Chapter 51

-Dante-

“We are not friends, Donovan and I. Far from it, but I visited him a few times. Like I said, he didn’t talk much, but I guess he was lonely enough to share a few of his secrets,” Arthyzn spoke.

I sat in silence at the furthest corner away from the older demon, Chase right by my side. The atmosphere was calm now, and we were listening in silence to the story now that Arthyzn was willing to share it.

“I’d already learned about his family while keeping an eye on Gus – thanks to him I was able to track down Donovan – so I confronted him about it. He finally admitted he had gotten rid of the rassawolves and later gave me a copy of his book. I still don’t know how to use it, though. I was hoping you guys would find out how to read it.”

“We didn’t know it was important until we met Gus,” Chase said.

“I was counting on it,” Arthyzn said. “It took longer than I thought. I figured you’d ask Frank for help way, way sooner… I knew they could tell you about the rassawolves so I didn’t need to jeopardize our mission.”

“You could’ve said something,” Chase said, his voice sounding a bit more heated up now.

“I took a big risk by making sure you’d come get the books from me,” Arthyzn said. “Your enemy is our enemy as well. And so far they have no idea I’m in this mess, and I’m going to keep it that way.”

“What does that mean?” Roe asked impatiently.

“Donovan wants to bring down the entire business – and his family along with it,” Arthyzn said and sighed, turning to look somewhere in front of him. “He knew his family was starting the breeding program again. He knew Lena Gray was looking for the perfect test subject. She and Graham – Donovan’s father – had the perfect werewolf, but they needed the perfect candidate to get bitten. And that was Dante.”

I felt sick. And glad that she was dead. For how long had she been lying to me? How long had she been working in that lab?

“You said Donovan wanted me dead?” I muttered.

“He hates your kind with a burning passion. He had faked his death, so he couldn’t afford to get discovered. That is why he tried to lure you to him so he could end your life,” Arthyzn explained. “Lena and Graham were keeping such a close eye on you that nothing couldn’t get unnoticed by them, but he did manage to call you without them knowing about it.”

“So if he’s so good, why am I still alive? I escaped ages ago,” I asked. “He’s had plenty of opportunities to kill me.”

“You’re alive because I somehow managed to convince him not to kill you,” Arthyzn said smugly. “I asked him to wait and give you guys time to find a cure if there is one. He agreed – eventually – because he was interested to know if there really is a cure. Thankfully, he couldn’t get his hands on you right after you escaped, or you would be dead. Though I doubt he would’ve found you anytime soon if I hadn’t contacted him about you, anyway.”

“You what?” Chase frowned, while I leaned back on the couch, the demon’s words echoing in my head…

“Easy there, hothead,” Arthyzn said, raising his hand. “I didn’t tell him where you were. I just asked if the name Dante Gray rang any bells. It did, but he promised not to lay his hands on you as long as you still were able to turn back to human. Imagine how amazed I was after finding one of those beasts in my own shop.”

“Your shop?” Frank grunted in disbelief. “It’s my shop!”

“Our shop,” Arthyzn said, rolling his eyes. “Don’t forget who paid for a lot of things when we built it.”

“Forget about the shop,” Chase said angrily. “If Donovan wasn’t a threat to us, then why all this secrecy? Why couldn’t you just tell us everything in the beginning?”

“What could I have told you that you wouldn’t have figured out on your own? The books were the only thing only I could give you. I knew you’d find out about rassawolves through Frank and Gus. I knew you were safe as long as you stayed here in this house. And you are more than capable of trying to find the cure without my help. So, why should I have taken the risk of blowing my and Donovan’s cover by telling you things you were able to figure out on your own? Getting you to come get the books from me was risky enough.”

I could’ve fallen in despair listening to him, but I chose not to. “So what exactly are you two doing?”

“We’re taking down the entire family. He wants the whole legacy gone, wiped completely off the face of the earth. The research, everything. Your kind should not exist. That beast is too dangerous.”

“Where is Donovan now?” I asked.

“Not sure,” the demon shrugged. “Digging through their secrets, I suppose. Why?”

“I’d love to give him a hand,” I said – I could still do that.

Arthyzn stared at me for a short second, then burst out laughing. “I like your spirit, boy.”

“We don’t have time for that. We need answers. We need to find a cure,” Chase told me, placing his hand on my arm. “No more missions. I can’t lose you. We need that cure right now.”

“Haven’t you been listening?” I asked quietly. “Donovan let me live only because he’s interested in knowing if there’s a cure.”

The house fell silent. I guess they hadn’t even realized what that meant. Not until now.

“There is no cure,” I said gently.

“No, not that we’re aware of. And Donovan should know if there is one,” Arthyzn said. “That’s also one of the reasons I didn’t say anything because I hoped you would find a cure for it. I didn’t want to crush your hope.”

