My heart sank in my chest. They didn’t even try to hide their disappointment.
“I’m sorry I’m not the daughter you wanted me to be. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I guess that’s why I’m here, so shall we head past the bullshit politeness and get down to what I need to know about my childhood. Do you know about my real parents? Only I’m having a few problems right now and need some answers.”
My parents looked at each other. “Take a seat, Shelley,” my mother said. “We have quite a bit to tell you.”
I sat down on a chair opposite them. “You’ll have to excuse us a minute,” my mum said, and they closed their eyes before launching into an incantation. They spoke in unison and the glow around them grew brighter still. They stopped and looked at me.
“Who are you protecting yourself from?” I asked.
“You,” they replied.
“Excuse me?” My eyes widened. “Why would you need to protect yourself from me?”
My mother sighed.
“When we decided we wanted to adopt, we found it was rather more difficult than we thought. The adoption agency told us it would take years to be accepted. We’d made our peace with this, and then our keyworker phoned to say she had a child for us. You.” She pointed to me as if I didn’t know who I was. “We came to visit you and you looked so adorable, with your red hair. We fell in love and after visiting with you a few times we agreed to adopt you.”
“Okay, this all sounds perfectly normal.”
“But before your adoption went through, we went to the agency and were escorted through to a room where we met your real mother. It was apparent, more or less straight away, why you were being adopted. They’d told us your father had left her, and she had mental health issues. She was babbling about a devil taking her husband and that we were to protect her child.”
I swallowed. “What did she look like?”
“She had long dark black hair with a white streak through it. Of course, we thought she was deranged. The meeting was brought to a halt because of her distress and we didn’t see her again.”
I closed my eyes for a moment. Was this because she’d been taken to another realm or had I just inherited a mental health problem? I wasn’t sure which reality was worse.
My mother continued. “As your adoption progressed, you asked me why you had a new mummy. I told you that yours was poorly and that you’d been sent to be my special daughter as I couldn’t have a baby of my own. That my tummy was broken.” A tear came to my mum’s eye. “You placed your hands on my stomach and closed your eyes and you said, ‘please mend my new mummy’s tummy’. A couple of months later my pregnancy with Polly was confirmed. We’d heard that this happened a lot, you adopted and got naturally pregnant. They put it down to us relaxing about conception.”
“But?”
“You kept singing. About the baby sister who was coming. In time, we found out that we were expecting a girl. You told me she’d be born a month early, but I wasn’t to worry, to just take you to the hospital and you’d make sure she was okay. That your magic was strong. I started to feel a little edgy as your mum had talked about you having magic. We’d put it down to her being crazy.
“Polly arrived prematurely, and she struggled to breathe. Things were touch and go and I begged your father to bring you. You looked through the incubator, closed your eyes and said ‘she’s okay now’, and she was.” My mum was openly crying now. “I felt like I had been given two miracles. You, and Polly.”
“So, what went wrong?”
My mother sobbed, incapable of talking, so my dad took over.
“Babies need a lot of attention, and I guess because Polly was our natural born, she got even more. We’re not proud of that but, of course, we’d see the family resemblance in her, something that couldn’t happen with you. We saw her first smile, her first teeth. You were young, and became very jealous.” He took a deep breath. “We walked into Polly’s bedroom one day and she was hovering above the cot. You’d opened a window, and said she needed to leave. That she was ruining everything. We got you to place her back into the cot and while your mum hugged you, I phoned the number your mother had handed me before she’d been taken away. A man answered the phone and said he’d been expecting my call. He came straight around and he placed a ward of protection around us. To those with magic, it looks like cobwebs. We can’t see it.”
“Oh,” I said.
“The man waited until you slept and then he bound you with a spell that suppressed your magic. He reassured us that it likely wouldn’t appear again although there were no guarantees.”
“So we kept you away from us and Polly,” my mum said between sobs. “We weren’t proud of what we did but we needed to keep her safe. To keep ourselves safe.”
“You ignored me!” A vase wobbled precariously on the sideboard while the webs flashed with silver sparks and glowed brighter. They looked at each other and anxiety etched across their faces.
And then I understood and everything calmed.
“I can’t excuse what you did. You turned your love away from me and only gave it to Polly. You distanced yourself from me. But I understand now why you did it. You were afraid. I wouldn’t have harmed Polly. I remember opening that window because she was hot. I don’t remember her being in the air, just that she needed cooling down, but I can see how it would have looked. Thank you for explaining everything to me. You can have your wards put back up or not, but please don’t be afraid of me. I would never cause you harm. You provided for me and kept me clean, fed and safe. For that I thank you. But, I won’t visit again.”
“No,” my mum protested. “We want to see you. Now you know and we can openly protect ourselves. You’re still our daughter.”
My dad interrupted. “You need time to process everything and I know a relationship with us would take time under the circumstances. But Polly would like to get to know you. She doesn’t know about magic and we’re not sure how to deal with that. Maybe we can talk it over some other time. When did your magic return?”
“This last week. I didn’t know what was happening to me. I started having dreams in which someone who said she was my real mum appeared. She looks like you described but as you can imagine, I’m having a hard time processing that any of this is real.”
