Cursed Mother: A Mongrelverse Book (Mother of Monsters 1)

by Paul C. Middleton

  She was fairly quiet as we headed to her room. Contemplative. After my experiences with Alecto, she was the complete reverse of what I'd expected, at least so far.

  I was expecting to be going into a bedroom, or somewhere with a built-in wardrobe. Instead I found myself in a room with row upon row of racks of clothing. One rack, presumably the one she'd retrieved what she was wearing from, had clothes that were a century or more out of fashion.

  I cautiously asked "And you didn't pack anything in the suitcase?"

  She answered, with the same wry smile, "I figured I might need to update my wardrobe anyway. The suitcase just has what I might need to help protect the children."

  I frowned at that and said, "I would have happily provided anything you needed on that end. I mean I understand about wanting your own tools for casting anything, but reagents? Those I could have provided." She nodded uncomfortably, then sighed.

  I raised an eyebrow and she got the hint, "I owe Dan a favor, and he asked me to do this. I figure you must have been cursed before he and Alecto got married." She said, a throbbing honesty in her voice.

  I winced. I tried to hold it in, but in some ways it was probably best that I hadn't managed to. Best to get this over and done with. “I'm his ex," I stated, without explanation.

  The silence in the room had a physical effect. I was frozen waiting for her response, she was frozen absorbing what I just said. It was like we were two creatures stuck in a block of ice, waiting for something to dig it out.

  That frozen moment seemed to last years. It only lasted long enough for one of us to start breathing again. "Oh," she said, as if holding her nose against the foulest smell in the universe.

  "I'm not the same person who made that mistake," I said firmly, my gaze at her face forcing her to lock eyes with me. "What I did was selfish, foolish and hurtful. It is something I deeply regret. It may have worked out for the best for him though." I paused at that.

  Elizabita gave me a quizzical look, so I answered the unasked question. "Some things came to light during my visit. Apparently his marriage to Alecto is the only thing that saved his life. Something about a heart problem," I told her. Elizabita gave me a worried look. It was my turn to ask a question with my expression alone.

  "If my aunts find out that she's made a full contract with a mortal, only trouble can come of it," she said in a matter-of-fact, and rather grim, tone.

  I shrugged to express my complete ignorance on the issue, and she let it drop. I started running through what looked to be the closing rack with the newest looking designs. Then I stopped. Turning to look at her, I said, "How do you want to come across to people? I mean do I come across as a professional aunt, crazy aunt, professional caregiver, put-upon relative? How?"

  She looked at me, incredibly confused. "What the clothes have to do with all that?"

  I raised my eyes to the ceiling and said, "Give me strength!" After a pause, where the confusion remained on her face, I tried to explain how what you wore in a city like Sydney defined the type of person you were. I then went on to pull out costumes that looked like they belong in the 60s and 70s (for the crazy aunt), pantsuits, and other sets of clothing that would enable her to portray a persona.

  "Close to all that? I only remember clothes being a symbol of how well off you were. I'll admit I don't travel out of town much." She grimaced slightly, then continued, "to keep contributing to the community I had to learn how to enchant, which is not an easy thing for a Fury to learn. I had to start with sorcery then learn how to channel my natural magic through the sorcery into items…" She sounded frustrated just talking about it.

  She shook herself, then asked slowly, "but Dan was present when you made your deal with Alecto?"

  I nodded, and explained the entire situation to her as briefly as I could. She ended up deciding to go with the 'crazy aunt' look, but also packed a pantsuit in case something of a business opportunity appeared for her. I didn't have the heart to tell her that dressing as the crazy aunt would be perfect for most of the business opportunities that might appear to someone of her skill set.

  By the time we headed back to the car she was back to being, or at least seeming to be, perfectly happy with her assigned task. When she asked about my children, she specified that I should only tell her what type of Supernatural they were. She wanted to make her own judgment on what they were like as people. When I finished, and the variety was obvious to her, a look of anger covered her face.

