by Kate Bonham
“It was a one-night stand, she found out what he was and took off. I came along nine months later, and she assumed I would turn into what he was but when I was seven nothing had happened, so she figured I wasn’t one.”
“When did it happen?”
“I never shifted or anything, but I did start to feel violent, angry all the time, wanting to rip people’s faces off when they bullied me when I was about sixteen.”
“How did your mother handle that?”
“Not well, she told me about my father for the first time,” I told him. “But she doesn’t really know anything about them. I learned most of what I was from my stepfather.”
“How did he know?”
“He’s a Watcher.”
“Ah yes, that’s right.”
“Where have you been searching for him?” Bram asked me.
“Anywhere he told me to steer clear of because of all the supernaturals that hang out within those places.”
“And that brought you here?”
“I was on my way through to meet with some woman named Patrizia.”
“Patrizia?” he asked. “The Nosferatu?”
I nodded. “Yes, my stepfather mentioned her in his journals. She has a wealth of knowledge and she knows everyone so I figured it was a good place to start.”
“That’s because she’s very old, and incredibly evil. I don’t like that your stepfather knew her.”
“He’s not evil,” I told him quickly. “I can assure you of that. He was the only parent I really had after I started to show signs of being more like my father than my mother.”
“Okay, and did he tell you anything about what he was?”
I nodded. “He told me he was a gargoyle in human terms, and they were called Watchers. He didn’t like talking about it though, he had a falling out with his family.”
“He was banished?”
“What?”
“Well most Watchers are united, and don’t go far from their families. If he didn’t ever go home, it would mean he did something egregious and wasn’t welcome home which means he wouldn’t be protected by them and that’s probably why he’s missing.”
“So, who would want to hurt him? Do Watchers have natural enemies or could it be anyone?”
“Alchemists,” he said. “They are the sworn enemies of Watchers, and no, before you ask, I don’t know why. All I know is Alchemists can do some real damage to them.”
“How can I find out what happened to him?” I asked, feeling my voice crack a little. All of this information was only making it seem all the harder to track him down.
“I think I have someone we can talk to,” he said. “I’ll call him in the morning and see if he’s in town. He’s a Watcher, but he stays out of the politics of it all. He also knows the Watcher on the Council of Elders so they’ll be able to help too.”
“Why are you helping me?” I asked. “I mean aren’t we meant to be enemies?”
“I also don’t get caught up in all the bullshit. You won’t see many Nosferatu with lycans hanging around them usually, but I don’t mind the pack living in the hills. I look out for them and they protect the properties from idiots and Hunters.”
“You’re a friend to all then?”
“I guess you could call it that.”
“Okay,” I said. “Thank you.”
He smiled at me. “There’s food in the kitchen if you’d like to eat. I had someone bring a range of things here.”
I hadn’t even noticed how hungry I was until he mentioned food. Jumping up out of the chair, I made my way through the rooms until I found the kitchen. He wasn’t wrong, a fruit basket sat on the countertop that looked as if it was never used. A large two-door fridge was inviting as hell. I opened the doors to see a compartment labeled BLOOD, which made me laugh. Lucky I had an open mind, Bram.
Looking on the door, I saw jars of orange juice and soda, a big bottle of water and some kind of milky product in a glass bottle.
Cheeses and yoghurt sat on shelves with meat, bacon and eggs. I looked over at the pantry doors and peeked inside. The entire room was filled with food, biscuits, chips, snack foods galore, candy and also canisters of flour, sugars and rice. I was spoiled for choice.
Lazy, though, I grabbed a banana from the fruit basket and a glass of the orange juice. Bram was watching me as I closed the fridge door again. I was mid-chew on the banana when I spotted him, and had to fight not to choke on it.
“I can cook for you if you wish?”
“No, it’s okay. It’s late, I should probably go to bed soon anyway. A new day and all that.”
“I wish I could bid you goodnight,” he said, a grim expression on his face. “But I’m afraid I have received news of a trespasser in the hills. My friend has brought her here.”
“Oh?”
“She claims to have lost her daughter who went looking for her husband.”
My stomach twisted, the banana tasting like rubber on my tongue and the juice burning my insides.
“My mom is here?”
Bram nodded. “I’m afraid so, come, she’ll be happy to see you.”
I joined him out in the foyer, just as something sailed through the air toward us. Quickly, I grabbed hold of the golden hilt of a blade I recognized as one of my mother’s, just before it was about to slam into Bram’s face.
We both looked to my mother who had such an aggressive look on her face, almost like I didn’t know who was standing in front of me.
“Get away from him, Mae,” she growled at me. “He’s a monster.”
Three
Bram
I looked to the woman who held a faint resemblance to Mae, and her angry expression. She’d tried to stab me in the face, if it hadn’t been for Mae’s quick actions, I’d have a goddamn blade in my face.
“Mother, what are you doing?” Mae exclaimed. “You can’t just throw blades around.”
“He’s a monster, baby girl, you need to come home with me.”
