Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)
“Do you trust me?” I asked him.
He stiffened for a moment, not expecting the question before nodding. “Yes.”
“Be patient, then.”
He shook his head. “Would you be? If it were…if it were your mother, would you be patient?”
“Yes. But I realize not everyone can be like me.”
He hung his head. “So, you know, then. You just can’t do anything right now? Why not explain it to me?”
“That’s where the trust comes in, Darcy,” I said, walking past him.
“Do not call me that.”
“What?” I looked at him.
He lifted his head to glare at me. “Darcy. Don’t call me that anyone more. Call me Killian. And remember, it was my father who stepped aside for your father.”
“And you are stepping aside for me?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Yes…and I’ll keep stepping aside for you for as long I trust you.” He took another step forward. “But if you fail to give me an explanation as to why the Ceann Na Conairte couldn’t even protect his family, in his own goddamn home…I won’t step aside anymore.”
“A new name is a good step, Killian, but remember, it doesn’t give you superpowers…or protect you from bullets. The Callahan behind your name and the one behind mine aren’t the same. So be careful whom you bare your new teeth at.”
“Everything changes.”
“And some things stay the same.”
“I’ll be patiently waiting for that explanation.”
“Good.” Because I was patiently waiting for my wife to explain why she really killed my aunt and I couldn’t give him one until then anyway.
I wouldn’t waver in my trust of her, not only because it was her, but because I chose her, and I didn’t choose wrong.
I trusted her.
Because I trusted myself.
In the beginning, she had asked me, “What if I need your blood for that kingdom?”
And I told her, “Then, take it without hesitation.”
So, in truth, I had also killed my aunt.
Maybe that was the reason I couldn’t bring myself to grieve like the rest of them. I’d joined hands with the angel of death a long time ago, and there was no looking back now.
So, ‘til death do us part, then.