War of Fangs (The Unseen Book 1)

by L. A. Boruff

  Small stings assaulted me as the urine hit the night’s friction spots. It was a welcome sting, one that meant I got to have sex. Good sex.

  My body ached as it would the day after an intense workout. It dawned on me that I’d slept like a baby after being fucked into oblivion. I made quick work of a shower and shaved my legs. Ew, the hair was longer than I'd realized. Those wonderful men hadn’t even blinked an eye, if they’d noticed the stubble. Still, I was mortified. I’d begun to give the love rug a trim when I heard a bang on the bathroom door.

  "Riley? Are you okay? You've been in there a while," Anthony yelled through the door.

  "Jesus Christ, Anthony!” I yelled after a near miss with the blade. “You don't interrupt a woman when she's in the bathroom. I could be pooping. Leave me alone," I yelled, clutching the razor. I would've cut off half my twat if I'd already started shaving.

  "You're not pooping, Riley. I’d be able to smell it."

  Well, I can never poop again. I jerked the shower curtain open and dripped across the bathroom, razor in hand. I opened the door, naked, to a bemused Anthony.

  "Are you serious right now? If I went number two, you would smell it through a closed door with the fan on in here?" He nodded his head, eyes glued to my chest. "So that means Michael knew exactly what I was doing every single time I used the bathroom?" He nodded his head again, mirth in his eyes.

  "Riley, everybody poops. Didn't you read that book when you were a child?"

  I answered by slamming the door in his face. His deep chuckles faded as he walked down the hall to give me some privacy.

  I finished prettying myself up. The full length mirror hanging behind the door showed me a girl with long, strawberry blonde hair, a chubby face, and a bit of an acne problem. The lighting made my deep set hazel eyes brown, but they liked to change. Later on they might be green, then brown again. I smiled and studied my white, slightly uneven teeth, wrapped with full lips. My braces never worked as a child, though there was nothing about my teeth to cause me alarm.

  I looked at my body critically. I'd lost most of my cellulite working out, but there was a chunk on both outer thighs that would never go away. Of course, my stretch marks would also never go away, but I’d never minded the stretch marks. They gave me my babies.

  I patted my almost flat belly and flexed my arms and thighs in the mirror. For a human, I was pretty kickass. The door slammed against the wall when I threw it open and stalked down the hall to the bedroom to find clothes.

  Once I was clothed and groomed, I made my way downstairs to the smell of bacon. Eli and Anthony sat at the kitchen table with bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee set out for me. They both sipped mugs of blood, a sight I didn’t think I’d ever get used to.

  Shyness and eating never meshed for me. As a teenager, especially, my friends would feign fullness and refuse to eat in front of any male in the vicinity. Then when we were alone, they'd pack it away like a starving linebacker. I was never like that. When I was hungry, I ate, at times with a gusto. With no qualms, I dug into the delicious breakfast.

  Elias quirked an eyebrow as I tried to talk with my mouth full. "Who made this?" I mumbled around my eggs.

  "I did," said Anthony.

  "Thanks." I said after washing my eggs down with scalding hot coffee. "It's delicious. How do you cook so well when you can't eat?"

  "We do eat, though we don't need to eat. We crave foods at random the same way you would, although probably less often."

  "Sure, sure. Okay. So. I'm going to be a Supay?" I asked, changing the subject abruptly.

  "We hope," Elias said with a sigh. "Many Supay have tried to find the entrance to the underworld. In theory, if we can find it, we can get you to the springs, which gives extended life. We don't know that you'll become a true Supay.”

  Anthony interrupted. “But, if you drink from the springs, the Junta will be forced to allow you access to the Unseen. We won't be hunted, and you'll be able to stay with your children."

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. "And if we aren't successful?"

  "More than likely we'll die." Anthony’s eyes held a challenge—could I handle it?

  "My choices are to try to find the entrance to an underworld that nobody has seen in literally thousands of years, go into hiding and never see my children again, or surrender to your council people, and they'll likely kill me?" I set my fork down, appetite lost.

