Raven's Blood: Chapter 17

 

 

 

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Author's Note: Here's the new chapter of Raven's Blood. Thanks to my readers and to BCTS for giving their support of Transgendered authors and fiction. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 17: Dinner Conversation

The ringing of the doorbell announced the arrival of Aunt Lin while we were all still looking through the menu and deciding what everyone wanted for dinner. Anxiety welled up in my chest at the sound and the thought of the introductions and conversation to come. As much as I wanted all the most important people in my life to meet, I also wanted them to like each other and get along, and I was terrified that they wouldn’t.

“That’s probably Aunt Lin, I’ll get it,” I told the others as I stood up to do just that. Thankfully, the door was out of sight of the dining room, so nobody saw me taking a deep breath to steady myself as I reached for the doorknob. As expected, it was my aunt, and I tried to give her a confident smile as I opened the door. “Hey, Aunt Lin, come on in, the others are in the dining room.”

Some part of my nervous tension must have shown on my face because she gave me a sympathetic look and placed a hand gently on my shoulder as she told me kindly, “Hey, just relax, Kiddo. If these people are even half as good to you as you’ve made them sound, then I’m sure we’ll get along just fine. You need to stop worrying about pleasing everyone in your life because even if we don’t get along, that’s no reflection on you, it’s between us, and we’re all adults here. It’s just dinner, so try to relax and stop looking so skittish. Valkyrie warriors never show fear; it doesn’t matter if it’s in battle or at the dinner table.”

I let out a sigh before replying in a sad whisper, “I guess I’m not a Valkyrie warrior yet, then, because I’m still scared of a lot of things.”

My aunt shook her head and gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Raven, it’s not about a lack of fear, it’s about courage; not showing that fear and throwing yourself into battle even if you’re shaking in your boots. Do you honestly think that I don’t fear anything? That your mother didn’t? Over the centuries, we faced things that terrified me, but that’s when it’s most important to keep pushing forward and not let that fear show. If your enemies see that fear on your face, they will know that they hold the advantage, and that gives them power over you, but against a warrior who doesn’t look like they’re afraid and who keeps relentlessly pushing forward, most people will hesitate, and that puts the power in your hands.”

She was probably right, but that didn’t make me feel any less nervous about this situation. Okay, well, maybe a little less nervous, but that was more because she figured out what was bothering me, and it looked like she was willing to give everyone a fair chance, than because of the ancient Valkyrie philosophy. So, I took another deep breath to steady myself and led the way to the dining room.

For a moment, the words lodged themselves in my throat as I attempted to make the introductions, but I managed to bury the brief spike of anxiety and speak almost casually. “E-everyone, this is my aunt, Lin. Aunt Lin, from left to right, that’s Erin, my best friend; Lydia, the Imp who raised me; and Alice, my… umm…”

Words failed me when I tried to introduce Alice. What was she to me now, anyway? Were we good friends or something more? We’d been on a grand total of one date, and that was just last night, so wouldn’t it be presumptuous to call her my girlfriend? I really liked her, and I definitely wanted her to be my girlfriend, but did she feel the same way? Could a relationship like that between us even work if I was going to be away, for what might be months, for a training trip with my aunt?

Alice was not as hesitant as she smiled broadly and finished for me, -Girlfriend… we’re definitely girlfriends.-

In a way, I was relieved that Alice seemed to feel the same way about me that I did about her; it warmed my heart and brought a giddy smile to my face, but then I became terrified as another thought occurred to me. What would Aunt Lin think of a relationship between two women? She definitely seemed interested in men, as was my mother. What if there was some Valkyrie taboo she hadn’t told me about regarding relationships between people of the same gender?

I was brought out of my mental paralysis as my aunt started laughing uproariously and slapped me on the back. “K-Kiddo… the look… on your… face,” she finally managed to wheeze out between fits of laughter.

Aunt Lin wasn’t the only one laughing either, so was Erin, and the traitor wasn’t even trying to hide it. “She’s right,” my best friend managed to get out between giggles. “You went from all doe-eyed for Alice… to looking like… someone threatened to strip your wings to make feather dusters.”

