Dark Heritage Trilogy

by Hoffman, Samantha

  “Annie, it was not Veronica’s decision to keep this from you. It was ours. We deliberated for some time, and we agreed that it would be in everyone’s best interest if we kept this between as few people as possible. We told only those that needed to know: Veronica, and a few of our higher ups.”

  “Finn knows.”

  Kevin narrowed harsh eyes at me and frowned with disgust. He disliked Finn almost as much as he disliked me and Annie. “You told that mongrel? After you were given specific orders to keep your damn mouth shut? Are your hormones so in control of your body that you can’t even follow the simplest of orders?”

  Marcel sighed. “Kevin–”

  “Why do you allow this child so much freedom?” Lisa the witch asked. She didn’t sound angry or disgusted like Kevin did. Instead, she simply sounded bored and more than a little curious.

  “I believe that Veronica is more mature than most people her age. She’s shown in the past that she can handle certain situations, and I trust her judgment. If she thinks it’s alright to tell Finn, than she can tell Finn. Besides, it’s obvious to anyone with eyes that he’s loyal to her and only to her.” I flinched, and ducked my head so I could stare at my feet. “Finn is one of our most trusted guards here, and his job is to protect. He can’t protect if he doesn’t know what the problem is.”

  Kevin sniffed in disdain. “You think it’s possible to trust a werewolf? Especially one that gets around as much as he does?” Lifting my head, I forced myself to meet Kevin’s eyes. He was looking at me with a mixture of glee and superiority. That comment was meant to hurt, and he didn’t care who knew it.

  The doors behind us swung open, and I turned my head to look over my shoulder. Finn trudged across the room, leaving a trail of muddy shoeprints. He had a scowl on his face, and I noticed that his clothes were speckled with mud, and there were twigs and dried leaves tangled up in his long hair. In his surprisingly clean hands was a large laptop that he carried effortlessly.

  “Did you retrieve the footage?”

  Finn set the laptop on the table in front of the Council members, opened the lid the rest of the way, and turned up the volume as loud as it would go.

  “…shocking footage has been released in the last half hour that has this nation reeling from shock. The footage is grainy and shot from a distance, but in it, a young woman can be seen using what according to the cameraman appeared to be some form of magic. This young woman–who has yet to be identified–was seen in a graveyard, exerting control over what appeared to be walking corpses. A young woman has stepped forward in support of this footage. She told our reporter that a recently deceased friend that had been killed in a car accident was, and I quote, “walking around in a daze. When we approached him, he took my arm in his hands, and bit me.”

  I glanced nervously at Finn, who refused to meet my eyes. I wasn’t sure if that worried me or angered me.

  “According to this young hysterical woman, her friends immediately ushered her out of the graveyard, where they were greeted by a group of people that seemed to know all about these ‘zombies’. She says they tried to gain her silence by offering medical treatment, money, and even resorted to threats of violence if she refused to stay quiet. This footage and the victim’s accounts have not yet been verified, but technicians at the news station believe this to be an elaborate hoax, with the young girl, cameraman, and college students in on the prank. More on this story as it develops…”

  Finn slammed the laptop closed and took it away from the table. He backed away a few steps, and puffed out his chest, as if silently awaiting some form of punishment for a perceived failure. When nobody on the Council spoke, Finn snuck a quick glance at me, which I caught because I hadn’t looked away from his face yet. He looked so disappointed in himself, I half expected him to apologize to the Council.

  “This is a problem.” Marcel’s voice was quiet and subdued, almost like he thought our situation was hopeless. “We have to find a way to fix this before it gets even more out of hand.”

  “Doesn’t the supernatural community have friends in high places? I distinctly remember Finn threatening me with those friends during my first few hours here. Police, reporters, politicians…isn’t there anyone that can help us out of this mess?”

