Chapter One: Owls and Eagles

I have always been a very logical individual, despite my upbringing a good person as well. Though other people may tell you other wise. I suppose that by Christian standards I am a heathen or devil worshipper even in some circles. Still I have always regarded myself as a good person. True my family is far from conventional. My mother has had more boyfriends in the last six years than most women have in their lifetime. We are all magick-practicing pagans, and none of us are completely human. My twin brother Keichi is half vampire or a dunpeal. My sister Zipporah is half werewolf, Yoshomika is half elf and Kai is part tiger demon, though the percentage is unclear. As one might assume, I am also a dunpeal since my twin is one. My name is Vittorio DeRenardi, I am four foot six and have shin length, shockingly orange-red hair. My twin looks, well, like my twin. Zippo has Jet black scruffy hair and porcelain colored skin with the most piercing golden eyes you have ever seen on a child. Yosho has longer hair than any other girl I have ever met, and the most beautiful shade of strawberry blonde you have ever seen, with red eyes to match. Kai, she's a different story altogether. Kai has the same shade of shocking red hair as Keichi and myself, but even for a tiger demon her hands and feet are huge. And my mother, as you may be wondering by now is a mixture of two of the most nymphotic creatures in existence, a mermaid and a succubus with a little human. So as a result my siblings and I were all born at the same time despite being conceived more than three years apart in some cases. You see for a succubus to birth her young she has to drain human males of their testosterone and feed it to their eggs, and rather than hatch us one at a time, my mom's mermaid instincts wanted us all at once. Hence we are all currently 11 years old. So there, you are almost all the way caught up.

Now as I was saying. I have always considered myself a good person despite the things I must do to live. But it recently struck my twin that we are bad after an incident at school. See, our friend Jimmy cut himself on the playground a week ago and neither Keichi or my self had fed that day, and of course we were all over Jimmy a fraction of a second after he got cut. Keichi licked at the cut, which was already enough to scare the boy, but I lost in my own senses snapped at Keichi for not sharing, and now needless to say, none of the kids will talk with my siblings or me.

But this morning something great happened. We received mail from what we assumed was one of our many fathers. It arrived in the talons of a magnificent grey owl. The confusing part was that rather than the usual single, albeit fat envelope for all of us there was five of them. Each of them addressed to one of my siblings and myself. I opened mine immediately. It read:

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First class, Grand Sorc., Chf.Warlok, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. DeRenardi,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Black Cats and Broom Tails school of Witchcraft. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1st. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours Sincerely,

Minerva Mc Gonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

I was ecstatic. Finally a school were we'd be accepted and not called freaks or monsters. I ran to tell mom the good news, and to deliver the others their letters.

When I reached the house I came upon a sight I can't say I wasn't familiar with, yet this time was different. The police were here, only this time there were a lot more of them. I walked cautiously between two of the four police cars, trembling from head to toe I walked through my front door. My siblings were huddled on the couch in the living room, all of them in tears. Keichi gasped and ran to me, and hugged me tightly. "What's wrong Keichi? " I asked shakily, the sadness of my twin seeping through me like cold moisture. He sobbed and shook his head and walked back over to the couch were a policeman now stood. I walked towards my mother's room and froze. Lying in her bed as though in sleep was my mother. All seemed normal accept for the disturbing amount of blood coating the room. I stepped into the room as if in a trance and approached my mothers side, tears pouring down my cheeks. "Momma, Momma what's going on?" Then I noticed the single bullet wound on her forehead.

A police officer stepped up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder and said, " I'm sorry son. She's gone." He began to escort me from the room when my mother's eyes shot open.
"Listen to me my son. Your Aunt shall come for you. You must watch for the eagle. He will find you no matter where you go. Find the eagle and be with your aunt, my sister will care for you as I have." As she finished her body shuddered and collapsed, evaporating into the air. Leaving only her clothes and jewelry, and a faint impression in the bed where she had lain.

I tore my hand away from the officer and collapsed on the floor, tears pouring from my eyes, low moans of despair emanating from me. The officer stood dumb struck at what he had seen. I lay there on the bloody floor of my mothers room for over an hour before an officer came in a scooped me up and put me in a car with my siblings, all of them asleep.

