As I remained seated in the chair, quite dumbfounded with the reactions going on around me since morning, suddenly I had Lee calling me from his office room. I jumped from my thoughts and went towards his room, cleaning my hands before heading towards his room.
Why did Lee call me suddenly?
Without thinking much, I tapped on the door and entered, closing the door softly behind me. The way the office room was decorated would give you the vibe of old money. The floor was carpeted, and the door and the walls were laid with oak wood, always dimly lit. He sat on a great armchair, and there were piles of books arranged in four shelves behind his back; there was not a single window from where sunlight could enter. There were only some dim lights and one lamp on his table, where his coffee mug was always set. The fresh brew of coffee would stir your emotions and make you crave caffeine when you enter his room because he kept a coffee machine beside the bookshelf, from where he would always get some coffee when he was in a serious mood to discuss something or he was reading something very serious. His office room was more like an archive than an office,as his office was filled with limited editions of books and antiques. This kind of ambience always gives you the feeling that this man is actually very old, someone not in his early forties.
He was reading an old book when I entered. Without looking up from the book, he asked me to take the chair opposite to his own. There were two chairs opposite to the place where he sat, made of antique wood, something which the Family had possessed for ages. As I sat down, Lee looked at me with worried eyes; I knew something was wrong.
Without wasting any further words, Lee started.
"I know that there are many questions that you have been wanting to ask me and many questions that you wanted answers to from your parents, but things are and have been very complicated since you guys were born, and with our family history and that of your parents, things are very complicated and difficult to explain, so we waited for you to grow up, but multiple things happened around that time, so we didn't get any time to explain things to you. Today I wanted to talk to you about the phoenix symbol that we all newly discovered in your wrist. I won't explain much because I don't want to make things further complicated for you as they already are for you and as follows for the boys and Ruby regarding your family and ours. I want to have a family discussion sometime soon, but not today. Today I will only speak about the phoenix only with you because I thought that it is high time you get to know about it. "
I didn't say anything; I just looked at him and nodded. Lee continued.
"We three come from a very old chain of hunters me and my brother Neil and your father Henry, so we have been friends since ages. From teenage to highschool to hunting... to making girlfriends we were always by each other's side.. almost inseparable. Things went uphill when Neil decided to date and at that point of time we didn't know he was dating a Witch and...Witches and Hunters have been enemies since ages - each trying to cultivate more power and Hunters kill Witches although that's not our family moto. The names of Neil's girl was Aloha. He met her in Blush when we went to party one night concealing our age since we knew the Bouncer so it was easy for us to find the seats and meet sexy women. Your father was dating your mother whom he met in the highschool. Since we tend to hide our abilities each unknown of other's power. We were all normal High school students attending the Grimore School. Slowly we graduated and your parents got engaged and by that time Lila knew who we were and we took got to know that she is an ancient Vampire, but none of that mattered to your parents since they were deeply in love."
He paused to look at me.
I smiled and looked at him. "And what about you, Lee", I grinned.
Lee smiled after a long time, at what it seemed like ages.
He continued, " Surely I was dating too, but a human. We even got married..."
I noticed pain in his eyes. Lee was married I was shocked! I almost fell from the chair. Before I got a chance to say something, the big guy groaned.
"That's for another day Child...let me complete this...So soon Neil got engaged and they were pregnant with Ruby and the twins. When Ruby was three, Aloha decided it was high time she introduced Neil to her family. We kept the children in care of Lila and the four of us took a drive to meet her family. Aloha didn't know who Lila was as we thought it would safe that way. It was a long trip down the main city. Finally we arrived at her ancient castle. Till then we hadn't realised what was happening. When we entered her home things became grim. Her grandmother immediately realised we three were powerful hunters and immediately trapped us in their basement. Apparently they thought we were witch hunters. Before we could discuss the misunderstanding, everything started happening quite at once. Neil was suddenly taken in by them and we two were also dragged deep inside the forest. They tied us against the tree and started chanting loud spells. Before any of us could do anything; Neil was set on fire before us. We begged but they didn't pay any heed but burnt Aloha after burning Neil infront of our eyes."
Lee broke down in tears.