  Marcel nodded. “Yes. We do have friends in high places, as you put it, but they may not be able to help us much at this point. The footage of the graveyard is already out, and it will be hard to convince everyone it was all a hoax. Many would believe it, but there will always be some people who question whatever story we come up with. Conspiracy theorists have quite a following, which means our actions must be dealt quickly and efficiently. We can’t afford anymore screw-ups. Leave us for the time being. We have many things to discuss.”

  Chapter Five

  “Ronnie, what happened out there?” Tanya asked quietly. “We all saw the footage the news released. We saw you in the graveyard, in broad daylight, releasing trapped souls. Why were you out there where anybody could have seen you?”

  “And why was Finn there with you?” Holly asked, glancing at Finn out of the corners of her eyes. “Did the two of you sneak out for a little make out session in a graveyard, and you just happened across a horde of zombies?” She rolled her eyes. “Just give us the truth. We’re friends–I guess. You can trust us.”

  Holly looked as bored and uncaring as she usually did, but I could see right past it and tell it was an act. She tried to sound like she didn’t care, but she really did. She was trusting me as her friend to tell the truth. I couldn’t let her down.

  “There’s a necromancer out there somewhere that is trying to expose our existence. He or she raised a group of zombies today in an attempt to flush us out, and he or she succeeded. A boy was there with a camera, and caught the whole thing on tape. Finn couldn’t catch up to him, and the story got out. Plus, one of the girls was bitten by her reanimated friend, and she is seriously freaked out.”

  “Well, at least zombies aren’t contagious like they’re portrayed in movies. They’re also not super fast or super strong. So there’s that,” Ezra said, wrapping his arm around Tanya. They weren’t allowed to flirt in public view for fear of backlash, but they were always cuddled together when they were alone or with the rest of us.

  “What else is going on?” Holly asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously at me. “You haven’t been sleeping very well for the last few nights. Something else is bothering you, and I don’t think it has anything to do with your love life. Spill it. All of it.”

  How much does she have to care about someone to notice a change in their sleeping patterns? She does care, though she’d probably kill me if I called her out on it…

  “We don’t know who this other necromancer is yet. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but we do know that this necromancer is Andrew’s child, who he said was a girl, but I’m not entirely sure. This necromancer is my half-sibling. We think they’re trying to get revenge for Andrew’s death.” My voice hitched, and I bit my lip. “I have a brother or sister out there, and they want revenge against me. I just can’t catch a break when it comes to family,” I said, chuckling weakly in an attempt to lighten the serious mood in the room.

  I wiped at my eyes and Finn placed a hand gently on my shoulder, giving me a comforting squeeze. “Ronnie, it’s alright to be a little choked up right now. Nobody here expects you to be strong all the time. You’ve had some pretty major changes in your life recently, and you’ve handled them remarkably well. It’s okay to crack for a little bit.”

  One look into Finn’s eyes had me wishing that I could take back our earlier fight, and just start the entire day over again. The only good thing that came out of today was meeting Tabitha, and I had to ditch Finn at the book store to spend any time with her. Right now, my life wasn’t exactly going well. What I needed was a break from it all, with someone who didn’t even know about the existence of the supernatural community. Someone who wouldn’t be asking questions or looking at me like I w
as a freak.

  I either needed to spend some time with Tabitha, or I needed to try and contact my mother’s spirit. She hadn’t appeared to me since the rooftop fight, and the few times that I’d tried to contact her, she’d either been out of my reach, or she just didn’t have the strength to appear to me anymore. Either way, it didn’t look well for my relationship with mother.

  Which left only Tabitha.

  “Ronnie, are you okay?” Tanya looked concerned about my silence, so I tried to give her an encouraging smile. She frowned. “You don’t have to talk to us if you don’t want to, but just so you know, we’re all here for you.”

  I nodded. “I really appreciate it you guys. I think I just need some time to relax and figure everything out. I’d like to get away from here for a few days, but since I doubt that’ll happen, I guess I’ll have to settle for the seclusion of my room.”

  “Will that relax you?” Ezra asked, frowning. “This place can get pretty noisy and busy.”

