This was quite possibly the longest flight I had ever taken in my 13 years of life. I had gotten a string of text messages from my momma once I had finally built up the courage to turn my phone back on. Most of them started with her asking me to come home, which quickly led to her wondering what dorm I was in just to know I was safe. Those then turned into her being very upset that I was on a plane heading to New York, as well as seventeen missed phone and video calls from her.
It was around 10:00 o'clock in the evening and we were probably about an hour or so from New York. When I finally found the courage to answer one of her video calls. The first thing I noticed was the glass of brandy that was sitting beside her, and at first she seemed absolutely relieved to see my face again. However, her dark face almost immediately turned into a glare that could make the devil himself shake in his flaming boots. “Verona Aisu Whisperwind,” she began in a very calm and smooth voice, which was terrifying to hear. If she was truly calm then she was trying very hard to control her emotions. It takes a lot to really anger my momma and right now she was madder than hell. “I am giving you one chance, and I will pay for a ticket back to our island, for you to come home.”
“I can’t do that-”
I winced as she slammed her hand on the table and raised her voice a bit. “This is not a game, Verona! Do you have any idea how worried I have been for the last few hours? I searched room after room of those dorms, until finally I came to the airport and found out that you somehow got a ticket and forged my signature for you to go alone! I have been calling and texting you for the last three hours. I have been trying to get in touch with that plane to bring a naughty little girl who is way over her head back home!”
“I need to help, daddy.”
My mother let out an angry breath as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Verona, I am begging you to come home. I am not asking you, I am not even telling you, I am begging you to do the right thing and come home willingly. I understand your need for revenge against your birthmother-”
“She is not my-”
“Let me finish!” She replied darkly, immediately making me put a hand over my mouth to shut up. “I understand your quest for revenge, but it is not worth it if she takes you away from us forever. You don’t know Katherine as well as you think you do, if she finds that you are there, she will take you from us, and then your quest for revenge will have been pointless.” Momma reached out of frame and pulled up the note that I had left in my room. “I love you, Verona. I love you like I gave birth to you, and I promise you are not in any trouble with me cause I understand why you are doing this. But I need you to listen to me, to understand the price you are paying for your revenge, is more than you can possibly pay. Please come home, please…”
I closed my eyes as tightly as I could, struggling to keep my tears from spilling down my face. “I’m sorry,” I whimpered sadly. “I am sorry for disobeying y-you, and I am sorry for leading you on a chase… I promise I didn’t steal this ticket and I am sorry for getting a friend to forge your signature… I am sorry.”
“I know, Verona-”
I interrupted her, “but I am not coming back until I find and kill Katherine myself, with or without daddy’s and Joshua’s help. I’m sorry, I love you.”
“Verona-” I ended the call and blocked her number to avoid any more calls or texts from.
If I saw even one more, I knew it would stop me from doing this, and I didn’t want to stop. I quickly left my row and locked myself in the bathroom, hugging my knees to my chest as I sobbed as quietly as I could. If the price for my revenge was disappointing, the only woman that really cared about me. It was not worth it.
I also came to realize that if I found my daddy in New York, he was gonna send me back home and I couldn’t risk that. So I had to try and find Katherine myself, and wait until my daddy and Joshua cornered her to help. Maybe give them a location so they could come and take her out.
I wish I had a better plan, cause there was always a saying that my momma used. “Play stupid games and win stupid prizes.”
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“Sweetheart…” I let out a slight groan as someone seemed to be shaking me awake. I was so tired from crying that I dozed off in my chair the second I sat down. My neck was stiff from the horrible angle I had fallen asleep in, my eyes were still heavy and itched from crying. The blurred image of a young flight attendant in a dark blue pencil skirt and a white blouse began to fill my vision. “We landed ten minutes ago, young lady.” She greeted me with a smile, as she kneeled down in front of me.
“I-I’m sorry,” I half whimpered and half yawned. I rubbed my eyes for a moment and after one long cat-like stretch. I slowly began to rise on legs just as tired as I felt. After everything that had happened in the last few hours, I was exhausted, and so was Aisu as I could feel she was still asleep.
