Page 146 of Cursed to Be Mine
“You might. I burned up one lung, a good chunk of my kidney is missing, and a lot of my nerves aren’t quite right yet. I nearly died in your shadow protecting her.”
“You started a blood ritual. She should have been safe.”
“We didn’t share enough blood at that point. Now. Why did you do it, T?”
He stands up and makes his way behind the long bar. Pulling out a glass of whisky, he uncorks it and brings it back to the table. He doesn’t bother with a tumbler. He takes a drink, then sets it down in front of him.
The sweet smell of butterscotch and heat wafts in the air between us – an insurmountable distance neither of us can cross.
Rubbing a hand over his head, he looks me in the eye. “Because I found out why Dad cursed Mom.”
My body stills.
My every hair rises.
“Why?” I ask, the word a sharp demand that verges on a growl. A reaper kills without emotion, and I clench my jaw as I force it back down.
Dad was a piece of shit. He didn’t need a reason to curse Mom, and the fact that Talon took his side when he didn’t even know the fucker…
My hand clenches beneath the table.
“Varius isn’t his son.”
“What?”
“Someone raped Mom, and she didn’t abort him.”
“So you thought it was your right to?”
“He’s not even a witch, Khalid. He’s a –” He stops, his lips pressing tight as he swigs the bottle back to them.
He has to be a witch. “He has magic. It’s just trapped.”
“Because Mom cursed him!” He throws the bottle at the wall behind me. I don’t flinch, knowing he didn’t aim for me. “She cursed him in her womb so no one would know he wasn’t Dad’s.”
“That’s not true.”
“Why? Because you don’t want to believe it? I didn’t either, but think about it, Khalid. How else would he be born without magic into one of the strongest families in North America?”
“Shit happens.”
“Yeah. Shit does happen.” He drags his hand through his hair, a gesture he’s had since he was a child – unable to sit still, to control his emotions so no one could read them.
Except he did learn at one point, didn’t he?
“He’s a dirty fucking hybrid, Kal. Leno should be the one leading. But instead Mom had you slaughter Uncle Myers and dozens more of our family just for him. And why?” A harsh laugh hits the air.
“Varius can’t even conceive. He can’t create the next generation. Hybrids are infertile. All those deaths. All those peopleyoukilled without hesitation. Uncle Myers practically raised us!”
“Variusraised us,” I say. “He helped you with your homework. He picked you up when Cassey left you crying with a broken heart. He fuckingraisedyou, and you want to kill him because of who his father is?”
He glances away, a scoff on his lips. “He stood aside and did nothing when they slaughtered Jackie.” His high school crush. The ‘blood bank’ the vampires had bled dry on their first date. “He is nothing but an abomination. We’re going to war with the Death Hunt because he’s making hybrids, and Mom doesn’t even tell us there’s one living in our own fucking house.”
He looks back at me with a shake of his head. “Uncle Myers was right. He shouldn’t be leading with the blood of a vampire in his fucking veins.”
Shadows form across the table as I pull a twelve-inch knife out of them and slide it over to Talon. I don’t know the brother sitting across from me anymore – the one with so much hatred for Varius that he would risk my life and that of someone I love just to kill him. He is a coward who had to make a deal with the devil to have any hope of seeing Leno become Boss, and I am no longer interested in hearing his excuses.
Cursed hybrid or not, the sins of Varius’ parents are not his. He is our brother. He has sacrificed so much for this Family. He’s given up any future of happiness, carried the weight of our crimes upon his shoulders, and this is the thanks he gets.
