Page 40 of His Sunshine Baby (The Silver City #2)

“ That’s why they lost contact, ” suddenly says Nora’s voice in my mind, echoing my own thoughts.

“ Yeah. She was probably the one who didn’t do her part of the job, and why Cynthia could never reach Diane again. ”

“I wasn’t really that interested in being Cynthia’s little puppet. She was too busy taking care of the pack in Silver City, establishing themselves among the other clans, and so on. She was truly a workaholic. But me? I had all the time to grow up though, so I would wander around, learn about my power, and make some friends, both humans and werewolves. I made one friend, one werewolf boy I grew fond of, with my weak little girl’s heart. Can you guess who that boy was?”

“Judah Black,” I gasp.

The pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit into place slowly. Nora and I knew there was one part of the story that was missing, but I never would have imagined it was Nephera’s, or that Sylviana had anything to do with our birth pack.

“Yes! The strong, fierce Judah Black. Of course, I knew him when he was only a young wolf, fighting to find his place in his pack. He was an alpha, but he wasn’t that strong. So, little by little, I helped him… in my own way.”

“You used your magic on him?” I ask, stunned.

Nephera gives me a little wink.

“I did. I mean, I was young, I thought it was innocent, a friend helping a friend. We grew up together, both getting stronger. I knew I was going to be this city’s witch, and I was grooming my own Alpha to lead the werewolves!”

“ I don’t like where this is going. ”

“ Damian, you knew? ”

“ No. None of this. ”

Nephera sighs, almost a bit too dramatically. She’s like an actress, having fun on her own stage, making her show and taking pleasure in laying down her story. I take deep breaths, glancing around. The fight is still going on farther away, but here, she put everything on hold for her little speech’s sake. I really hope this allows us to win some time; we’ll need every minute we can get until dawn comes.

“Men are men,” she sighed. “They are always hungrier for power. Judah was no different. He wanted to prove himself to everyone. To his pack leader, to his friends, to Silver City, to the whole world! I didn’t see he was getting drunk on this.”

“A witch’s magic is not made to make someone stronger,” said Sylviana. “There are side effects to a human or a wolf getting too much of it.”

“That’s right, Sylviana. Judah Black was a junkie, completely submitted to me and my magic. Honestly, when I understood that, I decided it was fine. By then, I was completely disinterested in the Blue, no, the Sapphire Moon pack who only wanted to use me. Instead, I wanted to make Judah and his pack mine. Being the witch of the Sapphire Moon would mean doing Cynthia’s bidding, like my mom did with Diane, but I wanted to be my own witch, and make my own choices. Judah was giving me that. He was nothing without me. It was just another way of binding him to me.”

“ That’s fucking disgusting. ”

“ No wonder our father got so strong so fast. I remember our former pack kept talking about that, how it was unnatural. ”

“ Do you think the reason we are so strong too is because… I mean, he was our father… ”

“ I hope not. ”

“ Me too. I don’t need him or that witch’s magic. ”

While the brothers bicker through the mind-link, next to me Sylviana shakes her head.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Nephera! You were using your magic for something wrong and corrupting his mind.”

“I didn’t corrupt him enough!” suddenly yells her sister. “He would have been mine, completely mine if it wasn’t for that damn bitch!”

“ Our mother! Our parents were fated mates! ”

“ He probably ditched the witch as soon as he could. So like our father… ”

“Judah wanted everything from me,” says Nephera, “but the one thing he didn’t care about was my love for him. As soon as he had met that woman, it was over. This damn fated mate of his was robbing him from me!”

“Or the other way around,” I growl. “You were desperately holding on to a man that wasn’t yours. Black was wrong for using you, but you could have ended things anytime. You were the one with the power.”

Nephera scoffs, glaring at me.

“You think it was that easy? I gave my childhood and my best years to that man, most of my magic for him to consume. Do you think it was easy to get over the first man I ever loved? The first person that ever showed me some affection? I was blind. Too blind to see the only thing Judah Black loved was power. Once I realized that, though it was too late, I did my best to get out of his life. I wanted to be the strong, independent witch I had always tried to be. I refused to give him my magic anymore, no matter how hard he was begging. He went crazy. You don’t go sober from magic in a few days. He couldn’t let go easily. But I really did try. I abandoned him, to forge a life of my own, leave him to his beloved mate, and move on. But everyone here knows there was nothing reasonable about Judah Black.”

I glance at the brothers. From their growls, I would say they all agree. Nate and I never talked much about his father. I know he and Damian worked together to kill him, which I guess sums up about everything they shared other than a blood bond.

