Fifty Nine. Do I Trust the Soulless Psychopath? Or is He Leading Me Into a Trap?

I can’t believe Mike’s claim at first, but I still let him steer me right out the back exit as we hear the paramedics pull up out front. My car’s still parked on the street, but Grace is no longer in the passenger seat. “I came here with Grace. I need to find her--”

“Just lift your nose. She’s out front of the clinic, seconds from getting spotted by those paramedics you called.”

“Then we need to go back for her.” Not that I want her around Mike… She is honestly much safer riding to the hospital with Nick, even if she does get arrested. “I need to go back and grab the vaccine for dad. Then I need to get back to the farm—”

“Your little shot can’t do shit to combat major witchcraft,” Mike insists, shoving me forward. “Killing Ravenna is the only thing that’s gonna bring back everyone now. Kathy was right.”

“And why the hell would you want to kill your own wife?” I snap.

“Because she betrayed me,” he declares, in a tone so dark and unsettling it sends a shiver down my spine. “She told me she would cure you guys.* I* never lied to you about that. Then last night, watching dad just suddenly lose it like that at the exact same time as Felix, Aiden, and even Liam? That should not have happened, not even on a full moon.”

He pulls open the door of his Bentley, motioning me into the passenger seat. I hesitate only a moment before climbing inside. This may be a trap, but it’s true that Carson’s medicine might not do anything for such an advanced stage of our curse. I need answers about Ravenna more than I need that vaccine, at least right now.

“Did you feel it too last night?” I ask my brother, as he settles down behind the wheel and puts the car into drive. “That pressure in your head? That voice, her voice, speaking guttural… like Greek or something?”

“Nah, I didn’t hear anything,” Mike retorts. “Ravenna doesn’t let me change into anything ‘unsightly’. Still, if she wants a dog, I’m stuck as a freaking wolf until she wants to screw again. The fact her chant was directed at you, but you kept in control, that’s a seriously good sign. That’s why you’re the only one who can do this.”

“You can’t kill her yourself?” I press, and he shakes his head.

“Thought I made that clear. Last night, I actually tried it for the first time--”

“Why?” I cut him off. “Just because you suspected she cast this spell on us?”

“No, because I asked her flat out, the second I got home, and she gloatingly admitted that everything she told me these past five years was bullshit. What she told you the day she cured dad, that is the same exact ‘truth’ she first gave me to get me to come work for her. Though Cassandra is a new addition to the mix. Before Ravenna caught wind of that ancient spirit, the deal was supposed to be that I could ‘pass on’ this curse to five other people and Ravenna would use her magic to cure one member of our family for each sacrifice. Only problem with that was that mom never let a single one of those women turn. She kept blowing their brains out before they could go murdering people and complete the transfer--”

“You killed innocent people to save us?” I mutter. “That’s not admirable. It’s horrible. And why the hell are you talking about it so casually--?”

“Because I don’t feel any guilt for it, obviously,” he replies. “I don’t feel much of anything really, not since I traded in my soul.”

I stare at him bug eyed. “You what?”

“Hey, I didn’t do it on a whim. It was the cost of resurrecting you, idiot. That’s what Ravenna claimed she needed for that spell anyway. I’m thinking now she might have just found my conscience to be inconvenient. That’s why she didn’t step into our fight or bring me back to my senses before I went and killed you.

“Anyway, I may not care anything about the strangers I bite into, but family is still important to me. You are really important to me, kid. You’re what I gave up my freaking soul for in the first place, so maybe that’s why it is the one care that’s stayed with me all these years.”

“And you really thought you were helping us by killing all those people?” I press, searching his eyes, even though he keeps that flat, unsettling gaze directed out at the road.

“Well not for all of the kills,” he admits. “A lot of that was just me having fun. I may have lost my soul, but I kept my temper and the bloodlust, and without all that sadness and guilt, I was free to follow my instincts. Being with Ravenna was such a great ride really. She is one hell of a lay, and I could have whatever other woman I wanted whenever my dear wife wasn’t in the mood. I just had to bring them home with me, so Ravenna could take them as a sacrifice afterward.”

I want him to stop talking. I can’t stand to be hearing this. He’s an absolute monster, but knowing the truth of how he ended up that way… “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Sorry for outright attacking me like every time you spotted me these past few years? Yeah, that was irritating. I was thoughtful enough to go easy on you, trying not to mess you up too bad and everything. And I really did miss you guys sometimes. I missed mom’s cooking. I do all the cooking and cleaning for Ravenna, and it is freaking infuriating. But other than that it was five full years of straight party. Right up until Jack came along that is. I’m stuck babysitting that shit-machine every freaking day now. I really don’t know why Ravenna even wanted a kid when she seems to disdain the very sight of him.

“It also makes me really angry that she does not love him. I mean, I can’t manage to care about him in a deep way either, but at least I try to care. I know he should be important to me, but his bitch of a mother still spends the evenings throwing her orgies, and all that satanic shit is really just bad for a baby to have to be exposed to, you know?”

I can’t really think of any response to that other than ‘Even serial killer Kathy would be a better parent to this kid, bro, so just give him up already.’ Hearing that might just make him angry, so I should try instead to get this discussion back on track. “So what is this ritual that Ravenna is conducting tonight?” I press. “If she lied to you, and she never intended to cure us, then what does she need Cassi for? She just wants more power in general?”

“No, she wants to give those powers right back to her demon lord, Proteus.” I turn cold. “She said all men are beasts and deserve to be forever beasts, her toys and her servants, and her celebration this All Hallows Eve, so tonight, will not be her ending the Blood Moon curse, it will be her renewing it.”

“What?”

“Yeah, apparently this curse can only last for six generations, and then it needs to be renewed. This will be the third time Ravenna has cast this spell and cursed our clan, and she wants a real party to mark the occasion. That’s why dad and our brothers have gone all rabid. Ravenna wants to unleash them right into the city to rape and pillage and infect, recreating the ‘beautiful ruin’ of her hometown in France.”

“I will not let that happen,” I resolve.

“Yeah, me neither. That’s why I tried to tear her head off last night. I really tried, but the second I even thought of doing it, I was on my knees confessing my ‘betrayal’. Ravenna found my murderous intent amusing but still spent the rest of the entire night humiliating me to emphasize the point that I am in fact her thrall and I am powerless to do anything she does not want.”

“Then how were you free to come warn me about this?”

“Because I tired out the old bitch and she fell right asleep without ever explicitly commanding I stay put. Maybe she assumed I would not dare defy her anyway, and I don’t actually think she knows you’re still human, kid. She cast her little spell to turn you all into slavering beasts incapable of doing anything other than mindlessly attack, then got confirmation it worked when I came home asking questions about it, so she’s already assumed total victory.

“Now you’re my wild card, Jase. Though I really was planning to borrow one of Kathy’s rifles loaded with consecrated bullets. I mean, I’m pretty sure Ravenna can’t regenerate herself during the day if we ambush her and you rip her head off then torch the corpse, but I’m not a hundred percent sure of it.”

“Where is mom?” I demand. “She went after you last night, and she never came home.”

“Oh yeah. She followed me right to my house, then took another shot at Ravenna when she saw the type of circle painted out on our floor. I’m guessing she recognized the leavings of that spell that drove dad and the others berserk. I couldn’t help her out of course. I hadn’t even gotten my answers yet, and I couldn’t stop Ravenna anyway when she sent those poison thorns stabbing through our mother.” My eyes widen in alarm. “She died on that briar bush, pinned to the floor. Then I had to go get rid of the body. It was a really shitty night.”

I feel my shaking hands change into claws, my vision going red, as I whip out my hand to claw out his eyes.