by R M Taylor
Thankfully it was raining enough that the clouds blocked the sun, and with the umbrella Aris was shielded fine. They waited for what felt like ages, and when she checked her phone she saw it was 1.30pm. They kept looking around for people, and there were very few out due to the rain, most were on their way to somewhere else. Another half hour passed, and the rain came down heavier. Aris was on edge, and the atmosphere felt strange, something was wrong. It was too quiet.
“We should leave, sitting here is dangerous, something feels wrong” He said.
“I know, but if he gets here and we’re not here he might not meet us again. He’s risking his life just meeting us, I feel like we’re being watched, maybe he’s nearby but afraid” She said.
“Let’s walk around, he might be waiting behind the church” Aris said.
“Ok, we should check inside too” She said.
They walked around the outside and the rear of the church, which was obviously the caretakers home too. She saw a black metal mailbox to the side of the big heavy wood door, the name Oldman engraved on it. There was no-one in sight. They returned to the front of the building, and they entered the church. He smelled the blood immediately, before the door was even open. It’s cloying smell thick in the air, there had to be a lot to be this strong a scent. Lucy froze beside him, obviously scenting it too.
“Aris, someone is here, I can smell blood, a lot of blood. Please don’t let it be him, please…” Lucy whispered as they walked down the aisle. She was about to call out to David, but as they got closer, they saw shoes poking out from behind a table.
David was lying on the floor in front of a raised platform, between the table and pulpit. Once they were close enough, they could see his body in full, and his throat was cut open, a gaping hole sliced through where his Adam’s apple once was. The blood pool was huge, it’s progress wide, blood seeped down between the tiny cracks in the wood floorboards. A knife through his ribcage pinned a piece of paper to his chest.
Clan Chizeck sends their regards
They stood in silence for seconds, contemplating the meaning. Inappropriately, all she could think of was “The Lannister’s send their regards”, the Game of Thrones saying. She almost laughed, but caught herself at the last second, for fear of letting her crazy show. Aris probably thought she was crackers enough, best not add fuel to that fire. Quoting TV shows right now would not help. They heard faint noises outside, followed by the sounds of a car pulling up.
“We need to leave, now” Aris said, and he picked Lucy up before she could respond and sped towards the back of the church. The back room led to a living room and a kitchen, and Aris smelled more blood coming from a bedroom to the right. Whoever lived here was dead too. He found the back door and looking out the window to the side to check for people, he opened it as quietly as possible, then sped out. Her vision blurred as he moved, and the colours changed from the dark grey stone colour of the church to the green and brown colours of the woods. They hid behind the trees and observed the church from a distance. There was a funeral procession outside the church, and everyone was stood still, staring at the doorway. Someone from the Chizeck clan had found David. She felt for the poor family arriving, a funeral was bad enough without a murder to add to the stress and pain. Aris picked her up and they were blurring again, and scents and colours passed her as they made their way back to the Hadley building. What the hell did she do now?
Chapter 27
In her 23rd year Lucrezia Mariella bore a son to Jenner Chizeck against her will. After defeating her betrothed intended mate Vincent Piero in a challenge, Lucrezia Mariella refused to mate Jenner Chizeck, breaking with traditional protocol. Months after the fight Jenner assaulted Lucrezia Mariella when she was visiting friends, he raped her so violently, even with enhanced shifter healing she still needed medical intervention due to the severity of the injuries. The Delarossa Clan was furious and outraged, and declared war upon Clan Chizeck leading to a 2-year feud that ended the lives of all the Chizeck Clan except for two, as well as Elena and Cesare Delarossa, parents of Lucrezia Mariella, who vehemently defended their daughter’s right to refuse Jenner Chizeck and extracted fierce revenge upon the Chizeck Clan, decimating their businesses, property and reputation. Other Delarossa’s who perished were Lucrezia Mariella’s siblings Alexander Oscar, Piero Antony, brothers, and Nicolle Serena, sister, leaving Lucrezia Mariella Delarossa the sole heir and Lady of Clan Delarossa.
Lucy wondered who the two Chizeck survivors were. One must be Marius, it must be him or both the ones hunting her. She read a page of other information about her Grandmother, the years after the feud. Things seemed to quiet after all the bloodshed, and the only records seemed to be of a business nature oddly. Then the register of the account seemed to change, and it was apparent that the writer was a different person after her Grandmother became the head of the clan. Lucy suspected she was the writer of the last pages in the book.
In her 28th year Lucrezia Mariella Delarossa married Marcus Rogers, from a line of dragon shifters separate from Clan status. It was a love match which contravened the wishes of her deceased parents. However due to political and familial influences it was a good match and led to the birth of Sofia Ezri Delarossa, their much-loved daughter.
Lucrezia continued reading about her mother’s childhood, and she could hear the pride and adoration in the words her grandmother had written. There were many references to other loyal families, mostly dragon shifters but also several vampire and tiger families. The formal entries ended, and the record became more of a diary.