“Is this your first time traveling alone?”
“Y-Yes ma’am,” I answered. “Thank you,” I replied as she took my small backpack out of the overhead luggage and handed it to me.
“Is this all you brought young lady?”
“My daddy has the rest of my luggage with him.” I was not happy with how easy it was becoming to lie. It was starting to make my stomach sick with each one I told. I followed her down the steps and into another tunnel that connected our more hidden air stripe to the main airport of New York. The chilly night time air was more than I had planned for, back home the island would be at around 80 degrees right now, but here the moon brought forth colder temperature. The air was nowhere near as fresh as the island’s either and it took a few moments for me to adjust to this new air. The city smelled a lot worse than my home, where the island had no real natural smell to it. This place smells like trash, like dirt and muck, and we weren’t even in the true heart of New York just yet.
“First time in New York?” My kind flight attendant asked me as we made our way through this tunnel and into an underground lobby. This lobby was filled with mostly empty seats aside from a family that was sitting patiently nearby, probably waiting for a flight back to our home.
“Yes ma’am, so I am very excited.”
“Word of advice,” she said. “Go for a morning run or jog to help your body get more adjusted to the air here. As well as get a jacket since it is a bit colder in comparison.” She led me over to a nearby atm. “And I am gonna assume that you know how to use one of these?”
“Yes ma’am,” I dug into my bag, letting out a silent sigh of relief that I still had the 20 gold that Valeria had given me earlier that day. I slipped three of my 20 into a small coin slot and a moment later this special atm quickly scanned the purity of the gold and a moment later. I was presented with 5500 US dollars, depending on the quality of the coins I had. I knew these machines could reward me as much as 10000 dollars per coin. Our gold was a mix of natural material as well as combined with a bit of Netrix stones. Our netrix stones that grew in the heart of the island were what we used to create netrix gemstones that react with our jepei in many ways. They Were worth more than diamonds and stronger than some, and we had a special deal with Nato for them to study it. As long as they did not create weapons from it… yet my leaders aren’t dumb enough to not know that is what they are doing.
“One more word of advice,” this woman said. “Try and keep how much money you have to yourself, while I am sure you can fight off some of the local thiefs here. It is best to hide your abilities from the public and if you need anything.” She slipped me what looked like a brochure. “This has a list of five safe houses for our people if you need anything. One is here, one is at the library downtown which are the biggest.”
I slipped that into my bag before giving this woman a proper bow of respect. “Thank you for all your help and advice.”
“It was my pleasure, enjoy New York little one.”
I headed up a nearby staircase and quickly made my way out into the general public of this airport. Quickly blending in with the crowd of this busy airport, even at night there seemed to be hundreds of people waiting to get on flights across the world. It was a bit overwhelming and honestly lonely. The sign of someone being a jepei user was the trail of smoke that would spill off their bodies like smoke off a fire. It was so natural to us that I barely even noticed it, yet here that sign was nowhere to be seen. These were all regular people that didn’t share my gift and that feeling was more than I could bear.
That feeling only grew as I stepped out into the streets of New York. It was a lot quieter than I had originally expected, however a quick look at a nearby map answered why it was like that. I was Queen’s right now, so I was gonna need to take a taxi to where I actually needed to be. Manhattan which was where this Hezekiah Wallace was located, I quickly walked over to an empty taxi and older gentlemen rolled down his window. “I need to go to the Wyndham Garden in-”
“Actually, sir. That will not be necessary.” I felt my heart stop as my daddy’s scent washed over me like a blanket and I felt his hand land firmly on my shoulder. “My daughter forgot that I was meeting here in the airport, so that is not necessary.”
This older gentleman gave us a confused look but nothing more than that as he drove forward a bit towards another man that seemed to be looking for a ride. My daddy spun me around to face him, he was wearing black suit pants and a white long sleeved shirt. His hair was in a long ponytail, his bright purple eyes shined brighter than stars in the sky. His face didn’t hold his usual smile but instead held a rare firm stare. I wasted little time in practically throwing myself against him in a tight hug. Breathing in as much of his scent as I possibly could. He lifted me into his arms and held me tighter than he ever could before.
