Under the Blood Moon by Jenny Garcia (latest books to read TXT) 📖

would give no comfort, only confusion. “Dad I am fine. I…I…” Travis can see that there is something more to the story and he turns to my dad, “James I will take care of this. Don’t worry she will be fine. I won’t let her out of my sight.” He looks to Travis and look back at me. I give him a nod and he turns reluctantly and walks down the hall. Travis rushes to my side and shuts the door. “Niki what happened? You need to start talking to me. I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me.” I look to the ground and tears begin to flow again. I hate crying and I wipe my face as fast as I can hoping that he doesn’t notice. He lifts my chin up with his hand and kisses me gently on the lips. The fear melts away and is replaced by love and the pulsing warmth of desire. I wrap my arms around his neck and deepen the kiss. He lets out a grown and pleasure and then pulls away from me. “Niki please don’t change the subject. You need to tell me what happened.” I drop my arms and sit down on the toilet. “I walked into the bathroom and stood over the sink. When I looked into my reflection there were two large red eyes staring back at me. I screamed and then I heard you and Dad trying to get in. I couldn’t move or say anything. The whole room went black and then I couldn’t hear anything. There was a voice that told me that I was worthless and he would make sure that I would never be Queen.” Travis’s face turns white and I can tell that he knows exactly who the red eyes belong to. He turns away from me and puts his hands on his hips looking down to the ground. “Travis, do you know who it was?” He doesn’t answer me. Instead he turns to the door, opens it and walks out. I sit alone in the bathroom not knowing what to so. Should I go after him or give him space. I want to know who the red eyes belong to. I decide to give him some space. I get up and turn the shower on. I untie my bathing suit and let it fall to the floor. I step in the shower and let the hot water run over my body. I don’t want to move or think. The heat begins to losen my stress and washes it away. I wish I could just stay in here away from all the stress and obligation that waits for me on the other side of the door. I finish my shower and step out.

 

Dinner is quiet and Travis hasn’t said a word to me since I told him about the red eyes. He has barley looked at me. Denise is staring at me with her normal evil glare and my father keeps glancing over at me. I finally decide to break the silence, “So are we just going to sit here or are we going to talk to each other?” I look back to Denise and she is holding her glare on me. “What Denise? You have been staring at me since I sat down. Do you have something to say or ask me?” Her mouth drops open and he turns her nose up at me “No Niki, I have nothing to say to you.” My mother looks over to her with an annoyed look on her face, “What is wrong with you Denise? Is there a reason you are being so rude and vile to Niki? She has done nothing to you. You said that you were coming here to help and so far you have done nothing. So please tell me why you have such a problem with her?” Denise takes the napkin from her lap, drops it on her plate and leaves the table. Mom watches her as she walks away and down the hall. “Really Denise? You are just going to walk away?” Denise turns on her heels, stomps back to the table and begins to scream at mom, “Michelle you should not be commenting on people walking away! You left me alone on the night of the Festival! The day when I needed you the most and you were not there for me! Why Michelle?!” I don’t know how the conversation got turned so quickly. I have a feeling that Denise was just waiting for an opportunity to bring up old baggage. Mom stands from her chair and calmly says “Denise, this is not the time or the place for us to discuss this issue.” Denise cuts her off “No I think it’s a perfect time! How about you tell Niki what really happened that night?” I whip my head to mom and ask “Mom what is she talking about?” I can see a vale of worry and sadness comes over her. She sits down, giving Denise an evil glare, and calmly explains. “Niki, when I was younger I also had a gift. It’s not like yours though. Once I saw how Denise was treated after she shared her gift with our town, I knew that I had to keep mine a secret. I didn’t want to have the gift. My mother did the same thing that I did with you. I was on medications and ignored my gift until it slowly died.” I am in shock. I don’t know how to process this new information. I still am having a hard time digesting the fact that all this time she knew that I was telling the truth and now come to find out, she also had a gift. She didn’t want her gift and that’s fine, but I did. I was forced to go through all the testing and medications. I hated it and she knew it. I try to stay calm as I respond, “Ok, What does that have to do with a Festival.” Denise walks back over to her chair and sits down, “I have to hear this.” I give her a sharp look and yell, “Shut up Denise. This isn’t about you right now, ok. If you want to stay in the room you have to shut the hell up.” Travis chuckles next to me. This is the first time that I have heard him make a noise since the bathroom incident. For some reason he loves to see his mom get her ass chewed. I look back to my mom and motion for her to continue. She takes a deep breath “When I was 18, I meet your father. He was traveling across the US after he graduated college. I fell in love with him instantly there was nothing that could tear us apart. He was leaving my town in a week when I found out that I was pregnant with you.” My mouth drops open and I’m in shock. My mom was pregnant with me when she was 18? I guess I never did the math. So she isn’t as sweet and innocent as she portrays. “I told Denise that I was pregnant. She was so excited and wanted to tell me what the sex of the baby would be. She placed her hand on my stomach and what she told me was shocking. She said that that you would become a Mystic, like her but much more powerful and because of this, one day a half woman half wolf would come and take you away from me. I didn’t want to believe her because it sounds ridiculous but Denise has never been wrong before.”

