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“So what are you saying?” Katana asked, her mind still trying to shift any notion of the fantastical tale she’d been taught from a young age. “That Lenore created the werewolves to keep getting money from the King?”
Ashley shrugged his shoulders. “What do you think? What would you have done in their position?”
Katana slumped back against the tree trunk, ignoring the rough bark scratching at the back of her skull. “We’re not an elite family at all. We’re a bunch of peasants that hustled through life as con men.”
“Well, that’s one way to look at it. But really, who are the fools? Who keeps paying for your services to rid the world of these ‘monsters’?”
Katana realised he had a point. Lenore had seen an opportunity and exploited it to its fullest. She’d essentially ensured that her entire lineage would never be out of work. “Who was he? The guy she turned?”
Ashley pulled his lips into a thin line. “He was her father. She found him raping one of her younger sisters and cursed him. Her mother refused to acknowledge what Lenore accused him of, so Lenore sought out her own justice.”
Katana gasped, almost choking on her sharp inhale of breath. “But why Henry?”
“She wanted out of the family home and needed money to do it. Picking a servant of the King was the most direct way to achieve her aim.”
“So she just used Henry to better her own life? What kind of a person does that?”
“Henry gained greatly from their union. It wasn’t all one sided. Tell me, what would you have done if you walked in on your father raping one of your siblings, hmmm? Tell me you wouldn’t do the same.”
“I’d probably want to kill him, yes, but to actually do it? And drag someone else in on the situation? That’s something else entirely.”
“Look,” Ashley said, folding his arms over his chest. “Until you’ve been in a situation, don’t go making judgements.”
“Fine. Tell me where this ended up involving innocent people then.”
“In any lifetime there are people who pee you off and make you angry. Both Lenore and Henry had plenty of people they wanted to wreak a little revenge on. Each full moon, Lenore would turn one of them, Henry would kill them, and then they would collect their reward. As time went by, the practice has gone on and on until eventually, no one really has to do anything wrong. They just have one of those faces. Throw into the mix power-hungry kids who let magick go to their heads and boom. You have one big mess.”
“Wow,” Katana said, curling her top lip back in disgust. “That’s fucked up. Why wouldn’t you reprimand your kids? Where’s the moral compass here?”
“Look, Katana. If they hadn’t of done what they did, you wouldn’t be stood here today with your privileged lifestyle and your millions in the bank. Maybe it’s time to pull your head out of your ass and look at the opportunity it’s given your bloodline through the centuries.”
Katana’s blood boiled in her veins. She clenched her fists but before she could act, Jacques stepped in between them.
“Cool it, both of you,” he said. “There’s enough going on without you two warring as well.”
Katana sighed. “Ok. So what about the Met and the governments? After all, we do cover Europe too. You’re not telling me that not one of them doesn’t suspect something?”
Ashley shrugged his shoulders. “Why would they? Werewolves are a freak of nature to them remember. An infestation like cockroaches or rats. You’re effectively pest control. Just more highly paid.”
Jacques spoke up before Katana cut Ashley in half with her words or her sword. “All the government cares about is money. You’ve heard of all the conspiracies about super soldiers and mind control experiments?”
Katana nodded.
“That was all in an effort to cut back on paying your family. If they created a super soldier to do your job, they could pay them the wage of a regular soldier and save themselves millions of pounds a year.”
“Millions?” Katana frowned, the enormity of the situation still not sinking in. “How much exactly are you saying my family is paid, Jacques?”
He cleared his throat. “Well, last year, the foreign aid budget was fourteen billion pounds.”
“Foreign aid?”
“Yes. The Department for International Development has many sub-sectors that money is filtered out through. It’s the easiest way to lose massive chunks of cash. Do you really think the UK spent forty-six million last year in the Chinese film industry?”
Katana’s mouth dropped. “Forty-six million? Is that what my family got paid last year?”
Jacques nodded.
“Shit.”
“Exactly. If you adjust the cost over the centuries, it’s quite clear to see how the Kempe’s have gained their status and their wealth. You do know your father is on Britain’s rich list?”
“Err...no,” Katana replied, dumbfounded. “I did not know that.”
“Yes. He’s Britain’s number fifty-two.”
Katana flopped back down onto the grass. The dew from the early morning damp soaked through her jodhpurs but she was too stunned to notice.
“Do they know magick exists?” she asked.
“The higher up officials do.”
“Surely they must know that the werewolves are created by magick? Or at least suspect it.”
“Some have their suspicions but that’s nothing that a little magick on a full moon hasn’t fixed.”
Katana balked. “Government officials? Are you telling me that anyone who suspects this—” she threw her hands up in the air “—whatever it is, organisation, is turned into a werewolf to shut them up?”
Jacques just looked at her with that same empty, blank stare.
Katana sighed. What kind of a shady, underhand business was she willingly a part of?