Mathieu (White Flame Trilogy) (22 page)

Kiev chuckled. “It seems our family has a new
little lady
.”

“This is stupid. Call me a girl again, and I’ll lay the smack down on all of you.” Frowning, He turned away from them.

Throwing her blonde haired head back, Kiev gave a hearty laugh. “I already beat you once today; I’ll do it again anytime.” Their little circle reformed around Mathieu. “If we say you’re a girly girly Duchess, then you’re a Duchess.”

Annoyed with the current topic and seeing this as a losing
battle, Mathieu sighed and looked at the blonde woman. “Tell me, Kiev, how did you learn to fight as well as you do?”

Kiev leaned against Darcia, smiling. “Well, I was brought here when I was thirteen. I had some trust issues, so I fought a lot once I got here.”

“What sort of things did you fight over?”
Mathieu said, brow furrowed.

She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, I fought over everything: sharing a room, helping out with chores, and I just liked to get in and spar. It didn’t matter how badly I got beat because I would get back up and keep going until I passed out. Eventually, Darcia
made  me
talk about some stuff and I started to relax.”

“Wasn’t that a relief?” Avanon said, rolling her eyes. “She was feisty as hell.”

“Once she found some balance, she was a natural.” Darcia agreed. “She scraps better than a guy.”

“Then I met Solomon and he made me his second-in-command. And that’s how I got here.” Kiev grinned and shrugged.

“What kind of issues did you have?” Mathieu asked without thinking. A long awkward silent followed his question and his eyes went wide. He hadn’t thought about how that would come out and the way that Solomon was looking at him told him he better start backtracking. “U-um, I mean, what about you, Avanon?” Mathieu turned his gaze to her, begging her with his eyes to help him.

From her perch on Solomon’s lap, Avanon pulled her multi-colored hair over her shoulder. She winked at Mathieu, willing to cover for him. “Solomon is my best friend,” she hugged him tightly, “and Darcia is the only father I’ve ever known. He isn’t my real papa, but he treats me like his daughter. I was born here, you know.” She swayed with a smile, braiding her hair.

Glad that the others seemed to not be holding his faux paus against him, Mathieu asked, “If you were born here, how didn’t you know your father?” He literally slapped himself in the forehead for his stupidity. It seemed that he was the man for insensitive questions today.

Solomon wrapped an arm around Avanon’s waist, rolling his eyes. “Her mom showed up pregnant and left soon after her birth. We get a lot of strays around here.”

“Like the time that Akira and Ayame showed up at the door.” Kiev said with a laugh, the others joining in.

“That was an eventful day. It was a rainstorm out, if I recall.” Darcia said between chuckles. “I remember Nathan nearly having a heart attack when Akira started to strip out of her riding clothes.” His looked at Mathieu, “Akira is a succubus and tends not to wear much in the way of undergarments. And her brother, Ayame, is like you. He’s an energy user. So, they walk in, Akira goes ‘this will work’ and just starts tossing clothes off. Ayame just shrugged and took off his coat, looking around like he was bored. So she’s standing there buck naked in the foyer and puts on her hips and says--”

The three spoke in unison, seemingly imitating the girl. “You guys don’t mind if we kick it here, do you?”

“Wow.” Mathieu said, trying to imagine Avian doing something like that. “When do I get to meet them?”

Darcia shrugged. “Don’t know. Solomon is better to ask. But I think they’ll like you.”

Mathieu rolled his eyes. “Okay,
Solomon
, when shall I get to meet them?”

Shaking his head, Solomon shrugged too. “I’m not certain, but soon, I’m assuming. They check in every once in a while.”

“What do they do?”

It was Avanon that
answered,
eyes half-lidded. “Ayame is a spy in Unith’s government and Akira is the King’s mistress.
Had to put those succubus skills to work somehow.”
Avanon joked. The rest nodded though, each clearly envisioning the woman Mathieu had never met.

“What about you, Darcia?” His tone was a bit bitter; he was still sore over the flower comment earlier.

The black-haired man tilted his head towards Mathieu. “I grew up in the Eastern District under Zanika and Zerieve; I protected them. Nathan, however, wanted me to join his armed forces and serve him under the hand of Solomon, so the girls let me go. I still go see them from time to time. They mean a lot to me.”

“You guys all have kind of cool stories…” Mathieu said, feeling a bit boring.

Kiev chuckled. “Everyone says that at first. You’ll have some crazy times to share after a while, too. But really,
Solomon has the most interesting ones. He’s seen all of us come, and some of us go.”

“He has?”

The blond man’s nostrils
flared,
clearly not ready to talk about himself. “Shut up, Kiev.”

Darcia rubbed the space between his eyes, “Jeez, Solomon. You act like you don’t like to talk about yourself. We all know you’re vein and like to be the special one.”

Mathieu’s curiosity got the better of him, “What, are you like an alien?
Secretly a woman?
Really old?”

It seemed Mathieu had guessed right on at least one of them with the way that Solomon turned a light shade of red. After a long pause, and an encouraging noise from Avanon, the blond man admitted quietly, “…I’m a couple hundred years old.”

“No way!”
Mathieu laughed, “How old, exactly?”

Solomon mumbled.

“Excuse me?” His tone was teasing, getting a bit of revenge.

Huffing, the man ran long fingers through his blond hair. “I’m just over six hundred, alright? I’m still young for my people but to you
humans,
I’m old.”

