My Cat is The Antichrist

by J B Trepagnier

  Gideon’s green eyes came up to meet mine. He actually looked hopeful for once. “Explain, Tabby.”

  “Well, if you can feel me, you’ll know when I’m in danger. I get the feeling all of you work together so well for what you do because of what you can feel. Don’t you think we’ll be able to stop Drake better if we’re a team on a deeper level?”

  Bash’s eyes bore into mine. “I want you to try something, Tabby. Something no Lamb before you have been able to do with us. I want you to concentrate. Blot out every single sound in the room and tell me if you can hear what I’m thinking.”

  I squinted my eyes and tried to concentrate. I swear I was about to pop some vein in my forehead I was listening so hard. Could you die from that? Some big, gross vein in your forehead bursting because you’re trying to see if you could read thoughts? I was starting to get a headache I was trying so hard. It wasn’t until I gave up and tried to breathe to get the pounding in my head to stop that I finally heard Bash.

  I grinned at him and winked. “You know you’re going to have to show me that now, right?” He was thinking dirty thoughts about what he wanted to do with that promise he made about his tongue.

  Gideon got excited, but it wasn’t what I wanted him to be excited about. He wasn’t thinking about all the naughty things we could do now. He was thinking about what I should have been thinking about — the fucking apocalypse.

  “You’re connected to us, and you can hear us. But Drake is your twin, and no matter how different you are, you are connected to him too. Now that we know you have this gift; can you sense him?”

  “Will he know?” I asked. I didn’t quite think this was a good idea.

  Bash looked a little insane when he grinned at me. “If he does, maybe he’ll let something slip. If he knows there’s a line of communication open, maybe he’ll tell you things Mattan doesn’t want you to know. He might feel some connection to you because you’re twins.”

  This was totally new to me. I’d never imagined I’d be able to hear thoughts before. I had no idea if it just worked on my Horsemen or I was turning into some sort of badass superhero. I’d always wanted to be able to fly. Maybe that would happen too. I guess I wasn’t thinking about the Horsemen being able to read my thoughts too because Bash snorted like Lizzie.

  “You’re crazy, Tabby. You know that? You’re not going to start flying or being able to turn invisible like in the movies.”

  “Can you blame me for going there? The cat knocked four stone circles on the floor, four hot men appeared, and now that cat is a real boy who happens to be the Antichrist. And he’s rallying Incels. Don’t forget about the Incels.”

  “Concentrate, Tabby,” Zed said gently. “If you can safely talk to Drake from a distance, we may be able to stop the Antichrist and bring down some Incels too.”

  “I don’t even know what Drake looks like when he’s not some mutant cat in a purple sweater and I don’t know where Mattan lives.”

  Chase jumped up and practically dropped me on the floor. He had pretty shitty manners for someone who bragged about being Conquest.

  “She’s right. It helps if she has a mental picture and I’ve got plenty of videos of Drake on my laptop. Come and see.”

  “You just love that line from the scripture, don’t you?” Bash teased. “You know Tabby hasn’t even read it and you aren’t impressing her.”

  “Guy, seriously. I need to see Drake so I can try this.”

  Chase thankfully didn’t show me any videos of Drake entertaining escorts or jerking off to the dirty videos he recorded without the women’s permission. He showed me a still photo he took of Drake answering the door.

  My twin looked nothing like me. He looked nothing like Mattan either. I wondered who the hell he took after because it wasn’t either of his parents. I remembered the videos when we were toddlers. Drake had long, black hair. It looked like it must have grown and never been cut while his body was in a coma and he hadn’t bothered getting it cut once he was back in it.

  Drake looked like he spent a lot of time on grooming since he became a real boy again. It looked like he was one of those girls in historical novels that sat in front of the mirror and wouldn’t go to bed until they had brushed their hair one hundred times so it would shine. He was also sporting more eyeliner than I did and that said a lot. Drake was pale and kind of sickly looking from never going out in the sun. It looked like he wanted to keep that look.

  Drake looked like he was trying way too hard to out Goth me. He looked like he was trying too hard to be Goth in general. He looked like a little poseur Lizzie and I would have made fun of.