Now, I’m starting to think the “Mad King” may have become mad because of his own hunger for power, and the witch that let him taste too much of it. Nephera shakes her head, and her expression goes from an annoying smirk to a sour one.

“He learned I was with child. And that didn’t sit well with him. He didn’t need two witches, only one. So, he started planning to take my baby away from me. I knew Judah Black enough, I knew that man would have no remorse about killing me or stealing my daughter. I didn’t trust Cynthia and the Sapphire Moon to help me, not after I had basically left them to serve another pack. So, I secretly left Silver City, pregnant and scared, trying to run away from him. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but around the same time, Judah drove away the vampires from Silver City.”

“ That was right before Liam’s birth… ” says Nate. “ One of them had bitten our pregnant mother, and our father was fighting them for years before he finally managed to send them away. ”

“ He sent them to Queen Diane’s city though, according to William. ”

“ For now, I’m more interested in knowing how Nephera avoided the vampires, and how they got to our home city… ”

“I started running towards the north. I was hoping my mother would save me, help me find shelter, and protect me and my child. However, I couldn’t outrun the vampires. They caught me way before I reached my destination.”

I suddenly feel a cold shiver down my spine. Nephera looks at the closest vampires with a strange light in her eyes. I realize she hates them even more than she hates us, despite using them like she does. Those eyes… I know that expression, all too well. As if something was broken inside of her. Then, she slowly rolls up her long sleeves, and I gasp.

Bite marks. Hundreds of them, spread all over her skin. Now that I’m staring, even her hands are full of countless scars. If her dress wasn’t covering her throat and neck, I bet there would be dozens there too. I feel so disgusted just looking at it. Next to me, Sylviana is shaken up too. I can’t tell if she already knew, but she obviously feels sorry for what her sister went through.

“Vampires like to play with their food,” says Nephera. “Truth is, most humans get used to the pain, until they aren’t affected anymore and turn into junkies, addicted to that sensation. For werewolves, that bite is poisonous. For witches, however, it is just horribly, atrociously painful. We don’t die from it, we just… suffer. It’s like having razor blades plunging through your skin and pouring acid underneath. They bit me, over and over. I didn’t die, but my body was filled with vampire venom. I lost my baby and all hope. I would have gladly died, but instead, I was left to endure weeks and weeks of utter torture.”

I knew it. Nephera has the eyes of someone who lost a child. I can’t even begin to imagine the hell that woman went through. The physical and emotional pain must have been impossible to handle with a sound mind…

“I kept trying to run away as soon as my magic could heal me. I always ran north, a bit farther every time, until I finally escaped those beasts long enough to reach the border.”

I can already tell what happened next.

The border and its protective barrier. Diane put it up when she realized her sister wasn’t returning to protect her children. It’s like hearing Reagan’s story all over again, except that this time, her story makes more sense as to why the barrier was up. The vampires were close because of Nephera.

“As it turns out,” she says, “my mother’s magic couldn’t even recognize her own kin. She couldn’t recognize her own daughter, coming back so many years later, not when my entire body was filled with vampire venom. The barrier Danica had put into place with Diane to protect the twins was keeping me outside. It couldn’t even recognize me as a witch. Just a creature broken by vampires, reeking of them. I tried to break that damn barrier so many times!”

I’m starting to understand the tragic truth. Reagan and Nephera were trying to go back at the same time. Whether Nephera’s venom was preventing it from opening for Reagan, or Reagan’s jealousy was adding to the problem, both women were locked out, probably around the same time. If I think about the timing, that should be around my birth and Nora’s too. That barrier must have been more cautious than ever to protect us.

“Every time I failed to enter, the vampires would catch me, and the cycle of pain and suffering would start all over again and again and again… Imagine that torture. Knowing your own mother is there, behind that barrier, but she doesn’t recognize you, because she’s busy protecting someone else’s children. Her new daughter too.”

She glances down at Sylviana. That’s right, if they are half-sisters, it means Sylviana was born during that time as well… and she was originally from the same place as us.

So many things make sense now: how Sylviana knew about me and Nora, our connection, and our relationship to the Sapphire Moon and Blue Moon packs! No wonder she helped us so much; she kept watching over us all this time. But when we talked about it, she always remained so enigmatic! She never gave me any answers, aside from my birth parents’ death.

“You were born in the same place as us?” I can’t help but ask.

Sylviana slowly nods.

“I was. Just a few years before you and Nora. I was just a child back then. I barely remember Queen Diane, just the day she passed away. I remember your birth and Nora’s though. Your parents were so nice to me.”

