Birthright (Residue Series #2) (4 page)

My bravado
was unable
to convince him.
I knew this when h
is head shook back and forth slightly.

“What you saw in the bayou – their abilities in controlling the trees as weapons, their velocity through the air, the arsenal they
carry
, the power of their incantations
…
all of it – should have impressed
on
you enough
, but it barely skims the surface.
There is so much more.”

“I’ll learn.”

“That is exactly what I’m worried about.”
He lashed out. I noticed his
voice
raised
a notch
.
“They are dangerous! They will kill you
!”

Reacting to the desperation in his voice,
I sighed.

He groaned.

We came to a stalemate.

In what seemed to be a last attempt at convincing me to behave reasonably, to end my healing errands until it was safe again, to act on the terms the Vires had set without our permission, he pressed on. “Vires drift between our world and the other. They have killed on both sides. They know no boundaries…
they
know no boundaries, Jocelyn.” He repeated harshly, trying to penetrate what he saw
to be
my
stubborn
ness
.
“They do whatever is within their resources to meet their objective.”

His
eye
lids lifted
,
and what I saw behind them pulled at my heart
- worry consuming him.

Drawing in a long breath, it perturbed me
to know he wasn’t going to like
what I was about to say
.
“I won’t stop healing, Jameson. It’s who I am. And it’s what keeps the Vires from imprisoning me in my own home.” Even as his lips pinched in protest, I continued, determined to finish. “But when I do heal…” His eyes darted back to me, expectant, hopeful, knowing there was a concession coming. “I will do it safely. No midnight runs. No Vires to witness
.”

His head began nodding
,
as he contemplated my statement. “Stay as far away from them as possible.”

“I will…I’ll try. They won’t make that easy though…” I cautioned.

“Just…” He stopped me
,
in case I’d planned to take my warning any further. “Don’t go anywhere alone.”

“Nowhere? I mean…what about the bathroom? Should I have someone in the shower with me?” I meant this teasingly but it came out as a taunt.

“Jocelyn…” He
wasn’t finding
me funny at the moment.

His face fell
then because
something else – besides my path toward self-destruction – caught his attention.

Listening
intently
,
a few seconds later,
I heard it too
.
The hum of a vehicle’s engine
…approaching
fast
…
and directly toward us.

Our faces
grew apprehensive
as it came to a halt directly on the opposite side of the hedge. A car door opened and a voice
, quiet but firm,
called out
.

“Get in.”

My head snapped back as I recognized the sharp, terse tone of my housekeeper.

“Miss Mabelle,” I
informed
Jameson.
Considering
what we’d just been discussing, I added, “It should be safe.”

He agreed
,
and we turned the corner to find Miss Mabelle’s black SUV with the engine still running. The passenger doors on our side were already opened. How she’d managed that
,
while remaining
secure
in her seatbelt
and
behind the steering wheel
,
was beyond me. But that became a fleeting thought after she made her announcement.

“They’ve found ‘em.”

“Found who?” Jameson and I asked in unison.

She scoffed
,
perturbed, as if we should already have known. “The Vire’s bodies…
that’s who.”

Vires could pass on the street
,
barely discernible – even by those who were alert enough to look for them.

There have been stories of people finding their abdomen
s
slashed, fingers missing, or a
strange
ailment suddenly
inflicting them,
without ever
identifying
the Vire who attacked them.
Vires
could be
wearing an impressionable
business suit,
a distinguished police uniform,
the tattered cloth
es
of a homeless person
…
dressing solely to disguise themselves
. Vires blend
in so well that differences between them and everyone else
were
minor and obscured.
The distinction was
hidden beneath
their clothing
where
they were armed with
supernatural weapons and
in their
whispers carrying
harmful incantations.
If
you were lucky enough, you might catch sight of the stone they wore – 
Moldavite
– a faded
,
olive
-
green gem
, capable of capturing, retaining, and expelling power.
It was the only external clue to identifying a Vire.

The morning after Miss Mabelle announced that the bodies of the first two Vires, who were sent to supervise us, had been found dead, we were just starting to grasp the limits our dismal future held.

Miss Mabelle prepared cream of wheat and Cajun sausages for breakfast, far more sub
stantial than the usual pastry, arranging
it post
haste
in order to
explain
the news about the Vire
’
s bodies while
the rest of my family was
all in the same room. She was a woman who preferred not to repeat herself
,
so once her
explanation was final,
she left up
the
stairs
, retreating
to her room. Aunt Lizzy was in her study on the phone with Uncle Lester, reassuring him that everyone here was safe…so far. The rest of us stood at the front window, peering out at the two Vires stationed on the sidewalk at the end of our driveway.

