Page 17 of Cursed

She shouts, “Get out of my head!”

“I won’t have to fuck up all that gray matter if you just tell us what you know,” Maxum says calmly, his deep voice rumbling the threat.

“Dammit. Fine! What do I care anyway? She will be dead soon enough.” Millie spits on the floor. “She’s my father’s bastard. And I hate her. She isn’tspecial. All she’ll ever be is trash.”

I suck in a breath but try to remain calm. “Tate Mannyx had a child with Leeann Willows? And he’s known this all along?”

“Yeah, the dumb bitch Leeann thought he was some rich guy she could snare. Just like Shayla thinks she can trap her little group of dicks.”

I guess she hasn’t figured out that I’m one of Shayla’s future coven mates.

“But my dad only used her.”

Chara snarls. “Shut up, you idiot.”

Ignoring Chara, I ask, “What does he intend to use Shayla for?”

However, I believe I know why he wants her. I remember the shadowwalk where Landis witnessed Shayla’s abuse deep in our mate’s subconscious. Her mother said that Shayla’s father promised to have powerful children with her.

“I don’t know.” Millie shrugs, barely moving with how she’s strapped to the chair.

Maxum sighs with relief and grins menacingly. “Oh, good. I was sort of hoping we could do this the hard way.” He steps forward and hovers his hand over Millie’s head.

Her eyes fall shut. A few moments later, blood drips from her nostril. She whimpers and squirms, and finally, her head lolls to the side. I’m unsure if she’s dead until I see her chest barely move with an intake of air.

Maxum turns his attention to Chara. “Now this one? She’s a nasty little monster.” He curls his lip, and his sharp teeth glint in the room’s light. He asks me, glancing over his shoulder, “You feel how wicked she is?”

He kicks Millie’s foot and says, “She’s just a jealous bully because her father made a bunch of illegitimate offspring for his grand designs of stealing their powers or manipulating them if they're too weak.” He shakes his head. “She’s so pathetic that she tries to impress him. From what I’ve seen in her mind of her father, he has no honor and no love for anything but himself. He only created children to consume their magic. He’s looking for somethingspecial… something no one has seen before.”

My gut ices over with that announcement. Mannyx seems to have accomplished his goals. He created his special breed of supe with Shayla. Now, she’ll be hunted by her own father because her unique abilities were revealed during her fight with Drake Lewellyn.

My only hope is that Lewellyn won’t share this information. But he’s part of this whole draining operation too. They both must be.

“So… is Tate Mannyx part of the draining operation? Is Lewellyn? Your father?” Maxum asks Chara.

She sniffs with distaste. “I’m not going to tell you that.”

Maxum grabs her by the throat but doesn’t squeeze… hard. “Did you know this one has been hiding a talent?” he asks me casually, as if we are just having a lovely spot of tea instead of torturing my students for information.

“Oh?” I prompt, “What’s that?”

“She’s a seer… of a sort. Not that strong. But she’s full of secrets, all hiding in these pockets in her mind.” He leans in, nose to nose with Chara. “But I’m a damn good thief, menace.”

The moment he dives into Chara’s mind, I know it. She jerks in her restraints and cries out. After a few moments, she passes out too.

“From what she knows, three of the Council are running the show,” he tells me. “Mannyx, Lewellyn, and Shade. They expanded their magical draining operations when they weren’t getting enough through the asylum.”

I curse. I suspected it, but to hear it confirmed makes me sick. “So they set up chop shops for any supe they could capture?”

“They’re trying to keep their power while the rest of us wither with the fading magic in the realms.” Maxum glances at the two females and frowns. He pulls me away from the unconscious pair and into the bathroom. He turns on the water in the sink and shower full blast so that Kat and Douglas might not overhear. Then he whispers to me, “There’s something else… about Mannyx. Something no one knows outside of his family.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense.” I wave him on.

He tells me the secret.

I shake my head. “I don’t believe it.”

“Believe whatever you like. But he has a mark on his neck, left side, that he cannot hide. Looks like a crescent moon.”

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