However, my attempt to sound nonchalant had failed. Panic had crept into my voice, making my words unnatural and flat. Regardless, he couldn’t keep me there all night with the impending sunrise happening in a few hours. He’d have to take me home eventually, which meant all I’d have to do was sit there and wait out him telling his story.
Wanting to get the show on the road—literally—I prompted, “Please continue, Michael. I’m all ears.”
“I’d always had gruesome visions as a vampire,” he carried on casually, as if he hadn’t sensed my unease. “But the ones I started having about Cataclysmics . . . I saw such unimaginable things, Olivia! The entire vampire race dying! We were eradicated, wiped from the earth!”
I flinched as Michael banged on the steering wheel. I slid my hands under my thighs so he couldn’t see how badly they were shaking. I was at loss as to what to do. The only thing Icoulddo was try to stay calm.
Quieter, he said, “I tried my damndest to ignore them, these visions. But Alexander . . .” He broke off, rubbing at his forehead.
Wanting to keep Michael’s focus off me, I said, “What about Alexander?”
“In my vision, it wasn’t merely a Cataclysmic who ended the vampire race. It was aCataclysmic who was in love with a vampire.”
So, someone like me. Uh-oh.
“You must understand, Olivia, I had no choice. I couldn’t see thewhoor thewhen, but I knew it was going to happen. My predictions were never wrong. Alexander was the only Cataclysmic I’d encountered at the time, and he was in love with my Iris!” He shook his head. “I had no idea that there were others out there like him until it was too late.”
“You mean until after you’d killed him,” I said hollowly. “Your best friend.”
“I couldn’t let him end us, Olivia! If you saw what he was going to do!”
Michael fell silent while I sat there shaking, wishing I would teleport myself out of the car. I yelped when he reached over and patted my arm.
“I’m going to finish my story,” he said, as if he hadn’t just confessed to murder. “Things will run a lot smoother if you relax.”
I nodded.Not likely, asshole.And what “things” was he referring to? What was he planning on doing?
“With Alexander gone, I figured vampires were now safe and that the visions would stop. But they didn’t, which meant that vampires were still under threat of being destroyed.” He sighed. “So, I began touring the world, searching out Cataclysmics. I vowed never to stop until the visions ended.”
“You were killing them off,” I said with disgust. No use in biting my tongue so late in the game. Michael was going to say and do whatever he wanted to me no matter how polite I was.
“Yes, though sometimes I hired help,” he admitted.
“James.”
“That’s right. For the longest time, I was killing Cataclysmicsbeforethey had a chance to fall in love with a vampire.”
“Why, when the one who ended your race was in love with a vampire? You could have been killing completely innocent humans!” I snapped my mouth shut, since I’d basically implied that any so-called Cataclysmics who’d fallen in love with a vampire were then contrastinglynotinnocent. In other words,guilty.
“Think of it like this: I was cutting out the damaged cells before they had a chance to turn cancerous.”
I felt sick.
“Still, the maddening visions continued,” he said, reaching over to pat my arm again.
“Don’t touch me,” I hissed. Crazy to think that I used to find the psychopath’s touchy-feely ways endearing.
He cocked a brow at me.Have it your way, bitch.“It wasn’t working, though, my method. I figured perhaps I was intervening too soon. So, I created a way to keep Cataclysmics close without having to immediately kill them. They needed to be goaded into loving vampires, you see, so I could identify the one responsible for the downfall of the vampire race.”
“So, you started Dignitary.”
“Yes, as well as other decoying services across the globe. Not all decoys are Cataclysmics, of course, but it’s a lot easier to keep tabs on the ones who are when you’re kept in my eyeline.” He smiled over at me.
What did he expect me to say? I wasn’t going to feed into this lunacy. I pursed my lips and stared straight ahead.
He sat back. “I knew it would look suspicious if I allowed only some of the decoys to date vampires, so I encouraged everyone to date, whether they were Cataclysmics or not. Marlena, having no clue about my visions, could never understand why. Imagine if I would have told her the truth. She’d have thought I’d gone mad!” He chuckled.
“Youaremad,” I spat. “A monster.”
