Mer relaxed onto her carpet to lie on her stomach and read her knew assignment. Without school, at least Rush was kind enough to give her homework to fill the void while he slumbered in his castle. She had a bed and a desk, but there was just something about being on the ground that was comfortable, that and no one would see her through the window and hang her on any offering poles. Chewed on her cinnamon roll, she opened the book to the cover page.

Magic for the Beginner

It took a lot of composure for her to not spit her cinnamon roll back on the plate. This was a book about magic? Why would he want her to learn magic? Wasn't she a dangerous cobra preparing to kill him at any second? Was this really a book? It didn't have an ISBN or anything, but there was an author hand-scrawled under the title.

Darius Shade

This was a book written by the dark creatures. What exactly was she supposed to learn from it? The Shades were Rush's family, weren't they? It would be rude of her to not read it when he'd allowed her to stay where she was most comfortable while he slept.

Learning magic from a vampire.

Chapter One.

As she read it, she was surprised that it was not at all a book for learning dark magic, which was what the Shades used. The first chapter was interestingly about the magic that called to you. It could actually be applied to both magic wielders, light or dark, and she smiled as she flipped the page.

"Each magically inclined person has a magic that calls to them. Even if they do not accept its call and wield that magic, it will eventually find them. That is why it is best for each magic user to figure out what calls to them early on."

"One cannot run from their calling."

Mer set the book down and stared at the line. For her entire life, she'd been running from what had taken her father and mother. People jumped at the idea of something supernatural and magical, but she'd wanted nothing to do with it. Now though, with a vampire owning her and her being deeply entwined in the family business, she had no choice.

What called to her?

"Close your eyes." The book started the activity. "Blank your mind of everything."

That was easier said than done. How did she blank her mind of everything?

Mer tried.

No mages, no family, no vampires, just empty space.

What is calling to me?

Though she tried to keep her mind empty, Rush crept into it and she wondered if he was sleeping peacefully. It had to be bright for him. Likely, he was shaded in his room, buried in his blankets and fast asleep. The man must have tossed and turned all night if he slept at all next to his cobra.

Nothing dammit, nothing.

Closing her eyes, she tried to not think about Rush and open herself to whatever was calling to her. It was a moment, but something flickered and she felt herself compressed as if something were crushing her. In the darkness, white lights appeared in her vision, spinning together with blue lights that rose to their rhythm and sway. Fearful of their appearance and the weight they brought, she jumped back and panted as the pressure dissipated. She shook her head to clear her min, and returned to the book.

"The nature of what calls to you might not be readily apparent."

No really.

"The stronger a magic user's magic, and the longer they accept its call, the more apparent it will become. Still, every magic user, if they accept the call, should see a glimpse of what their drawing magic is the first time they try. This moment is the moment they accept the magic and, from there on, it will continue to call to them, stronger and stronger, craving the feeling of that first acceptance."

This book was different. It made it sound as if the magic were alive, a living being that desired contact with mages. There had been darkness, then with and blue lights, and then they had spun with each other. What exactly that meant, she was unsure, but by the pressure, she knew it had been magic.

The magic world couldn't just text her, could it? Btw your calling is whatever. Ttyl bff. That would be awesome, but instead she was stuck with a cryptic ass flash of lights and an old book.

All of chapter one was about how to discover her calling and she read it with heated interest. Old books had always been something she loved, and this Darius Shade had a calm, drawing, and oddly objective teaching style. It didn't really say anything about what type of magic, just how it all worked in general. For years, she had thought that dark magic worked differently than light magic, as if they were enemies to each other, but this book explained it as if all magic were the same.

Chapter two was unfortunately about after she found her calling, so she closed it with a sigh. There had been pages on pages of things she could do to access her calling. Nothing had worked. Again and again, she tried different organizations of magical symbols that would call out and answer to her, but nothing did. There were more mental exercises, and each time, her mind was blank but too blank. There was no pressure or anything reaching back. With a sigh, she walked to her window and opened the blinds.

It was like a blast of fire, and she jumped back out of the light. Hesitantly, she reached her hand out to touch the rays of sun, but there was an uncomfortable pressure when it fell on her skin, as if it were angry. She looked to her clock, and it was about noon. Usually she was in school from about eight in the morning until five at night.

Had noon always felt like this?

Mer spent so much time indoors that she had no idea if this was a result of her playing around with magic or if whatever her calling was just didn't like bright sunlight. The pressure from it was completely different than anything she'd felt before. It definitely wasn't the same feeling as when her calling had reached out to her.

