"One day, Pea. It'll just be me. You. And Lex, I swear. You do still believe in me, right, Pea?"
Kaeron had been staring at the green shack of a house he had dropped his sister and Lillian off at from down the block for the past... shit. How long had it been?
The sun was apparently going down, and the air was cooling. Why did he have the window down? He thought about that question absently as the cool air bit at his face, his inner flame failing to keep him warm.
"Are you alright, Pea? You're alright, right? You have to be. Who else will be there to take care of me and Lex if you're not. Pea? It won't be like this forever. You do still believe me. Right, Pea?"
Kaeron let out a breath as the new phone he had bought back in Sagio dinged, and the indicator began flicking red.
He double tapped the screen, read the message, looked back at the house once more, put his car into drive, and pulled off. He would have to put off putting off talking to his mother. He had himself a meeting with a thief, and he couldn't miss it.
******
"Why are you trying to save me..."
Lex grimaced and prepared herself for the wave of nausea that seemed to always follow after those gods damned words.
It struck her like a battering ram, knocking Lex to her knees. She put a hand over her mouth as the worst of it latched itself around her head, making the room spin... the room full of mist and ominous black clouds that weren't hanging in the sky like.. ominous black clouds do. Instead, they surrounded her on either side like an invading army.
The voice spoke again without a speaker, of course, because that would make figuring out why she had occasionally been tortured with this dream ever since they were ambushed back in Lucian forest way too easy.
Lex jumped as the blackened clouds erupted in a violent light show, and she mentally kicked herself. She had had this stupid dream enough times by now that she shouldn't be jumping at every sound or smell. However. She found that no matter how many times she had this dream, she was still left completely in awe over the diamond blue lightning!
She had never seen anything like it before in her life, and after doing her own digging around whenever she wasn't taking care of Lillian, she had come to the conclusion that it didn't exist. She must have made it up because, according to everything she had read. There has never been a sighting of blue lightning in Solaris, not even back in the days of the ancient witch.
"Lex, why are you trying to save me..."
"I don't know!" She shouted back at the blank spot, knowing her efforts would be fruitless. They always were. The voice seemed to like asking questions more than answering them, and Lex was starting to feel like she was going mad, but she took a deep breath and tried again.
******
Lillian smiled down at sleeping beauty, who was currently using her lap as a pillow. Unlike when she's awake, Lex was nowhere near as elegant while asleep. Her nose would every now and again scrunch up like she was smelling something foul, and she'd occasionally paw at the air for a few seconds like a cat mumbling something about Kaeron, (no surprise there), and she said something else, but it was less of a coherent statement and more like a bunch of nonsense.
Lillian would send a quick prayer up to Zedith for sending somebody as great and understanding as Lex when she did, and now that she knew Sebastian was alive... She didn't want to jinx it, but there was a chance that she could have everything she ever dreamed of and more.
I'm so disappointed in you, my precious, stupid flower." Talion's words cut through her happiness like a razor. "How stupid can you be? Thinking you can escape from me! You're nothing but a frail, helpless little girl who's bound to eventually get everyone she cares for killed...!"
The sound of footsteps entering the room pulled Lillian's attention away from her thoughts and over towards the sickly looking woman on the other side of the room. Lillian was too flustered to cringe as the remaining four crusty black teeth clinging to the woman's inflamed gums warped into a kind smile.
"Marie Lucian Deitas." Lex had introduced the woman as after Kaeron had kicked them out the car and drove off somewhere. Even in that first interaction, that smile of Marie's gave Lillian the creeps. She knew it was wrong to judge the lady, especially without getting to know her first, but there was something off about her... other than the heavy drug use. Lex had told her stories about Marie. Like how she and her boyfriends would force Kaeron to steal from tourists and vacationers and then Marie would take those earnings and buy drugs with them, which Lillian hated Lex for telling her because even Lillian felt bad for that jerk after hearing something like that. There was also the story about how Marie had gotten so high with her new boyfriend that she had forgotten Lex at the new boyfriends house with his grown, drug dealing friends, and their... lady friends for hours. Lex had seemed to be in high spirits about the entire thing at the time, and she even made jokes about how Kaeron had to hunt down the boyfriend to get her back, but it definitely tainted Lillian's first impression of Marie.
What once might have been a beautiful woman's face had been replaced by a shriveled up husk covered with streaky makeup, which went perfect with her eyes. She had the eyes of a mad woman, and her every action was a bit.. off. Lillian also noted that just like her children, Marie also had tattoos all across her body.
"Hi dear.. hi. What did you say your name was again?" Marie asked, but her voice must have been destroyed by her years of extraneous drug use. It sounded like a peonies' throat had been put through a blender. Twice. It made it difficult for Lillian to understand the woman from across the room.
"Oh. Um, it's Lillian. Ma'am." Lillian smiled, hoping that Marie couldn't see how forced it was.
"Oh yes." Marie said, approaching her, and Lillian had to stifle a flinch when Marie's elbow suddenly jutted upward.
Marie's muscle spasms were clearly another disturbing one of the many awful results of years of abusing all of those drugs. She had been displaying a number of them up to this point, and Lillian couldn't help but wonder, just how sick was this woman.
Lillian's attention fell upon Marie's hands, and she realized that Marie was holding something, and Lillian was about to ask about it when Marie spoke again, first stopping a few feet in front of the couch the two were lounging on and sank to knees.
"My Lex seems to really like you. So. What's your damage?" Marie asked, but her mouth was warped into some kind of twisted smile, and Lillian couldn't tell if the woman was joking or not.
