Twice Cursed (45 page)

He cleared his throat at her direct
stare. “Did you know I was originally from California?”

“
No, really? That’s gnarly
dude,” she said, mimicking a surfer’s accent.

He smirked. “Yes, I was born into a
very secretive cougar community in the Sierra Nevada’s. My pride
didn’t believe in mixing with the outside world. It was detrimental
to our growth in many ways, I’m sure you can imagine, but mostly it
hindered our gene pool.” He watched her closely.

“
And?”

He chuckled. “Forgive me, if I watch
you for signs of revulsion. It’s very important to me that I make
you understand.”

Okay, Twilight Zone
anyone?
Flabbergasted, Lily just
shrugged.

He cleared his throat again. “What I
am about to say next is not something I’m proud of, it’s just what
we did to survive.” He paused, watching her face again before
continuing. “We had hunting parties, but we didn’t hunt for food.
We hunted for mates.”

Lily raised an eyebrow, unconsciously
pushing her chair back.

Seeing her flinch away, he waved his
hands in front of him. “No, no, my dear. You haven’t been brought
here in that capacity…Lord no! I’m just telling you all this as
background information.”

Lily hmmphed. “Yeah, well according to
your newest acolyte, Jack informed me that I now belonged to him.
Part of the deal and all, for getting me here to use as
bait.”

Parr’s eyes narrowed, and his face
reddened. “He won’t touch you, of that you can be sure. I’ll kill
him first.”

She didn’t know what to think, the man
was acting like either her mate or her father. What was the deal
here?

He dragged in a long breath. “Anyway,
let’s not dwell on how you got here. This is all about why you’re
here. Nearly thirty years ago, I was elected to this hunting
circle. It’s a cyclical pact, and only the males selected to breed
can participate. Most of the women you read about that go missing
in the mountains of northern California aren’t mauled by cougars,
they’re taken—by Weres, for breeding purposes.”

He stopped, and got up to pace.
“There’s that look of revulsion I was waiting to see,” he said,
pointing at her. “Please, try to listen with an open mind. Like I
said, this was all in the past.”

He turned, and leaned on the side rail
of the hospital bed. “I was lucky enough to be sent to the city on
many occasions for things we needed that couldn’t be found on the
land. Over the years, I bartered not only for necessary items, but
also for books. I taught myself everything, but what especially
interested me was genetics. You see, Lily, I wasn’t like the others
of my community. I was a genetic throw back to our ancestors— an
American Lion. Unfortunately, now extinct, myself
notwithstanding.

“
So when it was my time to
mate, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to ensure
that my genetic anomaly, my line, didn’t go extinct again. I
studied and theorized and hypothesized, and then it came time to
put those theories to the test, and the only thing I needed was a
woman. One of my own, a Were would have been best, but they were
all claimed by this point. So I had to take part in the hunting
circle to carry out my plan.”

He paused, pouring himself a glass of
water and offering one to Lily as well. She took the glass from his
hand, nodding for him to continue.

“
I managed to acquire a
place in the Bay area, and stocked it, over time, with my books and
equipment. I experimented with genetic mutation and DNA splicing,
mostly.” He stopped. “Don’t look so horrified. I only experimented
on myself, no one else.”

Lily stood up, ignoring the pain that
shot through her leg at the abrupt movement. “Don’t look so
horrified! You stand there and tell me your some kind of Were
version of Dr. Frankenstein, and I’m supposed to be okay with that?
I’m not stupid, Edward, I can see where you’re headed with this,
and it involves some poor woman you used for your own
ends.”

“
Lily, please. Hear me out.
Yes, it’s true. I did abduct a woman, but she was homeless and on
the verge of selling herself anyway. She was an illegal alien who
barely spoke English when I took her. She lived with me, willingly.
It’s not like I tied her up.” He glanced down at the red, puckered
marks on Lily’s wrists. “The one who did that to you is dead. I
wanted you brought here, but not in the way it transpired, and for
that I am sorry.”

She flopped back down in
her chair. “What do expect me say, Edward. Your lady friend may
have chosen to stay of her own free will, but if she’d wanted to
leave would you have let her? Would you let me?” Tony’s words came
back to haunt her.
Make it easy on
yourself, baby, and cooperate
.

Parr ignored her question.
“Where was I…
oh yes
…experimenting. The time came to put my experiments to the
test. As you can imagine, my lady friend, as you call her, was
surprised when I insisted on artificial insemination.” He drew
himself up, expanding his chest as if to prove his virility. “To my
delight, it took on the first try and with twins, no less! I, of
course, immediately packed us up to head back to the mountains. My
children would be raised as a full Weres, regardless of their
maternal line.

“
Unfortunately, things
didn’t work out as planned,” he paused as if caught in the memory.
“Teresa, that was her name, didn’t take well to life in the
mountains, and being a human in a Were dominated world—well, let’s
just say there were certain prejudices she had to endure. She ended
up running away. I searched for her, but all I found were bloody
clothes carrying her scent.”

Lily looked at her hands. “So, as far
as you know, she died while trying to escape?” Her words were a
question mark, but her eyes were accusing. With the way the man
clenched his jaw, she knew she’d hit a nerve, but his face was
otherwise a mask. “Look, Edward. I’m sorry for your loss, truly,
but what has this got to do with me?”

He studied her for a moment, his gaze
so intense, he seemed to be examining her every feature. He stepped
to her chair and stood over her, his fingers brushing beneath her
chin as he lifted it. “It has everything to do with you. You are my
daughter.”

Lily stood up, knocking Parr’s hand
away. With the back of her legs she pushed her chair to the wall
and scooted behind Edward to stand in the middle of the room. “I
was right. You are delusional! My mother and father were my
biological parents, I was not adopted.”