My love Marcus became ill this year, my Sofia was only 16. He died a few months after the onset of illness of a heart attack. This was very strange as he had no history of heart problems, and shifter biology usually protects against this type of problem. I suspect foul play but have no proof and no idea of whom would be responsible. Due to the souring relationships between clans as well as the severing of loyalty between two of our shifter friends, our alliances have been tenuous at present. There are many that would benefit from his death and the resulting weakening of our clan. Many doubt my ability to rule alone, and I am challenged both directly and indirectly on a regular basis. Old standing alliances have become fragile, and intentions of so called friends are unclear.
About the same time, Marius Chizeck came back into our lives. It was a huge shock, and I honestly thought he would be gone from our lives when his aunt took him away as a babe after the clan war started. He called and wrote, and It became clear that he would not desist. Marius repeatedly visited without notice, and out of concern that Sofia would discover his shameful existence, I sent my daughter to University abroad to broaden her horizons and help her become independent. She was a very dependant daughter, not comfortable to make choices herself, always seeking out counsel before making decisions. I worry for her constantly. I cannot accept Marius, not then and not now. He is the double of his father and he is not my son, he displays no features or attributes that I can identify as from me. He was conceived in violence and he continues to live in it. He was a criminal at a youthful age of 18, his outward appearance is respectable, but my research shows he may as well be a Mafia don. He is repugnant and stands for everything I hate. He will never carry the Delarossa name, he will never be a clan member, never mind the leader. Over my dead body will this happen.
So, it must be her uncle, it must be him chasing her, he had prime motive after all. Lucy breathed deep and processed the information. There were long paragraphs about family and alliances, the treachery of some and the loyalty of others. There were so many names involved they eventually just blurred into one. She could see why David warned her off, how complicated this was, what happened to a straightforward family? All the politics and violence were usually only seen on TV or in movies. It was surreal, and she wanted to stop reading as her head hurt from the sheer volume of information. She wondered if her grandmother had intended the clan to disband and die, maybe Lucy was meant to end it?
As mu
ch as Sofia has been a disappointment in some ways by mating a tiger shifter, I can only be happy that she has found love and is far away from here. An arranged mating is archaic these days, I have realised as I have aged that one should mate or marry for love, life is too short after all and the values and ideals I was brought up to believe in have paled in importance to the values and ideals I have formed on my own. Her naming of her daughter after me was a surprise, and an obvious apology, and it pains me to keep her at a distance, but I fear when I finally pass that she will be a target for Marius. For now, she will have to believe I have disowned her for her own sake. I have entrusted all details and steps I want covered when I die to my long-time friend David. He is my confidante and I worry for his safety also when I pass. Marius is not mentally sound. He is my greatest shame and my biggest regret is I could not fight off that evil man and prevent him taking my innocence. It was 1963, and there was not the contraception then that is available now. In any case, I would not have taken it, I did not trust medications, not even alcohol. I most certainly would not have aborted the pregnancy. I hate myself for this, it would have been so much better for the world if Marius was not in it. I should have taken the medication, or ended the pregnancy, then all our lives would be safe. I must take steps to end Marius before he becomes a threat to the whole clan. It is very possible that with his connections he could take over the clan after I die despite my plans and the security I have in place through lawyers and good friends. He could even hasten my death I would put nothing past him, I believe he killed my husband, the more I think about it the more likely it seems. I have enlisted the help of a vampire friend, Vesike Vatin, to use his connections to effectively order an assassin to end Marius. I have no choice and would not ask any of our kin to deal with him, he is just too dangerous, and we must appear blameless.
Lucy stopped for a while, pausing to gather her thoughts. This man must be the one who wanted her dead. He had the perfect motivation, being denied his place as a Delarossa. Her Grandmother had 2 children but chose to renounce her son and, believing her daughter dead, leave everything including the clan head title to a granddaughter she had never met. Not that there were many Delarossa’s left to lead, they amounted to distant relatives, who had conformed to social convention and didn’t even use the Delarossa surname as family tradition insisted. Instead only their males kept the surname. A dozen dragons did not make a clan. Lucy felt exhausted suddenly, and very raw and vulnerable which is something she never showed to anyone. She rubbed her eyes and stifled a sniff, she would not cry. She did not cry in front of anyone, she was stronger than that. But she was losing the fight with the tears. As she continued to rub her eyes to hide the tears she felt a warm hand rub her back, and Aris’s scent surrounded her. God, he smelled good. His arm curled around her, and he pulled her close for a hug, leaning his head against hers. It was exactly what she needed, and she recognised she should feel bad for finding comfort in the arms of her mother’s murderer, but she was tapped out. She literally couldn’t muster enough energy to feel bad. She was numb, which was a good thing since she was sure she would crumble under the enormity of what was happening. She turned into his embrace and buried her head in the crook of his neck, just as she had done in bed earlier. She inhaled his scent and closed her eyes. She just needed a moment, some comfort from another person, and a reminder that she wasn’t completely alone. She was strong damn it, but everyone needs a hug sometimes. Aris kissed the top of her head, and her dragon hummed in thanks, content to be in his arms.
