wishing the offending appendage would fall off.

Let me go, Cor.

And allow you to get killed?

Let. Me. Go.

Wait.

“Shut up, woman.” And he backhanded Catalym.

Right there in front of me and Corrine. Leashes snapped no matter what she did. Corrine ordered me to calm down, but I didn’t hear her past the roar in my ears. Not even my Curse would recognize her just then, and that was what she had been relying on.

This insult would not pass.

Catalym whimpered with blood that ran down in a thin trail from the side of her lip. A purplish edge rose almost immediately. Already, he had left a harsh bruise on her otherwise perfect face. She made no move to defend herself, no matter how much I wanted her to.

I launched without thought or reason.

I hit a solid barrier and fell back to land in a low crouch. I shook my head and stared at the shimmering energy with maliciousness. I wasn’t in my right mind and couldn’t understand what was wrong. Not right away.

Fuck off, Corrine!

I’m not doing it.

Marcus flew through the air in front of me. His huge fists pounded at the spell. His eyes were burning embers of promise. He had no intention of allowing this to stop him.

“Fight me, asshole. Or is it you’re too much of a chicken-shit to do anything more than slink around in shadows and beat on a woman who didn’t do anything to deserve it?” Marcus growled.

I stared at the spell, searching for a weak spot or, even better, the trigger. Holly examined it with me, no better off than I. It was challenging and time-consuming, but very necessary, to get to our target.

Judo violently shook Catalym. I knew they spoke aloud but couldn’t hear what was said.

She screamed back at whatever he told her when his grip remained crueler.

I imagined I heard the grind of bones in her wrists and forearms through the magic, just approaching the point of breaking. I would enjoy snapping each of the many bones in both hands and then moving up his arm…

Holly’s mind surged in triumph. He hadn’t broken the barrier yet, but it was weakening under his avid attention. To further prove that, I could now hear what was being said.

My shoulders shook from trying to keep still, and what I heard didn’t help.

“Judo, you’re hurting me,” She cried. They were such tiny fingers wrapped around his so much larger ones. She tried to make sure not to pry them off.

“You’re a disrespectful bitch who doesn’t even deserve the life I’ve given you. This is only the least I will do when we get home. You ran from me, and I will not forgive it until you pay for those mistakes.” His mouth crushed against her unwilling lips, and his arms pulled her face closer as she thrashed against him.

Some people saw red when they were as angry and out of control as I was, and some cried or screamed.

Me?

The Curse slipped through my body like a rapid virus. The coldness spread like a promising death.

Spell or no spell, it was time for someone to die.

No one would ever harm my woman again.