Page 31 of Hidden Ties

As they left the restaurant, he had an eerie feeling about what his mother was going to say before she said it—she always looked like this before she needed her next fix.

“Listen, honey, I need to go take care of a few thi—”

“But it’s a full moon tonight,” he exclaimed in a hurry after looking up at the sky.

“It’s okay, honey. I’ll be fine; don’t worry,” his mother assured him. “I need to go do something to help get our apartment. Take this. Hopefully, it’ll give you a few hours of playtime on the computer, then we’ll meet up at our usual spot in three hours.”

Sal looked at the outstretched change remaining from the money left. He didn’t want to take it, but she forced him to, putting it in his pocket before giving him a big hug.

“I love you, honey.”

“Love you, too, Mom.”

She kissed him on his head. “See you in three hours.”

Though he knew it was wrong to let her go, he did. It was always on a full moon night that Sal worried for his mom’s sake. Usually, he could talk her into staying with him, afraid her stupid family superstition was true. But, for some reason, thisnight, he didn’t. So, when he went to Terry’s Internet café, he couldn’t concentrate, finding himself looking out the window at the moon. The bad feeling in his stomach only made him sicker the longer the night went on. If he knew where she’d be, he’d go out looking for her, but he was supposed to wait until the clock struck midnight before he left.

Unable to wait any longer, he left five minutes early with dread overtaking his young body. A sigh of relief escaped him when he saw her walking toward him under the streetlamp glow. Little did he know, leaving those five minutes early that night was the only reason he was going to talk to her for the last time.

“Mom!” Sal cried as he ran toward her, closing the distance when she faltered, holding her stomach.

With her falling into his arms, they dropped to the pavement together. Trying to apply pressure where the blood flowed freely, he sobbed as tears streamed down his cheeks.

“Mom …”

A tear slipped out of her own eyes, knowing her fate was sealed. “Oh, look how beautiful.” Reaching out to take her son’s face in her shaky hand, she pointed his tiny chin up so he’d look toward the night sky while her eyes never left him. “Chin up, honey. It’s a full moon tonight.”

THIRTEEN

DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES

Sal woke up from the horrid, haunting memory, sweating profusely.

At ten years old, he had to understand that a drug deal gone bad was the reason he’d watched his mother bleed out on the pavement. He had lain there, holding her in his arms, crying out for help until his voice gave out. Not one person came to help him until the full moon began to disappear.

It was Dante who had found him.

Ever since Dante had seen him in the Internet café, he would drop by from time to time to check in on him. Upon his first look of Sal, he’d known that the child was Lucifer’s son, and it didn’t take him long to realize he was gifted beyond measure.

That early morning, as Dante headed to the café, dumb luck had him stumbling onto the scene. Afraid his adversary, Lucifer, would find out Sal was his child and groom him for himself now that his mother was gone, Dante did everything in his power to try to convince a young Sal to come live with him and his family. It wouldn’t be until Sal turned thirteen on his birthday and had to eat Taco Bell out of the dumpster for the last time that Sal finally gave in. Having been told the truth by Dante of who hisfather was upon his return, he no longer desired to leave the Caruso family home and began to accept his mother’s death and new family into his heart.

Sal’s gifts made Dante prouder and prouder each day as they grew, so while Dante took him off the streets for selfish reasons, Sal became a true son to him, regardless of his parentage, having actually gotten closer to him as a father than his own sons he had fathered.

Dante’s legitimate children, Lucca, Maria, Nero, and Leo, could have begrudged him for that fact. However, they never did. Each one accepted him into their family with open arms. They were a family not born out of blood but out of loyalty. A loyalty so strong that each of them would pay with blood.

It took him standing under a hot shower for a long time to finally calm. By the time he got back into bed, he couldn’t help but hear a persistent thudding noise coming from downstairs.

Tossing the covers off him in a huff of air, he threw on his white sleeveless undershirt and patted down the steps to find her looking through his kitchen cabinets, opening and closing each one as if it wasn’t the middle of the night.

“What on earth are you doing?” he growled from behind her with his arms crossed.

Half scared to death by his unknown presence, she jumped ten feet in the air.

Sal had no fucking idea how the girl could ever be good at video games; her awareness of her surroundings in real life was at a zero. How she’d made it to this age still alive, not kidnapped, or headless, he didn’t understand.

“Fucking hell, you scared me half to death.”

Under his breath, he mumbled, “Not like that’s hard.”