Blood Tied by Jacob Z. Flores

room. The shadows along the wall formed into a giant black spike that skewered them both. Black blood gurgled out of their mouths as they writhed in their death throes.
    Mason stood off to the side, a wicked grin on his face. His shadow weaving talents had evidently grown since the last time I’d been home. Although his projections quickly reverted to their harmless form, he’d managed to manipulate the shadows long enough to do what needed to be done.
    “Holy shit!” Pierce said, as the banshees’ corpses turned to mist. His voice sounded tinny, and there was a constant ringing in my ears, a side effect of a banshee attack. “That was fucking awesome.”
    I glared at my brother, as did most everyone else in the room.
    “Are you serious, Pierce?” Drake asked. Whenever he was rattled, his Texas twang often made it difficult to understand him. “We were just attacked by a whole mess o’ pissed off ghouls. I wouldn’t exactly be callin’ that awesome.”
    “Banshees,” Mrs. Proctor corrected.
    “Whatever,” Drake said, dismissing her with a wave of his hand. His obvious dislike for Camille Proctor couldn’t be more evident. After all, she had been the one who’d attempted to wipe his memories a few weeks ago. “My point is this is about as far from awesome as anythin’ can get in my book. First a vampyre and now a gaggle o’ banshees. What’s next?”
    “What’s next indeed?” Camille asked. She tore her gaze from Aiden and glared at me. While Mrs. Proctor’s brown eyes usually reflected the maternal kindness she was famous for, when she was a pissed off witch who’d seen her family assaulted, she evidently turned ice cold. “What new hell have the Blackmoors brought to our lives?”
    “That’s enough, Camille,” my father said. He’d reverted to his normal form and crossed to stand by my side. “This isn’t Thad’s fault.”
    “I beg to differ,” a pained voice said from across the room. It was Mr. Stonewall. He and the others were waking up and untangling themselves from the heap they’d been turned into.
    “As do I,” Mrs. Stonewall agreed. Her husband helped her stand up. “If Thad had shared his previous misadventure with us, we would have been prepared for what just happened, and my children would not have been harmed.” She lifted the young Keaton in her arms. He had begun to stir. She stroked his head while Mr. Stonewall kneeled beside Edith, who held her sobbing sister, Kate, in her arms.
    While the youngest Stonewalls would grow up to be powerful wizards, Keaton and Kate had yet to come into their powers. Right now they were vulnerable, and I had unknowingly brought them into harm’s way.
    Perhaps I should do something I rarely ever did: apologize.
    “Your children belong to the family chosen by the Order of the Gray to be its protector coven,” Ben told the Stonewalls. “Being born to the two of you is what put them in harm’s way. Don’t try and pass that off onto anyone else.”
    All eyes turned to Ben as he wove his way to me. The closer he got, the more I wanted to be by his side.
    “What your families do is dangerous, and it’s a duty you accepted. Or have you forgotten that?” Ben asked.
    “You’re a solitary warlock,” Mr. Stonewall said. Even though he seethed, his voice never rose or strained. He spoke in cold, measured tones. “You have no voice here.”
    Mr. and Mrs. Proctor nodded in agreement before turning their gazes to my father. “I think it’s time for your guest to depart,” Mr. Proctor said.
    My father’s eyes turned to slits. The control he’d been struggling to maintain on his emotions slipped free. “You will not come into my house, into my coven, and tell me what to do. I run this family, not you.”
    Mrs. Stonewall snorted in reply.
    “What the hell is wrong with you?” Aiden asked. He strolled into the fray with a regal jut to his chin and met everyone’s gaze. “Is this how the much-vaunted protector covens act? Like goblins