His Blue Moon Princess
His Sunshine Baby Chapter 109

You've

got to be f*****g kidding me.

I turn to Sylviana.

"She meant that metaphorically, right?" I ask, channeling the three brother's words echoing in my head into one question.

"We are half-sisters", confesses Sylviana, white as a sheet.

What...? I did not see that one coming. Sisters. That Water witch and... Sylviana. Why did she hide this from us all of this time? Even to Liam? He looks as confused and shocked as all of us. I would never have guessed. How many years apart are they, anyway? Sylviana is Damian's age, give or take a few years, but that woman is much older. They don't even look alike, except maybe for their eyes? Damn it, what is going on?

The water witch sneers.

"That's right, we are," she says. "Witches, daughters of the same wretched mother... You didn't tell them anything, did you Sylviana? Isn't that why you were mom's favorite... Always the little werewolves' friend..." "Nephera, you have to stop this. Whatever mom did to you, she..."

"What she did to me? Do you think this is only about our mother, Sylviana? Oh no, I'm going to destroy those packs and take this City. It was mine, to begin with, wasn't it?"

"What the heck is that woman talking about?" I growl, glancing at Sylviana.

Just then, the Water witch turns to me. It's odd all those vampires stopped attacking since she's talking... It's almost like they froze up. Is she really controlling them all? It's like she's holding her dogs back... "Your golden eyes... Aren't you Gabriel's precious daughter?"

I stay speechless. How the hell does she know about my biological father? What the heck!

She looks at all of us, her eyes going slowly to Damian, Nathaniel, and Liam as an ugly smile appears on her face.

"Isn't that perfect... I already have four of you right there... Sylviana, did you do this on purpose? How thoughtful of you. Now you're going to watch while I make those dogs suffer."

For a second, a very scary thought crosses my mind, that maybe this was all part of a plan. It's wiped away as soon as I see Sylviana's horrified expression, though, and how she steps forward, in a protective stance. "Nephera, enough!"

"Keep yelling and screaming all you want, Sylviana. I've been waiting for this for way too long, little sister. If you're going to hinder me again, I'll kill you too."

"Mom didn't want this, Nephera. She..."

But the water witch clicks her tongue before Sylviana finishes her sentence. She's obviously angrier now.

"Oh, I bet she was a really great mother to you, wasn't she? Danica was so obsessed with protecting Diane and her children, what did she care about me!"

Danica? That name sounds familiar. I'm sure I've heard it before. Where have I heard about Danica...? I try to remember, a witch named Danica... Oh, Moon Goddess!

"Danica," I repeat. "I know about Danica, the fire witch. Reagan told me about her, she was a friend of Queen Diane, the witch that was protecting the Blue Moon pack... Don't tell me you are Danica's... daughters?"

"That's right," says Nephera with that scary smile of hers on. "It all comes around, doesn't it? Diane's granddaughters, Danica's daughters and... Judah's little bastards."

Judah, like Judah Black? Not only my birth father but now theirs too? What the heck is going on? How does she know us all? The brothers start growling around me.

Why is she mentioning our father? Do we know her?

No idea...

Nephera sighs.

"Oh, well, since Sylviana didn't even bother to tell you the full story, I guess it's my chore, isn't it? At least you'll know why you'll die."

I don't care much about how she wants to kill me or why, but I am curious to how the f**k can she know both my dad, Nate's father and be Sylviana's sister. I feel like something's ringing like crazy in my head. Moreover, we could use a break, and buy some more time for Nora too...

"Let's go back many, many years ago," says Nephera. "You're a big girl now, you at least know who your grandmother was, Selena, don't you? The mighty, holy Queen Diane. The Alpha of your pack of Blue Moon wolves. I was born one year after her twins, Lilyan and Gabriel... Of course, the birth of a little water witch was nothing compared to the Moon Goddess' reincarnation giving birth to twins. Even my own mother, Danica, didn't care much... Most witches don't have much of a maternal side, do they Sylviana? So, when the younger sister of Diane left with some of the Pack, to find a better location, she dropped me off with them!"

I remember that. Nora said that's how Cynthia, William's grandmother, and our great-aunt, came to live and settle in Silver City with a part of the Blue Moon Clan, about fifty years ago... Tragically, once she got here Cynthia never could contact her older sister Diane again after that though, and the Blue Moon Clan became the Sapphire Moon here.