  "Of all the senseless, risky things my mother's done in cursing people." Her anger seemed completely genuine. She shook her head and patted me on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, and I'm more than happy to help you while you do this task for her. No one deserves a curse like that. In fact, that specific curse is banned. I can only think of a half-dozen individuals, unfortunately, including my mother, that could get away with doing it." I looked questioningly at her, my curiosity aroused once more. There was something far deeper going on here something I didn't understand and I was starting to worry that not understanding would get me in as much trouble as understanding.

  There was a pause and then she answered, but not the answer I'd wanted. I was starting to get really angry at all these Supernaturals, and all the secrets they kept. "Believe me," Elizabita said pleadingly, "it's far safer right now, until something can be done to help you, for you just not to know."

  I sighed, feeling quite grim at the fact that my life was completely out of my control now. I could only hope that I could catch any updrafts in the world around me, to help me rise again.

  Chapter 12

  I ended up snoozing on Alicia’s shoulder on the trip home. Anslem had decided that it was best if we got home as quickly as possible. That way I could started sorting through what needed to be done for our travels the next morning. When we finally got home, Alicia chivied me to bed. I’ll admit I was exhausted still. I went to sleep dreaming of breakfast with my children.

  Unfortunately for me, that was not how my day started. Instead, Alicia decided since we were going into what was likely to be a hostile situation, first thing in the morning was the best time to start training me. Because I hadn't known that was her plan, we had gone straight to bed the night before. She was a depressingly early riser. I don't mind getting up with the sun, but getting up an hour before the sun rose seemed a little over the top to me.

  Besides, I thought cats tended to sleep most of the day. That was not the case with Alicia. She seemed to only need four or five hours sleep.

  So it was at five thirty in the morning I found myself being shaken awake by a depressingly bouncy Alicia. "Come on, girl, if you want to be ready for whatever we might face on this trip, you need to start training."

  "Five more minutes," I moaned at her groggily. In response she started kissing up my neck, which I snuggled into. I murmured appreciatively when she started licking my ear. Then she bit my earlobe. Hard.

  It was a couple of minutes before she could hear clearly again, apparently. First there was my yelp of pain, which was loud enough to wake up everyone in the house. Then there was my physical reaction to the pain. A combined punch and kick that was hard enough to throw her clear off the bed. I was wide awake now and I had to laugh at her stunned expression at how hard I'd hit. She knew I had no problem doing a number martial arts. I just hadn't wanted to learn weaponed martial arts.

  It was her turn to laugh when I stumbled over two things next to the bed that shouldn't have been there. I'd left the armor and the axe outside the bedroom. I didn't even think to look for them less than a foot step away from the edge of the bed, so found myself tripping over them.

  I had no idea why they were there, and neither did Alicia. Obviously they were enchanted, but gods knew how.

  “I think they want to stay with you,” Alicia half-joked. “Put them on.” Considering I was butt naked, that seemed like a terrible idea to me. I could only imagine how uncomfortable it would be having the armor against my bare nipples. That would have to chafe like hell. I we
nt rummaging through the closet. I didn’t want to be wearing much under it, the thought ran through my brain. That pulled me up short.

  Why didn’t I want to be wearing much under it? My body kept looking for something while confusion ruled my mind. Eventually I found the leather corslet that Alicia had gotten me, several years back. It was leather, like the armor, but had a silk lining. It was sinfully comfortable when I got into it. Far more comfortable than I’d remembered, but then Alicia had gotten it mostly to embarrass me at the time. With my reconnection to my desire, I wasn’t embarrassing as easily over things like my figure.

  It was obvious that Alicia wanted to do some exercise. Given that she was getting into tights and a tank top, the exercise would not be of the nature I would have truly preferred. I dug through my drawer for some comfortable underwear.

