Chapter 111 - Revelations Part 1

Marcus POV.

I know it's complicated everything that happened, but it served a purpose... Even with Raphael's Feather the curse hadn't lessened that much and that meant something very important. Whoever was responsible for putting the curse on Hope was very strong. I was about to say something, but I saw the bathroom door open, Hope came out wearing a red robe that went down to her feet. The fabric is ordinary, not the same one she wore at the festival.

"The curse was cast by a God, wasn't it?" I asked before the others could say anything.

"In a manner of speaking." I listened to the answer, and that narrowed the possibilities down a lot.

"Who cast the curse was a Son?" I asked once more.

"Yes." Hope took a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair. "Not one, but a few... So, there's no point in me killing them since they're not directly responsible. Every curse can be broken, that's a fact written by Chaos... But he never said that just killing the one who cast the curse would be enough... Most of the time it is, but I'm the exception."

"And what can break the curse?" Dylan asked, with a hint of hope.

"Most of the Gods think, see I used the word think, that if I am marked by my Mates, it can break the curse." Hope looked at me and then looked at Dylan.

"But it's not a certainty and that's why you don't want to be marked and tried to push Dylan away. It turns out a wolf's instinct to mark his Mate is much more intense than mine." I continued and sighed.

"Exactly... Melvin not only died by my hand but also because of the curse... He marked me that day earlier and I know the curse spread to him." Hope turned to Kaiden and smiled. "I remembered what happened that day."

The woman was quiet for a few moments. I know she is trying to formulate the exact words.

"He and I had spent the night together and as the sun was rising, we made a promise to be together and he marked me, but I marked him too... I could feel something strange at that moment, but I figured it was because we were so young." Hope leaned against the bathroom door, watching us intently. Dylan let out a grunt when he heard that someone else had marked what was his. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Go on." I encouraged her to continue.

"I had already learned to master the pack's ability to hide. I just used it to hide my mark and Melvin's. So, I associated the fatigue and twinges of pain with the fact that I was overloading myself." Hope closed her eyes and brought her hand to the black mark. I squeezed Dylan's shoulder a little harder to control him. "But deep down I knew there was something wrong. One way or another I always knew that if someone marked me something really bad would happen."

Hope opened her eyes and I saw a different kind of pain, it was loneliness, because no matter what, she was born among werewolves and had always heard about how having a Mate completed the other. Knowing she could never have that made her lonely because no matter how many other marks she carries, it wouldn't be enough. It never is, I know...

"So, we were called for an urgent mission. Several small packs had already been attacked, but from the information gathered the attacking group wasn't that strong, but they had some different artifact. Even though we were a fairly new group, Alpha Julian called us and sent me as the leader, he wanted to test my ability even in stressful situations since the previous missions had been a success, but they weren't as important as this one." Hope was silent once again, there is a certain regret there.

"He asked me if I was okay, I said yes and that everything was going to be okay, that I was the best." She turned her face to see some distant point, probably recalling the details of the scene. "At first everything went perfectly, we invaded the enemies' small fortress, killed several and took down some others for questioning, no one had been seriously injured and we got to the leaders. It was a bit more difficult fight, but we were still winning... When I saw Ari falling to the ground, I heard her last breath of life. The leader had managed to tear off part of her neck. It was at that moment that I felt the curse activate completely. Everything went black, I could no longer think of anything but killing those who had done this, but my mind couldn't identify friends from enemies... Since no one had ever seen me lose my mind like this, they didn't fight back, they didn't fight me... Now I know that they were trying to talk to me, to reach me through the bond of the pack and that many had asked for help to the central."

I see Kaiden approach her. He pulled her away from the door and hugged her.

"But no one was going to get there in time, because I had heard them saying that help was going to arrive in a few minutes and that they just needed to hold me back until then... But I wasn't going to let that happen, it was the first time I had used the power of the shadows, for the most part, I absolved their energy and I know well that I ripped pieces of them off, dismembered some and left Melvin last, because he had also helped me kill the rest of our friends, giving the final blow so they wouldn't suffer."

Hope's voice began to falter towards the end, growing heavier. There's a dead silence in the room. We don't even want to breathe right to keep it down.

"He tried to talk to me, but I knew his end had come, I saw in the reflection of his eyes, my cynical smile and the pleasure I felt when I pierced his chest, it was enough to bring me to orgasm from how much I had enjoyed it, and with that shock, I woke up. Melvin was still alive when I woke up. He died in my arms, telling me he forgave me and that I should get on with my life. His last words were for me to move on. "Swallow it all, don't get stuck in the mud thinking about things you should have done."

Hope finished the report, and no one there wanted to say anything. I had seen my entire generation die, but I was never the one responsible for taking their lives. Lestat lost his Mates, but he didn't kill them.

"After that, I had several other episodes where I would black out... It was just the curse manifesting and growing roots. That's why normal medicines never work on me, most of them were wolfsbane, silver, sedatives... Because they were meant to suppress my abilities." Hope continued after a few minutes.

"When I decided to come to training, it was because my wolf said I needed to fully awaken," Kaiden spoke, stroking Hope's hair lovingly. "He said it was very important that... So, I trained and trained, but my wolf always said not enough and that I needed to do more." He placed a kiss on the right side of her face. "Then you came here, and something inside me started to change, I can't explain it right... When you gave me that pendant and saved us, my wolf got stronger, it seems like some barrier that was in it had broken."

Kaiden squeezed Hope's body lightly.

"But it still wasn't complete... Then the Festival happened and when you marked me, I woke up feeling completely different, my wolf was overjoyed and told me we could now fight fully. You had seen some real glimpses of him, and what happened earlier was really him taking over and showing a lot of his power." Kaiden pushed Hope away lightly and kissed her.

"Thanks, I needed that." Hope agreed and then turned to us and Kaiden hugged her from behind. "I told you before that there are many things that no matter if I say it or not, you won't remember because it's part of the curse... But yes, we will face some or all of those who are responsible for putting the curse on me."

"Not that we're going to face the real ones responsible, but their representations on the earth plane," Kendrick said and closed his eyes. "Hope, is that why you fight the Gods so hard because some of them are responsible for your curse?"

"No." Hope was adamant. "I know how I felt when I killed Melvin. If even they aren't sure that if I accept what they want everything will work out... Lestat once told me that the Gods learned from what happened in his war... But in the war, he faced he didn't carry with him a curse that not even the 12 Olympians can remove from me." Hope's voice is filled with anger. It wasn't against any of us.

"Hope..." Lestat tried to speak, but Hope cut him off.

"No! At this point I am categorical; I will not accept anyone marking me!" Hope twisted her mouth.

"It's okay... It's okay... Calm down." I spoke calmly. "No one here is going to do that if you don't want them to."

"I know, I trust you guys." Hope looked directly at Dylan, who smiled and nodded slightly.

"Can you talk more?" Lestat asked, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Um..." Hope leaned against Kaiden, relaxing into his arms. "They can spread corruption... They want to absorb all the energies they can, so it's like a virus that spreads just by being in the same environment, transmitted through the air around them and in case of direct contact can penetrate through the skin."

I approached Hope and Kaiden, and he released her and stepped back. I'm the Angel of War and I can get some pretty important information about what's going on. Hope gave a slight nod permitting me to speak what she knew and then walked past me, going to sit on Dylan's lap, that looked like a child who got his favorite candy, smiling like a fool.

I understand that feeling because I had it when Hope came to sit with me like that.