  Bash understood my thought process. “I’ve been watching the videos too. He’s not even into the right music. Like, none of the music. He likes to fuck to Taylor Swift, and I don’t think he knows what Deathrock or Dark Cabaret is. He’s not even trying to find out either. I think he just likes playing dress up.”

  “Yes, Drake’s a tool,” Gideon said, rolling his eyes. “He’s the Antichrist, and he’s preaching to Incels. We could make fun of Drake all day, but we forget he’s dangerous and we need to stop him.”

  Bash just scooped me up like I weighed nothing and carried me over to the sofa. He sat down with me in his lap and wrapped his arms around me. I had my fuck me boots on so that Zed couldn’t rub my feet. I already knew what he was doing. I finally heard Bash’s thought when I relaxed. I needed to be relaxed to hear Drake and sitting in Bash’s lap was like an instant chill pill. I was putty when he started playing with my hair.

  Gideon cleared his throat. “Relax her, Bash. This isn’t sexual.”

  “It’s not,” I said with heavily lidded eyes. “Just because he’s touching me doesn’t mean it’s sexual, you perv. This is working. It’s hard because I’ve never met Drake as a human.”

  “You still would have gotten vibes off him as a cat. What did you feel when you were around him?” Gideon said, finally trying to be helpful.

  “Like I didn’t know if he was a cat or a demon. I didn’t know if I could trust the things I thought he was trying to show me. I thought I was losing my mind listening to a cat.”

  “That wasn’t just because he was a cat. You’re going to feel that while he’s human too. Are you sure you want to do this? You’re just supposed to break the seals,” Zed said.

  “We’re all connected — the five of us, Lizzie and Ariel. We all do this together. I might not have badass Horsemen powers or breathe fire like Lizzie and Ariel, but I do have a connection to Drake none of you have. I’m doing this. Now, shut up.”

  I relaxed and focused on what I remembered of Drake as the cat. That wasn’t working, so I decided to focus the videos of us as children. I felt like I was traveling through a tunnel and was suddenly in a lush room. I realized I was looking through Drake’s eyes. Thankfully, he wasn’t having happy fun time to one of his dirty videos. He was on a furious Twitter rampage to his Incel followers.

  “Tabby? I didn’t think you would reach out. I didn’t think you could.”

  Drake sounded…happy to see me and a little sad. I decided to work that to my advantage. “How did it get like this, Drake?’

  “You were planning to kill me, Tabby. You didn’t even wait to hear my side. You were just going to have a vet do it.”

  “I was scared, Drake. Why did you trick me into breaking the seals before telling me the truth? I would have found a way to let you out of the cat if you hadn’t pulled the magical cat act and tricked me into releasing the Horsemen.”

  “That was Mattan’s grand idea. He thought if you heard me talking to you in your head, you’d flip out and send me to a kill shelter. I kept wanting to tell you, and Mattan kept talking me out of it.”

  “How the hell were you talking to Mattan? Was he sneaking in and out this house like some creepy pervert? He didn’t spy on Lizzie while she was naked, did he? Do you know what he did to our mother?”

  “I talked to Mattan the same way we are talking. I don’t think you realize e
verything about our father, Tabitha.”

  “I refuse to call him that. He’s a rapist, and he’s trying to end the world.”

  “You don’t understand. He can’t help it. You know he’s related to the Lambs, right? He’s traced his lineage. He’s got Rothledge blood too, just diluted because the thirteen families have been mixing for so long. It was just enough to give him certain abilities like being able to talk back to me when I realized who he was the first time I saw him, but not enough to be well, either of us.”

  “That doesn’t excuse any of his behavior, Drake. Why are you following him after what he did?”

  “Why are you defending our mother after what she did to me? How do you know if she hadn’t loved me and spoiled me when I grew up, I would react the same way you do about Mattan if I ever found out? She just shoved me in a cat for twenty-four years and stuck you in the middle of nowhere.”

