by A. B. Marie
Maya is in the gym with a couple of the guys and Collins has still been begging her for another baby. I smile when I remember walking into the magic room last week and seeing her packing up all of her personal stock of birth control potions to sell at the shop and winked at me when I asked her if she’s making more. I didn’t say a word and walked out of the room so I could talk to Troy, Ross, Graham, and Nolan about letting Collins knock her up this next time. He deserves it.
He always wanted a child with his ex-wife, but she chose working for the council over having a family and ended up dying for it. Elle faked her death several years ago to move to Seattle to get closer to Maya, which never worked, and was supposed to be the council contact when we were sent to London. Since Maya was essentially poisoned with birth control potions for most of her teenage years, they needed someone in London to continue with them so that the prophesy wouldn’t come to pass. Ross and Troy caught wind of Elle trying to get into the academy and ended up killing her during a fight.
We ate dinner together as a family before Collins leaves to head back to the academy for exam week, and we relax by the pool after putting Luna to bed.
Nolan toasts everyone with his beer, “One more week and everyone in the house will officially be graduates!” We all cheer and chug our drinks. He’s loving being at home and making his way with his private tutoring school in the building on our property. He finishes up with his twenty students this week and will be off for the summer but will be available for video conferencing the families and students if they want to keep up over the next few months. None of them are old enough to ‘graduate’, yet, but he’s hoping for more enrollments for next term for more Master’s students.
Ross raises his beer again, “To Troy and me, for hiring a full staff and being able to relax and take another summer off from the PI business!” We all laugh and cheer again. The clubs are doing great and they don’t have to be there as much with all of the managers they’ve hired and trained. They’ve been spending more time at home, helping with Luna, and even working with us at the shop one or two days a week.
Maya looks over to Collins, “Still wanting to be the Headmaster for the rest of your life?”
He shakes his head, “No, I’ll just finish out my ten-year contract. Only four more years.” He winks at her and looks down longingly to her torso. She winks at him and teleports him away from the pool and the rest of us relax and continue drinking.
I look around, “To the good life.”
End of Part 1
Part 2
Chapter 9
17 Years Later
Luna
_______
My parents have finally all fallen asleep, so I levitate myself out of my window and walk to the front of the house to climb the gate. I look down to my phone and see that Vick is five minutes away.
I skip over to the gate, float over it, and run down the private road so that no one can see the light from his motorcycle. Tonight, I have my brown-purple hair down and wavy, light makeup around my green-violet eyes, and a short, purple dress and high-top Converse sneakers. I’m carrying my leather jacket on my arm and tap my foot while I wait.
We leave in a week for our yearly summer vacation and I’ve been begging my parents to let me stay home. I need a break from all of the noise in the house.
Vick pulls up and hands me my helmet and I jump on behind him. He revs the engine and we speed down the road to go to the party he invited me to.
I don’t have any real friends at the academy, apparently Dad C used to be the headmaster there when I was young before I started attending, but the new headmaster is a boring, old piece of shit. Well, he actually only looks forty, but he acts like an old piece of shit. I get into a lot of trouble for being bored out of my mind. Since I’m only part witch, magic comes a lot easier to me with my goddess powers. My mom makes me wear a pendant that blocks a lot of them to ‘keep me safe’ and I was working on a way to remove it. She’s a hell of a lot stronger than me though, so I gave up a few years ago.
Vick parks on the lawn by the front door of a smaller house in the suburbs, and the music is blasting through the house and there are people everywhere. “Humans?” I give him a questioning look and he shrugs his shoulder.
“Not my party.” Vick has been my friend since we were toddlers and became inseparable when we both started at the academy when we were five. My parents fought about keeping me home, but since they kept popping out babies, and dad N has such a large class now in his private teaching building on the estate, they decided it would be good for me to get away from the house and attend the school.
Since my parents can all teleport, I haven’t actually stayed in the dorms with everyone else. I’m finally getting my own dorm next term though, when I start Master’s courses.
I give Vick a kiss on the cheek and grab his hand and walk through the door. I look around and scowl, this is my first party and I already hate it. It’s too crowded, too loud, and I can’t even use magic with all of the humans around. I pout over to Vick and he rolls his eyes. “You want to leave?” I nod and he heaves a sigh. “Can we just relax for a few minutes, say hi, then go to my place for the night?” He licks his lips and gives me his sad, pleading eyes.
“Fine.” I roll my eyes and walk to the kitchen to grab a water. Who knows if anyone has put anything in the drinks here? My parents are crazy protective and give me a lecture every time I leave the house. I turn around and lean up against the wall and stare at Vick. He’s been trying to sleep with me for the past couple of years now, but I’m just not ready yet. I love him and we’ve kissed, but that’s it. I think back to the man that comes every year on my birthday and my heart skips a beat. So tall, taller than any of my dad’s, jet black hair, black eyes, pale skin. When he stares at me, his eyes glow blue and he gives me the most beautiful smile.
Lucifer.
