But he’s not like that now—he’s not! He’s much better—completely different, she thought.
“What are you going to do with him if you catch him?” she demanded, frowning at the two Kindred standing on her porch. “Because it sounds to me like this state he’s stuck in, isn’t his fault.”
“No one said it was his fault,” Commander Rarev said patiently. “He was forced into the state of Fury by a terrible trauma he suffered on the battlefield. However, it does make him extremely dangerous, as I said before. If we find him, we’ll have to take him to the prison planet, as planned.”
“Well that hardly seems fair!” Christine objected. “I mean, it sounds like he’s suffering from some kind of PTSD! Why would you ship him off to prison just for that?”
“Because he’s too damn dangerous to keep around!” Commander Baird growled impatiently.
“He has mauled several of his guards quite badly,” Commander Rarev added quietly. “We have tried everything to rehabilitate him, but nothing works for long. He comes almost out of the Fury and then something brings it on again and he is no better than a dangerous beast.”
Christine thought uneasily of the way the Fensters’ music had set the big Monstrum off the night before.
But it didn’t make him savage or dangerous, she thought defiantly. He was just scared, that’s all. He didn’t hurt me—he was extremely gentle once I calmed him down. He could have broken me in half like a twig, but all he wanted to do was hold me and cuddle and kiss and suck and taste.
She didn’t care what the people standing on her front porch said, she decided, she wasn’t going to give the big Monstrum up. She wasn’t going to sentence him to a lifetime in prison just because he had his people’s version of PTSD. Her little brother, who had served in Afghanistan, had similar problems.
You didn’t give up on someone you cared about just because they’d been traumatized. You helped them—cared for them and did whatever you could to heal them.
And that did not include sending them to a prison planet and locking them up the rest of their life!
“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head firmly. “But I haven’t seen hide nor hair of him.”
Commander Baird shifted restively.
“Please understand, he’s extremely fucking dangerous—” he began again.
“Then you’d better go find him,” Christine said curtly. “And stop hanging around my cabin because he’s not here.”
“Very well. If you see him—or anything at all suspicious—will you please give us a call?” Commander Rarev handed her a business card with the Kindred symbol in purple and gold and a single phone number. “This will call me directly—Roarn is under my command and he is my responsibility,” he told Christine. “So please, call if you see him.”
“Fine. Thank you.” Christine took the card just to satisfy him and gave the Kindred on her porch a final nod. Then shut the door firmly in their faces.
For a moment she leaned her forehead against the door, thinking of the situation and remembering her own past—remembering her little brother.
She still wished desperately that she’d been able to get to him after he came back from the front, but he’d been living across the country in Seattle and she was still raising her kids in Virginia. She’d known that he sounded upset on the phone sometimes but she hadn’t had any idea he felt hopeless enough to do what he did.
Oh, Bobby! she thought, her heart aching at the memory of how he had died. I should have done something—I should have taken the kids out of school and gone to be with you. I should have found the money to make the trip. I failed you, little brother!
Well, she wasn’t going to fail again. It seemed to her that Fate had given her a second chance, sending the big Monstrum into her life, and this time she wasn’t going to screw it up.
There was no way she was giving Roarn up to them.
No way in Hell.
NINETEEN
Baird and Rarev exchanged a look as the door shut in their faces.
“Well? What do you think?” Baird asked, as they tromped off the front porch.
“I think she is lying.” Rarev sounded thoughtful. “I do not know if she is harboring the fugitive, but she has certainly seen him.”
“I think she has too. But why would she lie about it?” Baird asked, feeling a surge of frustration.
Rarev shrugged.
“Why do humans do anything? In my limited experience, they can be quite illogical.”
Baird sighed and ran a hand through his thick, black hair.
“You can say that again. Though the females are usually better than the males. I’d take my mate, Olivia, over a dozen human males any day.”
“I feel the same for Emilia,” Rarev said, nodding. “I find it hard to believe the human males are the same species as the females, sometimes. The males are illogical and irritating while the females are perfectly lovely.”