Unraveling Mordecai - Marisa Maichel (top ten books of all time .TXT) 📗

to treat animals and people.”
“You’re right,” I said, realizing now how silly I was. “Okay, if you want a dog or two, we’ll get a dog or two. But they’re your responsibility, just like the cats are mine.”
She gave me a mocking salute, to which I stuck my tongue out at her for. She recoiled back slightly, but her expression stayed relaxed and happy.

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What is it with women and roses? I thought groggily as Sarah woke me up by singing “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden”. Mother’s favorite song was “White Rose of Athens”, and Selena’s was “The Rose” by Bette Midler, although that one was technically about love.
I heard a gasp, then a scream, and a muffled gasp.
I ran out the door and into the laundry room where I’d heard Sarah’s voice coming from. In front of me was a man who was frantically holding Sarah and keeping his hand over her mouth. He had long silver hair, bright yellow-green eyes similar to Faolan’s, and he was stockier and smelled like both werewolf and vampire.
This must be Liam Wolfheart.
Reese! Help me!
Hang on, baby, I’m here.
Did I just have a conversation with Sarah inside our minds? A conversation for another time.
“Let her go,” I growled.
The wolf/vampire hybrid let Sarah go, and then she spun around and kicked him in the testicles. He fell over, sputtering.
“Fucking bitch,” he cursed in a thick German accent.
Sarah ran to me and I squeezed her into me.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
“Liam Wolfheart,” he said. I knew it. “I’m here for Selena.”
“My sister? No. Fuck off.”
“Please…I’m desperate. None of our children have lived.”
“Children? There was more than one?”
“I only let her go so she could see Marina again. And you…I assume you’re Reese.”
“Toby! Get your lazy ass down here!” I called out.
My bodyguard and friend stumbled down the steps, still tangled up in his bedsheets. He landed in a heap on the floor, and then Alexander appeared at the top.
“Pitiful,” he said, referring to Toby’s clumsiness.
“Alexander, who is this freak?” Sarah asked. My stepfather scowled.
“A person who is not welcome in our home anymore. A person who lost both my friendship and protection when he stole away my stepdaughter.”
“Alexander, I loved her,” Liam said, spreading his hands. “From the moment we locked eyes. And she said to me ‘So, you’re the famous Liam. I hear you stole some gold, but returned ruby earrings to my stepfather. So what are you? A villain, or a hero?’ And I knew she was my soulmate.”
“But she did not feel the same way,” Alexander said, coming down to face his enemy. He jumped over Toby, who had yet to untangle himself.
“You have little protection here,” Liam said. “Three humans, and two young vampires, and one lowly guard who is barely a boy.”
“I consider that racist,” Toby said aloud, to which he was promptly ignored by everyone except Sarah, who smiled gently at him.
“You should have come two days ago,” Alexander said. “Sarah was meeting a famous author and he had several people with him, including a couple of guards.”
Liam was about to argue, but then he paused and looked behind us. I turned and saw my sister, who had a gun in her right hand and a stake in the other. Her hands were shaking.
“You came for me,” she muttered.
“You forced me to,” Liam said. “But if you wish it, I will leave.”
“No! You won’t hurt me ever again!” She fired the gun, which woke up Cirino, who began crying. Blood blossomed in Liam’s midsection, between his fingers, but he still remained standing, although he held onto the dryer.
“I love you, Selena,” he moaned. “Can’t you see? We’re destined!”
Then Mother appeared. If you’ve ever see a mother bear defend her cub or a cat protecting her kitten, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen a mother vampire. She took the gun from Selena and the stake and then fired a few more rounds. Liam fell to the ground, but he still wasn’t dead. Mother shot him several more times, but, amazingly, he got up and started walking to the garage door.
“Don’t let him get away,” Mother said firmly.
“Let him go, dear,” Alexander told her. “He won’t bother us here again.”
And Liam, dragging blood, snapped his fingers and disappeared into thin air.

“Um, what was that thing he did with his fingers?” Sarah asked an hour later, as Mother gave her a cup of cocoa.
“The Disappearing Act,” Mother said. “I’ve seen my mother and sisters do it many times before. You have to be extremely skilled in reconfiguring yourself.”
“What?”
“Evaporate yourself by separating your own molecules and cells, and then reappear somewhere else. It’s complicated and extremely difficult, and it takes years of practice. Only someone as skilled as my mother could have taught him that trick. Selena, did you ever see him do that before?”
“No.” My sister was still shaking, even an hour later. “He forced me to become pregnant when I wasn’t ready. I was forced to have natural births, and all of them died. They were all a part of him; hybrids, unable to stay alive for long. I didn’t even get to name most of them. There was a little one…she was so tiny, and she had hair like yours, Mother. But her little body wasn’t able to take the heat of her werewolf side, or the pressure and trauma of her vampire side. She died within the hour.”
Mother hugged Selena. “I’m sorry, dear. I would have liked to meet her.”
“I had a niece?” I asked aloud. Sarah climbed into my lap and clung to me. I could feel the baby inside of her, and I purred.

 

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Darkness isn’t scary.

