Dentelle (36 page)

He leaned back and slapped his chest. “How very
entertaining you are this morning. And while I’m happy to hear you’ve finally
accepted our linking – of course, you did promise to link willingly if I didn’t
hurt Ava – I must tell you how dead wrong you are about everything else.”
Abruptly, he sat up and scooted his chair closer to mine. The legs scraped
loudly. He inclined his face towards mine. If he’d gone another couple inches
our noses would have been touching. “Once we link, you
will
be a Ray-pac. My Ray-pac. And you
will
supply me with Essence whenever I ask. In addition, you
will
hunt with me and you
will
steal Essence – not because you
need it – but because I want you to experience the rush and the power
associated with it. And while I may not expect you to kill people, since it
goes against your very nature and all, you will not stop me or anyone else from
enjoying the game. That’s how we roll.” He paused, grabbed a strawberry, and
held it up to my mouth. “Take a bite.”

I shook my head.

“Take a bite.”

“No.”

“Now,” he said calmly, but the look on his face
was ruthless. His eyes pierced deep into my soul, and fear snaked down my
spine.

I opened my mouth, and very slowly he placed the
strawberry between my teeth.

“Now bite.” I did so, and his eyes widened. He
chewed on his lower lip as he watched me.

Shifting uncomfortably in my chair, I closed my
mouth and chewed on the strawberry. The sweet juices awakened my taste buds,
but I didn’t enjoy their flavors. After swallowing, I grabbed a napkin, wiped
my face, and said spitefully, “Are you happy now?”

He didn’t answer but instead relaxed back into
his chair and said, “See how easy that was. As long as you stay your usual
cheerful self and do as I ask, we’ll get along perfectly. I prefer to avoid the
constant threats. It gets tedious always having to bring up your parents, your
brothers, or those roommates of yours – Ally and Bernie?”

I breathed deep, refrained from correcting him,
and remained silent.

“Anyways, if you do as I say. We’ll have no
issues, and no harm will come to your family or your friends. It will be a
mutual understanding between us.”

I crossed my legs. “And my Guardian friends?”

His facial muscles constricted, and as he closed
his eyes, his lips pressed together. Suddenly, I remembered an old proverb, “He
shuts his eyes to devise fraudulent things: moving his lips he brings evil to
pass.” No doubt in my mind, that proverb was written with Kieran in mind. He
was probably contemplating destruction as he spoke.

 
“All
Guardians are fair game.” His voice was harsh like his vocal cords had been
scratched with sand paper. I noticed his jaw locking as he wadded his napkin
into a tight ball. His eyes shot open. “Guardians are my sworn enemies,” he
added just as vehemently. “And my life’s mission is to destroy as many of those
self-righteous –”

“Why?” I interrupted. “Why do you hate them so
much? You guys came after us. After me. You couldn’t think we wouldn’t
retaliate. Adrian and those other Ray-pacs died through no fault of ours. We
were defending ourselves. You of all people should understand that.”

“You know nothing about it,” he spewed. “I hate
all Guardians. For reasons much bigger than what happened to my brother.”

 
“Tell me,”
I urged. “You expect us to link and for me to be…” I struggled with the words.
“To be…okay with that. You have to know that will be impossible when you’ve
ripped me away from everyone I love. Everyone you keep threatening to kill.
Maybe if I understood your…your…” His what? I’d never understand him; nor did I
want to. “Maybe if I understood the reasons why you are the way you are, I’d
have an easier time of it or something…” I was lying through my teeth, trying
to manipulate him, and I realized how good that felt. I needed to best him for
once.

Squinting, he drummed his hand against the side
of his chair. “You
will
need to
accept me and understand me better, Lexi. I plan on us being together for a
very long time. And we will be intimate. We will have children. And we’ll do
those things that couples do.”

Chills ran down my spine. My ab muscles started
going nuts, tightening up. Overcome with nausea, I took a sip of juice. The
thought of any kind of relationship with Kieran was inconceivable. And I’d
rather die than have a child with him. I cleared my throat, but he didn’t seem
to notice. His eyes glossed over like he was zoning out. I waited, hoping he
might pass on some information. Anything I could use against him.