  "Well, the Junta wouldn't kill you. In all likelihood, they would make you have more children," Elias said with a grimace.

  "What the fuck, E?" I asked. He gave me a half smile, and shrugged. My temper flared. My options were limited. Normal life was a shattered illusion for me. I supposed I could've let them go, moved to a new city, convinced Elias to make me a new identity, and tried to start over, but I couldn't stomach the idea of walking away from my children, so I scrapped that idea.

  "There's still a teensy bit more we need to tell you." Elias looked at me sheepishly.

  "You're kidding me! You've still not told me the entire truth?" I regretted our fuckscapade the night before in the light of his continued deception.

  “The reason the Junta is after you may not be because we've told you the truth," Eli said. "There’s another reason. David has begun to exhibit special abilities."

  I was stumped. I didn't see why that would cause the council to come after me. I looked at Eli with my bitch-face on and waited for him to clarify.

  "If you remember," Anthony said, "only pureblood Supay have ever exhibited abilities. Your sons aren't pureblood."

  I jerked my head to face Anthony in shock. “Then why do they have abilities?”

  Elias continued. "Danyelus told us while we were at the manor—that's part of what took me so long to get back to you. They were telling me their suspicions. David is starting to go through puberty. His aging process will slow, and he'll begin to crave blood. Danyelus and Tammy have been taking him into town to walk around the local mall and be around humans. It's important he not be secluded as he changes from child to grown Supay."

  "Why?" I asked.

  "He’d be fine while he was away from humans. He’d drink bagged blood. But being confronted all at once with human smells and sounds could push him over the edge. He might kill," said Anthony.

  "If he’s around humans while his cravings start to build, he'll be accustomed to fighting off the urges. Anyway, Danyelus noticed a strange phenomenon as David walked around among the humans." Elias continued the story. "Humans started following David. He seems to be entrancing people without trying."

  "I thought that was Michael's ability, entrancing humans," I said, missing the point.

  "Right. Michael entranced humans, and Anthony can calm them. But the children of pure Supay and humans have never manifested any abilities. Also, Danyelus wasn't able to find any record of a child manifesting their parent's same ability."

  Anthony took their mugs to the sink as he continued the explanation. "Not only is David showing the same abilities, they're multiplied tenfold. Michael had to focus to snare one human, and he was near adulthood before his power manifested. David is at the beginning of puberty and already stronger than Michael ever aspired to be."

  "He's always been a bright, energetic kid. I'm not surprised he’d be special," I said with pride.

  “Riley, it's not just that he's special," Elias said as Anthony grabbed my dishes and washed them. "He's too special. For him to have this ability, it means that both of his parents must also be special. They must both be Unseen."

  Here we go again. Unseen. They think I’m a vampire or something? This is getting ridiculous.

  "Am I in a novel? My life is being written into a novel, isn't it? Am I breaking the fourth wall right now?” Hysteria rose up my throat. “This is a hundred percent ridiculous! I'm not some distant relative of an Unseen creature! I've read this book. It ends in heartbreak. It's a fluke that David is showing extra-strong powers." I grew more panicked, overwhelmed. “I don’t want to die in a bloodba
th, guys. That’s not how I should go out. I want to grow old and have more babies, watch my babies have babies, and be a cranky old Southern woman, and I want to—”

  "Riley!" Anthony exclaimed, shattering the mug in his hand. "Stop being so obstinate! Yes, this is a large pill to swallow, but this is real life—it happens to be crazier than you imagined. We’re on your side. We’re hiding you from those that want to harm or study or breed with you. We’re proposing a solution, a way to help you stay with your children.” I gaped at him while he ranted and blood dripped down his hand. “And we're willing to make this journey with you, leaving our own children behind, and possibly die beside you. Damn it, woman! We care about you!"

