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Sam stood up, “I---”
He didn’t get a chance to finish because suddenly Kyla was making her way to him, feeling the cold fury rise up in her and she took a swing but before it connected, he flew backwards without her making contact, landing against the refrigerator, causing things that were on top, cereal, a basket of drying herbs, a bunch of odds and ends in a basket, to all spill over him.
He got to his feet quickly and she was still advancing, ready to go for his face with her fingernails. She was that enraged.
“You asshole,” she hissed.
Before she made contact, Tristan hooked Kyla around the waist with his arm and hauled her back, “Stop.”
“You motherfucking fucker!” she screeched at Sam.
Sam looked to Tristan, “I’ll go.” He looked to Kyla, “I’m sorry to have put you through that. He was a loser. He wouldn’t have killed himself, he would just have continued to deal drugs and make your life miserable. Make others’ lives miserable. I got him out of the way. The way I did that was wrong. And I regret the impact it had on you, love. But it also got you closer to home, near Tris, so I could keep a closer eye on you.”
Kyla let out a big guffaw of astonishment.
All that time thinking that she was responsible for what Jackson had done and he’d been hypnotized by a freaking vampire. All those hours of torturing herself. She went limp in Tristan’s arms. He pulled her tight against him and put his lips to her temple,
“I’ve got you. It’s okay, baby.”
She felt his strength seep into her bones and nuzzled in.
Sam exited via a door near the kitchen that led out to a deck and staircase, which he descended.
Kyla stared out the window and watched him walk toward the boathouse. She walked to the window.
“My god…” she moaned and thrust her hands into her hair. Then her forehead was against the glass.
He turned her by her shoulders toward him and put his hands into her hair and kissed her forehead, “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t know all that. I knew that guy was there. He approached me and Sam told me who he was to you. We were in the middle of everything, you ovulating, you know. I couldn’t take the time. I didn’t even care, there was so much goin’ on. I’m sorry.”
She sniffled, “That was just…fuck. I can’t even wrap my head around it. Everything I’ve known for how long now has been a lie?”
“Babe, don’t do that again.”
“Do what?”
“Attack a vamp. I pushed him back and then mentally pinned him so he couldn’t fight back. But if he’d laid a finger on you even in defense, I’d have ended him.”
“Mentally pinned?”
“It’s new. I can pin people. Read minds. Influence stronger. Move objects hands-free, barely trying.”
“Phew. Was I out that long?”
“Not that long but yet an eternity, you know? A lot happened. Days blended into nights. It was one long dark night for me.”
She squeezed him and kissed his soft lips.
“Sam is going through an identity crisis. I never knew anything about attacks of conscience or anything like that before but these patches Constantin put on him to keep your scent from fucking with his urges, it’s fucked with his humanity levels. He’s acting ready to jump ship and join this coalition.”
“What is this coalition?”
“The vampire militia that took you from your parents. They want to make vampires more humane, eliminate the royalty mindset, level the playing field, take the power-hungry ones out of their positions of power.”
“So they do that by stealing kids from their parents?”
“Well, it sounds like things went wrong. Everyone who knew your whereabouts got dead or imprisoned. It sounds like it wasn’t supposed to go that way. They wanted to get you and your brother out of the breeding program. Maybe to stop you from being given to me later on. They got you but failed getting Kyle. They’re on a quest to stop royals. Stop all the elitism. Explains why I was tailed, watched for so many years before I was turned. I was told they had something to do with my grandfather’s death, with my father’s death, but at this stage, who knows.”
“Does it sound like this is a worthy militia to join? It sounds like it might be. I mean, not knowing about your father and grandfather.”
“Dunno. Not going to be too hasty at deciding anything. I have a lotta shit to figure out.”
She raised her hands, “I’m just reacting to what I’m seeing and hearing. A female vampire who helped bring me back to you from the brink of death? Sam with a conscience? Heck, a female vampire that isn’t evil?”
“Yeah. I know. Let’s go meet your brother.”
“Okay.” She took another bite of her sandwich, which had regrettably gone cold, and a sip of her now tepid coffee, and then followed Tristan down some stairs, down a hall, and into an office. She still felt hungry, ravenous, actually. Was she craving Tristan’s blood? She had no frame of reference to compare this to. At the back of the office was another door. He opened it. This was the closet they’d come through the night before.