“They look like
Secret Service
agents,” Estelle noted.

“They
are
,” Vinnia sighed. “They’re The Sevens
’
agents.” As always, I was amazed that
,
within
her
tiny frame and
behind her
innocent expression
,
Vinnia
modestly
hid a powerful ability to deduce others.

Making
our final assessment of the Vires
-
in their black suits and
dark
sunglasses, despite the cloudy morning
- we continued
to the kitchen.

“Well, this day is starting off well,” Estelle joked, picking up her bowl and sliding onto the countertop to eat it
; her
feet
dangl
ed
against the cabinet doors below.

The rest of our heads dipped closer to our bowls of steaming cereal,
trying to avoid the bleak truth in what was happening.

“Not good,” Spencer,
always
studious and critical
,
stated woefully. “This is not good at all…”

Nolan scoffed. “Eh, let them come.” After realizing the rest of us were staring at him, he snorted. “What?” and we gradually turned our attention back to our food.

He never seemed to realize when he was being obtuse.
To
him
,
mincing or coddling words was simply a waste of time.

“Just keep your eyes open,” Vinnia muttered
, starting
the conversation again. “And don’t give the Vires a reason to confront us.”

“She’s right,” said Oscar, the most robust of my cousins and
the
one who typically sought a peaceful solution. “They’ll be looking for any excuse.”

Nolan snickered and shrugged
,
offhandedly. “They’ll have one once they find out we were there at the time of their friends’ deaths.”

“It wasn’t our fault,” Estelle stated. “
They attacked us
.”

“When was the last time someone was found innocent for defending themselves against a Vire?” Spencer countered.

She immediately fell silent
, confirming
the answer was
apparently
never.

The rest of us at the table fell
silent, contemplating
the
depth of the
jeopardy we
’re
finding ourselves
in. I’d only just started to learn how maniacal Vires could behave. Having been given almost full reign by their superiors – The Sevens – Vires were known to have
and
follow no ethical boundaries.
Regardless,
it was my cousins’ expressions that left an
indelible
impression on me. They were somber,
their
faces
mirroring those
of convicts waiting for their execution to arrive.

That
ominous fate
only seemed to be drawing closer, as we passed
V
ires en route to school, as we watched them trail us when driving, and as we noticed their presence on school grounds.

Everywhere
I looked
,
moldavite
was gleaming
in the sunlight.
When the first class
warning bell rang, the
olive-colored stones were
highly visible; being
worn by students
crowding school grounds
, custodians sweeping the hallways, new
staff members
congregating
in the
office,
and
bus drivers loitering
at the school’s entrance.
The
presence
of our Weatherford
quartz
crystal
s
paled in comparison.

This isn’t what surprised me, because I’d been forewarned by my mother. She left and returned to her post at the ministry, trying to thwart any idea that we were responsible for Frederick and Anastas’s disappearances, but not before warning me of what was to come.
It was the sudden onset
and
the sheer
forcefulness of the Vire
’
s invasion that
actually
surprised me, leaving me guarded until I reached the school’s main hallway.

Jameson’s locker
was
positioned at the entrance
to
our school,
giving
me the advantage of seeing him
as soon as
I entered.
His locker was open, displaying books and papers thoughtlessly crammed inside, but he wasn’t paying any attention to it. He saw
me as I entered the main hallway and halted his conversation mid-sentence. Charlotte, the most blunt of his siblings, snapped her fingers in front of his nose until she
realized what was consuming him
.
Glancing
over
at me, she rolled her eyes and muttered something that looked like “Figures
!” Promptly, she
turned and entered the fray of sandy blond
e
-haired Caldwells standing in a group nearby.

Jameson’s head was bowed toward
s
me, his defined jaw was set tight, and
his stunning green eyes
hadn’t blinked since
he first noticed
me – all of which
indicated, to me,
that he was trying to convey a
n important
message.

Be careful…

“Ironic to think that only a week ago…” Nolan said,
stealing
my attention.
His voice began to fade then,
unable to continue his thought
,
for fear
of safety
.
Still, we all knew what he meant. These sandy blond
e
-haired people on the opposite side of the hallway
were once
our enemies
, but
now
,
a greater threat had come to New Orleans.