Fiona
(Daughter of Benedict & Yelena)
I returned to my table after Bijarki politely took Shen aside for a quick work-related talk—or so he’d said. Shen didn’t seem all that happy to part with me, but I had to admit I’d had a little too much of his incubus nature already. With a light head and soft knees, I rested my elbows on the table. Dad poured me another glass of peppered blood. Of all the varieties I’d tasted so far, the spicy one was definitely my favorite.
“I must say, you look gorgeous, honey.” Mom smiled at me as she leaned against Dad’s shoulder. I glanced down at my dress and shrugged. I’d opted for a black sequined pencil dress that covered my knees, with spaghetti straps and a deep cut at the back for mobility, and black pumps with heels high enough to make me comfortably taller.
“Thank you, Mom.” I smiled back with a wink. “You’re not looking bad yourself!”
Indeed, my mom had gone for a soft red cocktail dress, with diamond earrings and a matching necklace that made her resemble a 1950s starlet. Dad gazed lovingly at her, his hand covering hers on the table.
“And she always makes it look so effortless,” he said.
Mom laughed lightly, her eyelids fluttering as she took a sip from her glass of blood. She’d settled for the plain one, without spices.
Field and Aida came to our table, laughing. Their cheeks were red, as they’d just finished a fast-paced number on the dancefloor.
“Mind if we join you for a minute?” Field asked, pointing at Avril and Scarlett’s empty seats next to mine.
“Of course not!” I beamed at them.
They both sat down, pouring themselves tall glasses of spiced rosewater and gulping down half in one go. Dad stifled a laugh as he sipped from his.
“I’m guessing all that dancing got you two thirsty,” he said.
“Yeah, though I’m not sure it would be wise to drink spiced rosewater so fast.” Aida grinned. “But hey, my brother just got married, I’ve got a bun in the oven, and the man of my dreams is with me. I think we’re okay to enjoy this exotic treat tonight. It’s harmless during pregnancy anyway!”
“Congratulations again, sweetie,” Mom replied with a warm smile. “I can’t wait to see the bump!”
Field put his arm around Aida’s shoulders and pulled her close, dropping a kiss on her temple. Aida sighed and relaxed into him, resting her head against his chest. She looked tired, and I had a feeling she’d soon be gently carried off to dreamland.
“Me too,” she said, stifling a yawn. “Although the bun is already eating into my energy. I’m sleeping more each day! Not to mention the morning sickness… I heard that kind of goes away in the second trimester, though.”
“It did for me.” Mom nodded. “Fiona was a good baby, too. Barely kicked toward the end of the third trimester.”
“I had to sometimes tap Yelena’s belly just to make sure Fiona was still in there.” Dad chuckled, brushing his knuckles against my cheek.
They all looked at me with soft smiles, as if I were still a baby, and it felt cute and awkward at the same time because I was still reeling from the physical attraction that Shen had fired up inside me. I got busy with my glass of spiced blood, unable to formulate any coherent thoughts—I noticed Shen gazing at me from across the dancefloor. Even from that distance, the incubus was brazen and unabashed in expressing his desire for me.
I didn’t want to respond to his attention, though—at least, not until tomorrow. Avril and I had agreed not to take what the incubi made us feel seriously until after they were away from us, and we were out of their reach. Otherwise, it would just be us naturally responding to their influence, and I wasn’t interested in a purely physical relationship. I wanted something pure and strong, like what my parents had.
“So, what was the deal with all the training and screening the other day?” I asked Field, changing the subject to avoid any additional baby talk. Not that I disliked it, but I had a feeling my parents had more examples from my infancy that I wasn’t comfortable actually hearing.
“We’re just selecting top candidates for a mission on Tenebris,” Field replied, pouring himself another glass of spiced rosewater.
“What mission?” I asked, instantly curious and eager to find out whether I’d made the cut.
