DAVE
Grand Opening
The protestors arrive at dawn, two hours before our store opens, their chants piercing through Lexington's empty streets like accusations. I watch them from behind tinted glass while Kat dozes in her wheelchair beside me, exhausted from the morning's confrontation with my father and brothers. The Prime inside me writhes against my skin, demanding I shift to nine feet of muscle and divine fury, scatter these insects who dare threaten what we've built.
Control it. But the blessing surges harder since Lucia named me heir, since the blood crystals recognized me as patriarch. Power builds in my chest like atmospheric pressure before a storm, making my bones ache with the need to expand.
"Forty protestors." Daniel materializes at my shoulder, his Valdosta reinforcements sp