Damian and I exchange a look, agreeing silently to let her finish her little speech. He's probably mind-linking Nora to let her hear that too... I can feel her presence with us. I open up my link to her, feeling her snow-white wolf. She's enduring the pain, for now, but her baby isn't born yet. We need more time...

"Imagine, a little witch I was, so young, suddenly coming to a big city like this one!" says Nephera. "My mother, Danica, had sent me so there would already be a witch at the destination, ready to protect Diane's precious children... I was supposed to help Cynthia establish a communication with them, too, but we knew that would take a few years before I was strong enough to do that..."

Moon Goddess, so...

That's why they lost contact, suddenly says Nora's voice in my mind, echoing my own thoughts.

Yeah. She was probably the one who didn't do her part of the job, and why Cynthia could never reach Diane again...

"I wasn't yet too interested to be Cynthia's little puppet. She was too busy taking care of the pack in Silver City, establishing themselves among the other clans and so on. She was truly a workaholic. But me? I had all of my time to grow up, though, so I would wander around, learn about my power and make some friends, humans, and werewolves. I made one friend, one werewolf boy I grew fond of, with my weak little girl's heart. Can you guess who that boy was?"

"Judah Black..." I gasp.

The pieces of the puzzle are starting to click into place slowly... Nora and I knew there was one part of the story that was missing, but I would have never imagined that was Nephera's, or that Sylviana had anything to do with our birth pack.

"Yes! The strong, fierce Judah Black. Of course, I knew him when he was only a young wolf, fighting to find his place in his pack. He was an Alpha, but he wasn't that strong. So, little by little, I helped him..."

"You used your magic on him?" I ask, stunned.

Nephera gives me a little wink.

"I did. I mean, I was young, I thought it was innocent, a friend helping a friend... We grew up together, both getting stronger. I knew I was going to be this City's witch, and I was grooming my own Alpha to lead the werewolves!"

I don't like where this is going...

Damian, you knew?

No... Nothing of this.

Nephera sighs, almost a bit too dramatically. She's like an actress, having fun on her own stage, making her show and taking pleasure in laying down her story. I take deep breaths, glancing around. The fight is still going on further away, but here, she put everything on hold for her little speech's sake. I really hope this allows us to win sometime... we need any minute we can get until dawn comes...

"Men are men," she sighed. "They are always hungrier for power. Judah was no different. He wanted to prove himself to everyone. To his pack leader, to his friend, to Silver City, to the whole world! I didn't see he was getting drunk on this..."

"A witch's magic is not made to make someone stronger," said Sylviana. "There are secondary effects to a human or a wolf getting too much of it..."

"That's right, Sylviana. Judah Black was a junkie, completely submitted to me and my magic. Honestly, when I understood that, I decided it was fine. By then, I was completely disinterested in the Blue, no, the Sapphire Moon Pack who only wanted to use me. Instead, I wanted to make Judah and his pack mine. Being the witch of the Sapphire Moon would mean doing Cynthia's bidding, like my mom did with Diane. I wanted to be my own witch, and make my own choices. Judah was giving me that. He was nothing without me. It was just another way of binding him to me..."

That's f*****g disgusting...

No wonder our father got so strong so fast. I remember our former pack kept talking about that, how it was unnatural.

Do you think the reason we are so strong too is because... I mean, he was our father...

I hope not.

Me too. I don't need him or that witch's magic.

While the brothers bicker through the mind-link, next to me Sylviana shakes her head.

"You shouldn't have done that, Nephera! You were using his magic for something wrong and corrupting his mind..."

"I didn't corrupt him enough!" Suddenly yells her sister. "He would have been mine, completely mine if it wasn't for that damn b***h!"

Our mother! Our parents were fated mates!

He probably ditched the witch as soon as he could. So like our father...

"Judah wanted everything from me," says Nephera, "but the one thing he didn't care about was my love for him. As soon as he had met that woman, it was over. This damn fated pairing of his was robbing him from me!"

"Or the other way around," I growl. "You were desperately holding on to a man that wasn't yours. Black was wrong for using you, but you could have ended things anytime. You were the one with the power." Nephera scoffs, glaring at me.

"You think it was that easy? I gave my childhood and my best years to that man, most of my magic for him to consume. Do you think it was easy to get over the first man I ever loved? The first person that ever showed me some affection. I was blind. Too blind to see the only thing Judah Black loved was power. Once I realized that, though it was late, I did my best to get out of his life. I wanted to be the strong, independent witch I had always tried to be. So I refused to give him my magic anymore, no matter how hard he was begging. He went crazy... You don't go sober from magic in a few days. He couldn't let go easily. But I really did try. I abandoned him, to get a life of my own, leave him to his beloved mate and move on... But everyone here knows there was nothing reasonable about Judah Black."

