by A. B. Marie
“At least you’ll grow up knowing who your mate is, no matter how dark and scary he may look. We just need to get to know him, huh?” I kiss my girl before I rock her to sleep. I think I should sit Lucifer down next time he pops in and ask why the wars really started. As big and scary people say they are, I still see the sadness in those deep, black eyes. He’s as tall as Richard and my father, but with skin so pale and jet-black hair, that I call him a vampire in my mind. Mark walks in just as I’m laying a sleeping Luna in her crib.
“I opened up the package from Lucifer, it’s a smaller black diamond pendant that will clip on to her clothing. The note says the same thing he did, that only you can take it off. I’m sure you can spell it so that the rest of the adults can too.” I nod to him and put the video monitor in my pocket.
“I’ll look at it tomorrow or something. Did Amelie leave?”
“Yeah, thank fuck. Penny did too, but she doesn’t even look like she cares about what you think, which is odd. You think Amelie did something to her?”
I nod. “I wouldn’t put it past her.”
I grab some wine and head to the backyard and notice that Mrs. Riggs and Mrs. Collins have already gone to bed. Time to have a long chat with my birth parents.
I take a seat on a chair outside and chug some wine. “I don’t really know where to start. What kind of goddess am I? What else can I do? How are my mates able to teleport? Is this a regular soul bond? Are they immortal, too?”
My mother smiles at me and pats my hand. “Hmm. All of the main gods and goddesses were created by the Creator. Any children they have with each other will be few and far between, there aren’t many full-god or goddess offspring. It’s easier to impregnate or get pregnant by a human or a supernatural. If you didn’t learn this at the academies, witches and warlocks are descendants from us gods and goddesses who have mated with humans over the millennia and ‘watered down’ the genes by mating with other humans. Now on the mortal realm there are some demi-gods around – they aren’t immortal though, they live around a thousand years, give or take. There are also witches and warlocks, humans, and shifters. The shifters are descended from demons that have mated with humans, and they don’t have magic. They can if they mate with witches and warlocks though.
“So technically, you’re not a specific type of goddess. You’ll have normal goddess powers. The elements, mind powers, teleportation, telepathy, immortality, and opening portals to the realms. You can still bond with familiars, but not many of us have them.
“Now, moving on to your bond… We aren’t one hundred percent sure since this has never happened before, but what I can see from your mates, you life, soul, and power bonded to them when your powers unlocked.
“This means they will be stronger, live longer, and might be able to do the same powers you can, over time. They are immortal since your bonding. Now, if one of you happens to die, you will leave this plane and move to the Heavenly realm and will be set up with an anchor point. To move through the three realms, unlike the first time you did when your spirit jumped there, you have to open up a portal. I will teach you tomorrow when we leave.”
I give her a confused look. “Shifters?”
She gives me a big smile. “Oh yes! They’re great lovers!” She laughs and gives me a small smile. “They mostly stick to forested areas and pay witches and warlocks to ward their cities so they’re away from humans. They rarely mingle with humans since they’re hunted just as much as witches and warlocks were.”
“Like wolves?”
My father laughs. “Wolves are definitely one. Basically, any animal you know of has a shifter counterpart. Demons are shapeshifters with magic. But after they mate with humans, the offspring can only handle the shifter DNA. Now if a shifter mates with a witch, it can go either way. There have been some whispers of shifter-witch hybrids, but they’re usually weak and don’t have much magic.”
The guys are still reeling over all of this information. I didn’t even know about any other supernaturals. Witches and warlocks must be stuck up assholes since we never learned about any others. We didn’t even speak about gods or goddesses at my first academy in Seattle. At least we have our answers now, my men are immortal and will be stronger, and I imagine that passes on to our children. We make small talk for the rest of the night and end up staying up until the sun comes up, drinking with everyone. Graham was smart and went to bed hours earlier and spent the morning with Luna, his mom, and Collins’ mom.
After the rest of us made it down around lunch time, I nursed Luna since she won’t drink her milk from a cup if she sees me, and we say our goodbyes to Mark’s and my parents.
“Come stand next to me and watch what I do. You should close your eyes and imagine that field you woke up in a year ago. Now, it’s different from teleporting. For realm jumping, you have to move your finger in a circle to open the portal, while thinking about what you see and smell where you want to go in another realm.” I watch her do it, and a glowing blue shape moves out from her finger and expands to fit them all to walk side by side.
“We love you, daughter. We will come back as soon as we know more about what Lucifer is doing. And to speak to him about this mating business with our granddaughter.” We all give hugs and wave them off. As soon as they step through, the portal closes.
We spend the rest of the day swimming with Luna and saying bye to Mrs. Collins and the Riggs’. We don’t speak about what we learned, but I make sure to add it all to my journal.
Two weeks fly on by before I’m able to set up alone time with Penny. She spends her weekdays at the academy, where Amelie is banned from, and her weekends with the cunt. I’m sitting at a restaurant in town waiting for Penny to show up, looking through my emails and going over orders we need to fulfill this by Monday for the magic shop. Tapping my finger on the table, I stare at the entrance when I finally see Penny walk in.
