Unraveling Mordecai by Marisa Maichel (types of ebook readers txt) 📕

apprehensive of him.
I visited them at the house from time to time, even staying the night on occasion. Father seemed hurt that I chose to spend more time with Alexander than him. Things were still tense between them.
“He’s not my father, you are,” told him one night as we smoked on the porch and watched David and Louis wrestle in the yard. They adored each other and were more like brothers than David and I were.
“Still, he’s…” My father closed his eye, then opened them, and his pupils were slits. “When I think about him, I want to destroy a small city. Have you forgotten that he nearly killed you, Reese? He even admitted that he wanted to wring Sarah’s neck when he first met her, simply because he hates humans. He took Cirino because he thought that Kieran would never speak to him again. The plan was for him to raise Cirino and eventually turn him into a vampire. The plan was never for her or you to live. He would have killed you, too, if your mother hadn’t interfered.”
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, his pupils were round again.
“How do you feel now with him here?” I gestured to David.
“Oh, I’m thrilled he’s here. He keeps me company when you’re not around. He tells me stories about his other siblings and his mother. I knew Ferri years ago, and it was extremely brief. I never thought for one second that anything might have become of our brief relationship.”
He closed his eyes. “It must have happened that night in December. We were both drunk, and neither of us used any protection or cared about possible disease or pregnancy. David told me his birthday’s in August. That would mean….” He paused and counted on his fingers. “He just turned twenty-five.”
“But he told you that, though.”
“I know, but I still can’t believe it. I was sure you were it, Reese. None of us have born much fruit other than what we have. There is a possibility that there may be more, but I doubt it.”
He looked over at the guys wrestling.
“That was a cheap shot!” David shouted.
“One thing you should know about me: I don’t play fair!” Louis responded, jumping on my brother. “You’re doing great, dude! But I can still kick your butt!”
Beyond the edge of the property line, I could see Cholena, still writing in that notebook of hers.
“What’s she still doing here?” I asked Father.
“Cholena? I don’t know. I think Satira sent her to watch us, but I’m not going to make her leave, even though her presence hurts Soren. He still blames himself for Mitra’s death. And no one has seen Katonah in weeks. Soren went to see her human family, but they all yelled at him and tried to shoot him. So they also blame him.”
My heart broke for both my uncle and Cholena. Cholena lost her mother, and my uncle lost his mate. Again. Plus, Mitra wasn’t bad company. She kept up lively conversations, and, even though her attitude sucked most of the time, she kept it real, even when she admitted she was torn between Katonah and my uncle, and even when we weren’t exactly nice to her.

I stepped off the porch and walked all the way over to where Cholena was sitting. She glared at me, and hissed when I got too close for her liking.
“What are you writing?” I asked. She showed me. It was a sketchbook…and it had a picture of Louis on it. It captured his likeness perfectly, even the mischievous glint in his blue eyes and the tangles in his long brown hair.
“It looks like him,” I said.
She said nothing and turned back to her picture.
“What else have you drawn?” I asked. She showed me. The cemetery. The lake. A deer and her fawn. A pack of wolves in the distance. A fox digging. A buck rubbing his antlers on a tree. Even a few humans, which I realized were her family.
She continued to glare at me, even as I complimented each drawing. She was even better than Sarah, and Sarah was good at drawing and loved it. Her glare grew deeper when I casually asked about Satira. She closed her sketchbook and grabbed her messenger bag and walked away, giving me the finger.
“You tried, little buddy,” Louis said, patting my shoulder as I walked by him.
“Did you see the first drawing she showed him?” David asked.
“No, what was it?”
“It was you, Louis.”
“What? Me? Why would she draw me?”
“It’s possible that she’s drawn all of us,” Father told him, stepping on his cigarette. “She just showed the picture of you.”
“Huh,” was my cousin’s response. “Hey, I’m hungry. Who wants make dinner for me?”
“You can get your own,” Father told him.
“You got David his-“
“David is still a guest and therefore deserves a little more…um…”
“Yeah, right. You just want to be a parent again.”
“So what if I do? I haven’t met David before last month and Reese is nearly grown. He claims he doesn’t need me, anymore.”
“I never said that,” I argued.
“You didn’t say it with your words, son, but with your actions.”
“In other words, he’s hurt that you decided to live with your mom for a while,” Louis explained.
“Sarah and the baby need me,” I argued. “She can’t leave the home because she’ll be out of their protection, and there’s less vampires there than here. No one has any reason to attack Mother’s house, but they have plenty reason to attack this house, and this house has had plenty of attacks. I don’t want her caught in the crossfire.”
“I don’t want that any more than you do, Reese, but she’s just as safe here because there are more vampires to protect her. We still have Toby and Sam and Sarah has Chris. She’s perfectly safe.”
