Chapter 59
Ryker laughed maniacally in pain.
“You are a crazy son of a bitch!” I told him, infuriated with his stupidity.
“He cannot kill me, only bring me pain. I find pleasure in pain.” Ryker spit out blood from his mouth. “Rocky’s right, he’ll be back.” He took the cloth and wiped his mouth clean as he walked off, disappearing from sight.
“This doesn’t make sense, none of this is adding up. I know Avi, there has to be more to this.” Faye was lost in her thoughts
“I can’t just let this go, Faye. She will meet Death!” I seethed, my shadows slithering from my fingertips.
Faye attempted to plead with me as she paced the living room. “Let me talk to her first, please, Jax!” Faye’s brown eyes melted my core. This little light of mine was driving me to the brink of insanity.
“Despite everything, you wish to save her. Why?” I asked, confused and annoyed by her empathy for this repugnant demon.
I wanted nothing more than to watch the light disappear from her very eyes while I feasted on her soul.
She killed Stefani, and she nearly hurt Birdie and my brother, for fuck’s sake.
Demons like her deserved to have their skin cut from their bones and hung on my wall like a plaque.
“She helped me in a time of need. She helped me get my job back. She helped me love myself again. You’re right about one thing, Jax, this makes no sense. There has to be a reason,” Faye said, picking at her cuticles— a nervous tick of hers since elementary.
“Avi told Creed she was going out of town to visit family. She does this every winter.” I rubbed my beard, trying to put the pieces together.
“Yes, you’re right! Every winter since she turned eighteen, she would tell all the Minx girls she had to go back to Mexico to visit family. I never thought anything of it until now. But, the way she mimicked my voice…” Faye’s words fell silent.
“She is a demon, Faye, a skinwalker,” I retorted in actual disgust.
“The way she would whisper into men’s ears at the bars and they would become mesmerized by her… Why didn’t I ever catch on?” Faye replied, rubbing her forehead in exhaustion.
“Skinwalkers use the voices of loved ones, especially to seduce men,” I remarked, running my hand through my thick, coarse hair.
Faye picked up the thick vintage grimoire, blowing the dust mites off the yellow stained pages once more.
“Tell me about skinwalkers,” she demanded, closing her eyes and speaking to the ancient book as if commanding it with her words.
She placed her slender hands over the grimoire, and the book of incantations opened and landed on page 666. Chapter: Skinwalkers.
“They take on any shape or sound to hunt their prey and manipulate them. Skinwalkers are some of the most dangerous demons there are. They are low on the totem pole of Mortis realms, meaning they will do anything to make sure they don’t stay there.” I glanced at her sternly.
“Like sacrificing their friends' family?” she asked, gulping.
“Such as that, yes,” I replied, feeling awful for my poor little ljos. How much heartbreak can one take in a day?
Ryker walked in, fresh from a shower, interrupting her reading.
“I honestly had my doubts, but I knew Creed would never care to listen. As strong as my brother likes to think of himself, he is a fool for a pretty face and long legs.” Ryker lit a cigar, all healed and still full of banter.
My little big brother was full of cynicism and wisdom.
That was Ryker for you. “The first hint was her absence every winter solstice. It’s the time where skinwalkers are summoned back to their realm for mating season.
I have no doubt she would have manipulated our brother into believing the seed was his if she conceived.
Their main goal is to make it back to their realm full time, so they can walk freely in their skin, their form.
Shedding into their walker skin is beyond painful for them every time they shift here.
It was a curse the Council themselves placed on them for hiding out here, making them earn their place back in the realm.
They’ll do the ugliest of things to have it, whatever it takes.
Cultists and skinwalkers are known for doing shady business with one another.
The cultists, though, are more wealthy and powerful in this realm, making them slaves for hundreds of years to their old god.
” Ryker inhaled and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.
“He doesn’t know, does he?” Faye tapped the round table.
“Fresh fucking hell, now what?” Ryker was both amused and annoyed.
“A few nights ago we pieced together that Faye’s ex-husband is a part of this cult we’ve been hunting.
A cultist group called The Followers Of Shedim.
This cult goes back hundreds of years. They’re known to sacrifice spell bounders for wealth and power.
Their God, Shedim, sired all of the witches' magic for wealth, sacrificing only the most powerful of them. The seer, La Sibila, is one of the most dangerous spell binders according to the grimoire’s prophecies.
” I stared out the window as we all sat at the Reaper’s round table, exhausted from every new revelation.
“A seer is born when two bloodlines procreate.” Ryker looked at Faye in astonishment.
“A spell binder and a god, a power source of both light and dark”
“It’s just like Ma told me.” Faye took out a wrinkled bloody letter from her black boot.
“The thing with this cult is their sacrifices have all been women, because spell binders are the second most powerful beings in any realm, making gods the first above all else,” Ryker said, dumping his cigar on his ash tray.
“It’s not just about sacrificing you for wealth, Faye Robles, it’s about getting rid of you.
The realms fear you, La Sibila.” Ryker stared, in awe of my little light.