“Of course,” Cain said. “If they bothered to read what their own Bible says, that whoever kills me will suffer a sevenfold vengeance, they’d never try. But they are blinded by their arrogance.”
I huffed. “So all that crap you said about having daddy issues and taking it out on my brother?”
Cain nodded. “I know it from experience.”
“Adam was a shitty dad?”
Cain shrugged. “It wasn’t just Adam.”
I rolled my eyes. “You mean God?”
“You’ve read the story, haven’t you?”
“You offered up grain. Abel sacrificed livestock. Apparently God is on the keto diet.”
Cain smirked. “It wasn’t a problem with the offering. It was a problem with my heart. I offered my sacrifice desperate for His approval. Abel offered his out of gratitude. I came hoping to have a relationship that I felt I’d never had. Abel came already delighting in his relationship with the Father and gave his gift out of love.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So, you’re saying you were in the wrong?”
Cain smiled. “I’ve had a while to think about it. I still think it was crap that my offering was rejected. But when I killed Abel, it wasn’t really him I should have blamed. It wasn’t his fault. I was jealous.”
I nodded. “I suppose I was jealous of Edwin, too. Because he was my dad’s favorite.”
“All I’ve been trying to do, Mercy, is convince you not to repeat my mistake.”
I shrugged. “I still don’t see why you care.”
“According to that prophecy in the book, it is unclear what or who you really are. Keep in mind, of course, the prophecy was written by a pope who discerned it through witchcraft. It makes sense he’d have mixed messages.”
“So you’re saying it’s up to me whether I become a demon-killer or the Antichrist?”
Cain shrugged. “Who’s to say you can’t be both?”
I narrowed my eyes. A loud bang distracted me. It came from down the hall. I looked around. “Where is Nyx?”
“I think he left with that vampire from the Order.”
“She left…”
“Right. Sorry.”
Cain and I took off down the hall toward the noise we’d heard. I figured it was just Nyx busting her way out of the place. But instead I saw her running in my direction, her heels clicking against the tile floor. She quickly tossed me my wand.
“You unstaked her?” I asked.
“I didn’t have a choice… She’s not… she’s not what she seems. She changed… her body expelled your wand.”
A piercing howl echoed from farther down the hall.
Cain gripped my shoulder. “The only reason she took the form of that nurse…”
“Was because she’d targeted you as her victim,” Nyx said. “And the nurse must be the form you desire most.”
Cain nodded. “Which means by targeting me, she assumed the sevenfold curse.”
Nyx looked confused.
“He’s Cain. The one who killed his brother in the Bible.”
Nyx cocked her head. “I never read the Bible.”
“Of course you haven’t,” I said. “Put it this way, anyone who tries to kill Cain is cursed sevenfold. And since his curse manifests in the form of a wolf…”
“It’s still curious,” Cain said. “Dawn has already risen. Even if she had the curse…”
Nyx shook her head. “Dr. Cain, if there are two creatures inside you, and she targeted both of you… it’s because she has my power that she’s now shifted into a wolf. She’s assumed the form that your other nature desires the most…”
“Fuck,” I said. “I should have fried her heart when I had the chance. Now she has all of our… abilities. She’s a vampire. She’s an elemental shifter. And she’s a werewolf. Why won’t this bitch just die already?”
Another howl echoed through the halls.
“Is it just me, or is the going the other direction?”
“Wolves are not meant to be contained,” Cain said. “She desires to howl at the moon.”
I winced. There was one major problem with that—Alice was still a vampire. How would she react to the sun as a werewolf? Would it kill her, like it would me after being bitten? Or would her wolf form somehow protect her? Either way, we had to stop her. If the sun killed her, Nyx would lose her hope to seize her abilities back from Alice. If the sun didn’t hurt her, letting a werewolf loose on New Orleans in the light of day wouldn’t be pretty. I’m sure Edwin would appreciate the ensuing savagery, but it would also draw a lot of attention. How long would it take before someone took her down with a silver bullet? Not to mention, a werewolf on the city streets would open more eyes to the existence of creatures of the night. After all, if people knew werewolves existed, how long would it take before they started asking about vampires?
