Cursed

Part Eight

"How much did you give him?"

"Exactly how much you told me to give him. Calm down."

"We're in the middle of a whole host of Cursed souls about to shift and you want me to be calm?"

"This was your brilliant idea!"

"Just tell me when he'll wake up!"

"He can probably hear us now. Hey, come on Scotty boy. It's time to rise and shine."

Scott could hear the pair of voices talking like they were right on top of him, but he didn't particularly trust his spatial judgment at the moment. Eyes still tight shut, he did a quick inventory of his body and didn't seem to be broken or even bruised. His neck felt a bit sore, and the back of one leg felt a bit scraped up, but these were minor concerns. Much more pressing was the feeling of a massive animal stretching inside of him, ready to tear him apart. He'd been so curious, so eager to understand what the moon's power could unleash within him, but now he feared it. It felt too big. And he wasn't in the relatively controlled environment he'd been expecting. Instead of being surrounded by Mitch and the other Elders, he was with a dead man and some woman whose tone and cadence resembled his greatly.

He blinked his eyes open and saw the long form of Alex hovering over him. To his surprise, the boy gave him a relieved smile that faded to one of commiseration. His gaze kept flickering over to a tall woman a few yards away. Like her voice, her appearance was very like Alex's. Hadn't Kevin said something about a sister? A girl Mitch was supposed to marry?

"Oh good," the woman said once she'd made eye contact with Scott. She came close and knelt by his side. "This is all going to be very abrupt and most likely confusing, but my name is Aria Kirk. I'm the reason you exist."

Scott raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm fairly certain Rick and Connie Hoying are the reason for my existence, along with a free bottle of champagne on New Year's."

Aria smiled, but it somehow transformed her lovely face into something much less attractive. "What I mean is that I'm the reason you exist in this form, bound to the moon, bound to blood. You're the first of your kind. I made you, and I'm so thrilled that you've survived."

Scott opened his mouth and then shut it. He'd been about to say that some bad luck and bad timing at a fight club had made him this way, but of course he had no real memory of that. In all of his trying, he could remember driving home from work the day he'd been attacked, but somewhere between walking up the stairs to his apartment and waking up in the Elders' Compound, he supposed anything could have happened. This woman could indeed be his maker.

He thought for a long moment about what this meant to him. Did he hate her? Did he owe her allegiance? Before he could come to any conclusions, Aria was helping him to sit upright. He tried to steady himself without her and found that his wrists and ankles were bound by thin silver chains. They looked too flimsy to hold him, but were stronger than they looked, and they also stung his skin mildly whenever he forced against them.

"I honestly wish that we had more time for this, but as I'm sure you know, the moon is quite high,"  Aria said. "As you might be figuring out, you were created for a purpose. I won't pretend that it will be pleasant, but it will be simple for you, once you've phased."

Scott looked over at Alex. The boy was vibrating with rage and anguish. It wasn't a big leap to figure out what was coming.

"Is this about Mitch?"

Alex looked up at the name and then turned away miserably. Aria's face glowed with that twisted smile again. "It is."

"If you...if you think I'm going to hurt him, you're out of your mind. But then I suppose you'd have to be to do this to me." Scott gave a bleak laugh. "Well, go on. Give me your little monologue about how I'm going to do your evil bidding. And then we'll cut to the part where I betray you. And then you'll try to kill me, but you can't because you made me too strong, so you'll run away and promise revenge another day. Am I getting the story right?"