Chapter 5
Great. Not only had I been different my entire life but I’d been a way for Mom to get back to the family she longed to be with. Had she wanted me at all? Was I just a reminder of what it took to get herself away from some . . .
“What are you?”
“Why do you ask questions you know the answer to, Son?”
Smartass was what he was.
“Whatever your name is,” Grandma Sto lost her giggling girl attitude and put on her serious parental tone, “my family has no idea what is below our world. Neither the Sto family nor the Earanon family has interacted with those below this world. Neither in person or in written methods. There has been no reading of the Underworld inside these walls.”
Among the Succubus/Incubus world, the combining of two families resulted in the couple taking the Succubus’ surname. It was a tradition long lived by. Some of the newer couplings preferred to keep their Incubus’ family line going, which was one of the laws that Mom and Dad fought to allow.
“Ah . . . Mr. Dearnil Earanon, the man who owned my Sweet, Sweet Jilyss’ heart.” The cloudy mist floated around the room, swooping around the furniture, dodging Ranko, Grandma Sto, and Uncle Lal. An eerie quietness consumed the room as it flowed around like a natural being living inside the walls. Just as I thought about speaking, the room seemed to inhale so deeply that the air rushed from the room as tension zoomed from the midst of the cloudy being. “So you are telling me, not only was my son kept in the dark about who his sire was, but also where I came from and his other way of life.”
“He has no other way of life.” Ranko threw a punch towards the skeleton face that had taken residence in front of him. His fist flew through the air, touching nothing as the cloudy midst parted.
Deep, rich, musical laughter filled the room. “Young man, I approve of your protectiveness of your brother, but you are nothing but a mere flea to me.”
“Not if you would show yourself.”
Shit. Didn’t want the . . . Whatever he was to show himself. Didn’t want him anywhere near me. Wanted him to leave me be. But my gut told me that wasn’t going to be an option. The mirror had made its proclamation, and that would be my life, whether I liked it or not.
“Damn it,” I covered my face, refusing to let the bubbles forming behind my eyelids fall, “just tell me what I am if I am not an Incubus.”
Warm, soothing hands landed on my shoulder. Ones I’d felt the day Mom and Dad had died. Ranko tried to break the news to me then without destroying my world, failing miserably. Whatever he said then would be as poorly done as then.
“You are an Incubus. You are my brother, Nacal. That is all that matters. Not what this ghost-like ass-jerk says.”
Ranko knew it wasn’t that simple. Just wasn’t. I wanted it to be. There was no denying the proclamation of the Decision Mirror. The Journey Announcement claim would not be ignored. Ranko knew as much. Just like I did. Ranko knew how much the Journey Announcement Day declared an Incubus’ future. If I was not declared Spirit, Element, or Time, then I had no place among the Incubus World. Even with the government being supportive of same sex and multiple partners, they would never change their stance on the determination of the Decision Mirror. Ranko knew this as much as every Incubus and Succubus alive did.
Mom had taken my choice the moment she made the bargain with this . . .
Whatever he was.
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