“It will take a long time to adjust. It did us,” my dad answered.
“Well, thank you for meeting with me,” I said. “Oh, just one thing. Do you still have the number my mum gave you?”
My dad nodded and went in his pocket. “I thought you’d ask for it.”
We said our goodbyes. My leaving was awkward. I didn’t want to hug them. With everything they’d said I didn’t know what I thought about my relationship with them. I needed some time to process everything. But first I wanted to know if this man could meet me and provide me with further answers.
Once I was en route to the train station I called the landline number I’d been given.
A woman’s computerised voice announced, “This number is no longer available. Connecting you to an alternative number unless you say cancel.”
I waited.
“Frankie Love speaking.”
“You! You knew I had magic, and you stopped it. Oh, you certainly have some explaining to do,” I told him. “Get ready, I’m on my way back to my house. I’ll be there at eleven. Meet me.”
“I’m already there. Wizards have no problems with locks. By the way, you need to get some beers in. I’ve magicked some up, but that doesn’t help local businesses.”
Ending the call, I walked towards the train station. I’d come looking for answers and ended up with more questions than ever.
Chapter Twelve
Theo
Great, I finally get the woman of my dreams and she thinks I’m attacking her friend the one night she can’t meet me. A complete and utter lack of trust. Okay, she’s only known me for a week and I have confessed in writing to draining my family of their blood, but I was a fledgling then. It’s no
t my fault my sire was killed. If he’d have survived, I’d have been prevented from the thirst. He would have taken me to a blood bank. I called Reuben and Darius and asked if they fancied a drink at mine. Reuben and myself were enjoying a nice vintage of blood and Darius loved scotch, so I’d given him a bottle. Rav was working so he couldn’t join us.
“So, what’s this all about? We don’t usually see you more than once a week. What’s happened to your elusive vampire side?” asked Reuben.
“Women,” I said.
Darius spluttered scotch down his cream cashmere jumper. “Fuck. That’ll have to go in the bin. Cashmere doesn’t clean well.”
“I’ll buy you a new one,” I grumbled. “What’s another fuck up today?”
“Hell, you are down in the dumps,” declared Reuben, looking at Darius’ jumper. “Bloody hell, Darius, what a mess. You weres are so uncouth. You need a bib.”
“Hilarious. Don’t go for stand-up any time soon,” Darius snarled.
Reuben flashed his eyes red at him.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vamp party trick. They don’t look as good as mine,” Darius said and flashed his wolf eyes with their hint of yellow.
“You two. Real problems here.” I called their attention back to me. “Shelley thinks I took a bite out of her friend.”
“What?” Reuben laughed. “Nice one. How did she come to that conclusion? Her friend’s dating that dodgy magician, right? Whatever happened to her, you can bet he’ll be responsible.”
“My tie was left at the scene.”
“Couldn’t the magician have conjured one up?” said Darius.
I sat back. That made a lot of sense. “Yes. Yes, you’re right, he could. It’ll be Mr Turnip trying to cause trouble. He’s started giving Shelley lessons in magic. He’s trying to drive a wedge between us. I know it.”
“Magic?” Said Reuben. “Why would Shelley be having lessons in magic? She’s mortal, isn’t she?”
“Yes, well, it appears not. She’s apparently half-witch on her mother’s side. Human father.”
“Really? How interesting. So how did she find that out?”
“Every time she’s been losing her temper, some object has gone flying, apparently. She coated me in coca-cola on our date. I just thought she’d spilled something.”
Reuben guffawed. “Her magical powers are spilling coca-cola? Gosh, let’s all hide.”
“Yeah, well she was going to visit her adoptive parents tonight to try to get some answers on her background. I don’t know if this is the extent of her powers or if they’ll get stronger. I might not get to find out if she bins me off thinking I’ve had a drink of her best friend.”
“Bin you off? What sort of language is that?” said Reuben.
“Modern language, you old bastard,” replied Darius. “It means to terminate the relationship.”
“I’ll terminate you if you don’t show some respect to your superior.”
“Stop it, you two. For goodness sake,” I told them. “Can we have one night without your sparring?”
Darius looked at Reuben. “He really is a misery guts, isn’t he? Put it there, bro.” They bumped fists.
“So, what do I do?” I asked them both.
“Take her out on a nice date. Go into the country or something with a picnic. Women like that kind of thing, and suggest she avoids Frankie. He’s up to something. I will keep an eye on him, see what he does while you’re both out.”
“You’d do that for me? Thank you.”
“You’re my best friend,” said Reuben, “and seeing as how Darius is a cop, he can help me.”
“Yeah, I can cover the day shift, you mean.” Darius rolled his eyes.
“Are you making fun of my disability? Sleep impairment is no laughing matter.”
“You’re not sleep impaired, you’re undead, you cretin,” yelled Darius.
They proceeded to carry on bickering and I sat back, enjoying my drink and left them to it. I felt better now we had a plan.
Now to convince Shelley that the only person I wanted to bite was her.
Chapter Thirteen
Shelley
“Why didn’t you tell me the whole truth?” I snapped at Frankie.
“Because it was your adoptive parents place to tell you, not mine. Now we can move forward because you can know the rest of the story.”
