Chapter 30: Mistrust

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Xander watched Alex and Cody unseen. He could hear every word said, and as Cody stepped down out of Alex's car, her look betrayed her.

Xander smiled.

Mistrust, one of the quickest ways to sever a relationship, he thought. Alex, you're gonna crack so quickly, it won't even be funny. You know you can't change.

He turned and walked out to his car. Karma's sat right beside it. She lounged in the driver's seat of her red Firebird with her arms over her head.


Xander leaned up against the door and looked in on her. "The trap is set," he said. "Alex is a moron, he'll crack."


"Please Xander, I don't need encouragement from you," she replied with a roll of her electric blue eyes. "I've lived long enough, I can handle any man."


"Even David?" Xander asked sarcastically.


Karma opened the door and stood in front of him. Xander looked her up and down, desire, like a hot liquid, running through his veins. Her brown hair flopped down past her shoulders and into her eyes.

She grabbed him by the shirt. "Don't tempt me Xander, I could kill you here and now, don't think I won't." Her English accent thickening now that she had been annoyed.


Xander knew better than to play with her. She had just about every power imaginable, and that included being able to rip him limb from limb. "I'll be sure to remember that." He replied.


She let go of his shirt and edged closer to his face. He could see more and more down her black tube top and his heart leapt. She had power over him as well.

"Just keep in mind that you are still in a severe amount of trouble," she turned and walked a few feet in the other direction, her leather pants swishing. "The counsel's already upset about loosing a prisoner, so you'd better not anger them anymore."


Xander walked up behind her and leaned close to her neck. "You wouldn't turn me in, I know you wouldn't."


She faced him, "Don't try me," she turned again and began to walk down the side walk away from the coffee shop and Xander's Jag. She stopped at the grass next to a park bench.

"I've had to put up with the Counsel for nearly 200 years, it's always been a fun game to play," she spun on her heel and faced him again. "To find skeletons in people's closets and get them in trouble."


"And yet, you never can seem to find anything on David. Curious isn't it?" Xander said, putting his hands in his pockets.


"Yeah," she mumbled. "The only thing I have on him is that he slept with me." She crossed her arms.


"He slept with you? David, born before dirt David slept with you? When was this, and how did I miss it?" Xander asked, laughing.


Karma walked towards him. "I told you, any man."


"I'd like t' see you try him again, or even try the prude boy, Stevens."


"You know, you really have it in for him, don't you?" Karma sat down on the bench with one knee to the sky and an arm resting on it.


"I try not to make it obvious." He said rolling his green eyes and putting one foot on the bench.


"Why do you hate him so much darling?" Karma stood and walked around Xander as a cat does it's prey. "Is it because the Counsel said that he has the potential to be stronger than even David, or is it just that he is the paradigm of goodness and virtue?"


"Both. It's like he's saint Stevens or something, and besides, the idea of a pansy like him becoming more powerful than me, or David, or you, is hardly appealing," Xander replied.


"Oh, and the fact that he turned you into the counsel last year and stopped you from killing one of your victims doesn't have any part of it?" Karma asked.


Xander merely turned hard eyes on her.


"Oh yes, speaking of David, have you found him yet?" Karma asked. She lay down on her back on the bench and stretched like a cat. Her flat stomach showed and Xander licked his lips, as she breathed, he could see the muscles flexing.


"No, I thought that had been assigned to you," Xander said. He looked off in the distance at the angry clouds. Thick mists of rain laid siege to the city of Houston, and sounds of cacocophonous thunder echoed through the skies.


"If I can't even find where he lives, how can I expect you to?" Karma muttered to herself.


"Look, you focus on Alex, I'll go looking for David, and if I can't find him, I'll give up, he's only important to you."


"I have something to settle with him, so I will focus on him. But it's not time to start on Alex just yet, besides I need a nap." She stretched.


"Need some company?" Xander asked.

She rolled her eyes, "Not from you, babe. You have work to do."


Xander turned and walked towards his car. Light drops of rain kissed his neck and face. When he reached his car he looked up to see Karma sitting in hers already.


"Meet me at my place when I call you," she said and sped off.


Xander smiled. Now for Dakota Stevens.