by CC Solomon
I knew she was thinking of Jalissa, my brother’s girlfriend who’d died three years prior. She didn’t have gifts and she couldn’t handle the new, scary world. She’d taken her own life to escape.
“You get sad sometimes, Mina,” my mother continued.
“Don’t we all,” I muttered, picking out a deep pink blush from my pouch.
“Yes, but, honey,” my mother started and touched my hand. “You are strong and you are deserving of love. You deserved it before and you deserve it still. Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have anything to offer. I’ve seen those movies where an apocalypse happens and they have the women be sex slaves. Don’t do that.”
I side-eyed my mom. The Sickness was clearly getting to her mind. “Well, I’ve kind of missed the sex trade so far. I’ll make sure that won’t change,” I cracked. “The world may not need a lawyer but I have a lot more to offer than my body.”
My mom nodded. “What else? Oh, listen more than you speak. Look out for those who are weaker. Be suspicious of those who offer favors without asking for anything in return. You are more powerful than you know and don’t let those nagging doubts in your head stop you from believing that. You’re destined for great things, even in this world. And… Oh, just because the world isn’t like it was, doesn’t mean you don’t make the guy wait before you give him some. He still has to treat you as a queen. That’s why I named you Amina. She was an African queen, you know.”
I nodded. I did know, she’d told me this several times in my life. I’d even done a report on the Nigerian queen in middle school.
“I’m putting some recipes together that are meant to be passed down. Your grandmother’s famous buttermilk biscuits and fried chicken, as well as my seafood and rice dish that you loved. Oh, and my sweet potato pie. If you make macaroni and cheese, put a lot of cheddar cheese in it. Cheddar makes it better. I know you have powers to just make food out of nothing but it doesn’t taste nearly as good as old-fashioned cooking. I’ve had frozen food with more flavor.”
I nodded, no longer fighting her advice and instead trying to hold back tears. She smiled, masking her worried look as I saw beads of sweat gather on her forehead. I reached over to the table, grabbed a damp face towel and dabbed at her forehead.
“I know it was hard for you before but maybe this new world will be better for you. With your powers, you seem to be flourishing.”
“I’m 27, single, and living with my parents. I think I’m in the same place I was before.” I chuckled and shook my head, putting the towel back on the bedside table. “Suck in your cheeks.”
My mother did so and rolled her eyes. “You just mentioned things. I’m talking about people. You’re going to find your niche here,” she said after I was done with the blush. “I don’t have magic like you but I have a good feeling. This world is this way for a reason and you and your brother have a purpose.”
“I hope it’s to wait out this nightmare,” I muttered, shifting through my pouch to look for the right lipstick. “What do you want, red or fuchsia?” I asked her. None of the makeup I had was exactly fresh. No one was jumping up and down to make cosmetic products since the world fell apart, but I made do with what I collected over time and freshened the products up as best I could with a little magic.
When my mother didn’t answer I looked up in a panic. She wasn’t—
Her eyes were wide open and she was looking behind me off into space. Except for the gentle rise and fall of her chest, which gave me a great relief, she looked like a statute.
“Mom? You okay?” I asked, touching her shoulder.
She looked to me, eyes still slightly glazed. “He’s going to get someone killed.”
I frowned. “Who?”
“Phillip is not in control. He needs help but not your servitude.”
“Who’s Phillip?”
Her eyes grew desperate. “You are not a sacrifice, Amina. Stop doing that. And don’t listen to him.”
“Him? Who? This Phillip guy?”
She shook her head. “No, the other one. Don’t let them scare you.”
My mom looked away. “They can’t come back.” She said it as if talking to herself instead of me. “They’ll kill you.”
I shook my head, more than confused now. I was convinced it was the Sickness talking. The more the disease progressed, the more the victims were prone to fits of hallucinations and confusion. “Mom, maybe you need to rest.”
My mother turned back to me. “Ireland will be beautiful but be careful there. Be careful with all the places you go.”
“Mom, I already went to Ireland. Remember? I went to Dublin on vacation with some friends when I graduated college.”
My mom looked at me as if just now noticing I was there, blinking her eyes rapidly with a frown on her face. She looked down at the lipsticks I was tightly gripping. “I think the fuchsia lipstick would look good on me. Let’s go with that.”
I let out a deep sigh and nodded, tears starting to stream down my face. “Okay, Mom.” I took the lipstick out of the pouch and began to apply the color.
I didn’t know what to say. Really, what was there to even discuss? The Sickness took the mind, among other functions. There was no point in making my mother feel worse by questioning her about what she’d just said.
My mother’s eyes widened again and she grabbed my wrist holding the lipstick. “Watch out for your brother, you hear? You’re all each other has.”
Chapter 1
My mother told me to watch out for my brother. It was odd that I didn’t remember that conversation until now. I also couldn’t recall her ever using Phillip’s name. How had she known about him? Maybe I was remembering wrong. But I remembered doing her makeup for her dinner date with my father. It had been her last semi-good day. She could barely sit up after that.
“Amina. Amina,” said a familiar male voice with a deep Australian, correction, New Zealand, accent.
Erik.
