Mated

Sixteen

Ares

I knocked on the Saleem's door and waited for the door to open. 'Control yourself.' Malik said before the door opened to reveal Mia and Nuri. "Hi, Malik," Nuri said with a smile. "Hello, Miss. Nuri." I said giving her a small smile. "Mrs. Saleem," I said. She bowed her head before giving me a look she quickly covered up. "There's no need for you to do that," I told her. "Would you like to come in?" She asked almost hesitantly as she stepped back. I walked over the threshold before I heard Ahsha's laughter coming from the other room. "We're having dinner if you wanted to join us?" Mia said. I could tell she was hoping I'd say no. I smiled at her before saying, "Of course I would." Nuri grabbed my hand leading me into the living room where the Saleem's along with Veronica sat around eating. 

Seeing them in a family setting was new for me. My family only had family dinner for very special occasions, but seeing them seated together on a Thursday evening was surprising. Ahsha paused as a shiver ran over her body before she turned and looked at me. 'Look at her eyes.' Malik said and I saw a golden ring in them. I smiled seeing our mate bond was growing. "Ares." She said. I chuckled. 'She's getting good telling us apart.' Malik chuckled.

"Yes, habibata. (my love)." I said. She turned completely leaning on the couch as I walked towards her. I leaned down kissing her forehead before kissing her lips. I broke the kiss when I heard giggling and a loud ew. I looked down to see Nuri smiling and Isaac making a disgusted face. "Don't nobody want to see that. Ruining people's appetite." Isaac said making Ahsha and Nuri laugh. "Hush," Ahsha said shooing him. "You hungry?" She asked looking back at me as I licked my lips.

Ahsha

"You hungry?" I asked as I watched Ares lick his lips. I saw a mischievous look in his eyes as a smirk formed on his lips. He leaned down to my ear. "I'm but it isn't for food." He whispered before looking down at me. I raised an eyebrow before clearing my throat. "Yall know we're sitting right here? Like right here?" Isa said gesturing to my family. "Sorry. He'll behave," I said turning to look back at Ares who was now smiling. He leaned down kissing my cheek. "I'll behave for now." He whispered before standing back up. I looked up at him seeing the playful look on his face. "So what are we eating?" He asked amused. I stood leading him into the kitchen to grab him a plate and glass.

I turned to find Ares extremely close to me. "What?" I asked. "I have to tell you something but I'm not sure if now is the right time." He said. "Tell me," I said. He stared at me a while longer searching my face. I watched as his black eyes began to fade and green started to show. "No, we can talk about everything after dinner, okay?" Malik asked bringing my hands up to meet his lips. I stared at him for a moment. "I promise." He said. I nodded my head. "Okay," I said as we turned to head back into the living room. I looked at my family and realized how much I missed having family time like this. Before I could take a step, my vision became fuzzy. "Ahsha?" I heard what sounded like a distorted voice. "Isaac?" I heard another muffled voice say. I looked at Isa to see him looking at me. I looked behind Isa to see this glowing light.

I was about to speak when Isa stopped me. There was this pull that we both felt towards the orb. The closer we got the more the orb began to take on a human form. Eventually, the orb took on the shape of a man who looked very familiar. It didn't hit me until Isa grabbed my arm tightly. I looked at him then back at the man seeing an older version of Isa's face staring back at us. "Dad?" Isa, I said causing our mom's head to snap towards what we were looking at. The man smiled but before we could do anything, Isa dropped to his knees grabbing his chest before passing out. I turned and looked at what I could only assume was Malik's figure when he grabbed my arm. "Ahsh—" I heard before I collapsed in his arms and lost consciousness.

Isa

"Isa wake up." I heard Ahsha say. "Man, go away." I groaned. It fell quiet for a moment until I felt a hard smack on my cheek. "Wake up." I heard Ahsha bark. I turned to see my sister looking down at me. "What the f**k!" I snapped. I heard chuckling to my right to see our dad standing there. "I see Ahsha still bossing you around." He said. We stared up at him silently. "I didn't mean to scare you two." He said staring at us. "What are we doing here?" I asked Ahsha. She looked at our dad. "I wish I had gotten the chance to physically be there for you both as you were growing up." Our father said looking at us. I glanced down at Ahsha when I heard her sniff. "But I want you both to know I never left either of you. I was always there." He said. I found myself fighting back tears the more he spoke.

"I wish we would have gotten more time to spend together. I would have told you two about our family and our history." He began. "Our history?" Ahsha asked.

He went and sat in the grass before he looked over his shoulder. "Come. Sit." He said. Without skipping a beat Ahsha went to join him. "Isa?" She called looking at me. "After everything you've seen I'm the one thing you're skeptical of?" Our dad asked looking at me. "You want to know why all this stuff is happening to us this could be the answer. You have to hear him out." Ahsha said. I nodded my head. "Okay," I said.

Malik

The Saleem's and I were looking at Isaac and Ahsha's sleeping forms as we tried to figure out what was going on. I was on the phone with my father explaining what happened. "Isaac saw his father before they both passed out," I said. "Where are they now?" He asked. "Sleeping. They haven't woken up yet. It's been 30 minutes." I said. He sighed. "Malik, I don't know. I've never dealt with anything like this family before." He said. I washed my hand over my face growing annoyed and feeling Ares become agitated as well.

