Just as they were zipping up the last bags and double-checking passports, Leo paused , glancing over his shoulder.
"Hey… should I bring Ronan with me?"
His dad, halfway through confirming the flight time on his phone, looked up like the answer was obvious. "Of course he's coming... He's your familiar."
Leo blinked. "Wait, what?"
He turned to Ronan, who was perched smugly on the armrest of the couch.
The bird gave a casual shrug, like he'd been waiting for this moment.
"No wonder you're smarter than other birds…" Leo muttered. "But I'm confused. I never made a contract or anything with him...I just… met him."
His dad slipped his phone into his jacket and walked over, speaking calmly.
"That's because our family's a little different when it comes to familiars."
"How different?"
"We have pre-established pacts," he said. "With almost all major familiar races. Old agreements. On your sixteenth birthday, one of the compatible ones senses the bond and finds you."
Leo's mind clicked into place. "I met Ronan a few.days after I turned sixteen."
"Exactly."
He turned to Ronan again, mouth opening to ask more—but he didn't get the chance.
With a single beat of his wings, Ronan launched into the air and dissolved into wisps of shadow mid-flight—slipping into the floor and merging seamlessly with Leo's own shadow like ink dropped into water.
Leo stared.
"I… I was just gonna ask if you needed your own seat…"
His father chuckled, picking up the suitcases. "Nope. He travels light."
Just then, Leo heard the soft thump of boots and turned toward the hallway.
His mom stepped out, but she looked nothing like the woman who'd been fussing over dinner plans earlier.
She was dressed in a sleek, close-fitting outfit—something between armor and activewear, made for movement. Combat-ready.
The kind of thing you only saw in movies.
Her hair was tied back tight, and both her arms were marked with different tattoos that ran from her shoulders to her wrists.
Leo blinked. "Mom…?"
She gave him a quick grin like it was the most normal thing in the world. "What?"
His dad groaned. "Hana, really? Did you have to wear that? We're just flying, not raiding a fortress."
She brushed past him with a scoff. "Oh, be quiet...There's no one left to hide from. Remember? We won."
Leo looked between the two of them, thoroughly lost. "Okay, hold on. Won? Hide from who? What is going on? Context please...?"
His dad picked up a duffel bag and sighed. "We'll talk in the car."
Leo didn't argue.
He had a feeling he was going to need the whole ride—and maybe the entire flight—to unpack all of this.
---
Leo sat stiffly in the backseat, arms crossed, the hum of the car doing little to ease the strangeness in the air.
His mom, now fully decked out like an action movie character, sat beside him looking relaxed—like this was just another family trip.
But she wasn't the same mom who packed his lunches and nagged him about his laundry.
Not right now. There was… something else.
An aura he couldn't quite describe.
It was weird for him. Too weird.
After a few minutes of silence, Leo gave up trying to sit in it.
"So," he began slowly, "I read the family journal. There's no mention of you being part of any magical race."
His mom smiled without turning her head. "Yep. That's true. I'm a pure human."
Leo frowned. Truth Layer had shown something different.
She let out a small laugh and glanced at him. " I wasn't born with anything. No magic bloodline, no blessings. Just years of training, and maybe a few experimental enhancements here and there."
He stared.
She continued casually. "I was trained in America... One of the programs developed to fight against rogue supernatural threats...Think black ops, but with wendigos and rogue werewolves instead of terrorists."
Leo blinked.
"I'm stronger than most baseline supernatural creatures. Though I'm not that strong compared to the really powerful ones. Still, enough to handle myself."
She smiled again, as if she were talking about gardening. "I actually met your father when I was sent to kill him."
Leo turned his head slowly, giving her a blank, deadpan look. "You… what?"
She laughed, completely unbothered. "Yup. Mission was to eliminate a suspected demon-blooded warlock operating under a false name... Turns out he was on vacation."
Leo stared. "You just… dropped that like a fun fact."
"Well, we didn't fight long. He flirted mid-battle and made me laugh.."
"And before you ask," his mom continued, casually pulling her hair back into a tight braid as the car sped toward the airport, "the reason we kept everything hidden for so long was because of some dumbass magicians with ancient grudges against your dad's side of the family."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "Magicians?"
"Yeah. Old families. Cults. Obscure covens...Basically, the kind of people who still think family feuds should last a thousand years," she said with a roll of her eyes.