“I disagree. I’m not willing to risk her or my baby’s life just so you can see me.”
He gave me an extremely offended look and went inside. Minutes later, I heard the television turn on.
“He misses you, little buddy,” Louis explained. “We all do, but especially him. Go easy on him. Can’t you spend a couple more nights with us? It would make us all happy, and he’d stop bitching to me.”
“Mmm, fine,” I growled. “If it will make him happy, sure. I can stay a few more nights.”
I went inside and told Father the good news. He planted a big smooch on my forehead and told me I was a good kid.
We watched the news for a bit, then switched to a crime drama, then switched to a documentary about freakshows. I asked Father about them, and he explained that medical anomalies were not fully understood and those who had certain conditions that affected them physically, such as dwarfism, giantism, and conjoined twins were common in freakshows.
One of the most popular freakshow attractions were “pinheads”, or people with microcephaly. Among the most famous were people like Schlitze, who was a man with the condition and even starred in a 1932 movie.
We watched that for a while, and then Father sat up and began sniffing the air. I took a big whiff. I smelled female vampire. Her scent was unfamiliar, and I could tell by her scent that she was a fledgling.
I followed my father and cousin outside, and we spotted a thin figure studying us from a tree branch at the edge of the woods.
“We will not harm you,” Father said, stepping forward. Instead of being comforted, the female shrank back and hissed. She was like a female version of me-skinny, muscular, but her black hair was shortened into a bob and her eyes were brown. I purred to try to ease her, and her eyes flicked over to me.
“Hello, I’m Reese,” I said.
She jumped down and landed perfectly on her feet.
“Call me Kole,” she said. “With a K.”
“Hi, Kole,” Louis said. “Did you come here alone?”
She looked sad. “Yeah. I don’t know where or what I am. I remember being bitten, but everything before that is a blank. Can you help me?”
“Be careful, she may have been sent to spy on us,” Father said. Kole heard, and looked confused.
“She smells like she’s alone,” Louis pointed out. “This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve had vampires come to this house because they smelled our scent and wanted to know who we were or got confused. Remember that one coven who came with Meiko? Or that coven after that?”
A light went off over my head. “Was Zeke’s clan just curious, or were they sent to spy on us as well? I mean, that one chick connected with Sarah, and afterwards, little buddy met Ambrose for the first time, and Ambrose used to work for Bram Sterling.”
“Ambrose has always worked for himself,” Father said. He looked at Kole. “I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt, but she does seem lost and confused. Louis, why don’t you take her and explain things to her?”
“Reese can do it,” Louis said, winking at me. I frowned. Louis knew I was with Sarah.
Kole looked at me, and fluttered her eyelashes. I almost told her I had a girlfriend. Then Cholena stepped lazily out of the woods, her bag over her shoulder. When the two girls saw each other, they stared for a long time.
"I sense distension in the ranks," Louis whisper-shouted.
"What are you doing here, Cholena?" Father asked her.
"I have some questions about my mother," she said, turning to look at him.
"Let's go to the yard."
The day was overcast, though not in a way that threatened rain.
"What do you want to know?" I asked, as all the vampires sat in a half circle.
"My mother...was she pretty?"
"Very," I answered. "She was gorgeous. She had this shiny short hair, and this thin body. She was small, but not as small as you."
"Who are we talking about?" Kole asked.
"Mitra," I said. "Cholena, this is Kole, Kole, this is Cholena." The two girls stared at each other again, then Kole said "mate" under her breath. Mate? Were they mates? Cholena didn't seem to care as she threw her legs out, propping herself up on her hands. She jumped, bringing her feet together, and then jumped up as high as she could. Which was pretty damn high.
Then Kole jumped up, and the two girls intertwined their fingers in midair. David came out to join us then, and he watched this display with interest.
"Sorry I haven't been around much," I told my brother as he sat beside me. "With the wedding only a few months away, and with this baby coming..."
"I understand," he said, watching the girls as they landed near a patch of oak trees. "You've been busy. But one would think that you might put your brother ahead just for a little while."
Okay, so he was hurt. I knew he was trying to make me feel guilty about not staying or seeing him much.
Cholena ran back in a split second, panting, Kole right behind her. Then I heard a voice I didn't want to hear again.
"Kole! Kole, where are you?"
"Satira," Louis said, and Father groaned.
"She's not that bad," Kole said.
"How do you know her?" I asked.
"She created me. As a companion."
"Did you and Cholena know each other before this?" I asked.
"Er, no," Kole said, and I knew she was lying. But I said nothing against her statement and looked at my father. His brows were furrowed, and he scratched his abdomen absentmindedly.
"Fuck me," he said. "Were you two sent to spy on us?"
Kole and Cholena looked at each