  “I’ll lock the door, turn off the lights, bury my face in a pillow, and play some sappy music that I think will make me feel better but actually won’t.” Tanya and Holly both smiled, and I smiled back. It felt more genuine this time, and it seemed to reassure them. “Come get me for lunch?”

  Tanya nodded her head enthusiastically. “Of course.” Her blue wings fluttered happily behind her. She was obviously glad to see me smile, and for a second, I felt bad that I didn’t feel like talking to any of them. But I shrugged off that feeling, gave them all an awkward wave, and slipped out of the common room and out into the hallway.

  As I walked back to my room, I gained the attention of several other supernatural beings that resided at the compound. Unsurprisingly, they all looked ready to blame me for the compound’s current situation. I guess I couldn’t blame them, since I was the one caught on tape releasing a bunch of souls from walking corpses. It was my face that was set to expose their carefully hidden lives, and it would be my face that got a target painted on their backs.

  Most just glared at my backside as I walked past them, and a few even sneered at me in hatred. However, one girl planted herself in front of me, refusing to let me pass by on either side. Brittney planted her hands on her hips and set her feet, refusing to budge until she got what she wanted to say off of her chest.

  Brittney’s long red hair was pulled back into a sloppy bun that girls like her tended to think looked hot. I always thought it made them look like a mess–like a family of rats was living in it–but apparently I wasn’t one to ask about being girly or beautiful in this day and age, since I was considered to be “old-fashioned”.

  She wore a skirt that was so short it wouldn’t have covered her butt if she bent over, and I couldn’t help but notice that she was wearing a thin low-cut shirt with no bra on underneath. Normally I wasn’t one to judge a woman based on her appearance, because I knew that some girls just felt like cutting loose and letting go for one night, but I made an exception with Brittney.

  Brittney didn’t care about anyone other than herself. If you weren’t like her, you didn’t matter. She liked to make others feel weak and insecure, and I hated that in a person. It also didn’t help that she hated me for hanging out with Finn and having an undeniable attraction and connection to him. It seemed like she took every available opportunity to make me feel miserable about myself. She had even cornered me in the bathroom once.

  “So, I hear you’re to blame for the possible exposure of our entire world. Congrats.”

  I held my head up high and forced myself to look her in the eye, though it always made me uncomfortable to do. “I did nothing wrong. I was following Council orders, and things happened to go wrong. If you have a problem with the way things turned out, you could take it up with Marcel.”

  Her lips turned up in an unattractive sneer. “I don’t understand why you’re still here. There’s nothing and nobody here for you except a couple of people that are as much freaks as you are. Like that fairy traitor that shoves her tongue down a demon’s throat every chance she gets. Or that vampire that acts like she’s so much better than everyone else.”

  I tried not to show Brittney how unnerved I was to hear that she knew about Tanya and Ezra’s very secret relationship. “First off, if you’re implying that Tanya is a whore–which it sounds like you are–you’re wrong. The only whore here is you. Second, Holly acts better than most of the people here because she is better than most of the people here.”

  “How dare you–”

  “How dare I what, Brittney? How dare I stand here and humbly accept your bitchy criticism of my friends? How dare I stand up to you? You know what, how about you pull your head out of your ass and realize that you’re no better than anyone else here. We’ve all got something that makes us special–whether we’re necromancers, fairies, vampires, werewolves, demons, nymphs, or whatever the hell else there may be in this world–and that makes us all equals.”

  She snorted. “We are not equals. You are nothing more than a freak, and everyone here knows it. You’re the most hated person in this damn place.”

  “Finn doesn’t think so.”

  The moment the words left my mouth, I wished I could take them back and never even think them. Brittney’s entire face scrunched up into one of pure rage, looking unattractive for the first time since I’d first met her. Her hands curled up into dangerous weapons, and before I could even react, her hand lashed out, connecting solidly with my jaw.

