Unraveling Mathias - Marisa Maichel (most read books of all time txt) 📗

did some research on the Internet, to no avail. I checked social media, dating sites, search engines. No luck. I bent over backwards trying to find him. I asked Ethan Potter, a vampire hospital nurse and new friend, to check medical records. Nothing. No sign of Mathias Emerson.

It was Monday, a school day. I talked Father into letting me finish the school year at school. I was sitting in Trigonometry, thinking. I should have been doing homework, but I was thinking about Mathias. Where hadn't I looked? City records. I hadn't checked those. One of Father's fledglings worked in city hall. Another was a lawyer. But if I asked them to look up forbidden information, they could get in trouble with Father.

I tried to concentrate on problem fifteen. It was one of the most complicated problems I'd ever seen, and even I probably would end up with a wrong answer. Still, I did my best, and when the bell rang, I packed the worksheet into my folder and got up to go to my next class.

At my locker, I swapped out my Trig book for my Geography book, then remembered that my next class was actually Psychology.

"Stupid!" I hit my head against the locker, denting it. "Fuck." I looked around to make sure that no one saw. I didn't see anyone, so I grabbed the right book and went to my next class. When I stepped into the classroom...if my heart could beat, it would have been pounding out of my chest. Eric Martin was in the room.

Eric was a werewolf who had his eye on my girlfriend. I hated him as much as he hated me. I sat in my usual spot behind him, and he pretended to stretch while giving me an upside-down finger. It all started when Sarah took a few piano lessons from him, and then it blossomed and grew, and now he's convinced that she is his soulmate.

I drummed my fingers on the desk and kept my mouth tightly closed to prevent my fangs from growing.

"You know, yellow eyes are not a real color," Eric said to his lackey, Zack.

"Totally. Who knows if Reese Emerson's real or if he's a faker?" Zack replied. A girl sitting near them snickered.

"Trying to steal other guys' girlfriends is totally out," Ariella said with a flip of her hair. She winked at me.

"Speaking of in or out," the teacher, Mr. Patson, broke in, "Let's talk about popularity. The idea of popularity began even before humanity was created. We can even use religious texts to study popularity and power. In the Book of Genesis...." Mr. Patson droned on and on, with me trying to listen to every word he said and failing miserably.

I thought about it. Sarah was popular. Ariella was popular. I was not popular. I made my classmates too uncomfortable. Well, most of them, anyway. I had a few new friends. Mason Godfrey, Noah Johnson, Duke Taylor, Amara Ranks. There was also Jody Williams, but I did not consider her a true friend. She was too concerned with gossiping and I did not trust her one bit.

Before I knew it, class was over, and Mr. Patson told us to write a paper on what our opinion of popularity was and how to be popular, due next Monday. I noticed Scarlett for the first time. She was in this class, too? How did I not see her? I saw her writing in a journal. Probably copying down the assignment.

I was hungry, and it was the lunch hour, so I went to the bathroom in the cafeteria and drank a bottle of blood. I searched around for Mason. Ariella and Sarah sat with a big group of other popular people, and I didn't want to disturb them. But to my surprise, Ariella waved me over.

"Sit with us today," she said. I took a seat beside Sarah. She gave me a brief hug, then turned back to her food. A lot of the other people gave me odd looks, obviously confused as to why I was joining them. A redhead whispered into a blond's ear, and they giggled.

"People, this is my best guy friend, and Sarah's boyfriend," Ariella perkily announced to the table. Her words earned a couple of gasps, quite a few stares, and some more odd looks. "You all know Reese Emerson."

I felt a hug from behind. "Hello, Duke."

"Hey, buddy. What're you sitting over here for?"

"I was invited."

"Well, come back anytime. We miss you."

"Duly noted." He ruffled my hair and walked back to his table.

"I thought I was your best guy friend!" a whiny blond, obviously gay, guy said.

"No, Reese is. Besides, you're in the same league. Reese is into both guys and girls."

The blond eyed me, probably thinking that we were no way in the same league.

"Oh, you're bi?" the blond girl from earlier asked. "So am I. My name's Lauren Scott."

"Nice to meet you, Lauren," I stated. Her red-haired friend stared at her.

"Lauren, you're not bisexul," the redhead said.

"Yes, I am," Lauren told her. "I didn't tell you because I knew you'd be a bitch about it." The redhead frowned at her friend, then turned back to her food. I learned that the redhead's name was Brianna, and that the blond gay guy was named Keith. There was a girl named Jessica, a girl named Holly, another Brianna, Bridget, Jake and Jack, who were, brothers, Kimberly, Li Sun, Anastasia, Drake, and Andre. A lot of the girls were cheerleaders, and a lot of the guys played sports.