  I was actually fairly fit, but I suspected she was going to follow a morning jog with weapons sparring. I was not looking forward to that. The jog would be okay, except I knew she wouldn't let me have my coffee. The sparring I expected to be painful.

  Once I'd reassured Kate, who'd come to investigate my yelp, that everything was okay, we left my room. Zak was in the corridor as well. Alicia paused and asked my children, who were also heading out for a run, a question. "What do you see your Mother wearing, guys?"

  Zak snorted and said, "a tank top and running tights, just like you."

  Kate paused, blinked as if in mild pain, then shook her head and rubbed her eyes. Finally, after squinting some, she said, "Where on earth did you get that armor, Mother? It, um, really looks good on you, but what if someone notices?"

  Alicia only smiled and turned to me, saying, "Well, that answers that. It protects its nature from people without enough magic who don't know it's actually there." I sighed and nodded. Once Anslem found that out, I'd be stuck wearing the armor semi-permanently. In the wilds of Finland he'd want me to sleep in it.

  Before we left, she took Zak to the side and asked him to do something. I didn't quite catch it. Weres could talk softly enough to each other that no other creature, natural or Supernatural, could catch what they were saying.

  The run was actually quite pleasant, and I was surprised to find that I'd managed to keep up with Alicia at a pace that made her sweat. That shouldn't have happened. Weres have a naturally higher endurance and are just plain faster than humans. When we got home I thought she was sweating more than I was.

  We went down to the basement, which Zak had converted into a sparring room for the next part. One of the side rooms was kind of his den for when he felt a need to change and we didn't have time to get him to one of the national parks surrounding the city.

  Anslem was down there, as was Elizabita.

  I was handed the training dirk, and a large axe handle. I raised an eyebrow, and Alicia raised an eyebrow right back. Then she pointed to my waist. Feeling at the baldric, I discovered the axe was there. I swore softly, as I know I hadn't put it on before the morning run. I hoped it wasn't as obvious to normals as it now felt to me. Anslem frowned and nodded, showing his concern that it might have been.

  That was a problem for a different time, as Alicia suddenly charged me. The movement caught my attention of the corner of my eye, and she was almost on top of me before I could react.

  She was armed with a carved wooden hand-and-a-half sword, and a short sword. She was obviously giving herself every possible advantage, beyond her experience with weapons, that she could. A normal human her height would never have been able to wield such a combination of weapons. She made it look graceful, despite the size of the bastard sword to her normal form.

  She was making a point to me. Knowing how to defend yourself with weapons was important in the Supernatural world. Especially as deep as we were suddenly going. Soon, hopefully, I wouldn't be really cursed by Alecto anymore. It also meant that the protection of the curse would be gone. People wouldn't be afraid of pissing Alecto off by harming me.

  I’d be in danger from all comers at that point. I wasn’t afraid of that, but what Alicia was doing was hammering down the point that I needed to be able to defend myself. Properly, as Andre would put it.

  I found myself facing off against Alicia, and immediately discovered that I was completely out of my depth. Alicia was a very skilled fighter, and had obviously trained with weapons for years. It was the better part of an hour before I found myself able to regularly defend myself against her attacks. I had light welts all over my body, many of which would bruise shortly.

  I had an advantage over someone who had never trained in fighting. I knew how to move in a fight. It was simply a matter of adjusting to the weapons in my hands.

  We circled each other for a minute or so. Then I was distracted by one of my daughter's saying, "Muuum" in a pleading tone in the background. Alicia charged me and the penalty for me was brutal. I found myself gasping on the ground for air. After a quick blow under the knee and a strike to the head which laid me out flat.

  "Don't get distracted," Alicia yelled at me, angry and a little frustrated. "When you train, train as if you are fighting. When you fight, fight for your life." There was a pause, then she growled, “Now get up!”

  To my credit I tried to get up. I fell back to my knees and dry heaved to the side. I hadn’t eaten anything in half a day. Thankfully, there wasn’t enough in my stomach to come up. I collapsed to the side and closed my eyes to stop the world spinning.