“There is a cure, and we will find it,” Chase said, but I could see a hint of defeat in his eyes. “We will find it. The spell book. Why is it important?” he turned to ask Arthyzn.

“I thought you already figured it out?” Arthyzn frowned.

“What exactly does it do?” Chase asked.

“So… you didn’t figure everything out?” the demon asked slowly, looking confused. “The spell – as you found out – turns him back to human. He will become immune to it at some point, but it is giving you more time.”

“Time…?” I repeated while Chase tensed up next to me.

“You… didn’t realize that?”

Time… What a scary thought…

“How…”

I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to know.

“How… How much time?” Chase asked with a tiny, hopeful voice.

I could tell he was just as scared to hear the answer.

“At least ten years, but depending on how many times you have to use it, it may work even up to twenty years,” Arthyzn said slowly, quietly.

“Twenty…” Chase breathed out, suddenly burying his head on my shoulder. “Twenty years…”

“Twenty years,” the demon nodded.

I was barely able to breathe because there was something big in my throat. I could only stare at the demon. I could hardly believe what he’d just told us. And we already had it. The spell. We had the containers. We knew where to get the ingredients. We had… We had…

Not months.

Years.

“I honestly thought you’d figure it out,” Arthyzn continued apologetically. “The part about renewing abilities and slowing down the aging process was my note. I scribbled it down to let you guys know you still have plenty of time before he dies – as long as you’re using the spell.”

We stared at him for a moment. Then I started laughing. It was a genuine laugh. I could feel all eyes on me, but I couldn’t stop right away. That book… That fucking book…!

“We used a different book,” I explained to the demon, still chuckling, and drying my eyes. “Sorry, but the handwriting was crap, so we needed a better translation.”

“I… see…” Arthyzn said. “That explains a lot… So you never got my message?”

“No,” I sighed in amusement. “We didn’t.”

“I was wondering why you were so angry at me,” Arthyzn chuckled. “But if you never saw my note, I understand.”

Chase got up from the couch and walked to the bookshelf. He grabbed the spell book and brought it to Arthyzn.

“I want to see the note,” he asked quietly.

I got up as well as the demon opened the book and found the right page. Then he pointed at something at the end of it, and we all leaned closer to see the small piece of text that didn’t stand out in any way from the rest of the book.

“Due to its renewing abilities, this spell is efficient against unwanted curses, spells, potions, poisons, and other procedures that are causing the user’s early death. Even in cases when the cause of the early death can’t be removed with this spell, it will restore the blood to its natural state, thus resetting the harmful aging process every time it is used. User will become immune to the spell in a decade or two, depending on how often it is used.”

He glanced at us, but none of us were in a hurry to say anything. That definitely could’ve eased up our minds if we had found it.

“If I’d known about this message…” Ben muttered, sitting back down.

“I was counting on you guys to find this,” Arthyzn said, looking at the message.

“How the hell were we supposed to read that?” Roe spat at him. “None of us could make any sense of it!”

“It can’t be that bad?” Arthyzn said, peering at the book again. “It’s perfectly readable!”

“We had scholars taking a look at it and no one could say what the hell was written on it!”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said, cutting them off before we had yet another grammar fight with mallets in our house. “You’re right, this changes nothing really. We still need the cure, but at least now we know we have time to look for it.”

“But the beast is still growing, and it takes you longer to turn back to human,” Chase spoke, giving the book a careful glance.

“The beast is maturing, and that the spell can’t reverse because it’s not in his blood. As it grows bigger, it grows stronger too, and it will want to stay in charge. That is why you need Donovan’s book, but he never told me how to use it. He will take that knowledge in his grave. I was hoping you’d figure it out,” Arthyzn spoke.

“Do you know what the book does?” I asked.

“It contains information on how to tame the beast,” Arthyzn said.

Again, silence fell into the room, but not for long.

“It can be tamed?” Chase asked.

“Taylor’s made them to be sold,” Arthyzn said. “No one buys a beast they can’t control.”

“That doesn’t matter either right now,” I said when Chase went to look for Taylor’s journal. “We have more important things to do.”

“What do you mean by things?” Chase stopped to ask me.

“Something I have wanted to do this entire time,” I told him.

“And what is that?”

Oh, I felt good just thinking about it. “Now we go find that son of a bitch who did this to me so I can rip his throat out.”

*****

Later that night, I stood in the middle of the bathroom on the second floor. I stared at myself in the mirror. The difference between now and the time I escaped the lab was massive. I was me again. My body was strong again. I turned sideways. The scar that nasty fake doctor had caused was still visible, and I doubted it would ever fade. The scar from the bullet wound was also there, but I could barely see it anymore.

