Humanity 02 - Raven Flames Read Free Page A

Wayne’s cruel sky.
    Michael turned from her smiling
expression that accused him. He went into the first room on the
right, where he kept his weapons. He had his own kitchen,
bathrooms, bedroom and another bedroom he brought the girls from
school to. He had a house within a house.
    A house within a house,
but not a home. The thought was distant as
Michael studied the slender blades laid out on his bed. The knives
were short and only slightly curved. They gleamed from when he’d
been bored and cleaned them the night before and he slipped them in
their sheaths that rested on a belt he wore. The sheaths were
beside the two gun holsters on the leather, but he hoped he
wouldn’t draw a weapon tonight. It would be better if they killed
her in her sleep. He didn’t enjoy the thought of trying to take her
down if she was allowed to use her powers.
    He’d killed Dark Children before, but
never when they fought back. There was a reason why they were
feared even by the other Paramortals. Their powers relied on
darkness, on fear and illusions. The other Tribes of Power were
pure elemental—Thorn Heathens, Flame Tongues, Cloudlings, and Rot
Scales—they only had so much control over their elements. They had
power, but he could deal with them. Day Spawn hardly had any
powers. They sometimes had special mind gifts, but mostly they only
healed and were pacifists. He actually hated killing them; it was
almost like killing children.
    But Dark Children…they were different.
They had no qualms about protecting themselves, and their powers
were more mystical—utterly unpredictable. He’d felt the strength
that had radiated from Mirage as she attacked Derrick earlier that
day, and something inside him told him that wasn’t near what she
was capable of. After all, she was Darkcaster’s descendent. If
Nathaniel hadn’t turned traitor when he did…the stories were clear
on her power. She’d wiped out entire camps of humans on her own.
Mirage had that potential. He didn’t know why he thought that, but
he didn’t try to convince himself otherwise.
    His father wanted him to kill her, and
he would. If anything, his fear of what she was capable of would
spur him into action. He’d seen only a portion of her power and he
wouldn’t allow something like that to live.
     
    * * * *
     
     
    Mirage quivered inside the cloud’s
echoing thunder.
    This is a
dream.
    She didn’t have the power of flight;
she wasn’t a Child of the Breeze. She reached out a hand, trying to
claw up a bit of the flighty gray streaks that caressed along her
skin. They slid past her, separating against her sharp nails. It
was like trying to scoop through the ether of her own
power.
    “ Call out to your
ancestry, Shadowstart.”
    Her back arched at the sound of the
voice, her hands rising out from her sides. Echoes. The gray was
beginning to streak with black, pooling like around her like slick
oil. She could feel the heat of flames at her back. The ground
beneath her was burning.
    Mirage was frightened.
    “ They come for you. They
seek you. You will experience sorrow tonight,
Shadowstart.”
    “ Who are you?”
    “ You will know my name
when I want you to know it.” The voice, definitely feminine, seemed
strangely like her father’s. The thought made her choke and the
memories rose against her bidding. She hadn’t been
prepared.
     
    “ Beg for your life, Dark
Child scum.” The sound of a whip cracking against something soft –
of flesh giving way to leather. Though the humans wouldn’t be able
to hear it, she could hear the intake of breath from her father as
he fought not to betray his pride. She stood from her hiding spot,
the hollow where her father had thrown shadows across her and her
mother’s forms. She would stop them.
    “ No, Mirage.” Her father’s
voice, seemingly so close, echoed in her ears across their
weakening Family Cord. It was wavering, but she could still feel
his love.
    Mirage stopped, her
charcoal runes ceasing their soft red