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Part Two
The nerve of some people’s kids.
I really had no idea what was happening or how we got there. All I knew for sure, was that Vi and I were finishing up our plans to head to Nowhere, USA – our hometown and the place we wanted to settle down, build a house of our own, and raise our family. Six weeks in the Kingdom of Love was nice. Check…make thatHeavenly.Time alone with my Mate was nothing short of the B-E-S-T, but we wanted to live where we first met and fell in love and where our people were. Family was everything to both of us and the best way to start our lives together was by being there for the birth of our niece – the first Brown/Archer child, a Dragon/Witch Combo I was praying was born with my sister-in-law’s looks and my brother, Nate’s, tenacity.
Of course, Bernie was incessantly bitching about the lack of suitcase space she was allowed, and I was ignoring the fact that no matter what she packed all she would ever be able to wear was that blasted red, frilly tutu. So, why was she complaining? Who knows or cares? As I explained to her, there is only so much room on the back of my Dragon and my Mate’s bags came first.
One minute Vi was showing me the tiniest pair of pink socks, I’d ever seen, and the next, black, evil sorcery exploded in her kitchen like a stink bomb in the girls’ locker room.
Okay, let me clarify…
I admit, to those of you outside the Other Community thatmight’vesounded a little crazy. You probably said to yourself,‘This dude’s one scale shy of a whole Dragon and couldn't fly with both wings and a good tailwind,’but nothing could be farther from the truth. I do indeed have all my scales, and an expert flyer, and although I share my soul with an ancient Dragon King– I am in full control of all my faculties. Really, you can ask anybody.
So, let’s rewind and I’ll try to make everything at least as clear as mud…
I waswell awareof how I got to the Valentine Nebula, onto Cloud Nine, and into the Kingdom of Love. Very aware and very happy to be there. Missing my Mate, the one and only, amazing and gorgeous Violet Brown had been my constant pastime for damned near as many years as I'd been alive. It started a really long time ago and was a long and winding road…
(Yes, I LOVE me some Beatles.)
…with more bumps than a Horned Toad’s back, but Fate and Destiny finally got their shit together and after way too many years apart, I was reunited with the one woman in all the world made just for me. Chalk one up for the good guys.
You see, my name’s, Mick Archer, or to some - mostly my mother who I don’t talk about without losing my mind and my religion - or to because she is evil with a capital E right along with my good for nothing father…
(Now, don’t go gettin’ all judgmental. I have my reasons and I’m gettin’ to them.)
…well, let’s just not go there again. You already had a front row seat to my disgust at being called by my Christian name. If you’ve made it this far, you know all the details, and we’ll leave it at that.
Suffice it to say, the only person in the world who can get away with using my given name – and even then, I can't help but bitch about it - is Violet. Just hearing my full name makes me think of my parents and let's just say, I do noteverwant to think ofthose people. Not only are they the worst of the worst the world has to offer but topping the list of their dastardly deeds is plotting the death of my oldest brother’s Mate so they could steal her Magic.
I wish I could say that was all they’d ever done to secure their place in Hell, but I can’t. Let me see if I can explain this without taking up too much of your time. It’s a really long story that goes backa lot of years, but you need some of the info to understand what comes next. So, I promise to keep it as short as possible. Think Reader’s Digest version, cool?
Okay, here we go…
In the Other community, there are times that families with illustrious and long Supernatural lineages end up with no Magic at all. We call them Nulls. For the longest time, all of us Paranormals thought it was a genetic abnormality. Like, Mother Nature’s way of thinning the herd without doing anything too drastic. I, Mick Archer, am here to tell you that it is most definitely, without a doubt,a Curse.
Stop shaking your head and calling me an idiot. Curses exist. It’s a fact of life, of nature, ofeverything. Trust me. I know what I'm talking about because for the first couple of decades of my life, I hadno Magic at all. All of us Archer boys – that's what the citizens of Nowhere, USA, and the Other Community called us (Some still do.) – thought we, right along with our parents, were Nulls and that's all we'd ever be.
Thankfully, we were wrong. Sadly, the reason we went without Magic for so very long rested squarely on the shoulders of my parents.
The fact of the matter was, the Powers That Be - aka the Great Goddess, the Universe, Mother Nature, Fate, and her sister, Destiny – along with my Grandad and our Clan all knew that my mother and father – Big Daddy and Mother Archer as they liked to be called - were rotten to the very core. I don't mean litter bugs or take-a-penny-when-they-don't-really-need-a-penny or take the little bottles of shampoo from hotelsbad. I meanhorriblewith a capital B-A-D, real assholes, false-faced pretenders, just true wastes of space who wanted nothing more than to steal Magic and harm Others whenever and wherever they could.
See, Big Daddy and Mother Archer went above and beyond to act like they were pillars of the community, put on a pretty face for everybody, and get in good withanybodyMagical they ever met. My parents sat on every single committee, club, and women's auxiliary in and around Nowhere, USA. Even if there was something as silly as a boiled peanut eating contest with someone from the Other Community in attendance – they were there. They went to all the functions, shook all the right hands, kissed all the right asses, even donated to the Other Orphans Home, and spearheaded the Food Drive for the Displaced Shifters' Sanctuary every fall.
They were so well regarded that although not Magical, the Brown Witches invited them to Samhain Dinner without fail – which is really saying something. And that’s not all. Cupid made sure a small squadron of his best Cherubs delivered candies and flowers and even one of those fancy cookie bouquets every Valentine’s Day. Hell, the Easter Bunny had them over to color eggs, and the list goes on and on. Big Daddy and Mother Archer were abig deal in the Other Community.
But there was one thing they didn’t have, couldn’t buy, and damned sure weren’t able to schmooze their way into getting… Yep, you guessed it - Magic.
Like I said before, the Powers That Be knew mom and dad stunk worse than a bag of shit baking in the sun for a month of Sundays but couldn’t do anything to stop their dastardly plans. They had to let everything play out just as it was written in the Book of Life.
You see, these powerful and omnipotent Beings hoped against all hope that my parents would deny the evil festering in their souls and try to be good people. It was one of their greatest wishes. So, when that didn’t happen, all the Powers That Be could do was wait and see if my brothers and I were fruit from the rotten tree or good apples.
(FYI- we’re good apples. Just wanted to be sure you got that.)
In one of the many tomes of knowledge passed down from the Ancient Dragons, Liam, brother number two – only eighteen months older than me and eleven months younger than Nate- and Mate to Vi’s cousin, Ella, shared a very important passage with me. He said,every soul – Other or Human - is born with some light and some dark. What the person chooses to embrace – the good or the bad – is what makes them who they are.
Thank the Heavens, Nate, Liam, Chris and I innately chose the Light. It’s just who we were –and are. Without that, we would’ve been lost - just like mom and dad – and wouldn’t have been able to be with our one True Fated Mates.
And here’s where the story takes an upward turn…
