Chapter Ninety-seven

Scarlet was deposited into her room first. “Wait! Aren’t you going to ask what happened inside or anything? Aren’t you curious about who was using magic?” Scarlet leaned against the door frame of her room as Bram turned around with the kids to go to their own. “Don’t forget to ask her about the shadow user and the shadow room that ring on her finger connects to. I’ll bet my buttons that if I’ve been looking for it, you have too.” She played with the locket around her neck, smirking at them as she slid back into her room, slamming the door behind her.

Bram sighed as Izabella squeezed his hand. “Shadow men. I thought my mother had gotten over that crazy idea. As if every lore we’ve ever heard was just real.” He rolled his eyes.

Izabella looked up at him with amusement. “Seriously? For a half vampire-half witch, I would have thought you would be more open minded about other things that could go bump in the night.”

“What? Are you saying you met a real element? That’s ridiculous. Elements are not human-like beings, they’re just a natural part of life and nature. How can you have an entity made of fire or water? And seriously? Something made of shadows? How can a shadow entity exist when a shadow has no mass?”

“But they feel like a large squishy marshmallow.” She tapped her chin. This would be easier to explain if she could convince him that Eudom was real. As Bram let them into the hotel room, his eyes narrowed at her. “And Scarlet thinks that Devon is the one who used the flames similar to yours.” They both turned to look at Devon, whose face started to turn red.

“Did you use magic, Devon?” Bram asked, kneeling down so that he was eye level with his son. When the boy looked away nervously, Bram rubbed his arm. “It’s okay buddy. You can tell me.”

“It just… there was a guy who came in and he made Sarah cry.”

“Yeah.” Sarah’s pretty blonde curls bounced. She was still in the dress Scarlet gave her, and it was covered in soot and tons of little burns. “They said they would kill me if we didn’t tell them everything we knew. They really went after Devon. They knew he had lived with you for a long time. They threatened Rosey too.”

Gabe nodded. “When they tried to take the girls away, everything went crazy.” For a teenager, the poor boy looked warn out. His hazel eyes didn’t seem to have much life left in them. “He did save their lives, I’m pretty sure. Probably mine too.” When Gabe pat Devon on the shoulder, the boy looked up smiling at him. “He’s braver than most.” Gabe winked down at him.

“But that doesn’t make sense, does it?” Izabella took a seat at the table, twirling her hair around her fingers nervously. “How would he have magic like you?”

Bram sauntered over to the bar at the end of the kitchen counter and poured himself a large whiskey over ice. “You want anything?” He asked, but Izabella could only shake her head. Knowing she had been pregnant just a few hours ago, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to drink. Her hands went to her belly, as her mind wandered about if how she treated herself would affect the baby still. Or was he just gone? She didn’t understand what Eudom did. “So, Devon. Can you tell me what happened or what it felt like?” Bram asked, sipping his whiskey.

Gabe leaned over, “Can I have one too?” Bram frowned, pushing his glass over. When the boy took a big sip, he nearly choked on it, which did amuse Bram to no end.

“You sip, then blow out. Don’t breath in while drinking.” Bram cautioned a little too late.

“Come on, he’s not even twenty-one yet.” Izabella chided.

Bram raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re not either. You’ve had drinks with me before. As long I make sure you’re responsible while under the influence, it’s fine.”

“I’ll pour you another, daddy.” Sarah ran over to the counter, the clink of the ice cubes inside the crystal cup echoed in the room this time.

Bram thanked her, then put his arm around Devon, pulling him into his side. “You’re not in trouble or anything, we just need to know what happened.” Though Izabella was getting agitated about the booze, she did smile softly at Devon, nodding that she would like for him to tell them what happened.

“I just-when I realized that they really going to hurt my sisters, I got scared. Then when they started to pull their hair and try to get them away from Gabe and me, I got mad. I could feel my whole-body tingling, and I just thought, I wish you would just burn! The next thing I knew, the room was on fire. It was really scary. When someone else came after us, I burned them too. But I don’t know how. It’s like, it just did its own thing.”

