Chapter 3 Family Affair

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter; if I did you would know it. Story title is a song by H.I.M. Chapter title is song by Mary J Blige

The week leading up to September 1st was riddled with a rush of dos and don'ts. Mina found herself floating between annoyance and intrigue. She wasn't sure how she felt about attending the illustrious school of magic when she realized that it meant leaving her home and country for the better part of the year. She was given a generous bag of the blood tablets and cautioned to take them as often as she needed and to avoid doing so in front of the other students. She was even given a potted and very small history of herself, as it wouldn't do to say vampires raised her, or that she was one. She found that her annoyance with her triple sires and their rules was quickly masked by the excitement of her first trip to Diagon Alley.

She made the trip with Gitana, as her sister-cousin seemed to have the most tolerance for daylight. Gitana dressed in the typical robes of other witches with the addition of a heavy hooded cloak and when Mina realized she was dressed like a muggle she pouted. Gitana reminded her that as she was a child it was expected and she felt a peculiar irritation surge and realized that it was their blood exchange causing her to wish she were viewed differently. She shook the feelings away and contritely followed the older vampire. Could she really survive in a school of magic, so far away from all she had known prior to this; In the old world? Her fears were put to a rest when they flooed into the Leaky Cauldron. Their arrival to the pub saw them forced among a small crowd of like-minded students and parents of all ages. After a bit of tussle they were able to make their way through the pub and into the back alley.

From there they made their way through the back alley and into Diagon Alley itself. Mina paused and Gitana smiled down at her shifting them off to the side. "I know it's overwhelming, my pet, but standing frozen in the middle of the entrance isn't wise." Mina nodded and lifted her purple eyes to her cousin-sister. Her voice carried lightly up to the taller vampire. "I didn't realize how many people were going to be here." Gitana laughed. "Come, pet, I have a surprise for you." Gitana laced her fingers with her sister-child and led the way through the crowd. Mina let her lead the way and instead took the time to look around at the various different shops. It was several minutes before Gitana slowed their pace. The two had entered one of several side alleys and Mina found that this one carried several strange weapon shops. She felt a sudden spike of fear and did her best to hide it. Gitana's voice washed over her calmly.

"This is the hunter quarter, generally only those of the hunter association come down this way." She paused and pulled a slip from her pocket and consulted the slip before looking up her eyes flicking over the area before stopping on a storefront several feet away. She replaced the slip and tugged Mina with her. "Given the rules you and I have already broken, I figure we can break a few more." As she spoke she slipped through an open door way under a sign that read Crossbows and Stakes. Mina stiffened as she slipped into the narrow hallway behind her sister-cousin. "Tana, I don't think this is safe." Gitana stooped and pulled the younger vampire closer. "I got us a mark of safe passage pet. There's someone here we need to meet. Trust that I would not lead us into danger." Mina blinked up at her older doppelganger and nodded. "Of course Gitana." They shared a smiled and Gitana continued to lead the way.

Several minutes later the two paused outside an in-discrepant black door and Gitana knocked. There was a flurry of sound from behind the door and a scuffle before the door was eased open. Mina found herself trying to see around Gitana as she and the person on the other side of the door had a whispered conversation. Several minutes later the door opened and Gitana slipped inside tugging Mina after her. As the door closed behind them Mina found her self, looking up into a dark gold face framed by shoulder length curly black hair and dark eyes. The eyes drilled into her own before one large gold hand reached out and harshly gripped her chin forcing her lips to pucker. Mina jerked her chin back from the harsh grip her eyes flashing silver. The man looked back at Gitana. His voice was harsh when he spoke. "She has no fangs." Gitana sighed.

"She won't yet Merikano, not until she's older. You wanted to see her, I brought her." Mina glanced at Gitana before turning her eyes back to the man. She stiffened when she found the man's eyes on her again. She tried to smile but the tension in the room seemed to leach the natural vivacity from her. Gitana sighed. "Really staring isn't going to help you two. Mina, this is Merikano, your human father. Merikano, I present Mina Isadora Chakano-Tsingani, born pureblood of the Roma Line." Merikano jerked as he heard her name but he kept his eyes upon her. "You gave her our name." Gitana scoffed. "I did tell you I would do it differently, I have even crossed Drago to keep her somewhat free." Mina cut her eyes at her sister cousin. "I don't think we should tell him that." Gitana dropped her violet eyes to Mina's. "He's your father pet, I thought the two of you should meet, I am going to leave you here while I get the supplies."