"This may have nothing to do with you and everything to do with their family." He added. "I'll ask the elders and see if they may know anything." He said. "No, I don't want them involved. I'll handle it." I said before hanging up. I sighed sensing Ali standing behind me. "What about this family?" Ali asked. "There's something different about them," I said turning looking at him. "What do you mean?" He questioned. "Ahsha and Malik- they're not just human," I said before I sensed Mia was near. "What do you mean?" Mia asked as rounding the corner worry etched across her face.

Ahsha

"A high priestess?" I said. "Yes, my mother, your grandmother, and hers, and so forth were all high priestesses." My dad said. I looked at him with wide eyes. "Years ago, before you were born your grandmother foresaw that you were going to be the mate to the grandson of Alwahsh, Malik's grandfather." "Well, shi- I mean shoot," Isa said looking at me. "Is that a bad thing?" Isa asked. "No one in the history of our bloodline has ever been mated to dark beings such as Malik's family." He said looking at me. I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. "They usually end up with a human or another witch." My dad explained. "You two are the first." He said.

Our dad turned to look at Isa. "Because the women in my family are the only ones who can be high priestesses the men were destined to be their protectors." He said looking at Isa. "Because you two are twins you two share a piece of each other. That means you're stronger than the average protector."  He said looking at Isa who nodded his head. "Are you saying I will get powers?" I asked. He chuckled. "Yes. On your 18th birthday you will get your powers, you both will." He said. "Both?" Isa said. "Yes. The most common power for protectors is strength and the ability to heal quickly. You will be almost impossible to kill." He said to Isa.  

"As for you." He said looking at me. "Anything is possible. The powers you may get are unpredictable, but there are rules that come with them." He said. "Rules?" Isa sighed. "You can't use your powers on your mate. Same as they can't use theirs on you." He explained. 

I looked down thinking. "Ahsha what's wrong?" He asked. "What does it mean that we're the first to be mated to demons," I asked. "Because your mates are demons they run on darkness and sorrow while you two are technically their opposites. Because of this, it could result in a change to the supernatural world that we've never seen." He said. "The world has never seen a half high priestess-half demon or a half protector-half demon offspring before. It's never been heard of." I looked at Isa who looked at me. 

"Should we be worried?" Isa asked. "Truthfully I don't know. But after you mated with Veronica there was a buzz in the supernatural world and now that you've mated with Malik everyone is tense. There's something coming." He explained. "Why are you telling us all of this?" Isa asked. "Yeah we've seen our grandmothers several times and they didn't even hint that any of this," I added. "They couldn't, they are bound by a treaty not to overstep when it came to matters of the earthly world. I, however, am not and I wanted to make sure you two weren't completely in the dark about your new-found world." He said before he looked up at the sky. 

We looked up to see what he was looking at. "They're calling me back." He said standing. "Who?" Isa asked. Our dad looked at us and smiled before these huge angelic wings blossomed from his back. At that moment I don't know what happened but tears filled my eyes as Isa stood to help me up. "Do you have to go, now?" Isa asked. He looked at us with a light smile. "You just got here," Isa said. "Don't worry, you both will see me again." He said pulling him into a tight hug. He whispered something in his ear. Isa nodded his head as he wiped some tears that slid down his face. 

My dad turned to look at me. "Babygirl, please stop crying." He said holding his arms open for me. I walked into his arms as he hugged me tightly. "You're stronger than you think and when the time comes, you'll know what to do. Trust your gut." He told me. I looked up at him. "I love you both and I'm always here if you want to talk." He said as Isa draped his arm over my shoulders we watched our dad walk away.

Malik

"That can't be right. Malikai was human." Mia said. I had told her about her late husband's family possibly having ties to the supernatural world. "Malik!?" Veronica called. I rushed into the living room over to see Isaac waking up with tears rushing down his face. "His eyes," Veronica said as we looked him. His eyes were white. He looked as though he may be blind. I turned to look at Ahsha seeing her tear-stained face as she held her fist tightly balled up. I kneeled gently rubbing her cheek trying to will her eyes open. "Habibata?" I called. I watched holding my breath as her eyes slowly opened. "She has them too," Mia said as she looked at her daughter. "What happened to them?" She asked. "Are they blind?" She asked. On the verge of tears. "No," I said not taking my eyes off of Ahsha as she stared back at me. "Then what? What happened?" She asked. "They saw an angel," I said as Ahsha reached up to caress my cheek. A small smile appeared on her face before her natural eyes color slowly began to bleed in.

A minute or two passed before her beautiful brown eyes were completely back. She sat up quickly looking around realizing she was back in her living room. She looked from her parents to Veronica. "Isa?" She questioned. "I'm fine." He said as he sat up. "You okay?" He asked as his eyes washed over his sister. She simply nodded her head before her eyes shifted to me. "What did you see?" I asked caressing her cheek. "My dad." She whispered as tears filled her eyes. I wiped away one of the tears that slipped down her cheek. I pulled her into my arms comforting her.