Page 58 of I Married Kayog
“About Kayog’s fate.”
“You mean whether or not to murder him?” I asked in a clipped tone.
He waved a dismissive hand.
“Killing your man was taken off the table the moment he released a psionic blast over a one-hundred-meter radius, knocking out four hundred and twenty-six people.”
“That wasn’t him!” I exclaimed, outraged. “Kayog was rendered unconscious by his condition. I found him lying on the ground, blood leaking out of his ears, eyes, and nose.”
Colin shook his head with a sad expression. “No Linsea. It was him.”
He moved his hand over the middle of the table to call up the embedded interface. On it, he typed a couple of instructions which turned on the vidscreen. Seconds later I stared incomplete shock as he played the feed from the Conference Center’s surveillance cameras. A soft gasp escaped me when it clearly displayed a blurred wave emanating from Kayog as he leaned against the wall near the back exit of the center. Immediately, every single person visible on screen collapsed, unconscious.
Tears pricked my eyes, and I pressed a palm to my chest as I watched him stumble half drunkenly towards the entrance. Seeing the targeted kinetic attack against the masked men, followed by the second, even more powerful blast that knocked out everyone else—myself included—right before he passed out left me speechless.
I stared numbly at the screen, long after it had gone dark, too stunned to speak or even form any coherent thought.
“Did you know he could do that?” Colin asked, his tone curious but devoid of any accusatory edge.
I shook my head. “No, absolutely not. I mean, I saw his eyes and his hands glow the day of that incident on the campus, but…”
My voice trailed off as my brain struggled to make sense of any of this.
“This makes me wonder what else he’s hiding from you,” Colin mused aloud.
I bristled at that comment. “Despite how this may seem right now, I’m convinced Kayog isn’t hiding anything from me. I don’t think he even knows he can do that or understands what abilities he possesses.”
Colin gave me a dubious look. “Really?”
I nodded firmly. “Didn’t you look at his face in that video? Judging by the way he was walking, Kayog was dazed, bloodied, and in obvious excruciating pain. After I heavily insisted, he gave me a glimpse of what it’s like to feel emotions the way he does. I nearly passed out from the pain and the chaos. And that waswhat he deemed a low and bearable level for him while in the partial shelter of his bunker house.”
Colin frowned and pursed his lips as he weighed my words. In that instant, I realized that what I would say during this ‘conversation’ could seriously impact Kayog’s fate. He was trying to assess how much of a threat my mate was, and therefore how he was to be handled.
“The level of panic in the convention center after that explosion went off would have been pure agony for him. What I saw on this video was a male who had gone into survival mode. This chaos was literally killing him. His instincts kicked in to protect himself before he suffered irreparable damage. As far as I know, he’s never been exposed to a situation as bad as this.”
To my utter relief, Colin nodded slowly. “Yes, the priestess Isobel said as much. But he still struck four hundred and twenty-six people, some of them high-ranking foreign officials. They want a culprit to answer for this.”
My stomach twisted with fear. But I clamped down on it. Now was the time to call upon my experience and the negotiation training I had benefited from.
“How severe were their injuries?” I challenged.
He slightly recoiled and gave me a confused look. “What does that have to do with anything? That’s not the point.”
“Yes, it is!” I exclaimed. “How serious were their injuries?”
He shrugged, still baffled but indulged me. “They will fully recover.”
“So it’s not that serious,” I said triumphantly.
Colin gave me an outraged look. “People were still hurt!”
“Kayog stopped a terrorist attack and potentially prevented multiple deaths and grievous injuries,” I argued. “I doubt that the masked people who set off that explosion were carrying Tasers as weapons. They were there to cause serious harm. You can easily spin a tale that will protect Kayog.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, his expression hardening slightly. “Are you asking me to falsely blame the attackers for everyone getting knocked unconscious?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “They set off two explosions, not a psychic blast. Whatever they used, the forensic team will not be able to justify how the guests were affected by them. However, no one expected this type of attack there. With enough digging, I’m certain the investigators will discover that the explosions triggered a chain reaction with something in the Convention Center. The Enforcers’ science department should have no problem coming up with an explanation as to how certain chemicals in the bombs reacted in an unusual fashion with some of the foreign materials used to build the center.”
“You forget the surveillance videos,” Colin said mockingly.
