Chapter One-Hundred-And-Fourteen

Chapter One-Hundred-And-Fourteen
Ryder

“This gem has seen all sorts of beautiful couplings. Powerful talismans were once made from these for sexual sacrifice to the gods. This once was, though if the present owner knew this, he’d have surely thrown it out.” She smiled impishly.

“May I see it?” I asked, and she handed it to me.

I bounded instantly away from her, walking up to the cashier to pay for it without hesitance. She looked at me quizzically, but all I did was grin.

She met me halfway, glancing at the sales clerk who looked at her with an almost hypnotized expression that didn’t faze her.

I considered what to do with this artifact and decided on a course of action. I moved so the clerk couldn’t see me, and I wouldn’t have to waste energy diverting his attention.

“What are you doing?”

I called natural magic to form metallic particles, mimicking its chemistry almost perfectly. It wasn’t exactly like the precious metal, but a jeweler couldn’t tell the difference.

The gold solidified in an inspired chain of the ancients. An intricate cap encased the long prism-shaped ruby in its grasp with delicate prongs. The older-styled inlay was complex and finely detailed; I saw a similar design in her mind when she’d thought about the necklaces of old, but adding minute touches of my own to make it a little different, unique.

Catalym might have remembered me if she had decided to return to America. I tried not to examine what the thought of her leaving did to me, for there was no excuse for this influx of unfamiliar feelings after meeting her only the day before.

“Oh, Ryder…” She blinked down at it, a stunned surprise on her face.

The gift pleased her. She beams when she handles it, staring at me like I’ve given her the moon. It almost makes me wish I could, not that it was within my power to give her.

She closed the few inches separating us to press her soft lips to mine. Like ever before, her taste penetrated my brain and made me forget where or who we were with.

There was nothing but her mouth, her wicked tongue. I was so wrapped up in her that I didn’t even notice we were no longer by ourselves, a mistake I would curse myself for.

An unfamiliar, soft intake of breath made me pull back to see a woman longingly staring. I could read her blatant desire that spiked while she watched us practically maul each other in a public store.

The first thing I noticed when she stared back at me was how much she looked like Catalym. Her gaze flitted over my body, a depraved fantasy building in her mind. And since this was me, it said something.

Her long, honey-blonde hair was the same shade as Catalym’s, but her violent purple-hued eyes were lighter. They shared the same fine bone structure and streamlined figure, built to ride with large, firm breasts. They were both tantalizing visually, but one was not like the other.

“Milindya, close your mouth. It is not becoming of a lady, however loosely that term could apply to you.” Catalym sneered without turning. She slipped her hand into my back pocket, huddling close and staking her territory so Milindya would never misinterpret it.

“Watch your mouth when you speak to me, maggot,” Milindya murmured with a contradictory sexual purr that grated on my nerves with its overconfidence. “Or I may take your man.”

This one was unused to rejection, coming fully equipped with the attitude I’d expected Catalym to possess, obviously snotty and infuriatingly commanding. Yet underneath it all, her mind was a wash of hatred and pain.

I drew Catalym protectively close, my face going utterly blank and unwelcoming. I hated these games, but I could play them well.

Unfortunately, games and my world always went hand in hand.

I gritted my teeth at the trepidation in Catalym’s mind. She feared this woman, not in a total sense, but it was fear nonetheless. This was one of the worst tormenters of her memories, the sadist with a power structure like the woman in my arms, yet the antithesis in most ways at the same time.

“You cannot take what doesn’t want you,” I said in a voice thick with anger at the interruption.

My gaze flicked behind her to Kelly and Kev, who were making their way to us. They did not look any happier than I did. They sensed Catalym’s despair and hated it, wanting it stopped immediately, just as I did.

There was nothing on this plane of existence I wouldn’t have done to erase the insecurity from Cat’s eyes. Even permanently eradicating its leading cause here and now.

“Feisty! I like that. Watch your tone, though, or I will demand Auntie to give me my rights. I could take you from her at any time. You’re technically unattached, and it’s about time Corrine does something to appease me for this mess,” Milindya said sweetly, but with the venom of a snake that promised she’d do just as she said without pause.

Damn, the screwed-up rules none of us everyday, rational vampires understood. So many of them were funneled out during the last century, but some hadn’t, mainly because there wasn’t a reason to, but I saw reason now.

Catalym stood up straighter, relieved that we stood with her. Did she honestly expect us not to?

“Don’t threaten me. You won’t like my reaction to it. I’m attached to your sister enough that you couldn’t demand anything, nor would Corrine ever agree.”

The human in the shop shivered, even though Kev was taking control of that aspect without being asked.

Milindya may look like just another supercilious socialite, but there was a much different side of her from Catalym’s out-of-sequence flashes of memories. I didn’t know the whole picture but learned more than enough.

If Milindya deluded herself into thinking of me touching her after everything I’d seen…the thought of cutting my hand off seemed more beneficial.

“Do not doubt me.” Milindya snorted.

“I doubt the very air you breathe.”

She glared at me from beneath incredibly long lashes. Catalym burst into laughter, and I tried not to smile at her delight. It didn’t work well for me.

“I sense what’s inside of you, Ryder. You’re a lover of darker things than what she can provide you with. My sister could never please you like I could,” she responded. There was a distinct, seductive quality to her voice that tried to lull me with the pure cadence of it.

A certain stillness settled, and I leaned forward, unable to help myself.  Why didn’t I like Milindya? There was nothing wrong with her, not as far as I could see.

And why do you like Catalym?

I shook my head at those words. It wasn’t telepathic communication so much as part of the…spell?

Some small part in the back of my mind snarled and leaped at its black cage of nothingness, though it was drowned out from the rest of me.

“She can control emotion and action with her voice, though it depends on age, power, and personal strength. But her primary goal is to have the ability to cause and inflict any pain in any way she sees fit.” Catalym enfolded my mind with a cleansing caress of her power.

I did stumble forward, but Cat jerked me back.