Loving the leech (Guardians of Red Moon city #4)
23. Alone

Kaylin’s POV

It’s dark in here, darker than any other place I’ve ever been in. Not even the sun’s rays can reach the evil clinging to the walls. The sin that circulates here makes it almost difficult to breathe. You’d think it’s enough that I’m locked in a cell with handcuffs that hold my foot to the ground, right? Unfortunately, it’s worse than that. Every creature in here growls at me all the time, and more than once, I’ve been told that I, Jennifer Swetzon, will pay for what I’ve done. I have to admit; I’m impressed by how many enemies William’s ex has managed to collect during the years.

It’s almost fun to think about. But it’s not as funny at the moment, considering that all the others’ direct their hatred at me. I can’t even move without any of them getting mad at me. My body is in the same uncomfortable position I’ve been in since I got here, and I’ve got no idea how long time has passed. The reason I don’t move is that I don’t want to hear “stop making noise, you stupid whore!” once again. I don’t care what they think of me, but I’m not hungry for fights either. As I said, I can’t determine how long I’ve been in this cell concerning the time.

It’s easy to lose time in a room where my night vision barely works. The darkness hardly helps to try to fill that void that exists within me either. What did I expect? It should be evident by now that I won’t have a happy ending. One way or another, I’ll die at the hands of the council and people I once saw as my family. Salazar and the Everton clan don’t recognize me. They aren’t on my side and don’t hold my back anymore, even though they promised always to be there. Once again, others leave me to my destiny and a darkness that I can’t get out of.

I guess this is how it goes when you trust other people. Follow my advice; don’t trust anyone because they’ll stab you in the back. The heavy metal door opens with a bang, and several of the creatures hiss both by the sound and light coming from the opening. Two muscular vampires come up to my cell and unlock it. One of the men opens my anklet before putting two pieces on my hands. I look questioningly at the other one standing quietly at the cell door.

“It’s time for your trial,” he says and starts walking toward the door as the other one rips me out of my cell.

My legs are shaking, and I stumble by the power the guard uses; gratefully enough, I have time to get a hold with my hands before hurting myself. He looks at me with anger, and I’m quick to get up again to start walking. The men lead me through a long corridor with no windows. The walls are wet and made of stones. It’s similar to the long aisles that they use in films in castles approximately. Pebbles cut into my feet as they drag me like a cow to slaughter through the corridors that never seem to stop. It isn’t only my rigid position in the cell that creates problems for me but also my hunger.

A vampire manages to be without blood, but it’s common knowledge that they become virtually useless without. Have you seen “Vampire Diaries”? If you have, do you remember how Catherine was when she got locked in the grave and was without blood for a long time? That’s about how I feel, and I don’t know how long my body can handle this. I can’t die of thirst but start mummifying. That’s something I most likely want to avoid, especially given the circumstances. In the end, the trail ends, and the guards lead me into a large room with bright lights that cause my eyes to close.

I’ve forgotten how amazing it is to be able to see things in daylight. Is that something I should be worried about? Given that, I don’t know how long has passed between me going to the cell and now. My eyes get used to the light, and I look down at the floor. I immediately recognize the marble and quickly realize that I’m in the council courtroom. Many vampires are present, and even my beloved with his clan. Despite Jennifer sitting on William’s lap, I’m glad to be able to see him at all, even if it’s under severe conditions.

The guards lead me to a metal chair that they strap me in with leather. The council members sit on a platform higher up than me, behind some sort of larger desk. If I look straight ahead and move my head enough, my gaze meets Salazar’s, a man I once respected.

“Jennifer Swetzon, for causing mass destruction, murdering three thousand four hundred and eighty-nine vampires worldwide, butchering thousands of people, threatening, spying, and infiltrating numerous clans, becomes your punishment sixteen torture occasions in front of the council. When you’ve fulfilled these occasions, you’re burned at stake in front of all the clans until only ashes remain,” Salazar says, and I’m not shocked.

The punishment doesn’t surprise me in the least, but Jennifer’s past deeds do. How can one person cause so much evil and destruction? What’s the point of that? I killed TWENTY-FOUR people when I was a newborn vampire, and I’m still ashamed of it. How can one person kill so many and not feel any shame at all? Wait a minute, should I feel guilty? Isn’t my humanity gone?

“Do you have anything to say in your defense, Jennifer?” Salazar asks, and I turn toward my beloved.

“You’re dead, Jennifer. I’m going to kill you, and I don’t care about the approach or how long it takes, but you’re dead,” I growl at her while the guards pull me toward the door back to my cell. “You’re not safe, Jennifer, you hear what I’m saying!? Leave my beloved and his family alone!”