Then it dawned on me. If the demons were trying to infect our food supply so they could possess vampires, what better weapon against them than a werewolf? A single bite and these demons would be vulnerable, even as I was.
Yes, we could use Alice… We could use all the werewolves. We needed them. Yes, they were a threat. But they might also prove to be our salvation.
“Cain,” I said, “we have to find her. We have to save her. I have an idea for how she can help us stop the demons.”
Cain nodded. “I know what you’re thinking, Mercy. Keep in mind, however, the fact that she’s in wolf form now, that her form seemed to come after the full moon gave way to the rising sun. I suspect the amplification of my curse might have set it in reverse.”
“In reverse?”
“She will remain a werewolf until the full moon—during the day and most nights—and only during the full moon will she return to her vampiric form.”
“Makes sense,” Nyx said. “But last night was the first night of the full moon. Doesn’t a full moon last a few nights, typically?”
Cain nodded. “Usually three to five nights in a row I end up becoming the wolf. I constrain myself for a minimum of four. Not until I make it a full night without changing will I release myself at night.”
I nodded. “Then all we need to do is try to hold her at bay, keep her destruction to a minimum for a day. Until nightfall.”
“Over a single night—not to even mention a day when people are out and about—the havoc a single wolf can wreck, especially in a confined place like Vilokan…”
“Then we need to find Annabelle. She can evacuate the city. After that, the goal is simple: hold Alice in Vilokan until the full moon rises.”
“And how do you plan on doing that?” Cain asked.
I twirled my wand in my hand. “Witchcraft, of course.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Alice busted out of the asylum without much difficulty. The night before they’d been ready—large, iron bars had blocked the exits. But once the wolves returned to their human form, the bars were removed. And Alice was out of there before anyone could even think to secure the exits.
She wouldn’t get far. Vilokan is an underground world, and there’s only one way in and out. At least only one natural way that I knew about. That didn’t mean there weren’t secret exits, or that there weren’t magical ways to move in and out of the Voodoo underworld, but I didn’t know about them. If anyone did know a way to quickly evacuate the city it was Annabelle Mulledy, the Voodoo Queen.
A part of me hated the fact that, once again, it seemed I needed her help. But truth be told, it was she who needed my help now. She just didn’t know it yet. It wouldn’t take long, I figured, before a wolf on a tear through the city would convince her.
Cain showed me to the exit of the asylum, and just as Nyx and I were about to head out into the street, he tossed me a plastic garbage bag.
“What’s this?”
“Your clothes,” Cain said. “You really don’t want to go werewolf hunting in hospital rags, do you?”
I grinned as I examined the bag’s contents. They were the clothes I’d been wearing b
efore, when Edwin took me over. My knee-high leather black boots and one of my many black dresses. Yes, I always wear black. I know it reinforces vampire stereotypes, but it’s also functional. It helps me blend in to the night. Besides, I look good in black. A lot better than I do in a hospital gown. The last one, I think, had been decorated in cartoon animals. Not my style… not at all. It’s funny how much a change of clothes can change someone’s outlook. In my clothes again, I had confidence. I was sure of myself. I was ready to take on a werewolf—even one who was, technically speaking, a werewolf vampire.
I didn’t have to go far to find Annabelle. She and Hailey had already run into Vilokan’s narrow streets in an effort to corral Alice. “We just have to hold her until nightfall,” I said as I approached them.
Annabelle averted her eyes, undoubtedly assuming I’d be pissed at her for locking me in the asylum.
“We’re ready for this,” Hailey said. “I assume you’ve had a chance to peruse the grimoire?”
I nodded as I squeezed the grimoire beneath my arm, holding it against my now well-dressed body. “I read enough. Enough to know what it says about me. What I’m supposedly meant to become.”
“But did you read the spell about incapacitating a wolf?”
