Wrenching Fate by Brooklyn Ann Page B

enemy, only shoving him away and dodging his blows. She didn’t deliver a single punch, obviously careful not to display her inhuman strength again.
    Finally, the attackers gave up and left the party with a parting shot from the leader.
    “You’ll pay for this, freaks. I’ll get you all!”
    “I just don’t understand why that asshole thinks I want his body,” Beau said with a dramatic sigh. “He’s totally not my type. I like my boys with a little more brains.”
    “He’s probably hung like a squirrel,” Xochitl replied with a dismissive shrug.
    Silas nearly choked, holding back his laughter as he headed back to his car. Xochitl may be a powerful creature, but that made her no less a rambunctious youth.
    ***
    Three weeks later
     
    They were loud. Silas looked at the clock and buried his face in his hands in futile effort to dim the sound of Aurora’s drums. The sun would not set for another hour but Akasha’s friends had yet again awakened him early with their raucous music.
    His efforts to charm the four had worked too well. For the past few weeks, it seemed Rage of Angels , as they called themselves, had practically moved in. The basement— inconveniently above his hidden sleeping quarters— was now a veritable haven to the group, when they weren’t working as his new cleaning service.
    Silas smiled. It had been so easy to get them under his thumb. One would think Delgarias had planned it that way.
    Despite their unruly music and morbid taste in clothing, Akasha’s eccentric friends were better mannered than the average adolescents. Also, they were far more dedicated to their goals than most mortals. Silas closed his eyes and thought of the four musicians.
    To his relief the bass player, Beau, had no interest in Akasha. From the way the boy looked at Silas when they were first introduced, it was apparent Beau’s interests lay in his own gender.
    The guitarist, Sylvis, seemed to be a shy thing at first, but he quickly learned she was something of a comedienne. The girl had been Xochitl’s best friend since early childhood and it seemed they had a language of their own, often punctuated with bouts of hysterical laughter. Both were finishing their high school diplomas at the college with Akasha. Aurora and Beau hadn’t qualified. After scenting marijuana on the two, Silas was not surprised.
    However, despite her taste for illegal herbs, Aurora, the drummer, was definitely not lacking in intelligence. As the unspoken leader of the band, when she tapped on her drums like a judge with a gavel, looking like a queen as she declared it was time to practice, or that some melody should be cut, her word was law.
    Silas yawned. Then there was Xochitl, the walking, singing conundrum. Although she was supposed to be the offspring of an evil being, she did not seem to be malevolent in the slightest. Her mother had been a preschool teacher, of all things.
    Xochitl’s bubbly cheer and impulsiveness hid a frightening intellect, which made its appearance in the most surprising times. Just last night, she had sat across from him at the dining room table decked out in leather and fishnet as she sipped wine like a duchess and discussed the battle of Flodden Field with him— in German. According to Akasha, Xochitl could speak six languages. Silas had only mastered four. The next time he saw her, she was scampering about the house wearing a ragged baby blanket about her shoulders like an ill-fitting cape.
    Together, the four filled his castle with chaos, amusement, and music. After centuries of solitude, having a full house was unnerving, yet invigorating. It seemed the musicians never slept. When they weren’t practicing their music, they were talking, laughing, and often watching movies.
    Silas shuddered. They had horrible taste in movies. Thanks to them, he could likely recite every line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as well as everything done by Mel Brooks. They loved horror movies equally well. Practically every