A Glow of Stars & Dusk by Eve L. Mitchell

My mum came hometo find me curled up on my old bed in my room, in tears. “Star? Baby? Star, baby, what’s wrong?” she asked as she gathered me in her arms.

“It’s all my fault, Mum,” I sobbed into her embrace. “I let him use me, and I liked it, and Sam knows, and he’ll never talk to me again.”

“Who’s Sam?” my mum asked me as she stroked my hair. “Who used you? Talk to me, sweetheart,” she soothed me gently.

“And I took your powers! I fed off of you in the womb, and I stole your powers,” I wailed even as I sobbed harder.

“Who told you that?” Mum asked me as she rocked me gently. I felt her kiss on my head. “Who fed you such rubbish?”

“Rubbish?” I looked up at her, at my mum whose dark blue eyes had a lighter ring of blue around the pupil, like a beacon of light. I had her eye colour, only in reverse. I had the lighter blue eyes with a dark circle of blue around my pupil. “Why is it rubbish?” I sniffled as I rubbed my nose. “Am I not the same thing as a stupid vampire?”

“What?” My mum giggled as she produced a tissue from her pocket and wiped my eyes. “Why are you a vampire, you silly girl?”

“I fed off you.”

“Babies do that in the womb, my sweet baby,” she said as she stroked my hair again. “That’s how they grow,” she teased me gently.

“But the Druid told me I took all your powers. I ate them.” I had hiccups, and my mum pinched me so hard on my side that I gasped. She grinned at me when my hiccups stopped.

“What Druid? You should stay away from Druids, that’s dark magic,” she told me as she stood to open the bedroom window.

“I spoke to Hamish MacDonald,” I admitted as I sat up and blew my nose.

“What!” Mum gasped at me. “Why?”

“I have six…” I hesitated. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. “Demons. I have six demons who need me to break a curse on one of their lords.”

“Star, no.” My mum looked horrified. “Two threes? Are you daft, girl?”

“I know, I know.” I nodded as I sighed. “They scared the shit out of me too when they turned up.”

“Turned up? Where are they now? Oh my Lord above, Star, what are you involved in?” My mum had her hands clasped under her chin as she looked at me. “Downstairs, come on, you make tea, I’ll get Gran’s leaves.”

“Mum,” I protested as I followed her down the stairs. “I can’t call Gran to read tea leaves,” I muttered, plus Gran was rubbish at reading the leaves.

My mum stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked over her shoulder at me. “I don’t need your gran to read leaves, Star. Been reading the leaves all my days.”

“But I ate your powers!” I said as I hurried after her.

“That twisted old bastard speaks as much shit now as he shovelled when he was alive.” Mum rolled her eyes at me. “Do you think every woman before us got their powers taken when they were pregnant?” Mum scoffed. “Do you think every woman before us had a baby girl?” She frowned at me as she switched the kettle on. “Didn’t we send you to university?” her tone was teasing, but the message was clear, I was being dumb.

“I didn’t suck you dry?” I whispered as I crossed the kitchen and wrapped my arms around her.

“No. I almost bled to death because you decided to come out feet first, like you were ready to walk, but no.” She cupped my face with her smaller hand. “You have such an active imagination, but you know when the spirits are lying.”

“Did you bind my powers?” I asked as I took a seat.

“I did.” Mum filled the pot with tea leaves. “And when you tell me why you have two threes in your house, I’ll tell you why I did.”

“They came for me on Friday.” I retold my story to Mum, and she listened as she brewed the tea.

“So which one is Sam?”

“Their leader, I think.” I felt myself redden and couldn’t meet her eye.

“Good looking?”

“Amazing looking.” I dropped my head into my hands.

“Mm-hmm.” She stirred the pot. “You sleep with him?”

My head snapped up, and I looked at her in shock. “Mum!”

“What, I can’t ask if you slept with a demon?” she scoffed as she poured the tea. It looked like black tar.

“You used the liquorice mix?” I asked in trepidation.

“Best results, you know to put honey into it,” she admonished me.

“It’s like cough syrup,” I muttered as I stood and went to get the honey.

