Family Dinner

{  Kyda  }

When Gabryl released his aura, I was stunned. I had known this man all my life, he had been around since my mother was young, and neither she nor I were aware of how powerful he was. In hind sight, it made sense. He was the guardian of one of the original supernatural bloodlines. He had to be more powerful than anything or anyone who could potentially show up at the door step.

When Vynetta told him he looked no different, both mother and I glanced at each other. I wasn’t surprised she could see past his concealment, but I was surprised she had never shared that fact with either of us.

“Did you know that Netta knew how powerful Gabryl was?” I asked her as we walked away from the training room.

“No, she never spoke a word to me.” She spoke to me but her eyes were off on the distance. She had known Gabryl much longer than me, and I was concerned the shock of this would affect how she saw him.

“He had no choice… In telling us…” I hesitantly started.

She waved her hand at me and said, “Oh I know, I know. I just… I’ve known that man since we were young. I’ve known him since the day he showed up on the doorstep and explained who he was. He has hidden his power, his true self for so long. It makes sense, he would need that power if trouble ever came. But it simply makes me wonder if there is anything else that Gabryl hides from us.”

I stopped in the middle of the hallway. My mother did the same and watched me carefully. I hadn’t come to that conclusion yet, but now that she had said it, I realized how true it may be. Did he know of things about Vynetta that we did not know? Of her future or her past? Of her powers? Did he know more about outside of Haven than he tells us?

“My child, I can see the gears of worry turning in your eyes. I said what I said, I wonder if he hides things from us. But that does not mean that I do not trust him with every fiber of my being. I trust him everyday with my life, and with yours, and Vynetta. What he may possess or know does not change who he is to us. He is our guardian, he is our friend. We need not question his loyalty to us. We just may want to ask him some questions about what he keeps from us that he thinks is for our own good.”

I exhaled slowly taking in mother’s words. I knew she was right.

“We need a family dinner. We have only 7 days left before she receives her wolf. I do not think she is ready to leave but I fear it may not come down to whether she is ready. So we need to get all the cards on the table as soon as we can.”

Mother nodded her head and took my hand gently in hers, leading me down the hall once again towards the kitchen.

We were in the middle of cooking dinner about 45 minutes later when Vynetta came in with an ear splitting grin on her face. Unfortunately, all I could see was everything else about her that was split. Her lip was busted, her eye was black, her heart rate was accelerated and indicative of at least several broken bones. She was sweaty and blood was coating nearly every limb.

I shuffled over to her forgetting all about my pasta.

“What in the world happened to you? And why are you so happy about this?”

“Gabryl fought me!” She announced proudly.

“What?!” Mother and I said in unison.

“Don’t worry my loves, I’m both proud and literally pained to say that she won.”

We both spun around to see Gabryl walking in looking twice the worse for the wear as Vynetta. In all the years I’ve known him, he has never had a hair out of place or looked unkempt in the least. But this Gabryl had cuts, bruises, broken bones I could sense in his heartbeat as well and blood that was thicker on him than the sweat was. It took me all of 5 seconds looking at him to realize that he must have advanced healing abilities or he would be passed out cold and needing mother about now.

“Gabryl, that’s a good look for you.” Mother snorted behind me causing me to chuckle.

He shot her a look but his smile made it evident he enjoyed every bit of this situation.

“Can someone please explain why you beat the living hell out of each other instead of learning to conceal your aura?” I asked as I looked between them, feeling my mama bear instincts bubble up.

Vynetta giggled and Gabryl shook his head as he pointed at her.

“It was her fault entirely. I wanted to practice in a civil manner! However, that being said, she was right. I wanted to go easy on her and ease her into learning control and concealment but the reality is that she was able to not only grapple with me in a full on hand to hand fight, she also concealed her aura the entire last 15 minutes of the fight when we were all out beating each other and at the end of it, she even won.” He paused and looked around at all 3 of us.

“I want to say that I am sorry. I want to say that there was an order over me, a law that prohibited me from allowing you to know my full power and status, but the truth is that it was my choice. When I first began my duty as your guardian I didn’t see the need to tell you. And as I got closer with Prym, it became harder to tell you. Because the closer I became to this family the less I wanted you to look at me any differently. My biggest worry was that one or more of you would fear me. And I am sorry that I allowed that worry to convince me to keep hiding it from you.”

He spoke honestly. I knew each word was true. His heart beat gave him away. So I nodded my head and I took his hand in mine. He looked down at it and tilted his head to the side a bit.

“We have no reason to fear you. And you owe us no explanation. You protect us, you confide in us, and you are a member of this family. The decisions you make for the sake of our survival and happiness are yours to make and we do not judge them.”

I saw his eyes water and him inhale slightly. Vynetta took his other hand and Prym walked up slowly putting her hand on his cheek lovingly. He seemed to be soaking in the moment until Prym spoke up.

“At least now we know that Vynetta can kick your ass if ever needed.”