  As I stumbled back a step, my hand automatically went to my jaw, and I massaged the throbbing area. It didn’t really hurt, because Brittney didn’t seem like she was that strong, but it was still a shock. Brittney stood there in the middle of the hallway with her fist still clenched, and her eyes were wild with hatred and anger.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. I could turn around and run away, and hope she wouldn’t decide to come after me. Or I could try and slip past her and lock myself in my room. My final option was the least appealing, and it was to fight back. I couldn’t remember the last time I threw an actual punch, and I probably wouldn’t last long in a fight against her.

  Thankfully I didn’t have to make the decision. Brittney relaxed her hands, and she looked at me with disgust. “You can’t even stand up for yourself. I’m not going to waste my time on someone like you.” She turned and looked over her shoulder at me, an ugly sneer crossing her beautiful features. “I have better things to do.”

  After she was gone from view, I hurried down the hall to my room, looking for Brittney the whole way. When the door was closed firmly behind me, I plopped down on my bed and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the ache in my jaw that wasn’t fading yet. When something cold and wet touched my ear, I opened my eyes and stared into Two Socks’ slanted amber colored eyes.

  He sneezed in my face, and I wiped my hand across my cheek. “You’re gross,” I said with a smile. Two Socks rubbed his head under my chin and began to make his odd meow that sounded more like a chirp. “But I love you anyway.” Sitting up, I pulled Two Socks into my lap and stroked him from head to tail while he chirped contentedly and dug his nails in and out of my jeans.

  There was a knock on the door, and my hand paused above Two Socks’ head. “Yes?”

  The door opened and Finn leaned around the frame. He smiled when he saw Two Socks in my lap. “He gets all lovey-dovey with you. He won’t go near Holly, he barely tolerates Tanya, and I know he despises me.”

  “He doesn’t despise you,” I lied.

  Two Socks began to growl deep in his chest, and his nails dug in sharply. I winced, and slowly unhooked him, trying not to tear my jeans. When I looked up, my eyes met Finn’s, and he sighed. “I wanted to apologize for getting angry at you this morning. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like I did. There was no excuse for it.”

  “Finn–”

  “You were right to tell me off like you did. I just wanted to tell you I was sorry.”

  “Finn–”

  “When I saw the look on your face
, I wanted to punch myself. Really, I did. I don’t like knowing I’m the reason you’re in pain–any kind of pain–and I don’t ever wanna hurt you that way again. I won’t; I promise.”

  “Finn, I’m the one who should be apologizing. Kind of. We both have something to apologize for, I guess. You shouldn’t have flirted with someone to hurt me, but I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. You and I aren’t dating. I asked you for time to figure things out, and I shouldn’t expect you to wait for me.”

  “I think you’re worth waiting for.”

  I sighed. “Finn, I think I’m falling in love with you, but there are just so many things I need to think about. You, Andrew, my possible half-sibling, my mom, my future role in this community, and finishing my training. I’m sorry, but there are more important things to deal with right now than my love life. Our very world could be in danger if Andrew’s kid tries to carry out his plans.”

  He nodded. “I know, and I hate to add to your list of problems, but the Council needs to speak with you again. They said it was urgent, and not to keep them waiting.” He ducked out of my room, leaving the door ajar a crack. For a minute, I stared at the door, waiting for him to come back and tell me he wouldn’t flirt with anyone else anymore, and I hated myself for it.

  It was wrong to want Finn to stay single while I figured things out, but I couldn’t help it. With a sigh, I set Two Socks off to one side, and got up to head down to the Council room.

  *****

  “Veronica, the mayor wishes to speak to the girl on the tape,” Marcel said, frowning. “We are not sure if it’s a good idea to send you, but he was rather insistent. He made a public announcement on the local news channel about fifteen minutes ago, demanding that you step forward. We would like for you to remain here, but unfortunately the mayor has enough resources and time that he could quite possibly find you if he looked hard enough. It’s better to send you to see him, then to wait for him to come see you.”

  “What do I say? How much can I talk about without revealing anything he hasn’t already guessed?”