Page 61 of Blood Bearon
Rachel whipped around, face wide with shock.
“What did you just say?” she asked.
Khove frowned. What had gotten into her? “I must find Korred and kill him,” he repeated, wondering how she hadn’t heard him the first time. She was standing right next to him.
“What are you talking about?KillKorred?”
His frown deepened at the shock on her face and the disbelief in her voice. He hadn’t expected anything but agreement.
“Yes,” he said, reiterating his point. “The only way to keep Korred from escaping and starting all over is to kill him. Otherwise hewillget free, and everyone will once again be in jeopardy, and we will have done all this for naught. Others will die if he lives,” he growled fiercely.
“Khove. Let me state this clearly. You cannot just walk around killing people,” Rachel hissed.
He noticed that she kept her voice down, so that the other officers wouldn’t hear what she was saying. Odd. Despite her apparent unwillingness to understand, she was keeping their argument quiet. That meant something. But what?
“You can’t keep him contained,” he said plaintively. “If it were as simple as slapping some uranium-infused cuffs on him and putting him in a cage with uranium bars, walls, floors, etc, then I would say go for it! But that would kill him with radiation and you would be in a world of shit.”
He sighed as she opened her mouth to speak, shaking his head. “He cannot be allowed to live.”
Rachel drew herself up to her full height, which was still far short of his, and poked him in the sternum. Hard. “Korred has destroyed human property. Hurt human people, though thankfully nobody has died yet. He is going to facehumanjustice. Do you understand me?”
She was practically shaking with fury now, leaving Khove more than a little unsure of just what to do or say.
“You literally don’t have the capacity to keep him prisoner,” he explained. “Neither do we. It doesn’t exist, trust me, we’vetried. Mages are too powerful, especially one with decades of training like Korred has. You can’thandlehim, Rachel. It has to be this way,” he said firmly, trying to shove aside his own revulsion at what he was going to be forced to do.
“I can see it in your eyes,” she countered. “You don’t want to do this, do you?”
Khove looked away. “It’s not about what I want, Rachel. It’s about the greater good.”
“I’m disappointed in you, Khove,” she said, and he could hear the pain in her voice.
“Rachel,” he tried to say, but she cut him off.
“No, don’t take that route. That’s not fair and you know it. I’m a police officer, Khove. I have a job to do. I swore an oath to uphold the law. How can you be so callous to ask me to break it?” Her eyes blinked rapidly, and he was startled to see she was holding back tears.
“I’m not asking you to do anything,” he said. “This is my burden. My responsibility. Korred is one of us, and it should never have gotten to the point where you or any other human was involved. We failed to deal with this ourselves, and now you’re paying the price. I won’t risk him getting away so he can try all over again. Eventually, he’ll stop caring about innocents and we’ll have a massacre on our hands.”
Blonde hair flew as Rachel shook her head violently. “So instead, you’re going to just resort to some old-fashioned vigilante street justice? That makes you no better than the thugs I used to put behind bars back in the city, Khove. Just another criminal in the cog.”
Khove struggled to find words, still reeling from the sudden wedge that Korred had driven between them, all without doing a single thing.
Maybe this was why Kincaid didn’t see anything between you two. Because you’re destined to split apart. You can’t ask her to give up her world, her duty, nor can she do the same to you.
That was the truth of it. Rachel couldn’t understand his world. She was trying, but there were some parts of it that would always be anathema to her. It was obvious now. He should have known her duty to law and order would bring her into conflict with the chaos and wild laws that ruled the paranormal world he inhabited.
It was one of the reasons he and the rest of his kind kept to themselves, staying apart from humanity as much as possible. They simply did not meld very well. Humans couldn’t understand why shifters and the rest of the creatures in the world wouldn’t obey their laws.
Khove understood. He mightlookhuman to her, and so Rachel assumed hewashuman, ignoring his feral side, the side that screamed out even now to deal with the criminals being tossed into the back of police cars with a different form of justice.
Nor did she truly understand the power of magic. If Khove could be completely certain the humans could keep Korred contained, he might entertain the idea of letting him face justice. It would certainly be humorous.
But too many would be at risk, foremost of all the ones who brought him in. Including one Detective Rachel Corningstone. Whether or not they were mates, Khove knew he cared deeply for her, and would rather drive her farther away if it meant keeping her alive. That didn’t even bear thinking about for him. That was simply the way it was.
“I’m sorry it has to be this way,” he said quietly, bowing his head, but not relinquishing his point.
“It doesn’t have to be,” Rachel replied, trying one last time.
He admired her strength. She deserved better than him, that was for sure.
