Page 1 of Poison

PROLOGUE

The household is abuzz about the ceremony tonight. I don’t understand why though. It’s like a Royal is coming or something, but nope. All it is, is the wedding of my cousin Sonya, who found her mate. The clan are ecstatic about it, as if it’s a rare and significant occurrence. Which it isn’t by the way. Oh no, theychoseeach other as mates; they aren’t fated which I could understand this reaction for. I can’t believe the stupidity of it. No, not it,them!She should be grateful for her ability and that she didn’t end up like me. The disappointment.

“Always so cynical, aren’t you, Pop?” Kevin does his weird, petty attempt at a grin from his spot on my bed. He reminds me of one of those crazy-looking teddies you can buy online. The ones that look creepy as hell.

“Haven’t you got anyone else to terrorise?” I sass back, much to his annoyance.

He huffs, uncoiling himself from his position, and makes his way to the edge of the bed. His eyes sparkle at me from the edge before he drops off the end with a thwack. The impact with the floor with that much force would bother anything but that doesn’t deter him from continuing towards me while grumbling.

“We both know I’m the best thing to happen to you,” he says with an arrogant lilt. When I don’t reply, he chuckles to himself. “Plus, admit it, you would be lost without me.”

I grind my teeth together. The cockiness shining in his eyes has me grumbling internally because I hate to admit the little shit is right. He’s been my best friend since I can remember. His crazy arse was a big help for me to make it through the loss of my parents and all the bullying I’ve had to endure through school, even from the people who are meant to be family. The kids of the community are cruel. It was bad enough standing out the way I do because of the colour of my hair, let’s not forget my strange eye colour too. Then add in a dash of being a part of the Draken clan—which is the strongest clan in the supernatural community—it makes life difficult. Some of the supernatural community is against my family as they have been in power for hundreds of years. Much to their displeasure, if you ask some members of the other clans. Many of them would say they want to be in power and the Draken’s have held the mantle for too long. So yeah, that added a big red target on my back from birth, but fate just had to take it one step further and screw me over. I may be a part of the strongest clan known to the supernatural world, but me… I’m a dud. I have no shifter nor any magical abilities at all. So, you could say that makes me somewhat of a pariah.

I was walking down the corridor the other day, looking for a maid to help me reach something in the library. Because no matter how hard I’d tried, I couldn’t reach it. Even standing on a table didn’t help. I didn’t find a maid, nope I ran into one of my other cousins, Talia. She hissed that a disgusting creature like me shouldn’t have been allowed to be born let alone be a Draken. Then she proceeded to use her witch powers to stick me to the ceiling with insects and spiders crawling all over me for six hours.

“Poison!” My aunt’s voice snaps throughout the house as she calls for me again.

My stomach rolls, my anxiety already building to extreme heights. It’s churned up in my body with a whole host of emotions, which is leaving me one seriously messed up individual. I thought she would’ve realised by now that I would rather stay up here and out of everyone’s way, since I haven’t answered her the last five times she summoned me.

“You sure about this? She will force you down soon if you don’t answer,” Kevin says with a dark expression on his face. He hates the way she treats me, but we both know there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it.

The sounds of laughter float through the windows, and the noise has my already out of whack emotions cascading up to space. I’m not sure if I can keep a fake-cheerful smile on my face long enough to make it through the festivities of tonight. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I am happy for Sonya—even though we don’t get along and she’s made it painfully clear my whole life that I’m not one ofthem—but I can still be miserable about it.

All this has me thinking about what will happen to me. I’ve never really thought much of what my impairment has taken away from me. Deep down, I secretly hoped that I would have my happily ever after with a mate, like all supes do. But I know that I will never have a chance at a mate, or gaining a position in the clan when I come of age. I don’t know which is worse.

The coming-of-age ceremony where we decide what we want to do in this world is something every child dreams about. Apparently, my family hoped I was a late bloomer, but when my gifts didn’t materialise by my sixth birthday, they knew something was wrong—though I never felt any different.

My parents were amazing, so I never knew I was a problem. Until I was about seven and realised I was the topic for whispered conversations between staff and family members, along with extensive bullying from the kids.

