Unraveling Mordecai, Marisa Maichel [ebook reader .TXT] 📗

Shadowfang. He jumped on the table, tail swishing.
"Out in the garden. I killed five snakes, and ate a grasshopper. He was tasty."
"What is it with you and snakes?" I asked.
He avoided answering the question, and instead he looked inside the box. He started to jump in, but Louis grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and set him on the floor.
"Not on the records!"
Louis took the box of records up to his room, and Shadowfang sat in front of the fireplace and pouted about his box being taken away.
"Where's Mishka?" I asked.
"Taking a nap, I expect," Shadowfang replied. "She was playing with the kids earlier." The kids being the kittens, Catniss and Belle. Their son Frodo had gone to live with my best friend, Ariella, and Anakin had gone to live with Mason, my other best friend. They were all familiars, and therefore could take human form at any time. Shadowfang even had a driver's license. His human form was a tall, tanned man with black hair and a thin shadow of a beard with dark brown eyes. His cat eyes were, in fact, yellow.
The door opened again, and my Uncle Soren entered the house, looking as grumpy as ever. He and Father had both lost their loves in the spring. My uncle had taken it especially hard because he and Mitra were on the rocks, so to speak, when she had died. He still blamed himself.
"There is a kid out in the driveway," he growled. "Just sitting there in a black Impala."
"What?" My father went out to look. "I wonder why Louis or I didn't see him?"
"He could have left and then come back," I offered.
"He could have." Father's brows furrowed further. I noticed for the first time that he was starting to look like he was in his mid-thirties. Before that, he looked like he could be in his early thirties or even late twenties. He was over two thousand years old, but he hadn't looked this tired or old before. I knew what Louis had had told me before, though, when I questioned him about Grandfather: all vampires age differently. Some look their age. Others don't age at all. Ones who were humans or Elves before are frozen in time, so to speak.
But natural-borns, like my father, slowly aged over time. Someday, I would look as old as him. My uncle looked like he could be in his late thirties or early forties, and my Grandfather looked like he could be in his fifties, with not a grey hair to spare. His hair was still as vibrant a red as it had ever been. My uncle's hair had a burgundy tone, and my father's was blond. Louis had light brown hair, and my hair is jet black.
We all have similar body types, except for my uncle, who is broad in the shoulders, chest, and stomach, with trunks for legs and the thickest, most muscular arms I've ever seen. He was known not only for being the next king in line, but for his physical strength as well.
The rest of us are thin and muscular.
Sarah finally came out of the bathroom, and greeted my family. Father's nose wrinkled, and so did my uncle's. I was confused. Did she stink? She smelled wonderful to me. Like gardenias and roses and Spanish amber.
Belle finally came out of the cat tree where she'd been hiding, twining herself around Sarah's legs.
"Hi, girl," Sarah said, scratching her ears. Belle chirped and purred.
"It's good to see you, Sarah," Father said.
"You, too, Mordecai," she said. She looked at me.
"He knows about the guy who came by earlier," I said. "Apparently, he's sitting in our driveway right now."
"I hope he's not another crazy," she said.
Ever since my father had spilled the beans about the vampire race's existence, many of my kind had not been happy with us, and even Sarah had gotten death threats, not that she knew about them, which I was grateful for. I still got death threats daily, not only from vampires, but from humans, Elves, goblins, and other beings.
Then the doorbell rang a third time, and Uncle Soren answered it this time. There was the vampire from earlier.
"Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes." The vampire shuffled his feet. "Can I speak to Mordecai?"
"I'm Mordecai," Father said, offering his hand. "Come in, young man. Please, take a seat."
The vampire boy sat on the couch, and he looked uncomfortable.
"My name is David," he blurted out. "David McCurt."
"It's nice to meet you, David," Father said. "Now, what can I do for you?"
"I...I'm...I'm..." David closed his eyes and swallowed. "I'm your son." He kept his eyes closed, and for a moment no one said anything, until we heard Louis' laughter from upstairs.
"LOUIS! SHUT UP!" Uncle Soren shouted, making David jump and Louis laugh louder.
David scratched his arm, and I noticed small scars on his arm, which looked like they could be from fingernails or even knives.
"I apologize for them," Father said to David. "Now, what makes you think that you're my son?"
"My mother...Ferri McCurt...before she died, she said she had a relationship with you."
"Ferri?" Father frowned. "That was twenty-five years ago. That would mean..." His eyes widened and he looked at David again. I saw Father swallow. Then he leaned over and embraced David. David looked shocked for a minute, then hugged Father back.
"It's so good to meet you!" Father exclaimed. "I had always thought Reese was my only kid. I've had other vampires say they were my sons or daughters, but they all turned out to be fakes. But you're real. You're real. I can't believe this. Soren, he's real."
"Yeah, and so is his Impala," Uncle Soren sarcasted.
"Ferri was well off," Father said. He looked at David. "How did she die?"
