by Riley Storm
His frown deepened at the shock on her face and the disbelief in her voice. He hadn’t expected anything but agreement.
“Yes,” he said, reiterating his point. “The only way to keep Korred from escaping and starting all over is to kill him. Otherwise he will get free, and everyone will once again be in jeopardy, and we will have done all this for naught. Others will die if he lives,” he growled fiercely.
“Khove. Let me state this clearly. You cannot just walk around killing people,” Rachel hissed.
He noticed that she kept her voice down, so that the other officers wouldn’t hear what she was saying. Odd. Despite her apparent unwillingness to understand, she was keeping their argument quiet. That meant something. But what?
“You can’t keep him contained,” he said plaintively. “If it were as simple as slapping some uranium-infused cuffs on him and putting him in a cage with uranium bars, walls, floors, etc, then I would say go for it! But that would kill him with radiation and you would be in a world of shit.”
He sighed as she opened her mouth to speak, shaking his head. “He cannot be allowed to live.”
Rachel drew herself up to her full height, which was still far short of his, and poked him in the sternum. Hard. “Korred has destroyed human property. Hurt human people, though thankfully nobody has died yet. He is going to face human justice. Do you understand me?”
She was practically shaking with fury now, leaving Khove more than a little unsure of just what to do or say.
“You literally don’t have the capacity to keep him prisoner,” he explained. “Neither do we. It doesn’t exist, trust me, we’ve tried. Mages are too powerful, especially one with decades of training like Korred has. You can’t handle him, Rachel. It has to be this way,” he said firmly, trying to shove aside his own revulsion at what he was going to be forced to do.
“I can see it in your eyes,” she countered. “You don’t want to do this, do you?”
Khove looked away. “It’s not about what I want, Rachel. It’s about the greater good.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Khove,” she said, and he could hear the pain in her voice.
“Rachel,” he tried to say, but she cut him off.
“No, don’t take that route. That’s not fair and you know it. I’m a police officer, Khove. I have a job to do. I swore an oath to uphold the law. How can you be so callous to ask me to break it?” Her eyes blinked rapidly, and he was startled to see she was holding back tears.
“I’m not asking you to do anything,” he said. “This is my burden. My responsibility. Korred is one of us, and it should never have gotten to the point where you or any other human was involved. We failed to deal with this ourselves, and now you’re paying the price. I won’t risk him getting away so he can try all over again. Eventually, he’ll stop caring about innocents and we’ll have a massacre on our hands.”
Blonde hair flew as Rachel shook her head violently. “So instead, you’re going to just resort to some old-fashioned vigilante street justice? That makes you no better than the thugs I used to put behind bars back in the city, Khove. Just another criminal in the cog.”
Khove struggled to find words, still reeling from the sudden wedge that Korred had driven between them, all without doing a single thing.
Maybe this was why Kincaid didn’t see anything between you two. Because you’re destined to split apart. You can’t ask her to give up her world, her duty, nor can she do the same to you.
That was the truth of it. Rachel couldn’t understand his world. She was trying, but there were some parts of it that would always be anathema to her. It was obvious now. He should have known her duty to law and order would bring her into conflict with the chaos and wild laws that ruled the paranormal world he inhabited.
It was one of the reasons he and the rest of his kind kept to themselves, staying apart from humanity as much as possible. They simply did not meld very well. Humans couldn’t understand why shifters and the rest of the creatures in the world wouldn’t obey their laws.
Khove understood. He might look human to her, and so Rachel assumed he was human, ignoring his feral side, the side that screamed out even now to deal with the criminals being tossed into the back of police cars with a different form of justice.
Nor did she truly understand the power of magic. If Khove could be completely certain the humans could keep Korred contained, he might entertain the idea of letting him face justice. It would certainly be humorous.
But too many would be at risk, foremost of all the ones who brought him in. Including one Detective Rachel Corningstone. Whether or not they were mates, Khove knew he cared deeply for her, and would rather drive her farther away if it meant keeping her alive. That didn’t even bear thinking about for him. That was simply the way it was.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” he said quietly, bowing his head, but not relinquishing his point.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Rachel replied, trying one last time.
He admired her strength. She deserved better than him, that was for sure.
“Unfortunately, it does,” he said quietly.
A sob ripped from her throat, and the tears Rachel had been so valiantly holding back finally fell. “Go,” she said, her voice cracking.
“Rach…” he said, his heart feeling like it had just been cleaved in two as he saw the pain he was inflicting upon her come home.
“Don’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t. Just go, Khove. Just leave.”
He wanted to say more. To reach out and gather her into his arms, to hold her while she cried. Dammit, that was what he was supposed to be doing. He should be there for her! But even as he took a step forward, she recoiled from him.
Khove stopped dead, whatever hope he’d still had shattering into a million pieces. He’d had something good with her, and now a crazed Traitor and murderer was destroying it simply because he existed.
“I…” he stopped, hanging his head in defeat.
“Go, Khove,” Rachel said. “Go now, before I change my mind and arrest you for conspiring to commit murder.”