Edward shook his head. “Perhaps they
never told you, but there’s no other explanation as to why you are
immune to the virus I created. I made it using my own blood, so
therefore the only people who would have any natural immunity to it
would have to be of my bloodline! I have no idea what happened to
Teresa or the other fetus she carried, but I know, YOU ARE MY
DAUGHTER, and you will take your place by my side. My coup is
almost complete, not just at the Compound, but I intend to be the
Alpha of the Brethren for the entire country. My rule will be all
encompassing.”

“
You did this? You caused
all this death and pain? You’re the one responsible for ruining all
those lives, all those families?” Lily’s fists balled in her
palms.

He sniffed. “There is always
collateral damage. I know you are my child because it’s the only
explanation why you survived, why your blood was a key to the serum
Volkmann distilled. Every human I infected died within days, if not
hours. And the vampires, well, tantalizing as they were, they
degenerated to a base nature.”

He waved his hands in the air. “It’s
immaterial now, anyway. I had the antivirus for the Weres, you just
came along to speed things up. It’s karma, my darling child, can’t
you see that? You were brought here by something bigger than both
of us. It was meant to be.”

Lily paced back and forth.
“Certifiable,” she mumbled, her thoughts racing.

He chuckled. “It’s a lot to digest at
once, I know. It’s taken me all week to come to terms with it
myself. You see, I wanted to you dead along with Leighton, but once
I connected the dots, there was no way I could bring myself to
murder my own child. Take a moment and think about it. I’m going to
get us some champagne!”

Lily’s eyes bugged out of
her head. She had called him delusional before, but that was just
rhetoric. Now she wasn’t so sure.
Champagne? Christ almighty, he’s got me as some kind of
heiress to the empire he’s building in his mind!
She chewed on her bottom lip.
Nah.
This had to be part of some
elaborate ploy.

Her mind sorted through everything
Parr had said. Genetic experimentation? On both humans and
vampires? Parr had created some horrific Were version of Nazi
Germany and the sick human experimentations performed by Josef
Mengele—and for him to dismiss the fallout as collateral
damage—perhaps this wasn’t just a ploy, and he truly was
insane.

A thought registered and Lily slid
down in the chair by the window. Stephanie’s nightmare claimed the
woman in her dream smelled like the people Volkmann was trying to
help. She had to have meant the people infected with the virus, as
that’s the part of the hospital where Rissa had been staying while
going through the antiviral testing.

Her mouth fell open as
another puzzle piece fell into place. The redhead! She recognized
Jack’s scent as her mother’s tormentor! That meant Parr had
experimented on Améile!
Jesus
. It was him. He was indirectly
responsible for all those deaths in the city.

The man’s web and all the blood
associated with it just seemed to widen, and Lily’s skin crawled
thinking about what else it might encompass.

Her nerves were on overdrive. She shot
to her feet, pacing again. Is it true? Am I his child? She mulled
his words over in her head. She shook her head, pressing her eyes
shut at the prospect. No. She had her birth certificate, and her
parent’s would never have knowingly lied to her, not when their
best friends in the whole world had gone through it themselves.
Beverly and Carl. They may have never gotten around to telling
Terry, but Lily knew in her gut that Bev had told her mother. It
was the kind of things best friends shared.

Lily looked at her left
palm and the faint white line that traversed the center. Best
friends.
Sisters in everything but
blood.

Her eyes flew open. Holy
Christ!
Terry was born in California and
she was a twin
. Lily licked her lips,
mashing them together. Yeah, but so were hundreds of other
unfortunate kids.

The notion ran circles
through her mind. What they hell was Terry’s birth mother’s name…
Lily shook out her wrists, pacing even harder. She knew it, she
heard it in the vision she had in the attic that day with
Beverly.
Oh God, it was Teresa! Terry’s
birth mother’s name was Teresa.

Parr had just mentioned the woman who
conceived his children was named Teresa. The time line fit, and if
Terry was half Were, then that stupid blood sister ritual they did
when they were twelve years old was what gave Lily her
immunity.

Parr said the woman was
pregnant with twins. What about Terry’s twin? Lily’s vision
couldn’t verify if the child survived or not.
Think, Lily think…

She stopped pacing and sunk
down on the edge of the bed.
Ryan
. It was the only piece that
fit. He looked like Terry and he was a half-Were…a
Werecougar!
Holy Christ,
Ryan was Terry’s twin brother and Parr’s
son!

Parr walked back in and Lily scrambled
to wipe any sign of what she had just pieced together from her
face.

The man’s manner was not only
celebratory, it was downright triumphant. He had two champagne
flutes in one hand and a bottle of Dom in the other.

“
A toast to my beautiful
daughter, and my heir apparent,” he said, raising the bottle high.
He practically pranced to the side of the bed, sliding his arm
around Lily’s shoulder and resting his head on hers. “Just think of
it. Together we will bring the American Lion back to its former
glory.” He sniffed, almost overcome with emotion. “My darling girl,
I am overwhelmed with my good fortune. I’ve even given the staff
the night off!”

Lily sat there speechless, afraid to
make any sudden movements.

“
Don’t you have anything
you want to say to me? His demeanor flip-flopped, his eyes
narrowing as if challenging her to disagree.

She ducked out from under his arm,
moving toward the center of the room and a clear shot at the door.
“Shall we open the champagne?” She cocked her hand on her
hip.

“
Ha! I so enjoy your nerve,
my dear. Oh, Lily, we have so much to learn about each other, but
I’m a firm believer in nature over nurture. My blood runs through
your veins, so it’s only a matter of time before you come around
completely. That you sought revenge for your friend’s death and
taught yourself to hunt supes with no formal training, only proves
my point.” He let the silver paper from the top of the bottle
flutter to the floor, and untied the wire around the
cork.