Unraveling Soren by Marisa Maichel (books under 200 pages txt) 📕

down was, “What exactly are you people?”

Gianna spoke first. “First, where are our granddaughters?”

“Answer my question first, old lady.”

She frowned. “We are among the Chosen. We are a race as old as angels, older than humans, but younger than God.”

“All beings are younger than God.”

“We are the descendants of Atlantis, the original humans.”

“Like the Giants?”

“The Giants are not humans, they are abominations. We were from Pangea, the original continent. Mesopotamia.”

“That doesn’t explain anything. Why are you trying to kill the girls?”

“Not kill them,” Benjamin corrected. “But they must be punished for their disobedience. That is why Emilia gave her the belladonna, to make Sarah see the light. We hoped she would think it came from you. Our intention was not to harm her.”

“You are morons,” I snapped, and my stepfather placed a warning hand on my shoulder.

“We are descendants of Noah, of Abraham and Isaac. You are against all we stand for, and all we believe in and know.”

“Sarah has an angel friend, and he’s met me before,” I said. “I can’t say that he liked me too well, but he hasn’t tried to kill me so far.”

“Then it is long overdue.” Gianna stood up, revealing that she had a stake. She aimed it for my heart, and if Alexander hadn’t pushed me out of the way, I’d probably be dead by now. He shoved both me and Mother to the ground.

“STOP!”

Benjamin had shouted the word, and he tried to wrestle the stake out of Gianna’s hand.

“Don’t kill them, dear,” he said. “Sarah is in love with him, and she loves Marina like a mother, and Alexander like a father.”

Mother and I beamed, and Alexander grunted, although I saw joy in his eyes.

“This bitch murdered Alicia!” Gianna shouted. “And Sarah knows it!”

“Shut up, bitch,” I said. “She didn’t know until very recently. And what do you expect her to do, move out into the streets?”

“Yes! Anything would be better than living with you demons of the night!”

“Lady, we don’t even kill humans anymore,” Alexander growled. “We drink donated blood.”

“But you still drink directly from humans, do you not? And he has killed humans before!” She pointed at me. I snapped my teeth at her hand, and she drew back with horror in her eyes.

“I’ve seen shit you can only imagine came from the mind of a twisted being,” I said. “And yes, I’ve killed humans before, but only murderers and rapists. Don’t forget, I also killed the boy who raped Sarah.”

“And then brought him back to life!”

“That wasn’t me! That was our enemy, the one who is killing all these people!”

Suddenly, Alexander and Mother both looked astonished, and Mother smiled at me.

“Excellent deduction, Reese. Can you tell us why someone would want to bring our enemies back to life?”

“I don’t know…revenge, maybe?”

“Boy, you’re brilliant,” Alexander said, still nonsmiling. He looked at the Abrahams. “I hereby place you under arrest for attempted murder. Chris, if you will.”

Chris appeared with a pair of real handcuffs and placed them on Gianna. I hadn’t even known she was there. When I asked Mother about it later, she said that Chris had been told to reveal herself only when she or Alexander said her name.

Chris took Gianna away, reading her the Miranda rights.

Benjamin looked shocked, and began protesting to non-listening ears.

I needed some caffeine, so I stopped at a coffee shop and ordered a large vanilla latte. When I took it from the smiling cashier and paid her, I drank half of it in one gulp. I parked in a Walmart parking lot and thought about Sarah. She’d been living at my house for the past five days. I drove her to and from school, and her therapy appointments, which had increased. I had even gone twice with her to therapy.

I could tell Caroline didn’t like me, she thought I was dangerous, and she even asked me if I thought I was dangerous.

Yes, I was, but because I am dangerous, I am also the safest port in a storm of violence surrounding Sarah.

I love Sarah. I’ve said that many times. I’ve said it many times, because it’s the truth. When we first began dating, I had been infatuated with her, which quickly grew into true love. I adored her, worshipped the ground she walked on. I loved our future together, whatever it held. If she was pregnant now, I’d be thrilled. I would love to be the father of her children.

One of my biggest dreams was to become a father myself. Ever since I began having visions of my children, my desire only grew, until I was becoming obsessed with them. But I knew I wasn’t ready yet. We were not yet married, for one, and for another, I didn’t have a steady source of income, other than my monthly allowance and royalties.

But I considered the things I could do now. I could work at one of my father’s stores or another store in town. I knew that my favorite record store was hiring, and so was Barnes & Noble and a couple local independent stores.

I thought about publishing my own music. I could do that. Everyone said I was good. Maybe more people would like it. Other than vampires, I mean. I took a deep breath and got out my acoustic guitar. I strummed and hummed, then added a few random lyrics, and then I started creating Evan’s Song.

Oh, oh,oh,oh

What could it take

If I wanted to apologize to you

I’m holding the rake

I know you miss me too

I needed you

I loved you

This is your song

Oh, yeah

This is Evan’s song

I heard clapping and looked up to see Louis grinning like a fool. The short blond man I’d seen with him before was there too, looking amused.

“What do you want, Dungbrains?” I snapped.

“Manners, Reese, or I’ll have Paul here show you exactly what he does to me when we-“

“Too much information. What do you want?”

“Condoms. Got any?”

“Of course.” I tossed him a pack, and then he looked at them, then looked at me strangely.