“Oh yes, I bet you lived a great life there, Sylviana,” says her sister, “just as great as the twins that our mother was so focused on protecting, and their children too. I had suffered so much, yet you were all living happy lives up there. My own mother had thrown me away for someone else’s sake, and was leaving me to suffer at the hands of those vampires, while you were growing happily by her side.”

“Mother had no idea, Nephera,” Sylviana said. “Her barrier was just acting on its own, she couldn’t have known it was you.”

“Shut up!” she yells. “I don’t want to hear a damn word about my mother and me. Danica was the worst! All because I was born first, you had a great life while I was sent to Silver City!”

“ Damn, someone has mommy issues. ”

“ Shut up, Liam. We need to talk about your girlfriend choices too. ”

“ I swear I had no idea… ”

“ Yeah, that’s the problem. ”

I don’t blame Liam. Sylviana kept the truth from all of us. Liam couldn’t have known the truth, and neither could any of us. I turn to her, ignoring Nephera’s fierce glare.

“That day… You know what happened? To our parents…”

Sylviana nods sadly.

“After Queen Diane’s death, the barrier was weakened. Mother could barely hold it up, and the vampires were trying to get in too. She decided to keep it closed to everyone, but Princess Lilyan was worried about Reagan. They had to open it sometimes, but it was getting more dangerous every time… until Nora’s birth.”

“Reagan didn’t know about Nora,” I say, “and you pretended you didn’t know about her either.”

“Reagan really didn’t, I think Princess Lilyan had just gotten pregnant when she saw her for the last time. I thought keeping your identities a secret was the best. The vampires were after the Royals. Royals have incredible power, and they wanted to get rid of them. They had found the perfect source of power to fight them and my mother’s power, too.”

“Me,” sneered Nephera. “The more they abused me and drank my blood, the stronger they became, just like Judah Black. It was only a question of time before that damn barrier would break, wasn’t it, Sylviana? Our mother was getting old for a witch too. With Diane gone, she couldn’t hold on much longer.”

“She knew the vampires would attack the minute they could,” said Sylviana. “Princess Lilyan tried to take over her mother’s role in helping maintain the barrier, but the day Nora was born…”

Oh, Moon Goddess. It’s the same as now. The witch does maintain the barrier, but the Luna is the one channeling the Moon Power. However, a Luna giving birth just can’t possibly focus her power properly. Nora is experiencing the same thing as her own mother, Princess Lilyan, did more than twenty years ago!

“ Nora, you’re hearing that? ”

“ Yes. I can’t believe it. My birth was… ”

“ Don’t you start saying shit about it being your fault. ”

She stays quiet, whether it’s because of another contraction or because she doesn’t want to say it. I’m choking up right now too. All those tragic events are unfolding under a new light now. Though I resent Sylviana for keeping quiet, I’m starting to understand why she did. She’s on the verge of tears too, looking awfully sorry.

“The day Nora was born, Princess Lilyan and my mother just couldn’t keep the barrier up for much longer. A few hours later, the vampires entered our city. They had been accumulating for months outside, there were too many of them. Princess Lilyan only had a few minutes with Nora. She was exhausted after the birth, so she asked my mother to pass her power to her daughter. I was with her until the end. I was holding Nora in my arms when Lilyan…”

She’s crying for real now, and I feel my own tears coming too. I feel Nora’s heart, echoing my own, breaking slowly as we both finally listen to the truth about our parents’ death…

“Your parents, Selena, and my mother, they told us to run away. Gabriel told your mother to take you and go. Althea was a human, she couldn’t fight. You were just two years old back then. Althea was the bravest woman I ever knew. She told you not to cry, soothed you, and ran with me. It was the most terrifying night of my life. We spent such a long time hiding, running, hiding again, desperate to find a way to escape. At some point, it became clear she was easier to track because she was human. She told me to run away, because she… she knew Nora and I would have died. So, I parted ways with her, and I used my limited powers to hide us as I could, and run, carrying Nora with me.”

I can’t believe it… Sylviana wouldn’t have been older than ten years old back then. She managed to run away, carrying newborn Nora with her, saving both their lives!

Meanwhile, I don’t know how, but according to Reagan, my mom and I managed to survive until the fight was over. How? Sylviana doesn’t seem to know either.

“When I arrived at the scene,” says Nephera, “everything was over. My home was burned to ashes. Mother had sacrificed herself, in a desperate attempt to save the twins’ children. I hid from the remaining vampires, who were still fighting the survivors or feeding themselves, and crawled all the way to our source of magic there. I stayed for as long I could to replenish my magic, and while I did, I found something. The traces of another younger witch.”

