The Hybrid Legacy (Sequel to the Baile Series)

Chapter 29 Heavy Heads

Cullen

I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against he wood paneling of the sauna as steam gushed from the vents. I felt a sudden weight lift off my shoulders and I opened my eyes to find myself sitting before Donn in some mock representation of the sauna I had been sharing with Fillan. Donn bore no disguise, meaning that he was only in my mind and not on planted earth.

"I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me." I didn't adjust my relaxed position.

"A God does not forget." He too wore only a towel around his waist, revealing the most I had ever seen of his true self. Black tattoos corded around his bare skin, depicting great battles and stories of horror and tragedy. His grey beard was braided, along with the hair on his head. He looked remarkably human and yet still carried an air of a divine being who had known great pain and loss and had wrought it among others.

"But they love." I clearly captured Donn's attention in his raised, bushy eyebrows. He looked like a Viking. "My mother has had a daughter with a God, Loki." I informed.

Donn grinned, his chest heaving as he chuckled. "Oh Loki has taken many lovers and he has born many children."

"Her name is Lovisa, and she has come to visit me." I elaborated.

"By her own free will I imagine." Donn was still smiling.

I had a feeling him and Loki went way back. "We attended the Beltane Fire Festival." I changed the subject. "And we were attacked by hunters."

Donn's smile finely faded. "There was a time when humanity knew, they walked with eyes wide open to the monsters that walked among them. The underworld had never been so crowded." His eyes held an unimaginable darkness. "This new era brings new hate and prejudice. Humans can barely stand their own kind, one can only fear how they would react to the world uncensored."

"There must be some way to keep our secret." I half asked Donn for advice.

"It's a bit late for that, child. It is only a matter of time before humanity seeks to end you, your family and your entire race."

"Always the optimist aren't you Donn?" I deflected my true fear at his words with sarcasm.

"How do you think I got where I am boy?"

I felt his presence fade until I was left sitting before Fillan in the real world, my heart and head heavy.

Erina

I winced as I peeled back the bandage that had been wound tightly around my stomach. I didn't wince from the pain, as I felt nothing physically. It was the memory of blurry-faced hunters firing round after round towards the stage, endangering the lives of my family and myself that remained at the forefront of my thoughts.

I looked at my perfect unblemished skin in my bathroom mirror. Colt had saved my life with his magic.

Knuckles rapped on my bedroom door and I straightened. I silently hoped it was Colt so I could finally thank him.

I opened the door to find Kenzie with an armful of various bags.

"What are you doing?" I questioned.

"Have you seriously forgotten?" She shouldered past me to dump the bags on my bed. "It's time to shake it in the Vampire Realm." She shimmied. "With the ancestors of ancient Japanese Kitsunes, Vampires and Banshees."

I sighed dramatically. "I don't think I'm ready for a another party."

"You're healed aren't you?" She gestured to me while she rummaged through a makeup bag.