"Most of the supernatural world either forgets about them or outright hates them... Most of the grudges are resolved now, but we kept things quiet just in case."
Leo glanced between his parents. "Why were there grudges in the first place?"
His mom gave him a sidelong look, then smirked. "Take a guess... You read the journal, right?"
He sat in silence for a few seconds, flipping back through the entries in his mind. "…It's the marriages, isn't it?"
"Bingo," she said, snapping her fingers. "Your ancestors married into almost every major supernatural race. Vampires, werewolves, fae, gargoyles, wendigos yada yada...even a few demons. Everyone except dragons and gods."
"That tends to draw a lot of attention," his dad added from the driver's seat. "And a lot of resentment. People don't exactly throw flowers when you marry their royal bloodlines or sacred heirs."
"Or steal their potential futures," his mom said with a smirk. "You'd be amazed how touchy some of the high courts get when a member marries outside their directive."
"Woah…" Leo muttered, staring out the car window as city lights blurred past. "Why did you guys never tell me any of this?"
His dad let out a slow breath. "We weren't sure… There's a doctrine passed down through our family for centuries. If a member doesn't awaken any ability by the age of sixteen, they're to be sent to the ancestral lands for protection...They aren't to be told anything unless absolutely necessary."
Leo frowned. "But I didn't awaken anything at sixteen… right?"
Silence.
Neither of them responded. His mom looked out the window like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world.
Leo's gaze flicked between the two of them. "Right…?"
His father finally spoke, keeping his eyes on the road. "On your sixteenth birthday… there was a very strong soul resonance within you. A new magical organ formed—somewhere between your brain and your eyes."
Leo blinked. "A magical… organ?"
His mother nodded. "We had it checked. Confirmed by someone from the family."
"Wait." Leo leaned forward. "I have relatives?"
"Yeah," his dad said, lips curling into a small, amused smile. "A lot more than you think. Some you'll like. Some you'll want to punch.... It's a very real family."
"With a very long memory," his mom added. "You'll meet them soon enough."
---
Leo wandered through the airport, nose buried in a worn leather-bound book titled "Foundations of Mana Flow and Mental Discipline."
His parents walked slightly ahead, clearly accustomed to the terminal's unusual lack of crowds.
Their pace was calm, while Leo trailed a few feet behind, mind deep in the book's explanation of "third-tier control nodes" and "ambient synchronization."
It wasn't until they stepped onto the tarmac that he finally looked up—just in time to notice the plane waiting for them.
Sleek, polished, and pristine… but not a logo or airline name in sight.
Instead, an ancient-looking sigil shimmered subtly on the side of the aircraft, pulsing faintly with magic.
Leo blinked. "Wait... that's not any airline company I've ever heard of—"
"Of course not," his father said without slowing. "Don't you think it'd be a bit embarrassing if a bloodline as old as ours wasn't one of the richest on the planet?"
He gestured at the aircraft. "We've had thousands of years to accumulate wealth. Land, gold, patents, artifacts… entire industries."
"Oh," Leo muttered, eyes widening. So the entire plane—a customized, enchanted, runed-up aircraft—was their private jet.
My life keeps getting more better by the hour, Leo thought.
He sighed, tucked the book under his arm, and started climbing the metal stairs up to the jet.
As he stepped on the third rung, something flickered in his vision—his irises briefly turning a deep molten gold.
Images. Rapid, fragmented.
A future possibility. A threat.
And then—WHAM.
Leo instinctively ducked.
A sharp leg sliced through the air where his head had just been.
He felt the wind pressure graze his ear.
Without hesitation, he activated Truth Layer and Logos Erasure in tandem. Reality around the attacker distorted—the concept of "movement by the person " itself vanished from them.
Frozen.
A figure stood still mid-air—tall, wiry, wrapped in a similar attire to his mom but all white, with a mischievous smirk now frozen in place.
"Haha! I told you, Kazren—" the figure said with glee, right before realizing they couldn't move anymore, "—the boy's got more than just passive observation... I think there's even clairvoyance—?"
And that's when it hit her. She was paralyzed.
Kazren, Leo's father, groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Leo, release the effect."
"Why? She just tried to kick my head off."
Kazren sighed again. "Because... she's basically your grandmother."
