“What the fuck, D?” was all Genie could think to say as they made their way over towards the motley-looking crew.
Elyssia glanced at the members of her family as she stepped out of the room. She could only imagine what the sight must have looked like to Jelissa’s terrified besties. Probably something resembling a militia crew straight from Hel’s domain.
A pale-faced vampire with platinum hair on one side, jet black on the other, and one of the decaying ones, which Elyssia was certain Deelah would be able to tell by her sensitive sense of smell, stood with his legs in a fighter’s stance by the fireplace in a pair of shit-kicker boots, jeans that hugged his ass just right, and a black tee, arms crossed over his chest, giving off a menacing presence.
A handsome yet meek-looking male witch stood next to him, curly brown hair shaping a deadly beautiful olive-toned face that was chiseled to perfection, giving off a calm she knew both girls would see as fake, seeing as how Genie had seen him in all his demon glory. On a long, half-circular couch sat two identical but completely different-looking women. Both exotically beautiful, seeming to be mirror images but exact opposites at the same time. One with shocking-white hair, the other a blazing red that would put any fire to shame; one’s skin the color of the most succulent caramel, the other a chalkier shade of that same caramel, but just as fine.
Elyssia saw Genie and Deelah both instinctively look away as they took in those surrounding the two elegant women. One had a hulk of a woman at her side, one utterly beautiful, for all her masculinity. Even though her muscles had muscles, she still gave off an air of grace, and also a dark presence that dared them to mess with the seated woman with the white hair.
In front of the other sat an enormous gray wolf, who quickly shifted into an equally enormous dark-chocolate-colored male. Ellyssia would have been amused by the way both girls practically salivated at the site of his shirtless chest if the situation weren’t so damn dire at the moment. The only piece of clothing he had bothered to flash into was a pair of ragged sweatpants that left nothing to the imagination, his dreads hanging loosely behind his back. This group looked like it was ready to kill, not rule.
Definitely not royalty…
“Tell me every damn thing you can think of that happened last night. I want my daughter back, and I want to peel back the skin of whoever took her and flay them alive.” Tia threw her head back and laughed at the frightened look on their faces. “And I’m the nice one. No telling what the rest will do.” As if to drive the point home, Grimm rumbled a full-on wolf growl from his humanoid throat.
6
History Lessons
Genie and Deelah finally got their wits about them and sat in the two chairs across from their Queen and her twin sister. The story of the twins was something they’d only read about in history books, never in a million years had the thought ever crossed their minds they would ever be sitting in front of them. Let alone discover the girl they’d grown up with was of any relation to the royal family.
If only Jelissa could see them now. Just being in the living quarters made them think of their lost friend all the more, every corner a living memory. The glass coffee table that sat between the couch and chairs where they sat now had been magicked to never break, so of course the three of them had an ongoing contest on which of them could break it. The fact it was still standing even now probably meant they should give up on that one.
The couch they had spilled so many different varieties of food on that the ‘sisters’ who took care of them had had to finally give up on getting the stains out of it and spelled it black. The mantle above the fireplace where Deelah would cheat during hide and seek, turning into a little wolf so she could hide behind the various framed pictures of all the orphans. The massive room seemed so empty and eerily quiet right now without all the little ones running about. No fire crackling in the hearth where the little ones would get read to at night. No teens begging the house wizard to give them access to one of the stupid human reality television shows on the fifty-five-inch screen otherworld monitor hanging in the corner. Gone were the fairies who would dance in front of a flashlight, putting on shadow shows for the babies while Genie or one of the other sirens would sing them a lullaby.
The inside of their home looked the same as always, things thrown here and there, but only because no one had been made to clean up since they were being rushed off to the emergency shelter in case whoever it was had taken Jelissa came back. Even the bats they thought of as no more than pets were gone from their hanging spot in the domed ceiling. They turned out to be true vampire bats, members of the guard who watched over the children, with the kids being none the wiser. No, the damage had been done outside. There was no need for the captor to go anywhere else other than where his victim lay. Thinking they were giving her extra protection by placing her alone in the studio apartment in the attic with more wards than anywhere else within the orphanage, the thought never crossed anyone’s mind that secluding her from the others for any amount of time would be a colossal mistake.
"Okay, girls, somebody start talking,” Anya demanded. She
