Page 67 of Madness Behind the Mask
He smiles at me tightly, his face white with pain,and I shift in Caden’s arms, a silent request for him to put me down. As soon as he does, everyone stands and rushes over to me, as if our pain is pulling us all together, elasticlinessnapping back. I hold them tightly, my arms moving around each one, trying to touch them all, taking their pain and finding comfort at the same time.
I turn to Leon, wanting toask him how he is, what he’s been up to, what his likes and dislikes are, if he has a girl, all the questions I haven’t been able to ask, just wanting to get to know him, to bask in a mother’s love.
But before I can say a word, Ryo starts to cry for me, hating that we are all herewhilehe is left at the table, stuck in his highchair.
My children all step back, albeit slowly, so I can go to him, and I drag my feet, such exhaustive movements that leave me sweatingfromthe effort. Dropping to my knees in front of him, I smile. Not forced but not full. A pang to my happiness.
“Mama!” Ryo says, his tears stopping as he pats my face, the slop on his hands smearing across my chin. It gets in my hair as he fists a bit, and I wince as he pulls, but I embrace the pain.
“Nom nom nom,” I say, pretending to eat the fingers of his other hand. He giggles, soft rays that pierce the dark clouds hanging over us all. Chairs are scooted towards the table as everyone retakes their seats, and Caden touches my shoulder to let me know to take mine. My stomach growls as he helps me up and into an empty chair. A fresh plate is laid in front of me by one of our staff, and my belly rumbles again.
I want to eat, but as Caden is here, no one can start until he does. Even Leon stops Ryo from taking another bite. Picking up my fork, Caden places it in my hand. “Eat,” he says as he heads for his chair, and the first bite is down my throat before he can settle.
Unlike how they all were when we entered,forks now move with purpose.Olivia’s presence still weighs on usas heavily as before, but we allcarrya part of her, helping tohold her up so no one staggers under alone.
Once the sharpest of my hunger is sated, I turn to my firstborn, wanting so badly to get to know him. Despitehim not actually being thefirstof my children to be born,the title is moved to the oldest surviving to make writing and understanding our laws easier, while also not making him seem weak by calling him a ‘surviving heir.’
A surviving heir is one undeserving of the throne who just happens to inherit it due to the death of his brothers. It leads to people asking, “If he got it. Why can’t I?”
But afirstbornis power. He is one born to lead, and I see that solidified in the strong shoulders and stiff back of my son.
“Leon,” I start just as Caden shouts for me to get down.
I turn to him as movement explodes around me. Caden is on his feet, facing the front door, but the stranger enters directly behind him, having phased in, simply appearing from thin air.
I scream as my husband turns too slowly, and thenewman withdark-gray eyes bares his teeth to show fangs. He snaps them over Caden’s neck, the points piercing skin before he hisses with pain and vanishes as quickly as he appeared.The knife Caden shoved into him with his magic flies to his hand as he swings around.
My heart thudding, I grab my plate of food, the glass China decades old,then fling it at Leon. He ducks just as the air ripples behind him, and the glass shatters across the face that’s just solidified. Dark-gray eyes snap to me as the vampire phases once more. I shove to my feet even as Caden pushes me away with his telekinesis, both of us having clocked the man’s next move.
But he doesn’t appear to rip out my throat. Another vampire comes instead, right behind Molly. My scream just starts to rip past my lips when he grabs her and is gone. The kitchen fills with more bodies, more vampires somehow ableto get past our wards.
I don’t have time to ask Caden how this is possible, if he detected something breaking or weakening when he shot to his feet before anyone entered. I barely have time to stop my scream when the first vampire appears again, finally in front of me.
I swing at him, my muscles weak, and he laughs as my fist connects with his face. A body falls from the ceiling behind him, one of his men having phased high, and my heart shatters as Molly screams on her plummet. She hits the table with athudthat snaps her head in an awkward angle, but before I can scream for her, the man in front grabs me by the hair and jerks my head to the side. I kick out at him as Caden screams my name.
White fangs flash as my children are picked off around me.
My body buzzes with my power. I was asleep for years; worse, it was during the time when I should’ve learned to control my magic. So now it builds without any training, without any guidelines, running on pure emotion that rips out of my fingers as they dangle at my sides.
My hands turn into smoke that grows out in long lines that shoot to the floor just as the vampire sinks his teeth into my neck. My blood pulses beneath his lips, and on instinct, my magic builds there, denying him the pleasure of drinking my essence, healing itself around his fangs.
He growls as he lifts his teeth to bite again, but by this time my shadows havepushed between us, and although they are not solid enough to shove us apart, he jumps back as if they are.
He knows I can kill with them. Knows that I am one of those progenies.
But he doesn’t know I am a grieving mother.
Who will do anything to save her remaining children.
As my eyes flick around the kitchen, seeing the blood ofmy babies, I open myself completely, offering up my own body to the monsters I know lurk inside my shadows.
I can feel them coming in swathes. Their feet clicking across a rocky ground that doesn’t exist in this world.I can heartheir mandibles snapping with hunger, see their eyes glowing with greed.
“Sau, stop!” Cadens screams, but I don’t listen, having nothing left to lose. “Sau!”
The vampire’s head snaps to the left as his eyeswiden. I direct my anger at him, my shadows, knowing he is going to try to phase. Just as his body starts to fade, I wrap a tendril of darkness around his foot, anchoring him here.
He curses as his eyes grab me.
