Chapter 49 - Cards On The Table (Ansel Conrad POV) Pt.5

Hola!!

Happy friday  night, I'm off to bed... well to watch me some Shemar Moore in Criminal Minds reruns lol :)

Chapter 49 – Cards On The Table (Ansel Conrad POV) Pt.5

"Leander is my Charge," Naomi says with a light accent. "I do not mean your family harm, I have in fact been protecting not just Andy, but your brother and his children as well."

I couldn't argue with her words, but now was also not the time.

Protecting Danny? Did Naomi know what Cynthia was? Did Danny and the others know what Naomi was?

I thought her a Kitsune, however Andy did just call her a Guardian.

Anxious and the feeling intensifying I send Brennan to his bus, waving off my children, Lenah's parents, and a few of my siblings with their family. Turning back to Naomi and Andy, I appraise them, wondering what to do with them. What they wanted?

"C-can we come with you? Just us, Naomi and I?" Andy pleads and as Kalenah and Angela come back, "We won't be any trouble..." he promises.

I feel as though I'm looking at Faith. His eyes showing who he is, if he's a threat to me, open. Showing his harmlessness.

"What are you two kids doing out here?" Kalenah asks molding herself to my side. "I noticed all the movement going on, and so, I woke Andy up, so that we did not miss you." Naomi replies.

I do not bother asking why she was awake or watching so intently.

"How long has Andy been your Charge?" I ask walking towards the house. "I've been watching him for nearly five years now," Andy's gasps audibly, "after Cynthia killed my previous Charge," Naomi grits out angrily. Her words take me by such surprise; I nearly trip over the pebbles.

Needing a moment, I rethink everything.

Whatever Andy knows of Naomi, he doesn't know all. Hell he was shocked over how long she has been watching him. He may trust her, but he does so with youthful ignorance.

I want information before I abandon Danny and his family here. I wouldn't take Cynthia's life, but I also wouldn't leave her without gathering information I needed.

"I want to know what she knows when it comes to Faith," I tell Naomi, the questions revolving her relationship with Andy all on the backburner.

I had no reason to not trust Naomi.

She had forced Cynthia to speak the truth. Then my brother. Without knowing I was going to duck out in the darkness.

"You can come with us," I start again, Naomi nodding furiously, her black hair shaking in the cold air, nipping at our faces. "No one should touch her," Naomi says with her face screwed up and unhappy.

Lydia touched Cynthia and Danny might of as well.

"Andy, you help Angela, Naomi come with me," we leave Kalenah to close up our house, prepare it for my mothers spell. Stopping at the garage, I grab a tranquilizer gun.

"When you left the house where was Danny?"

The wind howls around us, as I push aside the iron barricade. Once we enter, Naomi first, she murmurs lightly. The words sound much like what she said before when I assumed she was hushing Danny Junior and pushing him up the stairs. "What's going on? What the hell is this? The gun... why do you have that?" Cynthia starts bombarding me with questions. None of which I realize have anything to do with Danny or Lydia specifically.

I take in her features, Danny has only been gone for hours and I already see a difference in Cynthia. Her skin appeared dry; her eyes sunken in her face and her cheekbones are the tiniest bit more defined.

She's a Psychic Fae that siphons life energy from people.

Even if that person is Danny.

Is his irrationality now based on his grief and the time he spent with Cynthia? Did she have other spells on him?

"What type of Fae are you Cynthia?" I ask, blurting the words right out, without second thought. A mental clock still ticking as second after second goes by. Too many changes. Should I take Danny with me? His family? They are my nieces and nephew. By leaving them here in Bend, whatever trouble was coming, whatever bridges burned between us, I couldn't imagine leaving Danny here.

Not with his children that were as innocent as the white snow, hell, Genesis was barely six months old.

"I'm a Psychic Fae," Cynthia forces out, eyes burning. The anger and hate directed at me had I been weaker would make me wilt in her presence.

Do I leave Danny behind?

"You've been feeding on Danny?"

"On Danny-"

"And who else?"

Gritting her teeth, gaze filling with some disbelief, the words are just about plucked from Cynthia's mouth.

"The girls, friends and I've fed off of school children when volunteering at Stella's school," a bitterness fills my mouth. I nod, moving on, "Do you work for the Elders?"

"No."

"Why do you believe they will want Faith?" she releases a low growl.

"They want power, and she's got it," the shrug that follows her words are enough to imagine my hands wrapped around her neck.

"Why did you move to Bend?"

Eyes wide, Cynthia pants out a heavy breath, "We needed money, and Andy and the girls were accepted to the school here," cocking my head to the side, I glance at Naomi who is also frowning.

"She lies," Naomi murmurs, baffled, "Why did you move to Bend? The truth Cynthia?"

"I was trapped on a train," she breathes heavily, chest heaving up and down frantically. "I hadn't fed in a while," I already know where this is going.

"You killed someone," I finish, jumping to the end. I didn't have the damn time to beat around the bush. Shaking my head, it takes everything in me not question my judgment of character. I approved Cynthia. I welcomed her into our family and this is who she was.

This person that I did not know that had her hooks so deep in Danny that a part of me wonders if she ever loved him to begin with.

"Why did you take Andy but leave Faith behind?"

I feel stupid after she's answered because in those two seconds before the truth is pulled from the darkness inside her, I hope and still have the tiniest bit of hope that she is not the monster Naomi's spell shows.

"I needed someone to feed on without bringing attention to myself," I've never in my life felt such overwhelming emotions as these. My hands nearly crush the tranquilizer gun, as I do nothing to hide the repulsiveness I feel looking at Cynthia in this very moment.

Inhaling deeply, without and trepidation in my actions, I lift the gun, aiming at Cynthia, ignoring her words at me now, the pleas going in one ear and right out the other. A flick of my index finger and swiftly, two darts are released into her front, bringing her to her knees. Seconds pass as I stare at the woman I thought I knew.

She wrecked my brother, Faith and harmed a girl – my niece – that she stood in front of the family, promising to care for. Cynthia was a true monster in sheep's clothing.

"We need to go, do we not?" Naomi asks politely. Nodding, I hand her the gun, before opening Cynthia's cell, and hiking her over my shoulder like a rag doll. "I can help you make her less of a problem," Naomi whispers just as we are leaving the cellars.

I do not stop, but I do throw the girl a look of disbelief, "how?"

"My family, they are coming, they will handle Cynthia. Make her pay for her wrongs."

"By taking her life?" I ask as we walk to the front of the house where my mother, father Angela and Kalenah stood waiting with Andy. "No," Naomi responds, her voice tight, teeth chattering, "not a single drop of her blood will be spilled. She will be kept breathing."

.

.

.

__________

© 2016 roxann_season All Rights Reserved

Poor Ansel is having a crisis... leave Danny, or take Danny with him...