Lanie


    My first instinct was to run for my children. Mason bristled at the idea that a witch had been taking care of them. My heart ached with betrayal and fury, and I stopped myself short of sending a cry to Xander to get the children from their preschool so we could get out of here.


    But...Gabri was his mother.


    She''d never shown my children anything but love and support. I shook my head, still tense, and caught sight of Mchi’s bemused expression.


    “Gabri is not a witch, Lanie.”


    “A hybrid, then?”


    “Not necessarily.” My grandfather gestured at the pitcher on the coffee table. “Have some more lemonade.”


    “Why do you have a coffee table?” I muttered, my mind racing. “I’m guessing you don’t drink coffee.”


    Mchi got up, poured me a fresh ss, and pressed it into my hand. “Here. Sip this. You wolves can be so fragile sometimes.”


    I bristled at that as Lily rose at what we both perceived as an insult. We hadn’t been free to run in so long I couldn’t recall how long it had been. My skin itched.


    The vampire only studied me with those green eyes. I still couldn’t quite get over the fact he looked more like my mother’s age, and she only looked to be a few years older than me. He sat back in his chair and crossed one long leg over his knee. He steepled his fingers beneath his chin and watched me.


    “Caring is not the same as caring,” he said.


    I took a sip of the lemonade. It did make me feel better.Belongs to ? n0velDrama.Org.


    “You’re fearful of the idea of your mother-inw being a witch because you believe, for no real reason, witches are not to be trusted. This mistrust is what you’ve been fed your entire life.”


    “Is that not true?” I thought of Rhiannon. “My personal experience has been that witches think like us, they don’t trust us, either.”


    “Do you trust a group that’s made it their mission to use you of dastardly deeds at every turn without so much as a scrap of proof or a drop of evidence?”


    I sighed and took another sip before setting the ss on the table. “You said that Gabri isn’t necessarily a hybrid. What does that mean?”


    “She might have a witch in her ancestry. It could be several generations in the past. Two or even more. And because witch blood is a recessive trait, it’s likely even she was unaware of carrying it.”


    “If it passed to Ste, that means Xander has it, too.” My mouth and throat dried. He was going to lose his shit about this. Mchi sighed.


    “Obviously. But again, wolf blood, like vampire blood, is the dominant trait. Whatever witch blood flows in his veins is so diluted it''s barely a trace.”


    “It can’t be that diluted if Ste is a Celestial because of it!” My fists clenched on my knees. I wanted to get up and pace but held myself back. I wasn’t going to give Mchi any more reason to use me of being fucking fragile.


    “Lanie, listen to me. Here at Brightsky, we embrace all supernaturals, pure of blood or not. After all, you are my granddaughter, and you''re not a pureblood vampire. And Celestials are the best of us all.”


    “So you say. But you also said you didn’t really know much about them, or what they do. This Ghad guy. He wrote aw book for supernaturals I’ve never even heard of. Which, yeah, I get that’s because both the councils fucked us over, but that doesn’t help me.” I leaned forward to put my elbows on my knees so I could rub my eyes. My head hurt.


    Mchi chuckled gently. “How familiar are you with humans, their history, and their beliefs?”


    I sat up with a frown. “We live in the human world and consume their media. It’s kind of hard not to be familiar with them even if we don''t interact personally.”


    “Then you understand how important the humans’ religious texts are to so many of them. The Book of All is like every single one of their most important religious texts, along with the Hippocratic Oath, the United States Constitution....any document that has ever and continues to impact the way humans rte to each other and their world....That is the Book of All.”


    “So this Ghad is like....a prophet or messiah or something like that?” I wasn’t sure I was using those human terms correctly, but Mchi nodded.


    “Yes, particrly in the way that those leaders existed so long ago they have taken on a mythical status. Until now, of course, as we have been graced with the appearance of a new prophet.”


    Mchi got up to take my hands. His fingers were cold, but his gaze seared into mine.


    “Lanie, Ste is destined for a greatness we cannot even imagine. Something so fantastical it will change the entire supernatural world as we know it.”


    4o