Leo raised an eyebrow. "...Basically?"
"She's a Vampire ," his mom clarified. "She's one of the older family members.... she has trained five generations of heirs, and gave your dad his first scar."
"...She stabbed me with a kitchen fork," Kazren muttered.
"She said you moved too slow."
Leo looked back at the immobilized woman, who somehow managed to project smugness even in a frozen state.
He sighed and deactivated both abilities.
As time and motion returned to her body naturally, the woman stretched her arms and casually dropped to the stairs like nothing had happened.
Leo stepped aside, the woman who had attacked him landed gracefully on the tarmac, her boots barely making a sound.
Now that he got a proper look at her, Leo noticed the unnaturally pale skin, the faint crimson glow in her eyes.
She tilted her head, grinning, fangs barely visible. "Hah… not bad, little heir. You almost singed my soul there."
Kazren folded his arms, clearly irritated. "Was that really necessary, Seraphine?"
"Of course it was," the woman—Seraphine—replied, brushing an invisible speck of dust off her shoulder.
"If I didn't test him now, someone else would've tried it later—when it'd matter a hell of a lot more."
Leo stared. "Wait. You're a vampire."
She gave a theatrical bow. "Seraphine Vael, born before your calendar started counting properly. Former Duchess of the Tepes Court. But around here… I'm just the family's loyal pain in the ass."
"She married into the bloodline seven generations ago," Kazren said flatly. "And she's trained five generations of heirs since then. Helped raise them, taught them to fight, to survive. She even bit one of them once, but we don't talk about that."
"He asked for it," Seraphine shot back, unapologetic.
Leo just stared at her she looked like if Krul tepes was a grown woman it was kinda weird how there was almost no colouration in his own hair.
She stepped closer, gaze studying him like a predator analyzing prey.
"Looks like training you won't be completely boring."
Leo took a step back. "You're gonna train me?"
She grinned. "I trained your father, your grandfather, great gradfather, and the disappointment we don't talk about. You think you're exempt?"
Kazren rolled his eyes. "Just get on the plane, all of you. We've got hour's of flight and you can try killing each other in the air if you must."
---
Leo sat at the small dining table aboard the private plane, poking at his food as Seraphine gracefully cut into hers beside him.
For someone who had attacked him an hour ago, she was strangely... calm. Regal, even.
"So," Leo said, glancing at the tattoos on his mother's hands as she reached for a drink. "Those tattoos... they're not just for style, are they?"
Seraphine chuckled softly, brushing some hair behind her ear. "No, they're not...They're made from dragon's blood, actually."
Leo blinked. "Come again?"
"many generations ago," she said, spearing a piece of meat with her fork, "one of your ancestors—a female heir—married a dragonslayer. But the condition was that he had to bring her a dragon's head as a dowry."
Leo stared. "That's... insane."
"Mm. So was she. Most of the Morningstars who kept the name were a bit fanatical...They only took mates who could bring immense benefits to the bloodline. Power, wealth, magical affinity. That sort of thing."
She continued with a sly smile. " Hana's one of the grounded ones. She has enhancements."
Leo's eyes narrowed. "Enhancements?"
She nodded. "The dragon's blood was preserved...Used to empower non-powered individuals in the family. Tattoos like those are infused with it. They grant strength, resilience, and resistance to supernatural forces."
He gave a low whistle. "And here I thought she was just really into yoga."
She let out a soft laugh. "The tattoos are more than decoration. They're a rite, really. A fallback, in case someone in the bloodline or otherwise doesn't awaken abilities naturally."
"So they get... modified?" Leo asked, eyebrow raised.
"Enhanced," she corrected. "It's not forced, and it's not common. Only a few choose it—when they want to protect something, or someone. Hana chose it after you were born."
Leo fell silent for a moment, glancing at his mom a few seats away.
"That dragonslayer guy," he finally said. "Did he survive the marriage?"
"Barely," she said, smiling.
"But his bloodline merged into the Morningstars, and the head of that dragon? It's still mounted in the ancestral vault. They say it growls at unworthy heirs."
Leo blinked. "You're messing with me."
"Am I?" she said, eyes twinkling.
Leo just stared in her crimson eyes.
=======================
[Image] of Hana's attire
[Image] of Seraphine
Power Stones and Reviews please