Page 22 of Rhaz's Redemption
“I’d never do your bidding,” I growled.
My sire let out a long suffering sigh and was silent for a long moment. “Why do you resist me?”
“Because if I don’t I’ll end up being just like you,” I confessed.
“Ha!” Dameron barked out a laugh. “Well let me be the first to tell you how much you’ve failed. You’re so much like me I can’t stand to look at you.”
He leaned in close to my ear as if he were ashamed of the secret he was about to reveal and whispered. “Why do you think I hate you so much?”
His words made me flinch. I don’t know what I’d expected but it wasn’t his hatred stemming from the fact that he saw himself in me.
“You hate yourself.” It wasn’t a question. It was a fact.
“Of course I hate myself,” he seethed. “And you’re just like me so I hate you too.”
“I-” I wanted to deny his words but I couldn’t. Hadn’t I given the same speech to Beatrice? I was like my father which is what made me unworthy of her love.
“That’s right,” Dameron said in a soothing tone. “That rage you feel inside you. That hot anger that never seems to leave. You got that from me.”
“At least I can control my anger,” I shot back, surprised by my own words. It was as if a chip in the walls I’d built around myself had suddenly fallen.
“Have you taken a mate yet?” he asked. “Have one of the humans you’ve been hiding glowed for you?”
I remained silent. My head was too filled with contradictions at the moment to speak. I’d fought my whole life to not be like my father, but now that I was here standing toe to toe with the male, I couldn’t see any of myself in him. Even as he tried to convince me of our similarities, I failed to see the resemblance. It was as if I’d been running from a ghost that suddenly vanished.
“Have you hit her yet? Have you felt that surge of power when she looks at you with fear in her eyes?”
“NO!” I growled. “I’d NEVER hit her!” And there it was, the truth I’d been running from all along.
This argument with my sire had me feeling like I was losing my mind. I was lost to a sudden fit of laughter as the irony of it all dawned on me.
He kicked me in my side which made my laughter and breathing come to a sudden halt.
“What’s so funny?”
I gave myself a moment to catch my breath before answering, and when Dameron lifted his foot to kick me again, I confessed, “It took me having an argument with you about how similar we are for me to realize I’m not like you at all.”
A new thought suddenly gripped me. I needed to get out of here. I needed to get back to Beatrice and grovel before her, begging for her mercy. The memory of her soft lips against mine rose to the surface and I longed to feel her pressed against me again. I longed to bring her smiles instead of frowns. I wanted to make her laugh. I wanted to make her moan.
I felt like a free male, suddenly unburdened by the fears of my heritage. I needed to get out of here now. I had no desire to see what Dameron had planned for me. The dekes needed to know that he had no interest in coming to a compromise. This entire thing had been doomed from the start.
“I’ve had enough of this. It’s time to put your immortality to the test,” Dameron grumbled.
“Come forth, my strong warrior!” my sire yelled, but since he was standing behind me, I couldn’t see who he was talking to.
The ground shook as the newcomer approached. His shadow loomed large over me, engulfing me twice over. I sniffed the air and recognized the scent from the strange male I’d smelled earlier. Who was he?
“You see this male?” My sire spoke, but his words weren’t directed at me. “He had a hand in killing your parents.”
“What?!” I interrupted. “I haven’t killed anyone!”
“You killed your own mother with the disease you brought with you,” Dameron snarled and all the venom he’d felt for me was clear in his voice. He truly believed I’d killed my mother simply by being a shifter.
“I had no hand in creating that disease! None of us did!”
“Silence!” He kicked me again, leaving me gasping for air.
“But how could he have killed my parents? He looks like he’s my age,” the new male’s voice was strong but cautious.
