Chapter 53

Sighing heavily, Mai watched Kisara train against the strange guy calling himself Kashmana MacTay. Since she'd met him, he'd given her a strange look on more than one occasion. It was the kind of look Mai had gotten a lot in her youth, but had been dwindling in the years since she'd become the mother of teenagers. That thought alone made her sigh even more heavily than before. She felt old. She felt really, really old, especially in comparison to everyone else. She'd never really felt her years before, but now…

'That's enough for today,' Kashmana interrupted her train of thoughts, 'I think you should get your charge home, you have work to do tonight Kisara.'

'What do you mean,' the silly little teenager frowned at him.

'I'm sure you'll see soon enough.'

'Okay…' she shot him an even more confused look, before making her way towards Mai. 'We'll head towards the Southern Palace now then.'

'And I'll come with you.'

'What, why?' Mai frowned at him.

'Beautiful women should never be allowed to become lonely,' a strange smile filled his face, 'and anyway, you need someone to protect you right?'

'I guess.'

'Well Kisara here isn't going to be sticking around very long after we get back, which means…'

'What do you mean I'm not going to be sticking around long,' Kisara sounded almost angry, 'I'm not going to abandon Mai because you say I will.'

'And you're not going to leave just because I say you will,' Kashmana shook his head. 'You're going to leave because you're not going to have a choice in the matter.'

'How do you know that?'

'How do you not know that?'

'Are those of the MacTay house clairvoyants,' Mai frowned at him, 'is that how you know what's going to happen?'

'Hell no,' he shook his head, 'we've just taken advantage of modern equipment,' brushing some of the hair back from around his ear he revealed a listening device. 'We've got spies planted all round hell and one of them's just informed me something big's about to go down.'

'How big?'

'I'm sure Kisara will be able to fill you in on that when she gets back. But really she should have known something was going down before I did.'

'And how'd you figure that one,' Kisara examined him closely.

'Because one of your charges is involved,' he rolled his eyes, 'shouldn't you be keeping better tabs on them?'

'What do you mean one of my charges is involved?'

'I mean it exactly as it sounds,' he shot her a look. 'One of the people you're supposed to be taking care of has just been captured and used as a bargaining chip according to my sources.'

'Bargaining chip?'

'Yeah, but I wouldn't want to ruin all the surprise for you, so why don't you go do your job?'

'And leave you alone with Mai,' her face filled with an uncertain look, 'I'm not sure that's such a good idea.'

'And what am I going to do exactly,' he laughed, 'seduce a married woman?'

'It wouldn't be the first time.'

'And it wouldn't be the last time either,' Kashmana smirked, 'but in this case I'd make an exception.'

'What do you mean,' Mai frowned.

'I mean, as beautiful as you are Win Mai, I'm not about to take you from the First. It might surprise some people to know, but I have a little more self control than that.'

'I'm sure,' Kisara rolled her eyes.

'Look,' he turned on her, 'there's not exactly much you can do about this situation now. You've got a role to perform and I've got a goddess to look after, can we just leave it at that?'

'Can we at least get Mai back to the Southern Palace first,' Kisara gave an indignant sigh, 'at least that way I can get people to keep an eye on you.'

'Naturally,' Kashmana flashed one of his strange smiles, 'I wouldn't have it any other way.'


'CiCi and Damon are finally asleep,' Kaiba sank down into the couch next to him, 'and Tay and Drake have gone out for a while. So… will you tell me what's going on now? What was that phone call about earlier?'

'Catilin.'

'I see,' he folded his arms, trying to appear calmer than he felt, 'where is she?'

'I'm not completely sure, some kind of hospital or institution I think. The woman I was talking to sounded…'

'What?'

'Not local.'

'I see.'

'She wouldn't say where they were exactly, just that she needed a code in order to get through to me and that she didn't want us alerting Catilin to the fact we knew she was there.'

'Why not?'

'I'm not sure,' Tristan sighed, 'I got the impression the woman was lying to her somehow, but I don't understand why.'

'Maybe it's for her own protection.'

'I think that's what the woman I was talking to wanted me to believe, but I'm not so sure,' he shook his head. 'I've just got this feeling a lot more is going on than we know about. Especially as she asked for me specifically and didn't want me telling anyone what I knew.'

'Well I'm not just anyone.'

'I know that; if I didn't then I wouldn't be telling you, now would I?'

'No, you wouldn't,' Kaiba pressed his lips together thoughtfully. 'Do you think we should tell Drake his mum's okay?'

'I don't know,' Tristan shook his head again, 'I think Drake's going a little… strange at the moment. Did you see the way he was talking to Tay earlier,' he shuddered.

'I know,' Kaiba sighed, 'but he was unhinged anyway and with Catilin as a mother it was only a matter of time before he started showing signs of her madness.'

'Her madness was due to fact she was an active Calicaccu raised by moronic parents who didn't understand her. I don't think that kind of madness is inheritable.'

'He has been traumatised though, you can't argue with that one. And kids learn to cope with the world from their parents…'

'You're really convinced he has the potential for insanity, aren't you?'

'It's not that, I just… I don't want it to be anything more than that. We've got so much on our plates as it is the last thing we need is…'

'I get it,' Tristan cut him off.

'Still,' he took a deep breath in, 'until things get back to normal we'll just keep an eye on him. Hopefully he should be fine.'

'Yeah, hopefully he will.'