“Your people?”

“Wow, this kid really doesn’t know anything.” Darcia
was giving him an exasperated look.

Solomon shook his head slightly, bemused. “How did I end up in this conversation? Well, since you don’t know, I’ll explain a bit. Okay, so I’m what you Unithians might call a
vampire
. I’m sure you’ve heard of those.” He rolled his emerald eyes, exasperated. Mathieu nodded an affirmation.

“However, that’s actually inaccurate. Back in the old days, vampires were a real species, but over the years, part of them died off and the rest mutated into something different. My sister and I are distant descendants of them. We inherited their longevity, along with slight physical enhancements. She has an exceptional sense of smell, and my eyes are unparalleled. We don’t need blood and we don’t avoid the sun, like the original vampires did. We can die from blood loss just like you guys. The only real difference is that we live longer and are stronger. It’s our gift.”

Mathieu mulled over what Solomon had said. He could tell that the other man was embarrassed of his age, his abnormality. “That’s cool. I’m jealous. My power seems rather…uncool now.” He winked and the blond man flushed, looking away. Mathieu rubbed the newfound marks on his shoulders. “But really, I want to hear more about you guys and the past. This is all so interesting.”

Kiev smiled at him. “I guess it would be for someone new. To us, these are old stories. But I suppose that’s how it is in families.”

“Family…?”

“Come on, you don’t think you’re an outsider, do you?”
The blonde female smiled at Mathieu, tilting her head. “When you’re not moping or anything, we like you quite a bit. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t tease you,
Duchess
.”

“I don’t mope! And I’m not a duchess!”

“Do too, and you so are.” It was Solomon this time. “But truly, tell us about your childhood.”

Mathieu looked across the room to the broken mirror that he was reflected in. The spider web of cracks mutated his reflection, making him look distorted and broken. He guessed it wasn’t that far out of line from the truth. Swallowing hard, he put aside his hatred for talking about his past. These people called him family, so maybe he would just have to trust them. “Well,” he considered, “I grew up in an orphanage. I didn’t know either of my parents and until I met Avian, and then you guys, I was always the black sheep. I didn’t fit in well because people could tell that I was different, a freak.” He shrugged, making sure not to go into too much detail.

Kiev leaned over and hugged him. “You’re not a freak. Solomon is, but you’re not.”

Solomon scoffed, “Gee thanks, Kiev.”

Mathieu leaned into the hug. “The past makes up who we are. If we don’t endure, then we’ll never know happiness, and if we never know loneliness, then we can’t appreciate the company of others.” Mathieu looked at her, his posture relaxing. “But it means a lot to me that you care.”

Darcia drummed his fingers on his shoes. “You lived with the royal family, right?”

Mathieu nodded, thinking carefully before he answered
..
“Yes. I protected the Princess. And you see how well I succeeded at that.” He mumbled.

“Not really your fault. He got the drop on you and if Nathan hadn’t distracted you, you wouldn’t have let him get her. We all have off days and we all make mistakes.” Darcia said.

“…Sure.”

The raven rubbed his chin.
“So the castle, huh.
I’ve only seen it once. How does it compare to living here?”

This was a topic Mathieu was slightly more comfortable with. “Well, it’s…different. Things there run on a strict schedule, every moment planned. If Avian and I wanted time to ourselves, we had to run off and hide. But Narrie, she’s gifted too, would always drag us back by our ears, hollering about responsibility.” He chuckled, “It took some getting used to, but it was comforting in a sense. I mean, I always knew where I should be and what I should do. I didn’t have to think much. But this place is…more relaxed. Things obviously have to get done around here, but they happen as they happen. The whole place won’t fall apart if it takes some time to get done.
I like both, but for different reasons.”
Freedom
.
That was the word his mind whispered to him whenever he thought about the differences, which he did often. It was easy to talk to these people, he noticed. After all, he was saying more than he normally would have on the topic.

They were all looking at him curiously. “Everything was
planned
? As in, you don’t get to decide where you go, or what you do?” Avanon gave him a look, nose wrinkled. It seemed that lifestyle didn’t appeal to her.

“Eh.
Pretty much.”

“So if you wanted to go for a walk, you couldn’t just get up, go outside and walk?”

“Not unless it was my free time. If I wasn’t guarding Avian, I’d get an earful. Luckily, she was quite the rebel and tended to want to go on whirlwind adventures. She was an amazing person.”

“Well,” Solomon said, “I can’t promise any whirlwind adventures, but I do know that you’ll be allowed your freedom. You can come and go as you please, as well as make your own decisions. If you want to do something, or don’t want to, then just say so. We’ll respect that.”

“You guys will provide all the adventure I need when we take down the Unithian government. But the freedom is appreciated.” Mathieu said, yawning. He wasn’t tired per say, just relaxed for once. It’d been a while, to be honest.

“On a happier note, how are his fighting skills?
Up to par?”
Darcia gave his blond counterpart a look.

And as if Mathieu wasn’t even there, they began to talk about him. “Not exactly, but once we aren’t using broad swords to train with, I think that his ability will expand rapidly. I think they just might be too cumbersome for someone so small like him. But, I’ll try to bribe Lenore at dinner tonight to cast him a weapon tomorrow. Can I count on you to help me train him if she makes a sword?”