“There’s a resistance movement happening there. The incubi once loyal to Azazel are rejecting Druid lordship,” he explained briefly. “We’ve tried negotiating with them, but they’ve gotten violent, and innocent lives are caught in the middle. It’s time for an intervention to separate the extremists from the rest of the people, because they’re keeping a low profile and hiding in the big cities.”
I nodded slowly, wondering how we would approach this as GASP. Surely, we’d have support from the agents and soldiers already on the ground there, but we’d most likely be doing recon and covert investigation to uncover and imprison the dark cells. I didn’t know much about the planet itself, but, from what I’d heard, its waters were deep, dark, and treacherous, and so were its thick jungles. It sounded like a challenge for what would officially be my first mission.
“Did I make the cut?” I grinned.
Field winked at me.
I held my breath, trying not to squeal from the sudden rush of excitement, but I nearly jumped out of my seat.
“You’re serious?” I croaked.
He nodded, giving me a broad smile as a “yes”.
“Thank you so much! I won’t let you down! I promise, I will—” My voice trailed off as I saw Avril and Heron rushing across the dancefloor, concern darkening their faces. They reached Draven and Serena, and were already both talking fast and looking up. Draven lost the color in his cheeks. “Something’s wrong,” I murmured.
Field, Aida, and my parents followed my gaze. They noticed Avril and Heron with Draven and Serena. Derek joined them, and he, too, put on a very serious face. I focused beyond the distance between us and expanded my senses.
“It’s coming straight at us,” I heard Avril say, and Serena gasped.
They swiftly split up and moved across the platform in different directions, grabbing GASP officers and senior Eritopians along the way. Avril made it to our table.
“There’s something coming from the sky,” she said. “It’s headed straight for Luceria.”
“Like what, an asteroid?” Field shot to his feet.
“It’s got a zig-zag trajectory,” she replied. “So definitely not. We’re going up on the platform to observe and intervene, if needed. Draven’s getting the Daughters as we speak.”
We instantly sat up and followed as she moved toward the main exit. One by one, I saw the rest of our family politely stepping away from other wedding guests and calmly joining us in the hallway. We headed for the stairs.
“I don’t get it,” I heard Vita telling Bijarki behind us. “I should’ve seen this coming. It seems big enough to warrant at least one vision. I… I don’t know why my visions are so counter-productive sometimes!”
We reached the platform, which was our best observation point. The indigo sky was home to billions of twinkling stars, a pearly moon in the east, and a bright, round light getting bigger with every minute that passed.
The Daughters of Eritopia hovered quietly between us, reaching the edge of the platform and staring at the strange object. All the Novaks were there, watching quietly. Draven moved closer to the Daughters, accompanied by Field and Derek.
“What is it?” Draven asked Safira.
“We do not know,” she replied, not taking her eyes off the light. “We cannot sense it.”
“I wonder why,” Chana added.
The closer it got, the better we could see that it was a perfect sphere of white light, shining like a miniature sun. It stilled and hovered several hundred miles away, then settled on a straight-line trajectory, increasing its speed and cutting my breath short.
“It must be destroyed,” Safira muttered.
“At that speed, and given that we don’t know what
it is, that would be the best course of action,” Draven agreed.
The Daughters nodded and raised their hands, their silk-wrapped bodies lighting up pink as they prepared to dismantle the foreign object. I’d not yet seen them in offensive action, and I was curious to see exactly what degree of destruction their power could inflict.
“Stop,” Viola intervened suddenly, stepping in front of her sisters. She looked at the light sphere. “It’s not… It’s a spell… There’s someone in it.”
“How can you see inside it?” Safira frowned.
“I don’t know.” Viola shrugged. “But I can. There’s a person inside. It’s the same interplanetary spell I mentioned during our last council. It’s swamp witch magic—I recognize the form…”
“What do we do, then?” Draven asked. “We can’t let it crash into us.”
“No, we slow it down.” She nodded, then shifted her focus back to the light sphere, which was only a few miles away and moving fast.
She put her hands out, and so did her sisters. They sent out an invisible pulse that captured the glowing orb, helping it slow down and gently stop above the platform. Its milky white light shone over us, a faint buzzing coming out of it.