"Excuse me?" Lillian eyed Marie, who was now brushing Lex's hair, and Lillian couldn't help the smile that tugged at her face as she admired the sheen from the setting sun that reflected from off of Lex's newly dyed hair. They had decided to go with the rich plum purple dye that Lex had picked up back in... the fae city... Sagio! Lillian had helped Lex dye her hair, and they had ended up with a surprisingly funny story, that even now, neither Lillian nor Lex were completely sure how it all started, but it ended up with them in the hotel lobby desperately flirting with the manager (well Lex was flirting, Lillians throat was still raw, and she was also frozen in place with embarrassment, so she mostly... silently, flirted). So he wouldn't call the fae law enforcement after the two of them were tracked down, running throughout the hotel, using spoons to fling hair dye at each other like a bunch of children... aka the reason why Lillian had been frozen with embarrassment and shame, and so many other crippling emotions. She had even almost cried, but it turned out to be a good thing. The manager felt so bad for her that he just charged them for the cleanup and let them go with a warning.
At the time, she had felt like an absolute idiot, but now...
"My Lex. She's a smart girl, but when it comes to the people she lets in her life." Marie shook her head. "My Lex. She's. My Lex. My Lex, she likes the damaged ones. It's a Deitas curse." She laughed, and Lillian watched spital come flying from her mouth like tiny grenades.
Thank the gods they weren't facing each other... and was that an insult?
Lillian cleared her throat. "Anyways. Ma'am. I was wondering. Do Lex and Kaeron have different fathers?"
Marie stopped brushing Lex's hair. "What makes you say that?"
"I mean, neither you nor Lex can shift. Right? You're not a Dragon Shifter like Kaeron? I only say so because I've seen Kaeron sniff enough Phoenix Ash to wipe out a cave full of bears, and yet he's... normal, or at least he's not physically ill like you are. It's his bodies natural resistance to the drugs and toxins like them that allows him to do as much as he does and still not suffer from the effects, which your body should have that same resistance if you were indeed a Dragon Shifter..."
Marie made a weird noise in her throat, shutting Lillian up, which she followed up with a noise that sounded like it was supposed to be a laugh, but it was more like she was choking on something.
"So you think that I'm not normal?" Marie snorted, returning to brushing the still sleeping Lex's hair.
Lillian wanted to be mad at Lex for falling asleep and leaving her alone with Marie, but she could understand. Lex had been so excited and anxious about seeing her mom again that she had hardly been sleeping these past three nights, and last night Lillian was certain Lex didn't sleep at all.
"Well, you're right about me, about me, but you're wrong about them." Marie said that warped smile, returning to her face. "My children have one father." Marie looked up from her task. "You have heard of the - Dragon Shifter B type? Haven't you?"
"The what?" Lillian asked, shaking her head.
"Give me a moment." Marie stopped brushing Lex's hair once again, stood up, and exited the room. She had been gone for about five minutes when Lillian heard her footsteps re-entering the room, but this time, she had a white crystal.
"I'm sure you could just search it up on your, on your, I'm sure you could just search it up on your little do da. What do they call those little plastic things again? Phones? But I'm old school."
She pulled out a kitchen knife that Lillian hadn't noticed, and before Lillian could object, Marie brought her hand up to the blade and cut her palm. It wasn't a deep cut, but it made Lillian cringe watching her do something so barbaric.
She grabbed the crystal with her bloody fingers and then pressed it to the wound, (without any reaction. She must have been losing ability to feel pain. Another result of the drugs), and then she let go of it.
"You're a witch?"
The crystal was now floating in place, and it was no longer white, but more like an ominous blood red.
"More like was. Given the circumstances. I no longer practice the craft, but using a knowledge crystal is easy as long as you know how each crystal type affects the brain. Now, put your hand on the crystal.
Lillian eyed Marie suspiciously, and then the crystal.
"Why did you ask if you didn't want to know." Marie bit out.
Mood swings. Check.
"What's going to happen?" Lillian asked, staring at the floating object.
"It's going to bite your lady bits off. What do you think is going to happen! It's a knowledge crystal learn something!"
How had Lex turned out so great with a mother like this? Lillian thought to herself as she sighed, lifted her hand to the crystal, and touched it.
Big mistake.
A sudden explosion of words filled her head, words that she both couldn't understand at all, and yet, somehow, she was able to understand all of it.
The room began to spin and grow dark. "What did you do to me?" Lillian asked, looking up at that warped smile one last time before everything faded into black.
******
Dragon Shifter B type is an anomaly in the genes of newly born dragon shifters. These warped genes change the way the body of the newly born's adjusts to it's own magic, and for reason's scientists have still yet to understand, this change stops the Dragon Shifter from their natural ability to shift, but the Dragon Shifter still retains their heightened senses from their assumed bloodline. B type shifters are also known to suffer from mental attacks we know as, "fractures," and these "fractures" cause for the Dragon Shifter to feel nothing but an intense burning pain through out the body as for again, due to reasons scientists do not understand, the body tries to shift on it's own, but fails due to the warped genes of the Dragon Shifter. This anomaly affects 97% of newborns that have one dragon shifter parent and one non dragon shifter parent. It also has a .0000003% chance to affect a pure blood, newly born child. Those with the Dragon Shifter B type anomaly can also suffer from an even more rare anomaly called "Overheat." In cases of "Overheat" the Dragon Shifter B type suffers from a fracture so powerful that an explosion of magical energy rips from out of the Dragon Shifter with enough destructive force to wipe out a small kingdom, killing the Dragon Shifter and destroying everything in a 3 mile radius instantaneously. This occurs in less than .000000001% of Dragon Shifters with the Dragon Shifter B type anomaly. The cause of "Overheat" and "Dragon Shifter B type" are unknown, and there are no known cures.