"She had porphyria," David explained. Father frowned, then looked at me. I knew what he was thinking. I had porphyria, too, one of the most dangerous vampire diseases. You lose your mind at random times, and you can't control it. It also thins your blood and creates dangerous levels of iron, poisoning your blood. Not even vampire venom is helpful at that point.
"Reese has porphyria, too," Father said. David frowned and looked at me.
"He does?"
"He does, indeed. Tell, me, David, do you have accommodation?"
"I'm staying in my car."
"Poppycock. I insist you stay with us."
"Uh, Mordecai, can I see you in the kitchen?" Uncle Soren asked.
"Soren, look at him," Father snapped, gesturing to David. "The similarities are overwhelming!"
"Yes, but we've been down this road before, and they've all been fakes," Uncle Soren reminded him.
"Soren, he's my son. I know he is. My gut is screaming that he is, and my gut is never wrong."
"Yeah, well, my gut says otherwise. I'm sorry, David, but I don't trust you. If I am wrong, I will apologize, but if I'm right, you are never to speak to any of us ever again. Do I make myself clear?"
David gulped and nodded. I saw tears prick his eyes.
"He can stay in the bedroom by mine and Reese's," Father said. "I don't trust you around him, Soren."
Uncle Soren gave him the finger. David looked shocked.
"They have a love-hate relationship," I explained. "It depends on their moods and what sort of insults they've thrown at each other recently."
Uncle Soren stood up and stomped up the stairs. I heard Louis yelp, and then a door slamming.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
Louis came down the stairs seconds later and introduced himself to David.
"I'm Louis, the awesome one," he said, shaking David's hand. "And yes, I'm currently dating a shapeshifter, but I promise he won't give you any trouble. Reese is also dating a human, but she won't be human for long." He winked at me. I glared at him.
"Louis, if you're not going to behave, get out," Father ordered. "Come, David, I'll show you to your room." Father did show David to his room, my new brother looking uncomfortable the whole way there. I thought about Rosales, my father's fledgling who had been like a son to him.
I'd never met Rosales, but I'd heard about him. He had died before I was conceived.
Sarah cuddled into me, and then she said, "Um, the book?"
"Book? Oh, right, I was reading to you before, wasn't I?"
I carried her up the stairs, followed closely by Belle and Shadowfang.
"We were at the part where he was insulting the football captain," Sarah said.
But before I got through the chapter, she fell asleep in my lap. I tucked her into my bed and kissed her. I thought about David. I'd never had a brother before. Louis often said that I was like a brother to him, and I had Kieran, Alexander's son, as a stepbrother.
And then there was Cirino, who was like an adopted brother. There was Taran and Viktor, my ex-stepbrothers, although I didn't really know them, as my mother had been married to their father before I re-met her.
Sarah snoozed, mumbling incoherently.
"That's not right," she muttered, her eyelids fluttering.
I kissed her and stroked her hair. She muttered again, this time she said my name. Reese. I focused my hearing on David, and I carefully left my room and closed the door. I went to the room that Father had put David in. I heard them talking. I knocked on the door.
"Come in," Father said. "It's okay, David, it's just Reese."
I entered the room, and David was sitting on the bed, with Father standing over him. I closed the door behind me.
"So...you’re my brother," I said.
David nodded.
“Okay, um…what do you want to know?” I asked.
“Everything,” he said.
“Okay, well, you know me, obviously. And you’ve met my girlfriend, Sarah. Fiancée, actually. She’s going to officially be my wife in December, on the Winter Solstice. We’re currently working on the invitations and everything. I met her four years ago, but we first got together two years ago. She had been….assaulted…and I saved her. I started dating her and testified against Michael Nales on her behalf.”
“Do you have any other siblings? And what about you, Father? Are you married?”
“No, I’m not married, but I do have another brother, an adopted one, named Mathias. We have a history, so to speak. I don’t talk about him much, and don’t ever mention him in front of Soren. He’s sensitive about it. Not about having an adopted brother, but Mathias has had a long and difficult life. My brother and I were partly to blame for that…actually, we were fully to blame for it. It’s a long and tragic story, but it is important to our family history. Reese didn’t even know it until recently. I regret not telling him sooner, but I didn’t think he was ready.”
“Father babies me,” I told David.
“I do,” Father admitted. “I can’t help it. A vampire parent’s instincts are much stronger than a human’s instincts, especially the maternal instinct. The relationship between Reese and I or Marina and her children are the norm, while relationships like Soren’s and Louis’ are rare. Louis can barely stand Soren these days. Resents, him, I think, for the tragedies he’s caused and the strife he’s put us through. Soren himself is sensitive about it, so again, don’t mention it in front of him. Soren blames himself for our mother’s death and the death of his wife, Alga. He also blames himself for the recent events that caused turmoil for us.”
“What are those events?” David asked.
Father explained about the Book of Transformation and Death, how it had caused problems for centuries, what had occurred that time in the Night Market with Uncle Soren and Samuel, how Alana was powerful and