I mostly kept quiet, listening to the gossip all around me. A new student teacher. Conversation about Nales, and wonder about who killed him and why. Sarah kept quiet, only telling the truth when she was asked about what Nales did to her. I took out a paper and pencil and started writing a new song that I called "Restraining Order."

This song was about Alexander, and how he was forced to stay away from me, or he'd be killed.

 

When school was over, I took Sarah home, as her car was in the shop. She thanked me with a quick makeout, and then went into her house.

At my home, all was quiet. Louis was at work, Father was nowhere to be seen, and Grandfather was...well, he was crying. He didn't hear me come in, because he didn't react. I blanched when I heard it. I had never seen or heard my grandfather cry before. His face was buried in his hands, and and he was saying the name "Mathias" over and over again.

"Grandfather?" His head shot up.

"Reese! You're home early."

"I usually get home around this time...are you okay?" Grandfather took a deep breath.

"No, I'm not. Sit down. There's something about Mathias that you should know." I sat beside him. "Mathias is not biologically related to us, but he might as well be. He was left as a waif on mine and your grandmother's doorstep. Soren was already fully grown at the time, and he was equally surprised. Of course, we took Mathias in, as he was a newborn, malnourished, and had no parents to speak of. He was born a human. Your grandmother loved him instantly, and she begged me to keep him. I agreed, of course. I wanted him as much as she did. l

"For years, we had tried to have another baby, with no luck. Soren was about eight thousand years old at this point, and we had lost hope of ever having another. Seven years later, your father was born. Mordecai was, shall we say, a surprise child? But we were ecstatic to have three sons now. Mathias felt out of place, the only human in a family of vampires. He begged us to change him, but we refused until his eighteenth birthday, at which point I bit him, and I changed him.

"He was happy to be one of us now. He still felt out of place, however, because we had adopted him, not birthed him. Something went wrong. I cannot recall the amount of fights we got into because Mathias broke some rule or law. Killing innocent humans, women and children especially, with no thought to keeping the vampire secret. As you know, divulging the secret was illegal until 1950. Mathias would constantly drape himself on any available female, whether she had a swain or not. He also liked to keep the bodies of his female victims. He would cut their hair and take their clothes. I think he kept a record.

"Anyway, when Soren met Alga, it was love at first sight. But Mathias also had his eye on her. He became depressed and even more unstable when she chose Soren. As you know, Alga was only interested in being queen; she did not truly love Soren. Still, they produced a child, your cousin Louis. A month after Louis was born, Alga left Soren to seek fortune elsewhere. She left Louis with him. Six months later, she was found dead, and Mathias became totally unhinged.

"I confess that we all suspected that Mathias killed Alga out of jealousy. He killed even more people, and vampires, and we were forced to intervene. We placed him in an asylum deep in Germany. He's been there ever since. But recently, I found out that he did not kill Alga at all. He was nowhere near her at the time. But that's why we tried to keep this secret. I am ashamed of myself, and I miss him deeply."

Tears rolled out of my grandfather's eyes, and he wiped them away.

"Why don't you let him out?" I asked him.

"He is truly insane at this point, and cannot be trusted among the general population. And he is particularly angry at Soren and blames him for everything that has gone wrong in his life. I fear that he may try to kill him." Grandfather shuddered at the thought. "It's all my fault. Every bit."

I didn't know what else to say, so I just hugged him. I could feel Grandfather smiling into my shoulder. "You're very sweet, Reese. Your father is not going to be happy with me for telling you about Mathias, though, so be prepared for a fight."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And what a fight it was. Father has two powers. One, he can see what's happening to any of his family at any present time, and two, he and I can communicate with each other using our thoughts. He read my mind, and he turned on Grandfather in the next instant.

"You told him?! I thought we agreed that he's not ready!"

"Father, I'm seventeen!"

"Be quiet, Reese. Father, how could you?"

"He had a right to know, Mordecai. I know that you're ashamed, but you have got to stop keeping secrets from your son. I know that you don't want him to leave you, but he's growing up. In October, he'll legally be an adult, and he can leave if he wants to."

Father didn't like that. "Reese, go upstairs."

"Father-"

"Now." I didn't dare argue with him after that. The moment I shut my bedroom door, Father started screaming at Grandfather. It was ugly, and I shut myself in the closet to hide. I instinctively curled into a ball.

 

I must have dozed off, because I heard someone opening the closet door and saying "Shh, little one, it's all right." It was Father. He picked me up and held me like a baby. He carried me to the bed, where he slid under the covers with me. His instincts must have been running high right now, as there had been no recent threats. Father kissed me and nuzzled my hair. Then he licked my scalp. I was used to his strange behavior by now, but being licked still felt weird.

I knew that it was a natural instinct, licking your child or mate. To a vampire, it's a way of saying "this is mine and mine alone." I snuggled into Father, and he purred. Suddenly, he growled. He shot up and sniffed the air.

"No way," he said. "No freaking way." The window was smashed, and