by Ivy Asher
I look around in awe and fight the desire to have a full-on Beauty and the Beast moment, twirl and all. When I’m done fighting off my inner Disney princess, I notice that the others are seated on brown leather couches and chairs arranged in the middle of the lounge.
“All right, Vinna, we’re all set. We just need your blood, and we can get this spell started.” Keegan tells me.
“Oh yeah, that’s doesn’t sound ominous at all,” I snark. “How much blood do you need and from where?”
Keegan gives me a warm smile, but this time I don’t match it. “Only a drop. A prick of your finger will do just fine. Then I need you to drip it right in here.” He points to a stone bowl that has some other unidentifiable things in it.
I move closer to the bowl that’s centered on a big leather ottoman. Everyone is watching me expectantly.
“Aydin, pass me your knife?” Keegan instructs.
“It’s fine, I’ve got it," I tell him.
I call on the runes that give me my throwing knives, and one solidifies in my hand. I use the tip against my middle finger. I extend the cut over the stone bowl and a couple drops of blood drip in. I release the magic, and the throwing knife evaporates.
“I cannot wait to find out how you do that," Evrin exclaims.
Keegan starts to add other things to the bowl, and it looks like he’s getting ready to bake something instead of performing a spell that could possibly change my future. My stomach growls, and I silently agree that brownies would be better than whatever this spell is supposed to do.
“So what happens now?” I ask.
“Keegan will combine your blood with spell-woven magic. If the spell works using your blood, we’ll know you’re a caster,” Silva explains, and I notice for the first time he’s standing by a set of windows instead of sitting with everyone else.
His ebony curls hang loose, instead of in a ponytail, and it makes him look younger than the mid-forties I pegged him as initially. Aydin growls and turns to scowl at Silva. He looks pissed as he stares daggers at Silva and then Lachlan. The venom in his eyes immediately makes me second guess what’s going on. Aydin turns to me, and we watch each other for a beat without speaking.
“This spell will also send out a signal to any blood relatives that you may have,” he grumbles. “You deserve to know everything that it does.”
Aydin’s words take a second to sink in, and when they do, I’m fucking livid.
“Whoa, pump the fucking breaks. You never said anything about finding any relatives! You said this would just tell me if I’m a caster or not!” I seethe at Silva.
“We need to not only confirm what you are, but we need to know where you come from,” Silva replies, showing zero remorse over not telling me the whole story.
“I already fucking told you where I come from.”
“No, you didn’t, because you don’t even know,” he shouts back at me.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“If Beth didn’t possess magic, then there’s no way she could be your biological mother. For a child to obtain magic, both parents have to pass it down. We don’t know how you ended up with nons, or how you’ve even survived on your own for this long. It doesn’t make any sense. We need to know where you come from.”
I plop down on the sofa, and the cushion bounces back against me. All my rage drains away with Silva’s revelation. I’m not sure if I should feel relief or rage right now.
What the actual fuck?
Is that why Beth hated me? I’ve spent most of my life trying to solve that puzzle, is this the missing piece? But if I wasn’t hers, then why the hell did she keep me for as long as she did?
“Well isn’t that just fucking perfect,” I grumble to myself.
They need to know where I come from, but I seriously doubt that road leads anywhere good. You don’t leave a child you care about with someone like Beth. Whoever I come from and wherever they are, they obviously left me on my own for a reason.
9
“Okay Vinna, I’m going to activate the spell. If it works, you’ll feel a small pull on your magic. It won’t hurt, and it will be over quickly," Keegan tells me.
I don’t respond. I get up and wander over to the bookshelves succumbing to the sudden need to move. They already have my blood and clearly plan to complete this spell regardless of how I feel about it. Pricks. Well the jokes on them. They can tell me if I’m a caster, but they’re leaving tomorrow, so even if they discover someone related to me, it doesn’t mean I’ll let them find me again.
Now that I know about them, I can try to track down some other casters and see if they can teach me more about my magic--that is, if that’s even what I am. There’s a flash of light inside the bowl Keegan’s working over, and a trickle of red smoke wafts up from it. I feel a quick jerk in my chest, but just like Keegan said, it’s over almost as soon as it starts.
I run my finger over the spine of a leather-bound book, and I hear a sharp intake of breath.
“Impossible!”
I turn around at Lachlan’s pained shout. He leaps over the back of the couch and slams me into a bookshelf. I’m so shocked that I don’t initially react. He has one hand around my throat and the other digging into my shoulder. He shakes me as he screams in my face, asking things that make no sense to me.
Hands appear on Lachlan, trying to pull him off of me, but his hold around my throat is solid. Rage overtakes my shock, and I call on the runes of two short swords. I move one to Lachlan’s throat and the other to his dick. The look on Lachlan’s face is pained and manic, but I see the trickle of fear that seeps into his face when he registers the blades biting into him.
Everyone goes quiet and steps away from us at my silent threat. Lachlan slowly drops his grip from around my throat. I push against him, and he backs up to keep the knives from cutting him deeper. A trail of blood leaks out around the blade I hold at his neck, but there’s not a single ounce of me that cares.
