۞ TWENTY ۞

WHEN I WOKE UP, I FELT PAIN ALL OVER MY BODY, and when I opened my eyes, I found a pair of feline ruby eyes glaring at me. Nik was back. "How did you manage to get hurt so badly when I left you for just some time?" He mocked but I noticed the hint of worry in his voice.

"It hurts…"

"No shit? Of course, it does. There was a hint of obsidian in the claws that hurt you." Oh, so that explains why mother said ripper's weapon before I lost my consciousness. That's also how Isaak said claws like mine were called. "Whoever hurt you, Arianna, had obsidian claws. But how they did this, the reds have no idea. I managed to sneak inside, since some of them have some cats, so it wasn't that hard. But I heard how they said they would let you stay for awhile, but not permanently."

Sigh, "After all the bullshit they told me, Nik, I don't feel welcomed to stay here either. Can you believe I have a half sister called Anna?"

"You mean Anna-Ginevra Sasso? Well, yes, I kind of knew that. But as you hadn't asked much about your mother, I didn't say anything," I gasped.

"Traitor!"

"Oh, come on. Besides, everyone knows about her. She's the best red of her generation of pure reds. And she was born four decades before you, when your mother had a fling with another red wizard. It wasn't a relationship or anything, but it happened. The story is quite famous."

I felt disgusted, "That's what she gets for not waiting for her mate. And can you believe she accused my dad of taking me away? Damn, even if he did do that for some reason, it was the best seeing how the strangled me when I stepped inside. Both mom, grandfather, and my… sister. Ugh. I'm so annoyed, and why does this hurt so much?" Trying to sit down, I looked at my belly. "Why aren't I cured already? How long has it been since I blackout?"

"It hurts because you may not stay dead by being attacked with weapons made of the special stones, but if you get hurt by them, thanks to you being half red, it'll slow down your self-healing abilities greatly. And that's also why you aren't cured yet. The immortal who did this to you, Arianna, went for killing. It was a deadly move, and if you hadn't immortal blood running within you, you would be dead by now. You are healing, but painfully slowly. And you've been out for nine days," oh shit.

"Nine days? Are you fucking kidding me?" I gasped, and looked around for my phone. Noticing what I wanted, Nik used his mind power to make the phone come to me so I didn't moved drastically. "Twenty messages from dad alone. Twenty from the Calandrellis altogether. Should I tell the truth? Should I lie to dad?" I bit bottom lip anxiously.

"Tell the truth. And, asks your dad if anything happened to him. If he happened to meet someone." What?

"Why?"

"I want to see something. I don't know of you know, but Jack appeared again," so Isaak wasn't joking and messing around when he told me that? I thought he was just saying that to make me annoyed.

"You think he might have attacked dad?" A nod. "But how would that relate to me?"

"I don't know that yet."

Sighing, I did as he said and told them a short version of what happened, and why I was out for days, recovering. As I made a group with the three of them named Wine Proof-tasting Squad, the Calandrellis sent lost of messages asking how I was now and if mom's clan were holding me captive.

[ I just woke up. Haven't seen any of them yet, so I don't know. But I don't think so, since they don't want me here. I'm still in pain, since my healing abilities are slowed, but it's not going to cause my first death. Don't worry. ]

Maggie: You should come stay with us here, dear. When you recover leave that hellish place, since they might try to hurt you again. Come to us, you have a place with us. We'll take care of you.

[ Thanks, I really appreciate. But I'm curious to know what's up with those people. So, I won't leave Sicily, but I don't want to stay here either. ]

Guilherme: What are you gonna do, Ari?

[ I have money. I'm an adult. I'll just buy a property for myself, a vehicle, and stay around for some time. ]

Snow-haired: We'll respect your decisions, but whenever you need a place to stay when you come here, dear, our place is yours. No need for formalities, you can just come here whenever you want. Don't hesitate to ask for help if things get tougher there, okay?

[ Okay, thank you. I'll keep that in mind. ]

Then I deleted the history of our conversations and went to dad's chat, since there were a bunch of messages from a minute ago, that he sent while I talked with the Calandrelli. Oh, how I miss him. It didn't even took me a week after we parted ways for me to get so badly hurt.

Lucas: Oh, dear. Delete this after you read. But for some reason, it seems like you got the same words I did. It seems like there's something connecting us together, dear.

Lucas: I happened to have an encounter with a very… unpleasant member of my clan, we disagreed on some things, he got dangerously violent and used his obsidian claws to rip my belly open.

Lucas: While that's not a problem to be, since I can heal fast, because you are part red witch, it affects you and slows down your healing. I'm sorry.

Lucas: If I hadn't gotten in that fight with him, he wouldn't have gotten violent, wounded me, and consequently wounded you. I really have no idea of what's happening, Ari. I'm in despair here. I… I'm sorry for not being with you, my child.

Lucas: It's all my fault.

Lucas: More than anything, I'm terribly sorry for your mom. I have no idea why she's acting like this, babe. I fear that she's regretting having had you with me, because of the heavy burden of the prophecy and how her clan my react to it. I shouldn't have sent you there. But I can't bring you back either, since it's becoming extremely dangerous here.

Lucas: I was sure that the woman I loved would melt the second she saw you. It seems like 20 years did a number on her. No, I had no idea that she had another daughter, or that she had such a enormous age gap with me. Seems like she lied.

Lucas: *sighing emoji* *sad emoji* Will you hate me if I ask you to stay in Italy for the time being, Ari? Until I can get out and we can go live somewhere else.

Lucas: And don't worry. I'll try to discover what is it that is causing us to share our wounds. Speaking of it, it explains why I was being held in the air and feeling an uncomfortable pressure in the air. I thought it was the guy whom I was fighting against, but now I see that it was your mother and your grandfather's doing.

Lucas: If I were there with you, I wouldn't have let them touch a streak of your hair. I'll try to avoid getting hurt. Sorry, dear. Tell me if anything else happens.

Lucas: Ps:. Don't tell them you are half immortal and also is a Saraiva, darling. That won't be good for you, neither for your mom. She's still your mom, despite everything. So, when you buy a house around the area, don't be petty and tell them about it just because e you are angry, okay? Can you do that for this father of yours?

Lucas: I have to go now. Delete the messages.

I gasped in horror and showed it to Nik. "You were right, Jack hurt him. I knew this was one of the reasons why he kept me hidden. The second I left, the psychopath went after my dad and hurted him. He's going to pay for that. I'm going to be the doom of this monster, I swear I will."

Then proceeded to answer, without waiting for Nik to say anything.