A few weeks ago, I got the feeling something was going to happen, something that would involve me. So I went on a sleuthing mission and made sure I kept myself out of sight… while other people made plans for my life, it would seem. I wasn’t as shocked as I should have been when I heard the conversation between my aunt and some of the council members. They were discussing me and what they thought the best course of action would be as I listened intently.

It felt like it took hours as they went back and forth between different scenarios, until they finally agreed it would be best to send me into the human world and let me live my life as one of them.

That’s not the part that has me worried, I think I could manage quite well living as a human. But I know that this world will erase my memories, then plant false ones before shipping me off on my merry way.

I know if I think about it logically, having my memories taken away would probably be the best thing for me—considering they’re not exactly happy memories. Plus, the supernatural council could relax since I wouldn’t cause a problem for the clans with them fearing that I might out them to the humans—which I wouldn’t do evenwithmy memories. But I understand their fear over it. The thing I can’t understand, is how they expect me to go from one life with my family, knowing legends and myths are all real, to one with no family and where nothing is believed.

I turn slowly to look at my friend, when my body goes rigid and I precariously sway back and forth like dead weight. I can’t even lift my arms to stop myself from face planting the floor. My eyes widen as I swing a little too far forward for my liking. My left foot moves…

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!”

Then my right leg moves, and so on, my own body taking me on an adventure that I’m not in control of. My body walks through my room to the door, grabbing the handle and opening it. I’ll never get used to this, being a passenger in my own body is rather trippy. Kevin’s laughter fills the room behind me as my body turns to the left like a puppet on strings.

“I told you it would happen,” he says between his belly laughs.

I wish I could hurl abuse at the dick right about now, but I can only move my eyes at my command. Instead, I cuss him out in my head, which he finds hysterical.

My body continues on its journey down the stairs and dread begins to fill my stomach. Every time this happens—which is surprisingly often—I try not to fight it. But I’m not exactly a fan of someone else controlling my body, leaving me just a helpless consciousness along for the ride. But that’s Belladonna Draken… a master manipulator, a pro at getting people to do what she wants. At first, people did try to fight her over it, but they soon realised they didn’t have a choice in the matter. What most supes don’t realise, is this is onlyoneof the copious parlour tricks she has up her sleeve. But then she is the strongest witch born in the last five hundred years.

The other clans can’t rival her power. They did try when she was first offered the position as head, and it caused a war between the other council members, but it didn’t last that long. They soon realised they were losing the battle and had no way to beat her. So, she became the head of the council with a unanimous decision from the other members, being inducted to the position. She loves lording the extra power boost she has over everyone.

Then add the boost she got becoming the head of the council she got a ridiculous amount of power. But from the whisperings I’ve heard, my aunt has more power than they’re aware of, so add it all together and you get an unstoppable force of nature. The twelve clans in our community are made up of either witches or shifters, but the Draken clan has both, making us the strongest clan of all. When we’re born, it’s not a question of what gender will we be, but how powerful will we become?

My heavy footfalls echo around the house as I’m walked through the corridors athercommand. Kevin follows me slowly, his eyes never far away from the direction she’s having me walk. All the people here gasp as we pass them, not because I’m being controlled and look like something out of a horror movie. Oh no, it’s in fear of my companion behind me as they scramble to get out of his way—much to his delight. I roll my eyes when he hisses at a couple of them as we pass and they fall over themselves trying to get away from him.

That’s what makes him the best and worst friend ever, because he is awesome—most of the time. I can talk to him about almost anything, and he’ll be there with a crazy-arse idea to get me through whatever is bothering me, but then he is also the worst prankster of them all. He’s constantly pulling pranks or doing something to terrify the life out of people. He thrives in the chaos and upset it causes, and he loves the fact it pisses my aunt off too. He’s as happy as a Kelpie playing in water when he finds a new way to upset her.

Bodies rush around the house putting the final touches on everything, ignoring me completely as usual, and laughter comes through on the air that brushes against my skin from all the open windows. The huge double glass doors that lead into the back garden show me a framed picture of what’s going on out there.

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