~Stella🌓
I was currently leaning on the wall next to the french doors glaring daggers at Valora. DeLacy was siting sideways in the recliner legs dangling over the side, with killer kitty in her lap. While Valora sat on the floor facing me with her back against the chair, feet slid under the wood table between us, returning my glare full force.
As I stood there I couldn't help but notice how pretty the girl was, even if she was an ass. Looking at her I could see numerous similarities between her and DeLacy. The two could pass as cousins if the only looked just a bit more alike.
Both had heart shaped faces, both were well endowed in the curves of their body, both were tall, and had a similar body structure. But Valora was several shades darker, where she was bronze in tone DeLacy looked like carved marble, where Valora's eyes are amber DeLacy's are a bright sapphire that would make anyone melt, and where Valora's hair was a rich dark brown, DeLacy's was hard to tell if it was a deep brown or black.
As I studied the Latina I noticed the red sheen to her eyes. Frowning slightly I look up at DeLacy and see her eyes were glowing a soft blue and it looked like she was muttering something to Valora. Straining my ears I try to hear them but all I got was gibberish. 'Spanish.' I mentally snarled.
Valora turned her head and started prattling something back with serious look on her face.
My eyes darted over to Eric who sat awkwardly on the couch, not liking this new addition any more than I was.
Mom, Dad, and Stacy chose that time to walked back in from the front porch. They had been discussed something about the incident at school. All eyes shot to them as we eagerly awaited the news of what was to come.
A polite smile formed on Stacy's features as she looked from Valora to her daughter. "Who is this?" She asked, her curiosity evident in her tone.
I scoffed lightly in derision with an eye roll so I wasn't look at the brown eyed girl anymore. I didn't care if I was acting childish, the girl punched out my tooth in fourth grade for pointing out that her adopted parents only took her in because they couldn't have kids of their own they probably felt sorry for her. Yes it was mean, but I was nine for Lucia's sake, and that didn't give her the right to punch the daylights out of me.
DeLacy ignored my irritation but Valora shot me a glare before returning her gaze to Stacy. "I'm Valora Z-Cross." She introduced herself, tripping over the last name as if she had wanted to say something else instead.
Valora looks to DeLacy as if asking if it was okay to tell some shared secret. Giving a slight nod in return Valora looks back at Stacy. "I'm the last surviving member of the clan from Puerto Rico, that I know of." She adds.
'Clan? That must be like a pack, so I'm guessing she's- what was it- a major? Yeah that's what it was.'
Once she's spoken Stacy eyes blew wide with a gasp, "You're..." she trails off in shock.
"Yeah" DeLacy answers for the other girl. "She's Anu." She finishes with a small laugh as if she can't believe it herself.
That revelation seemed to shock Eric and my mother but Dad glanced at me with a look, likely noticing the little offsets that I had as well.
"So there are others out there like DeLacy?" Eric pipes-up from the couch.
"Yes." Stacy answers still looking at Valora with joyful eyes, "Yes, though not as many as there once was. There are still a few tribes who cling on in hiding."
"Hiding?" I finally decide to speak up. 'Wait didn't she just say clan? What's a tribe?'
"Yes, it is a long story and a rather sad one." Stacy says solemnly, just that sentence had a shimmer building in her eyes.
"Would you mind if we heard?" Mom ask placing a hand on Stacy's shoulder. Stacy reached back and pat the hand on her shoulder with a slight nod before walking around the recliner and taking a seat on the couch.
She cups her hands in front of her face and gathers her wits for a moment. Valora and DeLacy seemed to know what was coming next, because the Latina turned away from Stacy and buried her face between the chair cushion and DeLacy's leg. DeLacy seemed to share the sentiment and put a hand down for Valora to hold. The other girl grabbed her hand and looked like she was trying to make herself even smaller.
A frown pulled at my lips at the display. 'What could have happened to garner a reaction like that?' Turning my attention back to Stacy I wait for her to start the explanation.
One of her legs was bouncing rapidly as she seemed to find the courage to start. "A long time ago Ancient Egypt was ruled by the Anu. They had human pharaoh's but the Anu where the followed power. Until the sixth dynasty King Teti, or Pharaoh Seheteptawy became ruler.
