Stealing Kathryn

by Jacquelyn Frank

  He grinned. “Yes, very daring. Are you going to…miss the beastly side of me?” he asked abruptly.

  “That all depends,” she said as she bent playfully for his mouth. “Are there any parts of him left behind?”

  “Maybe one or two,” he growled as he grabbed her and flipped her over in their bed, putting her squarely beneath him. He dove for her neck, making snarling and growling noises as he nipped at her. She squealed and laughed, pounding useless fists against him and kicking the bed.

  It was probably the reason why neither of them heard the guards enter their bedroom. But suddenly Kathryn opened her eyes and saw them, screaming a very different scream than what she’d just been doing. Adrian noted the difference instantly and turned sharply to see what was behind him. Realizing who they were, he jerked a sheet over Kat to hide her from their amused eyes and he let loose with a warning growl that sent chills down more than one spine. Then the captain of the squad stepped forward.

  “It is our duty, Guardian, to bring you before the Ampliphi to answer for your crimes.”

  “Crimes! What crimes?” Kathryn burst out in panic, her arm wrapping around Adrian’s as if she wouldn’t ever let him go. Adrian had to forgo the pleasure of that experience as he focused on the threat in his home. He had been anticipating something like this. He knew the Ampliphi far too well to have thought they would let him slide for killing Cronos.

  “It’s okay,” he said softly to her as he laid a gentle hand on the arm clinging to him. “I did the thing they are likely accusing me of and I have to answer for it.”

  “You—what? Adrian, what did you do?” she asked him numbly.

  “I killed Cronos.”

  Kathryn couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She had thought that he had taken Cronos to the Ampliphi to answer for his crimes, not that he would take the matter into his own hands. But it was clear that the beast who had still been such a large part of his psyche then had gotten the better of him, and like any animal who saw his mate in peril, he had done what was necessary to eliminate the threat. The fact was, Cronos might never have quit trying to kill her. He had fixated on her being the cause of all his problems. She could easily see why he had felt he had no other recourse when it came to letting the horrid little man leave with his life.

  But what scared her the most was that she didn’t know the laws in this world. Did they believe in justifiable homicide? Would they see this murder as justified? Was it justified?

  It had been in Adrian’s mind. She could sense it from him and see it in his dark, pleading eyes. He was seeking her forgiveness, even as he pried her hands free of his arm and got up off the bed. He retrieved his jeans and stepped into them, then moved forward toward the guards.

  “No!” she cried, flying off the bed and catching hold of him. “You can’t leave me! It’s not fair!” She wrapped her arms around his waist, uncaring of the sheet that snaked free of her bare body. “You can’t leave me!”

  “I’ll try to come back,” he swore to her, taking her arms and trying to push her free. “I have to go. I cannot disobey this command to be seen; it will only make matters worse. Please put something on and go sit on the bed, where you won’t get hurt.”

  Just then, one of the guards stepped up. “Release him. We’re taking him now.”

  Then he reached out to pull her forcibly away from Adrian.

  Adrian exploded the instant the guard’s hand touched her waist. With a primal roar he leapt between the guard and Kathryn, picked the man up and hurled him over the bed and into a wall.

  “Don’t touch her!” He whirled to snarl at the other guards. “No one touches her!”

  For good measure he pushed Kathryn back into an unoccupied part of the room. That was just about the moment the guards pounced on him, dragging him down to the floor, holding him down painfully and brutally.

  “Stop! Don’t hurt him! He was only protecting me! He can’t help it! Stop hurting him!” she cried.

  “We know what a vicious monster he is. We’re not taking any chances,” the captain said.

  Finally they had him bound tightly by his hands behind his back. They hauled him to his feet and she could see that he had cut his lip. She fought off the usual instinct for tears, getting angry instead. With fierce movements she recovered her black dress from the floor and yanked it on. When they marched him out of the bedroom she was hot on their trail.

  “Stay here,” Adrian commanded. “You don’t know how to walk the walkways yet. You don’t know your way around!”

  “Like hell I’m staying here,” she shot back. “I’m not letting you face this firing squad alone!”

  “Someone escort her, then,” he begged the guards, twisting his body to keep his eyes on her as they exited the hut. “Someone walk beside her or behind her.” Just don’t touch her. The warning was silent and implied. Everyone knew it. The guards all looked at one another, waiting for someone to volunteer to get close enough to this volatile creature’s mate.

  “I’ll walk with her.”

  Adrian and Kathryn both looked up in surprise when they heard Aerlyn’s voice. She was flushed and breathless, as if she had run all the way to get to them.

  “Just don’t fight them, Adrian,” Aerlyn said firmly. “I won’t let anyone touch her. Just please go quietly.” Aerlyn firmly linked her hand through Kathryn’s, showing him that his kindra was literally in safe hands.

  Satisfied, Adrian turned forward and let them take him to Justice Hall.