Mina studied her and then nodded. "I won't leave here." Gitana smiled and gently squeezed Mina's hand before moving to stand beside the man, Mina's father. "You have two hours before I return for her. Remember our agreement Merikano." He studied her and nodded a bit. Gitana glanced back at Mina, "He won't hurt you love, and if he does I'll know it." With this assurance she slipped out his door snapping it closed behind her leaving Mina and Merikano alone. The two stared silently at one another for several long minutes before he sighed and returned to his seat at a small bar. His hands fell to working on something on the bar. Mina shifted closer to him and rose up on her tiptoes. She watched his hands carefully clean pieces and parts of what could only be a crossbow gun. Just as she would have said something he broke the silence, his voice gruff but gentle. "I am a cross-species hunter." Mina nodded and pursed her lips before realizing he wasn't looking at her. "I gathered as much."

His dark eyes cut to her violet ones. "You sound like her." Mina paced back from him two or three steps. "I did grow up with Tana, she's the most constant of the family to stay around." His eyes followed her and he shifted in his seat to keep her in sight. "I meant your mother." Mina blinked and then dropped her eyes almost shyly. "Will I ever get to see her?" His choking cough had her lifting her eyes to his. "Do you need some water?" He shook his head and sighed clearing his vocal cords before he answered. "Your mother is dead." Mina blinked and seemed to deflate before his eyes. "It's my fault isn't it?" Her voice was soft and she knew even as he didn't answer her that she was right. He did not correct her only added in his gruff way. "It was many things. I have journals she wrote, she wanted you to have them."

He got up again and crossed the small, dirty apartment into its only other room. His voice carried back to her as he spoke. "Your not quite what I expected." Mina bit her bottom lip and remembered how he had gripped her face. "You expected me to have fangs." Again it was a statement not a question. He reentered the room his dark eyes on her. "You smell human as well and you act human too." Mina smiled somewhat nervously. "You make it sound like you expected a rabid animal." He studied her then and she got the distinct impression that he was seizing her up and finding her lacking. This sent her temper spiking and her eyes turned silver with the emotion. "Should I drop to my knees, slobber, and growl?" Her darkness had risen then and he watched her before softly whispering in dark fascination and amusement. "And there the animal is." He crossed the room scooping up a machete off his small coffee table.

Mina darted back from him as he swung the blade up between them leveled at her throat. Anger crossed through the human before her and Mina felt her own darkness surge. He beat her to the punch with cruel words. "You are an animal, stolen daughter-of-mine, a beast like so many that I hunt. Dare I say you are an abomination among them?" Mina glided further back from him her eyes a bright amethyst laced with silver. "Yes I suppose one day, when I kill I will be an animal." Her voice was all gentle huskiness much as Drago's only decidedly feminine. "And yet here you stand, weapon raised to kill me and I have not even tasted blood. One could argue, old man, that you are as much a beast as me." He froze then and tossed a not so small satchel of books at her. Mina caught them and stumbled back a step or two under their weight. She held them to her chest as if they were gold. He kept his weapon level at her and she dropped her eyes to her occupied arms suddenly ashamed. "I mean you no harm, father, and I don't know how or why you let Drago have me, I am sorry for what I have been made." Her voice was soft but heavy with emotion. "Thank you for this gift."

Her eyes returned to the human man that should have been her father. He had since lowered his weapon and his eyes danced with suppressed emotion that could be heard easily in his words. "He stole your mother after she was discovered to be pregnant and kept her imprisoned." Mina's eyes shot up to his and she nodded her arms tightening. "May I visit you again, if I have questions?" His mind shifted through the implications and his eyes seemed to almost caress her face. She read the longing in his eyes, as well as the fear. She sought to alley his worries. "He plays with my mind already, for his entertainment." She met his eyes briefly. "I have already crossed his plans once and somehow I don't think he would approve of me meeting you." She sensed the return of Gitana and shifted closer to the door. "I go to school in a week. I'll send you an owl."

