Unraveling Mathias, Marisa Maichel [online e reader txt] 📗

in the first place was because Louis was interested in what was underneath her clothes. Sexist, maybe, and so not worth it.

Yes, she's hot, but she also holds herself superior to everyone around her. She was a senior at Martin Luther King Jr., a high school across town. Full of rich snobs. Okay, that's not fair. I didn't know anyone except Delia who went there, so I couldn't exactly judge the whole school.

When I arrived at the mall, I was a few minutes late. Everyone was sitting inside the Starbucks, all sipping tea or coffee.

"Ah, the prodigal son finally graces us with his presence," Duke teased. Duke has it in his head that I'm some kind of prodigy, just because I happen to get all As and my family has trillions dollars.

"Be nice," Amara chided. She had dyed her hair orange now. I took a seat and ordered some water.

"Reese, can you settle a debate for us? Who is a better singer, Amy Lee from Evanescence or Maria Brink from In This Moment?" Noah cut in.

"They're both good," I said. "I don't really pick favorites."

"About the only thing women do in bands is sing," Duke muttered. Amara punched him in the arm.

"That's not true, and you know it!"

"Women also play instruments," I said. "Guitars, keyboards, drums."

"The only good female drummer is-"

"Duke, shut up," Mason said, speaking up for the first time. "Seriously, you're giving me a headache." I blinked. Mason was a good friend of mine, and a warlock. His father, Krauvas, was the most talented warlock in the world. And now, Krauvas and Antonia, his mother, had decided to separate. Mason still lived with his father most of the time.

It was thanks to Mason that Scarlett Hart, a witch and the leader of Sarah's old clique, had forgotten how to use her evil powers. Mason was able to fix his mistake and help my girl at the same time. I blinked. Was it really Jordan, Scarlett's fraternal twin, that I was seeing across the mall? She stepped into a lingerie store and emerged a moment later, carrying a pink bag.

I looked up, and knew that Mason had also seen the evil blond. Jordan was really the mastermind behind all of Scarlett's evil deeds. She was almost more dangerous, because she was so much smarter than Scarlett and usually kept her mouth shut around me. She also had a huge crush on Mason and was hurt that he fell in love with Scarlett instead.

Mason pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Dude, is something wrong?" Noah asked him.

"It's this damn headache. It's getting worse. Noah, Duke, go get me some medicine from the Wal-Greens across the street. Here's fifty bucks."

"Mason, are you sure you're all right?" Amara asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Go, I need to stay here for a minute." Noah, Duke, and Amara left wordlessly.

"Mason, what is it?" I asked.

"Whenever Jordan's around, I get a splitting migraine. I've actually fainted because of them!"

"Can't your father do something?"

"He doesn't know. And I don't want to tell him. I'm still recovering from the mess I made with the Hart sisters."

"Mason, you have to tell him," Ariella said. She was the only one who knew about Mason being a warlock. Not even Noah, his best friend, knew about it. Ari also knew about my being a vampire. After being friends with her for years, I decided it was finally time to tell her back in December. She was automatically accepting of it, and asked me a ton of questions about it.

Amara, Noah, and Duke came back soon after, with a bottle of ibuprofen. Noah handed Mason some change, and Mason took two pills. He nearly threw up. I pushed my water over to him. He ran to the bathroom, and didn't return for about five minutes. When he came back, he was flushed, and his pale skin had a light sheen of sweat.

"I agree with Ariella-I think you should tell your father," I told Mason.

"Fine, I'll tell him tonight."

"Tell his father what?" Noah asked, looking from him to me.

"Mason's been getting migraines," Ariella spoke up. Noah wrinkled his nose and turned to Mason.

"Is that why you've been so secretive? You're getting headaches?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you later," Mason replied.

We walked around the mall for a bit. We got a lot of odd looks, a couple of rude callers. I noticed one woman in particular kept showing up wherever we were. I told Ari my concerns, and she told me not to worry about it.

"Hey, you're Mordecai Emerson's boy, right?" a security officer said to me.

"That would be me," I said.

"Tell your dad that Henry said thanks for the pay raise," he said before walking away.

"Will do," I muttered. The girls slipped into Hot Topic. Since Ari's birthday was coming up, I decided to buy their purchases. When we walked out, we had two very happy girls and a lighter credit card. Duke said something about needing a new pair of boots, and we stopped inside the shoe store. He didn't find a pair he liked, so we moved on. All in all, we spent two hours at the mall and spent about two hundred bucks.

When I got home, it was chaos.

Shadowfang was howling and hissing, Louis and Uncle Soren were once again in each other's faces, and Father was desperately trying to restore order.

"Reese!" he called out when he saw me. "Tell me you're not hurt!" He grabbed my shoulders.

