Humanity 02 - Raven Flames Read Free

The mask
that HUMANITY needed from him.
    “ Greetings,
Monarch-to-be,” Mrs. Wanderson said. She gave him a coy smile and
he returned her flirt with a mental eye roll. She thought herself
beautiful. She was a young teacher, about twenty-five. Her tight
blond curls bounced about her face, but her expressions were always
pained—thin and drawn out. “You were a good actor in class today. I
almost thought you cared for her.”
    “ That’s what will make him
a good Monarch,” Mr. Taylur said. “He sat in my office drawing a
picture of the hideous Dark Child. He’s a devious person. Though, I
must admit, the drawing was spectacular.”
    Michael pretended to take their praise
graciously, nodding his head and voicing his thanks in a subdued
voice. “The others are meeting us at the Dark Child’s
home?”
    Mr. Taylur nodded. “Lady Wanderson
told the Lords and Ladies to come.”
    Michael fought another eye roll with
difficulty. The insistence of using titles made him physically
sick. He wondered if they knew how stupid they sounded, or if they
were just that damn stupid to begin with.
    “ The other Nobles were
upset that they wouldn’t be able to share in
the… revelry ,”
Wanderson said, her voice a throaty purr. The word came out
sounding dirty. It was the euphemism for the murder of a
Paramortal. “There was no way that most could just leave and take a
plane. Especially without making it seem suspicious. You know she’s
going to make the news.”
    “ It’ll be good publicity
for us,” Michael heard himself say. “She’s only the third
Paramortal to try to attend a human school. The other two quit and
went into hiding before we got them, but she just happened to
choose the city with our strongest network. There aren’t many
humans that support the Altruistics. We are a more powerful group
than they are, and we’re going to prove it tonight.”
    “ Well said,” Wayne said,
coming up behind him. He put a hand on his shoulder and Michael
fought his grimace.
    “ Thank you, Monarch.”
Again, the title sounded stupid to him, but calling him Monarch was
better than calling him father .
    “ You may leave us now,
Michael. Ready your weapons. I think it should be you to kill the
last in Darkcaster’s strongest bloodline. It would
be…appropriate.”
    Michael nodded and left without
another word, winding his way up the long and sweeping stairs that
lead to his part of the house. He had an entire floor to himself.
His father wasn’t a strict man when it came to his personal life,
and this part of his home was just for him and anyone he happened
to bring home. As long as it didn’t mess with HUMANITY, his father
didn’t give a damn.
    That’s why she
left , Michael thought as he caught a
glimpse of the portrait of his mother. He wouldn’t see any others
in the house other than that one. Wayne had thrown them out when
she’d disappeared over eleven years ago. Michael had been six at
the time.
    She didn’t take me with
her. His mother, Lily, was every bit as
delicate as her name suggested. How she’d lived as long as she had
underneath his father’s tyranny was beyond him. Why had she left
him to live in this hell? Was it because she saw what he’d become?
What Wayne had trained him to be? His mother had been a loving
soul. To have her son become a ruthless murderer would have turned
her stomach. Of course, she would have run. He couldn’t blame her
for that. He would have, too, if he could.
    He’d inherited her straw color
hair—his father’s was a darker, almost brown—but the feather-light
texture shown in the carefree portrait was something his hair would
never see. It was as coarse as an animal’s fur, reaching his
shoulders. Her face, round and innocent, was nothing like the sharp
angularity of his own, covered with the rough dark stubble of a
teen’s almost beard. Only his eyes were like hers. It was like
looking into a mirror. Her icy blue, kind eyes staring into his.
They were lighter than