The compound was still quiet as Riley drove his black Jeep through the high iron gates and pulled up in front of the main house. Surely someone must be up? It was too quiet. Where were his cousins? Somebody should have been patrolling the grounds. He would have expected someone to meet him as he put the Jeep in park next to his brother’s sleek black Lotus and Caleb’s motorcycle.
He really wished that boy didn’t have such a death wish. Three new bikes in less than four months all because he’d laid the other ones out flat. If it weren’t for their Jaguar’s ability to heal, Caleb would have been dead a long time ago. It could be a blessing and a curse, depending on who was holding the whip.
A door to his left slammed open and Caleb came at him at a dead run. "Bro, you need to go, now. Thane knows what you did and he is not happy." The boy's dark brown hair slid down to cover his gold flecked hazel eyes. He wasn't quite as tall as Riley and it would be a couple more years before he grew out of that awkward stage that all tall men go through. Their height was one of the main things that set them apart from the rest of their mother's family. The lack of any killer instinct in the teen was a constant thorn in Lydia's side as well.
Caleb's frown matched his own but the very real fear Riley saw in the kid's eyes was what worried him more. "Caleb, listen to me. I want you to go around back to our rooms and pack. Take only what's necessary and can fit in two backpacks. Do you understand me?" He placed a hand on both of Caleb's shoulders and held his eyes for a minute. "I got this ok? Just hurry up and meet me at Dad's place. If they have it watched, go to Sam's. I'll text you her address. Whatever you do, do NOT come back here. EVER. Got it?"
The boy nodded and turned to slink through the semi shadows on the other side of the courtyard. At least the sun hadn't come up completely and the half-light offered a little bit of cover. He watched Caleb go through the side gate before turning to the double doors above the stairs on his right. The entrance to the main house stood dark and judging with no lights on in the foyer. It made the walk up the stairs even worse, it was like willing walking into the arena in ancient Rome. For all he knew, it was going to be exactly like the arena and his brother was the king of all beasts. He shook off the mental picture and reached for the doorknob. The door swung open at the brush of his knuckles. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom his heart sank. His mother stood in the center of the room glaring at him in smug satisfaction while her third husband slunk around her feet like a kitten begging for scraps. Michael spent more time in cat form than as a human and it showed in every inch of his personality. He was a true predator, mean, conniving, and unscrupulous. They were the perfect pair.
Not wanting to give her the opportunity to advance he spoke first, "Hello mother." He kept his tone neutral. Showing emotion could get you killed in this family. If she was here and not downstairs then it meant they were planning something that they needed to stall him for. His mind raced straight to Caleb. He prayed that the kid didn't get caught up in all of this. He couldn't afford to split his focus between saving Caleb or his own survival. Even though he knew that it didn't matter either way. He would never let them have Caleb even if it meant his own life.
Lydia spat on the ground and growled at him, "I told you never to call me that. I never should have let you or that weakling Caleb live. You've given me nothing but grief since the day you were born." She snapped her fingers and Michael stopped slinking around her feet and headed back into the cool darkness of the house. He disappeared into the shadows as soon as he left the wain rays of light spilling in from the door behind Riley.
"Maybe you shouldn't have married my father just because he had money." The words were out before he knew he was going to say them. He signed and waited for the snap he expected to come. He was shocked to hear her vicious laugh ringing back from the marble tiles under their feet.
"Well done. It's nice to see that there might be a little bit of me in you after all. Too bad you never showed me that while you were growing up. Things might have been different for you. No matter." She shrugged to prove her point. " Your big brother is waiting for you in the study. Be a good boy and go take your beating without too much of a fight. I just had the carpets cleaned." She smiled wickedly and pushed past him out into the early morning. He hoped that was the last time he ever had to see the woman who gave birth to him.
That woman has a gift for understatements. Riley thought as he went through the "study" door. The room in question was a full fledged library. Some of the books lining the floor to ceiling shelves were older that this country. Hell, some of them were hand bound and older than most of humanity. He knew that there was even a locked shelf behind the old mahogany desk that protected a few very ancient papyrus scrolls. He could remember catching a glimpse inside the cabinet when he was very young. He would sit in here on the floor trying to read the grown-up books while his real father translated the ancient scrolls and handwritten books for his mother and her father. It never went well. He never knew what they were arguing about but he knew it was something that was very important to his mother and grandfather. Whatever the argument was, he was almost certain it caused his parents divorce.
EPISODE 12---------------------------------------------------------
Riley was jolted back to the present by his brother's voice. "Welcome home little brother," Thane spoke with a heavy accent. He didn't necessarily have an actual accent, they were both born here. He simply thought that was what he was supposed to sound like. It only succeeded in making him sound like some B movie villain. It was also the only sound that grated on his nerves worse than his mother. It must be genetic. He couldn't hide the smirk at the thought.