While I was glad that the pair had found some common ground so soon, did it have to be mercilessly teasing me? Alice, at least, managed to sound concerned about me as her mind touched mine. -They’re right, Raven. That was a pretty sudden change in facial expressions, so what caused that sudden bout of anxiety?-

Since nobody else in the room seemed to be reacting, I assumed that she had sent her thoughts to me alone. So, I did the same thing, directing my thoughts toward her as I replied, “It suddenly occurred to me that I have no idea how Valkyries feel about same-sex relationships. My aunt hasn’t mentioned anything like that at all, and from what I can tell, she’s into men, and so was my mom. What if it’s something that’s forbidden and I’m some sort of fr…”

-Don’t you dare finish that sentence,- the Mermaid mentally chided me. -You are a wonderful and amazing person, and anyone who can’t see that doesn’t deserve you in their life. I’m sorry… I probably shouldn’t have announced the girlfriend thing like that; I wasn’t thinking about anything more than how happy I was on that date with you last night.-

She was suddenly worried by my revelation as well. Not only could I feel it as the music of mind voice shifted from powerful and intense to slower and melancholy, but it was written all over her face as well as her expression shifted to one of worry. Something that Erin immediately caught on to.

My best friend had almost finished giggling, but she burst into another fit at the look on Alice’s face. “Well, it looks like… Alice got Raven to… share whatever she’s freaking out about.”

Aunt Lin had managed to calm down by this point and nodded as she said, “Not that it’s difficult to figure out what’s set them both off like that. You can both relax, there is nothing in our culture against relationships between two women, so long as they are both consenting adults. If you two make one another happy, then I’m happy that you found one another.”

I felt as if I might melt into the floor as the tension that had been keeping me stiff evaporated. “R-really?” I asked as I could see Alice visibly relaxing as well.

My aunt stepped forward to place a hand on one of my shoulders and the other on Alice’s. “While our… male counterparts might be prudish and openly scornful of such relationships, Valkyries are not. We understand that love and attraction are not the same for everyone, nor should they be, because we are all individuals.”

I could tell that she was trying to determine how much was safe to share with outsiders and what might have to be sanitized to not give away anything that might prove dangerous for others to know about our kind. Still, she was willing to explain this and share some things, which I greatly appreciated. She paused, carefully considering her words before continuing to speak.

“Our village was made up entirely of women; those who wanted children would seek out male lovers elsewhere to keep the village and our secrets safe. It was like that for thousands of years, so do you truly think that during all that time there were no relationships formed between women? Warriors are not immune to the need for love and companionship, so such relationships were common.”

“But you and Mom…” I protested weakly.

My aunt cut off the protest before it was fully formed. “Both your mother and I had female lovers in the past, other Valkyries and some among other Paranormal species as well. In fact, Raven, those Valkyrie wedding rites you were joking about the other day were almost always performed between two of our kind. Because we guarded our secrets so closely, it was rare to have anything more than a brief affair with an outsider to conceive a child, at least until we became nearly extinct.”

In hindsight, that did make sense, and it was a huge relief to know that she wasn’t going to try to smite me or something for being a lesbian. I had no interest in guys, and if I ever felt the need to have children… well, that was what sperm banks were for. It was probably silly for me to be worried about such a reaction from my aunt, but I was still getting to know her, and the only time I’d heard her mention sex or attraction was when talking about our lawyer, David Cosgrove.

I tried not to recall that awkward conversation as I turned my attention to the one person who had remained quiet all this time. Lydia was looking at my aunt wide-eyed, like she was seeing a ghost. “Lydia, are you okay?” I asked my former nanny in concern.

“I… I’m fine,” she replied hesitantly as she continued to gape at my aunt and shifted from the elderly nanny form that I had grown up with into the childlike form that she was more comfortable with. Was she feeling uncomfortable? I had been half afraid that she was going to rake Aunt Lin over the coals when meeting her for the first time for being such a ‘bad influence’ on me, but any signs of that former hostility dissipated as she changed into a now-familiar little blonde girl with pigtails in a romper. “She looks so much like Siv. I thought that I’d prepared myself for that when we saw the pictures of them together. But now that I see her in person…”

“Well, she is her sister,” was all that I could think to say.

Sure, she looked a lot like Mom in the pictures I’d seen of them, but I couldn’t even remember my mother, so I guess that made it less real to me until I’d actually met my aunt, and since then, I’d been focusing on getting to know her. So, to me, it felt more like my mom looked like my aunt than the other way around, if that makes any sense. Because my aunt was the one I had actually spent time with and was getting to know.

When people who knew my mother talked about her, it seemed like I was being torn between mourning a person I never knew and feeling like that one person in a conversation who doesn’t really get what everyone else is talking about but who really wants to. It’s like I was on the outside, looking in. I had been mourning my parents for my whole life, not because I had any real connection to them, but because I didn’t. I mourned their absence, the idea of them being a part of my life, and a photograph, but I was never able to mourn them as parents or even people, because I never truly knew them.