We all stepped back, giving the sphere enough room to settle on the white marble floor. It was the size of a large hot air balloon, but, as soon as it touched down, it started to shrink before our very eyes, its hum louder and heavier.
“Whoever is inside, they used swamp witch magic that we’ve just unearthed from that book,” Viola muttered. “And I told no one about it, other than the GASP council and Phoenix.”
I felt my heart thudding in my chest. We were all ready to strike if needed, but we were also equally intrigued. The last original practitioners of swamp witch magic had been driven to extinction during Azazel’s reign of terror, and their books had been hidden for decades before Draven and Serena got them back together. Who could it be, and who could have access to magic of such proportions?
Harper
(Daughter of Hazel & Tejus)
As soon as the light sphere began to shrink, I stepped forward. I quietly made my way between Eritopians and Shadians, my gaze fixed on the foreign object that had just landed on Luceria’s platform. The brightness dimmed, as did the constant hum, until the sphere dissolved altogether and revealed… a woman, standing and looking at us.
I heard mumbling around me. Our GASP elders got closer, led by Derek, Xavier, and Cameron. Draven, Field, and Serena were next to them, along with Jax and Hansa. I noticed movement at the corner of my eye and saw Jax’s ten Mara wards slipping between us and circling the woman. I hadn’t even seen them during the wedding party, as they preferred keeping mostly to themselves and in the more secluded areas of the banquet hall.
Before any of us could react, I heard the screeching of metal—swords drawn from their sheaths as the wards closed in on the strange, swamp witch magic-wielding visitor.
“Hold!” Jax barked his order, prompting his wards to obey and still, their blades out and glistening under the moonlight.
Only then did I notice that our party-crasher was a young Mara female, with black hair trimmed into a pixie cut, big jade eyes, and a small, heart-shaped mouth. She wore a simple but elegant black dress that reminded me of late nineteenth-century styles, cut straight just below her shoulders and revealing her pale skin and accentuated collar bones. There was a red symbol on her neck, just below her ear. It looked like it had been branded onto her with a hot iron.
“Milord, she doesn’t belong here,” one of the wards said through gritted teeth, his dislike of her obvious and, at the same time, intriguing.
“Please,” the female Mara said, her voice trembling, genuine fear imprinted on her delicate face. “I mean no harm, and I come in peace!”
Jax’s sword nearly howled as it left his scabbard, its tip pointed directly at her throat. He seemed upset, barely holding it in. The rest of us were baffled—including Hansa, whose gaze moved back and forth between Jax and the female Mara.
“What’s going on?” Hansa mumbled. “Who is she?”
“I come in peace, I swear,” the strange visitor said, tears glazing her wide eyes as she slowly raised her hands in a defensive gesture. “I had no choice. I had to come here…”
“You are not welcome here,” Jax shot back, his voice so low and sharp that it sent chills down my spine.
“Who is she?” Draven repeated Hansa’s question, his brow furrowed and his lips pressed into a thin line. He stepped forward and positioned himself between Jax’s sword and the female Mara.
“She’s an Exiled Mara,” Heron answered from the crowd behind us.
He moved and joined his brother’s side, his inquisitive gaze fixed on the Exiled Mara.
“What’s an Exiled Mara?” Serena asked, prompting Jax to scoff. He was seething, biting the inside of his cheek, with no intention of putting down his sword. I could feel the anger radiating off of him, a black and unforgiving mist.
“Something my people are not proud of. Something we never speak of,” Jax finally replied.
The Exiled Mara looked down, a hint of shame flickering in her eyes. Safira sighed and stepped between the wards, slowly leaning forward to get a better look at the red symbol on the Exiled Mara’s neck. Safira hummed and nodded, then glanced at Jax.
“She’s not one of the originals,” Safira said. “She’s an offspring.”
“Are you serious?” Jax’s eyebrows jumped.
“Yes. That is not the original mark of a swamp witch. It was branded into her skin with hot fire. But she is one of them.”
