Page 23

Bellamy Holmes

I looked down at my text seeing Namir was currently with Maggie in an undisclosed location. None of us were prepared for what she did but I knew it was only a matter of time before her Holmes side came out.

Wilhelmina was still alive as far as I knew. She, Carmilla, and Wesley were currently in police custody above ground which only worked in Marvin’s favor. He was going to have them killed without anyone knowing since they technically didn’t exist above ground. My fangs tinged and tingled against my gums at the thought of the other one. The one with the white locs. Dorian Holmes , Wilhelmina had the nerve to call him. He only seemed to have eyes for Maggie, eyes I couldn’t read but I warned Namir he needed to be careful.

“ Police are saying the scene at the abandoned warehouse downtown is a massacre with unidentified bodies belonging to people and dogs. ”

I smiled. Dogs . Fucking right. Nothing but mutt bastards. I closed my eyes as I pulled on my cigarette and listened to the faint radio playing inside of my car. I leaned against the hood with a fresh pair of clothes, opting for a denim jacket and black jeans and boots.

“ Atlanta police say they have a few in custody now but the scene is impossible to describe unless you see it for yourself. Some reports are saying it could possibly belong to a cult of cannibals, others are saying its foul play is involved. Animal activists are on the scene now –––”

I opened one eye to see a shopping cart trailing along by itself as it bumped into the back of a car. It was evening in the suburbs of Atlanta and after this trip to the store, I had one other place I needed to see, and two things I needed to confirm before proceeding.

“ Eye witnesses nearby describe something similar to an earth shake or explosion happening near the warehouse. Although the police say there are no signs of it.”

“ I just heard a loud booming sound coming from outside like something exploded! I ain’t know what to do but to call twelve because what’ the hell goin’ on!?”

“That was my sister’s work,” I replied softly, taking another pull on the cigarette. Maggie temporarily broke the veil that protected the Underground from above. Although it was probably nothing more than a mere crack in the magical system. The fact that she moved the inside of the church from below to above spoke to her potential. No one has been able to do that and I doubt she even knew she could do it. Gaia the Moon Goddess and the First Family had no real connection outside of the lies we told to the public. Maggie figured out something we couldn’t. She learned how to harness the moon and this was just the beginning. The very lie they held onto became the truth they were about to be afraid of. She’s the real deal, but that only caused more questions than answers.

The news of this was probably being covered up in the Underground by Marvin himself. He was using the seemingly peaceful funeral as a distraction to quietly arrest teachers and those behind the experiments under the leadership of Wilhelmina Holmes. Yet, the colossal fuck that happened above ground is what came out of nowhere, but he’d find a way.

I watched every black man, woman and child walk in and out of the grocery store to the parking lot with suspicion. No one showed any signs of being fucked over by my family. Not yet anyway. A rebirth is what they’re going to call it. I already saw the press release for it. A rebirth of black mythical and magic. I took one last drag on my cigarette and flicked it to the ground when I heard my name being called.

“ Beh-wuh-mey !?”

I smiled as I watched the three year old run down the parking lot with his mother screaming after him to stop .

“Bryson!? What did I tell you about running?!”

He held up something in his hand as he ran straight for me until I scooped the little boy bundled up in his black coat and jeans. His nose was running as he tried to show me the bag of cheap cotton candy his mother got him. The boy found out that one of the very few things I could taste and stomach was cotton candy based on the texture and immediate sweetness. He hasn’t stopped trying to feed me since.

“You see?”

Bryson stuck the bag in my face. I took one of my napkins I always kept on me for bleeds and wiped around his nostrils.

“I swear this boy is going to drive me crazy because he doesn’t want to listen! He could have easily been hit by a freaking car!”

I looked at his mother with a smug grin as she whipped her wild curly hair back from her face. Professor Birdie Jones looked relaxed in her leggings, long thick cardigan that provided no type of warmth and UGG boots. She was still muttering and mumbling to herself as she began to place everything into the back seat of my car .