  I looked ridiculous as I processed that outburst from the reserved Anthony. My mouth hung open, my eyes were wide, and my pulse raced. I stood and walked over to Anthony, partly angry at his tone of voice, partly touched. I stood in front of him as he glared down at me, undecided if I wanted to punch him or hug him. Surprising myself, I wrapped my arms around his waist and pulled him close. After reaching around me to rinse the blood from his already healed hands, he scooped me up by the ass and hugged me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and giggled.

  "I'm sorry, Anthony. You've proven to me, without a doubt, that your words are true. If I wasn't convinced before, the bites last night would be proof enough that the world is so much bigger than anyone expects it to be."

  Elias came up behind me and hugged both of us. I was a comforted Riley sandwich. I tried to let myself relax in relief and safety, but my mind warred with itself.

  If you keep letting them comfort and fawn over you, you're going to get too used to it…I think they’re the real deal, though.

  They set me down, and we moved to the table. "How can I possibly be Unseen, though? I'm not arguing with you about this, I'm curious how it could happen if you said that the Unseen gene is always dominant? And also, how could I not know?”

  "That's what we don't know," said Elias. "We’re clueless. And the Junta would most likely stick you in a cell disguised as a posh room and force us to impregnate you over and over. Once the children reached puberty, they'd be monitored closely to find any possible abilities. You would probably be bred until you were too old, or your body gave out. They would say it was in the name of increasing the strength of the Supay to justify the atrocity."

  "The new Fae leader of the Junta is making strides to change the ways of the Unseen world, but something of this magnitude would be out of his hands. Even the Supay elders that are unconnected to the Junta would want the same thing out of you. A hundred years ago, it wasn't uncommon to take a human woman hostage if she produced a female child. Of course, we know now it’s the man that biologically decides the sex of the baby, but there are still those who refuse to believe that." Anthony sighed, disgusted.

  Elias nodded his head. "It’s one of the downfalls of long life. We find it difficult to change. Old dogs and whatnot."

  I threw my hands up, exasperated. "I can't leave my children. I can't go hide and start over and pretend they don't exist. And Michael! I need to find his grave, I need to say goodbye. Since I won't let myself be taken by the Junta, I guess our only option is the underworld. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Hopeless sarcasm laced my voice.

  Anthony pulled out an ancient-looking book. The cover was old, cracked brown leather and the pages were so thin they were almost transparent. "This is one of the earliest written records of our legends. Like the Inca people, our ancestors didn't develop a written language until many hundreds of years after their inception." He put on a pair of white gloves before taking up the explanation again. "When a Supay goes through their sixty year puberty, he or she is required to read our entire history. The three of us spent years memorizing texts, travelling to other Supay settlements, and learning from other Unseen species. This book always intrigued me. It's been in our family for years. As soon as Danyelus told me what was going on with David, I thought we’d need it."

  "Hold up," I interrupted. "You guys are family? I thought you were so special because you're the last two male pureblood unrelated Supay. And what about the women? I know they're rare, but what about pureblood female Supay?"

  “All three of our mothers are still alive, but we aren't related by blood," Elias said. "And Michael has a pureblood sister. She lives with her husbands and children, who are not purebloods. They live in Virginia. We each have several brothers, but none of them are pure. Our fathers were killed in a war between the Supay and the Aljans—they’re sort of like demons.”

  “We were toddlers when they died,” said Anthony. “As far as anyone has been able to find, there are no more pure men. There are several pure women across the world, ranging from one baby to very, very old. Supay women are so sheltered and protected, whether pure blood or not, that more female purebloods have survived. No Supay would dream of harming a female, they don’t go to war, they do not fight. Extra care is taken so that there are no accidents. But with us being the only two men, even if we made a dozen children each, they'd only have each other to marry to keep the line alive, and then their children wouldn't be able to marry as they'd be related. So the Supay have bidden a sad farewell to our bloodline.”

  “We’re a race of hybrids,” continued Elias. “And for the most part, we're okay with that. Mainly, the regret is losing the special abilities. That’s why the Junta would be so eager to figure out what's special about you and to find a way to duplicate David's heritage."

