Page 87 of Sinister Hearts
It felt odd to sit here on this porch while my girls slept peacefully, after everything that transpired this year. They had fallen asleep after watchingThe Dark Crystal. I watched the stars blink at me while the sound of the wind whisked through the farm’s grass. The sound of the ranch calmed my spirit, it was my holy place. The crickets chirped, and the horses in their stallsrummaged through the hay. This was my heaven, a place I’d never actually witness, but this place right here, was all I needed. As long as I had my girls.
I heard acawcoming from the midnight sky. I took a swift drink from my iced whiskey glass, and tipped my hat in greeting. “They’re safe and sound, don’t worry your precious little feathers.” I rocked back and forth on my mother’s rocking chair. It creaked with each movement on the weathered wooden porch.
“This isn’t over, you know.” Rocky shook off a few feathers from her shoulders that happened to land on her as she shifted back into her human form.
I sucked my teeth, knowing what she was saying was true. I felt it in my morbid bones. This was far from over. This was just the beginning.
“We have won the battle, but not the war.” I tapped my finger on the glass.
“Whoever is sending these apparitions, whoever this heretic is… It’s after me, too.” Rocky’s concern was present on her face.
“And me.” Penny made herself known from the depths of the night.Great, a reunion.
“So what shall we do, primas?” Faye questioned, coming from inside the house, wrapped in a wool blanket. Her eyes were still tired and puffy.
I pulled her onto my lap.
“Whatever it is, we will be ready.” Penny grabbed onto the porch fence nearly breaking it, her eyes and spirit broken. She hasn’t spoken a word of what happened to her and we didn’t want to push. We all knew that even vampirism could not mend a broken spirit.
“We will find who is doing this, I promise.” Faye held Penny’s ice-cold hands, warming them with her scalding fingertips.Penny’s eyes swelled with tears, not daring to break the bridge where they would fall seamlessly.
“We’re ready to be initiated and take our oaths.” Rocky stepped forward, assertive and sure of herself.
Faye watched her with unease. “Are you sure about this?” She looked back and forth between Rocky and Penny.
“It’s now or never,prima.” Penny nodded to reassure her, standing with Rocky.
“We both have until next year to make our initiations. Either we claim our magic fully, or we leave the occult behind. Our allegiance is with you, cousin,” Penny said, making her stance clear as well.
Faye was shocked by their statements, but also beamed with pride.
“We didn’t know siphoning from both sources was possible, until you. We were always told we had to make a decision; which bloodline, which occult, which realm.” Rocky held both Penny’s and Faye’s hands. “I choose this over any realm, you both are myfamilia.”
The girls all went in for a group hug.
“This will definitely piss off the Council.” Creed came out of the house with his mug of steaming hot coffee.
“I think it’s already too late for all of that,” Faye stated in the middle of their group hug.
The girls chuckled among each other. It was like I was back in high school all over again, watching these three together. The power of three, a force to be reckoned with.
“The question still stands: What would the Council do?” Ryker asked as he strolled out of the barn with a shovel full of alfalfa. We all looked at one another in question. The crickets chirped, and the cows mooed under the desert moonlight.
We had nothing. Not having any answers wracked my nerves. The only thing I knew was my girl was alive and well and I’d make damn sure it stayed that way.
“So, it’s final then. Fuck the realms and fuck our lives!” Creed proposed a cheer with his coffee mug mid-air, over our cynical laughter.
“Don’t be so dramatic, cowboy.” Rocky rolled her dark eyes at Creed.
“The Council isn’t the only problem we have.” Penny had us falling silent, waiting for more as she looked at us nervously.
“Care to explain, princess?” Ryker grumbled, hardly breaking a sweat as he shoveled more alfalfa in the bed of the truck.
“My father. He knows about the hunters' boundaries being crossed.” Penny faced us in distress, her skin more pale than usual.
My eyes became ghoulish. “Bring it on.” I gulped down the last of my whiskey. “Whatever may come, let it. We will be ready. The Grimwood’s stand with you.”
Creed’s eyes glanced at Rocky, and I caught a slight glimpse of humanity in her facial expression back at him.Hmm, interesting.Faye disappeared into the kitchen, making a ruckus in the pantry. She came out a minute later holding a tequila mixer and glass cups full of little small toothpick umbrellas.