When he did speak up, I was shocked. It wasn’t
like him to share anything. Ever. And the story he told was not quite what I’d
expected. Then again, I’d had no idea what to expect. For once, I felt like he
was telling the truth, but he was such a good liar; it was always possible he
was playing me again. According to him, he’d been born with the compulsive
desire to drain Essence from other living things. Since his parents were
Ray-pacs, he was born one also. He had stolen Essence from animals even before
he’d walked. His parents brought him domesticated pets like dogs and cats until
he was old enough to hunt on his own. I had a random mental image of missing
pet signs posted throughout neighborhoods across the nation. I wondered how
many missing pets were due to the natural order of things and how many were the
result of less natural causes – Ray-pacs.

In a low voice he droned on, telling me how
eventually, as he and his brother grew older, they advanced to the next level –
stealing Essence from humans. With reverence, he explained how his dad taught
them to be skilled and methodical in their hunting techniques. When stalking
Innocents, they’d hide, slowly moving in closer until they were seen and could
see the fear in the eyes of their prey. Sprinting, they’d knock down the
Innocent, subsequently grabbing for the throat, cutting off the air supply
while draining away the Essence. They were taught how to be careful and not get
caught or draw attention to themselves. They perfected their skills, so when
they were first on the scene after a premonition, they had time to draw the
Essence from the injured and disappear before others arrived. I tried not to
make too many faces or show my disgust, but it was hard to listen to him – how
proud he was of his dad for teaching him to be a killer.

The most incredible part to me, was that Kieran
truly believed premonitions were a part of a Ray-pac’s natural, genetic make-up
so they could steal Essence from people. He compared himself to a cougar and
said, “Just as cougars have large paws and large hind legs so they can make one
powerful leap and take down their prey; Ray-pacs have premonitions so they can
track Innocents and steal their Essence. We are both predators.” I was blown
away with this belief – so opposite of the true purpose of our premonitions –
to save people.

As Kieran rubbed his chin and stared at the
cityscape, he continued with his narrative. It was like he’d forgotten I was
even present. As his story took a twisted turn, I began to understand a little
more of where his hatred for Guardians came from. Evidently, his father had
been the leader of a huge group of about forty Ray-pacs. That little bit of
intel surprised me because I’d been under the impression Ray-pacs hung in much
smaller numbers – eight to twelve in a pack. One late afternoon, Kieran’s dad
and mom took a group of about six others out for an evening hunt, which wasn’t
unusual. Except this time only one guy came back. And this guy described a
grisly scene in which all the Ray-pacs had been slaughtered by a group of
Guardians. The details were gory, and I had a hard time believing much of it
was true. Especially after I heard that same guy took over as the alpha of
their pack.

Under new leadership, life in the pack changed significantly
and not for the better. The new guy was a ruthless leader, so lustful for power
and energy that at times he stole Essence from the children in the pack. When
someone challenged him, he destroyed them. Other members were too scared to do
anything after that, so they turned the other way and allowed the abuse to
continue. Because a newborn’s Essence is so extraordinary, one lady tried to
escape with her baby. She feared their leader would extract the baby’s Essence,
too. She was tracked down and made an example of. Kieran didn’t say what
happened to the baby, but he didn’t have to.

Kieran and his brother lived like that for a
long time, enduring years of abuse while the other adults chose not to take a
stand. Finally, he and his brother had had enough. They retaliated. In a big
way. They were young men. Strong, cunning, and in the prime of their youth. In
order to have extra strength, they’d snuck out several times and harvested more
Essence than anyone knew about. Besides that, hatred fueled them. One night
while everyone was sleeping, they killed their leader and drained him of his
Essence. But they didn’t stop there. By the time they were done, only the
children still lived. At that point, Kieran and his brother vowed they would
never be followers again. They would be the leaders of their own destinies and
their own packs.