“So, did you do the deed with him?” Mum persisted as she stirred the tea.

“No, Mum, thanks for the air quotes though.” I sighed and my face twisted in a scowl. “Stuff, but not the deed itself.” I mimicked her use of air quotes, and she smiled briefly.

“Okay.” She nodded as she pursed her lips together, and I knew the lecture was coming. “You just met this demon.”

“I don’t think they do demon date nights,” I snarked.

“Just straight to sex then?” she quipped with sarcasm even as she shook her head. “They’re so slippery, you have to be careful when you deal with them.”

“I haven’t had to deal with them before.”

“Well, falling into bed isn’t the way.” Her look was stern, reprimand delivered. “Drink your tea.”

I took a drink of the tea and failed to hide my grimace as I swallowed it down. God, it was vile. “I didn’t fall into bed with him.”

“Did you sleep together, in the same bed? In the same space?”

“Yes.” Had I? Was it actually Sam who had been in my bed? “I think so.” I felt dirty.

“You think so?” Mum stopped stirring in her honey. “Explain.”

So I had to tell her about this morning, and by the time I was finished, her mouth was hanging open, and my face was burning with embarrassment.

“You couldn’t tell the difference?” she asked me for the third time.

“Seems not.”

“How?” Mum shook her head as she stood. “How could you not know?”

“He kissed kind of the same. He was a bit rougher, but I thought that was…you know”—I shrugged—“passion.”

My mum blinked at me and then sat down across from me, a determined look in her eye. “Star, how many men have you had sex with?”

“Mum!”

“Don’t mum me, tell me right now.”

“Two. And stuff with Sam. And I suppose the one this morning.”

My mum exhaled loudly. “You’re so innocent.”

“Most mums would be proud,” I grumbled as I gulped my tea. “Jesus, this stuff is disgusting.”

“Shut up and drink it,” my mum ordered as she rubbed her forehead. “Demons are possessive.”

“I know, I’ve met Sam.” I sighed as I looked at my teacup. “I’m done.” I showed her my cup.

“Drink it all,” she instructed with a glower. “I cannot believe I have to ask this.” Mum looked tortured. “Did you…swallow, with the demon?”

“Fucking hell, Mum!”

“Don’t swear like that.”

“I think my swearing is the least of my problems at the moment,” I protested as I stared at her in disbelief. “Did you just ask me that?”

“Yes, you see”—she took a deep breath—“if he spilled his essence, then you are more or less marked as his until he no longer claims you.”

I felt my face pale, and Sam’s words from the toilets came back: now they know it as well as you do. “He marked me?”

“Basically.” My mum finally looked uncomfortable. “Only if you take the essence into your body though.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh my God, Star, pick a hole and use your imagination,” Mum snapped.

“Oh.” I bent my head in mortification at her crudeness. “Shit.”

“And the one from this morning, did he…give you anything?” Her stare was hard and unyielding.

“No, not like that.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “The others reacted?”

“Yes, Zel called me a whore.”

“Bastard,” Mum muttered.

“Sam thought it was Chaz, he was going to kill him.”

My mum was staring at me, her face white. “Sam? Chaz? Zel?” My mum’s face was so pale I thought she was going to faint. “Star, no. No, no, no.” She shook her head even as she stood and paced in the kitchen. “No, this cannot be.”

“Mum?”

“Give me the cup,” she demanded, almost snatching it out of my hands. She stared into the tea leaves and then crossed to the window over the sink for a better look. “No,” her whispered denial was loud in the kitchen.

“Mum?”

Her head snapped from looking at me to the doorway. “I did not welcome you, demon,” she snarled as Sam walked into the room.

“She led me in the other day, which I am sure she has told you,” Sam spoke calmly.

I was on my feet as I watched the two of them warily. He was so big and broad, and my mum was…my mum. I crossed the space and stood in front of my mum protectively.

“You don’t need to protect me from demons.” My mum’s sneer and tone made me look at her in concern.

Zel appeared behind Sam, and Sam moved further into the kitchen to allow Zel and Pen in. I glanced between them all, and I faltered when I saw my mum dip her head to Pen in greeting.

