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The only light inside is coming from a room near the back of the cabin. She’s stepping into that room when I enter the hallway.
It feels like a trap, but if it is, she’s trapping herself inside the house along with me.
I move along to the doorway of her bedroom, and I find her sitting on the bed, a lit cigarette in between her lips. She takes a drag and gives out a long exhale.
“I’ve been alive a lot longer than I look like I have,” she tells me. “This town has been under our control for centuries now, and it took our only male this damn long to decide it was time to raise children. We could have made our own mates a long time ago, but he wouldn’t let us. He was the one who was supposed to make the decisions to help create more chimera, and he didn’t want to have any damn kids. That fucking asshole.”
“This is not how I expected this meeting to go.”
She laughs. “Of course not. You expected me to show my true form and fight you and your brothers to the death. Well, I’m tired. And I can see how things are going. I’m not interested in helping our sons retain power, so we can keep this pathetic nothing of a life going.”
“Your sons are dead,” I tell her, wondering if the news will change her mind.
She seems unmoved by it, simply taking another puff of her cigarette, and then tapping the ashes into the mug that’s sitting on her nightstand.
“That would be nice,” she mutters, as she takes one last drag and drops the butt of the cigarette into the mug. She smiles at me as she gets to her feet. “I fed from people’s pain. I killed two of your brothers’ mothers while they were grieving for their surely dead children. I don’t know how many others I killed, and no one else knows either. That’s why we separate children from their parents at birth. We sever that connection. We make sure everyone around us is as isolated from their support systems as possible. Then we feed, and it’s endless. Well, I’m ready for it to end.”
She stands in front of me. “End my life.”
I feel a little suspicious at how easy she is making this, and I wonder just how much easier she would be willing to make our night, if she is being honest.
“If you really wish for this to end, you’ll help me end all of it.”
She laughs. “Fine. Candace feels like I do. She might put up a fight, but she wants this to be over, too. If she fights, she’ll fight with visions. You’ll see things that aren’t there. Ignore them and they can’t hurt you.”
That does not sound good, but it is helpful information to have.
“What about Maria?”
“She controls the weather. She’s not as good with lightning as William was. She’s more likely to use excessive amounts of rain to try and drown you. Or crazy gusts of wind to throw you around.”
“Does she feel the same way you do?”
“No,” she says, shaking her head and laughing. “Maria wants to rule this town. She wants to make her own mate and have a million little baby chimera to send out into the world. She’s a crazy fucking bitch, and she’ll fight you with everything she’s got.”
That is not good news. Maria is the one who works at the nursery, and she lives there, too.
“What would bring Maria out of the nursery?”
“I could call her. Tell her you killed her precious little Apollo. She’ll come out here to kill you for that. She thinks the sun shines out of that boy’s ass.”
“Call her.”
She nods and moves back to the side of the bed where she picks up the receiver of the phone.
The call takes all of two minutes, and then she hangs up and smiles at me.
“Now, will you end my torture?” she asks.
“It will be my pleasure.”
Chapter Fourteen
Scar
IlayValerie’sbodydown on her bed when I’ve slashed open her throat. She looks as if she’s sleeping peacefully, a small smile still on her lips. Even as her blood soaks into the sheets, and her skin grows pale, she looks happier than she did when she was alive.
She died in her chosen human form.