“Who are you?” Jax shifted his focus back to the Exiled Mara, who trembled before him. I had a feeling he was being a little too hard on her, but, then again, I knew absolutely nothing about her or the Exiled Maras, so I kept my mouth shut. Instead, I analyzed reactions around the platform and noticed that all the Eritopian vampires present seemed well aware of what she was.
“I am Rewa, milord,” the Exiled Mara said. “Rewa, of House Xunn.”
“Hold on,” Serena burst out, irritated by how little information had been provided so far. I completely understood her, as I felt the same. “There are serious blanks in this conversation, and, before Rewa here says anything else, I would like you bad boys, so quick to draw your swords, to tell us exactly why she’s not welcome here and why you’re so aggressive toward her.”
A couple of seconds passed before Jax answered, lowering his sword.
“The Exiled Maras are our greatest shame,” he said. “Thousands of years ago, the Maras were a free people, with no allegiance to the Master Druid societies. We occasionally disagreed with them, and fought aggressively, as we preferred feeding from other two-legged creatures such as Druids, Lamias, Tritones, Bajangs, and Imps. We were eventually outnumbered and had to find better ways to feed, so we switched to an animal diet. We signed an agreement with the Master Druids, as well, and were welcomed into Eritopia’s civilized societies with arms wide open. There was only one condition.”
“Feed only off the animals.” Heron nodded, hate oozing from him as he glared at the Exiled Mara. I got my first clue then as to why they were so repulsed by her.
“Some of us, however,” Jax continued, “didn’t get that notice. Better said, they pretended not to get the notice, gleefully strolled into the Druid cities along with us, and began feasting on the local nobility.”
“Not only were they greedy, stubborn, and downright maniacal, they were also picky eaters,” Heron spat.
“It got so bad, so fast, that our society nearly fell apart. One third of our Maras continued hunting creatures that they were no longer allowed to touch. Most of them didn’t spare their victims, either. They fed until they killed them,” Jax added. “Then, the Druids intervened, with the support of the swamp witches. They were strict in their verdict and were determined to wipe us all out, much like we’ve recently wiped out the Sluaghs, because we’d been deemed evil, dark, and unrepentant. Because of
this selfish subset of Maras, it was going to be the end of all Maras.”
“But you made your case, Jaxxon Dorchadas.” Safira gave him a respectful nod and a half-smile. “Your parents and your forefathers spoke out, and you all agreed to an alternative.”
“Indeed,” Jax replied, while the Exiled Mara looked up. “Those who had consumed the blood of the innocent were rounded up and cast off to another planet, somewhere outside of Eritopia. Somewhere far enough away and dark enough for no one else to ever cross paths with them again. The only reason they were spared in the first place was because they’d begged for their lives, sobbing and moaning like pitiful creatures. The Druids gave the Mara elders the freedom to choose what would happen to these criminals. And our ancestors chose to exile them, in a mass exodus facilitated by the swamp witches. We never heard from them again. We resumed our peaceful lives in Eritopia, we kept our distance from the cities, and we didn’t diverge from animal blood again, unless it was under the occasional Pyrope, the blood giving pact. Those who killed innocents for blood, however, were swiftly captured and executed. But we never spoke of the Exiled Maras. We never thought of them. We buried them in our past, without even bothering to ask where they’d been sent.”
A good minute passed as the story sank in across the platform, and all eyes settled on Rewa, who brought her hands together and bowed before us.
“Please forgive me,” she sobbed. “I am not my ancestors. My parents aren’t, either. We are good Maras, and we’ve come a long way since then, milord.”
“What are you doing here?” Jax’s voice thundered.
“Milord, we were cast off to a planet very far from Eritopia. Many miles are between our worlds, and just as many years between who we are today and who we were when we were banished. It became our home, called Neraka, in a distant galaxy with barren planets as neighbors, three suns, and three moons. Our existence is peaceful and harmonious. We feed off the animals and have formed a good relationship with the indigenous people of Neraka.”
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