Chapter 66

~Eliana~

I was folding some of our clothes, as I was yet to finish unpacking, even though we had arrived two days ago. I still couldn’t believe that Alistair had flared up when he got to know about Ian, and he hadn’t even been cool about things

Before now, I hadn’t considered the possibility of Alistair actually going to court in order to have custody over his son. When I was coming back to Los Angeles, I had thought he was going to be excited about the news, and try to create a bond with Ian, instead of forcing one on him.

Of course, my family members had no idea that even when they spoke in hushed tones, Ian could hear them clearly. They had planted a seed of hatred towards his father in his heart, and what Alistair didn’t know was the fact that what he had done only worsened the situation. It made Ian see him as more of a bad person, even though I had been trying to tell him he had some good in him.

If he did try to take my son away from me, I was going to show him how crazy of a person I could be. He had more than enough money, and had the capacity to bribe his way into any judge’s favour, and so, I wasn’t willing to fight for Ian’s custody with him. If he brought court papers, I was going to find a way to get out of this city with my son.

“Someone’s coming,” Ian announced, not looking up from the game he was playing on my android phone.

A few seconds later, I heard a knock on the door.

I shot a small smile at Ian. “Yes, come in,” I said.

Eleanora walked into the room. “Wow. I love what you’ve done with the room,” She said, checking out every corner of the room.

“Thanks. I went to get some decorations yesterday, after which Ian forced me to get him ice cream. Glad it turned out well,” I said.

“Yeah, it really did turn out well. I came to inform you that there are people you must see. They are in the living room,” She said.

“People? How many are they?” I asked, wondering who could be in the living room, and why I needed to see them.

“Come and see for yourself. Ian, you too,” Eleanora said.

“Okay, auntie,” Ian said, and climbed out of the bed, where he had been lying down peacefully.

Even if he wasn’t invited, I could bet twenty dollars on the fact that he would have peeped to see who was in the living room. He was always eager to meet people, and curious about a whole lot of stuff. The only person he wasn’t eager to meet was Alistair, and I couldn’t blame him completely for that.

I closed the door gently behind me.

As usual, Ian skipped all the way to the living room. When I got there, I was stunned at the number of relatives I saw. There was a total of four people, apart from my parents and Elvira.

Grandmother, my aunt, Melissa, Uncle Aiden and one of my cousins were present. The last time I had seen them was during thanksgiving when I was about seven years old. For some reason, my parents had suddenly stopped all forms of contacts with our relatives and we had continued living our lives as one normal independent family.

“Oh, Eliana. Look how big you’ve grown,” Grandmother said, stretching her arms out wide for a hug.

I walked gently towards where she stood, and gave her a big hug, while she stroked my hair. “Oh, my darling. You were always my favourite,” She said.

“Grandma, I’ve missed you,” I said, beaming with excitement.

“And I have missed you, too, my darling,” She said, pushing back my hair.

“We would have been one big happy family provided your father didn’t decide to disown the rest of us. Look how big you’ve grown,” Aunt Melissa said.

“She’s the most beautiful and the most innocent one,” My cousin, Santana, said.

“What’s all this flattery for?” I asked, with a nervous chuckle.

“No reason,” She said.

“Who’s this cutie?” Uncle Aiden asked, smiling at Ian.

“He’s my son,” I replied.

“You have a son? I’m a great grandmother all over again? Sometimes, I feel like I’ve lived way too long,” Grandmother said.

“Obviously, you have,” My father chipped in, and my sisters suppressed their laughter.

“Where’s his father?” Aunt Melissa asked.

“Dead,” My mother quickly answered, before I could open up my mouth to say anything.

When I looked at her, she gave me a wink, signifying that I should go along with the flow.

“Oh, dear. I’m so sorry for your loss,” Aunt Melissa said.

I looked at Ian, and with the gloomy look written on his face, I could tell that he wasn’t happy about what was going on. No, I couldn’t take it. Alistair had been a pain in the ass, but he was still the father of my son, and I was never going to wish death upon him.

