Page 292 of His Sunshine Baby

“No. None of this.”

Nephera sighs, almost a bit too dramatically. She’s like an actress, having fun on her own stage, making her show and taking pleasure in laying down her story. I take deep breaths, glancing around. The fight is still going on farther away, but here, she put everything on hold for her little speech’s sake. Ireally hope this allows us to win some time; we’ll need every minute we can get until dawn comes.

“Men are men,” she sighed. “They are always hungrier for power. Judah was no different. He wanted to prove himself to everyone. To his pack leader, to his friends, to Silver City, to the whole world! I didn’t see he was getting drunk on this.”

“A witch’s magic is not made to make someone stronger,” said Sylviana. “There are side effects to a human or a wolf getting too much of it.”

“That’s right, Sylviana. Judah Black was a junkie, completely submitted to me and my magic. Honestly, when I understood that, I decided it was fine. By then, I was completely disinterested in the Blue, no, the Sapphire Moon pack who only wanted to use me. Instead, I wanted to make Judah and his pack mine. Being the witch of the Sapphire Moon would mean doing Cynthia’s bidding, like my mom did with Diane, but I wanted to be my own witch, and make my own choices. Judah was giving me that. He was nothing without me. It was just another way of binding him to me.”

“That’s fucking disgusting.”

“No wonder our father got so strong so fast. I remember our former pack kept talking about that, how it was unnatural.”

“Do you think the reason we are so strong too is because… I mean, he was our father…”

“I hope not.”

“Me too. I don’t need him or that witch’s magic.”

While the brothers bicker through the mind-link, next to me Sylviana shakes her head.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Nephera! You were using your magic for something wrong and corrupting his mind.”

“I didn’t corrupt him enough!” suddenly yells her sister. “He would have been mine, completely mine if it wasn’t for that damn bitch!”

“Our mother! Our parents were fated mates!”

“He probably ditched the witch as soon as he could. So like our father…”

“Judah wanted everything from me,” says Nephera, “but the one thing he didn’t care about was my love for him. As soon as he had met that woman, it was over. This damn fated mate of his was robbing him from me!”

“Or the other way around,” I growl. “You were desperately holding on to a man that wasn’t yours. Black was wrong for using you, but you could have ended things anytime. You were the one with the power.”

Nephera scoffs, glaring at me.

“You think it was that easy? I gave my childhood and my best years to that man, most of my magic for him to consume. Do you think it was easy to get over the first man I ever loved? The first person that ever showed me some affection? I was blind. Too blind to see the only thing Judah Black loved was power. Once I realized that, though it was too late, I did my best to get out of his life. I wanted to be the strong, independent witch I had always tried to be. I refused to give him my magic anymore, no matter how hard he was begging. He went crazy. You don’t go sober from magic in a few days. He couldn’t let go easily. But I really did try. I abandoned him, to forge a life of my own, leave him to his beloved mate, and move on. But everyone here knows there was nothing reasonable about Judah Black.”

I glance at the brothers. From their growls, I would say they all agree. Nate and I never talked much about his father. I know he and Damian worked together to kill him, which I guess sums up about everything they shared other than a blood bond.

Now, I’m starting to think the “Mad King” may have become mad because of his own hunger for power, and the witch that let him taste too much of it. Nephera shakes her head, and her expression goes from an annoying smirk to a sour one.

“He learned I was with child. And that didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t need two witches, only one. So, he started planning to take my baby away from me. I knew Judah Black enough, I knew that man would have no remorse about killing me or stealing my daughter. I didn’t trust Cynthia and the Sapphire Moon to help me, not after I had basically left them to serve another pack. So, I secretly left Silver City, pregnant and scared, trying to run away from him. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but around the same time, Judah drove away the vampires from Silver City.”

“That was right before Liam’s birth…”says Nate.“One of them had bitten our pregnant mother, and our father was fighting them for years before he finally managed to send them away.”

“He sent them to Queen Diane’s city though, according to William.”

“For now, I’m more interested in knowing how Nephera avoided the vampires, and how they got to our home city…”

“I started running towards the north. I was hoping my mother would save me, help me find shelter, and protect me and my child. However, I couldn’t outrun the vampires. They caught me way before I reached my destination.”

I suddenly feel a cold shiver down my spine. Nephera looks at the closest vampires with a strange light in her eyes. I realize she hates them even more than she hates us, despite using them like she does. Those eyes… I know that expression, all too well. As if something was broken inside of her. Then, she slowly rolls up her long sleeves, and I gasp.

Bite marks. Hundreds of them, spread all over her skin. Now that I’m staring, even her hands are full of countless scars. If her dress wasn’t covering her throat and neck, I bet there would be dozens there too. I feel so disgusted just looking at it. Next to me, Sylviana is shaken up too. I can’t tell if she already knew, but she obviously feels sorry for what her sister went through.

“Vampires like to play with their food,” says Nephera. “Truth is, most humans get used to the pain, until they aren’t affected anymore and turn into junkies, addicted to that sensation. For werewolves, that bite is poisonous. For witches, however, it is just horribly, atrociously painful. We don’t die from it, we just… suffer. It’s like having razor blades plunging through your skin and pouring acid underneath. They bit me, over and over. I didn’t die, but my body was filled with vampire venom. I lost my baby and all hope. I would have gladly died, but instead, I was left to endure weeks and weeks of utter torture.”

I knew it. Nephera has the eyes of someone who lost a child. I can’t even begin to imagine the hell that woman went through. The physical and emotional pain must have been impossible to handle with a sound mind…

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