“Did I miss anything?” Moni says, popping up, showcasing her pink bark.
“No. I was just going to explain everything. I might as well come clean since everyone is here and then some.” I eye the newcomer and he blanches.
“I can leave since you’re not comfortable with me,” he reluctantly admits.
Moni sends me a pointed glare. “No, Zeke just hasn’t had the time to get used to you. You can stay because you’re mine.”
“Fine,” I relent, “he can stay.” Rolling my eyes, I let it go. The bed dips as JP crawls onto it and snuggles into me, making me shuffle slightly so both of our heads are on Rez’s lap. I glance back up to see Rez’s eyes slightly widen and her mouth agape for a moment before she smiles wickedly and her eyes heat with desire.
Levi clears his throat and brings me back to the moment. “Mood killer,” I teasingly mock, but I go on to explain what happened when I left JP that day. I’m not even sure how long I’ve been gone, but I get teary eyed when I admit how lonely I felt. I was so lost, I can’t begin to guess how they found me in that hole.
A teardrop hits my forehead and I look up to see Rez crying, and I can only guess she’s blaming herself. She has such a huge heart that there’s no question in my mind that she would take on this burden that isn’t hers to bear. “No, Rez. It’s not your fault. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always felt this dark entity, for lack of better words. This time it just had an easier time convincing me to let go.”
She doesn’t say anything back but nods and wipes her tears as I continue with my gruesome tale. “I don’t remember much to be honest. I drank all the blood that was in the fridge and never thought to get anything else as I just fed off the power of raising the dead. So, yes Moni. I’m a Necromancer.” I glance over at Knox and he doesn’t meet my eyes. “I’m not mad that they found out, Knox.”
“Actually, it was me that figured it out,” Rez says, giving me a sheepish look. “Knox was defending your secret to the point of wolfing out and fighting everyone. Once things calmed down, I put two and two together. So, he kept your secret even against his own family.”
I blink back the burn of unshed tears as Knoxs finally meets my eyes.
“Thank you for defending me,” I manage to choke out. Without saying anything, he walks over to me and wraps his beefy arms around me and hugs the shit out of me. “Can’t…breathe.” And just like that, I get Knox smiling and the tension fades in the room as everyone laughs.
“Anyways, so since I wasn’t drinking blood, I needed a new substance, and that was the power I was gaining from my Necro side. It started with the small animals that died over the years. Then I found myself craving more. More power, more darkness, more limits to shatter.” I blink and shake my head to dispel those thoughts as I look down at JP’s hand on my chest.
“Even though I felt stronger, I knew my body was getting weaker. I was even at the point where I couldn’t really move unless I was actively feeding and using the dead. It was as if I was siphoning their energy to move around the lab, but that only drained them faster. Until I was strong enough and the entity talked me into raising an extinct creature.”
“The Deathweaver,” Knox says knowingly. Gasps go around the room as shame devours me. Closing my eyes tightly, I focus on the positives and—
“You? We only suspected, but now to have you confirm it?” Moni questions, sporting a magenta color, and it’s like a knife to my heart, cutting off my train of thought.
“Stop it!” Rez demands and starts playing with my hair while she looks down at me with love and understanding. She wipes away a tear that escapes and looks back up at the room. I lean into her hand, seeking comfort as JP squeezes me tight, murmuring in my ear that everything will be okay.
“We have no room to judge him by his actions while he was distressed. He just said he wasn’t eating, the entity was coercing him, and because he wasn’t in the right mind, he raised the Deathweaver. Now how many of you could say you haven’t fucked up before? Don’t worry, I’ll wait,” she says and the room goes quiet. “That’s what I thought. Zeke is your brother and I guess your brother-in-law?” She looks at Chester. “Either way, I know you all love him, so stop making him feel worse than he already does.” She kisses my forehead and I swear I feel lighter. Who wouldn’t with her at their back?
“Thank you,” I whisper and get a smile and a mouthed ‘you’re welcome’ in return.
“I had always thought this entity was a part of me. Just like the ‘little green monster’ some of us get when jealous. But when I lost control and tried to stop the Deathweaver, the entity somehow took over my body and shoved me into a mental cage and sent dead Hellhounds after Lisa, which is her only weakness. I had no control over my body.”
I hear cracking and a loud pop, and look over to my closet to see two red eyes peering out from the dark. Her head emerges enough for me to see her tongue loll out of her mouth as she bobs her head, letting me know she’s alright, and I smile.
“Holy shit,” Moni’s mate shrieks and steps behind Knox, like that would protect him from Lisa.
“Lisa apparently has friends and a lot of them. Shadow horses swarmed the tunnel, pissing off the entity long enough for me to move to the altar. I—”
“You put yourself in there?” Rez asks, her eyes wide as her jaw drops.
“Yeah. I was already too weak, and I knew I couldn’t fight back against that thing inside me so I had to lock myself up. It was the only thing I could think of. Lisa and a few Shadow Horses helped slide it open as I slipped in with my book.” I look around in a panic thinking I lost it in the hole, but Rez lifts the familiar journal off my nightstand.
“You mean this?” she confirms.
“Yes.” I breathe a sigh of relief to see that she has it. “Thank you for grabbing it. I think whatever is happening to me, happened to the person in that journal, so I need it.”
“Shit. So that thing or entity is still inside you?” Ryker asks, leaning against the wall, eyeing Lisa. They have a love/hate relationship. He loves her just like any pet, but she likes to have fun with him at the worst times. She often loves scaring the shit out of him or his female ‘friends’ when he plays.
I take a moment to search my head, poking around cautiously to see what I can feel. “Yeah, I think so, but I don’t feel him now.”
The room goes quiet as everyone takes that in, and I lay in my two loves’ laps. Which brings me to needing to talk to Rez. I need to apologize and explain the relationship between me and JP.
Picking up on my thoughts, JP gets the ball rolling.