“I don’t know what the fuck your damage is, but if you ever put your hands on me again, I will fucking end you," I seethe at him, pressing him back even more.
“Vinna, you don’t understand--”
“I don’t care!” I shout at whoever’s trying to defend this asshole. “Keep this fucking mental case away from me!”
Hands wrap around Lachlan’s shoulders and pull him free from my blades. I let them take him away, but I hold firmly to my weapons, staring at everyone else in the room and daring them to test me.
Silva moves towards me, and I crouch defensively. He raises his hands in a placating gesture and stops.
“I won’t hurt you. I just want to know if you know where Eden is, or Vaughn and Lance?”
Silva’s voice breaks with emotion when he says the name Eden. I stare at him, completely confused.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about," I yell at him.
Silva closes his eyes, seemingly in pain from my declaration. I see Keegan cradling Lachlan’s head against his shoulder and speaking in hushed tones with him. It’s clear that Lachlan is in pain, but I can’t be bothered to care to know why. I need to get out of here. I start to back away, easing my way toward the doors that mark the closest exit.
“Vinna, stop," Aydin implores. “I’m sorry that just happened, but please let us explain.”
I vacillate between my need to escape this nightmare, and the need to make sense of what the hell’s going on right now. I step out of the room.
“Vinna, please!” Silva begs, and I pause.
I stand half in and half out of the room, not sure which way I want to go. Keegan walks Lachlan over to the stone bowl, and he starts chanting. Lachlan mumbles something and runs a finger across his palm where a slash appears. He closes his fist over the bowl and blood trickles in.
Keegan chants some more, and the inside of the bowl flashes again. Lachlan releases a relieved breath and calm washes over me. I don’t know where the feeling comes from, but I know it’s sure as hell not from me.<
br />
“Vinna, come, sit down, and we’ll explain,” Keegan tells me.
I shake my head, not willing to go anywhere near these paladin or casters or whatever the fuck they are. The best I can offer is to lean against the door frame.
“I’m related to you?” I question, looking at Lachlan like he’s shit I just discovered on my shoe.
He solemnly nods, clearly not any happier about this revelation than I am.
“You knew from the minute I told you my name in the car, didn’t you?”
“We all suspected, but we couldn’t be sure until we completed the spell,” Keegan explains.
I stare at Lachlan with more scrutiny than I previously had. His hair is dark like mine and styled in a very McDreamy kind of way. His eyes are a darker green, more emerald to my sea foam. We share the same high cheekbones and oval face, his the masculine version of mine. He’s all chiseled jaw and manly edges with the faintest hint of stubble on his face. I choke a little on my sudden thought.
“Are you my father?” I croak out, my breaths becoming rapid and shallow.
“No, I’m your uncle.”
“Where are they…my…uh…my…parents?” I finally manage to get out while trying to keep from free-falling into full-blown hyperventilation.
“We were hoping you could tell us that," Silva confesses.
“I told you, I’ve only ever known Beth.”
I’m losing the battle with my runaway breaths. Evrin hops up and strides toward me. I’m bent over at the waist, but I hold out a short sword at his approach.
“Don’t…come…near…me," I warn him between frantic breaths.
“I just want to help you," he soothes.
“I don’t care, I don’t want any of you to come near me," I huff out, labored and slow.
I look up at Evrin to make sure he listens, and I see the hurt on his face. I move my gaze down to his chest and watch it rise and fall with his calm, normal breathing. I focus on that, trying to match my own inhale and exhale with his.
It takes time, but my panic gradually recedes, and my lungs inflate rhythmically as I get myself back under control.
“If you’re my uncle, are you from my mother’s side or my father’s?” I ask, staring at the ground.
“Your father’s.”
“What’s his name?” I whisper, tracing the pattern of the carpet with my eyes.
“Vaughn Aylin…we’re identical twins," Lachlan laments, his voice breaking at the admission.
This revelation shakes me. This is what my father looks like. I stare at Lachlan, going back over the pieces of myself in his face.
“I don’t know how you came to be, but I know that Vaughn would’ve never willingly walked away from his child," Lachlan tells me.
I think he means for his words to comfort me, but they don’t counteract the holes in the story of my existence. I have my father’s last name. Either he knew about me, or Beth knew more about him than she admitted.
“Do you know who my mother is?” I ask Lachlan, feeling more and more empty as the seconds tick by.
“No.”
“Are you sure Beth was a non?” Silva asks me.
“What the hell is a non?”
“It’s what we call humans or anyone who’s not supernatural,” Silva clarifies.
“Yeah, I’d say about ninety-eight percent sure. So, where is...uh...Vaughn?” There’s no way I can call him my dad or father. It feels too fucking weird.
“None of us knows," Keegan answers. “Another coven of paladin requested help with a nest of lamia they were assigned to purge. The other coven required more protective magic, so the elders assigned Vaughn. No one ever returned from that mission. The entire coven of paladin, and the lamia they were supposed to exterminate vanished.
“It’s been over twenty-three years, and we’ve never stopped looking. We’ve done everything possible to try and find them, but at every turn, we’ve hit nothing but dead-ends and walls.” Keegan looks to Lachlan with sadness in his eyes.