“What my mother meant is that he’s dead to us. He’s still very much alive and healthy, but we don’t have anything to do with him,” I said.

“Well, having a husband these days is overrated. Being a single mum rocks,” Santana said.

“I agree with you. So, why aren’t you guys sitting down? Aren’t you going to stay for sometime?” I asked.

“Stay in this shithole? I guess not,” Uncle Aiden said, looking around, with a distasteful look written on his face.

“Your father said he could make it on his own, but look at him now. After starting a stupid business, he made a mess of everything and he’s back to square one, when he should have been with us in New Mexico, prospering in the family’s jewellery business,” Grandmother said.

“Do not blame him. I’m sure that he wouldn’t have made such a decision if he had gotten a soothsayer to tell him his future,” Aunt Melissa said.

My father scoffed. “Even if I had foreseen that life would be like this for me, I still would have left the family. Maybe I’d have chosen a different business, but I don’t regret choosing to disown the family and not move with you to New Mexico,” My father said.

“Yes, and I guess that if you came here to gloat after six years, you should find your way out of our shithole,” Mother said, agreeing with my father.

Aunt Melissa laughed out loud. “You guys are so pathetic. We wouldn’t be here in the first place if Mother hadn’t been so bent on seeing her first born son, and trying to see if she could convince him to join her once again in the fight against the supernatural,” She said.

“Wait, what?” I asked.

“That’s it. You’ve overstayed your welcome,” My father said.

“Wait a second, dad. Aunt, what are you talking about?” I asked.

“Well, you must know that the Venator family is no friend to supernatural creatures, especially the werewolves. No one deserves to have so much power and also live like a human being. They are dangerous, and someday, they’re going to overtake the human race,” Aunt Melissa explained.

“So, you want to fight them?” I asked.

“We’re waging a war against them. Before they kill us, we have to kill them. Santana, here, said she came across a Banshee, you know what that is, don’t you?” She asked.

“The wailing woman who predicts deaths. Of course, I know,” I replied.

“Um... I don’t think Ian should listen to this conversation,” Elvira said.

“Right. Go on in, Ian. I’ll be with you shortly,” I said, knowing that it was all so useless, since he was practically going to hear whatever we said even from the storage room that had now become our bedroom.

“Okay, mum,” He said, and went inside.

Immediately he was out of sight, Aunt Melissa continued with what she was saying.

“Santana had travelled all the way from New Mexico to Los Angeles to meet her online boyfriend. As you might have already guessed, she was catfished and went to cool off in the woods, when she heard a loud mournful wail. We have a potion that helps us detect humans from supernatural creatures, and when she drank it, she could see the woman for who she truly was. Thankfully, she had her poison with her. She rubbed it on a stick and boom!, it went straight through her stomach,” Aunt Melissa said, in a proud manner.

I scoffed. “This Banshee...did...did she hurt you in any way?” I asked, looking at Santana.

“No,” She responded, with a shrug.

“So, why did you kill her?” I asked, clenching my fists.

“Isn’t it obvious? I killed her because she is a taboo,” Santana replied, wearing a sly smile.

“You killed her because of who she is, and you’re not even ashamed to say so. Why should you go around hurting people who have never hurt you in any kind of way?” I asked.

“And who says they have never hurt me? I am an orphan because of them,” Santana said.

“She is right. Don’t you know that’s why we left Los Angeles? While her mother died in the process of giving birth to her, her father died mercilessly in the hands of a werewolf. We left Los Angeles and went to New Mexico, and after Santana killed that Banshee, we realised that we shouldn’t run away from them. Rather; we should fight them till there isn’t any of them left. There are a lot of werewolves in Los Angeles, and we are going to hunt them down, and kill them... all of them,” Uncle Aiden said, in a determined voice.

“So, you’d kill even the little ones among them?” I asked, thinking of what they would do if they ever found out Ian was one of them.

