By the Blood

It was happening again. Dammit! I couldn’t stop my head from spinning, the visions flashing before my eyes. The eruption of Vesuvius. The earthquakes in Crete. Poveglia Island. The Antonine Plague. The scenes came and went almost faster than I could keep up. My nose bled and my legs felt like jelly as I stumbled down the hall. My hoarse voice called out to my mother, but I didn’t think she could hear me. I tried my damnedest to shout, but I felt like my voice was slowly being stolen. As I finally came upon the entrance to the living room, I whispered for her once last time.

“Mom. I-”

Everything went black after that.

I finally came to, but I hadn’t the foggiest idea how long I had been out. There was a cool towel on my forehead and a small piece of tissue making itself at home in one of my nostrils. Mom had pulled up a chair next to me and was stroking my arm, humming my favorite childhood lullaby to me.

“How long was I out?” My voice rasped and I let out a small cough.

“Only 12 hours this time.” Mom checked her watch as I sat up.

“But to hear the doctors tell it, I’m perfectly healthy and this is all in my head.” I quoted them bitterly as Mom handed me a glass of water.

“Well, it’s not all in your head, dear,” the hesitation in Mom’s voice gave me pause, “they just don’t have the right…tools to detect what’s going on.”

I took another sip from my glass, but my eyes never left her. We sat in silence for what seemed an eternity before I finally spoke up. “So, we gonna have this talk or naw, Mom?”

She let out a heavy sigh before rising from her chair. She grabbed her gargantuan glass of wine from the magazine table and made her way back to her seat. After another sigh, she nearly downed the whole glass right in front of me. No mistaking where I get that from, at least.

“I’ve always said since you were little that you were something special.” She began, reaching behind herself for the wine bottle. “Every mother says that about her daughter, of course, but in your case, it was actually the truth. You actually were, are, special. You’ve had powerful gifts and strengths since you could walk, kiddo. There was no mistaking that you were different from the other kids. The other moms knew it, too. Jealous bitches.” She scoffed as she filled her glass. I held out mine and she obliged me with a healthy serving. We cheersed and she kept going. “They would always ask where you got it from. I’d tell them it was thanks to your dad’s side of the family. ‘Well, where is he? He should be here with his daughter, shouldn’t he?’”

“To which you promptly told them he was away on a business trip, which promptly turned into you telling them to mind their own fucking business.” I chuckled through a sip of wine.

Mom simply shrugged with a smug grin on her face. “Sometimes, you have to set your boundaries.”

I sat in deep, wine-sipping thought for a moment before I finally ventured the question she had heard a million times before. “What about dad, though? Why don’t you ever talk about him? Come to think of it, I’ve never even met him. Why doesn’t he come around?”

“Well, that’s where things get…difficult.” Mom chugged her glass of wine and promptly reached for the bottle once more. I grabbed it before she could, satisfied my reflexes had returned. Mom and I had a stared at each other for a bit before she smiled. I relented and poured her another glass as she continued. “In all honesty, I have no idea where he is, kiddo.”

“What is he in another state or something?” Mom shrugged. “Country?” Another shrug followed by a long sip of wine. “Another realm or planet? What?”

“Those last two would probably be closer to the truth, actually.” She let out a tiny hiccup, gauging my reaction to the news.

“So, you’re telling me my father could be in some other universe or plane of existence?” Off Mom’s nod, I found myself chugging my own glass of wine. As shocked as I was, it all surprisingly started to make sense. “Well, can you at least tell me who he is? A name or something?”

Mom nearly choked on her current sip, her fist beating against her chest. “Well,” she gasped, “that’s the other problem. I don’t know his name.”

I looked at my mother as if she had just grown two heads. Didn’t know his name? What the — ? I quickly refilled my glass, suddenly worried where this conversation was going to end.

“What do you mean, you don’t know his name, Mom? You slept with someone you didn’t even know?”

“I mean, no more than three, four times.” She nonchalantly answered.

It was my turn to sputter out my wine. After a short coughing fit, I was able to speak. “Three or four times? What the hell, Mom?”

“What?” She shot back defensively. “At least the rest had names!”

“The rest?” I asked just before my palm introduced itself to my forehead. “How many more are we talking?”

“15, I think. No more than that. Maybe.”

My eyes were as wide as dinner plates as I downed glass number two. Clearly, I was nowhere near ready for the knowledge Mom was dropping into my lap. 15 other men? And that’s only an estimate?

“Well, grab the notepad and a pen, kiddo.” Mom’s voice jolted me from my inner turmoil. “Pretty sure you’re not gonna remember all these names off the top of your head.”

I reached for the notepad on the table next to the couch and scrambled through the can of broken pencils to the solitary pen that lay in hiding. My hands went a mile a minute as Mom rambled off names while also reminiscing on the bygone days of her decadent youth. Among the multitude, there were a few that stuck out. I learned about Dusk, the mysterious Fae with a troubled past who was also terribly flexible. Then, there was Earendil, the broody elf with muscles of steel, but hands like silk. Lastly, there was the demon, Bael. Yes, that Bael. Cruel and wicked as the day was long, but a soft and gentle heart that beat only for her.

“He was my favorite.” Mom sighed happily. “Plus he could do this thing with his tongue-”

“Mother! Please!” I shouted a little too harshly, trying to maintain my composure. I looked down at the list of names, paying special attention to the starred ones. I couldn’t explain why, but they just seemed to resonate the most with me. It seemed as good a place as any to start my search.

“If you’re sure about this, kiddo, you’re gonna need to do some research.” Mom nodded toward her favorite small bookshelf under the bay window. “Got a few things down there that might help you out.”

“Wow. This is indeed an occasion.” I smirked. “You barely let anyone even think about breathing in its general direction. Now, I get to actually touch the books on the shelf.” I raised my glass in celebration. “Let this be marked down in the history books for our children’s children’s children!”

“Alright, alright, smartass.” Mom chuckled. “You better get to work, though. You have a long road ahead of you.”

“Wonder who I have to thank for that,” I commented under my breath.

“Watch it, kid.” Mom’s eyes narrowed as she pointed a finger at me.