by Shay Cabe
Breathing heavily, I stay on the ground. It feels like the life has been drained out of me. My father killed my Mom. My father… wait, cuckoo in his house? Where have I heard that phrase before?
“It means raising a child that isn’t yours,” Don Gregory says stepping onto the path. Slowly, I turn to look at him fighting tears… fighting the feeling of my heart wrenching. He crosses to me and kneels. “He’s not your father, Evanora.”
“How… how could you possibly know that?”
“Get up. Go home. We’ll talk when I get there.” I obey him before I realize what I’m doing. With legs that feel like jelly I walk back to the cars and stand there staring at the ground.
My dad is the psycho bear. My dad who isn’t my dad.
“Nora. Come on, let’s get in the car.” Phoenix says pulling me against him and walking me towards the jeep. I’m aware that Oz and Barrett are loading Teddy into the SUV but I can’t seem to look at him.
Hez opens the passenger door and helps Phoenix get me inside. Buckling me in he says, “Don’t worry, he’s still very much alive… Don poured some kind of potion in his mouth that put him to sleep. He said it’ll delay the change long enough for us to get him home and have mom look at him,” Hez clasps my hands and then steps back and shuts the door.
The drive home goes by in a blur but when my door opens once again I’m able to shake some of the fog of grief away.
“The girl?” I ask Phoenix as he tugs my hand to get me out of the car.
“Don is dealing with it.” Regardless of what she did, who she killed, she deserves better than rotting out in the woods. Distantly, there’s guilt for having to take her life but it’s the type of guilt that I should feel. Taking a life should never be an easy thing to do.
Whether she realized it or not, death was a mercy. The psycho bear wouldn’t be kind to her. And I have no idea how many she’s killed or would’ve killed had she been left alive.
I’ll keep telling myself these things until I believe them.
Phoenix pulls me toward the house and Maggie meets us on the stairs. Her scent wraps around me and for the first time I truly cry, a hard snotty kind of cry that leaves me spent and tired.
Someone gets me in a shower and then tucks me into bed. Four warm bodies pile on it with me, each giving me the comfort they can and I take it. I use it to bolster my aching heart and my messed up head. I hold on to them like they’re my lifeline and I let myself feel the love they’re sending me.
At some point the fog is completely gone and something else takes its place.
Anger. Rushing into that empty place so hard it takes my breath away.
“How’s Teddy?”
“He’s recovering, they were able to stop the transformation in its tracks. Apparently, Don has been working on a way to save the bitten but it only works when they're first infected.” Phoenix supplies. “Teddy will sleep for a few days but after that he’ll be back to his old self.”
I’m actually kinda relieved because it means no one will try that cure on me. This creature inside of me has fought to survive and live right along with me and to make her disappear doesn’t feel right.
“Any sign of da—psycho bear?” I take a deep breath and force my composure to remain. That man won’t get any more tears shed for him. He made these choices.
“No, Don tracked him but he’s got some powerful allies. Someone transported him out.” Dangerous spells getting thrown left and right, this group likes to use them quite often. A lot like the council’s gopher that pretended to be from children's services. There’s a thread to connect the two. Now I need to find the whole spool.
“When is Don coming to talk to me?” I ask.
“Us actually. He said he wants the five of us here,” Hez says.
“Okay. Any idea what other bombshells he’s going to drop on our heads?” All four of them shrug.
“I taught you to adapt better,” Don says breezing into the room. The door shuts behind him with a loud slam. I smell the magic seal it with a silence spell. No one can hear anything said in this room from outside.
“Well, kiss my ass.”
He raises an eyebrow then sits on the chair at the end of the bed.
“Pay attention, I won’t repeat this again.” Everyone nods. “Eighteen years ago, Yasmine Hex was married to a man named, Ezra Blue—a witch-born whose species is still unknown despite the hell they put him through trying to discover it.” Wait, Yasmine is my mom.
“The one who survived the first purge?” Phoenix asks, awestruck speaking up before I can blurt out something rude.
The purge was nasty business. A sect of witches went after groups of witch-born and killed any they could. This happened two hundred years ago, though.
“He’s still alive?” I ask.
“He’s the first,” Don answers. “He hid himself among other shifters and met Yasmine during this time.”
“Okay, that’s great and all but what has it got to do with Nora?” Hez demands. Don gives him a dirty look, one that’s quelled many before. Hez crosses his arms. For some reason this is funny to me and I pinch my lips to keep the smile off my face.
“When she got pregnant, the council came and took Ezra because a man named Darren turned him in—the one pretending to be your real father,” Don continues.
All amusement in me dies a quick death. “I have a sibling?”
“No, Evanora… you’re the child of that union. Somehow, the council bewitched your mother and placed Darren in her home as your father.”
“I don’t understand… Mom was strong. She wouldn’t have fallen—”
He cuts me off. “The entire council working together overpowered her. She lived the lie they created for years before she died. Outright killing her would’ve drawn suspicion from the community—she was well loved by many, and when she started looking into them, discovering their secrets… they finally had her killed.”
“Dad—Darren has been that monster my entire life?”