“No,” she replied, angrily. “I’ve found out more in the last week or so of my travels than I ever did when I asked you. I have a right to know who I am.”
“Okay, I can tell you more but come away from him. You don’t know what he is.”
“A Nosferatu?” Mae bit back. The mother was surprised, but she held a stony expression.
“We can talk about this,” I interjected. “Let’s all go into my entertaining area and sit down.”
Ferenc was close to ripping someone’s arm off, but I could see he was pulling his anger back. It had been so long since we’d had trouble here that he hadn’t been expecting the attack.
Mae led the way, and Ferenc led the mother into the room while I took a breath to get my anger under control. Her blood was warmed from her anger, and it smelt so damn good. Not as good as Mae’s but still, there was a whiff of something that I couldn’t quite place. It seemed Mae’s mother had a few secrets of her own.
I sat down at the end of the table, well away from everyone else. Mae stood against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest in a very unwelcoming pose, and Ferenc sat near the mother so as to prevent any brawling I was guessing. Mae’s mother was a spitfire, and I had no idea why she was so scared of Nosferatu unless she knew more than she was letting on.
I’d already made assumptions of her well before I met her. What kind of mother would lie to her daughter for so long? It was dangerous not to tell a child they were part supernatural.
“Amabelle,” Ferenc began. “Please, I think you need to tell them what you told me.”
She seemed hesitant. “When I couldn’t get in touch with Mae, I got in touch with her father to see if he could track her.”
“You knew how to contact him all this time?” Mae asked, coming closer to the table. “I asked you for years.”
“He’s not someone that should have known about you. His family are dangerous.”
“Amabelle,” Ferenc said, sternly. “Tell them.”
Amabelle sighed. “I met h
im when I was eighteen and fell absolutely in love with him. He was protective, funny and incredibly sexy. I’d never met anyone who had made me feel so safe and so happy before. When I found out I was pregnant, I went to tell him but I overheard his family telling him he was to be married and I got angry, I confronted him later, but he told me he didn’t have a choice. This was the way of his family. I was so upset I didn’t even tell him I was pregnant, and I left. He never came looking for me, and I was raising Mae on my own until I met Bastien.”
“Jesus Christ,” Mae grunted. “Just fucking tell me who he is.”
I moved over to where Mae was, and she looked up at me. “Relax, we’ll get there.”
Mae physically calmed down and I turned back to Amabelle. She looked up at me, in surprise, before she cleared her throat.
“When I met him, he told me who he was and what he was. His name is Hallec Blackmaw.”
I felt the tension in the air crackle at the familiar name. I knew it had to have been someone who wouldn’t be punished for seeking love outside of their pack, but the Blackmaws? This wasn’t going to go well.
“And now he knows?” I asked her. “About Mae?”
“Yes, he was able to find her here, but I also think he’s coming here to meet her, he was a little surprised to find out he had a daughter.”
“Did he tell you that?” Ferenc asked.
“No, but he was very interested in her. He wanted to know everything about her. But I know this, any child born to that family must be raised in that way.”
“What the hell is going on?” Mae asked, with a sudden burst of anger. “What does it all mean and why wouldn’t he want to meet me?”
“Come with me,” I told her. Ferenc held Amabelle back and they stayed in the room. I led her back to the library so we could be alone and I could break the news to her. She was too angry with her mother to really listen or understand the history behind the Blackmaws and why she should be really afraid.
“What’s going on, Bram?” she asked me. I could see the innocence in her eyes, and yet there was a wisdom that could only come from seeing things you could never unsee. I felt the need to protect her, a need I’d never had before, one that was primal and one I shouldn’t be experiencing toward a lycanthrope.
“It appears you are part Blackmaw,” I said. “Now, when I tell you these things, I need you to listen, I mean really listen, because as long as the family knows you live, they will try and get you into that cesspit and you’ll never know your human life again.”
“What?”
I sighed. “Mae, the Blackmaw family are one of seven royal families in the lycanthrope world. Actually, they are the most brutal royal family, and are singlehandedly responsible for the destruction of two royal lines.”
“Are you saying they are murderers?” she asked, the fear lacing through her eyes, was unmistakable.
“It’s different in the lycanthrope world, and Ferenc can help you with that. I happen to know your father, he’s never been as brutal as his father and uncle, but it’s also been a long time since I have seen him. He could have changed. I do know he’s married to an absolute bitch.”
“So why is it dangerous that he wants to know me?”
“If he has changed, it’s dangerous; he’ll take you back to the Blackmaw castle, and you’ll be raised in their way.”
“And if he’s not like that? How did you know him?” she asked me.
“I met him about twenty years ago, he was…well, he was a nice guy. I knew what he was, but I had no idea which family he belonged to and I’d never have imagined it. He saved me from his angry uncle who wanted my head. It so happens I may have killed their ancestor when I was first created.”
“So, he’s a good guy?”
“He was when I knew him, yes.”
“Maybe he still is?” she said, hope evident in her eyes.