"You think this is funny, chucho?" Thane slammed his fist down on the highly polished desk and stood up. "You have pissed me off for the last time. I will not tolerate your disobedience anymore. Tonight you and your gringa have cost me one of my best men." He strode around the end of the desk to stand half a pace in front of Riley.
He stood just a hair shorter than Riley. He hissed his anger at having to raise his chin to look him in the eye. When he spoke, his voice was barely more than a growl. Anyone without superhuman hearing would never have heard him. "I will make you watch when I do whatever I want to your bitch before I flay her alive and feed her to my cubs. Then, I will let them play with that other waste of space my mother allowed to live." The gleam in his ebony dark eyes turned a feral shade of red. "You are nothing. A enano. You have never been Familia and you never will be. You will be dead."
A slow grin of smug satisfaction spread across Thane's face. Gods, he looks just like her when he does that. Riley's cat side growled in retaliation at the images Thane's words conjured in his head. Without even thinking, his left fist swung up and connected with Thane's jaw. There was an audible crunch as the bone shattered. Thane's head snapped back and he slumped to the floor on his knees, groaning in pain. The blow wouldn't kill him, but it might give Riley precious seconds to catch his breath and think. At the very least it would keep him from alerting the others.
Riley was done with this entire side of his family. If this kind of raw hatred and violence was what it took to be part of this family, then he didn't want it anymore. He would take Sam and Caleb as far away as he could and then he would come back and destroy the entire place. But first...
Riley stepped behind the desk and rifled through the mess on top of it. He knew that his father had kept the keys to the locked cabinet here somewhere. Something told him that he needed to see what was in that cabinet before he left.
After wasting precious minutes he found them, in the silver box that his father had given Lydia on their last anniversary together. Why he'd insisted on keeping up the charade of a happy family was beyond Riley's understanding. Everyone knew that his mother detested his father and her two half-breed children. They were never more than a means to an end. The boys were leverage to Lydia and her family. They were pawns used to keep Daniel in line.
Daniel was an expert in the kinds of artifacts that never made it into mainstream history books. It made him very valuable to people like his mother and her family. The Clans had all lost so much of their own histories in the centuries-long exile of their species. Hiding from humans sometimes meant hiding from each other and that included any information any of the clan elders might have had about their own past. The human race was cruel and didn't tolerate deviations from societal norms in their own race, they sure as hell weren't going to accept shifters and other "magical" beings as real.
The lock turned easily with the key and the cabinet door swung open without a sound. Inside were several parchment scrolls and a leather art case normally used for priceless paintings. A quick look inside told Riley that it contained several papyrus scrolls sandwiched between sheets of unbleached linen. He set the case on the ground and began rolling the parchments into the matching case he found inside the cabinet. Once that was done he checked the rest of the cubicles. The rest appeared to be empty. He reached up to grip the top of the cabinet to steady himself as he stood up. He heard a soft click as his thumb connected with the brass striker plate that was inlaid in the center of the facing. The two center cubicle walls on the bottom shelf slid back into the back of the cabinet as a small trapdoor in the floor of the cabinet popped up. Inside the hidden drawer was a box no bigger than the palm of his hand. He didn't have time to study it now. He shoved the box into the pocket of his black jeans and slung the leather cylinder cases over his shoulder. It was time to go.
He stepped out from behind the desk and looked down. His brother was still laying in a heap bleeding through his busted lip all over the expensive carpet. Well, that's never going to come clean. He smiled and stepped over his brother. "Goodbye, big brother." He mimicked Thane's earlier tone. "Have fun explaining to mother how you got that broken jaw, when you can talk again. I'm not sorry that I won't be here to see the look on her face. I've got better things to do than worry about any of you anymore."
Riley turned on his heels and walked back out the front door. He left the jeep where he'd parked it. He didn't put it past Lydia to have it either tampered with or tracked. He didn't want them to have any way to find him or the others until he was ready to be found. He just hoped that Caleb had done what he had asked him to do. The iron gate the boy had left through earlier was now locked and chained. Good boy Caleb. Anything to slow them down. He took a deep breath and planted his feet. A split second was all it took for him to judge the distance to the top of the concrete wall around the back of the garden. With a little help from the big cat that was fused to every molecule of his soul, he jumped. He cleared the wall and landed softly on the other side, crouching to absorb the shock. He smiled and straightened his shoulders. He stroud out into the coming day like the weight of the world had been lifted off of his head.
Time to find the others and see what the scrolls and box he carried were all about. He was positive that his father had all the answers he needed.
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