“Yes, they were able to temper his other nature, hide it from everyone most of the time. But when the spells restraining him started to wane, they would send him away so you wouldn’t discover the truth.”
“This is… this is… what the fuck is this?!”
“Your real father, Ezra is in one of their prisons. They can’t seem to kill him so they torture him and use parts of him for dark spells. He needs to be freed.”
Suspicions begin to circle in my mind. “Who are you to him?”
“He’s my brother,” Don answers after contemplating me with those dead eyes of his for several minutes.
“None of this makes sense… you’re telling me that idiot who I’ve known my entire life is really a psychopathic bitten who works for the council? That he’s not my dad, and he murdered and ate my mother because she was finding out too much about a bunch of fat, greedy pricks that call themselves a council!” I realize I’m yelling and sit back against the wall, forcing my temper down.
“Yes,” he answers.
“Since we’re on this everyone wants something kick… what are you wanting, dear uncle?” I spit out, venom deepening my voice. Claws prick the palms of my hands and I know my eyes are glowing and my teeth are sharper.
“I want you to help me save your father.”
“No.” At my answer he sits back with shock written all over his face. I’ve never seen Don display so much emotion in one look.
“What do you mean, no?” he demands.
“You’re the all powerful, super elite beast trainer. You go save him.”
“But he’s your father,” he yells.
“And I’m a sixteen-year-old girl who just found out that the man I thought was my father ate my mom!” I yell back. His mouth opens and closes and then opens again. He shuts it with a snap and then sits back glaring at me.
The Hazard boys are silent, watching the exchange with interest.
“Well, I know which side of the family she got her temper from,” Hez muses. Th
ere’s a snicker, followed by another one until all of us are laughing but Don. Nope, he’s sitting there still trying to give me enough dirty looks to make me see his way.
He might have trained me, but I earned it too. I won’t be guilted or bullied into doing anything by anyone. About time he learns. Besides, I kinda want to know about my biological donor. Whether I admit it or not.
“I trained you better.”
“No, you trained me to be your attack dog, but guess what uncle dick, I choose—not you.”
“When did you get so mouthy?” he asks in exasperation.
“I’ve always been this way, but you weren’t paying attention to who I am as a person.” I’m right and he knows it, that’s why he says absolutely nothing to defend himself.
“You’re really not going to help me save him?”
“The first thing I’m going to do is hunt down daddy dearest. While I’m doing that—you train them. Double time. While I’m bear hunting, I’ll think about trying to help you get Ezra out of prison.”
“You realize asking a bunch of kids to risk their lives and help you with a prison break is kinda fucked up, right?” Phoenix asks Don.
“None of you are normal kids, never have been. You’re a small, powerful army.”
“We’re not your army… we’re hers,” Phoenix points at me.
“It’s her father!” Don bellows, getting angry again.
“No, he’s a stranger. I don’t know him, have never even known about him but you want me to risk everything to save him.”
“He went there to protect you.” Wow, that’s a thick ass stream of a guilt trip. I swim right through it.
“You don’t really think that will work, do you?” He gnashes his teeth in frustration.
“What about loyalty?”
“You—a man claiming to be my uncle—let me get dragged around the world by the creature who killed my mom and tried to kill me. Now why the fuck would I have any loyalty to someone like that?” This wipes the anger right off his face.
“I didn’t know,” he speaks so quietly that I barely hear him.
“What was that?” I ask cupping my hand around my ear.
“I didn’t know!”
“When did you find out?”
“The day before you called me.”
There goes my righteous anger. “I’ll think about it,” I say finally, coming down off the rush of anger.
“You’ll think about it?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I said. I don’t know why you assumed that you could drop this bomb on my head and I’d skip out on my entire life to go ‘try’ and break a guy out of prison that you claim is my long lost dad.”
“Morality. Loyalty. Honor,” he bites out. “I taught you those things.”
“Actually no. You taught me how to kill people. You taught me how to tolerate pain. You taught me how to dig myself out of a grave if that ever happened. None of those lessons had anything to do with morality, loyalty or honor.”
He leans forward ready to go into another tangent and I hold up a hand.
“Save your breath, I won’t be guilt tripped into anything. Let me eat something, talk to the guys and think on this and then I’ll decide whether I want to help or not.”
He takes a breath and loudly blows it out.
“Fine.”
“Glad I have your permission,” I snark and point at the door. Yeah, I realize that until recently he was my teacher, and I respected him quite a bit but it all just went out the window. As he walks out the spell fades, and he slams the door even harder behind him the second time.
“Nora, are you okay?” Phoenix asks and they all crowd closer to me. None of them ask if I believe the bullshit Don was throwing at us. Their first concern is if I’m okay. I’m such an effing idiot sometimes.
I throw myself at them, my arms wide and pull them all to me. And as we all laugh and feel that one-second of peace I make a promise. I won’t only fight for me anymore, I’ll fight for them too.
Chapter Twenty
I’m only half surprised to find Maggie waiting for me on the porch. When I disentangled myself from eight arms and the odd leg or two and managed to sneak downstairs without waking a single one of them, I thought I was home free.