“There’s more?”
“Of course. Don’t you wonder why your real mother can only appear to you in a dream?”
“She told me. Because of Lucy.”
“Ah, yes, Lucy.” He sat back on my sofa. “Go get us a bottle of wine to share, dear. I think we’ll need it.”
I stood up to head to the kitchen. “I thought you bought beer?”
“I’ve already drunk those.”
“How old are you, anyway?”
“Thirty-seven, why?”
I shrugged. “I wondered if wizards lived for hundreds of years like vampires.”
“’Fraid not, though you can anti-age your wrinkles and give yourself a different look entirely. He waved a hand over his face so it looked like Prince William was sitting on my sofa. It wavered off. “It doesn’t stay very long though, a day at the most, so I don’t tend to bother with it.”
“You were only young then when my parents asked for your help.”
“Yes, but I’m a very strong wizard. Always have been.”
“Oh, right By the way, do you really like my friend?” I asked him. “Or have you been dating her to keep an eye on me?”
“I do like her, but Kim and I are frankly, what you call, fuck buddies. Neither of us sees a future in it and there’ll be no hard feelings when we’re done. In fact, the minute I stop going hard, I’ll call it quits.”
I made a vomiting noise. “You’re gross.”
“What can I say, she loves the wand.” He sighed. “Now, what do you have to do to get a drink around here?”
“Okay.” Frank took a drink of wine. “So, before she became a demon, Lucy dated your father – your real father.”
He gazed out of the window. “They were engaged to be married, the church was booked, and then your mother moved to Withernsea.”
“She stole him?” I gasped.
“It was more of a case of love at first sight. Your father was torn. He visited the boutique, which at that time was run by Ebony’s mother, who was also a seer. She told him that he was meant to be with your mother. That they would have a child. He ended his relationship with Lucy and called off the wedding.”
I put a hand over my mouth while I considered what he’d just said. “She must have been devastated. To lose someone she loved and for it to happen in the place where she lived.”
“She was furious, swore to get revenge against them. Ebony’s mother, Yolanda, allowed them to stay in the apartment over the boutique.”
“My business premises?” I queried.
“Yes. One night a fire started. Your parents escaped. Yolanda wasn’t so lucky and neither was Lucy.”
“She killed Yolanda? And then what, got trapped or died of smoke inhalation?”
“She denied having set the fire as she was taken out on the stretcher, but the next we knew, Lucy appeared in Hell, having become a devil and taking the post of head of Hell.”
“A devil, not the Devil?”
“No, you are thinking of Satan himself. He oversees Hell and has his subjects to guard his empire. Lucy became one of them, and she took your father with her. We don’t know how she did it. It has never been known for a human to cross the planes without death, and indeed, to go to Hell without committing an evil deed. Your mum went into hiding until you were born but eventually went to the astral plane, meaning she had no earthly body for Lucy to capture or torture, but she could still communicate and try to find a way to rescue your father. She has yet to be successful, but that is why she is able to communicate with you via your dreams.”
I drank down a whole glass of wine. “Well, if I didn’t think things were complicated befo
re. Now I discover I have Hell and an astral plane to deal with.”
“There are many planes of existence, but for now we need to talk about those that are currently relevant.”
“Well, Lucy is angry with me because I’m trying to make Withernsea happy and in love. She doesn’t know who I am yet. There’d have been more than a hanging flame warning, I’m sure, if she knew who I really was.”
“It won’t be long before she works out the truth. Now, we need to develop your magic as we don’t know what her next move will be. You are powerful, Shelley, more powerful than a half-witch is supposed to be, and I have no explanation for that. However, I have been letting your magic out a little at a time so you can embrace it rather than be overwhelmed. I believe you are much more powerful than I am, and that is why we must tread carefully.”
“You’ve been putting the brakes on my magic?”
“Yes.”
“I healed bite wounds on Kim this morning.”
“Bite wounds? She didn’t mention this to me?” Frank looked concerned.
“Because she didn’t know what they were. She thought they were insect bites and once I’d healed them, she probably thought no more about it. She also found Theo’s tie at her bedside.”
“Hmm.” Frank scratched his chin. “And what do you make of that?”
“Well I asked Theo outright. He wasn’t very impressed.”
“I should imagine not.”
“You don’t think he did it?”
“I can’t say whether he did or didn’t. I don’t know him that well, which is why I told you to be careful. But he’s 126-years-old, surely leaving a tie by a bedside would be a little careless?”
I placed my hand over my eyes and took a deep breath before letting my hand fall back to my lap. “I accused him. Shit. No wonder he was mad at me. What am I going to do next?”
“I’m going to teach you two things tonight. Firstly, how to see through glamour, as you didn’t need to see those cobwebs you told me about. You’ll be able to recognise that things like the hanging flame aren’t real too. Then I’m going to teach you how to make your own glamour. They can come in very useful. Tomorrow, as its plain to see how desperate you are to see that vampire again, why don’t you spend the day with him, give him the benefit of the doubt and practice your glamour on him? It could be fun.”
The Complete Collection: Supernatural Dating Agency Books 1-6 Page 8