A Bloody Kingdom

by J. J. McAvoy

  “Mel—”

  “The Tàiyáng Family has declared war on us Liam.”

  “And they, like every other motherfucker, will learn that the goddamn price of war is blood.”

  ETHAN

  “Why ain’t Mommy here yet?” Dona made a face, tugging on the ears of her stuffed elephant, Mr. Missmore. Dad had named it for her cause she couldn’t decide. The maid combed her hair softly, not speaking to us; they never spoke to us unless we asked first.

  “Not ain’t, Dona, isn’t. Why isn’t Mommy here yet?” I said, leaning on her dresser table.

  “Really?” She stuck her bottom lip out. “But some of the kids at school always say ain’t.”

  “It’s because they’re stupid,” I replied, flicking the nose of Mr. Missmore.

  “And you are just sooooooo smart.”

  In the mirror I saw Wyatt crawling onto his bed, not looking at me.

  “If you’re going to say something, say it to my face!” I didn’t want to yell but he kept getting on my nerves.

  “Fine.” He jumped off the bed and marched right in front of me before yelling.

  “And you are just sooooooo smart, right?”

  “Why are you so mad? I saved you!”

  “Shut up!” He stomped his foot. “You only saved me to prove to Dad you are great!”

  “No!”

  “YES!”

  “No, I didn’t, Wyatt!”

  “Whatever. You should just leave me alone.” He frowned and started to turn around when I grabbed his arm.

  “Let go.”

  “Wyatt—”

  “I don’t care! Let go! I hate you!”

  When he said it I let go of his hand. I didn’t know why, but my chest hurt like really hurt. It felt like it was on fire. I didn’t know what to do or what to say so I lied. “I hate you too!”

  “I hate you mor—ouch.”

  “Ouch!”

  We both looked at Dona, who had smacked both of us with Mr. Missmore as hard as she could.

  “I hate you, Ethan, and I hate you, Wyatt.”

  “What? Why?” Wyatt and I said at the same time.

  “Stop copying me!” Wyatt yelled.

  “I’m older than you are, you’re copying me—ouch!” I jumped when she hit us again, this time with her hands, dropping Mr. Missmore on the ground.

  “Stop that!” I snapped at her.

  “I hate you, Ethan, and I hate you, Wyatt.” She stuck her bottom lip out and crossed her arms.

  “Dona?” Wyatt frowned, trying to touch her when she smacked his hand away.

  “If you guys hate each other then I have to hate both of you. You guys are being stupid. STUPID! S-T-U-E-D,” she yelled so loudly we had to break away.

  “Dona.” I tried not to laugh. “Stupid is spelled s-t-u-p-i-d.”

  She raised her hand to hit me again and I backed away.

  “Oh because you are sooooooooo smart,” she said, dropping her hand and moving back to the maid. “If you guys hate each other, I hate you, and if I hate you, I won’t talk to you guys anymore! Because you are s-t-u-e-d.”

  “Not fair, Dona!” Wyatt called after her but she didn’t say anything back, she just turned to face her mirror.

  “Why are you nice to everyone but your brothers?” I asked her and she stuck her fingers in her ears, humming to herself.

  “This is your fault,” Wyatt muttered, frowning. He hated it more than anyone when Dona was mad at him.

  “Everything is my fault, right?”

  He didn’t answer me, just went back to bed.

  Fine. “Goodnight, Dona!”

  “Hummmmm.” She hummed even louder as I walked into my room. The second I closed the door behind me, I remembered the look on Wyatt’s face when he said “I hate you.” It did not feel like Dona’s “I hate you.”

  “Ugh!” I messed up my hair, stomping my feet. My head hurt. It had been hours since we’d come home, and Nana and Aunt Cora had stayed with us for a while. I loved Aunt Cora; she always told the best stories, getting up and making sounds and running around. It was fun. Nana painted pictures; Dona and Wyatt thought it was boring but I liked it. I knew they only wanted to keep us from remembering but I didn’t really care cause I was tired.

  Knock.

  “Come in.” I moved to the door when Sedric, Helen, and Nari all poked their heads in.