Since I started meeting more people who did know my mother, or her and my dad, through the PDA and my aunt, I was getting pieces of the puzzle of who my parents were. My mother’s letter was another big piece of that puzzle. Honestly, though, I was still trying to fit all those pieces together to assemble the whole picture, and at times like this, I felt lacking. Everything I had heard about them told me that they were amazing people, and I would only ever know them as the ghosts in other people’s memories.

With a heavy heart, I wiped at my damp eyes and glanced at the floor as I tried to figure out what was called for in this situation. Should I try to comfort Lydia, or should I try to get her and my aunt talking? Thankfully, I didn’t have to think about it for long as Aunt Lin turned away from talking with Erin and Alice to kneel so that she was eye-to-eye with Lydia. “Thank you,” she said solemnly, “for watching over Raven all these years and keeping her safe. I wish I could have swallowed my pride earlier so I could have seen her grow up.”

It took Lydia a moment before she could speak, and once she did, her words were preceded by a melancholy sigh. “You’re here now, that’s what matters. I… didn’t meet Siv until after she and Nick got married. She was secretive about her people and family, and stubborn as a mule sometimes, but she also had the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever met and a drive to protect the weak and make the world a better place.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Siv,” my aunt said with a sad shake of her head. “She was a bleeding heart, and too damn stubborn sometimes… we both were. I guess it runs in the family.” The last was said with a very faint smile and an obvious glance in my direction.

To my surprise, this got a snort of amusement and a nod from Lydia. “You’ve got that right. You should have seen Raven as a toddler. She could be the most stubborn and obstinate child in existence; it made disciplining her a fucking chore.”

Still looking at me, my aunt nodded as well. “Well, if the night we met is any indication, she hasn’t lost that stubborn streak. She snuck into my car before a race and refused to get out until I agreed to train her.”

“She did the same fucking thing when she decided that she wanted to go to university. She just dug her heels in, started doing all the paperwork and shit, and then bulldozed her way through until she got what she wanted, not listening to a damn word I said,” Lydia agreed.

Wait a minute, when did this conversation suddenly become all about me? In front of my best friend and my girlfriend, no less. I suppose it was better than them arguing, but I needed to put the brakes on this before it could become any more embarrassing. “We should probably order our dinner now, it’ll take a while, and I’m starting to get hungry,” I interjected.

Both my aunt and Lydia gave me a look like they knew exactly what I was up to, but thankfully, they agreed, and once we all decided what we wanted to eat, Aunt Lin made the call down to the kitchen with our orders. Unfortunately, that only seemed to put a pause on the awkward topics of conversation. While we waited for room service to deliver the food, Lydia had far too many embarrassing stories from my childhood to tell my aunt, best friend, and girlfriend. My cheeks were glowing bright red by the time dinner arrived.

Other than more embarrassing childhood stories about me, the conversation during dinner went a lot better than I was fearing it would, as the people closest to me got to know one another better. We got to talking about my brief stint at UBC and how Erin and I had become friends there, and I was actually feeling pretty good about things. That is, until my heart clenched in fear as my aunt asked Alice, “So, what do you plan to do once I’ve got Raven trained up and we take care of those Demons that are after you both?”

My heart was suddenly hammering away in my chest as Erin thought about her answer for a moment and then replied, “Well, the original plan was for me to major in Computer Sciences and go into a tech-related field, but I didn’t know about the Paranormal stuff back then. I’m not sure I want to go for some boring tech job now that I know about all this stuff, and I’m training to use my Shaman abilities. I’m thinking of working with the PDA with Alice on a Hunter team, and we’re hoping Raven will join us too.”

Well, fuck. My aunt’s expression remained impassive as she sighed and said, “Look, I’m not going to tell anyone what they can or can’t do with their life. I lost my sister because I did that, but I urge you all to be cautious when getting any more involved with the PDA than you absolutely have to be.”

“Do you have something against the PDA?” Erin asked in confusion. “They’ve been a big help to me with all this Shaman stuff and self-defense training, and Alice and her parents pulled our asses out of the fire on Halloween when Raven and I were attacked.”

-My parents are Hunters with the PDA, and so were Raven’s. They do a lot of good, keeping dangerous Paranormals off the streets. My parents have been teaching Erin and me a lot about being good Hunters,- Alice added.

My girlfriend was sounding a bit defensive, and Lydia, of course, had her own contribution to add to this topic. “If it wasn’t for Chief Little and Alice’s parents, I wouldn’t have been able to keep Raven half as safe as I did over the years. Lila coordinated her shopping trips with mine for years so she could keep an eye out for trouble and watch us from a distance whenever Raven and I had to leave the house.”

