Chapter Nine.
Mitch
He looked at Jess as she spoke those words and knew he’d lost her. The repulsion, fear, and hate in her eyes couldn’t be faked. The terror rolled off Jess in waves.
“I’ll call for a driver to take you home,” Mitch said, his voice guttural as he tried to contain the searing agony tearing him apart.
“No, I’ll book a taxi,” Jess replied stiffly. She kept the kitchen island between them. No doubt if Mitch made a move, she’d scream the place down and think he was attacking her.
“Fine. Let’s wait outside if you feel safer?” Mitch offered. Jess nodded and motioned for him to proceed. Emotion flooded Mitch as he realised Jess thought he was going to hurt her.
“Can I ask what my family did to yours?” Mitch threw over his shoulder. He was desperate not to lose Jess; he’d drop to his knees and grovel, but he had to know.
“No. You don’t get to excuse their actions,” Jess spat.
Mitch turned abruptly, and Jess jumped, and her foot slipped. She reached out, and Mitch caught her, and she immediately wrenched away.
“Jess. I hate them too; they killed my mother. Believe me, I want to see them punished for what they did,” Mitch insisted.
“But instead, you sat on their crimes for what? A decade? Why not contact the police back then? You could have protected people!” Jess cried.
“You think I’m guilty of that? I’m aware of their death tally.
Some men carve notches on their bed for sexual conquests.
Those assholes keep them for kills. There are families that I contacted, and they fled into hiding.
Their lives were saved. I did reach out to Scotland Yard, and it was hushed up.
I didn’t have power back then. There’s a guy called Ceann-Feadhna, meaning 'leader'. When I first went to the cops, I ended up locked up for six months in a psychiatric institution. Diarmad broke me out.”
“What?” Jess gasped.
Hope surged. Maybe Mitch was reaching her.
“Diar found me and rescued me. The Sealgair Uilebheist intended to keep me there. All the evidence I’d taken to the police disappeared.
The Ceann-Feadhna believed he’d got everything.
He didn’t understand how paranoid I was.
There are twelve copies hidden in various places and with different people.
“That’s why Alfred tried to have me killed.
Alfred can’t comprehend that I meant the warning.
He excused my initial outburst as that of a headstrong, silly boy.
Alfred thought I’d come running back after my punishment; he was wrong, and I struck out on my own and cut them dead.
The old asshole believed that my threat was empty because they’d destroyed the evidence the first time around.
Now they understand I’m deadly serious,” Mitch said urgently.
He prayed he was getting through to Jess.
When Jess raised her eyes, Mitch reeled back two steps at the grief there. “What your family did to mine is unforgivable, Mitch. I could never introduce you to the people I care about. How would I know that you’d never betray them?” Jess whispered.
“Because I wouldn’t, Jess. Not you. Please, baby, I’m not them!” Mitch begged. He went to cup her face, and Jess flinched away from him.
Mitch felt a spear lance through his heart. He’d lost Jess. The woman he was falling in love with, and she was withdrawing because of Alfred and Alexander.
“I’ll let you go, Jess, but I love you, and I’ll prove I’m different,” Mitch said fervently. He’d win her back one way or another.
Jess/Loch Ness Monster
She ported to the castle and refused to speak to Mary, who looked concerned. There was no point in crying. She’d shed enough. Tears wouldn’t bring her murdered siblings back, nor the Saviours who’d died protecting them. Mitch’s family and ancestors had too much blood on their hands.
Jess ignored her apartment and headed straight for the rose garden. Frankie was there pottering about and glanced at her as she entered. She sat on a bench and crossed her legs.
“Did those shoots ever grow?” she murmured.
“One is blossoming while the others are, shall we say, sleeping?”
“I see,” Jess replied.
“What is it, Jess?” Frankie asked.
“I fell in love again, Frankie,” Jess murmured. The words were true, and she knew it the minute she said them. Despite her denials and her ‘falling in love’ declarations, they were lies. Jess was already in love with Mitch.
“And the problem is?”
“He’s descended from the Weideman line.”
Frankie stilled and turned stiffly. Frankenstein’s Monster appeared, and Frankie wrestled him under control.
“Yeah, now imagine Jase’s reaction,” Jess muttered.
Frankie gazed at her and shook his head. “This is a clusterfuck, Jess. You can’t be with him.”
“I know.”
“We’d never trust him. Jess, he’s a Hunter!”
“Frankie, I’m well aware.”
Jess crossed her legs and stared at the roses which had bloomed. Five of them for five of her siblings. There’ll never be one for her. She kept making stupid mistakes and falling for the wrong people.