Grandmother scoffed. “Is that even a question? Of course, we’d kill the little ones, because young or old, they’re all monsters and they deserve to die. You won’t believe it if I told you that the werewolf who killed your Uncle Charles, Santana's father was just a little child,” She said.

It was then it dawned on me that the little child who had killed Uncle Charles must have been Alistair. “The little werewolf had every reason to retaliate after you killed his parents,” I blurted out, then wished I hadn’t said it.

“You’re supporting your uncle’s murderer?” Grandmother asked, feeling betrayed.

“All I am trying to say is that any of us would have done the same if we were in his shoes,” I said, looking at each and every one of them.

“That’s the same thing your father said many years ago, when he chose to side with the werewolves,” Grandmother said, looking disgusted.

“I guess I am my father’s daughter after all,” I told her.

“Whatever. We came to inform you that you have two options: Join us in our fight against supernatural creatures or stay out of it. Don’t try to fight us because we will end you, family or not,” Aunt Melissa threatened.

“Family is overrated,” Santana added.

“If you’re done, you may go now,” My father said, standing, and walking to the door, which he opened wide for them to leave.

“Oh, Eliana, you shouldn’t be like the rest of them. You’re special, I can see that. If you do have a change of heart, we’re currently staying in our old Family House. Other relatives will be swooping in soon and you should join in the fight against those monsters to protect the human race. I hope you think about it,” Grandmother said, gave me a kiss on the forehead, and began to walk out.

Aunt Melissa, Uncle Aiden and Santana waved goodbyes, with fake smiles plastered on their faces, as they all left the house. After they had left, dad slammed the door behind them as if to tell them: “Good riddance!”

“So, you’re not the bad guys?” I asked, feeling surprised.

“We’re not, sweetie. We once were, but when your uncle died, we realised that they have feelings as well. They fight to protect their loved ones, they eat together, they love each other, and we can’t take that away from them. We told you we’re werewolf hunters because that’s who we are in the family. What we didn’t tell you is that we hunt only those that hunt us; we don’t just hunt people for no reason,” My father explained.

I nodded my head, finally understanding that my parents weren’t bad people, but I still couldn’t understand why they had pretended to be bad.

“You must be wondering why we never acknowledged that you had seen a wild beast sixteen years ago. We didn’t want you to develop a hatred in your heart for werewolves like the rest of our family, and take your anger out on the ones that didn’t even do anything wrong to you. Also, it is our job to ensure that human beings don’t know that supernatural creatures truly exist, because if they do, it may start a war between the two races, and we all enjoy peace. We were going to hunt down the beast that hurt you and your friends, but we never found it. I hope you can understand, sweetheart,” My mother said.

“You should have explained this to me earlier on. I can’t believe you let me hate you guys for so many years,” I said, feeling quite emotional.

“What’s important is that we now understand each other, and we are one big happy family,” Eleanora said, coming forward with Elvira.

“Hold on a minute, Eliana. How did you know the story of that little werewolf?” My father asked.

I smiled, in an uneasy manner. “I guess I must have heard you all talking about it,” I lied.

“Maybe that’s the case. Anyway, it’s not a big deal,” My mother said, as she stretched forth her hands, smiling really broadly.

We decided to have a family hug, and we hugged each other.

“It’s been so long since we embraced each other like this,” Elvira noted.

“I wish Elio was here as well,” My mother said.

“At least, you have me,” Ian’s small voice said, as he came into view, which only meant that he had been hiding behind the curtain.

“Aww, come here,” Elvira said, and he joined in the family hug.

A family consisted of the most important people in your life, and right now, I had it. There were relatives who wouldn’t mind killing my son because of who he was, when he hadn’t even chosen to be created this way, but there were also relatives who would stop at nothing to protect my son; right now, the latter was by my side, and I knew that despite the war that had been waged against the likes of my son, we were going to win this fight.