Aunt Lin raised her hands in the universal symbol for ‘I mean you no harm’ as she said, “I have nothing against the PDA as an organization or their stated goals. They do help a lot of Paranormals, and I’m sure that there are a lot of good and honest people who just want to help working for them, people like my sister and Alice’s parents.”

“So, what’s the problem then?” Erin asked.

“The problem,” my aunt said with a sigh, “is that it is an organization made up of individuals. While I’m sure that many of them are working there for the right reasons and do their jobs well, some people are attracted to working for organizations like that for the power it gives them over others. Some will abuse that power, and some get greedy and stupid. Organizations with the amount of reach that the PDA has are a breeding ground for the greedy and power hungry, and if you’re a registered Paranormal, it gives them a means of keeping tabs on you.”

-I guess you’re right about that,- Alice reluctantly admitted. -Mom, Dad, and their teammates are good Hunters, but I’ve heard them talk about a few that they think might be taking bribes and stuff. They can’t do much without evidence, though.-

My aunt nodded grimly as she continued to make her point. “Right, so think about it this way. Raven and Erin have Demons after them, Demons who have already placed a sizable bounty on Raven. If Raven and Erin are recorded in the PDA Paranormal database, what’s to stop an individual or a few of them in the right position from fudging some records and organizing a Hunt for Raven to claim that payday?”

“Ed Little knows about Raven; he’s been helping to keep her safe since Siv and Nick died. He’s the chief of the policing division, and all authorized Hunts go through his office; he would never let that happen,” Lydia insisted vehemently. “I trust him with Raven’s life.”

“That’s well and good, but he’s one person in an entire organization,” my aunt pointed out. “Can you trust everyone In the PDA as much as you do him? Hell, it only takes one person stumbling onto her file and getting greedy once they put two and two together to get her address and walk right up to your front door to claim that bounty.”

“It’s probably a good thing that Joey and the rest of his flock are keeping an eye on the house then,” I muttered as my aunt’s point was very clearly made. Yes, it sounded a bit paranoid, but it also sounded possible, and I could see doubt etched clearly into even Alice's and Lydia's faces.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking that. A few contingency plans were made in case someone tried to attack the house while my aunt and I were gone, but unless Alice’s parents could get someone who worked in the PDA archive to change the records for me and Erin without raising suspicion, those plans were fairly simple. Joey and his flock would continue watching the house, Alice was going to tell her parents to keep their ears open at the office for anything that might be related to us, and an escape plan was made in case either Alice’s parents or one of the Gryphons warned them of impending danger.

That plan was basically to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. If they had to do that, they would take my dad’s old jeep, which wasn’t as memorable as the Corvette and would blend into traffic a lot easier if they had to leave in a hurry. They would take a roundabout route if it came to that, to make sure they weren’t being followed, and then head to the hotel to hunker down in my penthouse suite once they were sure the coast was clear. My aunt and I would be leaving their names with the reception desk with instructions in case that happened.

I would have rather they just stayed in my suite while we were gone, to be safe, but Erin pointed out that there was always the possibility of someone following them from the Werehouse to try to track me down if someone caught on that Erin was training there and got greedy. Also, if any of the local scum looking for me for the bounty had contacts with someone inside the PDA, they would lead them to the house or the Werehouse to start looking for me. In either case, it was probably better for them to go to and from the house, the address that was in my PDA file, and avoid the hotel until it was necessary. There was no sense in giving away our possible safehouse or changing up routines until we were certain that there was danger and we needed to lay low.

By the time we were all ready for bed, the plans were about as good as we could make them, barring a sudden attack out of the blue. Lydia, Erin, and Alice were staying with me in my suite tonight, but we were calling it a night early since my aunt wanted us to get an early start in the morning, and since she was still keeping the details quiet, I figured it was probably better to follow her lead. Still, I wasn’t quite ready to go to bed when my aunt said her goodnights and left for her suite.

While Lydia and Erin went to get comfortable in their chosen rooms for the night, Alice and I went out to the terrace to spend a little more time together before we would be apart for what might be months. Sure, I would have my phone with me so we could stay in contact, but it just wasn’t the same as being with her. We spent a good hour cuddling on the terrace and enjoying one another’s company one last time as we looked out at the city lights spread out below us.

It was a cool night, though, and eventually we moved inside to cuddle in the warmth of my massive bed. Alice would need to move to the Jacuzzi in my bathroom before she could sleep, but we wanted to spend what little time we could together before I had to leave in the morning. There was a bit of kissing and roaming hands in addition to the snuggling, but neither of us was ready for more than that yet, and I needed to get up early, so things didn’t go any further before I fell asleep in Alice’s arms.