“Jess, is Mitch aware of what you are?”
“God no. I don’t trust him, either.” Jess shook her head.
“Can you imagine Mitch coming here? That’s a disaster in the process. Even if Mitch left here alive, he’d no doubt tell everyone where we were. We’d be in so much danger. Jess, Mitch is a pipe dream.”
Jess’s shoulders slumped. She’d known that, but hearing it from Frankie drove the message home. She’d never get a happy-ever-after.
Frankie sat down and wrapped an arm around her.
“Jess, I don’t mean to upset you. But a relationship between one of us and a Hunter will never happen.
You’d never know when he’d wake up and slit your throat.
Look at Lamia and Emmaline. Hunters nearly destroyed them both.
Mitch can never come here. You’d live a dual life and eventually would be estranged from all of us. ”
“I understand. Mitch insists he’s not one of them, but I can’t trust him. It just hurts so much.” Jess got to her feet and walked away.
She headed down to the shore and dived in, shifting mid-dive. Ness paddled out to the middle of the lake and sank below the surface. She’d hide here for a while.
Mitch
It had been eight days since he’d last seen Jess, and it was tearing him apart, but he and Diar had finally come up with a solution.
Well, Mitch hoped he had. The week had been a nightmare.
First, Alfred got bail, although his passport was taken into custody.
That wouldn’t stop the old bastard from flying privately to escape prison.
However, Alfred was so arrogant that he didn’t think he needed to run.
Clearly, Alfred’s arrest hadn’t stopped his vengeful feelings, as Mitch and Diar had confronted a second Murtair.
They dumped his corpse at the estate, called the police, and had Alexander apprehended alongside Alfred this time.
The officers were very interested in how a body ended up in the state it did on their land.
Then, to ensure a cover-up didn’t happen, Mitch anonymously uploaded the footage of the body and them being arrested. It was all over the media.
In addition to sealing Alfred’s fate, Mitch also released more evidence for four more murders, and that was Alfred done and dusted.
Alexander was discharged, but not Alfred.
Not that Mitch thought Alexander was bothered.
With Alfred out of the way, Alexander now ran the Weideman branch of Sealgair Uilebheist. The Ceann-Feadhna would ensure that Alfred died before he could barter for his freedom.
And Mitch couldn’t care less. All he wanted was Jess, which led him to storm Leon Ericks’ office, much to Ericks’ surprise. Mitch had ruthlessly bullied Diar into making an appointment in his name and then attended himself.
“Well, now. Mitch McQuoid. Funny, you don’t look like Diarmad McDonald,” Leon sat back in his chair and steepled his hands.
“I need you to get something to Jess.” Mitch slid a flash drive over to Leon, who didn’t even glance at it.
“I warned you, McQuoid. Mess with Jess and pay the price. She’s hurting and refuses to even speak to those who care about her,” Leon growled out.
“That should reassure Jess that I meant what I said,” Mitch stated.
“And if I dispose of it?”
“Then you have no right to claim you care about Jess. I love her; that’s not going to change. And I don’t give a fuck what my ancestors did, I’m not them, and that will prove it.”
Leon’s eyes narrowed, and he slowly sat up. “What your ancestors did?”
“Yes.”
Leon stood up and walked around the desk. “Want to explain that?”
“No.”
Before Mitch realised what was happening, Leon’s fist planted into his face and knocked Mitch out.
◆◆◆
Mitch blinked. What the hell had hit him? Oh, right, Leon fucking Ericks. He’d not even seen it coming.
He sat up and winced. Where was he? His eyes adjusted to the gloom, and he saw he was in a damp, dark dungeon.
“Ericks!” he yelled. “What are you playing at?”
“Shhh, don’t call his attention,” a hiss came from a corner. Mitch spun, ready to defend himself, and he tried to see who was in with him.
“Come out,” he ordered, standing up.
“Why?”
“Why not?” Mitch cocked his head, believing it was a woman he was talking to.
A figure drifted out, and Mitch barely held his reaction back.
A ghost appeared in front of him, with a thin face and black eyes.
She was gaunt to the point of being skeletal.
Her hair floated around her head, matted and tangled, dull in colour.
Mitch tried not to gape at her bottom half, where her legs slowly faded into nothing.
There was only one creature she could be: the infamous Banshee.
“I won’t hurt you. Do you know where we are?” Mitch asked. He held his hands up so Banshee could see them and kept his distance.
Banshee tilted her head. “In a dungeon.”
“Yes. Is Ericks a Sealgair Uilebheist? If he is… he’s one—I… shit. I gave him…” Mitch broke off.