For several weeks we were passed from father to father, all of them finding five children quite, uncomfortable in their bachelor lifestyles. All throughout those weeks my eyes were glued to the sky, watching for the eagle or another sign the heavens might present us. My mind was so full then, mothers death and its cause a complete mystery, this mysterious eagle and our never heard of aunt. My hopes of going to the Magick School were almost completely forgotten.

One day during the second to last week of August I finally spotted my eagle. My siblings were in awe of the bird, and rightfully so. For this was like no eagle I had ever seen. He was larger than most to start with and his feathers looked almost as though they had been crafted from pure silver (which frightened Zipporah slightly). And as I had hoped in his talons was an envelope of parchment paper. This time addressed in neon violet ink. It read:

Dear Children,

I will arrive shortly to obtain you. Do your best to stay where you are until I can come for you. In the mean time Gar (the eagle that delivered this) will watch over you. I will see you all shortly and greatly look forward to finally meeting you.

Love,

Your Aunt Morria

I was finally beginning to feel better, that is until that evening.

"What do you mean sending us away? We've only been here a few days!" I shouted angrily at yet anther father.

"Don't question me kid! I can't handle this. I never wanted any children! I only slept with that crazy bitch once! There is no way your even mine!" He screamed down at me.

I grabbed Kai by the wrist and pulled him foreword. "Are you meaning to say to me that you would deny that this young tiger demon is your daughter! You're the only one of those mom ever fucked!" I shouted pushing Kai closer to him.

He roared at me, his fangs and fur erupting as he did. "That is no Tiger! That is an oddly shaped little girl!" He screamed.

"Look again asshole." I said gesturing to Kai who at the site of another tiger had let her paws and tail out.

He studied Kai for a few seconds and his expression softened. He picked Kai up and examined the patterns in her fur. "This is my daughter. Oh my god, I have a daughter." He nuzzled her under her chin, the most tender and kind gesture I had seen this man display the whole time we had been there.

"You see sir if you really do insist on sending us along to another father, could you at least put it off until the beginning of next week? Then our aunt can come get us." I said calming rapidly. I produced the letter hand extended it to him along with my acceptance letter to Black Cats and Broom Tails. "Kai has been accepted as well I added."

"Well I'll be," he chuckled. "I have a little girl and she's been accepted to Hogwarts. She must do a good job passing for human." He smiled at Kai. "I suppose I could keep you and you brothers and sisters on for the rest of the week." He said turning to me. He looked back at Kai and smiled. "You have my mothers eyes."

"Momma always said they were your eyes Papa." Kai said shyly.

The man's jaw dropped. "Y-you called me Papa!" He exclaimed happily. He hugged Kai closed and a tear fell over his furry cheek.

"So it's settled? We can stay?" Yoshomika asked.

"Yes. You may stay until your aunt comes to get you next week." He said calmly, his fur and fangs disappearing.

This was good I thought. It was all settled we had a steady place to stay until Aunt Morria came for us and I wouldn't have to meet my own father. And for the rest of the week, After all the shit my siblings and I had been though in the past month, we felt like a family again.

Chapter Two: Aunt Morria's Arrival,

And the Complications There In

I spent most of the following Monday searching for a sign of our mysterious aunt's arrival. My simple scanning of the surroundings was yielding nothing. Strangely enough the night Kai and Her father hit it off so well Aunt Morria's silver Eagle disappeared, apparently he found Kai's father to be a suitable guardian. They were growing closer with each passing day, Kai and her father. Even I was starting to like the old tiger. He was actually a very good man once he dropped his tough guy act. I was just happy I would never have to meet Keichi and my's father. The last thing Keichi needed right now was to meet a full-blooded vampire, then there would be no stopping his delusions of us being monsters.

Around noon Kai's father took us out for Lunch, called it a going away present. He took us to one of our favorite restaurants, The Old Country Buffet. As we sat talking and eating it finally occurred to me to get the name of Kai's father. "So what is your name sir? I have not really known what to call you all week."

"Oh, your right Vittorio. My name is Richard, Richard Philander. But I just want all of you to call me dad from now on. I hate to admit it but you little squirts have really started to grow on me. Perhaps during holiday break at Hogwarts you can come visit me, if your Aunt permits it anyway. Though I doubt it, if she's anything like your mother." He said thoughtfully. It was true he did seem to enjoy our company more and more as the days passed.

