Kith and Kin Series
Book 1
Amina wants to be normal and safe, but the past has come back to threaten her family. She must choose between helping her motley crew pull off just one more heist or running toward stability and away from her past love. W...
It's been 397 days since Amina has seen her old crew. Adulting meant getting a stable job, wearing sensible shoes and nude colored bras. It meant Thursday night happy hours with work friends discussing presentations given to the weird client that stares too hard at the gap between the button down shirt that never closes all the way. It meant, letting go of what wouldn't serve her.
At first, Amina really loved the change in lifestyle and it was fun to be normal. A stickler for time, she would always arrive at work at 7:30 sharp. She played the good employee well - gathering at the water cooler, taking coffee at 10am. She always dressed nicely and was agreeable with her bosses. Unless they were wrong...OK, so she thought they were wrong all the time. But it was because they were.
Amina sat in the meeting as her boss paced around the room and droned on about some arbitrary deadline for a presentation she had already finished. His face was bright red with anger and he spoke too loudly about the submission. Her expressive hair responded to the aggression, and shined a little more brightly and curled a little more densely with each jab in his words. Her normally dark brown eyes tinged with purple as she spoke, "Michael, take a seat." He paused in his pacing and gave full attention to Amina. The soothing tone of her voice calmed him and his face returned to its normal shade. He walked to his seat at the head of the table and sat. "Now, I will send you an email today with the location of the files you are looking for and provide you a status update from the client. Is that OK, Michael?" Amina asked.
He nodded in agreement. "Thanks Amina, I think I will take the rest of the afternoon off. Please have that email to me before the close of business." No matter her influence, something deep within him still had to assert his power - though he truly wasn't the person in control.
"Yes sir." She responded while standing to exit the room. Back at her desk, her nimble fingers glided across the keyboard as she proofread her email aloud,
"As per my discussion, the presentation can be found on the shared drive with all final edits. I will not be present at the pre-brief, but will follow up on all actions required of me." Amina hit the last period with a force that screamed Take that!
She pulled her thick hair up into a bun and removed her reader glasses to stretch and grab her keys. It was closing time, and waiting at home was a bottle of wine and the comfort of being herself - not playing this role. She figured out how to use her skills to create the life she always wanted and how to dial down her magic to appear less different. It was tiring and annoying but the monotony was worth a chance at a real life - away from danger.
******
"Hi beauties! Did you miss me?" Amina spoke to her plants as she walked through the door. The sound of her voice triggered a kind of sway of the green living things. Any human who witnessed this scene would swear the flowers actually wagged their leaves at her in an excitement. They would be right to say so as the potted pets stretched toward her anticipating fresh water from the canister she kept near the door.
The mail in her hand fell into a pile that gathered near the table with her keys. It was mostly junk anyways, but Amina liked the idea of someone actually mailing her something. She reached behind her back and unclasped the metal hook that held her bra in place and sighed.
Finally Friday
Her room was cluttered with books in every genre. She read apothecary books to keep up her craft, plenty of Jeaniene Frost because everyone loves a sexy vampire, and Patricia Briggs because of her unreasonable connection to her ex-boyfriend Brandon, a werewolf, whose touch she missed each day. She still argued with herself as to whether or not he was really called an ex-boyfriend. Sure, they messed around, and sometimes she let him hold her hand or he let her eat off his plate. He even took her to a jewelry store once. Fine, it was to steal an heirloom originally belonging to her vampire adopted mom. He hadn't even taken her to dinner, but he did kiss her afterwards.
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She couldn't shake him and he couldn't shake her. Well, at least before she left. The memories of that night played over in her head a million times a week when the house was quiet.
The ragtag crew held their hands high in the sky toasting with glasses too delicate for the beasts they were. The champagne nearly cost as much as the home none of them were born of and the music played too loudly to be considered civil. But the exhilaration of pulling off a heist worth more money than any of them could ever spend in a creature's lifetime meant, everyday they had a choice. To be normal or live the life earned from hustle and toil.
Amina chose normality. The last job was successful, but it came at a price that she wasn't sure it was worth. Mama thought so, and when Amina confronted Brandon, he sided with Mama. And that was it, that was the line between them. Amina wanted out.
Her phone rang her out of deep thoughts.
"Hi Mama, what's up?"
"Hi baby, I need you to come and prune the rose bushes. I'm all out of your spray to keep the bugs away." Mama said back.
Amina's skin chilled. Her vampire mother hardly ever went outside, and she definitely did not keep a rose bush.
"I see...Couldn't you hire some help? Why not just pay someone? " Amina waited impatiently, as her mother paused in what was sure to be a thoughtful response.
"Amina, I need you to come and handle it. You know I don't like getting my hands dirty."
Amina sighed and drummed her fingers along the wall she stood against. After a pause that bordered on disrespectful she responded, "Ok, Mama. I'll be there tonight."
The phone clicked without a goodbye or a thank you. Amina's anxiety ratcheted up as she packed her things quickly into an overnight bag - books, charger and her laptop. Home is where her things were, but it had been so long since she had been back. Her beloved plants must've heard the conversation and sagged a bit as she walked up to them.
"It's OK. I'll be back soon." She softly caressed their leaves and picked up the water container.
"Water stay full Water stay clean Pour each day At a quarter to 3 If it's hot Pour a little more Then send a message That you've completed your chore"
With that, she clicked off her lights and headed home for the first time in 397 days
**** Thanks for reading Chapter 1! I will post a new chapter every Thursday morning. Please comment and enjoy! ❤️**** Art commissioned by Daiyanna Art
QOTD: What's the most annoying thing your boss does?