“Maybe he is,” I said. “Anyway, I think it’s best if you try and contact him and meet with him without his family, that would be your safest bet. He’s never been harmful to his children with the bitch, but only one of those kids is actually a nice guy. The other two are just like her.”
“I have siblings?” she asked me, a smile appearing on her face. “How many?”
“Three from memory, but it may have changed since I last spoke to him. Most lycanthropes are not raised by their parents.”
“Who raises them?”
“In packs, it’s usually an elder or a teacher, they are responsible for teaching them the histories, the laws and how to control the anger and the hunger. Of course, their parents are respected most of all, but there’s no link to them. They are the pack’s cubs. However, in a royal family, I presume the prince or princess would be raised by a governess or something similar.”
Ferenc ran into the room, panicked. “Hallec is here.”
I shot out of the chair and ran for the doors, ordering Ferenc to hide Amabelle and Mae. She fought it at first, but eventually they were both able to pull Mae away into a hidden room.
No matter the cost, I had to keep Mae safe.
Four
Mae
“I’m so sick of everyone trying to protect me and not letting me make up my own mind,” I grunted as Ferenc guarded the door to the library. We were in a dark secret tunnel, one that smelled of rot and mold, only a few lit lanterns on the walls which Ferenc had known where to ignite them. “Bastien would let me protect myself.”
“You don’t know Bastien as well as you think,” my mother scoffed. “He’s not the saint you make him out to be, you know.”
“Shut up,” I spat back. “We wouldn’t be in this situation if you had just told me the truth about what I was.”
“I did,” she replied quickly. “You just never wanted to hear it.”
“You lied constantly,” I yelled.
“Ladies,” Ferenc said. “Please, I have sisters and a wife, will you desist with your bickering.”
The door opened, and Ferenc was at full attention until Bram showed his face.
“Mae,” he said. “Come, it’s safe.”
“Is he gone?” Amabelle asked.
“No, but he wishes to meet his daughter.”
“No,” Amabelle tried to push forward to hold me back but Ferenc held her. “Mae, you can’t trust him.”
I looked back at my mother, then turned to Bram. “Take me.”
Bram took my hand, the coldness shooting up my arm, but as we headed out into the foyer, I felt my heart race with excitement.
Bram turned to me at the foot of the staircase. “Calm down.”
“What?”
“Your heart is about to stroke out, calm down,” he said. “He’s just as nervous as you are, so just be you.”
“What if I’m not good enough as just me.”
“Believe me, Mae, you are, and so much more.”
He moved a wisp of hair from my eyes and tucked it behind my ear. I nodded and took his hand once more as he led me up the stairs, to the second floor and toward the bedroom I was using.
“He’s waiting in there; I hope that’s okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Go on,” he said. “He won’t hurt you; he just wants to know you.”
“You’re not coming?”
Bram shook his head. “I’ll be close by if you need me, but you don’t need me in there.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Stay close, please.”
“Of course.”
I let my hand drop from his, and suddenly I felt so alone. Although, I knew I wasn’t. I was about to meet my father, the one I had always wanted to know. No disrespect to Bastien, I loved him so much, but a girl wants to know who she is and if her true father really loved her.
I opened the door slightly and moved into the room. He stood by the window, his back to me, but he was turning around as I closed the door.
Once he turned to me, I could see how handsome he was, and where I got my eyes from. He looked younger than I expected, probably the same age as Bram
did, but I knew Bram was hundreds of years old, whereas my dad was probably only in his late thirties.
“Hi.”
He smiled at me, a warm smile which put me slightly at ease. “Hello, Mae.”
“What do I call you?”
He sighed, moving closer, toward the chair next to the vanity. “You may call me whatever you wish. I want you to be comfortable, Mae. I don’t mind being called father or dad, but if Hal or Hallec is more comfortable to you, I understand.”
“How did you track me?” I asked, feeling as if the questions were about to be bombarding me.
“We can track our own bloodline, only royals can, but that’s how.”
“And how did you not know about me until now?”
He sat down and relaxed back into the chair. “I didn’t expect to have a child with Am. I mean, she was so adamant that she hated my family and wanted nothing to do with me, that I just assumed she would find love somewhere else. After all, her own family wouldn’t allow her to wed a super.”
“Super?”
“Supernatural, that’s what we are all heaped into by humans and the like.”
“Her family knew about you?”
“Well yeah, but they aren’t fully human, so it made sense.”
My head was whirling now. “My mother is human.”
“Ah,” he said. “She hasn’t told you that either, I guess.”
“So, I’m not half human?”
“This is where it’s going to get complicated, Mae. She is, but her family aren’t. She didn’t inherit the gene.”
“So, she’s like a squib?” I asked, referring to the only pop culture reference I could.
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Well, you see in Harry Potter, a wizarding family can have a child who doesn’t have powers and they are called squibs.”
He laughed, a hearty, and genuine laugh that made me smile. I guess that was a really nerdy thing to say, but it’s literally the first thing I thought of.
“I’ve not seen nor read the books, but yes, Amabelle is fully human, whereas her family are romani.”
