Taint

3 - Family Matters

"That doesn't answer a fucking thing," Kai snarled. He leaned over the edge of the building and instantly regretted it. That was a long way down.

"Aw, don't worry about not having your wings yet, Kai." Sharla jumped up onto the ledge of the skyscraper's roof and nudged her brother with a small-but-strong shoulder. "They'll come in one day."

"I'm seven-hundred years old, Shar," Kai snapped. "I don't want my wings. I've seen what you assholes do with them."

Lord Umbra gave his son a delightfully sarcastic look of feigned offence. "Assholes! Did you hear that, Lady Elanizia? Your beloved son called us assholes."

"My lord, do not tease the boy," Lady Elanizia said, the hint of a smile teasing the corners of her mouth. "He just doesn't understand the way of things."

"Exactly." Lord Umbra grabbed his son around the shoulders and launched off the skyscraper. The air rushed through Kai's hair, and his eyes watered as they plummeted down the side of the building. Kai opened his mouth to scream, despite himself, but his father unfurled his wings at the last possible moment and they landed on the ground gently with nary a scratch.

Kai shoved himself away from Lord Umbra and wiped his face. "What the fuck do you mean, exactly?"

Lady Elanizia and Sharla landed softly a few steps away, choosing to fly at a much more leisurely pace than the express route Kai had just taken at his father's behest. Kai glared at his sister as she folded her wings in close to her body, only slightly buzzing with bone-deep envy.

"What I mean, Malachai, is you have embarrassed this family long enough," Lord Umbra said. He wrapped a coiled arm around his son's shoulders and pulled him in tight. "It's time to shit or get off the pot."

"Still not following you, Dad." Kai ducked out from under the arm and backed away from his encroaching family. "What the hell have I done to embarrass you? If anyone's embarrassing, it's you! Flying around like a fucking demon-"

"We are demons, Kai." Lady Elanizia frowned at her only son. "Never be ashamed of what you are."

"I'm not, it's just-" Kai struggled to make sense of what he was feeling. "You don't let me ever forget what I am. I can't be ashamed of what I am if you make me think of it all the time."

Kai stared at his feet for a long moment. He had said nothing like that to his family before–especially not to his father. When he looked up, the other three Shadowthorns were struggling to contain raucous laughter.

"Will you listen to yourself?" Lord Umbra roared. "How the fuck do you expect to be the first Lord of All if you wander around bitching about your feelings like that?"

"I never said I wanted to be Lord of All!" Kai snapped. "You've been talking about this shit my whole life, all this Lord of All bullshit, and you expect me to follow in your footsteps as this fucking demon king who everyone bows to and sacrifices their firstborn children in my name, but I don't want that shit. It's fucked up."

"Yes, it is, which is what makes it work!" Lord Umbra disappeared into the nearest building and emerged seconds later, a young woman clutched around the neck in his massive right hand. She couldn't scream, the fear paralyzing her to the core.

"Let her go, Dad!" Kai screamed. "What the fuck does she have to do with any of this?"

"Everything!" Lord Umbra brought the woman right up to Kai's face, squeezing her neck so tight her eyes bulged. "This is what it comes down to! You must kill this woman, here and now, or you lose everything!"

"What do you mean, everything?" Kai begged. "If you mean the whole ruling everything for all eternity thing, I'm completely fine with that."

"No!" Lord Umbra gave another vicious squeeze of the woman's neck, and a trickle of blood dripped out of her nose. Whatever he was doing, she was dying already. "You are meant to be the Lord of All, master of both the Morts and we that live beyond, but you have never once shown what it takes to be a true Shadowthorn!"

"Dad! I can't!" Kai stared into the poor woman's deep brown eyes, her silent cries for help running down her face as tears.

"You must! Kill her! Kill her now, or your life is forfeit!"

Kai couldn't tear his gaze from the woman's eyes. He could feel her fear, hear her almost begging for death.

"DO IT! MALACHAI SHADOWTHORN, TAKE YOUR PLACE AS THE RIGHTFUL HEIR AS LORD OF ALL!" Lord Umbra's voice filled the air and echoed down the Vancouver streets.

Kai took one last, long look at the poor unfortunate soul and took a deep breath. He lunged forward without another thought.