Chapter 5 ∣ Wicked Blood

-Mavis 10 Years Old

"Daddy, I don't know how to do that," I replied to him while we both stood together down under the mansion in the training room that had been designed for any type of encounter. My daddy decided that it would be best if he began to teach me how to control my blood magic now that it surfaced...especially the way it had in the middle of the streets.

My gaze shifted and fell to the ground before I whispered, "I don't want to do that again."

"You didn't do anything wrong baby girl," my daddy walked toward me, closing the distance while kneeling down and wrapping his arms around me. There were no tears, but I wrapped my own arms around his neck and my face buried itself into the top of his shoulder. He had told me that I didn't do anything bad, that what I did was natural and instinctive. It shouldn't be something that I should be afraid of and reject but hold that warmth close to my heart and fine-tune its abilities.

It was evil though. The way I killed the pureblood without even having to lift a finger. His face, I'll never forget the way he struggled to hold onto his life as I merely waited for his life to flicker out. I wasn't sorry at the moment because he had killed that woman, taking the child's mother away from it and going after the helpless baby next. However, I regret it now because I'd never taken a life up until this point...

...okay, we aren't counting the squirrel...but that was to test out my slingshot.

My daddy released his arms from around my back, motioning me to one of the benches along the walls near the rack of weapons. When we reached the bench, I sat down quietly as he sat beside me. The toe of my boot kicking into the marble, moving it back and forth as I sighed, understanding now what everyone else must have thought about when I was born. If I'd done something like that, I'd be afraid also.

"I didn't know how to control my blood magic when I was young just like you," my daddy began to tell me a story. I lifted my gaze to meet with his. He took my right hand into his and held it as he continued, "I was told I was evil, that all I did was hurt people and that I'd never be anything more than a monster," his gaze shifted and he asked, "do you know what I did?"

I shook my head as he continued, "I believed in what they told me, and I became exactly what they all feared I would. Instead of teaching me, they isolated and rejected me," a small smile made its way onto his lips and I was reassured when he said, "I want you to know that I love you very much baby girl and I want to give you everything I didn't have. I want you to take control of this incredibly beautiful and unique gift that makes you different, strong in a quite different way from the rest of the vampires."

"It's destructive," my voice lowered and sadness filled my eyes at the memory of seeing the pureblood's head roll off his shoulders and land on the ground, "I'll hurt someone else, maybe someone I don't want to...someone I love and want to protect."

"But you did just that," he squeezed my hand and reminded me, "you saved the life of a human that couldn't protect itself, that had no defense of its own except for the biggest heart residing within you."

It did feel good knowing I helped, though I wish the mother didn't have to die, I wish I could have done something about that as well. My daddy sees the sorrow in my eyes, the small amount of doubt that crosses my features. "Here," he takes hold of my wrist, rolling it around until my palm is facing upward and open. I watch as he brings my hand closer to him and I hold my breath for a second, wondering what he is doing.

I wince and a soft cry leaves my lips when he drags his nail across the palm of my hand and breaks open my skin. When I go to pull my hand back, wondering why he would ever hurt me like that, he holds my wrist still in his grasp. My bottom lip trembles when I glance up to see his eyes have shifted to a black rose and I wait with confusion shining in my eyes. He lifts his other hand and I become awestruck when I see the wound slowly sealing shut, the blood interlacing and locking to create a firm and stable barrier.

When the wound is fully sealed shut, my mouth is wide open as I ask him, "How? How did you do that?"

My daddy chuckled, releasing the hold he had on my wrist and informed me, "Blood magic isn't evil...not when it the right hands and control is stable. It's beautiful and life-giving, healing at such an exponential rate...your grandma used this incredible gift to save Orion's life. A bullet to his heart and he was on the verge of death. With the gift of her blood magic, she reformed his heart quickly, reconstructing everything within a matter of a few minutes and saving his life."

"Will you show me how to do that?" I asked, still a bit stuck on how he managed to heal me without even using his blood...he used my own.

My daddy chuckled and said, "Of course, I'll show you much more than just that."