I was floating in the water…no, not floating, drowning. My body was being carried to the bottom of the lake by some force I could not see. When I looked down, I could see Hell. The things I saw, the things I felt…should not be repeated. I will tell you that I felt instant terror. I started struggling for the surface, but something grabbed me around the waist.
I looked down. One of Satan’s minions had grabbed me in his claws and gave me a black-toothed grin. His eyes were pupilless, red orbs, his skin the color of rocks, and wrinkly. I continued to struggle, and he kept pulling me down.
Then I saw a white light in my peripheral vision. An angel, my angel, my own personal, sweet angel, was diving into the water. She had gotten her wings wet on purpose to save me. She grabbed my hand, and pulled me up. Or, she tried. The demon was pulling us both down. And then I saw Jamie Williams. He had grabbed her ankle and was pulling her up.
“You’re mine!” he shouted in a deep, otherworldly voice.
“Reese!” she shouted, taking in a mouthful of water.
“Sarah, don’t speak!” I shouted. “I’ll get to you, I promise!”
“I don’t need saving! I’ll save you!”
“Sarah…Sarah…”

“Sarah…Sarah…”
“Reese, shhh. It’s me. I’m here.” She was gently kissing me and nuzzling me. Still half-awake and frightened, I nipped her nose. She pulled back a bit and put her hand over her nose.
“Am I alive?” I asked. “Is Shadowfang freakjokenSarahzoid?”
“What?”
“I’m just talking nonsense. I had a bad dream.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, it will only scare you.”
“It certainly scared you. You were thrashing around in your sleep for like, two minutes before I could wake you up.”
“What time is it?”
“Six in the morning. Do you want to go back to sleep?”
“No, better not risk it. If you want to go back to sleep, that’s fine with me, but I’m getting up.”
I sat up, and then realized I was on the wrong side of the bed. Sarah realized this, too. She propelled herself forward, allowing me to swing around and get out of the full bed that we both occupied.
She fell back asleep almost instantly and was snoring when I put the blankets over her and then creeped out of the room, nearly tripping over Spunk in the process.
“Bad dog!” I chided, and he wagged his tail and licked his lips. I stumbled down the steps and found the book I’d been reading the night before. I turned the lamp on and tried to read, but it was clear that I wasn’t going to get very far after I read the same sentence about ten times. I sighed. I would finish Stephen King’s latest novel later.
I rubbed my eyes and looked outside. It was still dark, and I could see Chirag shifting his weight as he kept watch over the house.
I considered turning on the TV, but I might wake up Mother and Alexander. Even at the lowest volume, they would still hear the electricity and static. I went to the home library instead. Every home needs its own private library. This one had a lot of vampire novels, old tomes, scrolls with spells and rituals, and a few things I wasn’t allowed to look at.
I yawned and sank into the plush red chair that Alexander used as a reading chair. I fell asleep, and was only woken some hours later when I heard a loud scream.

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I fell out of the chair and banged my head against a bookshelf. I shook it off and stumbled forward.
That scream sounded like Mother’s.
I started to run down the steps, tripping over my pajama bottoms and landing on my butt in the process, and crawled forward. I stood up and quickly pulled up my pajama bottoms as high as they would go, then headed toward Sabine’s room, where I’d heard the scream.
Mother was standing in the doorway, shaking. I looked past her and saw a body of a vampire that I did not recognize. From the smell, he’d been there for some time. He was hanging from a noose in the ceiling. Luckily, Sabine was at school.
I searched for a pair of scissors and stood on Sabine’s bed and started cutting him down. He started to wheeze and cough as I worked. The poor dude was still alive. I wondered what the point was. Hanging vampires hurts us, but doesn’t kill us. We don’t need air to live, and breaking the hyoid bone does nothing.
I finished cutting the sucker down, and Mother shouted, “Don’t look, Sarah!”
Too late. Sarah stifled a scream and gasped instead.
The vampire began to twitch, and I ordered Mother and Sarah to stay back. Chirag was so fired after this.
I put the vampire on the bed in one of the spare rooms and called Ethan and Uncle Soren. Father was unfortunately away to settle an estate dispute, and Grandfather was still sick and needed Louis or Uncle Soren to watch him if the worst were to happen.
Ethan was there in minutes with his medical kit and Uncle Soren sent Louis in his stead. The vampire slowly began to wake up.
“Hello, I’m Ethan,” Ethan said. “What’s your name?”
“L-Lee.”
“Lee, do you remember what happened?”
“I was going to meet a guy for business, and then…” Lee winced.
“It’s all right, Lee,” Ethan said, squeezing his hand. “I’m here. I’m here.”
Lee closed his eyes and clutched his head with his free hand.
“I remember…I remember someone…someone on the High Council. Bram Sterling, maybe? I had a business transaction with him…” His eyes widened and he looked at me. “Please, don’t kill me. I needed the money!”
“No one is going to kill you,” Ethan assured him. “Not while I’m here. Tell me, what did Bram Sterling want?”
“Information. Several…several of the royal guards are spies for the Council. They think that this time is too