I opened my eyes and bolted upright, regretting it as dizziness hit me. My brain felt like it was rattling around in my head. Recognition and the situation immediately came crashing back.
My brother, Charles, was dead. Charles was the last of my family. My mother and father had died five years after the world had gone to hell. And for almost four more years, Charles and I continued to survive. We’d escaped so many horrors that I was beginning to take for granted that we would always stay together. I should have been smarter. David, our former captor, wanted me but Charles had tried to stop him. I’d gotten my brother killed.
I looked up to Erik Bennet, who was standing over me with a serious look on his face. He was still wearing the clothes from the night before and he looked like he hadn’t slept. I couldn’t imagine he’d gotten much of any rest with me crying in his arms the whole night. His jet-black hair was messy and his beard was growing out, making him look slightly older but still not even close to his thirty-eight years of age. Paranormals rarely looked our ages. One of the perks, since our aging slowed down, giving us a longer life span.
I’d slept another night in Charles’ bed. I attempted to scoot up in the bed again and was more successful this time.
“What time is it?” I croaked out. My throat felt dry from the constant weeping and my eyes were swollen. I couldn’t imagine that I was visually appealing right now but I didn’t really care.
“After 10 a.m.” Erik said. “I was going to see Felix at the jail today. I thought you’d want to come.”
I nodded. “Does Felix know?” I asked.
My brother had been dead for two days now. It seemed longer than that since David had escaped hell. David was the man who headed an organization of non-paranormal humans who kidnapped paranormal humans for our blood to make a strength-enhancing serum.
Meanwhile, poor Felix Gonzalez, who had become a best friend to my brother, was stuck in prison for killing a were pack member who had attacked Charles’ girlfriend, Lisa Xu. When I’d defended Felix after the attack, Phillip Leal, t
he leader of the town, had detained me. Charles tried to get me out of confinement and it was at that time that David had appeared, fought Charles, and killed him.
I shook my head. How had this all happened? Nine years ago, we were all regular humans until one day supernatural magic busted into our realm and changed us all.
“We told him about Charles yesterday,” Erik said, grimly.
I didn’t want to ask how Felix responded. I already had a good idea. Felix had a kind heart. He’d be crushed.
“How’s Lisa?” I asked.
“Not good. She’s not eating. Just lies in bed.”
I nodded and got up. “That sounds familiar.”
Erik leaned in and gave me a light kiss on the lips. “We’re going to make it through this,” he whispered.
I looked up at him and gave him a slight smile that I was sure looked more like a grimace. At six foot, he towered over me even if I was standing, and I strained to look up at him.
He smiled back at me and it wasn’t a smile of pity, which I would hate. Instead his smile held such comfort in it. His hazel eyes didn’t betray any sadness and I inwardly thanked him for that.
I sighed and went to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and put on some clothes. I’d taken a bath the night before. Well, Erik had drawn me a bath and, although I’d just wanted to go under the bed and hide forever, I’d gotten in to please him. Once I dressed, Erik watched over me as I choked down a slice of toast with peanut butter. We then went to see Felix.
When we got to the police station we were greeted by the receptionist in the front; an older woman named Betty.
“I’m so sorry to hear about your brother,” said the woman with sorrowful eyes. “He was a real sweetheart. I used to see him at the market from time to time. He was a funny guy.”
I nodded with a forced smile. I knew she meant well but I didn’t want to hear about my brother. The thought of him made my heart ache.
We got to the basement cell and Faith Thomas was already there. Except the scene wasn’t what I expected.
Faith kicked repeatedly at the bars of the cell which, I assumed, Felix was in. She cursed at each contact with her boot-covered foot. I was sure she was getting zapped by the magic ward on the cell. A guard lay on the ground, eyes closed.
“Shit, Faith, what are you doing?” Erik asked in a loud whisper, looking behind him to the entrance of the lockup area.
“I’m breaking him out of here,” she said. The tall, athletic, woman placed her hands on her slender hips; her tattooed-covered arms exposed beneath the short sleeves of her shirt. Today, her lightly-tanned skin color seemed ashen and her dirty-blond pixie cut was messy. I could see she wasn’t faring any better from Charles’ death. She had been there with us trying to save him. Top that with Felix, who was like a brother to her, being locked up and she was having a tough time.
“You can’t do that, Faith,” Felix said in a low, somber tone.
I looked over to him. He was a handsome, friendly giant, at six-foot-six, and he was built like a wrestler. His usually kind brown eyes were full of sadness and his shoulder-length, wavy, brown hair was a frizzy nest around his head. He slouched his shoulders and sat down on his cot.
“I can do whatever the hell I want to do,” she spat. “Keeping you locked up is bullshit. The trial is going to be a joke. Why would we wait around for them to just screw us over? Let’s all just get the hell out of here. We’ve suffered enough.”
“It could all work out. Maybe they’ll see reason.”
“They kept you and Amina in confinement for a week. I doubt it. I need you to be okay. I can’t have anyone else die.” Faith’s voice broke and she turned away from us, wiping her face with her arm.
“I won’t let anything happen to Felix,” Erik said. “Don’t worry about him.” He turned to Felix. “You’re getting out of here. No one else is dying.”
