Page 4 of White Raven
“Listen,” Sarah said, brushing her knuckle down Poe’s wing. “Say it again, buddy.” Poe trilled, cocking his head and clicking his beak at Athan. “Tell him.”
“Nevermore,”Poe mimicked, fluttering a wing. Athan’s eyes boggled.
“No fucking way,” he gaped.
“I didn’t think I heard him right at first. Now, I’m positive.” Poe flittered up to Sarah’s shoulder, shuffling his head in her hair. She turned her head and kissed at him. “You’re so smart!”
“I knew they could, I’ve just never actually heard it,” Athan said, still visibly stunned.
“Amazing little pigeon.”
Still reeling from the sudden realization that the thing that brought them together was still manifesting itself in unbelievable ways, Sarah and Athan reluctantly secured Poe in his cage and locked up the apartment. She was still smiling as she reached the bottom of the narrow steps and opened the doorto the building. She nearly tripped over a small box on the stoop. Athan hopped down the steps behind her, and before she could reach down to grab it, he slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him.
“Wait,” he said, staring at it. “What is that?”
“It looks like a present,” Sarah pointed out, sarcastically.
“Who would have left that on your doorstep? After everything that’s happened, I don’t think it would be smart to just pick it up.” He pulled her around him and stepped outside, brushing the dusting of snow from the side of the wrapped box, and lifting the corner of the lid. Sarah couldn’t see from the doorway.
“What is it?” she asked, keeping a careful distance.
“Stay back,” Athan growled. His voice was that hard detective she’d met months ago, and something in her gut twisted at the tone. He pulled his phone from his pocket and took several pictures. He reached into the box and pulled out a small piece of paper. It looked handwritten. He stood slowly, taking a picture of that too.
“Athan, whatisit?” Sarah asked again, growing nervous. When he finally turned toward her, his face was grave. Of course. Why would they think they could ever just be happy without something happening? He handed her the small note.
Welcome to the family.
-J. A.-
“J.A…” Sarah whispered under her breath. She looked up at Athan, meeting eyes as blue as an angry ocean. “John Allan.” His jaw feathered, and he swallowed. “What’s in the box?” Athan was still as death for a moment, teeth grinding, before he finallymoved aside. Sarah took a step forward and looked down at her unexpected gift.
A dead bird.
A Black Bird.
Snow slung out around the sides of Athan’s car as he angrily drove through the near empty streets of Boston, heading towards his old building. Sarah fidgeted in the passenger seat, bouncing her knee nervously and staring out the window. He glanced at her and the fiery rage he had felt when they left their apartment had eased into a steady thrum of protective, subtle anger. It still baffled him how much she could affect him like that. He reached over and placed a hand on her knee. She stopped bouncing it.
“I don’t like this,” she breathed, toying with her bottom lip. “I don’t like this at all.”
“That makes two of us. But you do understand that the bodies I’ll drop to keep you safe aren’t limited to your dear old dad, don’t you?”
“I do. But see, that’s where I’m confused. My entire life, Athan…he’s neveroncetried to find me. I didn’t even know his damn name until Mom told me. And she told meaftershe was already dead. Which nobody would fucking believe. They’d throw me in an asylum somewhere.” Sarah shook her head, blowing out a deep sigh of frustration.
“I doubt that just because he never reached out to you, meant he didn’t know you existed. What interests me is how he obviously knows that you’ve been fully turned. What’s more interesting is that hewelcomes you to the familywith a threat?”
Sarah’s face jerked towards him. “Is it a threat?”
“Well, is a dead bird something you think you’d likely get as a friendly Christmas gift from your Daddy?” He instantly regretted the way that came out. Sarah’s lips pursed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound quite like that, love.”
“No, you’re right. And it’s ablackbird. The coven is disbanded, is it not? Dahlia’s gone; they all went their separate ways. The club has new owners. What does any of this mean?”
Athan pondered that for a long moment, stopping at a red light. He gripped the wheel a little harder. “Dahlia said something about him when we killed her. We never talked about that. It’s obvious she knows who he is. That being said, he might very well have been associated somehow with the Black Bird coven.”
“And you’ve never heard anyone mention a John Allan in the two hundred years you’ve been with them?”
He looked back over at her, pulling forward. “Never. I swear it.”
“What about Decclan? Or Devin? Maybe Tony? Have they left for Ireland yet?”