Her glare at Sylviana makes no mistake as to who she recognized.

“I couldn’t believe my mother had another daughter while I was gone! I knew you were a young Earth Witch, I looked through my mother’s things, the few she didn’t burn to ashes. I tried using my magic to find you, the twins, or their children, but you were all gone!”

Reagan had probably taken me away prior to Nephera’s arrival on site. She said she arrived shortly after the fight was over too. Thank Moon Goddess we left this hell before that crazy woman showed up.

“I was so furious,” she continues. “I was finally back home, to the place I had left so many years ago, but only to find everything burnt, destroyed! After everything I went through, after all my suffering, my own mother had died to save someone else’s child! She hadn’t saved me when I endured the vampires’ venom for weeks, but she killed herself for Lilyan and Gabriel Bluemoon! For their children to live! I resented those wretched twins even more than the vampires!”

Moon Goddess, that woman is… damaged. I can see the madness in her eyes. She’s completely broken inside. She suddenly points a finger at Sylviana.

“And you! Knowing she replaced me with another daughter. No wonder she never cared about me for twenty years!”

Sylviana shakes her head frantically. I’ve never seen her so shaken up before, but for once, she looks her age. Her voice is so hoarse right now, I can barely recognize it.

“You’re wrong! Nephera, our mother believed in you until the end,” she says, sobbing erratically. “When everything happened, I went south. I knew that’s where Mother had sent my older sister with Cynthia. I walked for days with Nora, hiding in human towns and trying to find Silver City, until I finally reached it many weeks later. But I couldn’t find any trace of you or even a pack called Blue Moon. I didn’t know they had been renamed the Sapphire Moon, I had never met any of them. I was young, I didn’t know what to do. It had been over thirty years. Cynthia had died, there was no trace of my older sister or any witch being around, I just didn’t know whom to ask without putting us at risk. All I knew was that I had to keep Nora’s identity a secret. Vampires could still chase after us. I don’t know if it was my fear as a child or my instincts that made me think that way…”

She was so young. I have no idea how I would have reacted if I had been left alone. I was lucky Reagan found me and brought me here. In a way, Sylviana had the same reasoning, but she was a child witch, no matter how mature she was, with little knowledge of the world and a newborn baby to take care of. It’s already a miracle she got to Silver City at all, but basically anyone that could have helped her once she got here was gone… Nephera was gone. There was no way she knew what had happened to her older sister, they had never even actually met!

“Even as a witch,” says Sylviana, “it was hard to take care of Nora, I was way too young. I used my powers to find what would be the best home for her. I knew I had to conceal her identity, so it didn’t matter which pack it was, as long as she could grow up with her kind, with werewolves, as if she had been born there. I knew werewolves care for their own, especially the pups. So I left her on a doorstep, with a note to ask those people to take care of her, with her name and birthday, trusting my magic would help me pick the best home for her.”

“ Holy fuck. ”

“ She didn’t find the best home for Nora. She found her actual biological father’s home! ”

“ Moon Goddess, ” says Nora. “ Alec said I had appeared on their doorstep when I was a newborn. I thought… I thought my dad had brought me there for them to raise me without his wife knowing I was his! ”

“ Turns out the guy, I mean, your father really didn’t know. Sylviana’s magic did the job, picking the house with your actual kin in it. This is crazy… ”

“ He probably realized later that you were his real daughter though, just like his wife. I wonder if he even knew that your biological mom had you. ”

I’m just as speechless. I can hear Nora’s crying, I can’t tell if it’s sadness, relief over her father’s truth, or due to her contraction pains. Her family’s story, and Sylviana’s, is even sadder than I thought.

Nephera doesn’t seem sorry one bit though. She is looking at Sylviana with eyes of utter disgust.

“It took me a while to find them. First, I had to fight the vampires. Trust me, I enjoyed that the most. They are surprisingly weak to water magic, you know. So, once I had replenished my magic enough, hiding in our mother’s lair, I decided to use those vermin the same way they had used me. I corrupted them slowly to my side, making their Vampire Queen my slave, poisoning her mind. She already hated the werewolves, it was almost too easy to persuade them to target the Royals that had escaped. I have never imagined that you would have brought the children back to Silver City. How ironic was that! I spent such a long time searching for you, I even thought you might have died.”

I don’t know much about magic and stuff, but Sylviana being an Earth Witch, I’ll bet she surely wasn’t the easiest to find in the forests from our birthplace and here. Between the time Nephera took to conquer the vampires and the time it took her to search for her sister and us, it probably saved us a few years.