  I think I passed out, or close to it. What I remember next was Anslem yelling something at Alicia. I cautiously opened my eyes. The room had finally stopped spinning, Although it did sway slightly.

  “You’re not supposed to be training a Were. I doubt I could have stood after that blow, and I’m tougher than most. She has a concussion at least. Training for the day is over. Even if she does heal fast, you don’t mess around with them.” Anslem’s tone to Alicia held the finality of a coffin lid slamming shut.

  Of course, Alicia being Alicia, she opened her mouth to argue the point. “But…” she started belligerently. There was a whoosh as the air was forced from her lungs by a blow to the solar plexus from Anslem. He followed through with a throw that landed her flat on her back.

  “No buts. I know we have limited time, but training too hard is just stupid. It won’t do any of us any good if she is too injured to travel. Capiche?” He barked out. There was a grudging nod from Alicia on the mat. Evidently, like Andre before him, Anslem had just proven he had the skills and strength to force his will on her. It was about the only thing that could get a Were to shut up if they disagreed.

  I managed to get to my feet, but staggered slightly. Kate was quickly by my side, supporting me. Elizabita frowned at the interaction, but let it pass. I managed to make it to breakfast with minimal assistance, recovering faster than I should have from even a mild concussion.

  Elizabita had promised to make sure everything was going smoothly in the house. I remembered telling her about my threat to Atlanta, concerning finding a way to silence her. If the child didn't learn through the nicer methods, then she'd have to learn through more stringent punishment. Elizabita had raised an eyebrow at that, in surprise rather than disagreement.

  When I sat down to breakfast I found myself facing three extra children. Teenagers, really. Alicia had chivvied me off to bed on the excuse that we’d be off to a workout early and I could see the kids at breakfast. I’d been so emotionally drained that I hadn’t put up a fight at all.

  I was introduced to the three newcomers. Spencer, formally Joshua, was a newly awakened Wizard. The two young ladies were Katya and Tatiana. They were Geminis, and I had no idea what that meant. When I went to ask, Elizabita firmly shook her head. Then she explained why, in a terse voice. “You already showed this morning that your mothering instincts overcome good sense. We need to find a way to suppress them, not encourage them!”

  “I still need to know who and what is staying under my roof!” I said indignantly.

  Zak put his hand up to forestall us all.
He was truly growing into a formidable man, I thought. He had courage enough to interrupt his elders, and did it in as polite a way as possible. “Geminis are twins with magical abilities, usually linked. They have started bonding to Josh…er Spencer. His family were religious nuts. Not the place for a newly awakened Wizard to live. Andre agreed with me that this was the best option, especially considering he needed a tutor, and so does Kate, really.”

  I sat there, absorbing what he said. Then, finally, I pointedly asked, “I hope they have separate rooms, the girls and Spencer.”

  Zak nodded and smiled, “Of course they do. We don’t need surprise children. The bonding isn’t necessarily romantic in nature anyway. They are my responsibility anyways. The SSC are punishing me for kicking one of their probies in the head for being a complete idiot. I think they memory-wiped him, so I’m fine with that.”

  On the trip back, Elizabita had praised my enlightened viewpoint on child-rearing compared to some of the outlandish modern ideas. I had deviated a little when I went to explain Atlanta. That she was using her abilities on normals was a concern that had to be stated, and she had needed to know we’d tried reasoning. Punishment came next.

  Elizabita told me "Try nice first, but if it doesn't work, execute punishment. It's been the most effective method for centuries from what I can tell, especially on Supernatural children. This concept that punishment damages the child is a fallacy. Abuse will damage the child. Punishment gives them boundaries, guidelines that will help them survive in future life." She told me this in a firm, knowledgeable tone. I got the feeling that she had more experience in dealing with abuses, and parents who refused to raise their children correctly, than I'd want to know.