This was... unpleasant

"Did you feel that?" There was a voice in the other room.

What was she supposed to do?

"There was a burst of magic from Meredith's room." The sound of her aunt, Luna, her mage name she used much more than Natalie.

"Why would there be magic coming from that room?" Her uncle, Torin. Since he was a house husband more often than not, he left his mage name, Slate, on the backburner.

It was hard for her to hear her aunt's voice through the door. It was hoarse and quiet, as if she had spent the entire night prior crying, which Mer knew she had. Though they were not her real parents, Mer had grown up with them and run around their ankles when she was learning to walk. Luna had been there for her first steps, and her first laugh, while Torin had been there for her first word.

It had been Luna.

Luna was an Aurion by birth, and Torin had married into the family, so he was weaker. Because of that, Luna often went out on hunts and Torin had been left to care for Mer during most of her childhood. All of her words had been longing for her surrogate mother who'd disappeared. It had been so terrifying for her as a child, thinking that Luna was going to die like her mother.

When her door opened, she did her best not to drop the book Rush had given her. Holding it protectively to her chest, she stepped back into the light from the window and then flinched back out of it. Why did the light hurt?

"Meredith?" Luna's voice was heavy with grief and, immediately, her aunt was by her side, crying. Holding her to her chest with the relief of a mother, her aunt cried into her hair, and Mer trembled in her arms, trying to fight back the tears in her own eyes. Luna wasn't some brittle old lady either. She was a powerful mage and taller than her, a warrior and dangerous, but she was also her mother.

"Luna." Torin spoke, his dark sienna eyes meeting his wife's. Luna pressed Mer's face into her chest a bit uncomfortably, and Torin ran a hand through his short, ruffled dark hair. It was clear this was upsetting him as much as it was Luna.

"What, Torin?" Luna's words were a snap, and the poor man sighed. Torin was not the one who was more powerful here, but he was always the one who acted with reason over emotion.

"If she ran away, we can't shelter her," Torin said, and Mer sighed into her aunt's chest.

"I didn't run away." Mer didn't want to hear this argument between them right now. It was hard enough that she was now the property of a monster. Hearing about how her adopted parents would throw her back at said monster would make her sick. That was the truth though, and they would do what they had to for the mages.

"How did you get here, Meredith?" Torin inquired, and she pulled lightly out of her aunt's arms, still sheltering her book in one arm. Luna was examined her with sharp grey eyes, fiddling with her long white hair that was ponytailed up from whatever hunt she'd been on.

Luna's calling was the light of the moon. It was light magic in the darkness, which was awesome. Mer had constantly played with her aunt's light magic as a child, giggling when she cast stars into the sky over her bed. The power was white light in the dark, and it had dimmed Luna's once bright blue eyes to grey and her blond hair to white.

"Rush said he was going to be sleeping most of the day, so he left me here to occupy myself while he slept," Mer said.

Torin's eyes narrowed as did Luna's, both of them looking her up and down. If they were checking if she was missing any limbs, she wasn't, but she might be missing a few pieces of her heart. There was a small bandage on her wrist, which would be the only sign of visible damage. Her bruised knee was covered by her sweatpants and throbbing from running on it like an idiot. She hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until she'd stood up a moment ago.

"By Rush, you mean Remus Shade," Luna said pointedly and Mer nodded. "They actually gave you to the direct Shade lineage. Disgusting bastards."

"Why did the vampire allow you to leave?" Torin asked, still eyeing her suspiciously, and she found the floor with her eyes. Why indeed?

"I don't know. Rush has been... courteous," Mer said, and her aunt spat at the air, pulling her out of her room. They ended up in the kitchen and Luna sat her on a chair before she went to the fridge and pulled out some ingredients. Meredith salivated as she realized she was going to cook dinner.

"Meredith, don't be fooled by any candor or façade that beast may present you with," Luna said, angrily chopping some vegetables as Torin joined her side to work with some chicken next to her. "I have been on the battlefield with Remus and Darius Shade on the other end. There is nothing kind about either of them. They are vicious beasts, nothing else."

"I don't usually agree with your aunt's... fervor regarding things, but she is right. The Shades are brutal, and we all know why you're still alive." Torin turned to her with a sickened look on his face, and the pit of her stomach turned. "The acolytes intentionally give you to the vampires weak. They do it with all sacrifices. It reduces the odds that you'll survive being fed upon. I know it's cruel, but its better you die. The fact that you're alive..." Torin trailed off, but Luna filled the space for her, slamming the knife so hard on the cutting board that Mer was surprised it didn't snap in two.