There goes my plan to not find him, he found me within 30 seconds of me leaving the airport .
He whispered over to me in an almost uncharacteristically stern voice. “You are in more trouble than you have ever been in your entire life, young lady.”
“I know,” I whimpered back, suddenly I was very glad that my daddy promised to never spank me before.
Cause if he hadn't, I am pretty sure I would never be able to sit again.
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By the time my daddy finished this extremely long scolding that started in his fancy black car that he had rented, and lasted till we got up to their hotel room and lasted another 25 minutes. I had never seen my daddy this upset before, but considering everything that had happened in the last few hours I knew I deserved this. “And don’t think you are getting out of this without some kind of punishment young lady. Lord, I cannot even imagine how mad your momma is gonna be when we get you home, hell her wrath might be even worse than anything Katherine could do if she ever caught you.”
“I-I’m sorry,” I cried out, rubbing my eyes with my palms. I had mostly been softly crying and shaking since this entire thing started.
My daddy pinched the bridge of his nose. “Damn it Verona,” he said softly, taking a seat on one of the large beds in this very nice and snug hotel room. “I am more than disappointed in you, I am furious. You deliberately disobeyed me and your mother, we keep you at home to keep you safe. We kept you at home so that I could focus on getting Katherine in chains and stopping whatever she has been plotting with Hezekiah Wallace. How did you even get a plane ticket in the first place?”
“My friend brought it for me…”
“Did she also forge that permission slip of yours?”
“Yes sir.”
My daddy held his head down for a moment before bringing it to rest on his folded hands. “You remind me of myself if I am being honest.” He finally spoke up with a soft chuckle, surprising me as his rage seemed to fade away for a moment. I felt him take a hold of my hand and gave it a long squeeze. “I don’t think I ever told you this story before, but when my mother was still alive. I did the same thing that you are doing now.”
“R-Really?”
“Yes I did,” he looked at me with a soft smile now crossing his once stern face. His feathers softened as he seemed to calm down now. “My momma was going on a very dangerous mission of her own, and I was so sure that she needed help that I escaped my aunt’s house, got on the first plane I could and surprised her at her hotel room.”
“W-What did grandma do?” I asked crawling over to rest my head against his side.
“That was a much different time, Verona.” He said with a bit of redness appearing on his cheeks. “To make a long story short, she pulled me into the nearest bathroom she could and nearly skinned me alive for that. Something that you should really be praying Ravana doesn’t do to you.” I felt my own blush start to spread across my lips. “When she had finished, she had a decision to make regarding me. Either send me home so I could do this all again, or let me come and stay so close to her side that I felt attached to her hip.”
“Please,” I begged softly, as I crawled up to kneel on his lap. I set my hands on his shoulders and grabbed them as firmly as I could. “Please, let me stay, I won’t get in the way. I won’t do anything you tell me not to, I can scout, I can track. If we find her I can be strictly support, I can-”
My daddy lifted his hand and placed it over my lips to gently shush me. “Listen to me very carefully.” My daddy closed his eyes and let out a long breath and seemed to nod to himself. “You are gonna do what I say when I say it. If I say run, you run. if I say stay here, you wait here. If I say stay back, you stay back. Am I understood.”
“Daddy of-”
“Am I understood, young lady!”
I quickly nodded my head. “Yes sir.”
One his hands came up to rest on the top of my head. “I wish you didn’t get so much from me, little cub.”
“I would rather get more from you than Katherine.” I smiled sweetly at him before throwing my arms around him in a hug. “Thank you, Daddy.”
My daddy didn’t say your welcome instead he firmly said. “If you disobey me even once, Verona. I will send you back to the island with a few masters that live in this city. So please, do not test me.”
“I won’t,” I promised.