“And now, here you are Vinna, another piece in a seemingly impossible puzzle to solve," Silva adds, and he sounds surprisingly hostile.
I can connect most of the dots now. What happened to the people they love, it makes it easier to understand the frustration and sadness that’s palpable and suffocating in this room. What I don’t get, is the anger and hostility that’s directed at me. Why am I being attacked over something I wasn’t even alive for?
“What is a lamia?”
“They’re basically vampires,” Aydin tells me.
“So the fanged fuckers are lamia,” I mumble to myself.
Five heads snap to me.
“What did you say?” Lachlan asks me.
“I always called them the fanged fuckers. I could never make one of them tell me what they called themselves.”
10
“You’ve come in contact with lamia?” Aydin asks, his look of shock matching the expression on everyone else’s faces.
“Um...yeah,” I answer cautiously, not sure why this seems to be an issue.
“By the moon, how have you survived this long on your own?”
Evrin’s question seems rhetorical, so I don’t bother to reply. Instead, I focus on the soreness weighing down my limbs and the scratchiness of my eyelids. Every blink feels like sandpaper roughly smoothing and reshaping my eyeballs.
“Well, that ends now. We pack up what we can of her things tonight and arrange to have the rest shipped. Silva, stop and get some boxes, the rest of us will take Vinna to start packing,” Lachlan orders.
“Whoa, what the fuck are you on about? I’m not moving in here with you,” I gesture from the house to the paladin with one of the short swords in my hand.
“That’s correct because we don’t live here. We’re only here on assignment. You’ll be moving with us to Maine. The town of Solace to be exact,” Lachlan arrogantly informs me.
What an asshole.
“Yeah, thanks but no thanks. That’s going to be a hard pass for me.” I tell him as I push off from the wall next to the door frame so I can leave.
“Lachlan is your family, and he’s claiming you; you have to go with him,” Keegan tells me.
“I’m not some sweater in the lost and found or a dog at the pound; you cannot claim me.”
“Vinna, you’re a caster, and as a caster, you’re considered underage and claimed by your parents or a guardian until your awakening,” Evrin explains to me with soft, sympathetic brown eyes.
“You can run, but we will find you. If you don’t come willingly, we’ll get the elders involved. If you fight them, they will bind your magic until you learn to listen. You can make this easy on yourself, or you can make this difficult, but either way, the outcome will remain the same,” Lachlan threatens.
I release the magic of the two short swords I’m holding and reach behind me. I call on the runes for my big ass sword and draw it over my shoulder like I’m pulling it from a sheath on my back.
“Do what you’ve got to do, asshole. But keep in mind, it’s hard to tattle to some magic-binding elders when you’re dead.” My voice is saccharin, but my eyes blaze with the promise of pain.
I’m so tired and pissed off right now. I don’t care if I am related to this fucker. Who the hell does he think he is?
“By the bleeding stars, Lachlan, your Dictator Aylin routine isn’t fucking helping things!” Aydin yells at him. All five of them start shouting at each other, and I take advantage of the distraction and step out of the library. I let my sword dissipate as I retrace my steps to the front door. I grab my bag and bolt. Let the hide and seek begin, motherfuckers.
I spot a familiar auburn-bearded giant in the crowd. He’s wearing a baseball cap, but it does nothing to hide every other prominent feature that Aydin has. It’s like these paladin fuckers want me to spot them from a mile away.
I spent the first two nights after I snuck out in random motels. I thought for sure there was no way they’d find me, but I was wrong.
I’m pretty sure they put some kind of magical LoJack on me, but I can’t figure out how to find it, let alone get rid of it.
It either has to do with Lachlan and I being related, or with the blood I gave them for the beacon spell. Caster lesson number one: don’t give your blood to any fucker for a spell. It seems if I keep on the move they can’t track me as well, but as soon as I stop for too long to eat or sleep, these assholes start to close in on me. So, I changed the game from hide and seek to catch me if you can.
I pick up my pace as I weave through the pedestrian traffic on the Las Vegas Strip. It’s night time, and the lights are blazing, the booze is flowing, and the streets are packed with people here to have a good time. I sneak a glance behind me and chuckle at the sight of Aydin being accosted by a group of drunk women, who look like they’re here for a bachelorette party. Either that or they really like dicks and find them to be the perfect accessories--we’re talking light-up headbands, necklaces, rings, straws--these ladies are dicked-out.
I take advantage of their sexual harassment of Aydin and dash towards the closest resort. I navigate my way through the casino, past all the shops, and out the back into a parking garage. I sprint toward the exit and hang left, trying to give myself as much of a lead as possible. I don’t hear anyone behind me but better to be safe than sorry.
I run behind the hotel and round a corner that will take me up the side and eventually spit me back out on the Strip. The smell of the alley full of dumpsters hits me, and I pull my shirt up over my nose. I move past the last can of stench when several things fall from the sky to land ten feet in front of me.
Did these idiots just jump from the roof? I skid to a stop as I try to gauge how far it is from the roof of the hotels surrounding me to the ground. I glance around and discover it’s not the paladin in front of me, but something else.
