The RedLine is the perfect haven for a man of Ryder's extensive desires and tastes. He uses the women of the club, much like they do him, with little care to know anything more than names, sometimes even less than that. His reputation for open-minded tantalizing sex is renowned, and willing victims for this particular vampire are never at a shortage. At least until Catalym crashes into his life, taking over from the moment they'd met. And it isn't long before her past life's tribulations follow her, including a dangerous ex-boyfriend who hides far more than Ryder or his friends could ever guess.
Gene slouched onto the booth and looked at the crowd. The moment Sara couldn’t see his expression anymore, his features filled with annoyance.
Why did he have to resent her so much? If he could just accept her for what she was, they would be fine. With so many other better candidates around her, she’d picked the most childish, selfish one of the bunch.
Didn’t he know what he had?
To have one woman who cared for that one person above all others, understood them, and gave back as much as they took. It was something very rarely seen in our lives.
Maybe I wasn’t timid of commitment per se, but giving someone else that power over me when it was too easy to manipulate, made it not at all appealing.
Gene slouched onto the booth and looked at the crowd. The moment Sara couldn’t see his expression anymore, his features filled with annoyance.
Why did he have to resent her so much?
If he could just accept her for what she was, they would be fine. With so many other better candidates around her, she’d picked the most childish, selfish one of the bunch.
Didn’t he know what he had?
To have one woman who cared for that one person above all others, understood them, and gave back as much as they took. It was something very rarely seen in our lives.
Maybe I wasn’t timid of commitment per se, but giving someone else that power over me when it was too easy to manipulate, made it not at all appealing.
After working here for all of this time, I’d been given ample opportunity to see that many relationships began and ended, most of the time in the most hurtful way possible.
Who would want to go through that again and again, just to find what you really needed from a partner in life, so often you gained doubts about yourself?
Catalym’s fingers entwined with mine, reassurance that she saw these difficulties as well.
“You’re right. It is very difficult for one person to find another who complements them, understands who and what they stand for. Most relationships don’t work out because the two people, who were trying, really aren’t that compatible for each other.”
I nodded for her to continue, curious about what she thought. She liked that I wanted to talk about how she felt. It was such a simple matter really, and should’ve never been overlooked by everyone who surrounded her.
So much that I’d taken for granted had been denied her by both her controlling, irrational family and her nearly unmanageable power. No country or Coven in my experience had the limits and contingencies, which made up her life.
“I’ve known many couples who were so wrong for each other, but they loved and cared for one another anyway, regardless of the constant battle of wills. It is sort of heartbreaking to watch sometimes. You know they would be better off with someone else, but they just don’t want to be.”
She sighed as if thinking of a past memory that plagued her. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me if this was the case.
“Sometimes people do truly belong together though. That’s what I love about our race compared to the humans. They have to spend years getting to know someone, the real person. Keep hidden from the world just to be safe. We can just share thoughts, ideas, and morals instantly, everything that we are and find people that truly accept us as we are. We can judge someone’s mettle in minutes to see if they are indeed worthy of any attention,” I responded.
She turned my words over for a moment. When she did speak next, it wasn’t in answer to my spoken words, but to Sara’s barely concealed thoughts.
“That man will die a horrible death for what he did to you, but it will take time and patience,” Catalym said with an odd quality to her voice, like she was looking inwardly. Was she clairvoyant as well? “He’s still after you, and he never gives up.”
It was a definite statement and not a question.
“We can’t find him.” Sara never missed a beat, knowing exactly whom Catalym spoke of.
I gritted my teeth at the subject of Coren. I wanted the wretch dead in the worst possible way. He haunted my sisters, and we would not end the fine-combed search until the man was so far under, the core of the earth would fossil the bugger on contact, so there wouldn’t be a way he could ever be resurrected.
“One day you will. Or more to the point, he’ll find you,” Catalym continued, in the same flat-tone I’d heard other psychics use when the gift crowded close. “I know his kind, and they don’t stop. We are cut from the same cloth, Sara, for more than one man has felt the same way towards me over my lifetime.”
“Is he still out there?” Sara eyed Catalym cautiously.
Unlike Gene, I knew we were aware of only half of this conversation. The other half was going on in a place Catalym would never allow me to hear.
“Both. They’re both still coming after me,” Catalym paused. “My step-Father Giles never just lets me go. He is the one to always man the hunt, never giving me peace. It doesn’t help that his follower is now the other man I run from.”
“What do they want from you?” Sara asked the burning question dominating my mind.
My anger wrapped around me, righteous in its need to make those suffer who dared to torment these women. People who had done nothing wrong, nothing to make these convoluted, sick men think they could possess them in an object sense.
It was bad enough we had to deal with the Council. They didn’t need more added to that.
Catalym sighed, “Judo has a complicated sickness that comes when someone can’t handle being around me for a length of time.”
“And Giles?”
“He has a different kind of obsession. He wants power, and he sees my abnormal structure with greed in his eyes. He just hasn’t figured out how to use it to his advantage yet, and until he does, he won’t permit me out of his sight.”
“Or out of your room.”
Catalym’s hand tightened around mine and delicately squeezed, like she were trying to comfort me. Of course, she continued on as if I hadn’t interrupted her.
“So you see, Sara, we aren’t all that different. When coming here, I thought I’d be so out of place, but all of you’ve been so kind, and every thought mirrored by your actions.” Catalym smiled innocently, forcing my heart to slam in my chest.
That reaction had absolutely nothing to do with sex, but instead it was a deep, raw need to protect her, see her safe, and keep her happy. And that had nothing to do with Corrine dismembering favoured parts of my body.
“What happened to your blood Father?” Sara asked.
“He was murdered twenty or so years ago,” Catalym said simply, staring into her lap.
When Kelly and Marcus appeared, she didn’t look nearly as happy I would’ve thought. I was too focused on Catalym, but I felt the ghost of Kelly’s thoughts, her sympathy for the blonde nymph beside me.
My anger just ceased to be, startling me so much I almost gasped. I looked to Catalym, who had a half curious smirk on her face, as she too was perplexed.
What the hell was that? Certainly Kelly couldn’t have managed…
“You know, it’s kind of getting late,” Gene mumbled irritably. He hated when anyone spoke of Coren, and while he glared resentfully at Sara, I felt the flicker of anger return.
Holly came in behind them, with Corrine closely in tow. She looked utterly thrilled and smug when stepping up to the table.
“Hey, hon. I need you to go to my house and pick up some of her belongings. I want her to stay with you for a few days,” Corrine ordered, masking it as a request.
A glimmer of something apocalyptic laced throughout the more obvious emotions in Corrine’s face when she spoke next, “They’ll come for her, but they don’t know where you live. Have Holly take her to your house now, and have him crash on the couch. Kev is on his way home.”
The strange, enforced calm broke, whoever had created it startling me. My blood ran cold, and then ran hot with rage. My mind was a haze of tempestuous despondency at the mere thought of anything happening to her.
Holly nodded at my unasked question, helping Catalym from the booth. I went to say something comforting, but she held up a restraining hand.
“I know the drill, no worries.” She leaned into me and whispered, “I am hungry again, Ryder. Hurry home.”
Kissing my cheek, she hugged me tightly as if afraid to let me go.
Like a good memory, that pleasant warmth stayed with me, as I followed Corrine out to the parking lot.