Abruptly, Kieran stopped talking, swiveled in
his chair, and stared right at me. I was speechless. What could I say?
Personally, I doubted Guardians were even responsible for his parents’ deaths.
The whole thing sounded like a set-up. But Kieran would never believe that, and
bringing it up was a moot point. And despite all the horrible things done by
the leader of their pack, it was obvious Kieran blamed the Guardians for everything.
And now he was who he was – a psychopath who enjoyed hunting and torturing
Innocents and Guardians. It was a game.

And I didn’t feel one bit sorry for him. He was
evil. Always had been. And always would be.

“I see,” I said, keeping my face neutral, trying
to mask my lack of pity. “Sounds like an awful childhood.” Which was true. It
did sound horrendous, but he could have handled it differently. Deciding to
take a totally different approach, I swept my arm out in an arc and changed the
subject. “So what’s all this about? The luxurious condo building? All this
wealth? I never took you for, and don’t punch me for saying so because I will
defend myself and fight back, but I never took you for the sophisticated, urban
type.”

He shook his head and looked at me funny. I
wondered if maybe he was thinking about getting up and smacking me across the
face for my lack of empathy, but I didn’t sense any threat coming from him.
Instead, he surprised me by cracking a smile. “All this? Really, Lexi, don’t
you know?”

My eyes widened. Okay, where was he going with
this? “No. Really. I wouldn’t have asked if I did.”

He leaned forward and rested his arms on the
table. A loud turbo-prop plane flew overhead, and he didn’t speak until the
noise died down. “This bit of cosmetics,” he said, pointing to his teeth, “and
these,” he said, pointing to his clothes, “and all of this,” he said pointing
to the condo, “was all in preparation for…us. For having a family. For having
security. For an attempt at something normal since that is all that you know.”
My mouth fell, and he continued, “Being linked with a Dentelle doesn’t come
without complications and risks. We needed a comfortable and secure place to
live, and now we have it.”

Okay. He was beyond lunacy. And he was living in
Fantasyland. I already knew that, but I was still shocked every time he
reaffirmed it with some crazy, irrational explanation. Incredibly, all I could
think of to say was, “How can you afford this? I’ve never seen you work?”

“Work?” he said, slapping his leg and laughing
loudly. “No. Not the kind of work you’re thinking of.” Then all of a sudden, he
stopped laughing. All traces of humor disappeared from his face. His expression
darkened, and he said, “Do you really want to know?” I nodded slowly. In a low,
ominous tone, he said “Without going into great detail, let me just say there
are a lot of single, wealthy women looking for someone. Once they find me, fall
for me, and leave the bulk of their estate to me, they die. Suddenly – of
mysterious, unknown causes, of course, leaving me a very rich man.”

I grabbed my glass of orange juice and guzzled
it down. Why had I asked? With Kieran, everything always lead back to Essence
and death. He picked up his own glass, clanked it against mine rather
forcefully, and said, “Cheers! Here’s to our binding link.” He smiled broadly
and then drained his juice in one gulp. Reclining comfortably into his chair
again, he launched into a one-sided conversation about our future. Meanwhile, I
sat like a programmed robot, responding at all the right times without ever
truly tuning in. His voice, his mannerisms, and his very presence grated on my
nerves and sent my blood boiling. All I could think about was revenge and how
sweet it would be.

My ears didn’t perk up until he started talking about
his expectations for our “linking ceremony.” While he didn’t give me all the
details, he confirmed my suspicions of a big production – one which was slated
to take place in front of all the other Ray-pacs. I didn’t know if he’d finally
told them I was a Dentelle or not, but he definitely expected them all to be
there. Personally, I thought it was all about him proving his superiority and
reaffirming his authority.

He also alluded to a big surprise he had in
store for me, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that big surprise was Ash. I
had the feeling Kieran wanted Guardian witnesses as well. Knowing the way his
heinous mind worked, I figured he’d gain great satisfaction in watching Ash,
Dakota, and Izzy squirm helplessly in their seats as he and I linked. I was
foaming at the mouth, wishing I had a machete in hand, when he informed me I
was expected to be “dressed up” for the occasion.