12. Torus
Torus walked in to find Commander Sylvan seated behind his desk. To one side of him sat a human woman with long dark hair and light-colored eyes. Both of them wore serious expressions on their faces.
“Hello, Commander Sylvan.” Torus nodded his head. “I am here as you requested. And this is Molly Byrne, my subordinate.”
He was still holding hands with Molly, he realized, but he was reluctant to break contact with her. This summons to their superior’s office had frightened her badly and who could blame her? She’d been terminated over and over—all for something that wasn’t her fault. Torus was determined that wasn’t going to happen again.
“Hello, Commander Torus…Ms. Byrne.” Commander Sylvan inclined his head at both of them. “Please have a seat, both of you. This is Councilor Lizabeth Paige, the head of the Mother Ships’ Legal Team,” he added.
The human woman with the dark hair nodded at both of them but said nothing.
“Commander Torus, I’d like to explain why you’re here,” Commander Sylvan went on. “Yesterday you went down to Earth and beat a human male by the name of Zach Wyndham. You also took a lot of valuable tech equipment from him.”
“I won’t deny either of those charges,” Torus said calmly. “I told you why I did it.”
“Right. Because this human—who is the ex-mate of your subordinate, Ms. Byrne here…” Sylvan nodded at Molly. “Was using the equipment to distribute compromising videos of her—correct?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Molly answered, speaking up unexpectedly. “Zach recorded me without my knowledge and he’s sent the videos he took to every employer I’ve had ever since our divorce five years ago.” Her cheeks were dull red with shame but she kept her head high as she spoke. “So if you want to fire me, I understand,” she went on. “You won’t be the first person whose decided that ‘I’m not good for their image’…or that I ‘don’t fit in with the company culture’…or that they just don’t want me there after seeing those awful videos!”
Her words tore at Torus’s heart and he sat straighter in his chair.
“I want it noted that if Molly is terminated for any of this, I’ll also be taking my leave,” he growled. “None of this is her fault—she’s a victim and I won’t have her blamed or shamed for the cruelty of her ex-Mate!”
“Whoa, now!” Commander Sylvan raised both hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Nobody is getting terminated,” he told them. “We’re just here to try and do some damage control.”
“Damage control?” Torus asked. “In what way?”
“In the way that Ms. Byrne’s ex husband is suing the Kindred and the case is being fast-tracked,” Councilor Paige said, speaking for the first time. “If he wins, we could be in big trouble. It will make it much more difficult for every other Kindred warrior who wants to live on Earth or call a human bride.”
Torus shook his head.
“That makes no sense. It was my understanding that the World Council has ruled that a Kindred warrior cannot be prosecuted for defending a human female against the attack of a human male.”
“That ruling was based on a case where a Beast Kindred killed a human man who was attempting to rape his Mate,” Lizabeth Paige said. “She was in immediate physical danger, which sent him into Rage.” She looked at Molly. “That’s the state of berserker fury that Kindred males go into when they feel their woman is in danger or being threatened.”
“These protective actions taken by Kindred on behalf of their females now have a name in the human courts,” Sylvan put in. “They’re called ‘Rage killings.’”
“Yes, and…?” Torus asked.
“So in the original case, it was a physical attack the Beast Kindred was defending his woman against and she was his Mate—they were Bonded,” Lizabeth Paige pointed out. “As far as I can tell from looking at your background, you two aren’t even dating, let alone Bonded—are you?”
Molly’s face got red at once.
“No, no—Commander Torus is just my boss,” she said quickly. “I mean, he’s never done anything inappropriate—he was just helping me out, that’s all!”
“Molly is correct—she is my subordinate and we are not ‘dating’ as the humans call it,” Torus affirmed.
“So you see the problem here—we can’t really say that you were defending your woman because she’s not your Mate. The two of you aren’t even romantically linked in any way,” Lizabeth Paige said. “So the Rage defense won’t hold up in court.”
“I did go into Rage, though,” Torus said. “I honestly don’t know how I kept myself from killing that male,” he added in a low voice, remembering the red curtain that had dropped over his vision and the all-consuming fury that had filled him. “My thirst for vengeance was nearly unquenchable.”
Lizabeth Paige’s eyebrows shot up.