Vynetta and I snorted at the same time. I could tell that she was joking but the look on her face remained stoic as she stared down Gabryl. After a moment I saw the corners of his mouth turn up and then he leaned down to hug her.

Netta rubbed her sore shoulder and then jumped onto the counter.

“Alright enough of all this sap and snuggles, whats for dinner?”

  I laughed and reached down to retrieve the now dirty ladle from the ground. I put it in the sink and reached into my large, handmade jar that was made by Vynetta years ago. It featured little ghosts made out of clay, chasing each other in and throughout a maze of clay tubes. It held all my utensils and I smiled, as I always did, as I pulled another ladle out from it.   

 I finished up the pasta and we all four sat down together, as we did every night when Gabryl was home, for dinner and dessert. Vynetta was the first to excuse herself and retreat to her room. The rest of us remained seated, talking through the thick awkwardness that still hung in the air, working out the details as we did every night lately about the upcoming week before Vynetta’s birthday.

{ Gabryl  }

I ate dinner with the girls before I excused myself to shower and rinse off the thick coat of blood I was wearing. I trudged down to my room inwardly chuckling as I relived Netta beating me to a pulp. I had to hand it to her, she was incredible. A year ago she wouldn’t have been able to even take a punch from me without crumbling but now, she overpowered me before she even gained her wolf. I couldn’t be prouder, and the truth is it eased some of the worry I have felt the past 6 months while I was away.

Guarding supernaturals is never a dull job. A majority of the bloodlines of the original supernaturals don’t know who they are and what runs in their veins. They never tap into the power and they live normal lives. But sometimes, other supernaturals can sense who they are. Wolves are a great example. Wolves are a new supernatural type, relatively new anyway compared to the originals. And I have spent every spare moment I can learning more about them. One thing I know, is that the version that exists, the version Kayden is is horribly flawed. Although I supposed the proper word is the truth, they are cursed. Their wolves and their wolves’ bloodlines were created from evil, they were created from vengeance and they will never outlive the curse that created them.

But despite their flaws, I study them to give Vynetta an idea of what she is up against and give myself and Prym an idea of what Vynetta will become. And one of the most prominent traits of the wolves is their keen ability to detect auras. They can naturally distinguish the level of power of a person from their aura. This can cause trouble when they stumble upon a normal descendant of an original supernatural and then they perceive them as an enemy. This leads to attacks on people who are realistically no better suited to defend themselves than humans. And this is where I come in.

In the past 5 years alone I have fought and killed dozens of wolves for this reason. Moving most of the bloodlines to one village over the course of many years was the best thing I could have done because it saves me time and I have much better ability to protect all of them when I control the security of the area they reside. But it also keeps me busy and away from Haven far too often. I spent the past 6 months creating better measures so that I could come back to Haven and stay through everything that was to come.

I couldn’t help Vynetta, I couldn’t fight for her as much as I wanted to. But I could protect those she loves and doing that would make a world of difference in her mindset when she left. So until she found her mate, no matter which way that worked itself out, I would be in Haven with Prym and Kyda guarding them 24/7.

I needed to tell her this. There was a lot I needed her to know. And now that she was leaving in 7 days, I realized I was running out of time. Telling them about my power today was difficult, but of all the things I was keeping from them, it was the least shaking.

{ Vynetta }

I walked along the cove as the moon rose higher. I had fallen asleep fairly quickly after dinner and like clockwork I woke up less than 6 hours later completely revitalized. I felt my power pushing from inside me and I knew I needed a release so I came out here. As I rounded my favorite corner to the waterfall I shifted my hands out and felt warmth leave them. I had been controlling the Earth all my life. Nature itself was a part of me, I could feel its life and I could feel its death. Growing new things and repairing lost soil calmed my soul. This corner of the Cove had been bothering me for several weeks. The frost had come and nipped most of the growth in the cove but this corner was the worst of it. It got the coldest. I watched as frost melted away from the cascading rocks above me. I flicked my finger twice creating two new vines starting from the water and rising up along the rocks until they disappeared over the top of the falls. I grew frost flowers and snow lilies along the vine, something that would survive a few weeks at least. And before I walked away I bloomed several white orchids, because I could sense my grandmother was on her porch overlooking the cove.

I was walking through the birch trees when I felt the first twinge in my chest. It was so slight, I almost didn’t notice it if I hadn’t have been so quiet and calm at the time. I paused, I waited, and then nothing more came. It felt like someone had tugged at my heart and my soul. Like a tether was attached through my chest into my being and the other end suddenly had an occupant that pulled hard. I leaned against a birch tree in case it happened again but nothing came. Eventually I continued my walk back to the house taking in its natural wood exterior. Gabryl’s forefathers had built Haven. It was made by the guardians for anyone who needed safe keeping in history however I knew the true reason they built it. On the back deck, on the bottom side of a board that used to be pressed up against the wall but had fallen with time was a sentence written in the old language.

“Made to save the one who would save us all.”