Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 1.2 Not Buying What You're Selling

Rile watched the stairs to Alex's apartment for over an hour until his oldest brother left. Then he walked up the stairs and knocked on the door. "It's me."

"I'm not buying what you're selling," Alex called back.

"Please let me in." Rile tried the doorknob and it turned.

"Come in and get it over with."

Rile walked into the living room and towered over Alex as she sat on the couch. "Don't do this, Alex. I know you're angry with me. I know you feel betrayed, but don't do this."

Alex caught his hand and pulled him down beside her. She cradled his hand, palm up, in hers. She outlined his fingers and then drew circles in the palm. She traced her finger up his arm to his neck and leaned close to whisper.

"You'll take me down, take what you want, and leave me bleeding by the side of the road. Your kind always does."

Alex jumped to her feet, her expression one of angry satisfaction. Rile grabbed her hand and she sparked it with the red power so he released it with a curse of pain.

"I wouldn't do that to you," he said.

"You already did. I dictate the terms of my relationship with Gabe and make sure he keeps the proper distance. You saw for yourself. Bathing suits in the shower, clothing in bed, he doesn't kiss me. We're both happy."

"You're not happy. No one would be with that. It's awful. He doesn't even kiss you."

"Human kisses are disgusting and I wouldn't force them on him. I'm as happy as something like me could be. I'm content. Leave me be."

"What do you mean disgusting? What do you mean something like you? You're amazing. I can't, I won't leave you to these lies."

"Knock your head against the wall, then. Only more pain for the both of us. So be it." Alex sat on the couch, picked up her iPad and began to read it. "Please come back later when I'll be better prepared for the mental trauma you want to inflict."

Rile stared at her for a moment, clearly perplexed. "How is reassuring you as to your worth mental trauma?"

"It's painful to correct your delusions about me. I've certainly been nasty enough to y'all in the past. Just multiply that times a hundred and that's what lives in my head." Alex shuddered slightly. "Please, please let me have a break for now. I don't want to short circuit."

Rile huffed, suspicion on his features, but he said, "Since you played the short circuit card, I'll go for now."

*****

It was after lunch when someone knocked on Alex's door. Cale always knocked and announced his name before entering Alex's apartment. She always yelled for him to come in and that he didn't have to knock.

She was still sitting on the sagging couch, legs propped up, and reading her iPad when he peeked around the door.

"What can I do for you, Cale?" Alex didn't look up from her iPad.

Cale walked in, but stood there. A muscle twitched in his jaw, lines tightened around his eyes, and he shifted foot to foot, fiddling with the hilt of his sword. At his silence, she finally looked up.

"You look tense. What's wrong?" she asked, not hostile, but curious and a little concerned, and clicked the iPad off.

"That you always offer to do something for me, for us," Cale said. "It's not all about what we want."

"Rile got what he wanted. Gabe gets what he wants, but I dictate the terms and keep a proper distance between us. You saw for yourself when you burst in on us in the bedroom," Alex replied.

She continued after a sigh of regret. "You saw when Rile dumped ice on us in the shower. Clothing all the time. No kissing, either, if that makes you feel better. A very proper distance between me and your future Clan Head. What do you want, Cale?"

"I want to help you," he said.

"Life is about pain. Morgan taught me that. Life is about betrayal. Rile taught me that. Life has no true intimacy. Gabe taught me that. Do you have a lesson that you want to teach me?" Alex clicked on the iPad again and started reading, expecting Cale to leave at her bitter words.

Instead, he sat down beside her. "I want to teach you to not learn from them."

Alex spent the next hour telling Cale all the things that he wanted to hear and ignoring his words about the Creator of All.

Being what someone wanted you to be was the very first lesson that she had learned upon awakening in Morgan's bed. Once Cale looked sufficiently reassured, she left for her sword lessons.

Next time, I'll be the one spearing someone with my blade. Watch out, Cla. I'm coming for you.

***

A/N

Alex returns to her old ways...

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