 

The night that we decided to leave was awful. Your father and I were in Town Square for the Full Moon Summer Festival. Everyone was dancing and having a great time.” Denise cut her off “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Please stop.” I look over to Denise and say “Denise you stop. I need to know what happened.” Denise fires back at me, “It really doesn’t have anything to do with you anymore. You know what I told your mother when she was pregnant with you; the rest of the story is not hers to tell. ” Travis steps in “Mom shut up!” Her eyes begin to well up with tears and she closes her mouth. I look back to my mom, “Ok mom, please tell me the rest.” She looks at Denise who is shaking her head no and then back at me, “Well we were supposed to meet Denise at the Festival because it was her 18th birthday and we were planning on celebrating together. She was nowhere to be found. We searched for hours. Finally we got desperate and started looking outside of town. We finally found her lying in the middle of a field. The moon was so bright that night but it seemed to be casting a white soft glow over her body. The grass around her was covered in dew and it was sparking in the moon light.” Her voice begins to crack and I can tell that this is still a painful memory. “She was lifeless. I didn’t know what to do. She had some sort of injury or cut mark on the side of her hip and there was blood all around her. I grabbed her shoulders and was shaking her as hard as I could, trying to wake her up.” The room becomes so tense that you can feel it in the air. Denise’s hands are in clenched fist on top of the table and her knee is bouncing violently under it. She clearly doesn’t want to relive this story, just as much as I don’t want to talk about Derek. Mom continues her story, “I was leaning over her hugging her as tightly as I could. Then I felt her chest rise and fall. I realized that she was alive. I sat up and looked down at her face. She skin had changed color to a light brown, her hair was longer and her eyes to a cobalt blue color. I jumped back and she sat up as if nothing had happened. The mark on her side was gone and her face was blank.”

 

Denise stands up and pushes the table violently shoving it against the wall. It rang out with a loud bang and my father comes running from his office and into the dining room shouting, “Michelle what is going on in here?!” Denise runs to him and throws her arms around his neck. Dad face is covered in confusion and Mom gets up and walks over to them. “Denise I am sorry but she needs to know.” Denise rips her arms off Dad and turns to my mother. Her face has changed. She looks evil and sadistic. Almost the way that Travis looks when he changes. Denise starts to walk towards her and Mom begins to back up. She pushes her so far that Denise has her pinned against the back wall. Travis springs into action and tried to rip Denise away from her, “Mom please stop! Don’t do this!” She throws Travis off her and grabs my mom by the throat sliding her up the wall until her arm is fully extended. My mother’s feet are kicking violently as she scratches at Denise’s arm trying to escape from her death grip. Dad runs to Denise and tries to pull her off as Mom violently fights trying to get oxygen. Denise flings my father across the room with just one swipe of her arm. Travis grabs Denise by the back of her neck and throws her to the ground. Mom falls to the ground with a loud THUD, coughing and gasping for air. I rush to her side, falling to my knees to check on her. There is a large red mark across her neck that is already starting to