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“Corvos copulare.”Join the Crows.
The Latin words take me wherever my sisters are, which happens to be the butterfly garden in the French Quarter of New Orleans.
Nola is home to most of America's supernaturals because the nightlife calls to us more than any other city in the country. Plus they have fantastic food. Human and otherwise.
I appear next to Darren who is glammed up, looking all GQ human. He still retains his height, build and basic bone structure but of course his skin and eye color are human-like.
“What’s got you in a fire, Darren?” My pink haired sister asks with a childlike giggle. Being the youngest, Roxy doesn’t have a single care in the world. She is the kind of girl who’ll enjoy the rain while everyone else runs inside to stay dry. She’s also a bit psychotic.
Bubbly and looney. Harley Quinn, if you will... minus the baseball bat.
Rory has always been a little worried for her because she thinks she somehow messed up while raising her. She didn’t though. Roxy is perfect. So what if she giggles like a creepy child and skips around singing her own fucked up songs--like the one about guts and dolls. That doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with her.
Darren huffs at Roxy’s fire joke, cause you know, fire fairy and all that. Clever.
“There’s been reports in the human news that abnormally large dog-like beasts have been spotted roaming the Quarter. The human police have done checkups but nothing more, I’m sure they think it’s pranks or drug induced callers. We’ve questioned clan leaders and the heads of races but no one knows anything.”
“How about the Werewolves? Have you spoken to Freda?” Freda is a badass Werewolf queen. She keeps her race in check and her people only change on the week of the full moon.
“I’ve spoken to her but none of her people were in the city during the sightings plus they look like large wolves. These creatures have been described asbeasts.”
“Did you question the witches? Maybe they conjured something on the last moon.”
Everyone looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. I roll my eyes.
Power, like the kind the witches have, can go to a person’s head.
“What?!” I ask. “It’s not like it’s impossible. One wrongdoing and a witch can create an entire race out of vengeance.” Darren nods but the pity filled look he has in his eyes makes my lip curl. I don’t need pity, I love my life and abilities. I’m just saying… Witches are like any race, they can seek justice but the difference between witches and everyone else is that they have incredible powers.
We Crows know firsthand what they can do. Although, the original Crows deserved the justice the witches gave.
Many, many years ago a human, William Crow, and his followers were rounding up the witches in the village. He was murdering anyone who was accused of witchcraft or being anything other than a human and though he killed fifty-four people in total, none of them were actual witches. But then one night he finally caught an actual supernatural, only this one was just a baby.
Elsie was the two-year-old infant of the Hound family and she was spotted making a rock float in the village square while her family sold the deer meat their hunting dogs caught. In retaliation to Crow’s despicable murder of the infant, a curse was placed on the Crow family and all those who followed William, making them the very things they hunted.
Immortals.
The entire Hound family died to create the curse, giving up their lives while turning the Crows into the immortals they hated. Effectively turning them from hunters to prey.
After years of being on the run from both humans and witches, the original Crows were caught and put into eternal captivity deep in the bowels of Hell’svincula. Jail.
Unlike the despicable William Crow, the supernatural world leaders let the children of the families live freely. After years of good behavior from these children, the leaders partially broke the curse, allowing any future Blood Crow offspring to have a wider food source and special abilities such as cloaking, teleportation, strength, speed and telepathy within bloodlines and between bonded mates.
Despite the fact that witches haven’t been hunted or killed since the original Crows, I still have a feeling they’re brewing something. Perhaps that’s what this supernatural dog is.
“I’ve tried contacting their leaders but since gaining new leadership, the witches spend most of their time off the grid. Finding them is difficult.” Flicking his wrist, a file appears in his hand. “I pulled the records of the 911 calls and used their description of the creatures to check our archive files. I believe I’ve figured out what these creatures are.”
He hands over a manilla folder with the wordHellhoundsacross the top.
“This is the only file we have on the race but they’ve not been around since the first Crow.”
I snatch the file from him and flip it open. The first thing I see are hand drawn pictures of what looks to be doberman pinschers but upon closer inspection of the sketches, I see holes along its body. Similar to fish gills. They’re broad and muscular but they also stand much taller than the sketched dog next to it.
Hellhounds are host to many different stories but the truth is, they were the enemies of the original Crows. They’re rumored to be the bringers of death, that’s true but the only deaths they cause are of my kind because Hellhounds control Hellfire.
It’s said that when the Hound witches died casting their spell on the Crows, their souls were bound to their hunting dogs. No one knows how true that is but it’s believed because William Crow and his followers were hunted and stalked by the animals. Other stories say that because of the dark spell they casted, the souls of the witches were bound to the hounds of hell and never found Elsie again. Therefore the Hellhounds began hunting and killing Blood Crows in order to quell their need for retribution.
Whatever the truth is, it doesn’t matter much, if Hellhounds are here that means my sisters and I are in danger. We’re the only True Bloods in New Orleans.