“What’s going on?” I asked almost inaudibly.

“You stepped in shit, and I don’t know how I can get you out of it,” Mum said grimly. With a tired sigh, she took her seat at the table. “You joining me or going to stand there and call my daughter more names?”

“Did she tell you why?” Sam asked darkly as he looked at me, and I almost started crying again at the look of loathing in his eye.

“My daughter is mostly untaught,” my mum bit out. “She sees spirits, she makes a little extra money from pulling souls and telling fortunes.”

“You knew I pulled souls?” I asked as I tore my eyes away from Sam.

“What do you think necromancy is?” Mum looked at me with a fond smile. “I have Black Sea tea or juniper and lavender,” she told them as she stood again. “We have a lot to discuss.”

Pen opted for the juniper one, while Zel and Sam both took the black tea. I sat and stared at the tabletop.

“Where’s Chaz?” I asked softly.

Sam snorted in answer, and Zel ignored me. Pen looked at them both and then at me. “We thought it best to keep them separated for a while.”

“Sam and Chaz?” I asked in confusion.

“No, I mean—”

“Why didn’t you react to me when I was here two days ago,” Sam asked my mum, cutting Pen off.

“I take a draught,” Mum replied as she made two separate teapots. “I’ve run out.”

“Now is not the time to drown us out, Jean,” Pen murmured quietly as he accepted his teapot and teacup.

“How do you know my mum?”

Mum huffed dryly as she spooned the tea leaves into the bigger pot. With a shrewd look between Zel and Sam, she added another spoonful. When she was done, she sat back at the table and wordlessly handed her own teacup to Pen. He glanced at it before he handed it back to her.

“I always feel like I’m playing catch up,” I grumbled as I looked around the table.

“I know Penemue because he is the very personification of what he is.” Mum poured Sam’s and Zel’s tea. She whispered in their strange language, and then with an almost geisha-like bow, she handed them both their teacups.

“Penemue?” I tried again. “Pen-nee-mue?”

“Correct.” He raised his teacup in salute before he sipped the almost clear tea.

“Isn’t juniper and lavender basically just some form of flavoured gin?” I mused, and my mum gave a light laugh.

“Always so blunt,” she chuckled. “And curious unfortunately.”

“So.” I looked around the table. “Who’s filling me in?”

“You cannot hide it from her,” Mum told them quietly. “Her power will unleash since you are hell-bent on breaking it free.”

“She was bound in front of the arch at St Andrews?” Pen asked.

“No.” Mum looked away from them all. “Dunnottar.”

Zel’s hiss was loud. “Dangerous and stupid.”

“She was too strong, they would have come for her.”

“What are you?” I asked, my voice firm. “You’re the personification of what?”

“They are Watchers.” Mum topped her cup up. She actually liked the hideous tea.

“Okay, and what do they watch?” I looked at them all cluelessly.

“You. People.” Pen smiled.

“I don’t understand the reference,” I confessed.

“We have always Watched,” Zel told me. His vibrant blue eyes met mine with less scorn. “We Watched, and eventually we wanted.”

“Wanted what?”

“What humans have, what humans disregard and take for granted,” Pen said wistfully.

“So, you were allowed to…Watch?” I was not keeping up.

“We rebelled,” Sam said as I met his steady gaze.

“You rebelled, and you fell so far.” My mum’s look to Pen was full of sadness.

“Fell?” I had a horrific thought forming, and I was ready to bolt.

“We Watched, we coveted, we rebelled, we fell.” Zel ticked the items off on his fingers. “We were free.” His smile was savage.

My eyes were closed as I tried to control my emotion. “Heaven?” I said as I opened my eyes and met Sam’s glowing green eyes. “You fell from heaven?”

“We did.”

“You were angels?” I demanded as my heart thumped heavily in my chest. Zel nodded, and now I knew why he was such an egotistical arsehole. “And who led the rebellion?”

“Samyaza was the leader of the first twenty,” Zel answered proudly.

“But you, witch…” Sam’s mocking smirk appeared. “You can call me Sam.”