  Chapter 16

  Kathryn was a wreck by the time they reached Justice Hall. She remembered the place well, with its dark interior and its vastly stretched-out spaces. She remembered the Ampliphi as well, the lot of them looking so holy in their attitudes and carriages. But something was different. Instead of them being all glowy and ghostly, they were all flesh and blood, as solid as Kathryn was, and all of them painfully beautiful to look at.

  “Why are they all real?” she asked Aerlyn sotto voce.

  “I suspect that has something to do with you and Adrian,” she replied just as softly. “When they have an overabundance of energy, they can become as solid as you or I.”

  “Oh.” Then she blushed and exclaimed, “Oh!” when she finally understood that this was the visual proof of what had made her so anxious the night before in bed with Adrian. But that was the least of her worries right now, she thought as they dragged Adrian roughly to the center of the floor, squarely in front of the Ampliphi, and forced him harshly to his knees.

  “Hey! Is that really necessary?” she demanded, her voice echoing off the high ceilings.

  “All who seek judgment from the Ampliphi must kneel. We make no exceptions.”

  “I don’t mean the kneeling,” she shot back to the man who had spoken. “I mean being so mean about it. All you have to do is ask him and he’ll do it.”

  “That has not proven to be the case in the past,” one of the Ampliphi said grimly.

  “That was the past,” she bit back. “Can’t you just look at him and see how different he is?”

  They all turned their heads to finally take a good look at the monster they had called to task. There were audible and surprised sounds from among the Ampliphi. Soft and swift whispers began to fly between them and she could feel their surprise and confusion like a wall hitting her. She squeezed Aerlyn’s hand, hoping this was a good sign. But Aerlyn still looked very grim and worried. Kathryn could almost feel her heart racing in fear.

  Then the leader addressed her.

  “He may be different in appearance, but we have no proof he is anything different in attitude. Now be silent or we will remove you from these proceedings.”

  She wanted to tell them where they could go, but Aerlyn’s warning squeeze of her hand helped her keep her tongue. For the time being.

  “Adrian,” Christophe said deeply, “you are brought before this council so that you may answer to the charges of murder. The punishment for this crime will be your death. Have you anything to sa
y?”

  “I told you, he tried to hurt my mate,” Adrian said through his teeth. “First he tried to trap her in my mirror, tried to get her lost in the nightmare plane. While she was there, she was almost raped by a doppelganger of me. Then he held her at knifepoint, threatening her life while drawing blood. What would you have me do? Let him live so he could attack her again and again? And had he gone through this very court I am standing before now, you would have sentenced him to death for his crimes anyway. He was as much a monster as you accuse me of, and with much less reason.”

  “It is not your right to carry out sentence and mete out justice. You should have left that to us,” Rennin said with disdain for his prodigy. “You have been my Guardian for decades, and in that time the evil of your mirror has consumed you beyond all reclamation. Your murder of your Companion proves it.”

  “I am not beyond reclamation,” Adrian insisted, his deep voice so strong and beautiful as it echoed up to the ceilings. “Look there,” he said, nodding toward Kathryn. “There you will see my salvation. You all have seen me again and again in my monstrous form. Now, because of her, I am the man I once was.”

  “Again, on the outside. But if you were so changed, you would not have attacked the guards just now when they came to fetch you,” said Sydelle.

  “He put his hands on my mate,” Adrian said tightly. “While she was unclothed.”

  “Then it is an understandable reaction.” Julian spoke up at last. “I can say from experience that anyone who touched Asia, especially if she were to be in a naked state, would very likely lose an arm. It is the nature of kind. Just as it was the nature of kind for him to want to destroy the threat to his mate’s life.”

  “Nature or not,” Christophe said, “the man beneath must have the wherewithal to control those urges.”

  “But there was so much beast within me at the time,” Adrian confessed. “Which is not the case now.”

  “That is irrelevant,” said Greison.

  “I think it is quite relevant,” argued Gisella. “It is clear that Adrian has gone though massive and traumatic changes. Surely we can account him a little latitude.”

  “A very little,” Rennin said begrudgingly. “But the charge remains and this body will vote. Majority rules. If you fail to achieve—”

  “Wait! Majority rules?” Aerlyn burst out, letting go of Kathryn and stepping forward. “How can that be? When judging a Guardian of a crime, unanimity rules. You must all agree or he is acquitted of the crime.”

  “Ah, but you see,” Greison said with a smile Kathryn immediately wanted to slap off his smug face, “he is no longer a Guardian. He retired from his post before the incident in question.”

  Kathryn felt panic fly through Aerlyn as she met Julian’s eyes across the room. He stood up immediately.

  “Are you telling me that after sacrificing himself for us for decades of his life, after serving his people relentlessly, you are going to turn your back on his status as a Guardian and deny him a Guardian’s justice?”

  “It was his choice to retire,” Rennin said, sounding bored.

  “It was two days ago!” Julian railed. “Two days, and that gives you the right to miscarry what he deserves? What he is owed after years of loyal service?”

  “I’m sorry, Julian,” Christophe spoke up, “but Rennin is right. Whether it was two days or two minutes, he gave up all his rights as a Guardian the instant he retired. Now he falls under majority discretion. A tie or higher and he is a free man, but if majority rules, he will be executed.”