  "All this makes me want to take up smoking again," I said, only mostly kidding. My chest tightened with a nicotine craving, and the desire to take a long, slow drag off of a cigarette filled my mind. The relaxation as I exhaled… The cancer and constant coughing! Snap out of it.

  “How long has it been since you smoked, Riley?” asked Elias. “It has to have been before we met.”

  “I quit the second I found out I was pregnant,” I said, still fighting a bit of a craving. “David was a happy surprise to us, or I would’ve quit when we started trying to get pregnant.”

  "Let's get on track." Anthony chastised me. "If you want to make the journey to the underworld, then we'll have to sneak into the manor for a few more books. This one will get us started, but we need to find as much information as possible about the early days of our people."

  "Can't we just go to Peru?" I asked. "I studied the Inca people a bit in college, and there are still a lot of people there that follow the old religions and worship the old gods. We could travel straight to the source."

  Elias nodded his head. "That's mostly the plan, but we want to start with as much information as possible. Plus, the Inca descendants think the race of the Supay is a race of demons. They don't realize who and what we are. Their ancestors so quickly ran our ancestors into hiding that their legends made us into demons."

  Anthony read over the book. "It's written in Quechua. Quechua was the language of the Inca, and many in Peru still speak it today. We’re taught to speak it during our studies as teens, but it's been a while and is a little difficult to translate." He looked up at us, embarrassed. "I'm rusty."

  I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and started to look up history on the Inca people. It dinged and played a little song as it booted up. I couldn't remember when I'd checked it last, so there was no telling when it turned off. I'd only brought it out of habit. There wasn't anyone for me to contact, except work.

  I guess I've effectively quit that job.

  A gust of air hit me, and my phone disappeared from my hand and smashed on the floor. My brain tried to process what happened. I knew I didn't drop it. Did a rogue gust of wind knock it out of my hand? If it was blown out of my hand, why didn't I see it fall? In an instant it was gone and shattered.

  "Sorry, Riley."

  I looked up at Elias questioningly.

  "I didn't realize you still had your phone. We can’t have any devices with us that use GPS. If you want to look something up online you'll need to use the computer in the living
room, but I caution you not to log on to any social media or email accounts so your location isn't pinpointed."

  He knocked it out of my hand so fast I didn’t even see it happening. Will I ever get used to their abilities?

  "It's been off, Eli. I actually don't think it’s been on since the last day I worked." I counted the days in my head. "I guess that would've been four days ago." The phone was totally ruined, but no pictures were on it, and the other data could be retrieved from the cloud later. Elias cleaned up the phone pieces and walked with me to the living room to get on the computer while Anthony poured over the book.

  Chapter 7

  We spent several hours reading websites about the Inca people and their descendants in modern Peru. Since the Inca didn’t have a written language, they’d used a series of knotted strings to relay messages. That’s part of the reason so little was known about the origins of the Inca and the Supay. Written Inca information today was legend passed down orally from one generation to the next.

  Villages existed that kept to the ancient Inca traditions. They only spoke the Inca language of Quechua, and they strictly adhered to the old ways of worshiping the gods. They ate the food their ancestors ate and shunned modern vehicles in favor of a traditional llama.

  Elias already knew most of the information about the Inca history and traditions. He left me to learn what I could while he went in the kitchen to start mapping out our route with Anthony. As teens, they’d both traveled to Peru under the guise of tourists. It was a Supay right of passage to travel to their homeland and learn about the culture from the natives.

  My eyes drooped after several hours of reading, so I wandered into the kitchen. Anthony was gone and Elias was making a grilled cheese sandwich. I sat at the table and propped my head in my hands.

  “Where's Anthony?” I asked.

  “He went to buy supplies for the journey. We’ll have to drive for a while,” he replied.

  “And how exactly are you going to have enough blood the whole way?” I asked, uncomfortable with the idea of the two of them sipping from random people along the way.