Chapter 14 #2
She’d rejoiced when everything had ended and had hoped she’d never have to face such horrors again. Only for the nightmare to show back up on her doorstep ten years later. Starting with her sister getting hit with a secret keeper hex.
Destiny had jokes.
Fabian released his tightly held breath and opened his eyes slowly lowering his staff.
“You’re good at that,” she said, approaching him.
He jumped and looked up at her in surprise. “You’re alive.”
She paused at that before continuing toward him and taking a seat across from him. “Well, that’s an interesting way of greeting someone. And here I thought you’d be all, oh my god my savior has appeared.”
His expression told her more than enough about what he thought of that suggestion.
“I was joking,” she offered hoping he’d stop looking at her like she was an alien. “Why wouldn’t I be alive?”
“The Vampire,” he answered as he looked around before leaning in close lifting his hand as if to impart a secret. “He didn’t seem to like Surrem, and your magic is Surrem isn’t it?”
Lanias hadn’t thought anyone would notice her magic during the chaos. “Why do you think that?”
“It feels like Roni’s, he taught himself how to hide it by thinning his magic out.” He said looking at her with eyes full of questions. “He said he’d gotten so good that when he met people from the Veil, they thought he was a rare male Witch.”
“Is that what you were doing out here,” she asked, instead of answering his question. “Training your magic to be softer?”
“Yes,” he said while nodding. “It’s the last step before they let you go back to the human world.
Stan was going to take me to the others so that I could be trained to become better at it.
” At his own words his expression fell, “But he hasn’t come back, and so I was waiting for perhaps Roni to come, but instead-. ”
“We came.” She finished for him.
Pulling up pieces of grass, Fabian sighed. “Yeah, I was surprised the hex fell when you guys entered. It’s supposed to only work for those who are keyed into it. Did you know Stan?”
“No, my uncle did some business with him. He must have keyed me in back when I was a kid when he brought me with him,” she said though in truth she didn’t know why she’d been keyed into the secret hex.
How could he know she’d come back; she wasn’t sure herself when she’d initially woken up that she would even want to find out more about herself.
Fabian seemed to take her words at face value. “That makes sense, so where did you learn how to control your magic?”
She thought it over, she’d always thought of herself as a numb Witch.
Some parts she’d learned to suppress and when she’d realized what her magic truly meant she’d worked ten times harder to hide it.
“As Witches there are naturally five types. Black, white, grey, green and numb. It’s natural for all types to learn how to train and control our magic, or we could hurt someone inadvertently. ”
“Really? I’ve never hung around Being’s, so I don’t know a lot about them. Though I’ve always been able to see the veil,” he said his expression became sad. “A whole world of magic, and I was stuck in the human world.”
Seeing this she found herself asking without thinking. “What about your family? You haven’t mentioned them at all.”
The way he looked away from her, told her that he wasn’t comfortable talking about them.
“If you don’t want to tell me I completely understand.”
“My mom lost her mind after I turned four,” he said grimly.
“My father seduced her cause he was bored. The Surrem’s seduction ability is like that of Sirens; at least that’s what Stan said.
He said, they seduce human women or men.
Surrem pull them in and play with them before throwing them away once no longer wanted.
When she woke up from her dream my father was gone and there I was.
” He bit his lip, his expression darkening with something Lanias understood all too well, hate.
“It didn’t help she was already the black sheep of her family, classic runaway and doing drugs before she met my father.
So, when she had me I guess she saw me as a second chance at life and from what I remember she was a decent mother, she loved me but then dreams would come.
The addiction to the Surrem’s presence hadn’t left her completely, she would see him even though he wasn’t there.
She started to hallucinate so badly that when I was four years old she walked into traffic and that was the last I saw her alive. ”
Rising to her knees, Lanias wrapped Fabian in her arms pulling him close. “I’m so sorry.”
“For the longest I couldn’t understand why she was gone, and when my grandparents showed up that was it.
They took me to an orphanage blaming me for her death.
Their last words I remember were that they were happy to get rid of the progeny who’d destroyed their daughter’s life.
” He pressed his face deep into her shoulder.
“And now I’m the same, I’m the same as him. This power proves it.”
She pulled back, “Listen, our parents don’t determine who we’ll become in the future.
Your magic isn’t anyone’s but yours. Your father was the monster, not you.
And your mother obviously loved you on sight.
If she’d wanted to be rid of you, she would have left you but instead she decided to raise you with all the love she could.
” Lanias said hating how much she’d wished someone would have said the same things to her when she was young. “Look, I’ll help you hone your powers.”
“Really?” he said excitedly, pulling back before he squinted at her. “Wait, you’re going to ask for a favor in return right?”
She smirked. “How did you know?”
Fabian clicked his tongue. “You don’t look like the type who’d just give me something for nothing.”
She removed her arms from his shoulders as she sat back on her legs. “Fine, that’s true. You mentioned that the others were hidden away.”
He pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes. “Yes, Stan would hand them off to Roni and then he’d take them somewhere safe. A headquarters of sorts.”
“How do I meet with this Roni person?”
“Do you promise that you’re not going to hurt him,” he asked.
Lanias lifted her hand. “I vow I have no interest in hurting him. I just want to know about Eris.”
“Eris? Why him?” Fabian asked, clearly interested in her answer.
“My uncle talked about him a lot, so I found myself curious about him. From what I’ve gathered he’s the reason you all were being protected by Stan, and I’m assuming Roni as well.” She explained, feeling a tad bit guilty for lying to such an innocent kid.
“Yeah, apparently a Surrem killed his wife and child. So, he started looking for us, to protect us. He also said something about the “cleansing”. I think he knew that the True Ones would someday comeback and try to kill us.” Once more his expression turned dark.
Lanias placed her hand on his shoulder, “Trust me, I won’t let anyone hurt you. You’re safe here.”
He nodded, “Alright, I did see your Vampire kill that Surrem.”
“Right, so tell me where I can meet this Roni person.”
He visibly weighed telling her or not before finally coming to a decision.
“The last time Stan went to go meet him, he mentioned that Roni liked a bar in the crack of the Veil. When I asked him to go with him, he said it was dangerous since only the worst of the worse spent time there those like the Nephilim. He said the bar itself was seedy and underhanded deals went on there all the time.”
“Sounds like Cains.” Both Lanias and Fabian looked up to find a man, with bright blue eyes standing beside them. Fabian, unaccustomed to the habit of vampires suddenly appearing released a shocked shout and scrambled half staggered to his feet taking a few steps back.
Lanias stared up at him. “One of Aleks kids I presume.”
His glared down at her. “Sorin doesn’t like you, he hasn’t since the first time you two met.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” she said, coming to her feet. “Not that I care whether he likes me or not. My only concern is Alek.”
“I would prefer it if it weren’t,” he said as he took a threatening step forward, only to fall back when where he’d stepped erupted in black thorns.
“Oh, look at that it seems your path to getting what you wanted is riddled with thorns,” she said while turning her attention to Fabian. “I’m starving, let’s practice after you eat. Hmm.”
He gave a jerky nod, still eyeing Mihai who glared after Lanias as she walked away. Only to jump when those same eyes landed on him. Fabian quickly reached down and picked up his staff then quickly followed after the daunting Witch.