I blink and focus back to Vick. He’s not unattractive, but he’s not Lucifer. He’s around the same height as dads N and G, six-foot-three. He has short, blonde hair and the palest green eyes I’ve ever seen. He has some muscle tone, but he’s still a lot leaner than all of my dads. He has a slim nose and pouty lips that I do love to kiss. He must see the heat in my eyes, because he gives me a massive smile and comes up to me to whisper in my ear.
“You want to get out of here?” I cringe inwardly.
“Can you just take me home? I forgot I have to babysit in the morning and need my sleep.” He looks a little disappointed, but he nods and leads me back out to his bike. I feel bad for lying, but I hate getting his hopes up. I’m just confused about my feelings for Lucifer. My mom and dad M constantly tell me the story about how they met, fell in love, and have been inseparable for decades. I think about Vick, and always smile so big, thinking that will be us too, I just worry about the prophesy. My parents have told me about it, but they haven’t let me read it yet. All I know is that my mom and I had something to do with the wars between the Heavenly and Hell realms to end, and something to do with Lucifer.
They always change the subject when I start asking too many questions though.
We pull up by my house and he leans down to kiss me, I kiss him back and rub my hands down the muscles down his back. “Love you, Luna girl. See you when you get back from your trip?” I nod and give him a hug before I float back over the gate and make it silently through my window into my room.
After I turned sixteen, I talked my parents into moving my room down the hall, but they only let me go halfway, probably because of their special room they keep on the other end, that they think I don’t know about. Gag.
All of the bedrooms by my parents’ master bedroom is filled with my siblings. I’m the oldest by only a little over two years, but my oldest, little brother, William, keeps to himself or helps out with the younger kids. We get along, but he regularly has his head in his books, and studies constantly.
All of us are half goddess, half warlock, except for our little sister, Morgan, and me, since we have a l
ittle more goddess and god genes in us since dad M is a demi-god.
I can’t believe mom is pregnant again. At this rate we’re going to have our own sports team. Rolling my eyes, I go into my bathroom to wash my face and change into pajamas. When I come back out, I startle and shout, seeing my goddess grandma Love sitting on my bed picking at her nails.
“You know, I don’t think you’re supposed to be leaving the house.”
I nod. “I know grandma. It’s not like I can take the pendant off anyway, it keeps me safe and probably tracks me.” I point down to the top of my shirt where the pendant transferred to after I changed. My mom spelled it to always find whatever I’m wearing, and no one can take it off except for her or my dads. It’s a gorgeous, black diamond pendant, but I want to know what my powers would be like without it.
She hums under her breath. “That Vick is a nice boy. He needs to be around more like when you were kids.”
I wince. “He is amazing, I’m just confused.”
She nods. “I understand. Anything on your mind?” I smile at her.
They moved back to the mortal plane a few years ago and her and grandpa Warren – what he calls himself - moved a few miles away to stay close. Dad M’s parents moved back to Seattle, where grandma Gretchen used to live. She loves it there, but still visits us a few times a month. She is basically just a witch, just with an immortal life due to the soul bond with Grandpa Richard; so, she either calls for someone to teleport her, or brings grandpa with her.
When my mom’s goddess powers unlocked, her powers bonded to my dads without a spell, so not only are they soul bonded, but they can use some of her powers and are also immortal. Fortunately, the immortality passed down to my siblings and me, or they probably wouldn’t have any more kids.
For a while, my parents had no idea they were all immortal. Mom thought that it was only her. She had no idea how to do a soul bond and had no one to ask since she didn’t know how to use a portal yet.
On my first birthday, when all of my grandparents came to visit, they were able to stay for longer than just a few hours and broke everything down to her. When her powers bonded the seven of them, she shared her actual goddess powers, including her immortality, and created a soul bond on its own.
They all look the same ages they were when they bonded. Mom, dad M, and dad G all still look nineteen, which is crazy to me since I turn nineteen later this year. My other dads barely look older than them, with dads C and N looking the oldest, like they’re in their early thirties.
“Not really. I’m just going to go to sleep. Love you.” I give her a hug and she teleports out. I didn’t even know she was here tonight. I shrug and plug my phone in and toss and turn, dreaming of the vampire man that hands me a gift and leaves once a year.
Chapter 10
Luna
_______
Throwing my last suitcase by the door, I head to the backyard and lay down on the hammock in the shade.
“Don’t let mom see you laying on that, she will probably start crying until you get up so she can lay down.” I look over and see William took a seat by me and opens up a book. He looks so much like Collins that I do a double take. He has short, auburn hair with some purple strands that catch in the light, and navy-blue eyes that swirl with violet. He’s almost as tall as dad C, too, at six-foot-four, and lean muscles. I’m sure he will bulk up in the next few years, he’s only sixteen.
I wave him off, “I will just smile at her and offer to grab her a candy bar or something and she forgets all about it.” He nods at me and continues reading. I close my eyes and listen to all of my brothers and sisters running around the backyard before we teleport out to the family island.
In order by age, there’s me at eighteen; William, who just turned sixteen and is Collins’ son; Harriet and Justice who are Ross’s twins that are fifteen; Victoria, Nolan’s daughter, who is thirteen; Declan, Graham’s son, who is ten; Laura and Xavier, Troy’s twins that are seven; and Morgan, Markus’s second daughter, who is three. Mom is currently seven months pregnant, so she will either just give birth at the island, in Seattle when we’re visiting our grandparents, or we will all come home when she goes into labor.