  “We wanted to check if you are okay,” Nari spoke up since she was thirteen and the oldest. She was Uncle Neal and Aunt Mina’s daughter, but she didn’t look anything like Uncle. She was short like Aunt Mina, but her hair was super long. It used to touch the ground before she cut it, and now it stopped at her butt. Her skin was so pale she could never stay in the sun for too long and her eyes were so black. It was like staring at the sky with no moon or stars. It was dangerous to say that she was different; once on a Sunday while we were passing out bread at the soup kitchen someone called her a Chinkerbell. Uncle Neal lost it even though Nari and I didn’t know what a Chinkerbell was. Nobody told us either. He almost killed the guy, but Aunty Mina stopped him.

  Sedric, on the other hand, looked just like Uncle Neal, except his eyes were brown. He was only six but he was already the same height as Wyatt. He loved football more than anything, so Uncle Neal took him out every weekend. I thought that was why he always beat us at arm wrestling contests.

  “Earth to Ethan?” Helen grinned, waving her hand right in front of me. Her hair was pulled up into two big brown curly puffs on her head, kinda like Mickey Mouse ears. She was the exact same brown as Aunty Cora…well duh, she was Aunty Cora’s daughter. She was also a computer geek; she and Uncle Declan spent all their time working on computers.

  “Nari, I think you should tell Uncle.” Helen grabbed the sides of my face. “Ethan doesn’t look so good.”

  “I’m fine, Helen.” I smiled back.

  She mushed my cheeks. “You sure?”

  “I’m sure. Can you let go of my face now?”

  “He’s back.” She cheered, lifting her hands off my cheeks and into the air as she spun around. “Told you he was okay.”

  “We have to check. You sure, Ethan? All the parents are freaking out,” Nari replied as Sedric came over to me.

  “Freaking out?” My parents didn’t freak out.

  “Yep!” Helen hopped, walking in circles and pushing her glasses up her nose. “Everyone is really sad about what happened. I was in class when it happened. Then the vice principal took us all into her office.”

  “It was boring!” Sedric ran to my bed and jumped up and down. “But I hate class so I was happy.”

  “Sedric, you can’t say that, people got hurt. And stop jumping on the bed!” Nari rushed to him but he just jumped to the other side.

  “Na!” He stuck his tongue out at her, running in circles.

  “Fine, hurt yourself. See if I care.” She threw her hands up. It was kind of funny because Uncle Neal did that too.

  “Ethan.” Helen came over to me. Seeing her serious was weird, she and Dona were the same age, but Helen always felt older even when she joked around.

  “What?

  “Nothing, I just wanted to say your name seriously, like my mom did to my dad,” she joked.

  “Helen! You scared me!”

  “Ethan, you get scared?” Sedric stopped dead in his tracks and Nari caught him.

  Shit.

  “No, I mean…it’s an expression, Sedric.”

  “An…ex…expres…sion?” He frowned, not getting it.

  “I’ll explain later. Come on, we have to get back before Mom comes.” Nari took his hand and hooked hands with Helen, dragging them to the door. “Night, Ethan.”

  “I wanna stay,” Sedric whined.

  Helen dragged her feet. “Me, too.”

  “Nope.” She pulled harder and out the door.

  “Night, Ethan.”

  “Goodnight!” I called out after them and when they were gone, I felt even more tired. Pulling off all my clothes, I crawled into bed
and wrapped the sheets around me two times. As I closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but remember the…the screams, all the screaming, and the booms. I couldn’t help but see Dona and Wyatt.

  I didn’t care what happened or who else got hit, just not them.

  Mommy would cry if it hit them. I had only seen Mom cry once and that was when I was a baby and Wyatt was sick. I never wanted to see it again.

  Rule 56. Never let Mom cry.

  MELODY

  “Citizens of Chicago, I stand before you not only as your governor but as a mother of three children at Pennington Academy. I understand the fear. I understand your anger, and most importantly, I understand your desire for justice, which can never cover the pain. We lost nine innocent children at the one place where they should be the safest. I…I want to assure you all that none of us will rest until the shooter is found. The FBI is already in contact with the Chicago PD. As for the families of the victims, we’ve already met, only briefly, as I know they need time as a family to mourn. I can give no further information as this is an ongoing investigation—”

  “Governor! Governor!”

