178

Bri

“On the contrary Lorraine, I am very present,” I said, striding before the dais. “I have come to see to it that you do not steal my father’s legacy and poison New Orleans as you did my Papa.” My voice was cold, hard, resolute. In this moment I let the warmth my heart had grown accustomed to leach into the men at my sides. Let her try to get out of this farce she made for herself.

“Daughter, you are well,” Lorraine hid her surprise and I laughed darkly.

“You do not get to call me daughter, after what you did to me. Allowed to be done to me. The abuse you exposed me to, in hopes you could wield the power I bear.” Beckham stepped forward gritting his teeth, eyes livid.

“Child, enough of this nonsense,” Lorraine tried to reason.

“You girl, owe us all a debt,” Beckham growled out.

“I owe you nothing, if you ever thought I did that's on you.” I seethed. “Your little den of snakes stole everything from me,” I shot back. “You don’t get to pin a scared 14-year-old girl down and force her name upon a contract in her own blood and call that viable.” Gasps rang out around the gathered people whose heads swung back and forth to the Dias and myself and my men who flanked me in silent support.

“What sort of contract?” an old man demanded. Mr Cullum from the midwest.

“One that requires my soul to bond with 4 men I did not choose. I was underage and forced into the act of signing it. The rite was meant to occur before my 22nd birthday,” I cleared up.

“My daughter brings wild tales, she has always had such an abundant imagination.” Lorraine accused, trying to degrade my words. I pulled off the mask and Beau took it and tucked it into his inner jacket pocket. “Where is your proof child?” Lorraine taunted.

“I may not have the document which is now null and void, but I have the scars to prove what kind of “mother” you really are. If these people are smart enough they will piece together why three men and an ailing father and son moved into this house after my 14th birthday. Why Draven always followed me from to school to school and had every camera from there to here hacked to watch me like a hawk. Why Andrew, after his father's death, remained here instead of leaving to be with his mother’s people? Why would a mother expose her 15-year-old daughter to the world at this very gala a year later, wearing a revealing white dress? The day after you let that man” I snapped, pointing to Draven. “Beat me within an inch of my life! And I bet if you look deep enough he still has the tapes as he set up enough cameras to document the affair. Not to mention what else you let him do to me, while you turned a blind eye. You never were my mother Lorraine, and you know it.” shocked faces and grimm ones littered the room under ornate masks.

“You want proof?”

I dropped the shaw to the floor. Astonished gasps of epaulement coursed through those gathered, at the sight of the scars only deep painful gashes could have left behind and allowed to fester.

“What was it you said to me that night? Oh, don’t move from this spot, one drop of blood touches this dress and I’ll let him do whatever he wants,” I sneered. Murmurs bubbled up from the crowd.

“She's such a wonderful actress, she must have learned to glamor,” Lorraine backpedaled.

“Bullshit,” I spat. The power charged in my aura, the energy frantic. It sent the hair on my men's arms upright as confusion spread around us, the crowd shrinking back.

“Oh, they lost the sweet southern belle,” Wyatt growled next to me, his eyes flaring through the mask. Was he enjoying this as much as I was? The beast bristled under his skin.

Beau snorted his eyes, a kaleidoscope of burning amber as he surveyed the scene.

“I don’t pity them one bit brother,” Beau responded to that.

“What type of mongrels have you brought into my house?” Lorraine sneered, pulling back a little.

“Your house?” I smirked, ready to give her the sad truth of it all.

“Oh Lorraine,” I said condescendingly, a cold vicious smile curving my lips. “They aren't mongrel curs, they're wolves, and I don't need to be bound to them for them to stand beside me. This isn’t your house but I have been kind enough to let you use it in my absence. You won’t be needing it after tonight anyway. Papa, hid things from you. I am his sole heir,” I let the reality of it sink in.

“You stupid slut!” Beckham snarled, lunging forward. I mocked a shocked look, my hand over my bosom feigning hurt. Then I straightened, finding that place within myself with no fear.

“Kind of hard not to live up to that reputation when your innocence was stolen by one of you in the first place.” The crowd began chattering in the background, appalled. “Tell me, Beckham, was it you? If not who then who?”

“I never laid a hand on you, I was waiting for the rite,” he snapped. “That is until you disappeared like the little bitch you are, you ruined everything. She’s going to die because of you!”

“Who pray tell is this magnanimous female? Do I know her? What exactly was I supposed to do for her? I’m not a healer,” I snapped.

“No, but I am, with your power backing me, I could have saved her.” Beckham spat.

“So my life for hers?”

“Yes,” he admitted.

“What did you do to Skie, Beckham?”

“That stupid mutt? She became alligator food,” he sneered.

“Do you know what the penalty for killing a familiar is? My guess is you don’t, by your expression. That's why she sent you to do it. You know what I called you all these years in my head? The dog, because you were always at this murderous bitch’s beck and call. I bet she leashed you like she did my father and Andrew’s, like the little bastard you are,” I threw at him.

“Everything I did is of my own free fucking will, I was supposed to own you, you little whoring brat.” Wyatt and Beau growled, shadows pulled from the darkest corners of the room into me, and bystanders shrieked in horror.

“What kind of sorcery is this?” Draven demanded his eyes darting around from his chair, the first thing he said all night. The doors of the Ballroom slammed shut, the sound of locks clicking into place as the final specters of smokey shadows came to rest around us.

“My own, do you like it? This is what you all made me Dean Draven. But I think it worked out in my favor.” It was the wraith’s voice talking now, my voice was cold as ice. A chill went up my spine as the shadows congregated around us snaking up my back and over my thick scars. I refused to falter as dark wings of coursing shade, and obscurity shot out of my back and enveloped us from behind. I’d become that dark angel today. I was sentencing these witches to a fate worse than death and I didn’t care one bit. The air became thick and leached into the pores of my men, but they didn't fear it, on the contrary, they welcomed it. Embraced the feel of ice and light that I leached into them as if it were home. My shadowed wings flapped and a wave of blackness billowed out before us, thundering forward. The force of it felt little more than a caress on the breeze from where my men stood in the shelter of my wings beside me, but the power within it was honed on one figure. As it hit the retreating male, Beckham dropped like the dead man he was, gasping for air as darkness poured into his gaping mouth. Energy pulsed and wavered into the space between us.

“I will find your sister and see if she is worth saving,” I let him know. Beckham convulsed and then suddenly went still. The darkness retreated dragging with it a phantom of dim dark shapeless light, as it returned to my feet and deposited it there, immobile. I turned to Wyatt, “The first installment of our vow,” I said. The Beast growled in approval from within the confines of Wyatt’s body, his skin bristled as he pushed back with the urge to shift.

Tense energy was palpitating within the capsule of my sheltering wings as they plumed out.

“I am the affected party here and I shall decide your fate. The council can protest as they wish but remember each of you turned a blind eye on New Orleans and myself in the wake of my father's death. Not one of you is free of guilt... But the Vipers,” I said pointing to the Dias. “Today they are judged.” My silver glowing eyes roved over each of them and I could smell their fear.