by N. R. Larry
I backed away. “I’m sorry.”
Again, he was in my face, having moved so quickly that it was like he had always been there. “I’m doing what’s best for them. For my people. And that’s what I’ll continue to do.” He tilted his head to the other side. “If I left it to you, they’d be softer than prep school white boys.” He snarled. “It is my job to prepare them for how the world is going to see them.” His tongue darted across his bottom lip. “Now I’ve had about my fill of catering to your ass today, you got me?”
My heart rammed into my rib cage, rushing blood to every part of my body. The insides of my thighs tightened in response to him, and even though my expression hardened as I jutted my chin in the air, inside, I felt bare in front of him. I opened my mouth and my gaze homed in on his lips. I didn’t trust myself to say anything at that moment.
Flashes of nights we’d spent together tightened my muscles with need. My mouth went dry. That quickly, I’d forgotten why I wanted to talk to him alone in the first place.
“You need to stop babying them,” he grunted. “And you need to tell Bao what’s going on, otherwise more bodies are going to drop.” His eyebrows crept together. “The only way to stop them is to give them what they want, and what they want, is her.”
My mind blanked. “S-She’s just a child.”
His jaw clenched, and something in his expression softened, even if only a little bit. “She’s isn’t,” he whispered. “She never has been.”
“And I’m not handing Bao over to anyone.”
He remained silent.
“And from now on, I want in on this training.”
Still, he said nothing.
“Now.” I readjusted my jacket and started to turn away from him. “I’m going to examine the body in your basement. Hopefully, it will give us a clue as to how we can stop them and protect Bao.”
I FORCED RYLAND’S WORDS out of my head before I went downstairs. When I got to the basement, Amir was sitting at the end of a long table, examining a brown arm that used to be attached to a person. He was turning it over and peering over his glasses at the pads of a woman’s fingers. I only knew she was a woman because her fingers were delicate, and the nails were painted a bright yellow. He was so into examining that damn arm that he didn’t notice me enter the room. I frowned, inched over to him, and then ran a hand over his black taqiyah. He jumped a little and glanced up. I pulled at the slight stubble starting to line his chin.
“You know,” I said, sitting next to him at the table. “You should let me alter all your head wraps for your horns.”
He glanced sideways at me. “No, thanks.”
“I wish you wouldn’t hide them.”
He sighed and set the arm down on the table. “I’m not.” Adjusting his glasses on his face, he added, “It’s not really seen as masculine to have two unicorn horns jutting out of your forehead.”
I rubbed his back and grinned. “I’m surprised you worry about that.” Something in my stomach tightened. “And it’s not a problem for you, judging by all the fast ass girls you run around with.”
He narrowed his eyes at me.
I shrugged. “Sorry.”
With a chuckle, he said, “No, you aren’t.”
I crossed my arms and let my gaze drag across the corpse pieces. “Glad to see you finally returned my car.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “I had to drive Marissa to a few appointments.”
Of course, you did. I forced a smile and focused on keeping my tone even before I spoke. “How is she?”
He leaned back on the stool he was sitting on. “I know you don’t like her.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that I don’t like her.”
He stared at me.
“It’s just that... I think she comes with a lot of baggage.”
“She’s a good person.”
“I’m not saying she isn’t.” I swiped my hands down my face. “But, when you hang out with her, you miss school. You know my rules.”
He snorted. “I could miss every day at that pit and still keep my 4.0.”
I smiled. “Amir, you’re staying in school.”
“I need to make money.”
“You’re staying in school.”
His lips pressed together, and a myriad of emotions swept across his face. The kid was way too smart for his own good, and MLK High bored the shit out of him. But, it kept him off the streets, and colleges looked at attendance, especially for kids that were registered as a preternatural species.
“I care about her,” he finally said, avoiding my gaze.
I hugged myself and kept my words tucked under my tongue so I wouldn’t say the wrong thing. The truth was, I thought Marissa was a bad influence on him. Still, if I told him that, he would just rush to defend her and they’d probably wind up married by the end of the week.
“I admire that you do so much for her,” I finally said.
He looked up and his mouth screwed to the side.
I laughed. “No really, I do.”
“But?”
I shook my head. “Same but as always. You will stay in school. If you have any respect for me, you’ll at least do that. And encourage her to do the same.”
He stared at me for several moments. I tried to guess what he was thinking, but Amir was the best at keeping his emotions off his face. Finally, he nodded, and then picked up the arm he’d been examining when I first came in.
“I can draw it to us,” he said, running a finger across the circular wounds embedded in the wrist of the decaying flesh.
I blinked in confusion until I figured out he meant the vampire responsible for the human jigsaw puzzle spread all over the table. My first instinct was to argue, so I swallowed it down. “I was just hoping you could tell me something about the vampire that did this.” I shook my head. “It’s not something I’ve ever dealt with before. I need weaknesses. Something that will help me hunt them.” I sighed. “Then I can see if Ada Anne can do anything with the information.”
There were a few beats of silence. Then, Amir said, “I can do that.” He glanced at me sidelong. “But, if I draw it to you, he won’t know why. It will give you an advantage. It’s the easiest way.”