  I knew what Drake was doing. He was trying to play on my sympathies. He was trying to use what our mother did to both of us to get me working with him and Mattan to break those seals. I wasn’t falling for it. My bullshit radar worked even if I was using telepathy. Holy shit, I was using telepathy to talk to my twin, who was the Antichrist. Things just got weird, and they had been weird since Mattan showed up at my door. I think it had just gotten to the point of weirdness I was starting to wonder if someone had drugged my drink and I was passed out in an alley somewhere.

  “Drake, this is all new to me. I need to figure all of this out. I didn’t even know I could talk to you like this until now. I need time to figure things out. I don’t think I can face Mattan, but I don’t even know you. Can we call a truce? Neither of us makes a move until we’ve gotten to know each other and figured this out.”

  “Tabitha, you aren’t just the Lamb meant for breaking seals. You’re my twin. We shared a womb. When this is over, you’ll have a place by my side. But I see you need more time. I want you to trust me. I want us to be real twins. I’ll keep our father away from you, and maybe we can chat like this again.”

  “Drake, don’t let me down. I can’t trust someone who lets me down.”

  I shook my head to clear it and looked back at the Four Horsemen. They were all looking at me in awe. I had no idea if they could peek in and heard all that or I’d have to repeat everything.

  “Tell us what Drake said and we’ll tell you about the new mystery about our Lamb,” Zed said.

  I spilled the entire conversation, and Drake’s big reveal about Mattan. It creeped me out a little. I was waiting for this big mystery they knew about me. Whatever it was, they sensed it or saw it while I was talking to Mattan.

  Gideon was biting his lower lip. “Do you know what this means—Mattan having Rothledge and Lamb blood and raping Levana?”

  “I should learn to play the banjo?” I asked, realizing how totally gross my lineage was.

  “Tabby,” Gideon groaned. I was shocked when Mister reserved Horseman who pooped on all my ideas about a hot fivesome and thought I was the Antichrist earlier this morning pulled me into his lap. “Think about it. If Mattan’s Rothledge blood were anywhere in this century, your grandparents would have mentioned it to you. Mattan’s Rothledge blood was probably way before the Rothledges even adopted that name. It did mark him as a potential Antichrist, but he didn’t have enough Rothledge blood to fulfill anything. It did gift you with a little something extra.”

  “Are you saying I’m the Antichrist too?” I shrieked.

  “No, Mattan had no idea what he was doing when he raped your mother. He had no idea she’d have twins. We think he intended to find a way back inside for a second child because you need a Lamb to break the seals and an Antichrist for the apocalypse. Something must have happened that he couldn’t get back inside or he couldn’t sense Drake. You sharing a womb with Drake made you more somehow. Sort of another weapon against him.”

  “Someone had better start explaining because I just spoke to the Antichrist from across town in my head and my father is also apparently a cousin and something else.”

  Gideon was stroking my hair trying to calm me, and this was so strange coming from him. It was like he remembered our night together and was okay with it. Or he was scared of me now and didn’t want me blowing anything up with my mind or joining Drake.

  “Your eyes glowed white when you went into a trance to talk to Drake, Tabby,” Gideon said, still stroking my hair. “The only beings we know that can do that are angels and us. None of the Lambs before you could do that. It probably explains why we are all so drawn to you, and you keep making all those inappropriate suggestions.”

  “What does that even mean? And it’s not inappropriate. It’s kinky fun.”

  Chase just laughed. “It’s like you’re the supercharged Lamb. You’re like one of us. You might actually be able to fly or go invisible. You have gifts, and we just need to figure out what they are.”

  “You keep talking about the previous Lambs. How many were there and when was the last time you were here?”

  Chase had his shoulder massages, and Zed had his foot rubs. Gideon’s hands in my hair were my new favorite thing with Gideon. I hoped he kept doing it while someone explained.

  “Every child with enough Lamb blood has the potential to break the seals. They’ve only been broken by accident three times. The four of us haven’t been on Earth for nine hundred years. Maybe it’s more than you and Drake being twins. Maybe someone up above decided to give you a little boost since Mattan wasn’t playing fair,” Bash said.

