Fever Fae - Meg Xuemei X Page 0,1

I could deal with it. I understood how hard it was for the seven of us fighting for limited resources all these years.

Turning on my heel, I padded into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. It was mostly empty now. I’d have to go shopping today.

Tomorrow I’d head to the police station again to check on my parents’ missing case, though I knew it was a long shot that the cops would find anything.

I also needed to find a job within a week if I wanted to feed a family of seven.

I forced back the sudden tears stinging my eyes.

I got this. I can do it, I murmured to myself as I took out a crate of eggs.

When I was almost done with mixing butter and scrambled eggs, all my siblings arrived, except for Fawn, my six-year-old sweet, youngest sister.

Asuka and Nox, the dirty-blond twins, rubbed their eyes and yawned at the same time before one of them snatched two bowls and the other fetched milk and Honey Nut Cheerios. The twins took care of each other, and only each other. I had no problem with that since they didn’t bother anyone else.

“Emmett, could you microwave the pre-cooked bacon, please?” I asked. “Safiya, I need you to set the plates, please. Everyone, I’d highly appreciate it if you could get your lunchbox ready and put it on the counter after your breakfast.”

“I don’t eat bacon!” Safiya pouted, flapping her long hazelnut hair. “Mom always made me omelets with lots of spinach, mushroom, and a pint of ricotta cheese.”

“I don’t have time to make omelets,” I said. “There are so many of you, and I don’t want any of you to be late for school again!” I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t know how to make an omelet.

“Then at least make some pancakes,” Safiya sneered.

“Make it yourself,” I snapped at my sister. “You’re a big girl.”

Until this day, I’d never realized how rotten and spoiled we all were. And now these little leeches expected me to take Mom’s role until they could sip me dry.

“I don’t do kitchen work,” Safiya said.

“That’s too bad, princess,” I said. “You’re under new management now.”

Safiya shot me a venomous glare.

“Evie, I think the eggs are overdone,” Emmett said, laughter in his voice.

Among us, only Emmett and Safiya resembled my parents. They both got Mom’s hazelnut hair.

I dumped the overcooked scrambled eggs onto a big plate. They were still edible.

“I want waffles!” shouted Cassidy, my eight-year-old, pain-in-the-butt brother. He was the only one among us who had curly hair. He could use a haircut soon. Guess I would have to do it for him.

“We ran out of waffles, buddy,” I said.

“My name is not Buddy,” he barked. “And I only eat waffles!”

At the smell of burned bread, I rushed to the toaster and yanked out the toasted slices. I tossed them onto an empty plate. The brown bread looked mostly fine other than the blackened edges. My siblings wouldn’t get cancer eating them, right?

“You’ll eat whatever I put on the table,” I said, glaring at each of them in turn.

They didn’t understand that our lives had changed. One moment, everything had been fine. One moment I had giggled in my boyfriend’s lap and drunk my fill of pungent draft beer in a wild Manhattan party. The next I received the phone call that my parents hadn’t returned home.

The pale-green family van was still parked in the driveway.

It’d been useless to ask our neighbors if they’d seen anything the day my parents vanished. Our house sat alone at the end of the lane, and the nearest neighbor lived a few hundred yards beyond the trees that lined our property.

“Cassidy, I got you strawberry jam.” Fawn sounded like a sweet angel as she entered the dining room. She wore a uniform skirt and high knee socks. Her silver-blonde hair flowed down her tiny shoulders.

Nox poured her a glass of milk as she climbed onto the chair beside Cassidy.

I strolled to the table and picked up Fawn’s glass of milk. “I’ll heat it for you, angel.” I kissed her crown, and she hugged me. Ever since my parents had adopted my younger sister at age three, I’d always had a soft spot for her.

“Mom and Dad won’t be back for a while,” Fawn said like a prophet. “But monsters are coming.”

A chill sliced up my spine, not at my sister’s prediction, but the sudden drop in temperature. My breath puffed out in a little cloud. It was