Clem leaps at him, flinging her arms around him and weeping for all the World and the Other one. He disentangles himself quickly while I get him up to speed.
“The law is the law,” he states. “I’m sorry, Clem. I can’t do this for you. If I break the rules for you, then I might as well just reverse the law completely.”
“And yet your precious wench gets away with it,” she spits out with all the poison of a Black Mamba.
CK looks at me and I shrug back with a vicious stare.
Don’t blame me, I didn’t tell her.
“That was unavoidable. Aefre had no control over that situation. Lance was wholly responsible for separating her from her charge.”
“Indeed,” Remiel says, quite coldly, I might add.
“And yet she never stood trial? If she is so innocent, then don’t you think that a jury of her peers deserve to prove that as a case study?” Her triumphant smile makes my blood run cold.
“Absolutely not!” CK bellows.
Clem cringes under her sire’s anger.
But I am quick to contradict him. “Perhaps…”
“Shut your mouth,” he seethes at me and I cringe as well, even though he is no longer my sire.
“I beg your pardon…” Remiel starts, ready to defend me.
“What happened to Aefre is a traumatic memory for her. I will not allow anyone to drag her through reliving it just for a ‘case study’. It is clear what happened, and I absolved her at the time. End of story.”
“And buried it,” Clem hisses. “The Vampires deserve to know about this. She needs to stand trial if my daughter is to as well!”
“Breathe one word to anyone about this and I will kill your daughter myself without a trial,” CK says so calmly it belies his real anger. “You will not see many Vampires lining up to take me on for my actions.”
Clem opens and closes her mouth like a goldfish, but then clamps her lips shut. “What if it were your daughter?” she says softly after a beat, desperately trying a different tactic.
“For starters, my daughter is actually my daughter,” CK states. “And she will know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Perhaps if you had spent more time disciplining your charge in the ways of the Vampire instead of running around trying to obtain Silver for her, she would have known better.”
“How dare you!” she screeches, practically deafening us all. “You have not heard the end of this, Constantine. I will appeal and appeal. She will not stand trial for this until your little whore does as well.”
With that, Clementine and her husband Teleport out of the castle, leaving the Entrance Hall so silent, you could hear a pin drop.
“You should have told me about this,” Remiel says after a few seconds. “I deserved to know.”
“You did know,” I hiss at him. “How was I supposed to know that you picked and chose Lance’s memories to torture me with?”
“Aefre!” he barks at me, but I am not having it. He has no right to stand there on his high horse. I turn my back to him and take CK’s hands.
“You know I will have to stand trial. This will get out and I won’t have a choice,” I say to him. “I believe that a jury will see my innocence.”
“Do not be a fool, Aefre!” he shouts at me. “Don’t you see that every Vampire out there would love this opportunity to take you down? You wouldn’t stand a chance against a jury of your so-called peers.”
Devon lets out a strangled moan and a quick look at his face tells me he agrees.
Wow, I knew I was envied, but do the rest of the Vampires hate me that much that they would sentence me to death for something that I had no control over?
“Yes,” Devon whispers, coming closer, knowing exactly what my thoughts are. “You cannot throw yourself on the sword for this girl.”
I nod hastily. I had no idea. Deluded or what?
“Now that has been addressed, I believe you owe me an explanation,” Remiel says, not letting this go.