Dark Indiscretions
Prologue

Jamestown, Virginia. 1625

Jennifer Johnston looked over at her family and shook her head in disgust. Just looking at the bunch of them made her sick. It was time to get out of here before she killed them all, and this time she meant it. As she turned on her heels to leave, before she changed her mind, her mother’s voice rang out. Fuck it all! Why did she even come in the first place?

“Jennifer, where are you going, dear? Dinner will be ready in a moment. Your brothers found a few unattended five-year-olds,” exclaimed Sara Johnston.

Not today. She did not want to deal with this shit today. Five-year-olds? Really? Did her dumb ass family think these children wouldn’t be missed? Jennifer pleaded for patience in her head before she addressed her mother. Any small perceived disrespect was liable to set her off. She didn’t need a hysterical mother on top of everything else in her life.

“I have to go, Mother. I have things I need to do and I can’t stay for dinner,” Jennifer said.

See? She could be cordial when the need arose.

“Nonsense! This is family time and whether you like it or not, you are a part of this family,” was her mother’s reply with a hint of annoyance.

Well, if her mother thought that was going to make her stay at this bullshit dinner, she was sadly mistaken. Jennifer was over a hundred years old and didn’t have time for these disgusting events anymore. Pretending to be the perfect, happy little family no longer appealed to her; honestly, it was never even her thing. She had full control of her Mystic powers and she would no longer hesitate to use them. Especially against her family, because none of them ever had.

“Jennifer, you heard your mother, girl. Sit your ass down before I sit it down for you,” her father, Samuel Johnston, Sr. barked.

Awesome! Just fan-fucking-tastic. Just who in the hell did he think he was talking to like that? She wasn’t a child anymore.

“He’s your father,” she heard her inner voice say.

Oh, that’s right. He is. Damn. Didn’t matter, she was about to teach her parents and two older brothers that she wasn’t to be fucked with. Period. Inner voice be damned.

“Look, I’m done with this family crap. We’re not a family. We’re a joke. Let me leave and nobody will get hurt. We all know I’m not like the rest of you, so let’s just stop the theatrics. Besides, I’m not really into the whole draining five-year-olds dry thing. It’s never really been my style to hurt defenseless children or adults for that matter,” she said.

“Why you little spoiled bitch!” Samuel Johnston, Jr., the older of her two brothers, screamed. “Who the hell do you think you are? You think you’re better than all the rest of us? News flash, this is who you are so stop trying to be something else you’re not. Bottom line, you will respect our parents, or John and I will beat the shit out of you and then victimize you in ways you never knew were possible.”

“Try it, asshole, and it will be the last thing that either one of you pieces of shit will do,” she replied with an eerie calm in her voice.

This thing was going south fast, but Jenny didn’t really seem to care. Well, that wasn’t true; she didn’t care at all. Not even a little. Her family’s been nothing but a pain in her ass since they found out she didn’t share in their perversions when she was around five or six. The moment she wouldn’t just feed from some random human like they were cattle on a farm.

Most importantly, she was not engaging in sex with either one of her brothers and that shit was final. No longer up for discussion. They could all go fuck themselves. Just because their parents and many ancestors before them thought it was okay to fuck, marry, and have children with your siblings, didn’t mean she did. Talking about “we do what we have to do to keep the bloodlines pure.” She was tired of hearing that from every Mystic she knew. HELL NO! It wasn’t going to happen that way. Not for her. Ever. She didn’t care if it was culturally appropriate in the Mystic society. She was changing up that habit. Did they not understand what incest did to the psyche? Did they not read the history books based onthe royal families? They were more vulnerable to genetic flaws and insanity. She would not be one of them. Mystics were already bat-shit crazy as it was.

It seemed today was the day for death, and it for damn sure wasn’t going to be her. She would do whatever it took, regardless of whether she wanted to. Her family had ruled her life for far too long and their cultural upbringing and rules allowed them to. The idiot who made it so you couldn’t leave your parents’ home until you were a century old should be pulled apart piece by piece and fed to the wolves. The real ones, not the shape-shifting ones.

“Oh, so you’re a big girl now?” her father whined. “You want out of this family? You feel like you’re too good for us? We do what we have to do to keep the bloodlines pure. It is the way of our people and has been for thousands of years. Neither of your brothers would hurt you. You know that for a fact. We aren’t the only family to do so either, and we for damn sure won’t be the last. If it’s love you’re worried about, it will eventually come. I love your mother. Always have, always will.”

Right, like she was falling for that shit. Neither of her brothers would hurt her? Was her father stupid? One just threatened they would both rape her while also beating her for good measure. What planet are these people living on? How could she explain this to them? How could she make them understand she didn’t want the same things for her life that they did? She didn’t know, but she guessed she had to try. Right?

“Daddy, I just can’t. It’s wrong and disgusting. Why can’t you understand that? I won’t do it and if none of you will respect that, then I’m out of here. I’m tired of having this argument over and over again. There are other Mystics they can mate with. I don’t want to be married to one of my brothers. They are sadistic little assholes and I wouldn’t mate with them if they were the last two options on this Earth. I have seen what they do to their dates. It’s not pleasant. I want no part of it. I want my Nyhiya, and neither one of them is it. I know fate has chosen someone specifically for me, and they are out there somewhere just waiting to replace me.”

There, she had finally said it.

She should have kept her stupid mouth shut.