"Okay… Erm… Dad." I said shakily.
"I know I'm not your father, but you and Keichi's father is a vampire isn't he?" Richard asked.

"Yes!" Keichi said, his attention instantly grabbed. "Do you know him?" he added hopefully.

Richard sensed the excitement in my twins' voice and responded hesitantly. "Well yes… He's umm, well he's alive. Anyway my point is that vampires can't normally have children, and you would have a much harder time convincing him you were his sons than you did convincing me that Kai was my daughter." He said finally.

Keichi looked sort of dejected and looked into his plate of food. "So than its true, Vittorio and I are heartless monsters, like our father. Heartless blood sucking monsters…." He said sadly a few tears spilling down his cheeks.

"No you-" Richard began, I cut him off.

"Keichi. We have been over this! What happened with Jimmy was an accident! We are not heartless monsters! Bloodsuckers maybe! But we are not monsters!" I shouted, drawing several stares from the other diners.

"What Vitto means Keich, is that if you were a monster would you have been able to cry, when Momma died? Could you cry right now?" Yoshomika said softly as she hugged Keichi to console him.

"Yeah!" Kai said agreeing with Yosho.

"Absolutely. None of us are monsters. Well, maybe Yosho and my dads were kinda cold. But not monsters." Zippo said turning to Keichi.

"Listen to your sisters, and your brother. You are not anything like your father. You don't even look like him. And like Zipporah said, most of our kind are fairly cold and emotionless. I have a hard time getting along with others of my kind because I am a portion human. In the end you are best to stick with family." Richard said, summoning the waitress for a bill.

As we left I pulled Keichi aside and told him I was sorry for snapping at him. He simply nodded and got into the van. We drove home in partial silence; the radio providing a good distraction along with Kai's occasional question to Richard about they're family and if he knew how she would grow and if her hands and feet would ever look more normal.

We came within a block of Richard's apartment complex before I happened to glance to the sky and spot him. Gar was back. Did that mean Aunt Morria had arrived? We pulled into the complex's parking compound and Gar swooped in excitedly and landed on top of Richards car.

"Get offa there!" Richard exclaimed. As he did Gar flew up and flew in front of us. At the same time, a woman I could only assume was our Aunt appeared in front of us. "Yup, she's your aunt. Same flare for dramatics as your Mother." Richard said with a smile.

"Thank you Richard. Oh. You've all grown so big!" Aunt Morria exclaimed, bending down with her arms outstretched. The rest of my siblings rushed into her arms automatically. I stood there staring at her face. She looked so much like our mother. My jaw went slack and tears began falling from my eyes uncontrollably, as the images of my mothers final moments on this earth came flooding back to me. I sank to my knees and looked away from her face, I couldn't handle how much she looked like Momma.

Keichi rushed over to me. "What's wrong? Vittorio what's the matter? We're with family now! You were right!" he said hugging me.

Aunt Morria released the rest of the kids and came over to Keichi and me and hugged us both. "You are just like your mother and I. Two complete copies of one another." She smiled and I felt a tear land on my head. "I am sorry I look so much like your Momma, Vittorio. But I can't help it anymore than Keichi can help looking like you." She paused. "Now! Shall we be off? Are everyone's things packed and in order?" She said rising and turning to the others.

Richard scooped me up, I simply could not get my emotions under control. I just couldn't help it, it was like having Momma back from the dead. Why hadn't Momma told me her sister was her twin? I curled up tightly against Richard and wept until I fell asleep.

When I awoke everyone was ready to go and Keichi had packed the rest of my things for me. Aunt Morria sat near the telephone, waiting for a call apparently.

She noticed me watching her and spoke. "Oh good you are awake. Now I can call the airline." She said with a smile.

"Airlines?" I asked in confusion. "No magick to get us home?"

"Who said that? I am calling for more birds like Gar. How do you think I got here? Some human method?" She responded with a smile.

Within an hour two birds very similar to Gar were outside the house. Each bird seemed to be composed of a different precious metal. The girls rode upon a coppery eagle, Keichi and I sat upon a golden version of Gar. Richard settled our luggage into the leather satchels around each birds neck, and we were off.

Keichi grasped my waist tightly and tightly shut his eyes. I sat forward to look over the side of the birds wing, watching as the London flats shrank beneath us, and Richard became nothing more than a spec on the ground. I looked to Kai to see tears streaming down her cheeks.