"That thing wants you alive..." Tears slipped down Luna's cheeks, and she at least had the decency to set the knife down before she clutched Torin. Covered in raw meat, he didn't really hug her back, but he pressed his face against hers. "It's sick of me to say, Meredith, but when you go back to him, you should find a way to end your own life."

Ice ran down her as the woman who loved and cared for her like her own daughter told her to commit suicide. Mother of the year advice right there. And here she thought the day couldn't get any worse. Scratch that off of dismal life prospects bingo. Owned by a vampire was the center piece and she just had to get five right? Her mom wanting her to kill herself sounded like a good start.

"I know that must sound cruel coming from me, but he's going to torture you, Mer. That man knows how to inflict pain, and he doesn't care about anyone, human or beast. Allowing you to gain your strength, allowing you to feel comfortable and strong again, is only so that he can cut your legs out from under you and feed from you without killing you. A vampire feeding from you is an excruciatingly painful experience."

Whenever her aunt thought, she rubbed a scar that ran from under her chin to her collarbone. On one of her aunt's first missions away from her as a child, a vampire had raked its fangs across her throat and fed off of her. From the amount of blood she'd lost, any normal human would have died, but they said the mage's guardian deity had kept her alive because she had something to live for.

"Rush... didn't do that to you, did he?" Mer asked, and Luna let out a groan that sounded like annoyance, despair, and hatred all at once.

"No, Meredith. If Remus Shade had his fangs in my throat, he would not have let me live like a fool. I'd have hunted him down and murdered him in his sleep, like I did to the one that left me for dead without finishing the job."

There was angry silence between the three of them as her parents put together the stew they were making. By the time it ended up in front of her, she was drooling and her stomach churned in starvation. Caffeine and a cinnamon roll was not food.

It was pitiful how her aunt and uncle watched her eat twice as much as she usually did, and made even sadder by how her aunt cried, on and off, leaning against Torin. The expression on her uncle's face was just as painful to see, but he was saving his tears for when she was gone. If anything, Torin had always been strong for Luna, even when he knew he was weaker.

After dinner, Mer curled up with Luna on one of their large couches, and her aunt held her to her chest as if she were still a child. How long had it been since she'd been this close physically with her? Strong willed and a powerful active mage, Luna had not afforded her such luxury in quite some time. Now though, Mer was her pitiful daughter, doomed to apparently off herself.

"You are taking this better than I am," Luna said, nuzzling her face, and Mer didn't really have words for it. "Did he hurt you?" It was a strange question and hard to answer.

The guy had only sort of tried to cut off her left hand, and she had bashed her own knee in trying to follow him. Did dragging her through the dirt for a moment count? As far as Mer understood, Rush had not hurt her.

"Not really. Is he really cruel?"

Luna sighed and pressing her tighter to herself. "Yes, Mer. Remus Shade is cruel and doesn't hesitate on the battlefield. I've seen him run through younger mages just as quickly as he would the more experienced generals. Some of the weaker beasts at least have the decency to flinch when killing children. Remus has a very strong bloodline, and his power is overwhelming. Since you aren't as broken as I expected, I imagine he used allure to control your mind while he slept with you. Some vampires get a kick out of that, I suppose..."

It took Mer a minute to realize Luna was using sleep as a euphemism for sex. Oh dear... Mer was forced to cover her mouth when she smiled, and her aunt looked at her strangely.

"Luna, Rush didn't... um... force me to have sex with him." It was best she just said it literally, though she sighed with what Rush had already done to her ability to use a simple euphemism. "Like I said, Rush has been very... I don't know. I wouldn't say he's been kind, but he hasn't been really unkind. I didn't expect him to allow me to come here either, so I can't say that I share your opinion of him."

"Meredith, he's a monster. I've seen his fangs drain a mage to death more than once. Any reason he wants you to be alive for is going to be sick twisted revenge and nothing else. The Shades are prickly, and you are payment for them losing someone. The Aurions would not survive war right now, or we'd kill them all. Because of this, I have to lose you."

"You didn't have to give Meredith Aurion to me." Mer froze as she heard Rush's deep, emotionless voice from behind her. Her aunt sat up immediately and pressed her much too hard against her chest.

~~~~~~~~~

Word Count: 3033