Painful Reminders

Chapter Twelve: Your Own Safety

Her insults were muffled by my hand on her mouth as I moved behind her, my arm wrapped around her head so that I could keep her quiet. Looking over her head I jerked my head toward to the door, "Out."

Zeke and Andrea wasted no time evacuating the room, the door slamming shut at the exact same moment that she managed to bite my hand. Loosening my grip, I allowed her to pull away and twist around to face me. "What's your problem?"

"You wanted to discuss everything," I replied evenly. "In order to do that, you can't verbally assault everyone attempting to speak."

She opened her mouth immediately with some kind of retort, but then she snapped it closed and took a step back, releasing a long breath and speaking more calmly. "I was under surveillance for weeks. You had me under surveillance for weeks. Because you can't read my mind? What harm would I have been to you if you'd just left me alone?"

"We couldn't be sure."

"Couldn't be sure?" she repeated, staring at me bemused. "Were you afraid I'd call my friends Buffy and Van Helsing?"

Moving past her and around my desk, I took the seat that had been hers only minutes before and gestured to the sofa. "I'd be happy to discuss it all with you if you took a seat." Though it looked as though it physically pained her to do so, she moved to the aforementioned piece of furniture and turned to me expectantly.

"Remediums have had a history of working closely with werewolves to kill our kind and occasionally other humans. Because they can't be compelled, and we can't see their thoughts meaning they are better equipped to disguise their ill intent."

"But I didn't even know vampires existed, let alone werewolves so that I could team up with them."

"We had to be sure."

"And now that I do know? How can you be sure I won't turn on you now?"

"We can't," I answered honestly.

"So what, I'm just here until I die or you kill me?" She got back to her feet and began pacing. "There's no way."

"You'll remain here for now. We can't afford to allow you to get into the wrong hands."

"The wrong hands?" she snorted. "What am I, a nuclear missile?"

"It's for your safety as much as ours."

She came to a halt in front of my desk and looked at me with a mixture of anger and desperation. "Why did you even bring me here? I wouldn't have even known if you hadn't brought me here."

"You were hurt."

"By a car!" she shouted. "I was hurt by a car. It had nothing to do with you or vampires or werewolves. It was caused by an inability to jump out of the way in time."

"It doesn't matter what the cause was."

"Why wouldn't it? If the car had killed me it would've been problem solved for you, right?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Of course not."

"You should've left me there, Cassian. You never should have taken me."

"I was keeping you safe."

"Safe from what?" she demanded, throwing her hands up and gesturing around the room. "I'm in the middle of a building full of supernatural creatures who could kill me in less than a second, so what exactly are you saving me from?"