Page 63 of The Slayer Seduction

“He was never supposed to find the book,” she says sadly, and it has me going ramrod straight. “Are you suffering?”

I lick my lips and I’m shocked that the Slayer says nothing; he has no comment, he just observes.

“It hasn’t been easy.”

“I was glad when I heard you ran away. The day you were born was the day I thought I’d gotten rid of that book. I tried everything. Fire, tossing it in the swamp, hiding it. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get rid of it.”

“But you did, eventually?” Iris chimes in and I’m grateful.

My grandmother swallows. “Maybe we should start from the beginning.”

“Yeah, maybe we should,” I reply, ready to buckle in for some sordid fucked-up family history lesson.

Chapter 30

Iris

I’m all for respecting your elders. It’s a huge part of coven life, but if this sweet old grandma isn’t what she seems to be, I have my wand ready, pointed at her under the table.

Adam is clearly feeling uneasy and I don’t know why I do it, but I use my other hand to grab his and squeeze. We’re in this together and I’ve got his back.

Neither of us chose this fate, but we’ve chosen to be there for one another.

“Something to drink first?” his grandmother asks.

“No thanks,” I answer for the both of us and the older woman sighs, giving us a delicate nod.

“Our family used to be affluent, you know that? Our ancestors had a good life in Albania, next to damn near royalty, but we were cursed too. Nearly every generation, the eldest son would pass away. Usually in the records they would make up an excuse, sickness or some freak accident, but the family knew what they were doing. Every time a son was born, their fate was sealed. In order to keep our family’s status, there needed to be a sacrifice.”

Adam holds my hand tighter and I gently rub his calloused knuckles with my thumb, giving him whatever reassurance I can.

“Until my great-grandfather made a stand. He left the home country and traveled to the Americas for a new life. He loved his son, and he wasn’t about to give him up, and so that’s where the family’s misfortune started. We were thrusted into poverty for our lack of sacrifice, along with addiction and other horrible circumstances, but no matter what, we weren’t monsters.”

“So then, how did my father end up knowing about this at all?” Adam questions, interrupting her story.

“He found the book as a child and became obsessed with our genealogy and wanted more for himself. My greatest hope was that he wouldn’t ever have children. Honestly I think the only reason he ever had kids with your mother was for the sacrifice,” she says while wiping a tear from her eye. “The day you were born, I stole the book and tried several ways to destroy it, but none of them worked.”

She twiddles her aging hands in front of us and swallows.

“I know it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but I thought…Well, I thought that maybe if I could find a vampire, they would know how to secure it. They’d have every reason to.”

“You went out searching for a vampire?” I gasp out and she gives me a small smile, her eyes crinkling.

“It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I told him I’d give him the book if he promised to never give it to anyone in our family. It seems vampires aren’t great about keeping promises.” She reaches out and squeezes Adam’s hand. “I’m so sorry, Adam.”

I want to believe this woman, and I even think she might be kind. But she raised a monster, and she knew what her son was like and she left children with them? I’m taking everything she says with a grain of salt.

Adam’s throat bobs, his fingers still laced with mine.

“Do you know the other families?” he asks, and she pulls her hand away from his.

“What?”

“Which families also have this curse?”

She shakes her head rapidly. “You don’t want to mess with them, Adam. They’ve never stopped sacrificing their eldest, and they have endless resources.”

“They’re after me and, even worse, they’re after Iris. You feel bad for all those years you hid away, leaving me with those people? For giving the book to the wrong person? I need those names.”