Blood Wars

Prologue

                                                                      (Reese POV)

When I was a little girl, my mother used to tell me stories about the monsters that hid in the dark.  They were all stories she had told me before I went to sleep, and after every story she would say, “ Reese, you were born with the power to stop these monsters. It’s us against them and they can't win.”  I was ten when I finally realized what she meant.

            Our family home was the oldest and largest in Ambrose, Georgia. It was passed down from generation to generation through the first born son. My father, Ezekiel Cane and his younger brother Jacob, had a fall out when my father inherited the family house. My uncle still lived with us, but my father always reminded him that once papa died it would become his house and he could evict him whenever he chooses.

            Still we weren't normal like the other families who visited each other on Sundays and had picnics together like good southern people did. Ambrose was a small town where everyone knew everything about everyone else’s business. Except no one came to visit us or invited us to picnics. The only time anyone would come by would be late at night, and mother and father always made me stay upstairs when they came, until one night my curiosity overwhelmed my obedience.

            On good nights, mother would take them into the kitchen and hand them a small bag made out of animal hide, but on bad nights mother and father would take whoever was at the door down to the basement and shut and bolt the door tight. There would be muffled screams well into the night, but one night, a woman in a floral sundress came to the door. I opened it and the women looked at me and smiled. She was not like the normal people my parents saw. Usually they had a crazed look in their eyes, but this lady looked perfectly normal.

            She bent down and stroked my cheek, “My, my, you are a strong little one aren't you.” I recoiled at her touch and in a flash her eyes were red as blood. My mother came to the door and with one look at the woman; she picked me up and ran with me through the house and screamed for my father. But the woman was extremely fast, in an instant she was in front of my mother and flicked her hand. Mother flew against the wall dropping me to the ground.

            Terrified, I tried to run and find father, but he was also pinned to the wall like mother. He looked at me and told me to run and so – I did, but I barely got to the front door before the woman was in front of me and grabbed my arms. Suddenly she was screaming. She released her grip on me and the skin on her hands melted off. Fury tore through her as she flung me against the wall with some strange magic. She stood in front of me and her eyes changed to pure black, and then unimaginable pain ripped through me. I screamed and the house shook.

            Paintings fell off the walls and vases shattered. And then out of nowhere the lady started choking and the invisible grip she had on me disappeared, and I fell to the floor. I felt warm, like there was something flowing through me attacking this woman. Then the feeling disappeared slowly but not completely. It was still there telling me how to react. So I followed my instincts and stuck out my hand like she had and wished her away. The warmth came back and the lady fell to her knees. The harder I wished, the hotter I felt and the weaker the woman became. She coughed up black tar and after a minute her head jerked back and fire burned out of her eyes and mouth. Then it disappeared. I was cold, freezing almost.

            The sweat that was soaking my blonde hair dried and my body shook with fear. My mother and father came running to me and then I was being crushed to my mother’s chest as she cried. My father rifled through a drawer and found a piece of chalk and started chanting and drawing on the walls and doors.

            I was being carried upstairs when my uncle ran in through the door with a look of horror on his face. He and my father talked in hushed voices as my father continued drawing the strange symbols. In my room, my mother held me in her lap as she cried. Her emerald green eyes were glowing with wet tear and her blonde hair, like mine, was a mess. She looked back into my eyes and stopped crying, instead she looked horrified. She left me on my bed and ran downstairs. I walked over to my dresser and saw why; my eyes which use to be and exact copy of hers where now a blue, gray color, with a dark navy blue outline. But instead of being horrified, I was smiling. I felt great and now I looked cool. I examined the rest of my body to see if anything else had changed. Nothing else was different; I was still the same blonde, slightly taller than everyone else my age, flat chested, ten year old. But my eyes, I just couldn't stop looking at them. Suddenly they snapped back to the same emerald green. I jumped back from my dresser and fell over a chair, making a loud crash causing my parents and uncle to come running.

            “Reese are you alright?” My mother was leaning over me with a concerned look, but she saw my eyes and relief washed over her face.

            “Momma, what am I?” The concern returned and she looked back at my father. They both shared a look. Finally, my mother nodded and picked me up off the floor.

            “Honey, I think it’s time you saw something.” I followed them down to the basement. Excitement and terror flooded through me as they unlocked the door. What I saw was something I never expected.