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I gasped.
Michael nearly drove the Jeep off the road, swerving just in time, and getting a loud honk from a trucker’s horn.
“Bentos?” I whispered, glancing at Michael to see if he was okay.
“Yeah,” Robert sighed. “Son of a bitch is our father.”
That floored me. I felt the blood drain from my face, my fingers went numb and my heart stuttered.
“What?” I’d figured he was a great grandfather or something. “How can he still be alive?”
“There’s only one person who can kill him.” Robert shook his head. “Don’t you guys know any of this?” He pointed to the upcoming exit. “This is where I need to grab my stuff. Michael, you know about Bentos, right?”
“I know more than Rouge does.” That caught me by surprise, but I tucked it away for the moment.
“Bentos killed Michael and his sister.” I blurted out, receiving a dirty look from Michael in the rearview mirror. Obviously, he felt that now was not the time to spill secrets.
Robert laughed, slapping his knee. “Seriously? You’re one of the twins? The twins?”
“Apparently so. Didn’t realize we were famous among the Grollics.” Michael said, waiting at the light. “Where do we go? Left? Right?”
“Right. See the Topps grocery store? There’s a shop right beside it.” Robert unclicked his seatbelt. “I’ll be right back.” He hopped out of the Jeep and jogged inside the small office. It looked like a packing or shipping company.
“Do you believe him?” Michael asked me quietly.
I rested my hand on his shoulder. He covered it with his own. “I do,” I said.
“I don’t trust him completely, but... I do too.” He straightened when Robert came out of the store. “He’s going to be able to answer a lot of questions you have.”
“Do you believe Bentos is still alive?” I couldn’t bring myself to ask what he thought of Bentos possibly being my father.
“I do. For years I wanted to kill him myself. He disappeared about fifteen years ago; just up and vanished. Now I’m starting to wonder if it was because of you.”
Robert opened the door, tossed a knapsack on the seat beside me and clicked himself in. “Let’s go. Tony, in the shop, said the pack is looking for me. We need to get out of here.”
Michael pulled into a parking spot.
“I said—”
Michael turned on him, his eyes starting to glow blue. The mood in the Jeep reached all new levels of tenseness. “I know what you said, but get this; I’m not your pack. You’re not my leader. You don’t boss me around. You’re in this vehicle because you saved Rouge, because she wants you here. The moment she says otherwise, you’re gone.”
Robert nodded his understanding, his face set in stone, eyes fixed on Michael’s but not glowing Grollic yellow. Not yet. “Trust is earned. It’s a two way street. I’m not here for you. If I had the choice, you’d be lying beside Marcus. You’re here because of Rouge.”
“Can we just get out of this hell hole?” I interrupted them. The last thing we needed was a male showdown in the Jeep with a whole pack of Grollics on their way to rip us to shreds.
Neither spoke, but Michael pulled out of the parking space and headed back to the highway. It was quiet for a long time.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Rob, you said only one person can kill Bentos. Do you know who it is?”
He nodded. “You really don’t know anything, do you?” He sighed. “I’m Bento’s sixth child. It was believed that only the male’s carried the Grollic gene. I don’t know if evolution changed it, our environment or if it’s been different all along and nobody knew, but you’re Bento’s daughter. His seventh child. The Seventh Mark.” He pulled his shirt collar down, revealing his birthmark. It was darker than any of the others I had ever seen. “Only you can kill Bentos – and he wants you dead.
Impossible. Right? “Why?” I whispered.
“He controls the Grollics. Now you control the Grollics. Mom pretended you died in childbirth. When Bentos finally believed her, he left. She went and got you and named you Jamie. Benjamin is the name that’s supposed to stop the curse from happening. Bentos means Benjamin, so Mom named you Jamie to try and stop the curse. It obviously didn’t work.”
“Why’d she get rid of me if she wanted to keep me?”
“Bentos came back. He would have killed you if he knew you were alive. She gave you away to protect you. When I heard about the incident on the west coast, I figured it was you.” He turned in his seat, the highway lights flashing against his amber eyes, making them look yellow. “I knew you’d come back here. What I don’t know is how you learned to compel the Grollics.”
I reached for my purse and pulled out the Wolf Book. “I found this.” I tossed it in his lap.
Robert lurched away from it, as if the leather burned him. He pushed it away. “Where the hell did you find it?”
“At a used book store.”
Michael spoke, his eyes still on the dark highway in front of him. “It found its way to her. Do you know what it is?”
“I remember Bentos used to carry it around with him. He freaked and tore the town apart when he lost it. I always thought my Mom had stolen it and that was what got her killed.”
I leaned over the seat and picked it up. “It’s mine now.”
“You know the cover’s made out of Grollic skin, right?” Robert shuddered.
I didn’t flinch. The fact didn’t even phase me for some strange reason.
“Can you read it?” Michael asked.
“Hell, no!” Robert shook his head. “Do you know what’s inside it?”
“It’s Bento’s journal.”
“That’s no journal! That’s a spell book! His spell book. Nobody but Bentos can read it!”
“Not exactly,” I said.
My eyes met Michael’s in the rear view mirror.
The book slipped from my hands and fell on the seat beside me as my brain finally started to absorb all the information I’d gained in the last hour.
I had a mother who hid me to protect me? A brother I’d just compelled to stop being a Grollic? My father was alive and wanted me dead?
I was part Grollic and now a witch?
Everything had just become a lot more complicated.
~The End~
Compelled, Book 4 in the Hidden Secrets Saga
