Page 16 of The Child of Rue Royale
“Mathius, Amerie. Please leave us,” Cassius requests, and Nicola glares at him for his insubordination. Mathius cocks an eyebrow, pressing a hand through his dark blond hair that sits just below his ears, his hazel eyes widening like he owns the place. The egos of vampires never cease to surprise me. Yet Mathius and Amerie finally exit, and Mother sits.
“Family matters should only be discussed amongst family, isn’t that right?” Mother says. A dig at Nicola because we are all connected now. Even though Mother doesn’t love the arrangement herself, she enjoys sticking it to Nicola more.
“I don’t know why I’m here,” Nicola says to Cassius, but it’s for all of us. “I never agreed to this ‘witch-vampire family’ shit.”
Cassius scowls and turns to us. “I told Aster that she had my protection, and now she needs it. Is that correct?”
I shuffle in my seat, my stomach fluttering. I don’t think I’ve spoken to Nicola since the night she saved my life.
I look around the room, preparing for the words that will be exiting my mouth, finding the strength from heaven knows where. My ancestors, my grandmother, anybody. “What I’m about to tell you is something that has never happened in the history of my coven. And it can be incredibly dangerous for us. For me, and this child…that is half Bastian’s.” I make that point because I think Nicola wouldn’t care if I were dead.
“Witches only birth girls. But something happened when this child was conceived. An explicable magical occurrence because Bastian was a vampire and part human at the time. The potion gave him human qualities when he took it. So, something that wasn’t supposed to be possible…is.”
“We know all this. That’s how you got knocked up,” Nicola says, yawning into her hand.
“Our child…is a boy.”
The room couldn’t be more silent, only the cacophony of the patrons outside the door stifling us. Nicola and Cassius look at each other, their eyes seeming to speak another language.
My gaze falls upon my hands, which are once again bright red from being clasped so tightly. But my head jolts up from the high-pitched shriek that has erupted from Nicola’s mouth.
She’slaughing. Laughing so hard she pounds the desk with one hand and places her head in the other.
“Stop,” Cassius whispers to her.
“You fucking witches,” she scorns, the trill of her laughter getting louder and louder. “You fucking witches are a disaster.”
“Nicola,” Cassius warns, nostrils flared, a look of exasperation on his face. Angers swells in my chest, but before I can react, before I can calm her down, Mother reaches out her arms, whispering a spell I can’t hear through Nicola’s rancorous laughter. Mother’s invisible power swipes across Nicola’s desk, and pens and papers go flying. A telephone crashes into the floor, and a dagger strikes the wall beside me. Everything but Mother’s purse piles across the room and crashes to the floor.
Nicola shoots out of her chair, her fangs sliding out with an ear-piercing groan. Her fist rises in the air then slams down, crushing Mother’s purse through the desk, the edge of the wood creaking and falling off as if Nicola’s hand were an axe.
“Stop,” Cassius commands, fangs extended, and with one jump, he lands between them both on top of the desk.
But Nicola uses her powerful strength to swipe against his calves, and then his feet are in the air, and he falls flat on his back. In seconds, Nicola has rounded the desk and has my mother’s back pressed into her chest. Her hand snakes across Mother’s waist, caging her in a tight embrace. With a sharp inhale into my mom’s neck, Nicola’s nostrils flare, her fangs gleaming, eyes lusting for a taste.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I scream, looking at the two women, power igniting in my fingertips.
“Take a bite, Nicola. I dare you,” Mother pants, a taunting smile on her red lips, goading Nicola to take Mother’s cursed blood. “My skin welcomes you,please, it cries. Take a bite.”
“Put your guns away,” Cassius tells me. “She’s not taking a bite.”
“Maybe I will. Maybe I will, and put an end to all of this,” Nicola seethes. “I’ve been alive for hundreds of years. I could take a bite and be done with it all.”
“But you’re not,” Cassius pines. “Not even close.”
“I can blast your asses around this room,” Mother warns.
“I can blast both your asses across the street. So let her go, Nicola.” It was stupid to think our moms could have a constructive conversation.
Nicola’s grip appears to loosen across Mother’s waist as my eyes catch Mother’s fingertips. She’s been quietly collecting tiny lightning bolts of power, and she reaches back, pressing her hands into each of Nicola’s thighs. The power is so formidable, it crackles in my ears and sends both women flying right at me.
Cassius jumps in front of me before they can knock me down, legs planting with all his strength to the floorboards. Taking the brunt of their weight with his arms outstretched, he pushes them both to the ground. A yell of rage escapes his lips, and he looks back at me, at my belly, and it hits me that Cassius just protected me, us. From our own mothers.
I look at Cassius, my eyes surely wide in shock because I did not expect to be standing after that. A knock sounds at the door, and everyone freezes.
“Is everything okay?” Amerie asks.
“Fine,” Cassius yells as the women stand, assessing any injuries. Mother stretches her neck like she’s going into a fight, not coming out of one. This bitch is crazy.
