Bloodlines

Na’ailah laid on the settee in a hoodie she found in the walk-in closet. Her green eyes staring at the white ceiling while Ridley sat on the edge of the bed. The sun was threatening to rise but the castle was already hard at work. Burying the pandemonium of the night and scrubbing off the memories of it all. “So...” Na’ailah began softly. “Now you know what I am.” Ridley combed through her hair before rubbing her palms on her bloodied ball gown. “You haven’t said anything since we left the library. I can tell you have questions. Ask.”

“What’s the point? You can still see into my mind. I can feel it.”

“Ridley...”

“Werewolves are just... fiction!”

“I’m not a werewolf,” Sayeed’s sister stated. “I’m a wolfen. Like you said, werewolves are fiction.” Ridley said nothing. “And I have questions too.”

“About what?”

“You’re the Source, now.”

Ridley wiped off her mouth, feeling the sticker mask still on her face. “How long have you been this way?”

Na’ailah replied, “I was born like this. Sometimes it’s genetic and sometimes it’s not.”

“So...” Ridley exhaled lightly. “So Sayeed and... and your parents?”

Na'ailah shifted from the settee to the bed and felt how tense Ridley was. All the armour had been taken off, except the shoulder pads that were fixed to the dress. The wolfen wrapped an arm around Ridley’s shoulders, careful of the armoured wings of her costume. “It’s... a little messy,” she stated. “I was adopted. My biological mother died in her wolf form. That’s why it’s so easy for me to look like a common wolf; that’s how I was born. The Badrs took me in because we hardly survive on our own.”

Ridley ran her hands over her face in frustration. “So they know what you are?”

“Let me answer your question with a question,” Na’ailah stated. “What do you think Sayeed means when he says we talk about stuff?” Ridley exhaled heavily then shook her head. “Ahmed is like me,” she blurted out softly and Ridley stood up in more anguish. “Sort of.”

“Mother of God.”

“I said it was messy!” The wolfen stood up then cupped the Source at the shoulders. “So... there are theories as to why it happens like this but the most logical is that it’s because of our heritage, you know? I-it’s like the form we take shows our race.” Ridley only looked at her. “I am wolfen; I take the form of a wolf. Ahmed Badr is jackalen; he takes the form of a jackal. Jackals are Egyptian.”

“So he and Sayeed...”

“Not Sayeed. Sayeed is kin, so is Calista. Kin are... we don’t like using the words ‘human’ and ‘vampire’ so it’s just... ‘kin’. Although ‘kin’ is a widely used term. We use it for people we trust; people who aren’t like us; people we love; random people we know. We use it like ‘dude’.”

“‘We’? A few hours ago you were the last one.”

“I had to.”

Na’ailah didn’t elaborate further. Ridley shook her head then brushed her off. “You’re the ‘ancient people’ that Edwyn is looking for,” Ridley deflected. “What would combing your blood with mine do?”

“Nothing. Look at Sayeed.”

“He’s an ordinary blackblood ampyra so... no wolfy-- or jackal-y traits?”

“None. All he has that the everyone else doesn’t is a pet sister.”

Ridley relaxed a little then combed through her let down hair. “Na’ailah-”

“Na’ailah,” she cut in. “Where did you get that... right,” she realised. “When we met, Calista introduced me as Na’ailah. That was just to avoid... this. My name actually is Ankh.”

Ridley nodded mutely then finally found herself genuinely calm. She took in Ankh - the girl she always knew to be a wolf - and felt flipped upside down. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Ankh laced her fingers together then sat back down on the bed. ”Were you going to tell me?”

She could only shrug while avoiding eye contact. “I don’t know about the latter but I have only known you for four months,” she replied truthfully.

The huntress shook her head. “The worst part is that I can’t be mad at you for it,” she stated. “This isn’t something you just tell someone. I can’t even use not telling Tomás about Edwyn and the Consortium as a defense for this.”

“You still haven’t told him? Go! Now,” Ankh ordered, suddenly angrily. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

“We just lost Aimée! How can you think like that!”

“Look who’s talking about ‘we’, now,” Ankh countered. “Two days ago, the Order was ‘them and us’ and now it’s ‘we’?”

“You want it your way, fine!” Ridley marched out if her room with Ankh behind her. “They’re mourning but no! Ankh just has to be right!”

Ridley knocked on Tomás’ door and found the halfritch standing on his balcony. Ominously staring out at the sunrise. Melancholy permeated off of him in gushing waves. Beyond him, the ocean was sounding faintly. It was so tranquil but Tomás wasn’t listening to it; burried inside himself.

“I can’t do it. I can feel him.”

