“It’s time love,” I whisper in her ear. She looks at me but doesn’t say anything. I give her a deep kiss, savoring it, forcing this kiss to remain ingrained in my memory. Against my wishes, I pull away far enough to keep our foreheads touching. “I’ll be back.” I give her another quick kiss before turning and walking away. I walk towards Mark who is also kissing Daniela, saying goodbye. When I reach him I don’t stop and continue towards the house and he follows. “We’ll be back Derek. For our family’s sake we will be back.” “We must be successful on this trip.” “We will be, don’t worry.” “No seriously, we have to be successful. Maliyah already broke through that seal. She’s talking to Malayah again.” “What really? How do you know?” “When she came to the dragon realm she communicated with us when she was in her dragon form. She shouldn’t have been able to do that. Have you noticed she is spacing out more lately?” “Damn. So what are you going to do?” “Maliyah won’t like it, neit
“Maliyah, get out of here,” I yell. Maliyah doesn’t listen and she uses her powers to reach her mother hugging her. The wind dies down and we all fall to the ground. “Everyone okay,” I ask. Everyone nods. I walk to Davina’s side and bend down next to her. “I failed you.” I wait for her to yell at me, hit me, something. What I don’t expect is for her to throw her arms around me crying. I hold her close and grab Maliyah. I fight my tears while holding onto my wife and daughter. “I’m sorry.” I don’t know what else to say. “Derek do you even realize what happened to you back there,” asks Mark. “No, what do you mean?” “Dude you looked like a werewolf from a horror film.” “What?” “Seriously dude, you looked scary as shit,” says Owen. “Like a werewolf from Underworld?” “No closer to the ones in Van Helsing. Different but pretty similar,” says Owen. “Dude you are the lycan,” says Mark. That makes sense. I just witnessed a loved one die a terrible death. Dad said that’s one way
Davina Derek picks up Maliyah but we just stand there. We don’t know what to do with her. They could take over again at any time. She could hurt herself or others and we can’t let that happen. I am heartbroken to see her in handcuffs like she is some kind of prisoner. “Derek what do we do with her? They could force her to hurt herself or others.” “I have an idea but you won’t like it,” says Aspen as he reappears. “Is everything okay,” asks Derek. “Yes, my mother is fine for now. We don’t know how to determine who is a friend and who is not. Anyway, you are going to have to chain her in your dungeon.” “Dungeon?” I look at Derek. “Yes, love we have a dungeon.” “We can’t do that to her!” “I’ve trained her well Davina. Even without her powers she’ll be able to hurt someone.” I look at Aspen and Derek feeling defeated. I don’t know what to decide. “What if we turn her room into a cell. Remove everything except her bed,” suggests uncle Gabriel. “I will remain in there with her. W
“Lux, we are losing too many men. I am not sure how much longer we can hold them off. If you are going to send her away you need to do it now,” says Thierry. I can see my parents are struggling with making a decision. “Celestia, it is time.” I can see my mother walking into the room carrying me. She is trying to hold back her tears. “Lux, I don’t think I can do it. She needs her parents”. “There is no guarantee we will walk away from this alive and if we are to ensure our lineage and her safety, we need to send her away," dad says firmly, trying hold back my own tears. He grabs me from my mother’s arms, staring at me. One of the warlocks entered the war room. “Sir, Daniel and Isla Ortiz are here”. “Send them in,” dad replies. I look to see my parents that raised me and tears fall from my eyes as they enter the room. My dad, Daniel, appeared to be injured and uncle Gabriel is helping him walk. “Daniel, it is time. Are you alright.” “I’ll be fine Lux. My leg is beyond repair wit
Derek I rush after Davina as she is throwing clothes on and is preparing to head out the door. What the hell happened last night. “Davina, what do you mean your brother. Alastor?” “Yes he killed my parents and he is after me now.” She stops in the middle of the hall and turns to face me. She grabs my hands and places the on her stomach. “What? Is something wrong with the baby?” “No not all,” she replies smiling. “My parents said it’s a boy.” She is smiling wide, staring at me waiting for a reaction. When it finally clicks I pick her up and spin her in a circle. “Really? A boy?” “Yes,” she giggles. I pull her into a deep kiss. Damn I love this woman. She pulls away sooner than I want and I whimper at her causing her to laugh again. “We need a warlock, Derek. We are going to sever Maliyah’s connection. I am not going to lose her too.” I stop her from turning away from to leave and use my fingers to pull her chin up to look at me. She has tears in her eyes. I know this is a d
“Thank you Aspen.” “Anytime Derek. I’ll stay with her. I know you need to update everyone on this meeting Davina had with her parents. I’ll call you should she wake up.” “Thank you Aspen,” says Davina. I take Davina by the hand and lead her to the nursery. “Before we do, I need to see our other kids. I feel like I haven’t been spending enough time with them.” “I agree Derek.” My mother is in the room playing with the mega blocks with the twins. Accalia is trying to stack them as high as they will go and Thierry is knocking them down causing Accalia to scream at her brother in frustration. I can’t help but laugh. They notice us and rung to us. “Mama,” says Thierry. “Dada,” says Accalia. I grab her as she reaches me and toss her in the air making her squeal with joy. “How is Maliyah,” asks my mother. “The connection has been severed. She is grieving. I can’t imagine what that feels like,” I tell her. “I can.” I stare at mother waiting for her to further explain. “I had a tw
Derek Two months have flown by. All has been quite. No attacks, no death but that also means no word on Malayah. Maliyah no longer has the connection to her sister so we don’t know whether she is alive or dead at this point. Davina remains optimistic that Malayah is still alive. Maliyah has been depressed. It’s like it was when Malayah first disappeared but worse. Maliyah is withering away before our eyes. She hardly eats, doesn’t read, doesn’t draw and refuses to go riding. Even Aspen hasn’t been able to get through to her. Davina and I are coming up on our one year anniversary but she doesn’t want to leave with the state Maliyah is in and I don’t blame her. Plus we are about two months away from the due date. Davina is currently napping. She’s been doing that a lot lately. I spend my days trying to stay ahead of my paperwork and checking on Maliyah. In between I ensure to spend time with the twins. They have become quite mobile and are trying to climb everything. Carrie Harrison’
“Daniela wait!” She stops at the second landing and stares at me with tears in her eyes. “What?” “How far along are you?” “How did you know?” “You don’t normally get upset during our spars and I’ve done a lot worse to him.” “Yeah, but he wasn’t trying to get himself killed those times either.” “He wants to see if he has the gene too. He was trying to trigger it.” “I just found out last week. I am sure I’m only two weeks at this point. He’s been so focused on everything but his family. Not that I don’t want to find Malayah too but I don’t want him to leave Jackson behind either. I didn’t know how to tell him or even know if he is going to be happy about it. This kid will be due around August.” “Then I am officially ordering him to take the week off. No company business, no search parties. Just family. Meaning you, Jackson and him. Well and the little one.” “Really?” “Really, we can manage without him for a week.” Daniela hugs me. “Thank you.” Mark comes running up the stairs