Chapter Fifteen #3
“I loved my brother more than myself when we were younger.” She whispered.
“He did everything he could to protect me and keep my mind straight while we suffered at the hands of that woman…I was the one who didn’t speak so he would speak for me.
For years… I refused to open my mouth. He took so much of my pain and trauma that looking at him…
I see it’s stayed with him all these years.
He is the only reason I am where I am today with my mind right.
Knowing that he’s alive but…like this…” Raven began to stumble on her words as she watched Adrias move around the shed.
He stored her pain for years in addition to carrying his own.
“I don’t care if my parents were victims in all of this…
I will never forgive my mother for bringing us into this…
this….” She spat angrily. “Fucked up world and it’s a never-ending cycle.
I’ll never forgive my father for lying all these years and doing nothing to protect us or save us.
I want nothing to do with either of them. ”
She began to take a razor blade to saw at the thick rope. Tapping the leg of the hanging man, she sucked her teeth.
“And you want me to believe this granddaughter who is tangled up with some werewolf is the reason I’m stuck in this damn body now? She is the reincarnation of the moon?” She asked just as the body dropped to the ground.
“The moment day became night, a lot of things changed within the mythic community. That was her doing,” I stated.
I could hear the bones snap. Adrias immediately darted towards the body just about to attack before realizing the flesh had officially died. It was no use to him in that state.
“Hmmmph,” she huffed. “On top of witches trying to hunt people like me down? Oh baby…” Raven laughed with a shake of her head. “They have no idea how we’re coming… Those damn teenagers in there?” She pointed towards the house with the small blade. “They are itching to kill…Just ask em!”
“That won’t be necessary,” I concluded. “It will become dangerous as hatred and disdain grows for anyone that associates and identifies as the First Family.”
She climbed down the ladder and stepped over the broken body as she wiped her hands on a towel hanging nearby.
“Felix did say witches were starting to gather more frequently.” She muttered to herself in her own thoughts.
She turned to look at me with a small pout of her lips in defiance.
“My neighbor did say that there was talk amongst other mythics about something big going on. Down the road, Felix takes a stroll to see one of his friends and they talk, you know,” she muttered under her breath.
“Cats are some of the chattiest beings around and baby, they talk.”
“Okay,” I said, wondering why this was of importance.
“Any who, my neighbor owns a breeding house for familiars. She breeds and sells em to the large families and most of em are witches. She and I are cordial, but she’ll tell me some things from time to time and she did say something big was going to happen.
” I was already making a mental note on the direction this familiar farm could possibly be, but Raven continued talking.
“One thing about me honey, unlike my parents? I am my brother’s sister, and I learned from him.
I will do whatever I need to do to protect me and mine. ”
“As will I.” I stated with a firm nod. We stared at one another as two protective mothers recognizing the threat and danger coming our way.
What I lacked in physical strength, I made up for in knowledge and gaining information.
I was mentally creating the family tree, weaving the branches and limbs of the First Family and its offspring.
“Your sister Cynthia is also feeling the same given what’s happening with her mother and now her daughter has gone missing. ”
“Hmmmph,” Raven huffed as she looked over at her brother with a sudden smile.
Adrias was in the middle of quietly feeding off of a hanging body.
His eyes bled bright red with his fangs sunken into the plump pale wrist of a woman.
The blue veins struck her skin like lightning, all pointing down towards his mouth where he proceeded to drain her, and his eyes only focused on me as he ate.
“You feed from him?” Raven asked as she turned to look at me.
I gave a simple nod in response. “Don’t let him do that to you.
It’s not safe and that attachment ain’t healthy.
You will need to learn how to hunt for yourself just in case something happens to him.
” She suddenly pointed towards the house.
“All them folks in there? I taught them how to safely hunt for their own and to do it without killing anybody. I’ll teach you too so that you can teach your baby. ”
She began to collect the buckets to pull to the side as each body, as if on a timer, dried out as they died. The slow death finally got to them. She swished one of the buckets around, letting the blood thicken before dumping it into another.
“If it's a war they want, they got the right one.” She concluded with a hard sigh. Turning around, she looked at me with her hands back on her hips. “When do we need to leave for Georgia?”