Chapter 18

Weeks rolled by; Michael visited Emily frequently. He hung out with her a couple of times, but he ended up having a mood swing and leaving with a lame excuse.

Richard had moved in fully with them, but Emily had refused all his efforts to make a conversation with her.

She was in her room. She kept jumping on her bed, trying to pop out wings and fly. She didn't know whether to expect fiery wings or coal-black wings. 

Her father opened her door halfway and peeped into the room. She fell on her bed and quickly composed herself.

"What were you doing?" Richard asked, stepping into the room.

"Why didn't you knock?" She answered his question with a question that wasn't in any way related to his question. She was being unreasonable. 

He sat on her bed and let out a sigh. "I know you're mad at me. I'd be too if I were you. " 

"I'm not mad at you." She stood up from the bed and strode to her window.

"You've always been avoiding discussions with me." Richard stood up. I know you have a lot of questions, but I think now is the right time to ask them.

"Just leave me alone." She muttered, gazing out the window.

"No, Emily. I'm not going to leave you alone until you tell me-"

"Why did you do it?" She cut him off, her gaze still fixed on the outside of her window. "Why did you reject my mother when she was pregnant with me?" Why did you repudiate her? Was it because of me? " She turned around and faced him. 

Richard paused for a moment.  " I didn't reject her. I mean, I did, but I did it for the good of both of you. " He said, and Emily glared at him.

"The phoenixes and werewolves had always been our foes. We couldn't mate with these species, and even if we did, we wouldn't be able to have children. No one knew about you. They all thought it was impossible. If they knew, I'd be put to death. I couldn't explain things to her because I didn't have time, so I had to make her think that I don't care about her or you. That was the only way to make her disappear. As Richard spoke, he kept an eye on Emily's expression. 

Emily diverted her eyes from him, darting them a little before shifting them back to her father. "That doesn't justify your actions."

"I don't expect you to forgive me; just give me the chance to make up for my shortcomings." He said, and after a moment of not getting any reply from Emily, he walked out.

Michael descended the stairs. His father sat on the couch with a newspaper in his hands. He greeted him and headed toward the refrigerator. 

Michael paused. He turned around and faced his father. "I'm actually surprised to see you around. You've never stayed this long. "

"Yeah, I'm not leaving until Chris is fine." Nicholas straightened the newspaper and focused his gaze on it.

"Of course." Michael nodded. "It is always going to be about Chris." 

"Don't be so childish." Nicholas threw the newspaper on the coffee table.

"I'm being childish? Where were you when I first transformed? When I killed someone who didn't deserve to die just because I can't control my instinct to rip out flesh? "

"You killed someone?" Nicholas stood up from the couch.

"How else did you think I unlocked my gift? Oh, you wouldn't know because you've been too busy trying to protect Chris, searching for ways to delay his transformation or cure his werewolfism. "

"I'm so sorry, Michael. I'm sorry that you think I love Chris more than I love you. I hope that one day it'll be clear to you that all I'm doing now is for the good of both of you. This is the only way to hinder the prophecy. " 

"What prophecy?" Michael frowned, moving some steps closer to his father.

Nicholas sighed, and Michael watched his father ascend the stairs. He was perplexed by his father's words.

He stormed out of the house and caught sight of the car he had taken from the middle-aged man the night Jacob transformed. He rushed back in and searched for the keys. When he found it, he got in and drove off.

He saw the man's jacket in the back seat of the car, so he used it to track him. Occasionally, he thrusts his head out the window to catch a scent.

He arrived at the man's house and knocked on the door. A young lady opened the door and looked out.

"Hi, I guess I'm looking for your husband." Michael spoke immediately after the lady opened the door.

She gazed suspiciously at him for a moment before she yelled. "Honey!" With her gaze still fixed on Michael, A few minutes later, the middle-aged man stood behind his wife and stared at Michael.

His eyes caught the car that was parked in his yard. He squeezed past her and stood in front of Michael.

"I think this belongs to you." Michael handed the keys over to the man.

The man grabbed the keys. "Thank you." He simply said, before rushing down the stairs to check out his lost-but-found car.

Michael walked out of the neighborhood only to bump into Chris. "Watch it, brother." Chris grinned.

"I'm not in the mood today, Chris." Michael maintained a serious expression on his face.

"I've been watching you lately. I didn't know you had eyes for Emily. " Chris walked side by side with Michael.