“I had almost given up, you know, when I felt it. A wave of Moon Energy, an awakening to the Moon’s power. So similar to Lilyan or Diane’s signature aura. It came from the south. Never in a million years did I think you would have been able to reach Silver City, Sylviana.”

Nora’s power.

Nora’s sudden awakening to her wolf was what guided Nephera right here. She went from a quiet girl to fully opening her Royal potential. Everyone in Silver City felt the Luna’s slow rise… No wonder that witch felt something. Nephera sneered.

“You’re more talented than I thought, Sylviana. You made sure I couldn’t find her until she would be strong enough to fight me, didn’t you!”

“What did you do?” I ask Sylviana.

“I put some sort of lock on Nora’s mind,” she admits. “I sealed her Royal power to a place deep inside her mind, where it wouldn’t awake unless she had a strong stimulus.”

“ Let me guess… like meeting her fated mate? ”

“ Holy Moon Goddess. Nora meeting Damian was the trigger? No wonder she went from a kitty to a tiger after that! ”

“ It could have been the rape attempt too. She lost control when she was in the most danger. Or her first shape-shifting. Everyone felt her unique wolf’s Royal Aura after that. ”

“ I did feel something change after meeting Damian, ” admits Nora, “ but I– Ugh! ”

“ Are you doing okay, Nora? ”

“ Yeah, I’ll manage… Just… Please be safe. ”

Be safe, she says. I want to cry internally. There’s no way she didn’t feel William’s passing, or all the others. And despite all the talking right now, this fight is still far from over, let’s face it.

“I hoped Nora would be hidden until she was old enough to defend herself,” continues Sylviana. “I stayed away from her, and secretly established myself, watching our surroundings. Since I was born, I had been told to watch out for people trying to attack the Royals, especially vampires. I met with Reagan on one of my trips to the outside a bit later. I was relieved you had survived, Selena, though I have no idea how that happened. But once again, I decided it would be better for me to stay away, and I knew Reagan was watching over you.”

“You did a pretty good job of hiding them. I would never have found them if it wasn’t for her child’s awakening.”

I was probably harder to find due to my human heritage too. My mom really protected me, even after her death. However, unlike Nora’s seal or my human blood, Estelle was born without anything to hide her inner wolf, so as we feared, as soon as her inner puppy awakened, she became another target. I exchange a glance with Nate. Only a few minutes have passed, but it’s enough for everyone to catch a little break. I don’t feel any bit rested though; this is just too much information at once. Who knew we were still missing such a big part of the story, and all this time it was Sylviana’s.

I need to keep her talking though. I don’t care what that woman went through, she’s still targeting us.

“The first attack was after Nora’s awakening, right?” I ask.

Nephera turns her eyes to me, and I realize their color is changing. Like Sylviana, her eyes can change between several shades depending on her emotions. That woman is so thin too, and her skin so pale, it’s like her big blue-gray eyes are the only color on her, making it even more obvious.

“When I realized you were in Silver City, I just… lost it. Of all places, in the city I should have been, I should have owned! It was painful to return, after all those years. I hated the idea of seeing Judah again, but as it turns out, that rotten man had already died, hadn’t he?”

She glares at all three brothers, who growl together, warning her.

“Oh, your auras are so much like his… I was speechless, but it added to the pleasure of attacking this wretched place. I led the vampires, telling them I wanted the Royal, not even knowing there were two of you!”

No wonder the blood-suckers targeted Nora specifically back then.

“Yet, I couldn’t enter. I attacked from afar, unsure about the whole situation. First, I didn’t expect Silver City’s packs to act altogether. But then, the real shock… The Earth Witch! Of all people, I sensed our family’s blood’s magic here, my own half-sister, suddenly protecting Silver City and running to the werewolves’ side! Now that was a big surprise!”

I bet. She probably had forgotten about her half-sister entirely. I don’t get how she recognized her sibling without even seeing her face to face, but I guess that’s another witch thing I’ll never understand.

“I admit, I lost that day. I left most of my vampires to die and ran away. I knew I couldn’t win against you, Sylviana. You had the stronger element, you were younger, more powerful, and you had years to extend your protection over Silver City. I underestimated you, Lilyan’s daughter, and those three. And you, Gabriel’s daughter, the one I couldn’t even detect. When I felt how strong you all were, and how the vampires couldn’t match, I decided to turn away.”

More like we kicked your ass and your damn vamps bad enough that you had to run away with your tail between your legs…

I glance at the brothers. They are growling, still tense. They know the fight can resume any minute now. I try to feel Nora, but she’s overwhelmed by the pain. Moon Goddess, I hope her baby will at least be born without complications. We really don’t need more problems…