I bit my lip. I hadn’t found that one. It was a big book. I shook my head.
Hailey grinned. “No worries. I’ve prepared a cauldron.”
“Annabelle,” I said, “no hard feelings, all right? For now, just focus on getting the people out of the city.”
“I’m already on it,” Annabelle said. “And Mercy…”
I’d already turned to follow Hailey to the cauldron she’d prepared when I turned back to Annabelle. “Yes?”
“Sorry we had to treat you that way.”
I nodded. “That place sucks ass, don’t get me wrong. But it isn’t all bad. At the very least it helped me come to grips with… you know… my possession.”
“If you ever want someone to talk to about that… you know, I spent a long time possessed by another soul. I mean, she wasn’t my brother. But I can probably relate to some of what you’re going through.”
I nodded. “I might take you up on that. Later. Just get your people to safety. Nyx, Hailey, and I will handle the rest.”
Annabelle extended her hand to Nyx. “I’m Annabelle, by the way.”
Nyx held out her hand, limp-wristed, so Annabelle had to play the role of the gentleman by taking her hand. I almost giggled a little. “The pleasure is mine, Annabelle. You can call me Nicky.”
I smiled. Only Nyx’s friends could call her Nyx. Annabelle wasn’t exactly a friend of mine. She was a person who, more often than not, had proved conveniently useful as of late. And now was no exception. I didn’t like her in the least—but you don’t have to be besties with all your allies. Just minimally tolerant of one another.
I followed Hailey down a dark alley. Vilokan would have been a fantastic haven for vampires. In fact, there were times when we’d been welcomed here. The place is basically a whole city without sunlight. Ideal, I’d say, for creatures averse to sunlight. But the city was founded by Voodoo practitioners in the antebellum era. It was a place where slaves who’d been forbidden to learn, who were oppressed by their masters, could come and experience freedom. It was a place where they could learn to read and write. Where they could practice their religion, their Voodoo. If there’s anything about the human spirit that I could admire—and there wasn’t much laudable about it—it was that humans crave freedom. Even under oppression, even if it takes subterfuge, human liberty cannot be denied. Deny human beings their freedom long enough and it’s not altogether unlike denying a vampire a chance to really feed. Eventually, it will bite you in the ass. Okay, maybe not the ass, literally speaking. It’s an awful place to feed from. But you get the idea.
I followed Hailey into a dark room; the air was damp and cold. All of Vilokan was that way, but this room was especially clammy.
“Let the light illumine the night,” Hailey said, presumably using an incantation she’d vested her wand with. A white light illuminated the tip of her wand. Thankfully, whatever this light was, it wasn’t sunlight. I had a sunlight spell I’d used before—this one, though, was different. I made a mental note to ask Hailey to teach it to me when all this was over.
Her light illuminated a cauldron which was suspended over what I assumed was a bed of coal. The coal, though, wasn’t lit. Still, from the light on Hailey’s wand I recognized the cauldron. It had a unique scratch spanning its circumference. How that scratch came to be, I couldn’t say. And it was less evident than it had been the last time I’d seen the cauldron—but this was Moll’s cauldron.
Moll’s grimoire. Now, Moll’s cauldron.
“Hailey,” I said, “how did you get all this stuff?”
“I gave it to her,” a familiar voice—one I hadn’t heard for more than a century—said from a dark corner. I gasped as the old woman appeared.
“Moll?” I asked.
My former guide, my mentor in the craft, nodded.
“How is this possible?” I asked, my voice still trembling from a combination of fear and shock. Don’t get me wrong—Moll had taught me everything I knew in the Craft. She was the one who had given me immortality. But there was a darkness to her, something that scared the shit out of me. I loved her, but I was also terrified of her.
“I brought her back,” Hailey said. “After I found her grimoire.”
“Wait,” I said. “You just stumbled across Moll’s old grimoire and somehow found a way to bring her back through necromancy? How did you even find it?”
“Mercy,” Moll said, “didn’t you know I had a daughter?”
