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“Do you know why I am upset with both of you right now?” Rayla asked, glaring at both of them as they stood side by side. Even though there was a year difference, they were both similar in height, but Calix had the pale complexion of a vampire, while Ezra had my olive tones.
Neither of them went to speak, both of them looking at each other like they could talk to each other in their minds. When Ezra gave a nod, and Calix twitched his fingers, I couldn't help but wonder if they could actually read each other's minds. That would be so cool and useful.
“No, none of that shit. Answer me. Do you know why I’m upset?” When they still didn't say anything, standing there with a straight face, I was a little proud of the troublemakers. At least we didn't raise snitches. Rayla seethed through clenched teeth, “Do you know why I was called to the principal's office today? Why I had to sit down and be told that both of my kids were about to be kicked out for starting a fight that had a few kids go to the hospital?!”
“We didn’t start shi-” Ezra elbowed Calix, who hissed at her, but she kept her eyes on her mom, knowing she was the biggest threat in the room and sizing her up.
Cosmo stepped forward. “I think what your mother is trying to ask is-”
“How the fuck could my children,my children, get caught for something like that! I thought we’d taught you better than that!” Rayla’s fiery venom whipped out, and Cosmo hung his head for a second, sighing. Yep, my rose was more pissed that our kids got caught than that they caused an actual fight.
Right then, Easton walked into the room, but no one was paying attention because the focus was on the two kids on the stairs. He mouthed ‘what is going on?’ I pointed to the kids and sliced a finger below my neck, symbolizing them being in trouble.
“Don’t worry, Mom, we’re handling it,” Ezra said with a straight face, which cooled down her mother’s anger, but that simply turned it into the ice wall of the Syndicate boss. To me, that was the scarier of the two. Give me a raged-out, crazy Rayla any dayof the week versus the calm logical one. That one did shit just to see you squirm.
“You’re handling it, huh? Did you hear our daughter?” She looked over at Cosmo, Falcon, and I, all of us backing Rayla with stone-cold faces. She turned back to Ezra. “So, what is this grand plan of yours? How are you going to smooth this over and make sure this never happens again?”
Ezra came down a step, getting just that much closer to Rayla as she smirked. “Oh, we have plans. They thought they could jump Calix in the back of the bleachers, but he took out two of their guys before I even got there.” Ezra looked back at her brother, who moved to stand next to her, giving each other a fist bump in solidarity. I swear, this was an adorable moment with our little gangsters. “We’re going to take out all of their guys, sending out a big message to all of them to not mess with us, and we won’t have to lift a finger.”
Ezra nodded to Calix, who flicked his wrist, and out came a mechanical spider. Rayla bent down and picked it up, examining it for a second before handing it over to Falcon.
Falcon analyzed it at record speed. “Looks like its legs can also turn into knives,” he lifted one leg and sniffed, “which are poisons. Not lethal.”
Easton took that moment to pipe up, beaming, “I taught him that.”
Falcon ignored his father and examined the head of the spider. “Eight high-tech lenses with scopes and recording features,” he turned it around, “with a chamber for some kind of gas?”
“Pass out gas mixed with a short-term memory loss compound. It makes for a better getaway if they can’t remember you,” Calix boasted before he whistled sharply, and the spider immediately crawled back over to him, crawling up his arm and settling into the back of his watch. While he was Cosmo’s kid in DNA, he took after Falcon in smarts and ingenuity. That kid was all brains and looks.
“Impressive,” Falcon said, his face still blank, but you could see in his eyes all the applications he was thinking of for that little invention. Calix blushed at the compliment, always excited when Father Falcon was proud.
“And the plan?” Rayla asked. I could see her lips twitch, liking the spider idea but wanting to see it all the way through first. “How are they going to know that they should never mess with you again? Never mess with the Syndicate again?” Ezra's slow grin reminded me of me, and I knew that little devil had something up her sleeve.
“Oh, that will be easy. We’ll offer to meet up with them for a truce, making them think we’re weak. When they make their way over to the truce, we will already have a bunch of these guys ready at all entrances, and as they are just about to enter, we strike. Making sure they can see our faces as they are taken down one by one, making it known that they can’t touch us if we deem it so.”
She crossed her arms and cocked out her chin. “They can’t place any blame on us because we’ll have them self-destruct before anything happens. No one will be able to say we had anything to do with it.”
Suddenly, Ezra’s face changed, looking panicked and scared. “We just wanted to make up with them, to make sure no one else got hurt again. We have no idea who did that horrible, awful thing to those boys. They didn't deserve that.” Then her lips curved up as she puffed out a laugh, proving her acting abilities. That girl was dangerous in the best of ways. I couldn't have been a prouder dad.What did that say about me?
Rayla smirked before she turned to Falcon, who gave a nod, his blessing for the plan. Then she turned to Cosmo. He ran his hand through his hair, looking between the two of them. “As long as you have each other’s backs if this goes sideways, I’m fine with it.”
My rose glanced back at me, and I put my hands up. “You know I'm all for the blood and bone-breaking stuff, but this works, too. It seems like a clean job. No blow back.”
Rayla nodded, turning back to the kids. “Fine. You have our blessing, since we had to clean up your mess, this time, but as punishment . . . you will need to clean up the training room every day after school for a month, and I want it fucking spotless, you hear me?”
Ezra opened her mouth to argue, but this time, Calix bumped her shoulder, giving his head a little shake. “That sounds fair,Mom. We’re sorry that you had to get involved.” I smiled at the kid. Like I said, he was the intelligent one.
Rayla’s body relaxed instantly, stepping toward them as she put one palm on each of their cheeks. “I don’t mind getting involved when you need me to. We’ll always be here for you. We are here to make sure you grow up to be strong, resilient individuals that could eventually take over the family business.” She bent and kissed each of them on the foreheads. “But you are my children first, I would burn that whole school down if I thought you would actually get hurt.”
Cosmo coughed. “She almost decapitated your principle.”
Both kids looked at her, and she shrugged, letting them go. “What?! He said my kids were troublemakers and they shouldn't be allowed in polite society. Just look at them?!” Both kids were standing tall with their hands behind their backs. “He was just lucky I didn't have you guys hold him down as I peeled off each nail one by one and wore them as a bloody necklace.”
Calix and Ezra chuckled, giving their mom a hug. I wanted to go in for a hug cuddle, but I felt a pair of eyes on me. I looked all around but didn't see anyone. I let my shadows go, searching around until I found the little peeper.
Slinking into the shadows, following the line that went to the dark corner in the room, I quietly materialized. I wanted to yell, “Got ya,” but before I could, she beat me to it.
“When did you realize I was watching you?” Riot asked, a small notebook in hand as she was taking notes and keeping her eyeson the family. Her serious focus reminded me of Falcon when he was in the lab. While she was a magical prodigy like her father, having power over three elements, air, fire and spirit, that was where the similarities ended.
