Page 68 of Hextreme Measures

Shirley’s expression was immovable.

“The slave made a deal with the banshee to turn her,” he continued, choosing his words carefully. The story had coalesced in his head. “She wanted to take control of her destiny, and this was the only thing she could come up with.”

“It worked,” Shirley fired back. “It worked, and Claudette was the steppingstone our family sprang from.”

Claudette. Sully filed the name away. It likely wouldn’t be important, but just in case. “It did work,” he agreed. “She got her family out of slavery because of what she became after the transformation. I’m guessing she killed the monster who had bought her.”

“Him and all of his sons,” Shirley said smugly.

“They had it coming. That massacre allowed her to build a mystique for her family. Respect came from her story, and when slavery was abolished, her family was in a unique position to take advantage of the new world.”

“The new world.” Shirley laughed, but it turned into a cough. The more Sully looked at her, the weaker she seemed. “It was the same world. Down here, it was still the same.”

“If you expect me to say that slavery was okay, you’re bound for disappointment,” Sully replied. “I’m just trying to understand your family tree.”

“There’s not much to understand. Claudette was the first. Every baby she birthed after that was different. Even from each other.”

“Meaning — at least I’m guessing — that the girls were more magical than the boys,” Sully surmised.

She nodded, and now she actually seemed interested in the conversation. “The boys could father magical children, but they themselves never had powers. They were expected to pick proper mates to keep the line going.”

“How many banshees are we talking here?” Sully asked. “How big is your line?”

“Oh, wouldn’t you like to know?” Amusement took over Shirley’s features. “There are a lot of us.”

She was boasting, and Sully didn’t believe her. “If there are so many of you, why are you purposely seeking out magical beings to change into banshees?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “I’m assuming you tried it with regular humans first. They wouldn’t have been strong, though, and you want strong followers.”

Shirley scowled. “There are more of us than you think. However, you’re not wrong about the humans. None of them that we tried to change —”

“You mean infect.”

Shirley ignored him as if he hadn’t spoken at all. “None of the changes were the right changes.”

That’s when the reality of the situation really hit Sully. “Oh, the new breed of banshee can only be achieved if the individual has some sort of magic in their blood.”

Shirley didn’t deny it. She didn’t look happy that he’d figured it out, but she didn’t deny it either. “Unfortunately, we’ve found that some paranormals work better than others. Shifters, for example, only make for mid-level members of our society. We still turn them, but they’re soldiers, not leaders.”

Sully noted that she didn’t refer to herself as a banshee. She hadn’t come up with another word either. That likely meant she was trying to distance herself from traditional banshees. He could understand why — the other banshees, the ones she wanted to avoid — were mindless traffickers in grief. In fact, they were so focused on their own issues that they couldn’t see outside of them.

“It’s interesting,” he said. “It sounds like you’ve done a lot of experimenting.”

“Why wouldn’t we?”

He shrugged. “If things were going so well, if there were so many of you, why would you need to do that?”

“I don’t like your superior attitude,” she hissed. “Just because your kind have litters and not individual babies —”

“That’s only true of actual panthers, not shifters.”

She continued, barely sparing him a glance. “We want our tribe to be strong. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Except you’re taking people who don’t want to be taken.”

“Who says they don’t want to be part of our tribe?”

“I honestly can’t speak for the others who work for you, but I know for a fact that Angelique doesn’t want to be a banshee.”

“Maybe not now, when the sickness is rolling through her, but she will want to be one of us when it’s all over.” Shirley rubbed at the spot above her heart. “She’ll be one of the family. She’ll give me strong grandchildren. Everything will be right when … well, it will be right.”