“How can you be so sure?” Faith asked, turning slightly.
“If the trial goes south, we will be prepared. I’ll tell you what I’m thinking when we get out of here.”
I let out a deep sigh, looking down at the unconscious man on the ground. “If they even think of hurting you, Felix, I will kill them all,” I said in a tight voice, looking up.
Erik looked over to me, his eyes unreadable. “Mina…”
“No one else in our group is dying. And I will find out if someone in this town helped bring back the man who killed my brother.”
“You think it was someone from the pack?” Felix asked.
“They had motive. One of us killed one of theirs. They saw my power. I’m a threat.”
“Then why haven’t they just killed Felix already?” Faith asked, facing us again.
“Because her command to Seth wouldn’t allow it,” Erik guessed.
The three of them looked to me. I had ordered Seth not to kill Felix, right after Felix had killed the pack member who’d attacked Lisa. It was at that time that I’d exposed my ability to control minds. In all honesty, it was the first time I’d even known that I could do such a thing.
“That’s right, you can control fucking minds,” Faith exclaimed. “Why not just tell them to let Felix go?”
“The mind control doesn’t work on Phillip,” I replied. “He won’t let Felix out.”
Phillip was the head of the town and he and I shared some type of bond. He’d helped me escape the paranormal prison. However, in his town I was starting to feel like a prisoner again.
“Let’s just see how it all plays out. I won’t let anything happen to Felix,” I continued. I walked over to the cell and he stood up and came to the bars. I grabbed his hands and looked into his eyes. Those sad brown eyes. And just like that I burst out in tears again.
I soon felt Erik and Faith come up on either side of me, placing comforting hands on my back. The connection with the three of them soothed me as it often did with us.
“We were supposed to be this special six,” Felix croaked out. “What happened?”
He was right. We were told the six of us were meant to do something great. How could that happen now?
Chapter 2
The day of the trial filled me with dread. There wasn’t an official courthouse in the town, so the hearing was held in the public library. In front of the information counter was a table set up for the prosecution with Theodore Oh, a wizard and one of Phillip’s counselors. Across from him at a table set for the defendant’s side, was Annie “Mae” Jenkins, a mother figure to many in the town. Seating for the audience was behind the tables of the prosecution and defense.
I walked over to Mae. “Hi, Mina,” she said, giving me a tight hug. Mae was an older woman with a smooth, mahogany complexion, a short curly Afro, and a bright smile. She was also psychic. I couldn’t help but wonder if she knew what would happen to my brother. I planned to ask her after the trial.
“I came to help. I have one year of law school under my belt…that I barely remember, some nine years later,” I said.
“Child, if you think anything going on today will resemble what you are used to, you are going to be very disappointed. The council members are appointed to represent both sides. I volunteered for Felix.”
“You can see the future. Are you going to win?”
Mae patted my shoulder. “What is meant to happen will happen. It’s all going to start after today.”
I shook my head. “What do you mean?”
“You should go take your seat. They’re bringing Felix in now.”
I sighed. Once again, I was receiving only a piece of the puzzle from Mae. It was exasperating and as an overly-analytical woman it could very well drive me to insanity.
Felix, led by two weres, looked tired and bruised. Someone had been using him as a punching bag since just the couple of days that we’d visited him. The fact that he hadn’t body slammed someone or gone all otherworldly and gotten them with his death touch was a greater testament to his character. He was allowing this to play through. I balled my f
ists up as I went to take a seat next to Lisa.
Lisa usually looked like a glamour girl. As a fairy, she changed her look with the snap of her fingers. Today the woman looked tired. Her ever-changing hair was now its original black color and tied back in a ponytail. Her emerald-green eyes seemed dull under puffy lids. Her face was bare of makeup.
I reached over and took her hand, squeezing it. She sniffled, and I glanced at her with a sad smile. She nodded back at me. We were in this together. She might have known Charles only for two months, but they’d seen each other every day. They had fallen in love.
Phillip entered the building and some people rose until he sat down at the information-counter-slash-judge’s-bench. As much as I didn’t trust him, I still found him undeniably handsome. He was the color of caramel with short, black curly hair. He had a deceptively friendly smile set between equally deceptive dimples. He was of average male height and his fit body was covered in his usual tailored suits. I looked away from him, growing more annoyed at his role in this farce of a justice system.
“Today we are here to determine the guilt of Felix Gonzalez for the murder of Luke Brady. Theodore Oh will represent the prosecution and Annie Mae Jenkins will represent the defendant. Mr. Oh, you have the floor for your opening,” Phillip announced.
And so, the travesty of a hearing began. There were alleged witnesses who hadn’t witnessed a damn thing testifying false facts. Somehow the story that Lisa had attempted to put Luke under a curse, which justified his attack, came up.
Then there was the theory that Felix was jealous that Luke was flirting with his woman Lisa—clearly not knowing that she and Charles were a thing—and in a jealous rage threw Luke. Since there weren’t any bites on Lisa’s arm that anyone other than Felix, Carter Banks—the second in command of the pack—and I saw, our account of what happened wasn’t gaining much ground.
