Ruler [Blood Magic, Book 3]

Chapter 46: Trials, redux

When Keel climbed back into the van, did up his seatbelt, and shifted the vehicle into reverse, he seemed calmer. That scared me more than if he'd come back fuming. The last person I wanted Keel talking to was my best friend. She didn't deserve to get yanked into this crap all over again, especially since the first time had nearly gotten her killed. But I had called her and I hadn't hung up when Keel pulled up tires squealing. I had handed her to the king. Maybe literally.

"That psychic friend of yours is incredibly reasonable for a human. Would you like to talk to her more often?"

"No, you can't drag her into this. Please." For Lucia I was willing to beg. 

"Why not? You like her. I like her. A psychic would be very useful to our cause. And I've never tasted one. Call me curious"

"No," I said, jiggling the door handle. "Stop the car. I'm not doing this."

Keel kept driving.

"I said stop!" 

"I'm not stopping because I'm not doing any of those things," he said, his demeanour now as cool as ice. "Your friend is staying right where she is in New York. I was thinking you two could use the computer. Bruce is using it now, so why not you too?"

I glared at him, my heart still pounding as fear turned to anger. "Then why the hell did you say those things?"

"Because she made me a bet."

"Did you win or lose?" I demanded.

"Neither. I learned something instead." The look Keel gave me was a sad one, and it put a slight damper on the prospect of getting to talk to Lucia again. "Your friend thinks I've broken you."

"How's that?"

"You used to see the best in me - you used to want to see the best in me - now you automatically suspect the worst."

I glanced at him, but he was watching the road. He had a point. And a significant role in that point. 

We didn't talk during the remaining fifteen minutes of the drive, perhaps both of us were rolling those words around in our heads. Once he'd parked the van, he whipped around to open my door; his vampire speed ensuring I didn't get to it first.

The garage doors were still raised, beckoning me to indulge in a longing stare at the lot and beyond. This urge overtook me each time I went topside and then was forced to return to the compound. All too soon those doors would close and shut out the world once more. I did not look at Keel, his truth still rang in my ears and I wasn't sure I had any of the right words or emotions to address it.

"You really are scared of me now," he said with wonder. "Not just of my beast, but of me."

As I swung my legs around to climb out of the van, I finally let my eyes slide to his. Keel's face was drawn and earnest.

I thought of my time at the compound, back at the beginning with the crueller, more unstable Keel with his rages and all the times he stormed out, and then to the simpler, purer rhythm of the last few months, first doing our jobs, and then trying to find ways to co-exist, but there was always that threat that Keel could turn his hardness and the lessons back on, force his points instead of just pushing them. I'd seen that possibility in the tomb, and then there was his lording over the deaths of eight innocents and all that blood on the floor and furniture. Finally, I thought of standing on the side of the road and having no idea of what he was going to do.

"Yes, Your Majesty, because they are one and the same. When you are in front of your people, it's impossible not to see it. And that part of you that scares the shit out of me is what allows you to be a king. It's amazing and terrifying."