The door slowly cracked open causing us both to turn towards the entrance. Two heads were now poking into the room, one was a light skinned boy with long twisting dreadlocks. He had relaxed green eyes and the ends of his dreads were the same color, the rest being dark brown. The other was a dark green cheetah spirit. “Is it safe to come in now?” Joshua Cash said cautiously. “Cause I can give you another 20 or so minutes… we technically have to move to the new room by tomorrow morning.”
“It is fine, Joshua.” My daddy waved the boy inside. “Joshua looks like we are gonna have another pair of hands and paws joining us on this mission.”
“I had a feeling that was gonna be the case.” The boy stepped fully into the room, followed soon after by a dark green cheetah spirit. Joshua was I think 22 years old and had recently graduated from the academy. He was a close friend to my mom who watched him for the first week he was on the island, he was very smart and I was pretty sure most of the girls in the lower grades (myself included) had a small crush on the boy. He was very kind and his combat skills were rumored to be on the level of Alona Ameko, the hero of the port. “I got us moved up to the top sweet, four beds, a much better shower, it has an actually kitchen so we won’t be rallying on eating out.” Joshua nodded at his cheetah spirit who had a large bag of food in his mouth. The smell of chinese started to fill the air and was reminding me just how hungry I was. That chase had taken a lot out of me and I was practically starving right now. “We got Chinese.”
“Thank you, Joshua, I am starving.” I said crawling off my dad’s lap to go and get something to eat but he quickly grabbed my shoulder in a soft grip.
“Not yet,” he said, as he handed me his phone. “There is one more person that would like to have a word with you, before you eat.”
“Oh no.”
On facetime with her arms crossed over her chest and an even deeper glare fixed across her beautiful brown face was my momma. “Hello again, Verona and your father is very right. I have a lot of words for you, but let’s start with you blocking my number!”
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When I woke up that next morning, it took me a moment to remember where I was. I was so exhausted after being scolded by my momma for nearly an hour before she finally calmed down. Part of me was hoping that maybe, I could just attend a private school here in the city once this entire mess was over, cause my momma had promised me a very severe punishment when I got back. Yet even then she wished me her love and made me promise that I would return to her arms, as well as a promise to obey my daddy and Joshua at all costs. When she had finished I collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep, my mind and body both being truly worn out. While I slept my daddy moved us up to the suite that they had upgraded too. And while I loved my home with all my heart, I wouldn’t mind staying in this suite for the next few days.
We had been given a suite on the top floor that gave us a beautiful few of the entire city. The entire suite was a calming cream and tanned colors, we had two bathrooms, a powder room to freshen up, me and Joshua were staying in the guest room while my daddy got the master bedroom to himself. The living room was so fancy looking that I was nervous to even sit on the furniture or worried about spilling anything on the leathers of this room. There was even a small black piano sitting off in a corner, one that Joshua was already using to play the most beautiful music I could have possibly woken up to. We even had a large dining room with a kitchen right off to the side, this suite felt more like a loft of an apartment than a simple hotel room.
I followed the sound of the music to where Joshua was sitting. He was clad in gray pajama shorts and a black shirt with a green logo of some basketball team, Milwaukee Bucks, and his head was swaying back and forth as he played on this piano. His hands moved with such grace that it was just a memorization of the music he was playing. He was softly humming and singing a few notes here and there. He finally came to a stop and was jotting a few things down in a notebook that sat right beside his sheet music. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at me. “Morning, V.” He called out using one of his many nicknames for me. “How did you sleep? Sorry if I woke you up, I couldn’t help but work on a few things this morning since we are blessed with this beautiful piano.”
I softly shook my head. “You didn’t wake me up, and even if you did I would rather be woken up by your music than Sevil jumping on my bed every morning for her usual hug.” Joshua laughed a bit at that, his laughter was always addictive and made people want to laugh along with him. “Where is my dad?” I hoped he wasn’t out looking for things without me or at least Joshua.
“He went out to the NYPD headquarters to get a few files on our targets. He will be back in about an hour or so, hopefully with breakfast. I mean we could have ordered room service but I would rather use our funds to go to the store to cook meals rather than order food.” Joshua swung his legs around to face me. He had started growing a small beard that I thought suited him much better than the goatee he attempted to have.