I glance at the brothers. From their growls, I would say they all agree... Nate and I never talked much about his father. I know he and Damian worked together to kill him, which I guess sums up about everything they shared other than a blood bond. Now, I'm starting to think the "Mad King" may have become mad because of his own hunger for power, and the witch that let him taste too much of it... Nephera shakes her head, and her expression goes from an annoying smirk to a sour one.

"He learned I was with child... And that didn't sit well with him. He didn't need two witches, only one. So, he started planning to take my baby away from me. I knew Judah Black enough, I knew that man would have no remorse about killing me or stealing my daughter. I didn't trust Cynthia and the Sapphire Moon would help me, not after I had basically left them to serve another pack. So, I secretly left Silver City, pregnant and scared, trying to run away from him. I don't know if he did it on purpose, but around the same time, Judah drove away all the vampires from Silver City."

That was... right before Liam's birth... says Nate. One of them had bitten our pregnant mother, our father was fighting them for years before he finally managed to send them away.

He sent them to Queen Diane's City, though, according to William... says Nora, though I can feel she's panting.

For now, I'm too interested to know how Nephera avoided the vampires, and why they got to our home city...

"I started running towards the North. I was hoping my mother would save me, help me find shelter and protect me and my child. However, I couldn't outrun the vampires. They caught me way before I reached my destination..."

I suddenly feel a cold shiver down my spine. Nephera looks at the closest vampires with a strange light in her eyes. I realize she hates them even more than she hates us, despite using them as she does. Those eyes... I know that expression, all too well. As if something was broken inside of her... Then, she slowly rolls up her long sleeves, and I gasp.

Bite marks. Hundreds of them spread all over her skin. Now that I'm staring, even her hands are full of croissant scars. If her dress wasn't covering her throat and neck, I bet there would be dozens there too... I feel so disgusted just looking at it. Next to me, Sylviana is shaken up too. I can't tell if she already knew, but she obviously feels sorry for what her sister went through.

"The Vampires like to play with their food..." says Nephera. "Truth is, most humans get used to the pain until they aren't affected anymore and turn into junkies, addicted to that sensation. For werewolves, that bite is poisonous. For witches, however, it is just horribly, atrociously painful. We don't die from it, we just... suffer. It's like having razor blades plunging through your skin and pouring acid underneath. They bite me, over and over... I didn't die, but my body was filled with vampire venom. I lost my baby and all hopes. I would have gladly died, but instead, I was left to endure weeks and weeks of utter torture."

I knew it... Nephera has the eyes of someone who lost a child. I can't even begin to imagine the hell that woman went through. The physical and emotional pain must have been impossible to endure with a sound mind...

"I kept trying to run away, as soon as my magic could heal me. I always ran to the North, a bit further every time, until I finally escaped those beasts long enough to reach the border."

I already can tell what happened next.

The border, and its protective barrier. Diane put it up seeing her sister wasn't returning, to protect her children... It's like hearing Reagan's story all over again, except that this time, her story makes more sense as to why the barrier was up... The vampires really were close, because of Nephera.

"As it turns out," she says, "my mother's magic couldn't even recognize her own kin. She couldn't recognize her own daughter, coming back so many years later, not when my entire body was filled with vampire venom... The barrier Danica had put into place, with Diane, to protect the twins, was keeping me outside. It couldn't even recognize me as a witch. Just a creature broke by vampires, reeking of them. I tried to break that damn barrier so many times..."

I'm starting to understand the tragic truth.

Reagan and Nephera were trying to go back, at the same time. Whether Nephera's venom was preventing it from opening for Reagan, or Reagan's jealousy was adding to the problem, both women were locked out, probably around the same time... If I think about the timing, that should be around my birth and Nora's, too. That barrier must have been more cautious than ever, to protect us...

"Every time I failed to enter, the vampires would catch me, and the cycle of pain and suffering would start all over again... Again, and again... Imagine that t*****e. Knowing your own mother is there, behind that barrier, but she won't recognize you, because she's busy protecting someone else's children... Her new daughter, too."

She glances down at Sylviana.

That's right, if they are half-sisters, it means Sylviana was born during that time as well... and she was originally from the same place as us.