Genie appeared to be on the verge of tears at this point, looking as though her entire world was crumbling around her. “Could you please? And could you cut Dee a little slack? We woke up to the smaller kids screaming, and what sounded like an all-out war outside. And when we went to Jelissa’s room we couldn’t find her there, or anywhere. We see the Royal Guard, of all people, rushing to get the smaller children to safety. The orphanage, our home, no longer feels safe. We were scared out of our minds. We had no idea what was going on, and still don’t know. Then while we’re searching Jelissa’s room for something, anything that might tell us what happened we hear what sounded like another war breaking out down here. And seeing all of you? The royal family? That was more than enough to shock us stupid, but to learn it was you? That’s a lot for anyone to take in.”
“You’re right, Genie.” This from Elyssia. “This isn’t fair to you, either of you.” Seeing Genie getting ready to let the dam break, she rushed over and pulled the girl out of her chair and into her arms, kissed her atop her head and let her cry it out. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.”
“As you guys already figured out, Jelissa is the daughter of the Queen, and our niece.” Anya finally began filling them in. She seemed to follow her instincts and let her Goddess decide which words to choose. “The whole reason this orphanage was even built was to hide her and the rest of you away. Not all of you are orphans. Some of you, like Jelissa, were only here to keep you safe. Well, that was the original goal anyway.”
“Hold up, wait. What do you mean not all of us are orphans?”
“Dee, didn’t I just ask you—excuse me—didn’t I just tell you to shut up?”
Genie shot Deelah a glare. “Fine, I’m shutting up. Jeesh.” Deelah rolled her eyes and mimicked zipping her mouth shut. They could only hope it would remain that way for at least five minutes.
“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, again.” This earned Anya yet another eye-roll from the peanut gallery. “You know who Jelissa’s mother is now, but when it comes to who her father is, that’s where things get a little trickier. And the reason for hiding her existence. Lissa doesn’t have just one father, magically speaking anyway. Scientifically speaking, one egg, one sperm, one kid; we might not be human, but we aren’t aliens either. Our genetic makeup as far as DNA and all that is basically the same as a human, just with a few extra layers. So, the birds-and-the-bees concept still applies.”
With that, Genie spoke up. “If that’s the case, how does she have more than one father?”
“I’m getting to that. Trust me, the shit was just as confusing to us when we learned what happened the first time around. So I know how insane it must sound to the two of you.”
“Want me to take over from here?” Elyssia piped up.
“Nah, I got this. I think. When I’m done, feel free to fill in any blanks though.” Taking an extremely deep breath and letting it all out, Anya continued. “At the very beginning of the wars, right before all the shit started to hit the fan, Tia and Elyssia finally found out about me. Yeah, they know how it is to be kept in the dark too. Anyway, long story sort of short, Tialanna was kidnapped. During that time, her and Bran, the demon version of him—that’s another story too—had a wild time with a couple of others, including her now other husband, Grimm. Grimm was drugged out of his mind at the time and is just now learning the truth of it all. Bran, which is what we all call him now since he’ll never reveal his demonic name to any of us, acquired an elixir, which was a sort of aphrodisiac to help Tialanna loosen up. Not unlike a human roofie, the elixir allowed her to be free to do as she pleased without worrying about what anyone else would think, free from caring about all judgments; being part-vampire, that wasn’t exactly hard. What Bran did not know at the time was the sorcerer he got it from had a deep-seated vendetta against our vampire side of the gene pool. And the elixir was much more than an inhibitor. It was also something to help impregnate her—something the original Bran had cooked up with the sorcerer—and strip a part of the essence from each of her partners and embed their magick and strengths into him. When it was Demon Bran with her instead of the original, things didn’t go exactly as planned.”
Elyssia saw the pained expression on Anya’s face as she told the girls the sorted tale. What most didn’t know was she had experienced most of the events that took place right along with Tia. She continued, knowing the girls deserved to know who and what their friend truly was, since some of that elixir was given to their mothers as well.
“Turned out both of their defenses were too powerful for that part of the elixir to work. While she did become impregnated by Demon Bran’s seed, and the elixir did pull away some of the essence and powers from their other partners, it went into the newly forming embryo instead. Into Jelissa. Which makes her not only a witch and a wolf and a vampire twice over, but also a demon twice over too. But, demons come in classifications. While we finally learned Demon Bran is actually a sin eater demon, the other demon they were with that night whose essence is also within Jelissa was