They didn’t plan out the father this time, so it’s whoever got there first, as they like to yell about at night while relaxing downstairs, when they think we’re all asleep. All of us attend the academy, except for Morgan, she has two more years.
My dog, Hellion, is laying under me and I hear him start to wheeze, and I frown. My old boy is a little over seventeen and won’t be around much longer. I don’t want to use magic on him since I believe in life giving and taking as it’s supposed to, but I spend as much time with him as I can.
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I see that Vick is messaging me.
~I miss you.~
I smile and reply that I miss him back. He has been in my life for as long as I can remember. He has had a dorm at the academy since he was five. His parents are awful and neglectful, and I’m devastated that he’s not coming with us this trip. He usually comes home with me on the weekends, too. My parents treat him like another son and try to make his life more comfortable than it is at his home.
Gerard is showing my Aunt Penny to where we all are in the backyard while mom is still upstairs packing for the rest of the kids. I smile and wave at her and she comes closer to me.
“Hey, munchkin. You excited for a summer traveling about?”
I wrinkle my nose at her. “Not really, but at least there’s a jet ski that will take me far away from the ocean for a few hours.” She looks gorgeous today, with her long red hair down her back in loose waves, a bright pink sundress, and strappy white sandals. Her big blue eyes are sparkling and she seems so happy lately.
She laughs and gives me a kiss on my forehead. “You’re a good kid.” She walks over to where my dads are standing around and they give her hugs and start talking. I guess several years ago, Penny started dating my late-aunt Amelie and caused a huge rift in her friendship with my mom.
Amelie and my mom didn’t get along, at all, and even almost had her, my dad T, and dad G killed. I guess she passed away after doing a dark magic spell. So, after about a year of my mom letting Penny stew for her poor life choices, they finally became friends again.
My parents have talked to me about how Amelie died, and apparently, she was trying to turn herself into an immortal and was kidnapping random witches and warlocks to drain their powers and life force; the spell backfired and she killed herself, but thankfully all of the witches and warlocks she held hostage in a hotel room were alive. Penny tried asking for help when Amelie started disappearing, but my mom wanted nothing to do with her. They had no idea what she was really getting herself into.
Penny started dating a witch that teaches at the academy about five years ago, and they’re getting married this fall during the fall break. She gave up on a designing business she owned after a decade and started working as an art teacher for all ages at the Goddess Academy. I see her a few times a week and love her classes. Her fiancée is great, too, Professor Margaret Nance. She’s around the same height as my mom and Penny, five-foot-five, has black hair and soulful deep, brown eyes. She gets along with my mom really well, so that’s a plus.
Mom comes waddling outside carrying her two familiars, Polly and Lola. “Okay! Let’s roll!” She gives Penny a hug and we all head to the foyer. “All of the munchkins, hold on to a daddy, all of the adults, hold on to me!” A few seconds later we’re in the foyer of our island estate and split up to our designated rooms with our luggage. Since I turned eighteen, my parents gave me my own room furthest from their master in the guest wing. The boys have a room filled with bunk beds, and so do the girls. We have three guest rooms that are for Penny and both sets of Heavenly grandparents for when they show up in a few days.
Malek yells out from the kitchen, “Lunch in about an hour!” We all get into our swimsuits and head out to the beach to watch the dads launch the jet skis, set up
the outdoor furniture, and cabanas. Maggie and Gerard decided to drive the yacht here, so they will be here around dinner time. Dad M offered to teleport it, but they declined.
Maggie, Malek, and Gerard have been together for as long as I can remember, they usually take some time for at least two of them over our vacations to be on their own.
A few weeks into our break, Vick asks if he can come for a few days in between his days off at his job. He’s been working every winter and summer break for about two years now, to save up money for his own clothes and cell phone bill since his parents refuse to help. I’ve tried shopping for him and gifting him money from my parents, but he refuses.
My dad T and I pop up at our estate and see him waiting by the front door for us.
“Vick!” I run to him and give him a big hug.
He smiles at me, “Hey, Luna.” He looks over to my dad, “Thank you for picking me up. I asked for five days off.” They fist bump and we pop back to the island.
“Let’s go get you changed! We can have fun on the jet skis until lunch?”
He gives me a quick kiss, “Sounds good.” I lead him to my room and sit on my bed to watch him change. Even if I’m confused, I can still appreciate his amazing body. He smirks at me and slowly gets into his swim shorts. This is the second time I’ve ever seen him naked and I cross my legs and squirm on the bed. “See something you like?”
I give him a ‘duh’ look. “You know you’re hot, Vick.” He slowly walks over to where I’m sitting, and he kisses me silly until I’m lightly pushing him off and I clear my throat. “Let’s go play in the water.” I need to stop thinking about his abs. And those cut ‘v’ muscles that point down into his shorts. And the thin patch of blonde hair that leads from his navel to his dick. That dick, it’s long and thick, and I’ve been craving to touch him since he first changed in front of me last year.