Dragon did not give a rat’s ass that he killed her mother, she just wanted him. Dragon was primitive, and her animal instincts didn’t care about complicated social and moral expectations or rules. Her dragon told her Aris was good, and that killing her mother was a genuine accident, not murder. Her human was the one holding back, despite agreeing with dragon that Aris was good. Her emotions were a hurricane right now, and she had no way to navigate them accurately. After a long time, she untangled from Aris’ embrace and picked up more print-outs.
“I need to make some calls, so I’ll leave you to it for now. I need to speak to Lina and Joseph too. Will you be ok here alone for a while? I won’t be too long” He asked tentatively, and she hated the awkwardness that was between them now. She nodded and smiled and tried to look like she was holding it all together. He left, and she went to the kitchen in the hope that there could be some food. Not likely, vampire and all, but she had to look. To her surprise there was a full fridge, even bacon and eggs. Excellent. She wondered if Isla ate solid food, since she was a halfling. That was the obvious explanation, it made sense. She realised how little she knew about vampires; how could he lose control with her mum but be fine with her? She tried to understand, but, how could she? The only way she could empathise was that dream, she felt the stomach clenching painful burn that hunger gave him. She would have lost control as well, if the scent of blood was so strong it screamed it was the cure for the pain. She imagined it would be akin to being ravenous and smelling the most delicious food and denying yourself that caused agony.
She made food while she stressed over it all, despite trying to shelve the thoughts they wouldn’t leave her alone. She really, really liked him, how the hell could she reconcile this with the fucked up-ness of the situation? Part of her didn’t even feel the loss of her mum, she never knew her, grew up without her, so how could she know anything different? All she had to compare was other people’s relationships with their mothers. From her observations, the relationships varied from Disney-like perfectness to train wreck disastrous. Who knows what her relationship would have been like? Did she really miss out? She would never know so why agonise over it? Therapy. She needed therapy, and probably lots of it, if she lived through all of this. She wolfed her food down and made an extra strong coffee using the posh machine on the bench. There was a good chance it would be a long day ahead, so caffeine was a clever idea. In some ways it was a relief to finally know what happened to her mother, at least she didn’t leave after all, she could never relate to a mother who left her child. A tiny child not yet 2 years old, it would take a cold heart to abandon your baby like that for no good reason. Lucrezia firmly believed there was nothing in this world that would keep her away from her baby, nothing would be worth it. Even if she was on her knees and not coping, she would reach out to anyone for help, she wouldn’t leave. Never ever. The only thing that would make her leave would be to protect her child. If staying would harm her child, then she would leave. She would never break contact; her child would know her. A mother wouldn’t just abandon her child without serious reason, like a mental breakdown or another illness etc. She had never truly believed her mother had left, a part of her had always known she was dead.
Chapter 28
After washing up she made her way back to the sofa to read the pages. She turned her phone on and checked for messages, there was a text from Althea, this should be interesting.
I’m so sorry, I was out of order and I should have told you all that stuff and been up front straight away. I hope we can still be friends after we talk this stuff out. The main reason I’m texting is that this guy came to my house asking about you today. He was really intimidating and scary and I’m afraid of someone like that after you. There really is more to all this isn’t there? I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. Please stay safe, I told him nothing, and he got pushy, so I threatened to call the police and he left. Might be a wise idea to stay somewhere else, he might know where you live but I promise he got no information from me. I’m really worried for you Lucy please text back let me know you’re safe please x x
Lucy read and reread the message, her eyes tearing up again. She never cried this much, it was bugging the crap out of her. The relief was huge, she still had her friend, they could talk it out if she survived everything. She texted back reassuring Althea she was fine and safe somewhere secure. She also texted Susana and Toni and asked them if they had had a visitor and to please tell them nothing. She even t
exted Connor, she would never want any of them hurt. Almost immediately she received a whole string of alarmed texts back from the all. She had to get a new phone, for all she knew the people after her had traced the phone already. She needed Aris to come back, she had no idea what to do next and he and Will obviously had more experience with this than her.
She turned her phone off after fobbing them all off with lame explanations and returned to the pages and continued to read, Aris would be back soon, she wouldn’t text him, she wasn’t needy and clingy, and she wouldn’t start now. She was just feeling vulnerable and intimidated by the whole situation. She was strong, and she could cope with this, and if it was this Marius who was causing the trouble she had to figure out how to stop it. What scared her the most was that he may be the tip of the iceberg. What if there was more than one enemy out there? What if Marius and other scorned relatives were wanting in on the action? Giving the estate back was starting to look tempting, she would rather be poor and alive than rich and dead. Things were just things, you could have all the money you wanted but people still killed themselves when they were loaded. Celebrities do it, two of her favourite male rock singers had committed suicide in recent years and they seemed like they had it all from the outside.