"I don't know what you are talking about." 

"Let's skip the part where you pretend to not know what I'm talking about. " 

"Get away from me!" Michael yelled.

"You are holding back your feelings for her, aren't you?" Well, you should keep up because you are not allowed to feel ecstatic while I agonize on every full moon. " Chris's grimaced.

"I'm also a werewolf. I can relate to what you're going through. "

"Says a guy who shifts at will." Chris scoffed.

"It is not as easy for me as you think. Why are you doing this, Chris? " 

"Just a little payback."

"Payback for what? I don't even know why I feel guilty about what happened to you. As far as I know, I didn't do anything to hurt you. " Michael stopped walking and focused his gaze on Chris.

"Don't waste your time trying to make yourself feel less guilty. I'm still hellbent on making your life miserable. " Chris said, and started walking away.

"Chris, please don't hurt her. Michael pleaded.

Chris paused. "You already know what to do." He replied, and continued walking away.

.

.

.

Emily walked into Nich's eatery, and she couldn't help but notice the new waiter working there.

He was tall and athletic, with striking blonde hair. She walked further to the kitchen, glancing at him as she walked past the bar counter. There were a lot of people seated there and ordering drinks, so he was too busy attending to them that he didn't notice her stares.

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed her apron. Elsa was there preparing hamburgers. 

"Hey, Elsa, who's the new guy?" Emily asked as she took her hands to the back and tied the apron firmly.

"How should I know?"

"You're psychic." 

"Yeah... sort of. I'm a witch. " Elsa turned and faced Emily.

"You're kidding, right?" Emily chuckled.

Elsa looked at her for a moment. She held out her open palm. "Accensus." When she said the Latin word, fire burned over her palm.

"That's the trick you came up with?" Emily chuckled. "Besides, shouldn't you be keeping this a secret?"

Elsa stared at Emily for a moment. Since that couldn't convince her, she decided to do something else. "Invisibilis." She said, and spontaneously disappeared.

Emily was puzzled. She looked around and couldn't find Elsa. Her eyes were still searching when she heard Elsa's voice from behind her. 

"I know I shouldn't be telling you this." Emily staggered backwards, her gaze quickly shifting to Elsa's previous position.

"How'd you do that?" She asked.

"Magic." Elsa held her hands to her sides and dropped them immediately. "So... I told you this not because you're my friend, because you're not, but because I know you're not human. So... care to explain? "

Emily sighed. "I want to tell you this, not because you're trustworthy, you're quite the opposite." Elsa rolled her eyes at Emily's words. "You told me you're a witch, which means you trust me, even if you're trying to hide the fact that-"

"Will you just spill the beans?" Elsa cut her.

"It's my beans, not yours. I'll spill it when I choose to. " Emily raised her brows at Elsa. "I choose to spill it now." She said after a moment and smiled.

 "So, I'm an avian. My mother is a phoenix and my father, a raven. " 

"You're a hybrid?" Elsa grimaced. "Show me some amazing stuffs then."

"Uh... I'm not sure I can do any amazing stuff yet." Emily looked away.

"From the way I see it, you're nothing close to a hybrid; you're weak, vulnerable, annoying, and easily controlled by your emotions. "

Emily glared at Elsa and stormed out of the room. Deep down, she knew Elsa's words were true, but it was too painful to believe.

She bumped into Michael on her way out to get some fresh air. 

"I'm sorry." Emily staggered backwards. She wrinkled her nose as the stench of alcohol overpowered his usual sweet aroma.

Michael nodded and attempted to walk away. "Have you been drinking?" She asked, with her nose still wrinkled.

He turned and faced her. "There are lots of things going on with me now, so go wherever it is you were going."

"No, Mike, you can talk to me." Emily grabbed his hand.

He forcefully drew back his hand, causing Emily to stagger a bit.

"Stay away from me." He yelled and walked away.

Emily remained in her position, mooneyed as she watched Michael leave. Her eyes slowly squinted and her jaw clenched.

"Who does he think he is?" She muttered as she walked away from Nich's eatery.

She got to a lonely street and observed two guys in black cloaks following her. With the hoods on, it was difficult to see their faces. She increased her walking steps, and they also picked up their pace.

When she saw that they were getting closer, she began to run, but two other guys, dressed the same way as the two at her back, revealed themselves from a corner. She froze immediately. She began to tremble.