Starlight

Vannessa 1919

"You'll be arrested again," Charlene warns me with a smirk.

"Good. What's the point of protesting if someone doesn't end up behind bars?" I laugh, walking down the stairs. "Good morning daddy."

"Good morning, starlight," He chuckles, seeing the two of us talking. "By what I just heard, should I expect an officer to be here by this afternoon?"

"Only if I can get those spoiled eggs and meat onto the governor," I flash my white teeth at him. 

"So, what are we fighting for today, starlight?" He arches an eyebrow at me. "You've already won women's right to vote."

"I heard the state is trying to revoke it," I scowl angrily. "After all the work we went to, they want to force it out again."

"Oh, how dare they," My father sounds like he's mocking me, but I know he means it. "You ended up in a cell seven times."

"And I'm aiming for an eighth," I take a seat at the table. "You'd think after the war. Everyone would get the picture."

"Some things don't change, my love," My mother's voice makes me turn. "Especially when Shakka feeds humanity discord."

"Well, then perhaps I should be protesting him directly," I chide, taking a sip of my tea. "If I fly all day and night, I can be there by tomorrow."

"No," Now, my father sounds serious. "I forbid it."

"Daddy, I'm not afraid of that pompous, murdering, the sack of-," I begin, and I feel a hand to the back of my head. It isn't enough to cause pain. "Ouch!"

"Language," I turn around and pout at my Dade. "I won't tolerate that sort of language at breakfast, Valkyrae."

"Yes, dade," I pout as he sits down at the head of the table.

"Besides, you will not be running off to Japan to stand in front of the palace and demand things from that lizard."

"How can we affect change if we don't face the problem at its roots?" I point out. My southern accent becomes stronger as my passions get the better of me. "We've seen first hand the bigotry of the world. Look at what's happening here in Georgia."

"Starlight, Shakka is not responsible for all the evil in the world," My daddy sighs. "Just some of it."

"At least you're white," Charlene offers. I smacked her lightly on the arm. "What? Try walking around with this colored skin. You think they care that I'm a dragon underneath it?"

"That's on my list," I nod determinedly. 

All three of my parents share an amused look.

"Is Valkyrae trying to save the world again?" My brother Garett swaggers in. "Should I cancel my plans for today, or do you think I can go flying without worrying that my baby sister is getting herself arrested?"

"You should come with us," I scowled. "Instead of trying to bury your appendage in some lovesick female."

"Valkyrae," My dade warned me again. "Honestly, where did she pick up the vulgarity?"

"From you," Everyone at the table declares together, making him laugh.

"So, you only have yourself to blame," My mother laughs at him.

"Oh, that's right," He snaps his fingers. "Damn it."

My family are all from the southern territory. Not originally from Atlanta, Georgia, but no one would know that. We've lived in the same house for almost a century. 

My dade, Kirelus 'Kiro' Milla, was a dragon lord of the south and one of the members of the royal council. 

His mates, my mother Thalia, granddaughter of the vampire king, my great-grandfather who had been dead for a long time, and my daddy Haleth, elven prince and originally from China.

All my life, I've seen the strange looks we get, both in the human world and our own. I prefer the human ones, honestly. At least they're only looking at the color of flesh, not what was inside.

Many Entit'a don't like us, even though my dade is a fair and just representative who works to help our people. That doesn't matter. They see our family situation and think that we're disgusting abominations.

I'm a hybrid, a mix of my parent's blood, dragon, elf, and vampire. Like my brothers and sisters, I can claim we're the children of three parents.

When people find out, they're horrified and think my parents used some dark magic to accomplish it, but it's not true. We are the product of love and the strength of the mate bond.

Having more than one mate isn't common, but it does happen. My dade met my mother three hundred years ago on the island of Malta where she lived. They met my daddy fifty years later.

The knowledge of how we can even exist is long forgotten, even in our world of magic and creatures.

In normal circumstances, no, children cannot be born from more than two parents, but thanks to my mother, that isn't the case with us.

It isn't the vampire blood either. It's the Ge'llin bloodline.

The most ancient of bloodlines, tracing back to the beginning of time. From the first generation of humans. 

If all three of my parents were female, they still would've had us. I wasn't quite sure how it worked, and my mother refused to explain it yet, but somehow she'd carried each of us inside her with both our fathers blood.

I wonder if it had something to do with being a princess.

Yes, I was a royal twice over, but it wasn't something I could ever share.

We lived in secret, hiding in plain sight from the king, the murderer who hunted down Haleth and Thalia's kin in cold blood in the name of some twisted form of justice.

I have seen the obelisk. I felt its pull as it tried to reach out to me, crying for me to run away, to get as far as I could from that place. 

I was ten years old and was accompanying my dade to the palace. From that day, I knew I couldn't rest until I helped balance the world again.

I don't know the magic used to cloak the fact Shakka didn't kill all of my people off. I only know that we are alive, secretly defying him at every turn.

My dade's magic engulfs us, my daddy's family watches from China and Tibet, making sure the obelisk stays silent, and my mother's vampire coven protects us.

"Hm, hurry and eat," I shake Charlene urgently. "I want to get to the courthouse early."

"Good luck today," My dade smirks. "But don't let your powers out again."

"I promise, dade," I sigh. "Though the doctors finally let that man out of the asylum."

"Starlight," My daddy shakes his head. "Honestly, Kiro, she gets it from you."