Benjamin and Elijah look at each other, but I don’t have time to see what they do after that. The door slams shut, and the guards throw me into my cell when we’re back where we started.

“Threatening a high-ranking clan leader’s beloved is stupid to do in your position, Jennifer,” one of the guards growls before slamming the door behind him.

“It’s because she’s not his beloved, and I’m not Jennifer,” I mumble to myself.

I sigh soundly and don’t care about the angry mumbles coming from my fellow prisoners. What good is it to care for them and their pathetic annoyance? Everyone present is here for a reason; after all, this isn’t a hotel but a prison. I’m innocent in this, but it doesn’t matter because who believes a criminal? Or well, I don’t know for sure that everyone who finds themselves here is criminal, but it’s hardly usually full of innocents in prison cells, right?

“She came at you too,” murmurs a voice suddenly from my left side.

I turn to the direction the voice comes from and try to discern who’s talking to me. By the voice to judge and the physique, it’s a man. I draw in a deep breath and realize that the man is a vampire.

“You don’t have to look so disgusted,” the man chuckles at me. “My name is Blake. What’s your name?”

I look suspiciously at him and try to figure out why he’s nice to me while everyone else in here wants me dead. He smiles at me, and I become even more skeptical. Kindness in a place like this isn’t something you experience every day, and everything has a price, hence my apprehension.

“Kaylin,” I answer, cold.

He gasps and looks at me with big eyes as if he can’t understand that he’s sitting in the cell next to mine. Surprised, I raise an eyebrow and wait for him to continue talking.

“You won inside the arena,” he says quietly.

“I’m surprised that you at all believe in me that I’m not the one everyone suddenly claims I am,” I reply.

“Jennifer is wanted everywhere, not just among the vampires. I have powerful allies looking for her, and when they get their hands on her, no one can save her.”

“What do you mean?” I ask confusedly.

“Well, we can say that my alpha isn’t happy about how she behaved in recent years,” he replies with an easy chuckle.

“Vampires don’t have alpha’s,” I respond, suspicious.

“I have,” he replies, smiling. “Aleida Mendez. I’m guessing you know who it is?”

How can I not know? Aleida is well known nowadays, especially after she gave up her life to save not only her own race but also the vampires before becoming a hybrid. Queen Aleida received the moon goddess’s power after fulfilling a prophecy; at least, that’s what Salazar taught me during my training. She controls the vampires until a royal born can take over, at least that’s what the rumors say. If I ever get crowned as Queen for the vampires, I look forward to working side by side with her. Aleida is a strong woman that I look up to after all the stories I’ve heard about her.

“Of course,” I answer. “But if you have such strong allies, what are you doing here?”

“I’m here for you, of course,” he replies as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s Aleida who sent me here; I’m just here temporarily and am getting out tomorrow again. She asked me to tell you to hold on until your punishment is over; before that, she can’t do anything.”

Why does the Queen want to help me? We don’t know each other, and even though I respect her considerably, that doesn’t mean she wants to help me without getting something in return. Blake has to see how my thoughts spin, given that he eventually gives me a severe look.

“Aleida wants to help you out. She believes in you, and even though you think you don’t have any allies left, you do. I believe you when you say you’re Kaylin, but at present, we can’t prove it in any way. That’s why you have to put up with your torture until we can help you. Get some rest.”

I don’t want to sleep because I don’t know what happens while I’m not conscious. It’s the same horror I have every time sleep takes over since I came here, whenever that was. But my body is tired and weak; I need to rest no matter what I think about it.

“Your secret is safe in more ways than one,” Blake suddenly says, and I look questioningly at him. “Aleida has made sure of it. She doesn’t think this is right, but, as I said, she can’t do anything at the moment. Go to sleep. I’ll protect you.”

Even if I struggle, sleep eventually takes over, and I drift into a restless sleep that scares the hell out of me.

“Kaylin,” someone quietly says, pushing at me.

I snore and look around quickly. Blake chuckles at me again, and I rub my eyes with a yawn. My body pains me, and I groan from the pain from my stiff joints.

“Good Morning, Kaylin,” Blake whispers, and it’s only now I’m confused as to why none of the other creatures growl when I move or talk.

“Why don’t the other creatures hate me anymore?” I ask, confused.

“They can’t hear us,” Blake replies with a smile. “I made sure we would have some private time. Besides, I don’t like how they advance on you, especially not because they don’t know who you truly are.”

I slowly nod and look down at my hands. The void within me grows the longer I find myself in this darkness, and things I once cared about disappear bit by bit.