I stared at him and bit down on my lower lip. I hated asking my kids to get involved in stuff like this. But, bodies were dropping. I needed to get my hands on one of these things. Fast. Finally, I nodded. “What do you need?”
“I already have it.” He put the arm back down and cleared his throat. “But, before I do anything. I want to know what’s going on. All of it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Amir, now isn’t the time—”
His skin darkened, and then a multi colored hue began to glow under his skin. “Mal.” His voice shook. “We’re family.”
I sniffed and then tilted my head.
“I handle whatever it is, you know that.”
I studied his profile and for some reason, Ryland’s words from just moments ago bounced around in my skull. Finally, I nodded. “For now, I need you to keep this between us.”
He nodded. “Sergio?”
“You can tell him. That’s it.”
He nodded again.
I took in a deep breath, and then rushed through the events of the last two days. When I was finished speaking, I felt lighter. Maybe Ryland was right. I needed to confide in my kids more.
Amir whistled. “So, what?” He leaned closer to me and whispered, “Bao is some kind of vampire queen?” He smiled. “That’s kind of badass.”
I snorted. “Bao is apparently a cheerleader.” I sighed. “We need to make sure she gets to continue to live the life she wants.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “So, you’re going to let her stay on the squad?”
“I’m... thinking about it. After I think of some consequences for her going behind my back.”
He laughed. “Of course.”
“So, you going to do your thing?”
With a grin, he cracked his knuckles, t
hen reached up and removed his taqiyah. Holding a breath to brace himself, he took hold of his left horn, the one he could work dark magic with, and snapped it away from his head.
I winced and turned away. When I finally looked up again, another horn had already started to grow in its place, and he was shaping the horn he’d ripped out of his head into a flute like instrument. When it was finished, he would play it, and whoever he focused on while playing it, would come to him.
I had to smile. Amir was so cool. I knew a fucking unicorn.
When he turned to me, his expression was pinched with pain. Snapping that horn off was no different than a human breaking their own bone. It wasn’t pleasant. With watery eyes, he said, “It’s ready. You have to leave when I play it, but for now, I can try to pick up whatever feelings I can from the corpse.”
I nodded. “Tonight. When the kids are in bed.” I stifled a yawn as I stood up. “You can set the trap, and I’ll snatch the fucker up.”
Chapter Twelve
Darnell was in my arms, snoring so hard that his werewolf ears had grown out and his fingernails lengthened. Still, I kept reading his favorite story from Edgar Allan Poe. I learned long ago, that if I stopped in the middle, no matter how asleep he seemed, he would wake up and I’d have to start at the beginning.
Plus, I liked the idea that he was still young enough to ask for a bedtime story every now and then. In The Heights, innocence was a rare thing. When I finished, I closed the book, placed it on his nightstand, and peered down at him.
His mouth gaped, and a thick line of drool dripped out of the corner of his mouth and rolled down his chin. I smiled, wiped it off with my sleeve, and then shifted my position so that I could slide his head onto his pillow. He grunted, then curled up into a ball, and turned to his other side. I smiled again, stood up, and tucked his comforter tightly around him.
“Night kiddo,” I whispered before turning off the light and creeping out of his room.
Everything was quiet in the hall. I looked in on the rest of the kids before trudging down the hall to my room. I closed my door and leaned against it, shutting my eyes. It felt like I had been on the go for weeks now, even though it had only been a few days. With a sigh, I sat on my bed and stared at my dresser. My knife sat on the surface, glowing with that sharp, golden light I was accustomed to.
I swallowed a yawn, then tilted my head, my gaze still on the blade. Finally, I shrugged and muttered, “Screw it,” to myself. I raised my arm and fluttered my fingers in the direction of the knife, not really expecting anything to happen. My palm grew warm. The light from the blade brightened, then it shot the few inches across the room and into my hand.
I gasped. “Well, Mom. Am I telekinetic?”
Her smooth voice buzzed between my temples. I leaned my head the other way and frowned. “Then how is that happening? How am I moving the blade with my thoughts?” I narrowed my eyes. “Hm. My connection with it grows stronger the more I use it. So, this is the only thing I can move with my mind?” The buzzing grew louder. I laid back on my bed and asked the question I always asked. “Why can’t you tell me what I am, Mom? Where I’m from.” IU sighed. “Why can’t you tell me why I always forget?”
There was only the chill of silence.
It was another part of the curse. My mom could tell me many things, but she couldn’t tell me what I was until I freed her from the knife. Maybe it was better that I didn’t know. I didn’t have much time to dwell on the mystery that was me, because there was a creak just outside my door. I slid Mom back into my harness and sat up.
Fiona’s green eyes blinked at me from the small crack in my door. My heart beat faster. In the dim light pouring down on her from in the hallway, she glowed, the magic inside of her almost too bright for her body. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
She pushed the door open the rest of the way and shrugged. “That must be cool.” She nodded at my knife. “To be able to talk to your mom like that.”
