~~~“Where’ve ya been?” Kyle asked her.
Sasha had brought him up herself, saying that Tristan and her had a conversation and decided they didn’t want any outsiders, even functionally entranced people, to have access to Kyla right now. There were staff members accustomed to Kyle so Kyle would spend time with Kyla when Tristan wasn’t there, keeping her company, dealing with any housekeeping staff, etcetera.
After Sasha had dropped the vacant Kyle off, she said she didn’t have news on Tristan, other than that no one was at the front gate that she knew of. Sasha left.
Either Taryn had left or Tristan had let her in.
Kyla wouldn’t hesitate to jab that witch with her dagger!
“What do you mean where have I been?” she asked Kyle. Only a moment had passed before Kyle seemed to be back to himself from his glazed-over look.
“You were gone. And I didn’t know what happened. And now we’re here. In this hellhole. Why? What happened with Adrian?”
She winced. She’d been dreading this. She felt terrible.
“They’ve made this the base for the coalition for now, while they work on a few things. Security, lots of accommodations for everyone, centrally located. Equipped labs, you know.”
“Yeah, makes sense.” His face was sour, “What about Adrian?”
“Can you read my mind, Kyle? Cuz if you could and I didn’t have to talk about it, it’d make my life suck a whole lot less.”
Kyla sat on the big soft white sofa thinking it was gorgeous and lush to sit in but how could a vampire think it was practical to have a white sofa?
“Nope, can’t read your mind, sis. When I focused hard at night alone I could reach out and feel your general state of mind. That was pretty much it.”
“Oh. Dang. Well, I’ll just say it then. Adrian’s dead.”
Kyle snickered. That was an interesting and surprising reaction.
“Are you happy, sad, what?” she asked.
“How’d he die?”
“From what I can gather, the love of my life tortured him while demanding information and even though Adrian didn’t deny the information because he can’t, Tristan has this super vampire hypnosis thing where he can make people talk, then he, uh, methodically dismembered him, making sure Adrian didn’t pass out so he could feel everything.”
Kyle looked a little bit disgusted.
“This is why I wasn’t looking forward to this. Pacifist twin brother vs. maniacal bent-on-vengeance vampire soulmate.”
“Adrian deserved it,” Kyle said.
“He probably did. But I kind of liked the idea you had of making him right his wrongs.”
Kyle shook his head,” I thought on it and no, it wouldn’t have worked. Tristan’s probably better off being able to move forward with that checklist item ticked. If he was bent on vengeance it would’ve just clouded his judgement to have to work with Adrian day in, day out.”
“Yeah, maybe. No, probably.” Kyla thought on it, chewing her thumb nail.
“So, this is Adrian’s apartment. You guys staying here?”
“For now, yeah. I have some bad memories associated with the cottage we used here last time. He’s had you up here?”
“Yeah, plenty. I wasn’t always locked up in the dorm. Sometimes I’d be aware of conversations with him, too. He used me as a guinea pig for some cocktails for this level he could get me, said it was above functional trance. It was always temporary with me but it worked. I figure Dr. Jasper was a few steps above that, before she got turned, but I know the cocktail he used on her had some bad side-effects. Mine, too, but not as bad as her. None of the non-vamps here had their full faculties but sometimes I felt close. So I’ve got memories with Adrian. Plenty of them. And Dr. Jasper and I talked a lot and she knew a lot of what was happening with some of the experiments so I know a lot of what was done to me.”
“Horrible?”
“Yeah. He was an egomaniac. And cruel. He fucked with people for kicks. Called it medical research but he was mostly a sick freak. So, anyway, enough about that. I know he’s got an Xbox in here. Wanna play GTA?”
“Shut up!”
“Shut up?” He looked stricken.
“GTA?” Kyla asked, jumping to her feet.
“Grand Theft Auto.”
“Shut. Up!”
“Why? It’s a video game.”
“I know what that is, silly! I can’t believe you’re asking me that.”
“Why not? Because I’ve led such a sheltered life?”
“No, because I flove that game! I rock at it.”
“Flove?”
“Fucking love. Flove.”
Kyle laughed and got up and opened doors to a double-sized wooden armoire in front of the sofa. Inside was a largish television and an Xbox but there were dozens and dozens of video games plus headsets, all the gear.Three hours later Kyla texted Sam,
“Kyle says the cook here makes good burgers.”
Sam replied straight away,
“I can find out about that.”
K: “Please do, if you would, kind sir. He says to ask for the KK special. And some junk food. Lots of junk food.”