  “Governor, what is going on in this city? Just this morning Mayor Weston was forced to resign in light of allegations of prostitution and bribery. Then later Deputy Commissioner Cheung was found to be part of a child slavery and prostitution ring, now this shooting. It feels like, despite all your best efforts, Chicago is reverting back to its former infamy. Do you have any comments?”

  “Yes. First, what is your name?”

  “Phoebe Salinger, with NKB News.”

  “Okay. Second, you’re a fucking idiot, Phoebe Salinger with NKB News.”

  “Madam Governor, would you like to explain—”

  “Would I like to explain why you are a fucking idiot? No problem. I’m not sure you have enough brain cells left to figure it out yourself. Nine kids died today. Nine. At the school my children attend. I’ve spent the last few hours speaking with the FBI, local police, and the families of the victims, meaning I was unable to go home and see my own children. It is the mayor’s duty to speak out during times like these, but this city currently has no mayor, so I stepped up. Instead of focusing on the tragedy at hand, you want me to take the time to comment about two men and their sexual exploits? If you want to be a news reporter, Ms. Salinger, report the news. If you want to make shocking headlines, start a blog and get the hell out.”

  “There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Governor Callahan’s verbal ass-whipping of a reporter from—”

  “That’s enough radio, thank you.” Mina nodded up to the driver while I leaned back into the leather seat, unable to look away from the tablet in my hands. Ethan, Wyatt, and Dona…they all slept perfectly. I had even heard Dona snoring softly. My mind was reeling with so much rage, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I wasn’t sure what to even say. I wanted to kill them. I was going to burn the Tàiyáng family to the ground.

  “If you keep gripping on it like that it’s going to break, Mel.” Mina reached over, yanking the tablet from my hands as we pulled up to the mansion.

  I didn’t even wait for the car to come to a stop before I opened the door and raced up the stairs.

  “Welcome—” Our butler started to greet me, but he passed by in a flash as I ran, skipping every other stair as I made it first to Ethan’s room.

  “Ethan?” I called, not caring if I woke him or not. He rolled over as I moved over to him. I noticed once again he had chosen to sleep naked; it made me smile because I remembered how he was when he first figured out how to take off his diaper. The moment he had the chance he would take off his clothes and diaper, hold the diaper above his head, and run all over the halls. It was fucking hilarious. The whole family would try to catch him, even Evelyn, and none of us did—correction, none of us wanted to. He would just keep laughing and laughing as if nothing else made him happier than being chased after.

  “Mama?” He rolled back over when I brushed his messy hair away from his eyes, tracing the mark on his eyebrow. Was he hurt?

  “Mio bel leoncino.”

  “You’re home.” He turned back over, giving me a hug. “I missed you.”

  Swallowing slowly, I kissed his head and forehead. “I missed you too…I’m sorry I’m late.”

  “It’s okay. Daddy always says your job is important. Everybody knows you. The girls in my class think you’re really pretty, too.” He grinned, rubbing his eyes. He sat up and the moment he noticed he was naked, he pulled the sheets up and fell back down.

  “Who are you hiding from? I remember the times you used to run around the whole house naked—”

  “Mom!” His muffled voice came from under the covers. Hugging him tightly, I kissed all over his sheets before I let him go.

  “Get some sleep okay? I’m not going to work tomorrow.”

  “Okay! Love ya.” He still wouldn’t look up from the covers.

  “Love ya more,” I said softly, moving toward Dona and Wyatt’s room. When I saw her rubbing her nose with one hand and gripping tightly on to that silly elephant, I took a deep breath once again, fixing her blanket.

  “Mommy?”

  “Wyatt?” I turned back and he was staring at me, smiling even though it looked like he wanted to cry. “Why are you still awake?”

  “I was waiting for you.” He patted the side of his bed.

  Lying down beside him, I touched the mark on his upper lip. “What happened?”

  He didn’t answer, just covered his mouth behind his hand.