Tomás looked over his shoulder then hurried to his sister to gather her in a tight hug. “Oh,” he sobbed into her shoulder. “Oh, sister... I should have covered her.” Ankh’s lips parted from feeling his extensive pain through Ridley. “I am the man of this house; I-I am supposed to protect and provide for the women in my care. I-I... I should have done more.”

Ankh shook her head. “No. No, no. You don’t get to blame yourself for this!” Ridley sniffled into his shoulder while Tomás was buried in her neck. Ankh rested her hand on his shoulder. “Aimée is not your fault,” the wolfen whispered. “The Consortium did this. She knew that.”

Ridley straightened up then felt every ampyra in Chateau du Luq’s mourning overwhelm her. The huntress grew dizzy and tumbled into the bed weakly before laying down. Ankh too moaned, clutching her head. The Source rolled over on the bed. It came in waves that shot her back, each one stronger than the last. “How do you turn this off?”

Ankh let out a snarl then sprouted fur on her cheeks, and fangs. She threw herself to the floor. “There’s too much!”

“What can I do,” Tomás offered, though his panicky state was no help.

“Focus! Tune it out,” Ankh ordered through her strain. She barked angrily then started tearing the skin on her face off for the fur to break out. “Tune it out!”

Ridley took deep breaths and shut out the vibrations of mourning. Ankh took breatha as well, her fur shedding and her skin growing back. Tomás carefully picked her up and laid her on his bed, near Ridley. “Holy Hell. No wonder Ninsun lived in isolation.”

The wolfen sat up while her counterpart stayed down. She combed through her chocolatey hair and dusted off her fur. “He never said he lived in isolation.” Ridley froze then bolted upright. “Holy shit. You suddenly know everything about them.”

“Who?” Ridley looked over at Tomás. “Are you all right? Should I fetch a physician?”

Ridley stood up then took her brother’s hand in hers. “We need to talk about some things,” she stated. “Some would be better with everyone else around but this... I think you can handle. Come on,” she led him outside onto his balcony. “Tomás, last night in the library; that man Isabella Gonzalez had at gun point. He’s name was Earnest Sinclair. He was the Source.”

“What?”

“I-I know you’re all mourning Aimée, honestly so am I. She was an amazing person. I wish I got to know her better,” Ridley went on. “The thing is, the Source isn’t a person. It’s a bloodline that has to be passed onto a person; it’s transferable. You felt something last night, when the Source was dying. Like you were dying.”

“Yes. Yes, I did.” Ridley could sense that he was thinking really hard about where the conversation was going. “Are you saying that... that I am the Source now?” Ridley hummed her discomfort but then looked up at her brother. “Ah. I see. Not me, you.” She only nodded. “Praytell, sister, how does this transfer work?”

She wrapped her arms around him and nestled into his chest. “I know you have questions. Frankly, I’m still figuring it out,” she lied. Tomás nodded then kissed her crown. “I’m so sorry about Aimée.” The goldblood enveloped his sister in his arms while the wolfen quietly left the bedroom. “You need to rest.”

Tomás shook his head weakly. “I am-”

“No, you’re not.” She carefully dragged him.back inside. “You can’t lie to me anymore,” she pointed out. “I’ll stay with you.”

He cupped her cheek before reaching for a soft plaid shirt for her to change into. The brother-sister duo laid together on the canopy bed. The dark blue curtains were drawn back, revealing the matching dark blue bedspread. Ridley laid her head on his chest and Tomás wrapped his arms around her.

“Where do we go from here, sister?”

Ridley snuggled up to him sadly. “When I was a novice, my grandmother told my sister and I something. She said ‘we have to be like sharks. Always going forward; never looking back. That’s the only way to survive’. I guess, we start there and comb through the knots as they come.”

Tomás was quite with his breathing his only sign of life. On hand held his sister closer and the other rested on her head. Ridley, for the first time in France, relaxed. She shoulders melted away and her hunter skills were put to sleep. The ocean, not far away, and the rising sun gave the room a much needed tranquility.

Brother and sister listened to the Mediterranean pushing and pulling along the coast and smelled its salty perfume in the breeze. The luxury mattress sank underneath them, shaping them comfortably. Despite the serene, the Source could pick up of the raging thoughts in the head nearby.

Master of the House tried his best to shut off his mind and be in the moment. He was still reeling from finding his father at the core of the Consortium. “What is your father like,” he asked when his own thoughts overpowered him.

Ridley sighed then rested a hand on his shoulder. “He’s like a father.” Tomás looked down at her expectantly. “I don’t know,” she admitted ruefully then met his du Luq blue eyes. “I guess Axel’s pretty good at it. He had Ryan and I when he was fresh out of high school. He was hunting and working parttime to pay for us and university. We lived in a shity condominium for years. When he got married, things changed. He wasn’t so stressed and alone and... but he never, not once, made Ryan and I feel like we were alone.” Tomás let out a sad breath. “What about Edwyn?”