I patted the space beside me. She skipped forward and sat down. “It is now.” I placed an arm around her and pulled her close, planting a light kiss on the top of her head. “But when I first started hearing her voice, I thought I was going crazy.” Memories tugged at me. I could still smell Abel’s coco butter lotion as she held me on the birthday she gifted me the knife. I don’t know how old I was, but no one did, so she never counted. The candles on my cake represented how long I was in her house, and that year, it had been seventeen years. When I came to her, I looked around four years old, and when she passed, I looked as old as I did now—as old as I would look for who knows how long. That was the first day I heard my mother’s voice, and Abel sure as shit got a kick out of my reaction.
I gave Fiona’s shoulders a tight squeeze, and then let go. “What’s on your mind, Fi?”
She kicked her tiny feet out in front of her. Fiona was exactly what you’d expect a fairy princess to look like. Dainty. Ethereal. Breathtaking. “I just wanted to make sure you aren’t mad at Ryland because of what I told you.”
I grinned and combed my fingers through her red hair. “A little. But, only because he should have told me.”
She turned toward me and pulled one of her legs up onto the bed, then tucked it under her other leg. “You’re not the only one that worries, you know.”
I lifted an eyebrow.
“You were missing for two days!” She shook her head, and tears pooled in her emerald eyes. “And then, you come home and don’t give us an explanation. That really sucks. I thought you had—I thought you’d—”
I kept stroking her hair as I waited for her to finish. When she didn’t, I frowned. “That I was dead?”
She sniffled. “That you left us. Just like...”
My heart seized in my chest. Just like her parents did. I closed my eyes to keep tears from falling. “Fiona, your mother, she didn’t abandon you.”
When she looked up, her bottom lip was quivering. I gave her a gentle smile. “She hid you in The Heights to protect you. You have to know how much she loved you.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and trembled. “All I know is the last time the adult left, she didn’t come back.”
I pulled her close and squeezed her as tightly as I could without breaking anything. I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. I just let her cry. I just let her feel my arms around her and hoped she knew that they would be for as long as she needed them. Finally, I pulled away and cupped her face. “I didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ll try not to do it again.”
“Ryland said whoever took you down used magic.” She frowned. “Was it a fairy?”
I frowned, trying to decide if I should answer her question. Finally, I sighed and said, “She was Wiccan.”
She snorted. “A Wiccan!” Throwing her head back, she barked up a laugh. “I’d of had no problem taking out that kind of magic.” Her lips turned down into another frown. “You should have taken me with you.”
I bit my lip to push down a grin. “It isn’t your job to protect me.”
She placed her pale hand over mine and peered at me. “Mal, if I lost you...” Tears with hints of glitter spilled down her cheeks.
“Hey.” I pulled her closer. “You’re not going to lose me. You’re not going to lose anyone.”
We spent several more moments squeezing each other until it was her turn to pull away. She opened her mouth, like she wanted to say something, and then sealed it closed again.
“What is it?”
She waved me off. “You’ll just get mad.”
“Just because I might get mad doesn’t mean you can’t talk to me.”
She stared at me for a few more beats of silence. “Promise me, that if Bao is in trouble, and you need our help... That you’ll come to us.”
“It’s not going to come to that.” I stood up, hoping to avoid the rest of the conversation. “Now, go to bed. I have to go handle this.”
She regained her feet and placed her hands on her hips. “Fine, but I ne
ed to say this.”
I sighed, grabbed my black leather jacket off the bed, and slid into it. Then, I peered at her and nodded.
“You trust me to help you run the house, and that should include protecting my brothers and sisters from anything that wants to hurt them.” Her bottom lip stuck out in a slight pout. “And if you don’t ask, I’m going to protect them anyway.” With that, she turned and started for the door.
I narrowed my eyes at her back. Half of me wanted to clap, and the other half of me wanted to snatch her ass up and remind her who the adult was. I went with a compromise. “Fiona.”
She stopped but didn’t turn around.
“Next Tuesday. I’ll be joining Ryland in training you.”
For several seconds, she just stood there, but I had to imagine that got a little smile out of her.
I grinned. “Now, get your ass in bed.”
She giggled, nodded, and then ducked out the door.
AROUND TWENTY MINUTES later, I was back at Blood N’ Fangs, seated at the bar next to Amir. Ryland was behind the bar, pouring himself a glass of O negative, and Amir a glass of what he called unicorn fuel. It was a smoothie made up of kosher salt, lemongrass, vinegar, and rosemary. Ryland had found the recipe in some old shadhavar lore when Amir was seven and the kid drank it at least once a day ever since.
My eyes watered at the smell as Ryland pushed it across the table to him. “God, I don’t know how you drink that,” I teased, covering my mouth with my sleeve.
Amir rolled his eyes and downed it in one gulp. “I love how I’m the only one whose eating habits you have a problem with.” He sat the cup down and snorted. “Darnell eats raw meat for fuck's sake. At least I’m vegan.”
Ryland handed me a glass of brady. “Yeah, I couldn’t give up chicken.” I shook my head.
Amir snorted. “So many black jokes, so little time.” He shrugged. “It’s a unicorn thing. Meat makes me sick.”
Ryland took a long swig of blood, then wiped his mouth off on his bare forearm. “Alright, Amir. What you got for us on this body?”
