Page 88 of Blood

For a moment, silence descends, though it’s quickly spliced apart by Barret tentatively clapping his hands together. When he realizes no one else is joining in on the applause, he drops his hands with a sheepish smile.

“I can’t even look at these fuckers anymore,” Violet hisses. It’s apparent she’s not getting the reaction from Frankenstein that she hoped. But some monsters are just not meant to be parents. They’re cold, merciless creatures hell-bent on destroying every life they come into contact with. Frankie and Dimitri should both thank their lucky stars that they escaped their parents before they turned into them. “Cal? Do your thing.”

A cold, sibilant smile spreads across my face. I feel the strangest sensation of falling—of plunging headfirst down an elevator shaft, feeling the wind rushing past me and whipping at my face—but I take a deep breath to quell the rising vertigo.

Answers.

I need answers.

I allow my gaze to travel over the five monsters present. “Do you guys know who I am?” My voice is like the edge of a knife, slicing at skin and drawing blood.

Somewhat reluctantly, all five of them nod.

I can hear my heart pounding rapidly in my chest. That one noise drowns out all other sounds. The only thing that keeps me from completely losing myself to the rage and darkness is Violet’s presence on one side of me and Barret’s on the other. The two of them keep me tethered to the here and now.

“Years ago, the council sent me to detention and murdered my family. I want to know why. Why?!” The word is a scream, coming out of my mouth before I can consciously remember speaking it, creating its own reality by being spoken.

Why?

Why?

Why?

“I...I wasn’t on the council when you were imprisoned,” Dorian whimpers, dabbing at his forehead with a handkerchief.

“Nor was I,” Frankenstein deadpans.

I nod once and turn my attention away from the two pathetic monsters. They may be spineless swine, but they were not involved in what happened to me and my family.

Spidey’s face has gone unnaturally pale, and Pan has jumped to his feet, looking as if he wants to make a run for it. Only the White Stag dares to meet my gaze, the intelligence brimming in his eyes stalling the breath in my lungs.

“I voted for your freedom and the survival of your family,” the White Stag booms. “But I was outvoted.”

Spidey has quite literally placed both of her hands over her mouth, but that doesn’t stop the words from pouring out of her.

An earthquake rolls through the center of my being as I listen to her speak, anger coiling like a serpent around my chest.

“Zeus told us to!” she squeals, glancing helplessly at Pan, who shifts his weight from foot to foot, as if he’s looking for an easy exit.

But there will be no escaping.

“What did he give you?” Violet growls, her fangs elongating as her own anger joins mine.

Spidey desperately tries to stop herself from speaking, but the spell does its job. “Power! He gave us power, okay? Fuck!” Desperation fills her eyes as she pleads with Violet to understand, to hear her out.

“Power...that he stole from souls,” Violet supplies, though she doesn’t voice it as a question.

“Yes, okay, yes! We knew he was digesting the souls coming to Mount Olympus. He wanted Cal out of the way, so there wouldn’t be as many mate bonds in existence. He was hoping, eventually, evolution would eliminate them once and for all. He wanted the souls to immediately pass on to the next life, but the ones mated would remain on Earth as spirits, waiting for their other half.” Tears stream down Spidey’s face as she’s forced to confess all her dirty, horrible secrets. “He told us to kill Cal’s family to make sure no more cupids were ever born. It’s rare for incubi and fae to procreate, and it’s even rarer for a child between the two to actually survive. Zeus didn’t want that happening again.”

“Why didn’t he just kill me?” I scream desperately, pain crashing through me like spikes. I fall to my knees on the cold ground as tears cascade down my face. I think of my sweet mother, my doting father, my little sisters... “Why didn’t he just get rid of me?”

Spidey presses her lips together stubbornly and shakes her head from side to side.

Pan pipes in, unable to help himself. “He wanted to use your powers for himself. At least, that’s what he hoped. He thought you would be so broken, he could mold you into the perfect little soldier. In his mind, if you could create mate bonds, you could also break them. He was going to use you until you proved to no longer be useful. Then he planned to digest you. If you would’ve only obeyed, he wouldn’t have had to sentence you to detention.”

Barbed wire coils through my chest as tears fall freely down my face.

Zeus murdered my family...because he wanted to control me? Because he feared my powers and how they would impact his plans for world domination?

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