"I'm not hurt! And you're going to break my arm!" Father loosened his hold on me.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"Oh, it's nothing you need to concern yourself with. Come with me, I'll make you a snack."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sent Sarah a text, asking her how she was. She responded by saying that she was fine, but she was at work now, and couldn't talk. I left her alone after that. I decided to study for a Trigonometry test on Monday. I studied until my eyes hurt, and then I started rereading Vampire Soulmates in the French version. My sweet Sarah was fluent in French, and she had taught me a lot of words.

I already was fluent in Greek, Latin, Japanese, German, Gaelic, Danish, and Spanish, but I never learned French or Italian, which Sarah was also fluent in. She was the granddaughter of immigrants from France, Israel, and Italy, the French being from her deceased father's side, the Israelite and Italian blood being from her mother's side.

Already, my recently discovered mother loved Sarah, and often asked about her whenever she visited me.

Mother and Sarah had had a similar experience, with Mother being given a love potion by Father, thus producing me. When Mother found out, she divorced Father. I heard from multiple people that she fought for custody of me for years after, but the vampire version of custody courts sided with Father because of his title and position as a prince in the vampire world. They cut Mother off, so she went back to Athens, Greece, where she was from.

She married a man named Edward Babin. She was a stepmother to two boys, Viktor and Taran, until she divorced Edward Babin because he was not her true soulmate. Alexander is.

She'd recently agreed to go back to him, and they were giving each other another chance. From what I heard, Alexander was enthralled. And since Sarah had agreed to give the baby in her womb to Alexander, things were working out for him. Almost. Kieran, his half-human son with another woman, was still nowhere to be seen or heard.

We tracked Kieran to New Orleans, where the trail ran cold. Our sources told us that Kieran currently resided in St. Louis, Missouri. Mother often said that she missed Kieran, as they had been fond of each other.

When I finished Vampire Soulmates, I turned on the TV and watched the news for a bit. No strange deaths to report. A little girl received a new lung. A four-car pile-up on the highway, no serious injuries. A dog with three legs. A cat who had given birth to twelve kittens. Louis would love that story. He loves animals, despite his woman-using inclinations. We couldn't trust him around pretty girls for five seconds.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that night, Sarah came over. I cooked a steak for her, along with garlic bread and a garden salad.

Sarah's hair was loose this time. She normally wore a bun, but lately, she'd been letting her brown curls go free. She'd also had some work done on her hair, so now it had a little more blond in it. She seemed happy overall, although I knew that she still suffered from nightmares.

Mother and Father both adored Sarah, and they thought she was perfect for me, despite our polar opposites. I wear a lot of black, boots, and listen to rock and metal. I'm known as the Lone Goth to my classmates. She enjoys pop and dance music, reads romances and chick lit, and is interested in makeup and fashion. As it turned out, she also enjoyed watching wrestling on Mondays and Tuesdays. She even had a few favorites.

Shadowfang wound himself around her legs, and I was worried that he would trip her. He didn't, though, and she sat down at the dining room table. Shadowfang jumped onto her lap and nuzzled her. Somehow, he knew that she was pregnant. She was still little, only being two and a half months along. Her doctors estimated that she would have the baby in July.

Mother was excited about the prospect of another child. She had agreed to date Alexander again, under the condition that she could see me as much as she wanted to. Alexander was forbidden from seeing me, under the threat of death.

Now, Mother was talking to Sarah abut her day and dissecting each moment with her. Sarah worked at my father's store, then she came over here. She had worked for almost five hours, and would work again tomorrow. She enjoyed working at the store. Most of the time.

"Delia called me fat today," she said.

"She what?"

"It's not a big deal, Marina. She said 'Sarah! Get your fat ass over here!'"

"It is too a big deal! I'll kill the bitch! Where does she live?"

"Calm down, Marina," Father said. "I will review the tapes and talk to Delia. The next time she does that, Sarah, I want you to call her superficial."

"Most bosses don't want his or her employees to call each other names and insult each other," I said.

"I'm not most bosses, and Sarah is part of the family, and Delia knows this." He was right. Delia treated Sarah like dirt, even more so when she found out that she's my girlfriend. Father chided her a little for it, and Delia suddenly started acting nice all of a sudden. I once overheard Delia talking about what happened to Sarah with Nales. Delia said something along the lines of "She probably asked for it." That made me furious, but Louis told me to ignore it.

Father said that we needed Delia, otherwise she would have been fired a long time ago. He was currently posting job adverts, and we hoped to be rid of Delia very soon.

Chapter 2 - Mathias

I scoured the geneology books. Who was Mathias? I had first noticed him on the way back to New Jersey from Denmark. Father was keeping mum on the subject, and so was Uncle Soren and Grandfather. I could tell that Louis wanted to tell me, but Uncle Soren and Grandfather told him to keep his mouth shut.

I wondered if Mathias was a danger to the family or just me. All I knew was that he was an uncle that I'd never known, and that he had pale skin, blue eyes, and dark brown hair. For some reason, whenever I saw his picture, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. It listed his date of birth as being seven years before my father was born, but didn't list a date of death, which meant that he was likely still alive.

I