“You have to fight against the darkness, Kaylin,” Blake says softly. “Your humanity is one of the most important things you have, and you can’t get back to your beloved unless you focus on what matters.”

“I have no beloved anymore,” I growl, and he looks sadly at me.

“That’s not true, and you know it. William will always choose you, no matter what. He’s just... confused right now. When the truth comes out, he’s guaranteed to kneel in front of you and ask for your forgiveness,” Blake replies.

“How can you know so much about William?” I ask.

“He’s my cousin,” he replies, and I look up at him with eyes wide open.

“Do you also belong to the Everton clan?”

“Actually, I used to, but I left many years ago and ended up in the bad company. That’s when my alpha found me and helped both me but also my fellow vampires to start over,” he replies, smiling at the memory. “Aleida is fair, and when she finds out the truth, she’ll be pissed. She’s scary when she’s angry. In addition to that, the vampires need their own leader who can work side by side with her.”

I don’t know how to react to the information he’s sharing. Like I’ve said, I respect Aleida considerably, but the idea that she consciously and also voluntarily wants to help amazes me considerably. The door opens, and the two guards from the day before come in. They unlock Blake’s cell door, and he smiles at me before following the men out. It’s only a few minutes later that I realize how lonely I feel without Blake here. I used to love solitude and silence, but now I despise it. Mainly because of the others’ wicked whispers repeating until darkness comes back within me.

I decide to lock my hands and pray to any God who wants to listen to me; “serenity prayer” comes to me like so many times before when I’ve been about to return to old harmful habits. If anyone hears me, please help me out of this. Grant me the serenity to accept the things I can’t change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Benjamin’s POV

I know I should feel ashamed of my feelings for my big brother’s beloved, but I’m not going to. You don’t treat your beloved in the way he treats Kaylin. No one in the family liked when he got Jennifer as his first beloved, and he was hurt when he let go of her. We celebrated in silence when she disappeared, though not in front of William; we aren’t that disrespectful. Well, mom and Vivienne are. He receives two beloveds; the first break him apart, and the second one he treats like used chewing gum on the street. With a clear conscience, I can say that my brother doesn’t deserve Kaylin.

A selfish and arrogant person isn’t worthy of such a beautiful creature; it’s as simple as that. If William doesn’t intend to treat Kaylin with the love and respect she deserves, then I will. Damn, I know more about her than he does. I sit in my room and listen to her favorite song, “All I Want” by Kodaline. According to her, there’s something beautiful in feeling the pain when losing someone that means a lot to you. I remember her exact words.

“Nothing is free in this world. With all the joy always comes sadness. Love is precious and fragile; it can break like when an elephant balances on cobwebs. Family isn’t something to take for granted; everyone doesn’t have a mother, father, siblings, and other relatives to turn to. Everything you have can be taken away as quickly as you get it. A friend can put the knife in your back when you need him most; a mother can lose her child to a careless driver, a daughter can lose her father in illness... Everything you have and everyone you know may one day disappear, resulting in you standing alone.

“At the end of the day, you just have yourself, and that’s what’s beautiful; that a phoenix can grow out of the ashes and become stronger than before. The beauty isn’t the heartache or pain that comes with suffering life’s misfortunes, but how much stronger we become during the journey. Until that day comes when we leave mortality and cause pain to our loved ones, which leads to their own strength; whatever we do in life, we don’t come out of it alive, and we must learn to accept it, even if it feels difficult.”

Kaylin has been strong for so long that I don’t have words to describe it. Throughout her life, she has had to fight, even though she never gave up. Her dad’s hidden and passive hatred of her must be heavy to bear. I don’t think that was his meaning, and I also think he loved Kaylin until his last breath. But when you find yourself in such a dark place and don’t know how to find your way back out again, it’s easy to put the blame on someone else to be able to keep moving forward. At the end of the day, I instead think that Kaylin’s father hated the circumstances of his wife’s death and not the result, which is his daughter.

I don’t know, and Kaylin will not get the answer to that either. It pains me that she’ll never even have the opportunity to ask him because Joseph forced her to kill him to save herself. I want to help her, but I don’t know how to do it. William continues to play house with Jennifer, and it disgusts me to the extent that I don’t even want to be in their vicinity. If my brother can’t even feel the difference between his ex and his beloved, he doesn’t deserve her.

A/N:

Hello everyone!

It turns out that the werewolf queen is rooting for Kaylin and is working on helping her.

❀ Did you see Aleida’s help coming?

✿ Are Benjamin’s feelings wrong?

❀ Is Benjamin right with his thoughts about his brother?

Please let me know your thoughts since they help me develop in my creative process! Thank you for reading, lots of love.<3

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