Whatever resolve he had left crumbled into dust at that pronouncement. Rachel was still crying, and the tears were coming harder now, but she was firm in her stance, no doubt drawing strength from her commitment to upholding the law. She had the righteous on her side and she knew it.
Khove didn’t. In this case it didn’t matter, because Khove was unlike any criminal she’d ever come across before, but Rachel wasn’t a true believer. Not yet, and so she still thought that a pair of handcuffs would hold him.
“Don’t go after him,” he said over his shoulder, turning to go. “It will only result in death. He’s not human, Rachel. Remember that.”
She refused to meet his gaze. “I know how to do my job,” she stated, looking at the ground.
Khove sagged in defeat, heading off into the darkness of the night, letting it envelop him, and matching the blackness he felt in his soul. Things had come so close between them, their partnership had been growing stronger by the day. But the fates had spoken, and they had made their choice.
It was never meant to be.
30
“What else would you have me do?”
Khove tried to contain his anger, for he wasn’t mad at the speaker, but the situation. “I don’t know,” he growled, throwing his hands in the air. “There must be some other solution, my Queen.”
Kaelyn, ruler of High House Ursa, stared back at him impassively. “Korred cannot be allowed to live. He has killed too many of our brothers and sisters already. I will not risk letting one of his power and ability escape back into the wild so that he can try again.”
Khove snarled in impotent fury, pacing back and forth in the newly-repaired Throne Room. He’d been talking to the Queen and House Ursa Council for an hour now, trying to convince them to come up with a non-lethal punishment. A way to imprison Korred for the rest of his days.
He’d begged and pleaded, cajoled a
nd debated and now he was resorting to flat-out fury in an attempt to intimidate. Like all his options before, though, none of it was having a solitary effect, and he knew why. He didn’t believe what he was saying. Khove agreed with the Council.
But he had to try. For Rachel. She may never know it, but he’d decided to try anyway. She deserved that much from him.
The Magi spoke up now. “Khove, I have scoured the books, read every resource I have. I even contacted the Mage’s Council. They are all in agreement,” he said, his soft voice carrying across the distance from where the Council sat on their stone chairs, down to where Khove paced on the floor. “There is nothing that will hold a prisoner that can be defined as humane.”
“There must be something!” he half-shouted. “Staking him out with uranium and other radiation simply isn’t an option. The humans dictate that their prisoners must be treated humanely. Dying of rad poisoning does not fit that definition, no matter how much the Traitor might deserve it.”
Silence followed. One or two of the Council members shifted uncomfortably, but none of them said a word. Khove glared at them one by one. Most stared back impassively, a few defiantly, but none backed down.
“Leave us,” the Queen commanded quietly.
Several eyebrows went up at the casual dismissal. It wasn’t like the Queen to treat her House like that. Khove stood still as the other Title Holders filed out of the Throne Room, leaving him and the Queen alone, minus her two bodyguards who stood in the shadows behind her chair.
“Khove,” Kaelyn said, descending from her throne. “What is going on here? Is there a problem with the mission I’ve sent you on?”
“No, I will finish it.” he said immediately.
His Queen lifted an eyebrow. She didn’t believe that was all there was to it, and she was right.
“The human—” he began.
“Rachel.”
“Rachel,” he repeated at the prompt. “She’s a police officer. When I said I was going to kill Korred, she…did not take it very well.”
Kaelyn patted him on the shoulder. “I imagine she did not.”
“It was bad. We argued. She told me to leave before she arrested me for making death threats and conspiracy to commit murder,” he hissed. “Despite all she’s seen and been told, still she won’t believe me when I say he’s too dangerous for human authorities to try and apprehend!”
His Queen was quiet for a moment. “Where is she now?”
“Gone,” he said quietly. “Doing her job. I left as she told me to, and came here.”
His ruler’s mouth twitched. “To argue with me about finding a way to spare Korred.”
Standing his ground, Khove met her gaze. “Rachel deserved that much,” he ground out. “I had to try, even if I know in my heart how it must truly end. Despite what that will do to her.”
“I suspect she’s made of stronger stuff than you know,” Kaelyn replied softly. “And you must go back to her. Patch things up, Khove. Make your partnership anew.”
He gaped at his Queen. “How exactly am I supposed to do that? She knows I will end Korred’s life if given the chance. It must be done before he gathers enough strength to strike at us here. But if I do that, then surely she will arrest me, and I don’t want to put that burden upon her. This is our problem, not hers. Surely even you can understand that?”
He drew himself up tall, realizing what he’d just said. “My Queen, I apologize that was out of line.”
To his surprise, Kaelyn laughed, waving off his rude comment. “Oh, Khove. You have served me, and before me the King, for quite some time. We know each other. I am not offended. Your very passion is what I admire about you. Don’t lose it now. You’re going to need it.”
He blinked. “I am?”
“Yes. And you’re going to need your mate as well.”
The blinking intensified. “I don’t have a mate.”
“Now you are being stupid,” Kaelyn teased. “If that police officer isn’t your mate than I’ll resign. Anyone can see the way you two get along, the ease of it.”