  “No!” Kathryn couldn’t help herself. She ran across the room and fell to her knees beside Adrian, throwing her arms around his neck under the disdainful eyes of those unmovable leaders. Didn’t they understand? It was all different now! He was all different! “You can’t. Please,” she begged them as she kissed Adrian’s cheek. “Please, if I can forgive him for the things he did to me, then why can’t you forgive him for doing what you would have done anyway? If I can see how much he has changed, why can’t you see it? Do you think if he was still a monster I would be defending him? He took me from my family. I couldn’t even say goodbye, but he found a way to give that to me again, just to give me peace. He gathered a trove of the most beautiful things in all the worlds he knows, and did it all for me. Just to make me happy.” Tears ran down her face, the most important tears of her life. “Please don’t take him away from me. We just found each other. We’re kind. We could feed his entire village and keep them from starving for the rest of our lives. Please…oh please, you have to let him live.”

  She sobbed hard, her face pressing against his neck and wetting him with her tears.

  “Shh,” he soothed her in a whisper no one could hear but them. “I love you, sweetheart. It’s okay. I’ll be okay.” He bent his head and kissed her neck. “Go back over to Aerlyn,” he told her.

  “No. I’m staying here with you. If they are going to do this to you, I want them to see me here. I want them to know what they are doing to me. I want them to see how goddamn unfair they are!”

  “All right,” he hushed her softly. “It’s all right.”

  “No, it’s not all right.” She wept, hugging him with all of her might. “You did everything for them, sacrificed everything you were for them, and now they just want to throw you away or swat you like a pesky fly. I won’t let them!”

  She turned to face the Ampliphi.

  “Let me take him home with me. Let me take him to the Earth plane. You never have to see him again. He’ll be safe with me and I swear I won’t tell anyone about this place.”

  “That is impossible,” Gisella said. “We will never let a human return to Earth with knowledge of the planes. We certainly won’t let someone from Beneath go to the Earth plane after he has proven to be volatile.”

  “This wastes our time,” Rennin said dismissively. “We need to vote.”

  “Wastes your time?” Kathryn echoed in horror. “This is a man’s life you’re talking about! If you are going to send him to his death, you’d better damn well take some time doing it!”

  “Guards, remove her,” Greison ordered.

  “You touch me or my kindri and I will rip your balls off.”

  The snarled warning might have been coming from an unexpected source, but not one of the guards took the chance of moving to obey Greison’s orders.

  “Did you hear me?” he demanded of them.

  One of the guards spoke up. “I’m not getting in between these two again.”

  “Finally,” Julian said, “someone who is wise enough to realize what it means to get in between a couple who is kind.”

  “Cast your fucking vote,” Kathryn spat. “And look us both in the eye while you do it. And for that matter, look into the eyes of the thousands you will starve by this careless act.”

  “Very well. All in favor of punishing Adrian for the crime of murder of another citizen of Beneath, cast your vote.”

  Greison, Rennin, and Sydelle lifted their hands. Kathryn held her breath, waiting for another hand to come up.

  “All those for acquittal?”

  Julian and Giselle raised their hands.

  “I am abstaining,” Christophe spoke up.

  “What does that mean? What does it mean?” Kathryn demanded to know.

  “It means we lose,” Adrian whispered.

  “No! No, you can’t abstain!” she shouted at Christophe. “You can’t be a coward about this. You have to pick a side! There’s no such thing as washing your hands of this, because the act of abstaining is signing his death warrant. You either vote to kill him or you vote to save him. Choose!”

  “The vote is done,” Rennin said dismissively.

  “Choose!” she yelled at Christophe. “You choose!”

  “Very well,” Christophe said.

  “The vote is done,” Rennin snapped.

  “It’s done when I say it is done,” Christophe said sharply. He looked down at the man and woman kneeling before him. “What is your nam
e?”

  “Kathryn,” she said hoarsely.

  “Kathryn, you would so passionately defend your kidnapper?”

  “To my last breath. He’s not my kidnapper. He’s my savior. I just didn’t know it at first. But I know it now. Please, I’m begging you. He’s no longer the beast you think he is.”

  “You say that because you love him,” Christophe said dismissively. “It radiates off you so powerfully it’s hard to look at you. That certainly counts as bias.”

  “You…love me?”

  The soft query came from a hung head, his eyes suddenly lifting with his surprise.

  “Oh, come on.” She sniffled. “With all the stuff you know before I even say anything, and you couldn’t see that one coming?”

  “It is hard to see the things we crave the most,” said the Ampliphi leader.

  “Yes,” she said, “I love you. Very much. So much that you can’t die.” She turned to Christophe. “I don’t know how else to beg you. Please. Vote.”

  “Very well. I vote for…acquittal.”

  “A tie!” Aerlyn squeaked. Losing all her elegant composure she ran for her brother and tackled both him and Kathryn to the floor. “A tie!”