  “I know what Tabitha has been gifted with,” Gideon said. “It’s so obvious, we all should have realized it once her eyes glowed. Tabitha is not just the Lamb. Lizzie and Ariel have the fire that will injure Drake and distract him. The Breath of God is what blows him into the Lake of Fire. I’m almost one hundred percent certain it’s been bestowed on Tabitha to stop Drake. All of us, we’re meant to stop this before it goes too far.”

  “You’re telling me my superpower is to burp on Drake and he goes to hell?” I asked. “Well, that’s not as fun as flying.”

  I heard Gideon chuckle, and his arms went around my waist to pull me to his chest. He kissed the top of my head. I was starting to think something was wrong with Gideon. He was never like this.

  “Well, we can show you fun. If you aren’t any regular human woman, then maybe those ideas you keep getting about all of us are what’s supposed to happen. You might not be able to fly, but once we stop Drake, we can make some of those fantasies of yours come true. Not until after we’ve stopped the apocalypse just in case I’m wrong, but I’d like to explore our little tryst on the sofa a little further.”

  After everything I’d heard today, and since I got here, those words from Gideon had to be the craziest thing today.

  Chapter 21

  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse has to be the biggest vagina teases I’d ever met. No, we can’t fuck you, sure, we’ll all fuck you, but not until we stop the apocalypse and knock your evil twin back to hell. If this were a porn video, I would have stopped watching ages ago and picked something with a little more instant gratification. Most dudes I knew were pretty eager to fuck when you asked them, but not these four. Oh, no, I couldn’t give my kinky fivesome until the damned apocalypse was over. Who said that anyway?

  After they all but agreed to make all my kinky fantasies with them come to life, then told me I had to fucking wait, Lizzie and Ariel finally came over. Lizzie thought my new powers were awesome and it was about time I got some since she could breathe fire. My grandparents came over shortly after Lizzie and Ariel did, and I had to know if they knew about Mattan’s Rothledge blood and how closely he was related to my mother.

  My Oma and Opa exchanged looks. “The Adlers and the Rothledges have never married into each other, but there’s a story that goes back to just before the Salem Witch Trials. A Rothledge cousin on the side of the family the other Rothledges had a falling out with fell in love with an Adler son. A younger son who wouldn’t inherit any
thing. There were rumors they ran away and married.

  “The Adler’s used to have trouble conceiving. Every generation struggled to produce an heir up until recent inventions with modern fertility treatments. It used to be this dirty little Adler secret everyone knew about. If it got to the point it looked like the Adler’s weren’t going to have an heir, they would take anyone with Adler blood if they could prove it. It used to be done by heirlooms because DNA tests weren’t a thing back then. It’s entirely possible the child of the Rothledge cousin and the Adler son came back to Salem and was claimed as an Adler heir. The Rothledge and Adler blood would have been diluted at that point, but that wouldn’t have mattered to the Adlers. They just wanted a little Adler blood to carry on the line,” Opa said.

  “How did the Adlers get Lamb blood?” I asked, trying to figure out my exact lineage.

  “Well, the Rothledge connection was over four hundred years ago from what I understand,” Sabba said. “The Lambs and the Adlers go back sixty years. The Lamb family is rather large. Elliot had two brothers and three sisters, and you have several cousins running around. It was a huge scandal at the time. The second daughter of a Lamb cousin either fell for or was seduced by an older, widowed Adler. He would have been the Adler patriarch at the time, and his wife had only been gone a month when he started spending time with the seventeen-year-old Lamb girl.

  “Her parents refused to give permission, but they eloped. She would have been Mattan’s mother. Mattan would have been a third or fourth cousin to Elliot, but he does have a strong connection to the Lambs. He’s always preferred the company of Adlers and as far as everyone knew, was never close with his mother.”

  Okay, so over four hundred years ago. Maybe I didn’t need to start banjo lessons and watch the movie Deliverance. It was a long time ago. I felt a little better. I was hoping to keep my new superpowers a secret from my grandparents. I didn’t want them to worry because if I was the one who had the power to blow Drake straight to hell, I was going to have to get close.