Page 87 of Destined to Fight

“How do they expect a normal person to get to London so quickly? Two weeks to pay for a plane ticket?”

Kade placed his hand on hers. “Calm down, lass. It’s not as bad as it seems. The Council would pay for yer flight if needed. While they are harsh, they are not unrealistic.”

She wasn’t in the mood to argue semantics. “You didn’t answer the question about a death sentence.”

“We dinnae ken. It depends on the accusation. Ye havenae done anything punishable by death. Someone still could have accused ye of something, though.”

Kelly took a breath, preparing to ask more questions, when Asta held up a hand.

“Might it be best to continue where we left off? There is nothing we can do about the Council right now, but we can continue searching for answers. Maybe we’ll even find things that can help you in two weeks. Why don’t we all take a short break and pick things back up in fifteen?”

“I do believe the young lady has a fine idea,” Ginna said as she stood. “I’ll see you all back here shortly.”

Kelly stood and walked toward the bar on the far end of the living room. “I need a fucking drink.”

—

The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing everything on the whiteboard and trying to make sense of it all.

No one could figure out why Camille seemed to have arranged for Mary to raise Kelly. Either the mission had failed or it had been abandoned at some point. It didn’t make sense for them to go to all that trouble only for Mary to be a bitch and alienate Kelly. Knowing Camille was involved now, they decided to table the topic of Mary for the time being.

With the matter of others tabled, Kade and Kelly became the topic of interest. Ginna got the wild idea to treat them like a science experiment and started making all sorts of recommendations. First, it was drinking each others’ blood from a glass, then on to drinking from each other’s wrists, then she went into how they would restrain Kade. She decided silver barbed wire would be a great idea.

“Are ye out of yer fucking mind, woman?”

She held up her finger at Kade. “Don’t call me woman, vampire. Look, there’s obviously something between the two of you. Drinking your blood activated Kelly’s telepathy, and I’m willing to bet there is more where that came from. Her reaction to your blood was unusual at best, just as your reaction to hers was downright animalistic after just a taste. We need to know what happens when the two of you exchange more blood.”

It was Kelly’s turn to protest. “Is all that really necessary? And do we all have to talk about it as a group? It feels like this should be a private thing between Kade and me.”

“Rookie, nothing in the Arcane world is private—get over it. The vampires will hear it when you two finally do the hanky-panky, and blood exchanges used to be a normal thing before they started bagging the stuff. If you think blood exchanges should be private, you’ve got another thing coming. As for the silver barbed wire, yes, it’s necessary. He admitted he wanted to rip you to shreds.”

“You keep telling me to get over things, but twenty-six years of life don’t just disappear on command. And no, we’re not doing anything to restrain Kade. You all want to treat us like a fifth-grade science fair, fine, but no one gets tied up like a prisoner.”

“I do not condone any of the actions discussed,” Fabian said, sounding bored with the entire thing.

“You never condone anything, ya pansy.”

Fabian raised his eyebrows at Ginna.

“Yeah, yeah, job and duties and all that shit.”

“You are talking about putting Kelly’s life in danger for the sake of curiosity.”

“For gods’ sake, do ye really think I’m going to kill her?”

Kelly’s mouth opened before she could stop herself. “Like Ginna said, you thought you would tear me to pieces a few nights ago.”

Kade let out a growl so deep it reverberated through Kelly’s bones, shaking her to the core.

Asta stood in front of everyone with her hands out, urging them to calm down.

“Before this turns into a fight, let’s all settle down. Why don’t we all look at the benefits of solving this mystery instead of arguing over how to do it. Sure, we’re all curious, but has anyone stopped to think that whatever power is gained from their bond could help Kelly in defending herself to the Council?”

Met with silence, Asta continued, “No doubt, the telepathy Kelly has now will wear off if she doesn’t take more of Kade’s blood soon. What if Kade also gains the ability to hear Kelly’s thoughts? The two of them would be able to communicate during the hearing without anyone knowing. There is likely more to whatever this is, too. I think it will go beyond telepathy. Who knows what could be gained by exploring the possibilities?”

More silence followed as everyone considered Asta’s points.

Connor finally spoke, “Asta has some excellent thoughts. I think the benefits outweigh the dangers.”

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