“So sorry! Amelie would barely let me out of bed!”
I gag and grimace at her. “Where is she even living?”
She shrugs, “Not sure. She just comes to my parent’s house every weekend since she can’t come to the academy.” She pouts and starts looking over the menu.
“Penny, she’s legit a psychopath. How can you forget everything she has done and put my family through?”
She shrugs and smiles at me, “People change, Maya! Give her a chance.”
I scowl at her, “I’d rather not. She will not be coming around my daughter, my men, or anywhere near me. I love you and you deserve to make your own choices, but I can’t be around either of you. Good luck.” I pick up my bag, toss down some money, and leave the restaurant without even ordering. I can’t believe her. I knew that Penny was too sweet and nice, but this is really unlike her. I did a quick magic scan on her before I left, and didn’t see anything nefarious; so, either Amelie is REALLY good at what she did, or Penny chose her over me. I mentally shrug, this is why I’ve never had girl friends.
Chapter 8
Markus
________
For a few weeks, after Maya met up with Penny, she was a ball of nerves and snapped at us a few times. She eventually got over it and washed her hands of her friendship with Penny. Graham and I have tried to talk to her several times, and she either hangs up on us or gives us excuses about how amazing Amelie is and how much she’s changed.
I’ll never trust that or believe it.
We’re a week away from taking our exams for the end of the first term of year three. Collins has been working every day the past two weeks getting everything sorted before winter break, and Maya has been focused on the magic shop and setting up a month-long trip somewhere over winter break. It’s probably the island, but she likes to believe she’s being sneaky. She’s started practicing moving larger items to different places; last week, she sent the bed that Nolan and I were asleep on to the island. On the beach. In the sun. It took me a few tries, but I eventually got us back.
Maya laughed her ass off for about twenty minutes s
traight before she helped me fix the bed to where she likes it in her room.
Graham, Maya, and I are working hard in the shop on the Friday before exams start, while Ross and Troy took Luna to work with them to their PI office downtown. They have an area set up for her to be able to run around and play, definitely safer than being here at the shop. We’ve been too busy for Maya to stay upstairs with her.
“Shit, we really need to hire at least one person.” Maya grumbles while throwing over the sign on the door to ‘closed’.
I nod at her and lean against the wall. “I agree. Why don’t we add a sign in the back of the shop where only witches and warlocks will see it?” She smiles and me and gives me a thumbs-up.
“Smart. I’ll print it out at home, and we can put it up on Monday.” We straighten everything up and Graham walks around writing down what we need to work on this weekend.
“One more week ‘til we’re back to just online orders. We can set up some phone interviews and tell them they can start February first? That gives us a few weeks for in-person interviews when we get back.” I ask Maya while I hold the front door open for her and Graham.
Graham smiles at me and Maya gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Perfect, let’s get home.”
We spend the weekend relaxing, training Hellion, packing, stocking up on our personal supplies, and preparing everything for the shop for the next week.
I hear Maya’s phone blasting from down the hall. “Hello?... Not my problem.” I hear a crash and I hold my breath while I walk down towards the master bedroom to peek in.
“Everything okay?”
She shrugs and sits down on the bed. “It was Penny saying she hadn’t heard from Amelie and wanted to know if any of us have seen her. Why the fuck would I know where the cunt is?” I send a text to the twins just in case.
“Maybe she’s out shopping or some shit?” I lead her into the bathroom and start a bath for her. “Relax, I’ll go feed Luna her dinner and put her to bed. I’ll warm up some milk and see if she will drink it from her cup.” I give her a kiss on her head and head down to the living room where Collins is playing on the floor with Luna.
He gives me a big smile, “When can Maya have another baby?” I groan and shake my head at him.
“You really want to go through all that stress again, so soon?”
He shrugs his shoulder, “Just look at her. We should have a house full of them!” I laugh at him and take Luna to the kitchen for her meal.
“You can talk her into it.” I wink at him and groan when Luna tosses her food down to the animals. Hellion is getting massive. I’ve been training him with commands and hand signals, and we take him to the shop a few days a week. He’s still too hyper to have him there too much, but so far, he’s a great companion. He follows Luna everywhere and sleeps in her room now that he’s house broken.
Collins nods at me, “At least her new birth control is working so it won’t be another surprise pregnancy, that was stressful.” He closes his eyes for a minute and shakes his head. “Has she started selling the formula at the shop yet?”
“Yep, we put up a list of potions and spells that we can make, but haven’t put on the shelves yet, and within two weeks she completely sold out of her personal birth control stock. So now we have a full shelf full of birth control, and other fun potions she’s made. There was one that a guy was begging for more of one that made him last for two hours before finally getting off.” Collins barks out a laugh and looks at me with wide eyes.
“What else have you been selling there?”
I smile at him and wink, “You’ll just have to come in some time.” Luna finally eats some of her dinner and I heat up some of Maya’s milk from the fridge and put it in a cup. “Here, baby, will you have some milk that’s not from the tap?”