“What is this mission supposed to be anyway?” I asked, sitting down in one of the comfy chairs that were spread around our living room.
“We are here to take down Hezekiah Wallace, a known kingpin that has started to make a lot more moves in the last year than he used to make. Known as the king of coke across the eastern seaboard. We want to stop him before authorize realize he is a jepei users, the US already doesn’t trust us that much and the last thing we want is for them to have a reason to hate us more.” Ten years ago there was a bad attack on The Golden Gate bridge by members of the dark order that killed nearly 200 people and injured a thousand more. That event heavily ruined our relationship with the United States and a lot of old treaties we had had to be remade to keep our relationship in place. Now any Jepei user that committed a crime on US soil could risk more relations being ruined and maybe even a full on war between the island and Nato.
They didn’t see that members of the dark order weren’t like people on the island. They just blamed us all because we share the same abilities and blood. They were afraid of them and they were afraid of us as well and that is never a good thing.
Joshua went on. “Our hope is to take him down and even if we cannot do that, our main mission is to take down Katherine by any means. Bringing in one of the fingers of the demon is the best beat we have in taking down The Dark Order.” Lord Blackthorn ruled the order with an iron fist, but he also held ten warriors that he trusted with information. The ten fingers of the demon as some called them, Katherine was one of the strongest members and was rumored to be his closest advisor.
“How can I help?”
Joshua seemed to think on the matter for a moment. “Well, to be quite honest, I was thinking about giving you something, however, your father is still thinking about it. We have been trying to find an opening to get to Hezekiah, and ironically we do. His daughter, Trinity Wallace. Hezekiah is rumored to be a blood throat killer, however he will do a lot for his daughter, he spoils her endlessly. So if you are a friend of his daughter, you will be treated like a princess while she is treated like a queen. Whether it is parties or sleepovers, long trips and vacations to some of their houses across the world. If you can get on his daughter’s good side he will treat you like family. That could be our in so we could see what he knows in his amazing home of his as well as what information he might have in that house.”
“Why does he spoil her so much?”
“Well according to my connection,” Joshua began. “He didn’t know he had a daughter for nearly four years, her mother passed away and she was brought to him. Since then she has become The Princess of The Marsh Pride as they call themselves. I have also heard one more concerning matter about this little girl, if one of his dealers anger her in any way. They usually end up dead.”
“How old is she?”
“He told me she is around 11 to 13, that was all he knew about her, he isn’t high up on the totem pole to give us some serious information.”
My mouth went dry as I softly asked him. “Did he know anything about Katherine?”
Joshua shook his head. “Not as much as I hoped, just that she appeared maybe two years ago and is doing something else in the city while working for Hezekiah. She comes to collect money every other month, regardless if it is clean or not.”
“Clean?”
“Well drug money can’t just be used to buy things right away or it could possibly be detected by the IRS. So instead most kingpins or drug lords make it seem like they are this rich from investments they have made, this is called money laundering. In Hezekiah Wallace’s case, he owns a few dozen small businesses, he owns two restaurants that are very popular, as well as his prize and joy, the largest nightclub in New York, as well as one day club as he calls it for his daughter to have. He uses the money he makes from these businesses to clean the money he makes from his drug revenue so no one is none the wiser in his true motives.”
“If you know all of this, why not just go in and get him?”
Joshua clicked his tongue a few times. “It is not that easy, Verona. We need a warrant to make sure he is truly into some illegal activities, we then need to show the NYPD proof that he is a jepei user so that he falls under our jurisdiction to capture him, we also have to deal with Katherine whom will not allow this source of money for whatever she is planning, to just die off and fall. Which is why if we have you go in and possibly become friends with his daughter who has been seen at certain locations perhaps she can confirm all of this stuff. After all the saying out of the mouths of babes comes truths.”
One of my best traits was the ability to absorb information like a sponge and understand it. “How do you know all of this stuff about crime and cleaning money, and have these connections?”