“Reese, these are expired. Like, a year ago.”

“What?” I looked at the pack, then felt cold all over. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit.”

I thought about the broken condom and Shadowfang’s comment about me becoming a father soon. I doubled over, suddenly feeling sick.

“You okay, little buddy?” Louis asked, sitting beside me and putting an arm around me.

“I think I need to buy a pregnancy test.”

Louis started laughing. “I think you need to take that up with your parents, because you are definitely not pregnant.”

“Not for me, you idiot! For Sarah!”

“Oh, that’s a different story. Reese, I have bought plenty of pregnancy tests for girls I don’t give a shit about, and I’ve been in your position. Just stay calm, avoid eye contact with her parents, and tell the cashier it’s for your sister.”

“You don’t have a sister.”

“No, but you do. Trust me, girls find it hot when guys take care of their siblings, especially their sisters. Of course, you can also tell by smell. I don’t know if Sarah’s pregnant; it might be too early for her, but I do know someone else in our family who is pregnant.”

“You do? Who?”

“Ah, that would be telling, and I promised her I wouldn’t say a word. She’ll probably kick my ass, anyway, because I already opened my mouth. Let’s go, Paulie. I want to see that new movie with the lesbian vampires.”

“You just want to see that redhead take off her bra,” Paul said in a surprisingly high-pitched voice, and I realized that was the first time I’d heard him speak.

But my new knowledge about the sound of Louis’ boyfriend’s voice was nothing compared to the shock of finding out that someone in our family was pregnant.

I went to the bathroom and vomited. I was either going to be a brother or an uncle again. I felt a cool hand on my back, and my father’s voice, but what he said barely registered. He was asking me what was wrong, if I was sick, and if he could do anything.

I got up and cleaned my mouth, using half the toothpaste in the tube, and went back to my room, Father following me the whole time.

“Ask Louis,” I growled.

“Ask Louis? Our Louis? What has he done now?”

“It’s not what he’s done, it’s what he knows. Plus, I think Sarah might be pregnant.”

“You’d better figure that out quickly if you even suspect she’s pregnant. And what does Louis know?”

“He said that someone else in our family was pregnant, but he wouldn’t say whom.”

“Of course he did. He’s had experience, but then, so have I. I can smell a pregnancy a mile away, And I haven’t been around anyone lately who’s pregnant, let me tell you that right now.”

“But the female members of the family live at the other house.”

“True, true. So, what’s the plan?”

“Plan?”

“You need to have a plan to find out who’s pregnant, and especially if Sarah’s pregnant.”

“I’m going to start by throwing these out.” I took a handful of condoms and threw them in the trash.

“Uh, those are supposed to prevent pregnancy-“

“But Louis said they’re expired. And one broke the other day. And Shadowfang said something about me becoming a father.”

“You had just had sex with her.”

Just then, my phone rang, blaring Sarah’s number.

“Hello, Reese?”

“What’s up, green eyes?”

“Well, yellow eyes, it’s like this…my mother did come back from the dead, and she’s at the house right now. I…I don’t think she’s human anymore. Can you come here? I can’t get ahold of anyone else. Chris is keeping her away as long as she can, but she won’t be able to much longer.”

“I’ll be there.”

When Father and I arrived at the house, Alicia and Sarah were shouting at each other through Sarah’s window.

“Sarah Harper, I am your mother!”

“You’re not my mother! A mother doesn’t choose alcohol over her family! A mother doesn’t hit her daughters, leave them in crippling debt, sweep trauma under the rug, or leave them with no clues!”

“You’re right, a mother doesn’t do those things, but mothers are not perfect, especially not me. And especially not her. She is not your mother! She’s his mother!”

“I know she’s his mother, and she’s treated me more like a daughter than you ever have in the short time I’ve known her. I love her. I wish she’d given birth to me instead of you!”

Alicia growled, and slashed at the screen with her new claws. Claws? I jumped up and started climbing the ivy. I grabbed Alicia around the waist and pulled her back down. I saw that her eyes were bright red, the pupils slitted. She had been turned into a vampire!

Alicia turned around and pinned me. She raised her hand to slash me, before something hit her hard. The sound of my mother hitting Sarah’s mother was like the sound of two boulders smashing together. The women scratched, bit, clawed, slashed, snarled, nipped, roared, and hissed.

“She’s mine!” Mother shouted, pinning Alicia to the ground. “They’re both mine!”

“You fat bitch, they’re my daughters! I gave birth to them! Twelve and a half hours of labor, just to lose them to you? No way!”

Was that both of the girls combined, or just one of them?

Sarah came out the front door, and both women stopped fighting briefly to look at her.

“Choose one of us, Sarah,” Mother said.

“I can’t,” she breathed. “I love you both, just like I love both Daddy and Alexander. Or both Sabine and Selena.”

“Don’t put any pressure on her,” I warned. “Remember, any excessive stress could trigger a seizure.”

“Seizure? What have I missed?” Alicia asked.

“I wish I’d torn your head off,” Mother told Alicia.

“You didn’t kill me like you thought you did,” Alicia said, smirking. “There was a vampire who worked at the rehab center. He found me and turned me. These last few months I have been planning and planning how to get my kids back. But now I’d rather just kill you.”

Chris appeared