11:55 pm
Emma pranced with Amelia around the sitting room, none wanting really to hurt the other. Emma found it funny.
“Are we going to fight, or are we going to keep dancing around the room? Didn’t your master give you a deadline?” She asked, coming to a halt, the luminous flame in her head extinguishing without a smoke out. She looked right at the clock as she spoke, and then stayed to feel her body. There were no changes. Well, at least Amelia had mentioned that it could happen anytime within the next day.
Emma sighed. She really didn’t think that she would be celebrating her birthday this way, in enmity with her sister, in enmity with the world at large.
“You know I lied about what I said earlier…” Amelia said, dropping her hands too.
“Well, you have got to be specific. You have been lying since we met each other, and you might have been lying since you came here, you and your master.”
Amelia sighed at Emma’s words. But that was to be expected. She had kept acting like a raving fanatic at every turn.
Making a costly decision, she locked her mind pathways, not wanting this moment to be intruded upon by her master. When she was sure that she had created a strong mind wall, she walked toward the heap that was Emma’s bags. Not minding that Emma was watching her, she opened the bag which she knew contained the latter’s clothes, and selected an oversize boy’s polo, and a short. She also opened the shoe compartment, and took out a sandal.
“How can you give me only a towel, sister? Is that how much your love for me had dwindled because of my new identity?” This was said in a tone full of laughter.
Emma sighed in relief. The worst has passed. At least for now. But she knew that she couldn’t let her guards down yet. She didn’t know how long this truce would last, between her and her sister.
“You have an animal form, like the werewolves, you could regulate your body heat. So, I didn’t think a cloth would be necessary until you were leaving. And by the way, why didn’t you carry extra clothing when you knew you were going to follow us down here? Wait, how did you follow us down here, with the speed of dad’s car?”
Amelia shrugged her shoulders, before bending a little to draft the shorts up her legs. “Cheetahs are not the only fast animals.”
Emma snorted at the response, and slumped to the sofa, watching her sister, watch her.
“What?” She asked, unable to keep up with the staring when the both didn’t have time on their hands. She needed to get to Annabel.
“Aren’t you going to tell me about the lie?”
Amelia pouted in a familiar way that made Emma smile and forget for a second that they seemed to be on opposite sides. “Well, I really hadn’t been telling the truth when I had told you that you could shift anytime during the day. I had just said that to curb your anxiety to the minimum. Anxiety would only make the shift more painful.”
Emma piqued an eyebrow.
“According to my master, the shift might be happening any moment from now, seeing that you already have access to your powers. I am not sure why he wants me to bring you before your shift, but he wanted you in his hands before the clock struck a new day.”
“That’s barely five minutes from now. Why aren’t you moving to capture me? I thought he was your Lord and personal savior?”
Amelia chuckled. “I sounded like that really? Oh men!”
Emma laughed, slipping into that smooth camaraderie that was she and her sister.
***
“Lily, let’s go in. You have been looking at that exact spot for more than fifteen minutes. Is there anything the matter?” Damon asked his little sister, resting his hand on her shoulder. She was the only one now left in the sitting room, as her twin had retired to bed after their argument about who Emma was.
Emma.
He wondered how she was doing now. He had heard from the spies that she had been ousted from the pack. And he was actually waiting for his grandmother to come back, so that he could propose going over to Florida, even though Daniel would have been a better option, seeing he had been there before.
“Mother was here.”
Damon reverted back to his sister at her words. That again? He wondered, carrying her up, despite her weight and age.
“Mother is dead, Lily.” He said with a sigh. He thought they had gotten past this stage three years ago.
***
“I didn’t sleep with him again. He actually disgusted me from then on. I didn’t speak with him either. And because he thought I had been dead drunk to be aware of what had happened, he hadn’t spoken to me either, not the next day at least. It was a week later, when he visited again. I hadn’t known I was pregnant then, so I had pretended ignorance when he asked about the wine of the gods, if we could share it, if I could create it for him…”
Ketura cussed the dead Malone, whilst Zipfarah gritted her teeth, anger surging all over her. If the man hadn’t been dead, he would have died a thousand deaths now at the hands of this woman.
“I told him that I was busy, and that I couldn’t do it. He had wandered around the house for a while, before leaving, after seeing that he wouldn’t be getting anything. My hatred for him skyrocketed then, and I pitied Ketura for the man she loved, and hated myself, the cousin that betrayed her. Our next meeting, I had sent for him. That was when I had told him of the pregnancy, and the fact that I had known that he had slept with me. He denied it, not until six years later, when Esther had a blood ailment. I needed his blood, and so I had threatened him with exposure until he had conceded and let me have a pint of his blood. That had been the last time we had spoken, and I think that was the time that Daniel had overheard us. That discussion had been held outside his room. A few days later, Esther had returned home with a bleeding nose.”