The Bloodforged Kin

They sat in the living room, the beeping of the tablet puncturing the silence like blows to the psyche. Cass and Luna sat on the couch, near to each other but not touching. They had the half-mile stares of soldiers experiencing shell shock. Tess sat in a chair opposite them, her body tensed in worry. Zavier pushed off the edge of the couch and repeatedly jabbed at the tablet in anger, finally silencing the noise. He walked to the middle of the room and sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of the couch. "Kids, how are you doing?"

Luna looked up slowly. "I feel it dad. What mom felt. I feel like I'm 10% closer to the next level. Actually," her face screwed up in concentration, "a little less than that I think?"

Zavier nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. Your mom killed one all by herself, but you had help. Let me check," he looked inward and felt a small increase. Not a lot, but something. "I think I got a chunk of it for helping. Cass, did you get anything?"

Cass continued to stare at nothing, rocking forward and back. His hands were bone white where his fingers intertwined. Zavier reached up and placed his hands gently on top of Cass.' "Hey bud, can you look at me please?" He rubbed his thumb over Cass's hands in a soothing motion.

After another minute of silence Cass focused on Zavier's face and nodded. "I got a little something, even though I don't fucking deserve it!" He pushed Zavier's hands away and ran to his room, the door slamming behind him.

Everyone watched him go in silence, all of them worried but none of them surprised.

Later that evening Zavier had plates piled high with spaghetti and garlic bread, everyone except Cass sitting around the table eating.

"He needs to come out," Zavier said, his normally bottomless well of patience sounding frayed.

"He'll come out when he's ready," Luna was always ready to jump to his defense.

Zavier started to say something but Tess put her hand on his. "He'll come out when he's ready, Honey. It'll be harder on him if you force it."

Zavier shook his head in frustration and forced a big forkful of spaghetti into his mouth, barely tasting it. He had no plan for this. He couldn't think of a way to make Cass stronger - he wasn't even sure if he wanted to risk it again. He knew he had to - whatever was coming was much worse than these fucking squirrels, but that had gone a lot worse than he'd expected. There was no way to keep his family safe and make them stronger at the same time.

The frustration of not having any good options and the crushing realization of what that would mean for his family made him feel like a rat in a cage that was slowly flooding with water. He wanted to rush outside with Tess's gun and start blasting everything that moved until he was strong enough to protect them all himself.

Tess could always read his body language, even when no one else could. He felt strong arms slip around his neck and her head rest against his. Hopelessness and comfort flooded into him in equal measure and tears burst from his eyes as he started crying. His shoulders shook as Tess held him tight, and the tears came even harder when he felt Luna's arms encircle him too.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Zavier was cleaning up dinner when suddenly his face lit up. Tess saw the change just before he rushed off to the garage. She shook her head and smiled as she walked over to turn the faucet off. One of her favorite things about him was that no matter how hard the situation, no matter how vulnerable they were, at some point inspiration would strike and he would be off on another plan. She knew better than to interrupt him. Without warning he was back in the house snatching the tablet off the table, then rushing out.

"You staying safe, Babe?" she yelled.

"I promise!" was the distant sound as the door slammed shut again. She heard the garage door open and one of the cars start. She ran to the garage just as he was running back inside to back the sedan out next to the SUV. He'd parked the cars just outside the garage door so nothing could get in. He sprinted back in and hit the garage door button, watching it close. When it slammed home he looked at her with a boyish grin on his face.

"I have an idea!"

She cupped his face with one hand and kissed him on the lips. "Don't stay up too late, okay?"

He gave a distracted nod and started pulling out tools.

The sound of tools, saws, and hammering could be heard for hours. Occasionally they'd hear the small man door to the outside opening and wood panels being dragged inside. She assumed he was using the tablet to check for threats so didn't worry. Well, not too much anyway.

Cass eventually came out of his room and microwaved a plate of spaghetti. They expected him to retreat back to his room but he sat with them in the way that he used when he wanted to talk but didn't know how to start.

Tess muted the newly-replaced TV and looked at him. "You okay, Love?" she asked.

He nodded then looked at Luna with frustration in his eyes. "I screwed up out there," he said quietly. Luna moved closer to him on the couch. "I broke formation when I should have held position. Left you exposed." He met her eyes. "I'm sorry."

"You adjusted though," Luna said. "When dad called it out, you fixed it."

"Not fast enough. And when that thing jumped on my shield..." Cass shook his head. "I couldn't get the angle right with the bat. Wrong positioning."

Tess leaned forward. "Okay, so what did we learn? What worked, what didn't?"

Cass sat back, thinking it through like he would a football play. "The shield wall worked when we held it. Formation's solid. But I moved too aggressive too early."

"And?" Zavier had appeared in the doorway, wiping grease off his hands with a rag.

"The plan was too complicated," Cass continued. "Too many moving parts. When things went sideways, I couldn't keep track of everything I was supposed to do."

Zavier nodded approvingly. "That's on me. I over-engineered it."

"The bat's wrong for close quarters," Cass added. "Need something I can use even when I'm pinned against the shield."

Luna perked up. "What about those spear things you picked up? Keep them at distance?"

"Maybe," Cass said, warming to the tactical discussion. "Or what if I focused just on defense? Both shields, keep everything away from you guys while you do the damage?"

"That could work," Tess said. "Simple role, easy to execute under pressure."

"And leveling?" Cass asked.

"System said there's lots of ways to gain experience," Zavier said. "Plus we're sharing kills anyway. Doesn't matter who gets the final hit if we're all contributing."

Cass nodded slowly, some of the tension leaving his shoulders. "Yeah. I can work with that. Defense and positioning - that's what I'm good at anyway."

"Exactly," Luna said. "Play to your strengths instead of trying to be something you're not."

They shared looks of understanding, the earlier disaster starting to feel less like a failure and more like data they could use. Then they all jumped in fright as Zavier exclaimed a little too loudly, "Oh! Come look at this awesome thing I just built!"