"I told you not to do this!" Sydney was pretty sure the vase that she hurled at Cash's head was close to priceless... or pricey, as the point of view may have been. She didn't care. In fact, she found a nice amount of satisfaction in the fact that Julian would probably never be able to replace it. "I told you all I didn't want this!"
"Would you rather die?" Cash dropped flat to the floor as yet another vase came his way. At best guess, he would say that he had been ducking expensive objects for the better part of half an hour. Julian was the lucky one. He didn't have to feel her rage when she was the most angry. He could hide out. But, Cash had to stay with her. He was her primogen now, and more importantly, her sire. With the newly Embraced, that was a little bit more important than being her prince.
"You should have given me better guards!" She reached for something to throw, but there was nothing there. Her head turned up and she screamed, which turned quickly into a howl. With wide eyes, she clasped both hands over her mouth. Her head turned abruptly to Cash and slowly her hands dropped. "Did you hear that? Do you see what you've done! You've turned me into a monster!"
"You are not a monster! That was..." He stood up and shook himself. "That was your anger with nowhere else to go. It went into the wolf inside of you."
"But, I don't want to be a wolf! I don't want to be Kindred! I want to be a regular fucking human chick, and now I'm not because you fucked me over!"
"I did nothing but my job!"
"You let them get me!" She stomped to him, her fists balled at her sides. She could almost feel her eyes starting to glow. It felt like they were burning inside of her head, ready to explode and be replaced with an orange, dancing flame. The balled fist that slammed into Cash's face was so unexpected that it sent him stumbling backwards. "You handed them to me on a silver fucking platter!"
Cash steadied himself. He shook his head, then jerked his jaw to the left. If it were anyone else, he would have said that it was the Embrace that put so much power into the punch, but he had a good idea that Sydney had one hell of a right hook when she was human. His head shot up and his eyes burned on her. "Care to do that again?"
"Most definitely." Sydney rotated her shoulders. She rolled her neck a half turn, then sent it back the other way. "Let's get this done, so I can get out there and find those sons of bitches that did this."
Cash rolled up his sleeves, preparing for a fight. "Tell me who it was. Leave 'em to Julian and me. This is our fight to handle."
"And why is that?"
"Because I'm your sire and he's your prince."
"Yeah, well... I'm their victim, so it's my fight. Just like this one."
She swung, but this time, Cash was prepared. He ducked the punch, then another as he came back up. He had no intention on actually hitting her, but he wasn't going to let her kick his ass, either. Sydney's arms and legs moved so fast that if Cash weren't Kindred, there would have been no way he could dodge or block the blows. She had obviously had more training than he had been informed about.
Her right leg came up and Cash caught it at his side. He jerked her close. She brought her left arm around for a ridgehand strike at his neck and he caught that, too. Swiftly, he swept her legs out from under her and took her to the floor. Cash held her down by the neck, hard enough to show his dominance, but loose enough to not hurt her and give her room to speak.
"Who did it?"
"I'll take care of them myself," she croaked, trying to pry his hand from around his throat. "They're all dead!"
"Who!"
He squeezed a little harder and Sydney cried out, not in pain, but in frustration. She wanted to tear the place down and leave everyone to lurk in the rubble that had become her life in a matter of moments. She knew they had already had their Embrace, already lost their human life, but she could take something away from them. They could not go on as if nothing had happened when her life was forever changed.
Her body wasn't her own. Her skin didn't hold her, it didn't feel like it really belonged to her. It was strange, as though she could just float out of it and watch the skin move on, while she did other things. She wondered if this was what they meant by being free. No bonds, no chains, no restraints. She could do whatever she wanted. She could dance in the rain and howl at the moon if she wanted. Problem was... she didn't want to.
She wanted restrictions on her being. She wanted a place she couldn't go. Her mortality was her salvation. The reason she didn't do the most ridiculous things imaginable was because she knew that she could die. What was there to stop her now? She rode bikes fast, she went bungee jumping, she even thought about skydiving... but mortality stopped her from going farther.
People weren't supposed to be able to kill their enemies. They could wish their deaths, but in the end, it was up to the law to punish them. She had wished for the deaths of many over the years, but law stopped her. The death penalty stopped her. What was to stop her now? What was going to keep her from being a cold-blooded monster? The only law that resided over her was Kindred law, Julian's law, and the blood that would be on her hands before it was all said and done was justified under both laws.
"Edge!" Sydney shouted. "Edge, and that guard you gave me and that brother of his and that redheaded bitch... They did this to me! They made you do this to me!"
Cash moved so quickly it was like he was pulled up by strings. He stared down at her. "Edge..."
She crabwalked backwards a few steps, then pulled herself to her feet. Her hand went to her neck and she groaned. "They're part of something, and it's big. It's to take down you and Julian and they wanted to use me to do it. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I am not Sasha! I will not be used and just... let it happen! You and Julian won't get to them fast enough because I'll kill them myself!"
She started to move past him, but Cash caught her by the arms. "You're not going anywhere."
"What are you doing?"
"You can't just go outside. Yeah, we can walk around in the day, but not without feeding first. By the time the sun's fully up, you'll feel like you're dying, and it'll be only a matter of time before you go up in flames."
"I am not..." She shook her head. "Dude, that's how you get AIDS. You can't just drink from people!"
"We can't get disease. It's part of our freedom. We don't have the worries of humans. You don't have them."
"I wanted them. I liked them!" She struggled in his grasp. "I didn't want this!"
"Too bad!" He shoved her back. "You didn't want it, but dammit, you've got it! It's this or death, and if you say you'd have rather died, then you're a liar. You get your life and we all get revenge!"
"I get revenge! You get nothing!"
Cash took two steps and closed the distance between them. He stared into her defiant eyes and knew that she would get outside anyway she could. She was too angry to think straight. There were still so many things she needed to learn about her new life that he couldn't afford to have her running loose through the city.
Wordlessly, he reared back and struck out. Sydney fell to the floor before she even had the time to curse him or blink. Cash looked down at her, watched as the bruise quickly grew then faded on her eyes, then sighed. "Sorry, Sydney, but this isn't your battle, anymore. It's ours, and we will handle it our way."