She is the only woman, person, living being on this earth that looked at me without fear at first sight and the only other person who is crazier than me. Birdie was more fucked up than me and I didn’t think that was possible. That beautiful smile and wild hair hid something much darker, and painful from her past. I made sure to protect the most vulnerable part of her and treat her son as my own in exchange for a love I never thought I’d experience, not even from my sister. This is the start of my very own family. Birdie is going to be my wife soon, and one day when she leaves this earth for good? I would be right behind her without a moment to spare seeing as there was no other reason to live.

Now should she ever betray me…Her and her son will never see the light of day. It was a fleeting thought since I couldn’t even imagine her looking at anyone outside of me. Her son is my son. I’m learning how to cook human recipes. My dick is big, and I’m affectionate. All the things human females require in a man. Plus, I have money. She would be a fool to betray someone like me.

“ I got’d cotton candieee ,” Bryson muttered with a frown as he showed the bag to me again.

“For me?” I asked, taking my black thumb nail to pick at the booger peeking underneath his left nostril. He nodded before his eyes looked up at the evening sky. I attempted to take the cart from her but she was in one of her manic moods .

“Oh? Don’t try and help now since y'all two are standing there. It’s always me against y'all! Every time!”

I still took the cart that she subconsciously pushed towards my grip anyway and walked off with her son on my hip to put it away.

“You in trow-bow …” Bryson said as he looked back at me.

“Nooo, you get me in trouble every time.” I told him. “She doesn’t like you running in the street because it's dangerous.”

Dangerous for the cars and people who would even glance his way with ill intentions. There will be a fucking blood bath in this parking lot in his honor if any car or person tried it.

“Yep.” He agreed as if he could read my thoughts. Bryson kept the small bag of cotton candy squished between his hands as I pushed the cart behind the others with a small shove. “Beh-wuh-me! Wook! Wook at that!”

I stopped walking, stopping in the middle of the parking lot to look up at the sky where his tiny finger pointed.

“You see it?! ”

“What am I looking at, Bry?” Adjusting his weight on my hip, I continued to stare at the clouds holding an orange and red glow from the sunset. I could hear his mother calling out for us to come on but Bryson’s determined tone made me look a little harder. “You see it?”

“What am I seeing?”

“The birds and the moon!”

Bryson bucked with his feet kicking against my ribs like he wanted me to walk as his personal horse. Something in the way his eyes lit up, I stared back at the sky again and froze.

It was faint and barely noticeable but a small black bird flew erratically in a continuous circle. Struggling to flap its wings, it wrapped around the sky like it was being forced to fly in this single direction. I looked back at Bryson as he wrapped his arms around my neck.

“The moon doesn’t feel good.” He mumbled sadly. “The sun is mad and the earth is scared. That’s why the birdy is sick…Bad things are going to happen…”

Bryson laid his head against my face as he continued to mutter to himself. I looked at Birdie who was distracted by her phone going off, unaware of what was happening with her son. This confirmed the first thing I suspected a while back. Professor Birdie Jones’s son had become the new oracle as a means to keep close to a God-like figure. Maggie.

“Bry, who told you that?” I asked, rubbing his back for his attention. He popped his head up and looked at me.

“Told me what?”

I smiled. The message was delivered. This was probably speaking to the bullshit Wilhelmina created and it was only a matter of time before her plan came to fruition. Now I just had to confirm the second thing.

I put the car in park as we sat outside of a small brick home in the cul-de-sac of a wooden neighborhood. There was only one car in the driveway, covered and protected from weather damage. Every light was on in the house from what I could see. Birdie looked in the back seat to check on her sleeping son before looking back at me.

“You need me to walk up there with you?” She whispered, reaching to gently wipe around my mouth. “You said his mouth was sewn shut last time you saw him right? Any time he sees you or your sister, he’s forced to keep quiet due to the blood contract.”

“Yeah,” I said as I stared at the house. I could hear Birdie festering in her seat, debating on whether she wanted to say something. “Just say it.”

“I looked into blood contracts when you first mentioned it and although I’m still learning…It didn’t ma ke sense that your grandmother and mother just flat out didn’t remember you whereas his mouth was closed shut.”

“It’s due to him not being human,” I said as I turned to look at her. “Something you very much are…”

“Yes…or…he’s not your father…or hers. Not biologically anyway.”

I looked back at the house, having suspected this all along but hearing her say it confirmed it for me. I reached to open the door with a shove.

“Well that’s what I’m about to find out.”