Page 47 of The Vampire King's War

MASTER ISSUES

Balthazar stared at the empty space where Daemon, Christian and Fiona had been. He was alone except for Kaly. Though there were two people there. It was all Kaly. Like Roan had been Kaly. He frowned.

Were the people whose bodies Kaly inhabited still there? Was Kaly always in those bodies? Split between them like… like what? Were the parts connected? Did one part know what the other did or did Kaly have to reconstitute themselves once in a while to sort of sync up?

These were not just idle musings, but the answers to them would help figure out how to crack Kaly’s brain so that the white and yolk didn’t become a runny mess, all mixed together and unable to be separated again.

He turned from where three people who meant the world to him--even Fiona was starting to fit into that grouping–had been and went back to where Artemis and Moira were on the ground, kneeling, with their hands crossed at the wrists behind their lower backs. The two of them couldn’t move. He had, essentially, turned off their ability to move unless he willed it. He looked down at them with his hands on his hips.

“You know, those with the Eyros gift are hated because of the mind games they play. Not just the ones where we can turn you into marionettes, but simply the mind fucks we engage in,” Balthazar said idly.

Kaly didn’t speak. He wasn’t allowing them to. He wanted to talk for once without interruptions. Besides, he was still holding himself in check and he wasn’t sure he could control himself yet.

“But you.” He pointed at both Artemis and Moira with his right hand repeatedly, sort of like a sewing machine’s needle that went in and out and in and out. “You take the cake really.”

There was a fallen tree not too far away. Balthazar strode over to it. He looked at the smooth wood critically. It was dirty. He took out one of his handkerchiefs and brushed off what dirt he could. He felt Kaly’s disdain. Truthfully, Kaly didn’t have to talk out loud for Balthazar to hear them. He sighed.

“You think I’m fussy, too concerned with material things,” Balthazar said as he carefully lowered himself onto the fallen tree.

The moment he settled his butt on the wood, he felt something cold seep into his right pant leg. He’d missed a spot. Balthazar sighed.

“You do think that, but that it’s understandable, because--unlike you--I am anchored, pathetically, to only one body,” Balthazar said out loud the rest of Kaly’s thought. “Hell, I don’t want to play parrot. You can talk.”

The truth was that he was allowing Kaly to speak because it would make it far easier for him to answer those earlier, deeper questions he had by sifting through Kaly’s mind while Kaly was concentrating on answering the questions he had out loud.

There was a gasp and Artemis and Moira gulped air even though not speaking shouldn’t have affected their breathing. But he did have a very firm touch on them. Maybe he had been suppressing that. Not that Vampires needed to breathe, but it was still a human reaction to not getting enough air.

“This isn’t going to work,” Artemis said with that crisp disdain of his.

“We know you too well, while you don’t know us at all,” Moira added with that same mockery.

Moira tossed her head back and that long black hair moved like liquid silk over her golden-skinned shoulders. Artemis was pale to her dark. Like yin and yang in some ways, but in personality, of course, the same.

“Why don’t we like one another? I mean I know why I don’t like you. You’re a coldhearted, arrogant bastard who cares nothing but for themselves. But why don’t you like me? I’m so likable!” Balthazar needled.

Artemis’ eyes narrowed to mere slits. “You are a shallow twit.”

“Daemon only keeps you around as his court jester,” Moira added.

The insults only got more amusing after that, but it occupied the front parts of their minds so he could look for other information inside of Kaly’s heads. He realized right away that there were, in fact, two versions of Kaly in front of him. The one that occupied Artemis and another that occupied Moira. So it was a true they.

They did have to merge in order to truly know everything that each of them experienced fully. But they often just spoke to one another the old-fashioned way to make plans because this merging was difficult and actually took Kaly out of play for several nights.

Balthazar remembered those few times that Roan would leave their House and how once he was gone, the sense of relief that would sweep through all of them. It was like when the cat’s away, the mice could play. Their minds would be free. And, it was during one of those times that Balthazar had started to plan Roan’s death.

So Kaly is vulnerable during this time. It would be an ideal moment to strike, but will they merge anytime soon? Likely not… But, more importantly, it means that the rest of Kaly doesn’t know what’s going on here. Not yet.

There was something else here that he understood. With many minds, even though Kaly was Kaly at the core, they had different experiences. So there might be different hooks he’d have to use for each of them to reach their minds and then change them. Realizing that even Kaly was running out of creative insults for him and was winding down to just staring at him evilly. Time to ask yet more questions.

“I think you’re just jealous that Daemon likes me while he only tolerates you,” Balthazar said with a shrug.

More narrowed eyes. Kaly was clearly intelligent. But also emotional. Caemorn had more control with him even though the former Preceptor was somewhat similar to Kaly in personality. Well, only in the prickliness about his ease of making friends and the fact that everyone disliked Caemorn.

Except for Christian.Christian though is too kind-hearted to turn him away.

Yet, in a small part of his mind, he realized that Christian’s admiration was real. He could even understand it. Caemorn was so gifted. He also worked incredibly hard to hone those gifts. Balthazar was gifted too, but he was Eyros. Roan hadn’t allowed him to practice, not wanting him to overcome him as he had. And after he’d killed Roan with sheer force of will, Balthazar hadn’t found study to come easy to him.

He’d had so much discipline of a different kind from Roan that he’d wanted to just let loose. But he’d had a family to feed. So he’d alternated between caressing minds to get money, property, blood, whatever they needed, whatever they wanted. And being a total reprobate. Bizarrely, both had allowed him to learn different aspects to his gift.

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