The goldblood wiped his tears then buried his face in his sister’s head. “I’ve only seen him a handful of times through my centuries,” he admitted. “Mother too,” he added. “The last time I saw him was in Russia, 2007. Sebastian and I were in Moscow to see the Russian Ballet production of Romeo and Juliet. He was there with a woman on his arm so I-I didn’t initiate conversation.”

“What happened before that?”

“Spain, 1793. He joined the Spaniards for the War of the Pyrenees. We were hiding in Almería while the Reign of Terror was going on here,” he replied sadly. “That just after I lost Clarisse and Adrienne,” he went on out loud. “Everything in me wants to hate him and yet I cannot. When I saw him, I wanted to cry into his embrace.” Tomás sniffled and Ridley gathered him in a tight hug. “And last night...” he sighed then hugged her tightly. “The vapours of hell could be all over him and yet he could still convince me he was a saint.”

“Sh,” Ridley sang softly. “Sleep.”

“I took my rage out on mother,” he continued. “I thought she was just as evil him. She came to me some eighteen years ago to tell me that I was all she needed.”

“Be quiet.” Ridley took deep shaking breaths while wiping away her tears. She ran her fingers through her hereditary black hair. “There’s something I have to tell you, Tomás. When we were at Julien’s house, I broke into his study and found a hard drive with everything on the Consortium on it.”

“You...? How did-”

“I knew that night that Edwyn was the leader of the Consortium. I knew that he was looking for people like Ankh; I heard that from a First Generation.”

“Sister...”

“I know I should have told you sooner and-”

“Yes! Yes, you should have!” Tomás shoved her off his chest as he sat up. “You were keeping this from us! We are your family! You are supposed to trust us!”

“I-I know and I should have trusted you they way you trusted me and-”

“Aimée is dead because of you!”

She shifted away from him, lightly shaking his head. “I...”

“Get out! You killer, get out!”

Ridley stammered off his bed, bewildered by him. Tomás threw a pillow at her! She stepped out of his room weakly. She went back to her room and began packing up her things. She left behind everything the du Luqs had for her. Tears pouring, Ridley piled her bow and her quiver into her duffle bag. At snail’s pace she took her clothes from the walk-in closet, hoping in that time Tomás would return and ask her to stay.

Her bags were packed oddly fast, in spite of her pace. With her bags packed and tears heavy in her eyes, Ridley crept through the corridor. Tomás exited his room when he heard the wheels on her bag drag over the tiles. “Tomás, please,” she pleaded. “Let me help make this right.”

“How could you? You knew. The entire fucking time, you knew!”

“Please understand...”

“Understand what, Ridley,” he roared so loudly. “You were keeping secrets from us when we didn’t from you because you’re a hunter? Or maybe you want to know about the lengths we went through to get all our information before you got here. O-or do you want to know the incredibly detailed account of how I lost my wife and daughter because a close friend gave us up and ever since, I’ve only trusted my family?”

Tomás ignored her efforts to stop her as they continued through the castle. Servants were back to their duties, as per usual. A few were tasked with the unique responsibility of scrubbing blood off walls and floors. Most of them stopped what they were doing to watch the brother and sister bicker down to the main doors.

“You are a despicable witch who tore my family apart. My aunt is dead now but we have to keep moving to protect our kind! Congratulations, hunter.”

“Where will I go?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you’ll go back to your own family and get them killed.” Ridley gasped, taking a step away from him. “What I do know is you are never coming back here, that’s for damn sure!”

“Ridley,” Ankh called with Sebastian hot on her heels from the parlour. “What’s going on?”

“Go ahead,” the Master of the House ordered. “Tell her who’s responsible for all this death.”

“What,” Ankh voiced. “What are you talking about?”

“She knew for days that Edwyn was the head of the Consortium.”

Ankh closed her eyes with a sigh then blocked Ridley’s view of Tomás. “Listen to me,” the wolfen began, “we’re all going through something right now. I won’t belittle your pain but don’t do this. Take some time to cool off and-”

“Is this your way of saying you knew?”

“Tomás...”

“Ankh didn’t know anything,” Ridley bellowed. “I didn’t tell anyone.” Tomás was seething! He stormed off with Sebastian trailing after him. "Please stay with them," the Source asked. Ankh's shoulders dropped but she nodded. "You were right. Thank you for putting up with me."

"He just needs time to cool off."

Ridley shook her head. "Please protect my family," she whispered then left.