  “Wyatt?”

  “Does Daddy hate me?”

  “What?” Of all the things I’d imagined him ever asking me that had never even crossed my mind. “Wyatt, baby, how can you ever think that?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not like Ethan. Everybody talks about Ethan. At school, at home, even when we help on Sundays. He’s smart and the teachers want to move him up a grade. He and Daddy go out all the time. Every time something happens, he always does the things Daddy would want him to do. He just knows. All the Irish people say he’s just like Daddy was as a kid. Even Uncle Neal and Uncle Declan say it. I can’t do anything right. I try and try but…I’m no good, Mommy.”

  I heard the door squeak and instinctively turned. I saw Liam; he didn’t enter, just opened the door no more than a creak. He stood there frozen, his head down, and I knew he’d heard him.

  “Make me better, Mommy,” Wyatt whispered, touching my cheek, not at all noticing his father.

  “What?”

  “Aunt Cora and Uncle Declan always say you are super strong. I saw you fight Fedel, and you won—”

  “And what will you do when you know how to fight, Wyatt?” He frowned, not sure what I meant, so I asked again. “Who do you want to fight against, Wyatt? Your brother?”

  “No…I don’t know,” he answered honestly; he was always honest with me.

  Brushing the side of his face, I leaned in and kissed his head. “Of course, we will train together, but remember you are perfect to me. You aren’t just Daddy’s son, you are mine, and I’m head over heels in love with you.”

  “I know. I love you too, Mommy.” He smiled, poking my upper lip.

  “Good. Me, you, and Dona will train, then you will learn who we’re fighting against, okay?”

  He nodded.

  “Good, now go to bed.”

  Getting up out of the bed, I tucked him back in and kissed his forehead before going to our room.

  Liam sat on the edge of our bed trying to undo his cuff links, but he was so annoyed he couldn’t do it without tugging at his sleeves.

  “I bought you that shirt,” I said, standing in front of him and gripping his hair. “I would prefer if you didn’t destroy it.”

  “How could he possibly think that?!” he hollered, looking up to me. His eyebrows were tensed and worst of all, he was hurt. “I love him just as much as I love Ethan. I’ve never once compared them. Ever. I take Ethan out because he’s older, not because I love him more. I look forw
ard to the time when they are old enough to come out together—”

  “Liam.” I tugged on his hair once again, forcing him still. “Breathe for me.”

  Cracking his jaw to the right, he did what I asked, resting his forehead on my stomach when I loosened my grip.

  “History never looks well on brothers. In the Ottoman Empire, the moment one son took the throne, he was forced to kill all his brothers. Shakespeare, Greek plays, the fucking Bible are filled with stories of brothers turning on each other. Hell, I don’t even have to go back that far in history. My father and his brother fought. Neal and I fought. I don’t want that to be the future for my sons, Mel. I want them to support each other, not shoot at each other. Yeah, Ethan will one day end up leading the family, but I want Wyatt standing right beside him,” he snapped angrily, his voice rising again with each sentence. “I don’t know what to do. I didn’t even think he felt that way!”

  “Keep breathin—”

  “Am I giving birth? Why do I have to keep breathing like this?”

  Smacking his arm as hard as I could, I tried to back away from him, muttering, “Ass.”

  He smirked, grabbing on to my ass to pull me closer and squeezed tightly. “You do have a nice one.”

  “How do you go from worrying about our sons to my ass in zero seconds flat?” I tried to shove him away but he held on to me.

  “I’m upset, your ass makes me feel better, it’s not that big of a leap,” he explained, and I could feel him become serious again.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What?”

  “Ethan and Wyatt. I don’t what to say or do for that. I never had siblings. I don’t understand what it means to be jealous like that. However, you do have siblings. Why not ask your brother? I’m sure he understands more than anyone else what Wyatt is feeling.”

  He pouted. “I don’t wanna.”

  “Fine, you big baby, but before you worry about that, we need to worry about the motherfuckers who shot at them today.”

  Right on time, there was a single knock on the door.

  “Enter.” I turned back.

  “Boss.” Fedel stepped inside. “Everyone is waiting in the study.”