Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Sixty-Four

Keith Lockwood made a pretty pathetic picture in his cell. His fine clothing was bloodied, torn and stained. His face seemed sunken in and there was an empty look in his eyes.

"Ember," he said, voice hollow and completely devoid of the lilt of laughter I'd come to know. "What are you doing here?"

 "I want an explanation," I said. "That is the very least you me, hell it's the least you owe everyone."  I thought about grabbing the nearby chair and sitting down, but I liked how my shadow towered over him. After three months of his trying to arrange my death, it was nice to be the one who inspired a little fear.

"I know," he said. "And it's really quite simple. I did it for Robur."

"Bullshit," I growled. "Don't pretend you did this for anyone besides yourself. If you really gave two shits about Robur you wouldn't have tried to kill it's leader. Your own brother."

Keith winced at the last word. "Believe me or don't," he said. "It's your choice. Damon's a good man, one of the best I know but he doesn't have what it takes to be a leader. Richard agreed with me. I let it slip about what he did to you, said that would shake the coven's faith in his leadership and Dad would have made a different call if we pressured him enough. We didn't count on Damon catching wind of our plan and stopping it."

"Your plan to kill me," I said flatly. "Letting air out of my tire and sending a henchmen to tear my throat out. Just because I was a human Damon took mercy on."

"It had nothing to do with you," Keith said, glancing sidelong at me for a brief moment. "I have nothing against humanity, against you or what Damon did. You were just convenient, I didn't have issue with that sort of interference but some people, some powerful people would. It wasn't personal."

"So arranging to kill me and you Damon wasn't personal either? Just convenient for you? Same with Doc?"

"Doc was a painful but needed causality. He suspected me and got nosy, a few days ago he followed me when I was talking with Richard and he heard things he shouldn't have. There was no question of him telling someone else so we had to remove him. I had nothing against Doc either. I loved him like family."

"Thank Zalam you never considered me family," I spat, shaking with rage. "I'd hate to see what you'd have done to me then."

I saw Keith's hand tighten into a fist. I half-hoped he'd go flying at the bars and attempt to reach me, I would give me an excuse to knock his teeth out. How could he say this? How could anyone talk about people they supposedly loved like they hadn't wanted to harm them but they did anyway? That wasn't love not at all.

 "You could never hope to understand this Ember, you weren't groomed to lead like I was. Sometimes, for the good of many you have to make sacrifices, even if they break your heart. I never wanted to hurt Doc or Damon. I just needed to discredit him and that's all I was aiming to do. I had no idea Richard intended to kill him. Our plan as I knew was injure him and pin it on you, you have your fingerprints all over the gun and forensics would have proved that's how the window was broken. It would have been easy to get your prints on the stake too. It had brass in it, we could have said the reason we were slow getting there was because you managed to nick us with it. Damon was supposed to be pulled out before his injuries got too terrible. You got to jail and Damon recovers. Nice and easy. It would have been a shadow on Damon's judgement? How could he let someone so violent and dangerous get close? How could he be trusted to make calls on human-vampire affairs when he was so easily swayed by a pretty face? No one coven leader would have stood for his maintaining his role as leader. They'd have sent the next option to it and that's me."

I felt the blood I'd eaten earlier threaten to rise up. That was supposed to make it better? That he hadn't wanted to kill Damon? Just maim him, make me into a violent psychopath, have me take the fall for his and Richard's crimes, ruin Damon's reputation and set Keith in a position of power? That somehow made it less twisted? Less sick and wrong?

I shook my head and I felt my eyes burn with tears again. "Your father would hate what you've become." I told him and I saw pain ripple across his face. No matter what sort of twisted logic he had, he did love his father and he missed him. "There's a reason he never considered you for his successor, he knew there was something evil inside you. How bad he didn't know, but enough to know he could never give you access to power."

"You're lying." He growled, jumping up and standing inches from the bars, eyes alive with rage and pain. I'd hit a nerve. "You don't a damn thing about my father."

I shook my head. "No, I'm telling the truth and that's why it hurts so much for you to hear." I wanted to hurt him and despite how wrong it was, it felt horribly good to see the pain twisting on his face. He'd almost taken Damon from me, any suffering he got would never be good enough for me.

I turned away, ready to leave with that, let him wallow in memories of his dad and second guessing everything he thought he knew, but I couldn't. I'd only taken one step when I knew I couldn't just leave.

Strength surged through my legs and before Keith even had a chance to call for help, my arm had slipped through the bars and there was a loud crack as my fist hit his face. His brown eyes rolled back into his head and he slumped to the floor out cold.

A guard came running, blue uniform bright in the dimly lit room. "Is everything alright?"

"Just fine," I said, rubbing my knuckles.

"I'm not a doctor," said the guard, who surveyed the scene before him with wide eyes. "But that probably wasn't good for him, he's still recovery from a stake wound."

"Well now he can recover from a broken nose too," I said, giving him one last look of disgust and sorrow. Keith had darkness inside of him and though I knew everyone did, his broke my heart the most. If he'd been strong enough to deny it, rise above and be better I had a feeling none of us would be where we were now. "You can call the doctor if you want to," I told the guard who was looking at me with a mixture of interest and confusion. "I'm going back to the hospital to speak with Caiyun." I had to start planning my funeral. The sooner it was taken care of the better, I could manage it myself, I just needed some contacts to speak with and figure out what channels I had to go through. Vampires had human contacts in the world, I just needed to get in touch with them.

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New chapter and is anyone else glad Ember knocked Keith's block off? I am. Now Ember is off to plan her own funeral, that's kinda depressing =( Thanks for reading!

Write on! =D