The Year of the Tiger (Book 3 of The Almair Series) (Completed)

Chapter 45

It had been a day after everything that had happened to me, and I was alone in my room with Brody by my side.

I had been fiddling with the jars that I had received from Hermes and was learning what they were. I was excited to learn these jars and wanted to try one of them, so I opened the jar that I had sniffed before helping Matt.

"Here, smell this," I said, placing one of the many jars that I had received from Hermes underneath my brother's nose. "Does it smell disgusting?"

Brody sniffed the substance inside the jar and looked at me weirdly. "Are you stupid or something?" he asked. "It smells like chocolate. I want some chocolate now, but you don't have any left."

"Why don't I have any left?" I asked. "I thought I had a full bag left." I pulled the little slip and saw that it was to deal with people telling the truth and that there was another jar that would "cure" them from it.

"Because I ate it all," Brody said while I was looking for the other one. Brody looked at me with wide eyes while I looked up at him so fast that I almost got whiplash. "I have no idea why I said that."

"You were the one that ate my chocolate?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. "I thought it was Nick and Mike. You said that they did."

"Well, I lied," Brody replied. He flicked his ears back and looked hesitant. "Why did I say that? I didn't want you to know that I had been eating your chocolate."

"Well, apparently, this jar causes you to tell the truth," I said. I was pissed at my brother for eating my chocolate and for lying about it, but I was so going to enjoy this.

"It does?" Brody asked. "Why?"

"Don't know," I replied. "But, yes, it does."

"Then make it stop. I don't want to be under this stupid thing."

"Too fucking bad. You are going to answer some questions that I have been asking because I know you had been lying to me."

"I only did little lies," Brody said. "I don't want you mad at me, which is why I do them." He laid his ears flatter to his head. "I did not want to say that. What I meant to say was that you scare me sometimes when you get mad."

"Oh, so you're afraid of me now?" I asked. "Who else are you afraid of?"

Brody looked away. "Pfffft, Jason."

"What?" I asked, shocked. "Why?"

"Because he is so innocent, ok?" Brody snapped. He glared at me when I snorted. "How can someone be so innocent and afraid of everything?"

I shrugged my shoulder. "I have no idea," I said. "But Jason is a rabbit, so... are you afraid of rabbits?"

Brody looked at me and narrowed his eyes at me. "No," he said. "I am not a fan of them, but I am not scared of them."

I snorted. "You are a literal predator, Brody," I said. "Why are you scared of them?"

"They have those long ears, ok? And no tail. What animal doesn't have a tail?"

"They do too have tails. What rabbits are you looking at?"

Brody gave me a look and blinked slowly. "They have cotton balls on their butts, Martha, not tails," he replied. "Have you figured out a way for me to stop telling the truth? I hate this."

"I know you do," I replied. I looked at the jars and found the one that looked like it could stop him from telling nothing but the truth.

"Why are you so special?" Brody asked. "What makes you more important to the clans than us?" He paused. "Mainly more important than me?"

"Because I'm Batman," I replied sarcastically.

Brody stayed silent but scowled, which lead me to smirk in his direction.

I shrugged my shoulder and pulled the tab to see that I was correct. "Honestly, I have no idea," I said, covering it back and opening the jar. I took a sniff and grimaced at the pungent scent. "I think it is because of me being the Almaire, but I think that is the only reason." I cleared my throat and held it towards him. "Here, this should be the counteract the other one."

Brody looked at that and then looked at me. "Since I am under oath, and I can't lie, I guess I should say that there is more to you being special than being the Almaire or the True One," he said.

I stayed silent and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to continue.

"You are smart, funny, brilliant, and an amazing person that was bestowed great gifts to help people, and I am glad that you are my twin," he said. "And, if you ask me to repeat any of that, then I am going to deny it once I am off of whatever this is."

"I could make you just sniff it again and ask you," I teased. "With others around." I was touched by what he said, and I was glad that he was my twin, too. I knew that I could count on his loyalty if anything happened to me, to us.

"I am not smelling anything else that you put in front of my nose," he said.

"Does that include food?"

"I hate you," he said. "It doesn't include food. I will eat it and maybe bite your hand."

"Then I will never give you any food ever again," I threatened. I narrowed my eyes at him when he narrowed his eyes at me. "Now, smell."

Brody huffed and rolled his eyes. He took in a deep whiff of the thing, and I could feel relaxed after doing it. "Oh, thank Gods," he said. "Quick, ask me something."

"Did you eat my chocolate?"

"No, it was Nick and Mike," Brody said. He narrowed his eyes at me. "Seriously? Out of all the things that you could ask me, and you chose that? Why?"

"Because I knew the truth already," I replied. "And you told me to ask you something."

Brody opened his mouth to say something but closed it. "Good point," he, finally, said. "So, what are you going to do with these?"

I shrugged my shoulder. "Get people to tell me the truth," I replied. "I... want to see if there is a way to get Marcus to be able to tell me the truth, but..." I shrugged.

"You don't want whoever to know?" Brody guessed, and I nodded. "Well, why don't you find someone to help? There has to be someone."

"I think there is, but... I don't know how to contact him." I closed the jar and sighed, moving a hand across my face.

"So... what are you going to do then?" he asked.

"Wait and find out some information," I replied. I picked up my phone to see that Mrs. Vanessa wanted to meet me for some reason. "For now, we are going to meet Mrs. Vanessa."

"Does she have any information for us?" Brody asked. He watched as I got off the bed and started to clear everything.

"Don't know," was my reply. "But I am going to find out."

Hopefully, she did, but... I wasn't going to get my hopes up. Maybe she could tell me more of past Marcus before all of this, and maybe I could finally understand why out of all females, he chose her to be his mate.