Blood Ties - D. R. Rosier

Chapter One

The warm mid-morning June sun beat down on my neck and warmed my hair as I listened. At least until the vision hit me. It was late afternoon that same day as an extended van pulled up, and five men and two women piled out. I didn’t recognize any of them, as they moved to the quiet and empty house. One used magic to get inside the house, and time seemed to slip forward as the sun lowered toward the horizon. Several people went in and out of house during that time, then the original seven left, got in their van, and took off. Two of the ones that had gone in, never came out.

As visions went, it was a rather strange one, but I’d ask Ginny about it later. They usually came with violence, but I hadn’t seen any, though I imagined that those two that never left the house were probably dead.

I should probably introduce myself, since visions of the future in most would be considered proof of insanity. My name is Samuel Crossman, and I was an oddity. A singular being on a world of billions of humans, and millions of other types of beings, supernatural beings. The world is not what you think, though I suspect most will disbelieve my story, I feel the need to tell it.

It’d been about three weeks since my insane introduction to the supernatural world. Over the two days that I’d found out I wasn’t human at all, but angel born. I had my shifter and witch powers, from two of the four Nephilim races and protectors of humanity, but I was still missing the other three pieces of the puzzle. Also, I had my witch and shifter mates, and that part was just as crazy as ever. Especially with the absences during the day. If anything, that’d turned up the heat between us even higher. I’d also fallen hard for both of them, they were amazing and powerful women.

Not much had gone on the last three weeks, a lot of training really. Witch classes in the mornings, and in the afternoons, I was trained to overcome my wild animal instincts in my other five forms. That second part would change today though, since my training in controlling my other forms was finished. My strong disciplined will had made short work of the wild and unpredictable urges of animal instincts. I’d gotten that done in less than half the time my Ginny had suspected I would. Of course, I’d still be sparring in those forms to keep my edge, but not a full afternoon workout. Today was the first day I’d be shadowing my alpha, my mate, and learning the ropes of being an enforcer as well as what she did.

The schedule was a little fluid, or at least it would be until I’d learned all I needed to learn to not only understand my new supernatural world, but to take my place in it.

My witch class was relatively easy, and I suspected I’d be learning that one a little faster if I’d had one on one training for it too, but that wasn’t going to happen. I’d still be doing that for the next few months and a week or so. I was learning alongside several teen witches, in a class that was run by Lon Jacobs. Lon had a position of importance underneath the matriarch, Cadence Johnson. Cadence, who happened to be the mother of my other mate Tiffany, who was also heir of the coven.

The curriculum was pretty set, so once I got an idea down there was no racing ahead. The class moved ahead as one, which was fine. Point was it’d be another three months before I started to learn Tiffany’s responsibilities and really started to work with the witches.

The witch curriculum was circular, starting with fire and then the other three elements. Then weather, followed by nature, before it rounded back to fire again. Nature was where they were when I started, and for the last three weeks they’d been working on that. It was difficult and complicated, but my mind was up for the task. There were of course other possibilities with magic, but ones that were not taught and were in fact banned. The magic of necromancy, demon summoning, and other dark uses of magic. The magic of rogues. The use of such magic was what made them rogue, and the magic of the half-demonic fae races, necromancers and warlocks.

We weren’t always outside