“But Kinkaid didn’t see a connection,” he started to explain, only falling silent at the laughter in his Queen’s eyes.
“That doesn’t mean a thing.” Her jade eyes twinkled with laughter about a secret only she knew. “Kincaid often misses things, and not of his own meaning.”
Khove grinned and tossed her a knowing wink. “He might see more than you think.”
The look of shock on her face was priceless. It wasn’t often one was able to do that to the Queen of House Ursa, and he would treasure that moment for as long as he lived. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” he reassured her.
“What secret?” she asked, obviously steadfastly refusing to admit to anything.
Khove’s smile grew broader. “Exactly.”
“Back to the subject at hand,” Kaelyn stressed. “You’re going to need your mate, Khove.”
“I don’t understand why. Even if we assume she is my mate, which isn’t likely, she hates me because I won’t accept her method of justice.”
“She will,” Kaelyn said softly.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because once you bring me Korred’s body, I am going to make you the Knight of House Ursa, Baron of Ursidae Manor, etc, etc.”
Khove’s jaw dropped so fast, it popped. He winced in reflex at the brief explosion of pain, but otherwise it barely registered on him. “I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
“The House needs someone in that position who has seen the ins and outs of rule,” Kaelyn said, her voice quieter, more serious. “Someone everyone trusts, and everyone respects.”
He swallowed, throat dry. Him? Knight of High House Ursa? It seemed an unlikely thing.
“I couldn’t,” he stammered. “I don’t know the first thing about rule. I’m not ready for something like that, surely there are better choices, someone you could pick that…”
Khove’s words trailed into silence. Kaelyn was staring at him, arms crossed, eyebrows knit together.
“Shut up.”
“Pardon?” Khove was thoroughly confused.
“Shut. Up.”
He opened his mouth to ask what she was talking about, then closed it.
“Better,” she teased. “Now, Khove. Have you ever known me to be rash when it comes to important decisions like, oh, say, who should rule the House after I die or retire?”
He wisely kept his mouth firmly shut.
“Ah, see, you can learn. You’ll make a perfect Knight.” She came closer again and gave his arm a reassuring squeeze. “I’ve thought this through a lot. Why do you think this is the last of the empty positions to be filled, Khove? I needed to be sure of my choice. I did not arrive at this decision lightly, but I am confident in it. I’m confident in you.”
He tried to speak, but she hushed him with a solitary upraised finger. Her eyes grew dark and clouded, and Kaelyn was replaced by the Queen of High House Ursa as she fixed her eyes upon him, speaking strongly.
“Now, I have no intentions of retiring anytime soon. There’s a storm coming, and I intend to guide us through it first. Korred is just the beginning. Other players are moving, shadows darkening. We’re not out of it, not yet. If I survive it, then we’ll talk about transition of power.”
“You don’t think this will be over with Korred?” he asked quietly into the silence of the Throne Room.
“Khove is but a pawn, I fear,” she whispered. “I haven’t told the others much of this yet. I don’t want them to worry. I have had…visions.” She shook her head. “We’ll discuss that after you deal with the traitor. Our House must be fully united to withstand what is coming.”
He nodded, still trying to process the fact that if he succeeded, he would become the second in command of the House. It was a stunning announcement, and one that he had never seen coming. All he had to do was get a little blood on his hands first.
Fitting, he thought. A ruler must be willing to make th
e hard decisions, including who lives and who dies. And they must be ready to take that life if need be. To have blood on their own hands.
He straightened, standing tall, shoulders back. Khove’s entire House was counting on him, and he didn’t plan on letting them down.
“Go find your lieutenant,” Kaelyn said quietly. “Make good with her. You need her help.” She paused. “I wish I could spare more people from the defense of the Manor, but things are just too shaky here as it is. If you get into trouble though, we will be there. You have but to call.”
“I will, my Queen,” he said fiercely, his loyalty to the woman on the throne stronger than it had ever been.
“I know you will. Now go, my knight. My baron. Go and bring me the Traitor’s body.”
31
Walking into the Sheriff’s office, she couldn’t help but marvel at the transformation that the sleepy little police headquarters had undergone since this madness began.
Absent were the officers lounging at desks and joking by the coffee machine. Empty desks and neat stacks of paperwork had been replaced by overused coffee cups and crumpled pieces of paper. Neatly dressed and tucked-in uniforms were rumpled, and most of the men had unkept scruff.
Yet there was a light in their eyes she’d not seen before. These men had been called to duty—possibly for the first time in their careers—and they were responding. One and all, the Plymouth Falls police force was rising to the task. Their city was under siege, and they knew it. Not a single one of them had backed down.
Rachel was damn proud of them, even as she marched along the rows of desks to get her ass handed to her by the boss himself. Things had been going so well, or so she’d thought.
While three quarters of the force was busy securing the scene at the bank, returning the gold, and processing the prisoners, Korred had struck the city once again. Completely unhindered.
“Corningstone!”
She came to attention in front of Sheriff Dottner’s desk, waiting as her boss closed the door. This was going to be bad, she could feel it.
“Last night was a grade-A clusterfuck, Detective.”