She giggles and pours most of the milk on her shirt but ends up drinking a good amount. “Mama!” She claps her hands and throws her cup down to the animals. “Mama milk!” I laugh and pick her up.
“Alright, let’s go take a bath and go to bed.”
It’s hard watching my daughter grow up so fast. We spent the month on the island for the winter break, and instead of bringing the jets or everyone taking the yacht, Maya and I took turns teleporting everyone with all of our luggage, food, drinks, and whatever else Maya packed. Gerard and Malek decided to drive the yacht down on their own instead of hiring someone, though. It was an amazing winter break – we spent days at a time out at sea on the yacht, took out the jet skis, taught Luna to not eat the sand, and we all took the time to just relax with family.
Maya ended up blocking Penny’s number after another series of phone calls from her complaining about Amelie disappearing. If she couldn’t respect how horribly Amelie treated all of us, not to mention almost got a few of us killed, then there wasn’t a reason for Maya to stay in contact with her. It’s probably hard for her to not have a friend outside of us, but she stays busy and never complains.
We’ve been home for two weeks and are in the middle of interviewing for new employees at the shop when I receive a call from Ross.
“Yeah?” I answer as I get up to walk outside.
“The council just showed up at my PI office. They found Amelie. She’s dead.” He sounds like he’s far away in his mind.
“What? Where are you now, what happened?”
“I’m about to drive home so I can shower, change, and wait for them to call me back. It’s a huge crime scene. She was kidnapping witches and warlocks, Mark. From the looks of the hostages and the supplies she bought, she was trying out dark magic to extend her lifespan or make herself immortal. Or some shit. What the fuck was wrong with her? She wasn’t even twenty-five yet.”
“I have no words. Let me stop the interviews and we’ll meet you at home.”
We close down the shop and teleported home to wait for the twins to arrive. Maya gave them both big hugs and we sat in the living room while barely touching our food.
Maya scowls, “Do I call Penny?”
I shrug. “Let’s wait until we have more information.”
We stayed home for a few days with the twins and he finally got a call from the council once they completed their investigations. Ross asked for Amelie’s body to be cremated and they signed all of the paperwork.
Most witch and warlock families cremate their bodies so that they can’t be reanimated when someone decides to use necromancy. The council has tried to make it illegal, but with all of the changes, the new laws should be out soon.
The twins also requested the list of names of hostages. The council said that they will check with the victims to see if that’s something they’re comfortable with. Ross wants to compensate them, pay for therapy, and anything monetary they need. There was one little boy there that’s only a few months older than Luna, according to the council. Fucking devastating.
We’ve spent the rest of our last semester of courses studying when we feel like it, doing our practicals with Collins and Nolan when they’re able to, and working at the magic shop. We ended up hiring a witch and a warlock, both of them are proficient and help out cashing people out, making tea, doing some tarot and tea leaf readings, and working the tea bar. It’s just Graham, Maya, and me that work with all of the spells and portions to make sure everything is safe to sell. Our graduation is this week, so we will have them work a few days a week while we’re gone for the summer. I can’t believe Maya and I have lived here for almost three years.
The council sent the list over to Ross full of the names of the witches and warlocks that were held hostage and tested on by Amelia. He sent them about $100,000 each, paid off their debts, and got them all into therapy. For the little boy, Victor, we have set up a trust for him for when he turns twenty-one and set up his education fund for when he turns five and can start attending the Goddess Academy. Ross and Troy met Victor’s parents, and they get a bad vibe from them. Not sure if it’s from what they’ve been through with Amelie, but over the several weeks of meeting them and gettin
g what they need, we think they’re on drugs.
We’ve decided to get the council involved to see if there’s anything we can do for Victor; he deserves a good life. Ever since Lucifer killed the five heads of the council, it seems they’re back to actually caring about witches and warlocks – like how it’s supposed to be. They still don’t have a main office in the UK, and not sure if we will allow it for the time being.
The new laws are rolling out and they are adding in mandatory courses to learn about all supernaturals in every academy, they’re completely banning: all blood and dark magic, necromancy, unless it is taught at the academy and the witch or warlock has graduated from Master’s courses, and any harm that comes to any supernatural will be tried and at the least sent to prison, depending on the crimes.
Luna is saying several words now, mostly babbling, and at eighteen months old, she’s running, climbing stairs – slowly, and terrorizing us every chance she gets. Maya still has her powers bound, since we have no idea what she will be capable of and want to teach her starting when she’s around three years old and understands what she is doing.
We will be spending the summer going to the rest of the Disney parks that we didn’t make it to last year: Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Maya doesn’t have an estate in Shang Hai, so she rented out a house that’s within walking distance to the park for a week.
“Are you helping daddy pack?” I ask Luna, while I watch her remove all of my clothes from one of my many suitcases that are laying in Maya’s and my closet. Hellion is laying at her feet, asleep, and she’s throwing everything on top of his back. I chuckle and continue packing the bag I’m working on. “Thank you.” I steer her back to the bedroom where her toys are and clean up the mess she made.
