“Are you surprised?”
I want to say yes but the more I learn about the Keepers, the more I realize they aren’t as good as they portray themselves to be.
He smiles, pleased, and begins petting my head again. “Well, I’ll fill you in on the story of Malefiscus so you can get a better understanding of what he was—what a Keeper could become if they ended up switching sides and getting branded by evil.” His fingers drift to my cheek and I refuse to look away, knowing I have to do this.
“During Malefiscus’s time, there was sheer and utter chaos in the world,” Nicholas explains. “He tortured everyone—Vampires, Witches, Faeries. Even humans. He had a whole army of followers and they would go around on killing sprees or trying to persuade people he saw fit to join him.”
“There was so much death and blood as well as pain that the Fey leader of that time decided he’d had enough. There were too many Faeries dying and so he made a bargain with Malefiscus to try to save lives.” His fingers roam to my mouth and he strokes his thumb against my lips as he licks his own. “He told Malefiscus that if he would leave the Fey alone, that we would forever be indebted to him—that we would exchange a favor for the Fey's freedom from his chaos.”
“Did he agree?” I ask, my lips brushing against the pad of his thumb. He tastes salty while he smells like dirt and murky water.
He nods, sticking his thumb into my mouth, and I just about gag. “Malefiscus agreed to it since the Fey are very powerful and he loved power. So the leader of the Fey and Malefiscus made a Blood Promise.” He removes his thumb from my mouth, although he keeps it resting on my bottom lip.
“What’s a Blood Promise?”
“Not too long after the promise was made, though,” he continues on with his story, discounting my question. “Malefiscus was caught and sentenced to his death. The Keepers made the sentence and supposedly they executed him, but deep down people wondered whether they really did or not. There were a lot of traitors at the time and rumors started flooding that someone had snuck him out the day before he was supposed to be hanged.” He pauses and then lies down on the bed beside me, his fingers tracing a path across my stomach, his skin feeling as rough as sandpaper. My gut churns and a slimy chill slithers down my spine, but this is right where I want him; close and distracted.
“Alive or dead, it doesn’t really matter because his bloodline didn’t die with him,” He continues while sketching circles around my belly button as he props up on his elbow and watches my reaction. “It carried through the decades, going completely unnoticed for a while and so no one really knew about it until just recently.” He pauses. “It carried on and now resides in a man named Stephan Avery.”
He stills and I’m too shocked to breathe. Stephan is the descendant of evil. Alex’s father. God, what does that make Alex?
“Because his bloodline carried on, so did the Fey’s promise to grant him a favor. Only now the favor is owed to Stephan.” His fingernails plunge into my stomach and slice my flesh open. Blood oozes out, but I tell myself to shut out the pain. Shut down. “I had barely heard of this story and I think a lot of Fey had forgotten as well until surprise, surprise, Stephan came to collect a few days ago,” he says venomously. “And he didn’t want just any member of the Fey to fulfill the promise. He wanted the Faerie who has the gift of a Foreseer as well.”
My eyes enlarge as the severity of the situation that I’m in registers in my head. “He asked you… to do what?”
“I think you already know that.” He pivots on his hip and aligns himself over me, his fingers stroking the section of my stomach that he had clawed moments ago. I feel my chance arriving and I try to get myself ready for the wretched place I’m about to go. “He wanted me to track down a very beautiful, feisty, and very tortured girl with the most magnificent violet eyes.”
“What does he want you to do with me?” Stay calm. You can do this. You’re strong.
“Bring you to him.” He inches closer to me like he’s about to kiss me.
I stay as still as I can, despite my initial reaction to squirm and head-butt him. “And why haven’t you?”
“Because I can’t seem to let you go.” He tucks a strand of hair behind my hair and wets his chaffed lips with his tongue.
“You could just let me go,” I dare to suggest. “You could come with me… go into hiding with us.”
He rolls his eyes. “Alex would never let that happen and you know it.”
“I could make him,” I say in an even voice. “I have ways.”
“You are a devious thing,” he remarks and places a sloppy kiss on my cheek. My heart thrashes and my throat burns with the taste of vomit. “But even if you could convince him, I still couldn’t… I don’t have a choice anymore with what I can do to you.” He leans back a little and rolls up the sleeve of his shirt all the way to the top of his arm. On the side of his arm, branded in red and black ink is a triangular mark.
“What is that?” I whisper, although I think deep down I already know. I’ve seen it before in my dream, on Draven, and with all the talk about the Mark of Evil, it’s pretty clear what it is; even if I don’t want to believe it.
“The Mark of Malefiscus, also known as the Mark of Evil,” Nicholas growls, wrenching his sleeve back over it. “I’m branded with the Mark of Evil and I can make you stay all I want, but eventually the power of it’s going to take over. It will make me give you to Stephan.”