Maggie likes to keep me on my toes.
“Don told me,” she says quietly, rocking in her chair. She points at the chair beside her and I drop the backpack I hastily stuffed with things I need on the porch. Reluctantly, I sit down and accept that I probably wouldn’t have made it far, regardless.
“You know, I feel stupid that I didn’t suspect anything. Darren was such a strange choice, and he never seemed to fit but I didn’t remember Ezra at all… not until Don broke the spell.” Her eyes flick to me and are sad and filled with apology. “I’ve failed you so much. I should’ve fought harder to have you stay here. I had…” She chokes up and I hold my silence. I’ll wait until she’s said what she needs to say before I give her my opinion on it. “The most awful feeling about you leaving with him.”
“And now that I remember everything, as terrible as it sounds, I’m glad she didn’t know before she died… they raped our minds and put a piece of shit in her bed.” She clears her throat. “She failed you too and I’m so mad at her for it. Yas always thought she was untouchable, it was the only part of her I didn’t like. Her arrogance. She thought that she could overcome any obstacle they threw at her simply because she was a Hex.” Her tears are freely falling now and still, I hold my silence.
“And I followed right along with her. I believed in her stupid cause and look what happened?” She blows her nose loudly and keeps crying quietly.
“I don’t blame you for anything, or her. I blame the man who killed her and the men and women who told him to,” I say, breaking my silence.
“Are you going to do try to get Ezra out?”
“I dunno. There’s a part of me that wants to know him but, I’m still trying to figure everything out. Honestly, it’s a lot to take in… and,” I tell her the total truth, because it needs to be said, “I don’t want to put the guys in danger. They’re not ready for anything like that. Despite how tough they are or aren’t… they’re not prepared for a small war.”
“Do you think you are?”
“Don really did turn me into a weapon, but even at my strongest I can’t break into a prison alone. He knows this but I honestly think in his,” I search for a word that isn’t emotional, even though that’s what he is, “desperation to free his brother, he’s not thinking of things like that. He’s thinking of his family being trapped in a prison and because Ezra's somehow miraculously my biological dad he thinks I should feel the same way—and I don’t.”
Yes, it’s awful that this man is in prison but I don’t know what kind of person he is and how do they expect me to take the word of a man who forgot about him for sixteen years?
“You are a phenomenal young woman, Nora. Absolutely phenomenal. If adults could logic their lives out in such a way and still carry the compassion and love that I know you have for people in your lives… the world would be a much better place.”
“Ha, dude, I freaked out over a spider yesterday in the bathroom and managed to trip on the curtain and take it, and the rod to the floor with me.” I also broke the toilet and put a hole in the wall, but I won’t mention those things.
She laughs and says, “There’s the girl hiding behind that old soul.” She pats my leg and stares back out into the yard. “Are you going after him?”
I don’t need to ask who him is, as far as I’m concerned there’s only one ‘him’ that I want to go after more than anyone. “Oh yeah, I’m going to cover his severed head in pretty pink glitter and mail it to the council.”
“That’s so… morbid,” she says but giggles anyhow.
“You don’t wanna know where I’m mailing his dick.”
“Nora!”
“What?”
“You’re sixteen!”
“So? I’m allowed t
o fantasize about cutting dicks off.”
She snorts loudly and then says, “Nora, that’s not appropriate behavior for a lady.”
“I only see one lady out here and it’s Phoenix.” His deep laughter from the shadows of the doorway makes me smile.
“Who else’s dick were you fantasizing about cutting off?”
“Phoenix Hazard!”
“What mom? I’m curious!”
“What the hell am I going to do with all of you?” The words are practically yelled but have no heat in them whatsoever. I hold up my fingers and mime a pair of scissors closing. The three of us laugh again.
“I’m glad you feel like you can celebrate while my brother rots away in prison,” Don says from just past the stairs.
Maggie sighs. “Don, you have my utmost sympathy but we’ve known about the man for five minutes, what exactly do you expect from us? Should we get the torches and horses and go lay siege to the castle?” He glares at her but says nothing. “That’s what I thought, you don’t even have a plan yet you’re putting pressure on a child to come up with one for you. Get over yourself. If you want him out so bad, go get him out.”
The clap is loud in the silence, so I do it again.
“Have you forgotten that these four need training, or that I need to reach my full potential?” He knows about my being bitten and is acting like it’s not a big deal. “I’m not unfeeling, of course I want to get him out but I’m not stupid enough to rush in and die. Something you taught me and have somehow forgotten in the last… what? Four days? If they haven’t killed him yet, I doubt they’ll do it before we are at least half assed prepared to kill a bunch of people.”
“So you’re agreeing to go—”
“I’m not agreeing to anything. I’m trying to get you to see past all of that backed up emotional garbage you have going on there.” I twirl my finger in the air towards him. “You beat it into my head, literally, to think before I act. To analyze and gather all the information I need. You taught me to use my brain and not my heart to fight because my heart will get me killed. Remember?” For the very first time since he got on this dead horse he looks a bit ashamed.