“Well I used to be a drug dealer.” My eyes nearly shot out of my head as he said that as casually as telling someone his favorite food. Joshua gave a bashful laugh as he rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, I was faster than any kid my age and the police didn’t really look at a kid running down the street as a drug dealer. So I would go and sell come back, get a bit of money for myself on the side, I lived in numerous motel buildings and drug houses, I used to have the cleanest pair of Jordans on the block, the flyest jackets and pants from all the money I made.”
“Why did you stop?”
Joshua’s smile grew a bit smaller. “Well one day the operation was blown and everyone got caught but me, I was just 12 at the time and was running out of money. No other gang would let me sell for them, my old OG as we called him wasn’t liked so no one wanted anything to do with me. When my money ran out and I had to start stealing. I picked the wrong person and snatched your momma’s purse. Grandmaster Ravana found me and after hearing my story brought me to the island. I used my knowledge of the streets to study crime and have used my knowledge to help our forces understand that aspect of the game.”
I felt a bit of guilt start to spread through my body. I was sure that this boy wouldn’t be able to help my daddy but it seemed he was the perfect one to come on this mission with him. “How do I get in touch with his daughter? Does she have a name or a favorite place to go?”
Joshua opened his mouth to speak but my father’s voice came from behind us. “I still have not decided if I am willing to let you try that.” I turned around and found my daddy coming into the room in one of his many sharp suits that he wore on these missions. This one being light blue with a purple lining. He had a few groceries with him as well as the fresh smell of bagels in a small box from a local Panera Bread. “For one I am still wondering if it is right to reward your recent behavior with a special mission.”
From beside him his animal spirit, a large purple jaguar named Thanani spoke up. His voice was much deeper than my father’s, and while my daddy was often jokey and high spirited. Thanami was often a bit colder and stoic in comparison. “Personally I say we lock her in this room for the duration of this mission. We can’t reward bad behavior with special missions.”
“It wasn’t bad behavior-”
I started to mumble but he quickly interrupted “And try to remember, little cub that mumbling doesn’t work with me, and where has Aisu been hiding. I have a talking too with her name on it and I grow tired of waiting.”
“Tell him I am not here?” I heard her whisper in the back of my mind.
“Alright can we all relax for a moment.” Joshua spoke up. “Look we get it, Verona was very stupid in what she did. Like really stupid, like quite possibly the dumbest thing she has probably done in her life.” He turned my way and his face was filled with concern. “Like I am honestly worried about what is gonna happen when Grandmaster Ravana get’s her hands on you, because of how stupid you were.”
My entire face burned like the sun as I shot a glare towards the light-skinned boy. “Is this going somewhere?!”
“My point is, we gotta make good out of the bad and unexpected. We now have an in to possibly get the information that we have been wanting for the last few weeks. So while I go to Harlem and gather what I can in the streets, Master Jonan works with the NYPD to gather information there and scoop out some locations. Verona can go and become friends with someone her age.”
I looked over at my daddy who was sipping on a cup of coffee. “Do not get me wrong, Joshua this is a good thing in a few ways. The problem is I don’t want her out and about, especially not with her mo-” My daddy stopped himself. “I mean, Katherine, in this city. That is the only thing holding me back from letting Verona go. Katherine only wants one thing from me and that is my daughter.”
“I can do this.” I protested. “I doubt that I will see her on this assignment, she doesn’t really like kids that much so it’s not like she is gonna be watching this guy’s daughter. Plus if I do see her, I promise I will call you and run away before she can spot me. Please dad, just let me do this.”
“I can always send Barry here.” Joshua nodded at the cheetah spirit. “If she does see her, Barry can get her out of there faster than anyone. Or if we have to, I can just go with her on this mission after we go and see my connect, in fact…” A slight glimmer appeared in Joshua’s eyes. “I have a way to make this all work out perfectly, to kill two birds with one stone.”
“What are you thinking?” My daddy and I asked in unison.
“Trust me, Master Jonan this will work perfectly, and Verona how do you feel about getting a bit of a makeover.”
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