Andrew
“He has my fucking woman. Let me go!”
Grigori’s arms tighten around me even more. “No. You have to let her go. You can’t cause a scene like this in front of the uninitiated. We will figure this out. You have to calm the fuck down.”
I turn on him, my eyes piercing down into his soul. “I am fucking calm. You do not ever want to see me when I’m not.” They drive off into the night, and I watch her go. With him. My heart feels like it’s being drawn and quartered right now, and I never expected to feel something so agonizing. She left. How could she just leave?
Sitting down on the stoop, I plop my head in my hands and force my brain to work rationally. I can’t blame the girl. Logically, I can’t. My heart wants to fuck logic in the ass with no lube. This is why I kept a barren fuck field. This is why I never let anyone close. Somehow, they always manage to let you down. It’s more than that, but I can’t let my heart dictate how my brain works right now. That fucker needs to stay out of the equation.
I take a deep breath, shoving my shredded heart to the side. The affected calm works wonders. All I had to do was throw my heart away. Such a simple thing that yields major results. “I need her back with me. No one walks away without permission.”
“Did you put the trackers in like I suggested?”
“You did not. You did not fucking put trackers in my fucking sister like she’s your goddamn dog.”
Whirling around, I grab Melody by the throat before placing her against the wall. It takes every rational willpower to not slam her against the stucco. “You will not speak to me with such disrespect. None of this would have happened if you hadn’t interfered.”
“But I didn’t!” Her frantic cries shoot to my groin, stirring me in a way that engages my anger and not my lust. “I -. I just called him. I don’t even know why. I thought he should know. We all lost her three years ago, and you can’t fault me for that.”
“I sure as hell can. And what did you tell him? Hmm? Did you draw a map to where we lived? Did you tell him all the sordid details of what we do to naughty submissives when they act out of line?”
“No. None of that! I just told him she was alive. That’s all. I swear. That’s all.”
“Unhand my submissive, Andrew. She’s not yours to discipline.”
I turn, pinning Jeremy with an icy stare. “If you did a better job, we wouldn’t be in this mess.” I thrust her against the wall one final time before letting her go.
“That may be, but I’ll decide that.”
“No. You won’t. I’m taking this to the council. She put my submissive and the entire Society at risk by her actions.”
“But I -.”
Rage swirls in my brain as her mouth keeps opening. I need her gone. To think that I ever found her attractive. Oh, she’ll pay all right. If anything happens to Chastity, I’m going to hold Melody completely responsible. Easing the grip off of her neck, I let the impermeable cold seep into my system. I fling her away from me and into Jeremy’s arms, noting the anger pouring off of him. I don’t care if it’s at me or not. Melody had no right to interfere like she had.
He dips his head to her, whispering something in her ear, and the look of fear on her face is enough to ease my own ire. Just a little bit. She squirms in Jeremy’s arms as he holds her back from me. Anything she has to say to me, she can say to the council.
“Get her out of my sight. You’ll be hearing from John.”
Nodding, Jeremy sets his lips into a firm line and drags Melody away. Apologetic sobs punctuate the quiet night, but I don’t care to listen. There’s nothing she can say to me to make this better. She may not have intended things to go this way, but she is certainly not innocent in how they played out. Jeremy sure as hell wouldn’t allow her to do this, so she must have acted independently. They speed away, leaving Grigori, Sergei, and me alone on the front steps.
“I’m going to get her back.” My voice is a whisper, a desperate husk that disgusts me.
“Think about this. There’s nothing good that can come of you barging in and snatching her up. She left. It was her own choice. He didn’t make her. You grab her now, and she’ll never forgive you.”
“Yes. It’s how you say, set bird free, it comes back with no promise of food.”