Spike, Trista and Francisco were smart enough to back away—Harry-Larry… not so much. I assumed they would recognize Mother Nature.
Never assume…
“I’m a guest here,” Mary snapped and waved her finger in my grandmother’s face. “I got very little sleep and this is unacceptable. The help in a palace should know their place. You clearly do not know your place.”
“Uh, Mary,” Trista said in mortification as she stared wide-eyed at Mother Nature and gave her a quick respectful bow. “You might want to…”
“Shut up,” Mary growled, missing the exchange. “I’ve had to put up with the three of you for days now and you are on my very last nerve. It’s taken everything I have not to have shoved sliver stakes through your hearts.” Her gaze zeroed in on me with hatred and a sneer spread across her mouth. “It shouldn’t surprise me at all that you don’t know how to handle a staff. Ethan certainly mated below his station.”
“Do you really think so?” Mother Nature inquired so calmly it sent chills up my spine.
“I do. And you shall speak only when spoken to,” Mary ground out at Mother Nature. “Honestly, when did help get so mouthy?”
For the first time in my life, I was truly speechless. Nothing would come out of my mouth. No one fucked with Mother Nature. No one. I wasn’t sure if Mary-Harry-Scary-Larry was about to die or be turned into a toad. Neither was good.
“What did you say your name was, Vampyre?” Mother Nature asked in a tone that made Mary pause.
“I didn’t,” she replied rudely, still unwilling to be spoken to by the staff. “Why don’t you give me your name so I can report your insolence to Ethan?”
Mary waited with her arms crossed over her chest and gave Mother Nature the stink eye.
With a trill of gloriously evil laughter, my grandmother began to glow. She lifted her hands and more trees burst from the floor and out of the walls as a den of poisonous vipers slithered lovingly around her Prada clad feet. Rain and ice began to pour in buckets from the ceiling, but amazingly only soaked Mary-Harry-Scary who wasn’t looking quite as superior anymore.
“My name?” Gigi roared. “My name is Gaia and you have messed with the wrong immortal, you piece of shit.”
“You go girl,” Doug shouted and did something akin to a toe touch that was sure to land him in traction.
“Ooooffffffff with her heeeeaaaaaad!” Charles grunted as he too got into the action—heads spinning and goop flying.
“It’s not nice to fuck with Mother Nature,” Gigi roared.
“I thought it was fool,” Doug chimed in, perplexed but not missing a single beat of his dance.
“That’s the butttttter commerciaaaaal,” Charles explained as he took a brief break for the Exorcist head-spinning thing.
“Right,” Doug said as he slapped his forehead and then popped and locked.
“Attack,” Mother Nature commanded of her slithery, hissing pets.
Harry-Larry cowered on the ground and writhed in agony as Mother Nature’s snakes slid across the floor with lightening speed and set upon the stupid Vampyre with a vengeance. I was pretty sure Vamps were immune to poison, but with my grandma running the show there was no telling what was in the venom.
“You do not insult Mother Nature and you do not insult, The Chosen One, who is my granddaughter. Do you understand me?” Mother Nature bellowed in a voice that shook the walls of the compound. “And if I had been the help, which I most certainly am not, you should be ashamed of yourself for speaking that way. I’d rip my children a new asshole if they behaved as appallingly as you.”
Mary’s screams were very real and this was getting out of hand. She was rude and I didn’t like her even a little bit, but having her die a violent death on my kitchen floor wasn’t in my plans for the day. Trista, Francisco and Spike looked on in shock, but with no pity on their faces.
Mary was not a very popular or well-liked gal. I guess her threat of taking a stake to their hearts didn’t sit too well with them.
“It’s like a horror movie gone awry,” Spike said to his cohorts who ignored him.
Shit was getting far too real and it had to stop. This was not a movie—not even remotely. However, Spike had a point…it had definitely gone awry. Mary didn’t deserve to die for being rude and stupid.
“Enough,” I shouted and felt the adrenaline rush I always got when my magic consumed me. Black glitter covered my arms and chest and sliver and purple sparks shot from my fingertips. My hair flew wildly around my head and I knew my eyes had turned as glittering red as the Devil’s. The trembling of the floor was no longer coming from Mother Nature’s magic. Nope, I was rocking the house all by myself.
I lifted my hands over my head and the snakes withered and disintegrated before our eyes. The screeching was horrifying, but I continued until every last one was dead and no longer sinking their fangs into the disgusting Vampyre convulsing on the floor. Doug and Charles prostrated themselves at my feet and the other Vampyres gaped in uncomfortable shock.
“I want to destroy her,” Mother Nature whined as she stomped her foot and pouted.
“I know.” I nodded my head at her, but didn’t pull back my magic even a fraction. The room still quaked and my power poured off of me making the rest of the inhabitants in the room duck for cover. “She’s a horrid excuse for a Vampyre, but verbal hostility is not grounds for death. If it was our entire family would be ash. Am I clear, Grandma?”