“You went into Rage for Ms. Byrne even though the two of you aren’t even dating?”
“I did,” Torus said simply.
“His eyes turned red,” Molly offered. She cast a timid glance at Torus and he saw she was nibbling her lower lip nervously. “I mean, if that means anything.”
“That’s definitely a symptom of Rage.” Commander Sylvan nodded thoughtfully.
“All right, well we still have to prove that what he did was justified.” Councilor Paige pointed out.
“Justified?” Torus demanded, beginning to get angry. “If you could have seen the extreme emotional distress he put Molly through yesterday, you wouldn’t ask me if my actions were justified—you’d wonder why I didn’t kill the bastard!”
“All right, Commander Torus, I understand her distress sent you into Rage,” the Councilor said, raising her hands in a “calm down” gesture. “But for this to work in court, we need to show some kind of physical harm was done to Ms. Byrne. If not at the time of the incident, then in the past. Kindred have been known to take revenge for past harms committed against their mates as well.” She looked at Molly. “Did your ex-husband ever hit you or physically or sexually abuse you?”
Molly’s face went extremely pale.
“He…he used to throw things at my head sometimes,” she said in a low voice. “And he would pinch me and pull my hair. But he never…” She cleared her throat. “Never hit me or left bruises or…or broke any bones or anything.”
Torus frowned. He knew damn well from the dreams he’d been experiencing for months that Molly’s ex-mate had been extremely abusive—at least in their bedchamber. But it was clear that Molly didn’t want to talk about that—she probably didn’t even want to think about it.
Lizabeth Paige was frowning and shaking her head.
“So we don’t have any medical records to prove past abuse either. That’s not good.”
“A male doesn’t have to cause physical harm to be abusive,” Torus pointed out angrily. “Molly shouldn’t have to endure broken bones or bruises to prove that her ex-Mate was a vicious, sadistic male who’s been harassing her for years!”
“Believe me, I agree with you,” Councilor Paige said earnestly. “Before I met my Kindred husband, Lone, I was trapped in a loveless, emotionally abusive marriage myself for many years. I’m just telling you, I need something to argue in Court—some reason why you attacked Zach Wyndham and stole all his expensive computer equipment.”
“I told you why,” Torus said, frowning. “I wanted to be sure that he would never harass Molly ever again!”
“Okay, but the whole ‘Rage killing’ defense rests on two factors…” The human Councilor ticked them off on her fingers. “One—was the Kindred who did the killing—or in this case the beating—Bonded to or at least romantically attached to the victim he was defending? And two—was the victim in imminent danger of getting raped or killed or otherwise suffering bodily harm or had she suffered bodily harm in the past, which caused the Kindred to go into Rage to defend or avenge her? We need both those pieces to convince a Jury that what Commander Torus did to Zachary Wyndham was justified.” She lifted her hands, palms up. “And we don’t have either.”
“I think you can understand why this case presents a problem for Councilor Paige,” Sylvan said, frowning.
“And then there’s the matter of the hundreds of thousands of dollars of computer tech you took,” Lizabeth Paige went on. “Zachary Wyndham claims he was developing a new game and it was saved exclusively to one of those computers. So if we could give that back to him, he might be willing to withdraw some of the charges.”
“I wouldn’t give it back to him even if I could,” Torus said. He could hear the growl in his own voice, but he couldn’t seem to help it. “He used that equipment to hurt and belittle Molly—therefore he didn’t deserve to have it.”
“Well, where is it?” the human Councilor demanded, looking exasperated.
“In the ablation chamber,” Torus told her. “I destroyed everything I took last night—and I would do it again,” he added, frowning.
“The ablation chamber?” Councilor Paige shook her head. “Oh my God—you atomized it?”
“And I would do it again,” Torus repeated. “This is getting us nowhere. Commander Sylvan, may I speak to you privately, Kindred to Kindred?” he added, looking at his Commanding Officer.
“Well…all right.” Sylvan sighed. “If you ladies would excuse us?” he asked, rising from his desk.
Councilor Paige sighed.
“Fine. Molly and I will just wait here.”
“Thank you.” Sylvan nodded and together he and Torus stepped out of the office and into the corridor outside.