I shook my head. “I thought you had lost your family… that you were alone…”
“I did have a daughter. She had great potential. She inherited my natural talents… but she wanted nothing of it.”
“And you gave her your grimoire before you died?”
Moll nodded. “And it remained in our family for all these years. Hailey is my great-great-granddaughter.”
“And you just happened across Moll’s grimoire one day?” I asked.
“Collecting dust in our attic,” Hailey said. “When I found it, I asked my mother about it. She dismissed it as a relic from our family’s past… but I was curious… and inside the book’s cover was a spell. One that had been added, one that promised to provide a guide who could teach me the mysteries of the grimoire.”
“Necromancy,” I said. “A spell to bring Moll back.”
“I knew it was just a matter of time,” Moll said, “before someone of my lineage might come across it and try it, at least out of curiosity. And I believed, too, that with the gift I gave you, Mercy, we’d be reunited when I returned. So we could complete what we began.”
“What did we begin?” I asked. “You used me to fulfill this backwards prophecy, to make me into this monster whom the book calls Antichrist.”
Moll squinted. “And the queen of demons. It seems that such an Antichrist, such a devil as you are, is exactly what the world now needs if it will be saved from the doom that is coming.”
I took a deep breath and shook my head. “We’ll discuss this later. Right now, we have a werewolf vampire to deal with.”
Moll nodded and gestured toward Hailey.
“I have all the ingredients prepared,” Hailey said. “This should expel the wolf from Alice’s form.”
“You can expel the wolf from her?” Nyx asked.
Hailey nodded.
“And who are you?” Moll asked.
“This is Nyx,” I said. “You can call her Nicky. She’s a water elemental. Alice stole her ability to shift and she’s hoping we don’t kill her, you know, so her ability can be returned to her.”
Moll nodded. “Such is possible.”
“It is?” Nyx asked, eyes widening.
“Yes. After the wolf is expelled. But it will not be easy.”
“Whatever I have to do,”
Nyx said.
“You’ll have to capture the vampire and consume her flesh. When you do, you should be able to return to your former form.”
Nyx nodded. “I’ll do it.”
“Even once she isn’t a wolf,” I said, “it won’t be easy. Alice is nearly as old as I am. She’s a formidable vampire.”
“I’ve staked vampires before,” Nyx said.
“Yeah,” I said, chuckling. “Including me.”
Nyx winced. “Yeah… but Alice still has a heart.”
“And she also expects it. You were able to stake me because I didn’t see it coming.”
“Still,” Nyx said, “now I know there’s a way.”
“So here’s the plan,” I said. “We expel the wolf, then we stake Alice. And we let Nyx take her.”
“Agreed,” Hailey said.
Moll narrowed her eyes. “It is a reasonable course… even if it be foolish. This wolf… she could be useful to you, Mercy.”
“I know,” I said. “I already thought of that. I mean, if she could be used to hunt the demons…”
“Precisely,” Moll said.
“But Cain might help with that, too,” I said.
“Except this wolf… Alice… as she is currently, she is a wolf more frequently than she is a vampire. Once we expel the wolf, you will lose what could be a great weapon to use against the demons.”
“Mercy,” Nyx said, “you don’t have to do this for my sake. There’s more at stake here than just me.”
I shook my head. “No, Nyx. I’ll find another way to deal with the demons. Alice is a threat to us all—whether she be a wolf or a vampire.”
“If this be your choice,” Moll said, “then let us proceed to incant your wands with the spell that will expel the wolf.”
“Both of our wands?” I asked.
“This spell,” Moll said, “requires three witches if the wolf’s nature will be harnessed. If the sevenfold curse from Cain will be removed. We are dealing with a curse that was incanted with celestial magic. To reverse it, it will take three witches vested with infernal power.”
“It takes three times the infernal magic to counteract the celestial curse,” Hailey added.
Bloody Mad: A Dark Urban Fantasy Story (The Legacy of a Vampire Witch Book 2) Page 13
