Chapter One-Hundred-And-Nineteen

Chapter One-Hundred-And-Nineteen
Ryder

“You like her, don’t you?” Kelly implored, staring me down with those light blue eyes outlined in a black that would haunt the strongest man.

“Yes,” I said cautiously. “But that doesn’t matter. Corrine has said enough about this family to make me sick. Catalym is nothing like them, and she fully deserves the freedom she seeks. We would’ve done this for any other vampire who came to us for help.”

Was I defending myself? My decisions? That was another first.

“Will the Council do anything more?” Kev asked hopefully.

He had recently returned from their summons for help regarding a confidential problem. Kevlar knew more about the local Council than any vampire ever wanted. The greed, the politics… Did it cloud reality for him?

He should’ve known better.

“They will not get further involved with a familial matter unless it affects humanity or their peace of mind. You know that. Unless the coming battle of wills blows up a building in the middle of downtown and we don’t cover it, we are on our own,” Holly said irritably.

“But what of Manuel? He understands the American vampires and their customs better than we could ever hope to,” Marcus added. “I’ve lived there but never encountered anything like this. The Louisiana Covens weren’t anything like this.”

“Corrine said he has gone on an errand across the country. Some troublesome Rogue no one has been able to catch,” I growled.

If only…We all knew it would end if Manuel had been in the province.

“Damn it,” Kev swore. “This Judo is something else, and Manuel would’ve known how to deal with him. As it is, Corrine is demanding impossible things. Her fierce need for Catalym to be allowed out of this house is insane.”

“Her freedom is necessary.”

“The king of offense is okay with Catalym being a target out in the open?” Kev demanded suspiciously. He knew me almost as well as Holly did. And this went against everything he knew about me, and I couldn’t blame him for questioning my sanity.

“How about we lock you in a room for a few decades, let you out every few months, and see how you like it? " The moment the words finished leaving my mouth, I knew too much had been said.

Yet Marcus wasn’t surprised to hear this. Not nearly as much as I would’ve thought.

“Who was locked in a room?” Kelly asked immediately.

I had damned myself or Catalym, rather.

“Call it a metaphor,” I snapped.

“I think you’d better start talking there, Ryder. Right quick,” Kelly argued.

I opened my mouth to argue, but Marcus spoke first.

“Kel, I don’t think we need to know the whole of it. We’ve already been told everything we need to know…for now,” Marcus said quietly, filled with meaning Kelly heeded for once.

Kev stared at me with so much sadness, but he had no hope of knowing what went through my head, no matter how well he knew me. I didn’t even understand what was happening to me. How did someone else have a shot?

“Shouldn’t Milindya’s little display qualify as a human disturbance earlier?” Kelly skipped to the next topic, avoiding Marcus’ penetrating stare even now.

“No, because there weren’t any humans enlightened or endangered. That was why the Council never showed up to intercede.” I sighed.

“We will guard her closely at the club, here, or anywhere else she plans to go. We’re supposed to be respectful to the family until they give us sufficient reason.  That is the way it has to be. Milindya will be a probable bitch-factor. There is a long-standing bout of jealousy that Milly harbors for her older sister.” I gauged my own words far more carefully now. “Her parents treat Cat like an object, not a person. They believe, as Milindya believes, she is just a machine, too much trouble to be allowed the most basic privileges.”

I couldn’t stop thinking about it now that we spoke about it. I shoved aside the flashes from her head, unable to stand it and remain in control. I wanted to shred the Californians, to rip them all apart until nothing but bloody husks remained.

Another layer had been peeled away from her ever-darkening past, and I wondered why or how she’d ended up being this good. But if there were more, I would just snap and kill the closest one or several. All, if there was a possibility of it.

“She’s a living being, just as they are. She cries and feels just like they do. Catalym is not the mindless sex toy they name or curse her with. I don’t like what I read from her, what she lets me see,” Kelly murmured as if in actual pain, her steadfast empathy evident in every line of her too-young face.

Not many pureblood-born people truly understood empathy. They were selfish beings, never changing. It was tiresome when the circle endlessly repeated itself.

I don’t know what the two women shared alone in my bedroom, but I knew Kelly could comfort anyone even without her manifested power. She made them want to talk about their problems, just another facet of what I’d thought was her personality, but now it was morphing into her unpredictable Primary power.

“Is her brother going to be a problem?” Kev flexed, a threatening muscle movement when he sat up and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

“I’m not sure. We don’t know what side of the fence he’ll fall on. Catalym loves this young man, but she loved Milindya once, as well,” I responded, fighting the strong urge to go check on Catalym. She needed some time alone...without me looking over her shoulder…and hanging on to her every word.

“What is it with these pureblood vampire families and their boys? Corrine told me about the obsession with every generation having a male; it’s imperative to them, but it’s so human. They’re worse than the old-fashioned families I read about.” Kelly sniffed disdainfully, forgetting, perhaps on purpose, her origins.

Sara was the same way, but much worse than that. She hated humanity, who had never been kind to her. She embraced what this life gave her and never looked back.

“Ahh, darlin’, we’re old-fashioned folk. Us men are the pride and joy of our parents, can’t you tell?” Marcus drawled, thick as molasses.

“Shut up, Cajun.” Kelly laughed, smacking his shoulder with the back of her hand.

The mood lightened considerably, and I was grateful for the interruption of my train of thought. My fangs ached, but my anger receded. I hadn’t even noticed them descend.

That is another terrible sign.