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Trinity
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When the helicopter landed outside the house, I was happy to see that Star and Artem were waiting there for us. Star looked basically the same, even after all this time. I hadn't seen her in a little over ten years, not since they came to see the quadruplets after they were born. She still had that long golden blonde hair and those deep blue eyes. She was taller than me by a few inches, but she was always so sweet and seemed so innocent that she felt like she was smaller than she really was.
Artem was there too, looking just the same as always as well. His copper brown hair and bright green eyes made him stand out. Well, so did the fact that he was six feet three inches tall. That made him loom above the others. Most of the boys standing around him were topped out at around six feet tall, it seemed like only the two that were his naturally were as tall as him, or almost as tall as him. They were eighteen and seventeen and still growing just a little bit.
There were only a few other boys there, a lot of them lived separately and had their own families now. The youngest of the adopted boys was in his mid twenties now, and the oldest, Julian, was thirty-four. Considering that Artem was only forty-two, that was quite the strange thing to think about. They all treated each other like family though, and Artem thinks of all those boys as his own.
“Trinity!” Star squealed when I climbed down from the helicopter. She ran over the moment that I was on the ground and hugged me tightly. “It's been so long!”
.....
“I know! And considering that we're cousins, I think that we need to see each other a lot more often.” I hugged her back. “And, oh my Goddess! Look at them all! The girls have gotten so big, and the boys are proper men now. I can't believe this!” Their oldest biological child was just a month younger than Reagan and Rika, but it was still hard for me to process all of this right now. Knowing that they have grown up and actually seeing that they've grown up are two different things entirely.
“I know what you mean! I know that Talia is there, last time I saw her she was five! Oh my Goddess, she is all grown up now.”
“Don't rush it too much, Star!” Reece laughingly cut in. “She's only fifteen. Don't make her think that she can go off and get a boyfriend just yet.”
“Oh hush, Dad!” Talia blushed as she looked away awkwardly.
“Ha ha! I know the feeling, Reece. I got these three here. They're never allowed to date. Ever.”
“Dad!”
“Daddy!”
“Oh come on, Dad!” The three girls Elise, Isabelle and Olivia complained while they laughed at him.
“These men are just babies when it comes to their daughters.” Star laughed as she took my hand. “Come on you guys, let's go inside.” She took Talia's hand too and I saw that Alexio was not happy about that. He didn't really know Star, so he couldn't judge whether she was going to be a threat to his charge or not. I wanted to tell him that everything was fine, but I was too busy holding back my laughter at the look on his face.
Star led us to the dining room first. They had prepared dinner for us and were waiting for when we would arrive.
“I know that you have to be hungry, and tired. So, let's eat, then you can rest up and get to work in the morning.” Star was grinning at first, but then her face fell. “I know that this is not the most ideal time for us to catch up and have a good time, but we haven't seen each other in so long and I was just so happy to see my family.”
“It's fine, Star. I was thinking the same thing. We need to talk and relax. I think that getting our minds off of things for a little while will be a good idea.”
“Good. I'm glad. Artem made the meal tonight. He went all out and made everything that he considers his specialty. So there is a lot of food for you all to eat. As you saw outside, only Cohen, Dalton, Gil, Zack and Julian are here, they're the only ones that have graduated and moved away. “Julian here”, she ran over to her son that was only two years younger than she was and hugged him, “is here with his husband Spencer. And they have two children that are in the other room, they will be here soon. Twins named Blair and Blake. A boy and a girl. Can you believe that they're biological?” Star was flabbergasted.
“I can, yes.” I nodded at her. “We have friends that did the same thing. They have two sets of twins that are one boy and one girl each. It was quite the miracle.”
“I love the magic that works in our people. It's amazing.” She was practically squealing again. “Altogether, Artem and I have fifteen grandchildren.” She laughed but that blew my mind. I was older than her by a year and I didn't have any grandkids, thankfully. “I guess that is what happens when you adopt a bunch of kids that are already older when you start having kids. You get grandkids so soon. I love them though. It keeps us all on our toes.”
“Congratulations Star, I can see how happy they make you.” Her beaming smile was well worth the visit here. I was glad that we got the chance to see them. I just wish that it wasn't a murder that brought us all here.
We started to eat our food after that. It was all good, as always. Artem is an amazing chef, I learned that when I was pregnant with Reagan and Rika and came here for the first time. He was always making the best meals in the world. Compared to Reece, he was world class in cooking. Reece couldn't boil water even if he was given written instructions.
OK, that wasn't fair. He could follow along if someone was there to help him, but he could never cook on his own. He was more of a 'monkey see, monkey do' kind of cook. He needed the visual every single time.
After we were done eating, Talia went off with the triplets, Elise, Isabelle and Olivia. Of course, Rudy and Alexio followed them since it was their job. I could just imagine how that part of their conversation was going to go.
Reece and I, along with all the others, went with Star and Artem to their parlor and decided to have a talk about what was going on. They needed to know more about the murders and how many there had been. They needed to know how to protect their people, and how to spread the word to the others around them. Artem, being a Noble in my kingdom, had a lot of clout among the people out here in this area. He would make sure that the wolves and other shifters in the area were taken care of.
I also knew that Artem would have been among those that had investigated the scene earlier today. He would be able to tell us if there was anything out of the ordinary. Not that he knew what an ordinary one of these crime scenes looked like.
“It was horrible.” Artem started to recount. “I was there with Kent and Toby to look into the murder of a shifter in the area. I didn't think that it was going to look like that though. They had strange marks carved into their bodies, their hearts had been ripped out, and there were these words written in blood. It was horrible.”
“What is worse, Artem, is that their soul is trapped inside of their body. That is why the local coroner was instructed not to touch the body until we got here.”
“Their soul?” Both Star and Artem gasped at that.
“How is that possible?” Star looked like she was about to scream.
“Those runes. They trapped the soul, and the victim was fully aware of what was going on when they were killed. And by that I mean when their heart was ripped out. They are still conscious and aware, and would feel the autopsy cuts.”
“How are you going to save them?” Artem couldn't believe what he had heard and was getting angry at the fact that someone had done this to another person.
“That is why Talia is here. She can release the soul and interview them. She is the only one that can do that.”
“Talia is that powerful?” They knew that she was going to be the next ruler of the underworld, but they didn't seem to know how amazing my daughter really was.
“Yes, she is. And that is why she came with us and not the others. She is needed.”
“Damn. I never knew that.”
We talked a little while longer about what was going on and when we would be heading out in the morning. Of course, Artem and his friends were coming with us. They were his Beta and Gamma, so he didn't see a problem with it at all.
For now though, we were being shown to the rooms that we were going to stay in. They were nice and luxurious, just like I remembered them being. And I was so tired that I fell asleep next to Reece almost instantly. Thankfully, I didn't dream about anything at all that night. I didn't want to see images of the dead or the heartbroken witnesses, so it was a good thing that they didn't come to my dreams that night.