He did not like that the people, would follow an Anu's order before they would obey him. So to fix this misjudgement of the balance of power, as claimed, he built an order. They are called the Nadef, or cleansing, they are humans raised and trained to hate and kill the Anu." She says closing her eyes she takes a deep shuttering breath before continuing.
"And kill they did. The Anu fought hard and with all their might, and while there where many of them there where many, many more humans. And the more the Anu fought back and killed the more the humans resented them.
King Teti was finally killed by an Anu disguise as one of his bodyguards. Thinking that with Teti gone they would have peace the Anu thought the war for power was over.
But it was not to be, the war for power was over yes, but the war for survival had begun anew. The order of the Nadef continued but with a new purpose. To see all the Anu gone from this world. They began a genocide unlike any the world has seen. The holocaust was not like this.
For centuries war was waged all across the known world. Battle after battle, victory after defeat, they chased the Anu to every corner of the earth. About three centuries ago the war finally ceased or so we had thought.
Two and a half centuries the order had stopped killing, two and a half centuries the enemy had vanished, but after all those years the enemy was back and with a vengeance.
We had rebuilt our society, we had rebuilt our culture, we had rebuilt our families, but on that final day our families were lost." She couldn't seem to open her eyes as she told and relived the story.
"I was twenty-three at the time, I had been adopted by an Anu couple when they had found me abandoned as a baby. I grew-up and married the mega of the area, we had grown-up together and fell in love.
I was pregnant with DeLacy and..." She trails off. My ears perked up at that, so did DeLacy's by the look of it. Shaking her head she starts again, "At the time when they attacked. All the tribes came to aid in my protection.
You see when the underlings of a tribe are threatened the mega will ward off any and all things it perceives as a threat, and all the members of a the tribes ruled by that mega will willingly and unquestionable put their lives down to protect their mega from any threat they believe to wish harm upon their mega.
All Anu have a built-in protection instinct. The miners follow and protect their majors,the majors follow and protect their mega, and the mega protects all of its followers.
And as I was with the offspring of a mega I was to be protected above all. And so to protect me seven majors were sent to escort me to a safe place. All had died when members of the Nadef found us at the train station.
My husband and three other Anu came and warded them off. I was put on a train but before any others could escape another group of Nadef members came and attacked. The last I saw of my love was him being shot in the throat and falling to the ground while they unloaded their gu-." She choked off as tears began to stream down her face.
In a flash DeLacy was out of the recliner and sitting on the arm of the couch next to her mother. "Va tutto bene mamma." She mutters as she pulls her mother's head to her stomach and wraps her arms around the older woman's shoulders.
Stacy lets her daughter comfort her as she visibly fights to regain her composure. I wasn't sure what to do so I looked to Mom for instruction but she just seemed to be standing back and letting the two work it out. Following her lead I stayed there against the wall and waited for Stacy to calm down.
It took a good five or six minutes before Stacy was able to control her breathing and continue the story. With a reassuring pat on the arm from her mother DeLacy retook her seat in the recliner. With a deep breath the Italian woman began again. "Then I made my way to America and found a small tribe that was still intact. They happily took me in and protected me, but the Nadef knew I was still alive and they hunted me down in an effort to kill me before I gave birth. Clearly they didn't succeed, but they did find me again and more Anu died trying to protect me. It was at that time I decided to move to a small town I could raise my new born daughter in. I chose one full of lycans because they could cover her scent and lycans are far more recluse than most other species and were far less likely to identify her."
We all stood there in shocked silence as Stacy finished her story, soaking in this new information. 'Damn.'
I hear a small shuttering breath and look up to see Valora trying not to cry. A sharp pain went through my chest at the realization that she had likely been subject to at least part of this hidden war and that was why she was adopted and not with her real parents. Now I fully felt the weight of how much of an ass I must have seemed to her.
Pushing off the wall I go into the kitchen and make two glasses of water. Walking back into the living room I offer one to Stacy who accepted it with a watery but thankful smile. I set the other on the coffee table in front of Valora and turn back around to go into the kitchen before she can say anything.