Bram nodded, his face pinched in concern. “Devon, have you ever felt the need to, I dunno hurt animals or a desire to know what it would be like to bite someone? To hurt them? You ever just have a really intense thirst, and you don’t know why?” Bram was clearly working through something in his mind.

“No.” Devon rested his head against his dad’s shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking, and it didn’t happen.”

“Dev, that’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“You’ve never hurt me dad. I think I would know.” Devon climbed into his father’s lap and the room was silent for a while. “Maybe I was always a witch. When do powers like that come out if you are one? I don’t remember anything about my real mom and dad.”

“Late teens. But not like that. I was grown with those powers and went through a lot for them to become what they are now. Scarlet imbued me with them, more or less.” Bram’s eyes were clouded over as he seemed to recall his past. “She has similar powers, but it’s not like they just become. Normal witches cannot do most of what me or Scarlet can.”

Bram pulled Devon’s jaw open, “But if I had turned you without realizing it, you should have had a new blood response. And you never did.”

“Maybe the powers were transferred in some other way? Just being together?” Devon asked looking up at him.

Bram blushed, peeking at Izabella then clearing his throat. “That can’t be. Otherwise Uncle Tyler would have magical powers too. There’s no one else I’ve spent half so much time with, and he never got any magic.”

“Maybe it’s because I sit on your lap?” Devon asked, his head kicking to the side like a little puppy dog.

When Bram bit his lip and his eyes turned up to the ceiling with embarrassment, Izabella couldn’t help but chuckle. He wasn’t one to blush very often, so when he was caught off guard like this, she thought it was adorable. “At least not anymore, right?” He openly glared at her while the children around the table looked between them, confused.

“My lap is otherwise occupied these days. With children more than not.” He smiled, pinching Devon’s side. The boy giggled, but the look Bram shot her over the table told her, he had much bigger plans for his lap later when they were alone. Izabella couldn’t help but blush in return. “Well, we’re not going to answer any of these questions tonight. I don’t know how this happened, but we’ll keep looking. You haven’t felt like you’re going to use it again since, have you?”

“Actually, there’ve been a few times I felt like I could feel it bubbling under my skin.” Devon frowned. “I’ve been worried it’s going to sneak out, and I’m not going to know what to do with it when it does.”

Izabella got up from the table and grabbed the box from Eudom. “So, this is something my father collected in the past.” Izabella placed it on the table. Bram’s eyes locked on it, and he didn’t seem to like having it anywhere near him. Lifting the lid, she could have sworn that every muscle in his body tensed, though Devon was now leaning over it, looking on with curiosity. “The darts have an ointment on them that stifles magic for a while. I don’t know how long, but maybe if you’re not going to be able to train him how to use the magic, we might be able to keep it at bay with these. Just until we find the answers?”

“It will keep everyone around me safer?” He looked back over his shoulder at his father. “Maybe I should? Though, I liked being able to keep my sisters safe too.” A mischievous light caught the boy’s blue eyes.

“We also don’t want to suppress the natural response his body needs to keep the magic at bay itself. I agree you should keep one of these on you, because if you do have surge you can’t control, you can use it yourself to keep the magic under control. You and I should carry one too, Iz. That way if mom or Mihaela need to be kept in check, we’ll be able to do that. I’m pretty sure there’s a whole other person who could benefit from these too.” Reaching in, he pulled out the bottle. “What’s this?”

Izabella gently took it out of his hand. “You may not want to touch any of this though. Otherwise, you might end up blocking your own magic.” He shrugged but let her pull the box away. “This is the ointment that stops the magic. Once a dart is used, I can reapply this to the tip of the dart and use it again.” She opened the top and sniffed whatever was in the bottle making a face. It smelled awful. “Who else could use it?”

“Devon, Sarah, both of you go take a shower. Sarah, when you’re all done, can you help Rose?”

“Rose is already asleep with Alex, Mable, and Missy.” She pointed to the couch.

“Oh. Okay, that’s fine. Just let them sleep. We’ll shower them in the morning.” He concurred, as the two kids ran off to either side of the hotel suite to take a shower. A knock sounded at the door and Izabella looked at it nervously as Bram got up to answer.