"Awe," my grandma's voice came from the now slightly ajar door to the training room. I glanced at her when she smiled, "I seem to recall a similar moment between the two of us Mav."

I looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering exactly what she meant until my grandma walked further into the room and closer to us. She winked at me and said, "Who did you think showed him the glimmer of light within a sea of darkness he once thought was uncontrollable?"

"Grandma!" I exclaimed and pointed at her. My daddy laughed and stood from the bench, nodding in the direction of the open door.

"Go on and get ready for bed," my daddy turned to my grandma as she approached him closer. It appeared as though they were going to talk about something, but I wasn't allowed to stick around for that. Instead, I did as I was told and skipped out of the room, making my way up to the first floor and very soon after that, climbing the large staircase.

On my way, I couldn't help but think about how blood could kill someone...the darkness my grandma spoke about. What would have happened if she hadn't shown him the light inside of it? That there is so much more than the ability to take a life...we can save a life instead.

I reached the top landing and walked slowly toward my bedroom door, thinking about if I weren't able to control this special gift, would I become evil?

Would I become a bad person?

I couldn't shake the feeling and once I entered my room, I closed the door behind me tightly. Undressing and putting on my PJs, I sighed, the thoughts constantly coursing through my mind and beginning to eat at me until it was all I could think about. After slipping under the covers, tossing, and turning, hoping to clear my mind and think of anything else...I couldn't, and I felt trapped thinking over the same thought time and time again.

I huffed out, "Ugh..." laying on my back and staring up at the ceiling. Maybe I can count sheep to get to sleep, I need something else to get this thought off my mind.

"What's the matter?" Scáth's voice immediately brought me out of those thoughts. Over the past year, he'd actually appear without me having to use the stone, happening to know when I really needed a friend the most. He walked away from the bookshelf, coming to the edge of my bed before he pulled a chair over and sat down on it.

I shook my head, rolling onto my side and staring into his gray eyes. It was silent between the two of us for a few minutes before I asked him, "Am I a bad person?"

He furrowed his brows before arching one as he asked, "Why would you ever think that about yourself little one?"

"Well...I did a bad thing today...only daddy says it technically wasn't a bad thing," I started to ramble on about the events that occurred in the city, Scáth listening intently as he rested his elbows on his knees. I finished with, "-and then his head rolled right off his shoulders and landed on the ground."

Scáth thought about it for a second and then said, "What it sounds like to me, is that you did what you had to do in order to protect the innocent life of that baby," he tilted his head to the side and asked, "now why would you think you are a bad person?"

"I don't know...because I've never killed anyone before," it haunted me, the aftermath making me feel like a different person from the emotionless state I had been in at the time of the devastation.

There was a glint in Scáth's eyes, something I hadn't quite seen before in all the times we'd met with one another. There was this almost luminescent bluish tint that shone across his irises before it disappeared as quickly as it came. He continued to not look at me, but almost through me and when I grew uncomfortable, he said, "You have a pure soul little one. The life you took was deserving of its end. You shouldn't worry about the destructive nature of your blood magic because so long as you use it for the right reasons, you'll always be in the right, fighting for what you believe and love in."

I smiled, snuggling my head into my pillow, and feeling better that it just wasn't my daddy that thought that...I mean come on, he's my daddy and he has a bias opinion. It was nice to hear the same thing coming from someone else, but then I furrowed my brows and asked, "My soul?"

"I can just tell," he chuckled at my confusion and asked, "are you going to be able to sleep now?"

I dropped it and replied with a slight nod of my head and replied, "Yeah, I think I can sleep much better now. Thank you for talking with me, it really did help."

Scáth returned my smile with one of his own, standing from the chair he had been sitting on and putting it back into place. When he turned to leave, I asked him, "Are you a good person too?"

He froze, his movements ceasing as he stood still. He turned slightly, glancing over his shoulder as he answered my question with my own question, "Do you think I'm a good person?"

I thought about it and smiled, "Of course I do, you're nice to me and have helped me through really hard times."

Scáth's gaze left mine as he turned back to face toward the bookshelf as he left me with, "Then I believe I'm a good person because you believe in me."

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The True Born Huntress by K. A. Young.

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