The memories surfaced. The small cell. The chains. The pain. The despair. The lab. The experiments. That bulletproof container I had ripped to shreds with ease.

Killian.

I had promised to myself I wouldn’t die before ripping his heart out. Now it was time to fulfill that promise.

I looked at myself in the eyes again. I could almost see the beast lurking in my gaze. I could feel it inside me, watching, waiting, eager to grab the next opportunity to take control of our body.

“Soon,” I promised it. Him. Me.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts, and I turned around to see Chase stepping in.

“You look hot,” he said, his eyes traveling down on my naked body. “Hotter than ever.”

I smiled at him, took the steps to him and pulled him tightly against myself.

“The beast can be tamed,” I muttered.

“Uh-huh,” he said as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders. “I heard.”

“We have up to twenty years before I become immune to the spell,” I continued.

“…Yes,” he said slowly, the smile now gone.

“Do we need the cure?” I asked.

He stared at me for a moment and then hugged me, resting his head on my shoulder. “Twenty years is a good start, but I want more.”

“I’d be in my fifties when it stops working,” I said. “I’ll be old and wrinkly.”

“We will find the cure. I want you to stay with me until we’re both old, fragile and wearing diapers,” he murmured in my ear. “We need that cure.”

“But the beast is powerful. No one could ever touch us, if we let it–”

“Dante…” he breathed out. “Love… I love that beast. I adore it. It’s strong and merciless and wonderfully evil, but if keeping it means I can’t live the rest of my life with you, it has to go.”

I sighed and hugged him tightly. “But I’ll be weak.”

“You’re still a werewolf. Your kind is not weak,” he reminded me.

“Maybe the cure will take that away from me as well,” I said.

“Then you’ll have to ask Zane to teach you how to use grenade launchers,” he said sternly, pulling away to see my face. “What is this? What are you afraid of?”

I was silent for a moment and looked away. “I’m not afraid…”

“Yes, you are,” he whispered, touching my cheek. “I love you, Dante. The real you. Not any of the variations of you. Not even your body. I love the person that is you.”

“But I can’t protect you as a human,” I muttered.

“Grenade launchers, hello?” he said and chuckled lightly. “You forget that I’m a human too. Just a magically infused one. You are not weak, Dante. And it’s not your strength I need. I need your heart. I need you to love me.”

I looked back at him. “I do love you.”

“Good,” he smiled. “Now, I wouldn’t mind if you showed me just how much you love me,” he added, his eyes traveling down between us.

“Oh, I will,” I muttered, grabbed him by his sides and hoisted him over my shoulder.

He laughed in anticipation as I carried him into our bedroom, and even more when I dropped him onto our bed.

I stopped to stare down at him. He was wiggling his shirt off and then reached for his pants. As I watched, he pulled them down, revealing himself completely to me. He was beautiful… So fair… Delicate.

And that soul of his… Chaotic was not enough to describe it. And still I loved it. There was nothing I didn’t love about him. Nothing. I couldn’t even remember why I had been mad at him. Of course he was able to kill – I should’ve seen that from the beginning.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” I said quietly.

“Huh?” he frowned.

“I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you,” I said, sitting down next to him. “You did what you had to.”

“I believe we’ve talked this through already,” he said. “Lube!”

The tube appeared on the bed next to him.

“No condoms?” I asked.

“No,” he smiled. “I’ll have what you have.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m clean – apart from the beast,” I said, grabbing the bottle.

“Yeah, I feel like syphilis would’ve shown up by now, after all those tests,” he chuckled, taking a more comfortable position next to me, giving me a hungry stare. “And I’ve never let anyone fuck me without a condom before, so…”

“To be fair, HIV is easier to treat than my condition,” I said in amusement, opening the tube.

He watched with dark eyes as I poured a small pile on my fingertips and then brought my hand between his legs. He let out a pleased sigh when I started rubbing it on him, being very thorough.

“You said you wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t killed that one person…” I said when his words appeared in my head.

“Love – read the room,” he snickered. “Really don’t want to think about that rapist when you’re fingering me.”

“Sorry…” I muttered.

We were both silent for a moment, and then he sighed, pushing my hand away as he sat up.

“I don’t regret any of them,” he said, his eyes on mine. “But I wouldn’t kill anyone who didn’t deserve it. You believe me, right?”

“I do,” I said truthfully. “You may be chaos, but there’s a great deal of good in you. I can see that clearly.”

“Aww, thanks, babe,” he smiled, taking my lubed hand in his, guiding it back between his legs. “Now, where were we…?”

I let out a laugh and pushed him onto the bed, following to hover over him. As I pushed his legs apart, guiding myself inside him, I realized I didn’t really care if he was good or evil.

I was his, no matter what.