The Queen of the Night

Rivals

Chapter 4 - Rivals 

The front door flew open, catching all of our attention and  thankfully breaking the awkward silence that consumed the room. A short woman with an icy blonde spiked pixie cut entered the premises dramatically, “Sorry I’m late, the traffic was insane.” She huffed out as she threw down her small dark purple handbag onto the floor of the hallway, her eyes snapped towards the kitchen as she felt all of our eyes bore into her. She had bright green eyes exactly like Caesar’s, were they related? She scanned the room quickly and curiously as she entered the kitchen cautiously, when her eyes locked onto mine I felt a great sense of unease as they narrowed thinly. 

      “What’s going on?” She asked suspiciously, to nobody in particular. 

“This i why I always tell you to be punctual, I’m fed up repeating myself!” Said Aunt Sophia impatiently. 

“It’s good to see you Cora.” Said Caesar as he walked towards her holding out his arms to embrace her. She slapped his arm away aggressively, and her eyes began to darken. 

“Don’t come at me like that, it’s been months! Aunt Sophia his been worried sick about you, you don’t think to send a text or to call?” She yelled accusingly back at her, repeating the same conversation that he’d had with Aunt Sophia moments before. 

  “I’m sorry okay, I’ve been tied up!” He yelled back getting more angry by the second. Although I hadn’t known him for a very long time, Caesar didn’t seem like the type of guy who gets angry a lot. Which is strange considering he’s a vampire; everything I’ve ever been taught about vampires have been from films and books as there was barley any record of them in the history books. 

“I’m your f*****g sister! If you were in trouble I could’ve helped you.” As she spoke the lights in the room began to flicker precariously, just like it did when I had lost my temper in the dingy hotel room, causing us all to look up while the siblings fought.

“You’re barley out of witch school, how exactly could you have helped me?!” He said sarcastically, which pushed her buttons even more as a bulb fixed into a tall lamp in the hallway blew with a loud smash, making us all jump slightly. “CORA.” shouted Aunt Sophia, “Remember you’re in control.” She gave her a warning look, and Cora’s eyes brightened again as she regained control. She wandered over to the last vacant seat around the table that was left, and sat down playfully a smirk now donning her face. “So, can someone tell me who the f**k everyone is and why they’re interrupting my lesson.”

      Once we’d brought Cora up to speed on who everyone was and what everyone was doing here, Caesar and Dante started to make their way to the front door. 

“Where are you going? You can’t just leave me here!” I protested as they opened the front door, 

He turned back towards me his eyes bright and full of mischief as he raised his eyebrow at me, 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back in a few days. In the meantime, try not to kill anyone.” He gave me a wink and walked out of the door leaving me alone with two strangers and my deranged mother.        

        “Cora, this is Carla. She’s going to be staying with us for a while.” Said Aunt Sophia as she Made herself busy preparing a warm herbal tincture. My mothers head snapped towards me “Carla?” She said confused. “Don’t talk to me.” I muttered back not even looking at her. 

    Aunt Sophia set down a tray of mugs onto the middle of the table and started to pass the hot drinks around, “Andrea please, can I just explain?” Pleased my mother, I looked towards her for the first time in a while and saw she had a pleading expression across her face. “Explain what exactly? How you murdered my brother? How you practically lied to me my entire life?” I said as her eyes fell back onto the drink in front of her. 

“I know I’ve messed up, but I can fix it.” She said pathetically. 

“How exactly do you plan on doing that?” I said sarcastically. 

      “Tell her the truth Isabella, she may forgive you yet.” Came the soft voice of Aunt Sophia as she took a seat at the table. 

“When your brothers were born, it was clear very quickly that something was wrong. Salvatore was the ideal child, full of goodness and light. Where as Donovan as you know thrived from tormenting others. Once we had you, things only seemed to get worse. We had all grown up hearing the stories of Lucifer, your father and I always thought it was just folklore- something you tell your children at night to scare them into being good. But when you were born and the room saw your pure white fur, everything changed. We spent years trying to find out if the prophecy of the white wolf was real. Nobody had seen one or recorded one in centuries, thats when we sought out Sophia the head of the witches council to help us. She confirmed the prophecy was true, and that Donovan’s wolf was in fact the legendary Lucifer. She cast a spell to try to suppress his wolf, but his hold was already too strong over him- but as you know magic comes with a price.” Her eyes shifted back to Sophia who looked smug. 

    “I agreed to help your mother with her problem, despite our differences...” Aunt Sophia continued. “At the time we were rival gangs, fighting over territory’s. Your father refused to do business with us, he was a terrible racist you see. So we had to find our own way to make a living whilst sticking to the shadows.” 

“It wasn’t because he was racist, it’s because the way you did business was wrong. You were the ones smuggling drugs across the boarders disrupting our usual line of business.” 

“Anyway... I agreed to help your mother on the condition that we could come to some sort of business arrangement which your parents declined. So instead I asked to unite your pack and my coven through marriage.” 

“Marriage? But werewolves have fated mates, you couldn’t possibly mess with that.” 

“The agreement was that you would marry the next head witch of our Coven, and when your mate came along I would severe the bond and you would reject each other.” 

“You sold me to the witches?!” I yelled, just as I thought this woman couldn’t sink any lower...

“It’s what happened Andrea, I don’t know a single heir that didn’t have an arranged marriage”

“You and Dad were fated mates!” 

“We were the lucky ones, we both had wealth and status behind us.” 

“Yeah well so we’re me and Axel, we were fated and you almost ruined that just to help Donovan who was a f*****g psychopath in his own rite without Lucifers influence?!” 

“But it didn’t happen Andrea, after time went by I knew that I couldn’t deprive you of your true love. When the time came to uphold our end of the bargain we hide you from sight, so you could have the chance at a normal life! Everything bad I’ve ever done- I’ve done for my children. I know that you think I’m the worlds biggest b***h for killing Salvatore but I told you, I’m going to make it right.” 

“How could you possibly make it right?” 

“I’m going to bring your brothers back, I’ve tapped into the darkest of magic and I’ve mastered necromancy, but I will need your help and forgiveness.” 

We were all speechless, I sat and stared at my mother wanting to trust her so badly. I wanted to help her, I needed my family back. But I knew this kind of magic would draw the wrong kind of attention to us, I was supposed to be in hiding.

“That will upset the balance of nature, what your proposing is forbidden!” I said loudly, full of disbelief at her empty promise. 

“It’s not entirely impossible, but it’ll take a lot of strength. Andrea is supposed to be resting.” Said Aunt Sophia. “Wait you’re on board with this? Aren’t you supposed to be the keeper of the balance?” I asked her shocked that she would be happy with this. 

   “I have my own reasons for going against the gods wishes, I’m the most powerful witch this side of the planet. If anyone’s going to piss them off- it’s me.” She retorted with mischief dancing across her sparkling eyes. 

“What about her punishment?” I questioned as I gestured towards my mother. “The spell will be punishment enough, she won’t survive if she uses that kind of power. But she will be able to put things right with you and your brothers which I respect. The afterlife may be kind to her yet.” 

“Andrea, why are you supposed to be resting?” My mother asked casting a confused gaze over to me. 

“She’s carrying the heirs to the Lycan throne.” Said Aunt Sophia, before I could tell her myself. 

“Wait, did you just say Heir’s?”