As she finished there was a tap on the door. Mina loosened her arm and reached for the knob behind her twisting it to open the door. Gitana slipped into the doorway and paused her eyes flicking over the occupants in the room. Mina felt Gitana's rage spike and moved herself between her father and her sister sire. "We should probably hurry, Tana." She slipped her mother's journals into the cauldron that Gitana carried. Those books mixing easily with the others already inside. Gitana's purple eyes flicked to the back of Mina's head, as the girl had never taken her own dark purple gaze from the man across the room. She reached forward and slipped her fingers onto Mina's shoulder and pulled the girl behind her. Mina followed the silent directive and slipped out into the hallway. "We had a deal Merikano." Her own voice dulled to the sound of brassy bells. Merikano raised his machete between them. Clearly a habitual tick when dealing with vampires; his own voice deepened. "She is unharmed."

Gitana studied him for several long silent minutes before turning abruptly and joining Mina in the hallway. The door closed behind them with a snap. Mina looked up at Gitana and offered a soft smile in apology. "I think I upset him." Gitana sighed. "I'm sorry dearest, that was an ill conceived plan; I should have stayed." Mina shook her head. "I don't think he would still be standing if you had." She peered into the cauldron and studied what was there mentally comparing the items to the list in her head. "It looks like I still need robes and a wand." Gitana chuckled and glided back down the steps. "That you do pet, that you do." The two made their way back into the alley to concluded their shopping and ended at Ollivander's. This resulted in the eccentric man staring for several long minutes at her before reaching behind him with out looking and pulling a wand box with deft familiarity. He handed the box to her and she opened it delicately.

Inside laid a dark red and purple wand it was barely the length of her forearm but smooth to the touch. It's handle was engraved with vines thorns and stars. Mina lifted the wand from its box and found herself drawn to this wand. It sang to her blood and she was quick to pull it close to her chest. She lifted her dark eyes to his pale ones and he smiled surety in his voice as he spoke. "Blood-wood and purple heart, Peruvian Viper-tooth heartstring and Sphinx hair core. Very durable and resistant to decay." His eyes flicked over her and he continued. "One of a kind, very flexible, nearly immortal." Mina blinked up at him and felt that he was speaking as much about her as he was her wand. He smiled at her and she knew that he knew. "The wand chooses the witch, your mother would have been proud." This confused her and she turned her eyes to Gitana who smiled a bit as she paid the wand maker. "Thank you, Ollivander." He smiled and nodded as he handed her Mina's wand box. "Anytime my dear."

The two made their way out of his shop and returned home in comfortable silence. They had just entered the house when Drago's voice carried angrily to them. They froze each feeling the dark anger ridden atmosphere "Dammit Jessinia, I should have let you die a whore's death, what were you thinking. Striking deals with them is dangerous to our lives." Mina shivered when she heard Jessinia's lilting chuckle echo darkly back at her brother. "It's for our protection fool, we have more stature then ever, and now that they know about our little Mina they are lining up to gain our favor. Besides, you cut a very similar deal with that sorry excuse for a wizard-" The sound of a slap was heard and then Drago's voice dropped darkly cutting into Jessinia's words. "Now they know about our secret and you know once he hears he will be on our doorstep. I can't hide her from him and he will take her." Jessinia sighed, "Drago if I didn't know better I would say you fear him." Drago hissed and Gitana swiftly scooped Mina up into her arms and darted up the stairs to Mina's room.

Mina struggled but Gitana held her tightly shutting the door behind her with a booted heel. She sat Mina on her bed and set her overflowing cauldron beside her. "Stay here Mina, don't come out until one of us calls." Mina's eyes flashed and as Gitana moved away, she darted from the bed and snagged the older vampires wrist her nails biting into the skin. "Whom are they talking about? Who does Drago fear?" Gitana froze her eyes flashing silver a response to the darkness that leant dulcet tones to the child's voice. "You are to young to demand this of me." Mina's eyes flashed in response and unbidden a growl sounded, Gitana flinched at the sound. "We've already broken rules Gitana. Take payment of my blood, but tell me." Gitana's eyes widened as she realized that Mina knew far more then she should, in that moment she seemed much older. "I'm not taking your blood." She could not help the longing that carried in her voice and Mina smiled slipping closer. She raised her free hand to her sister-cousin. "But you want it." Gitana forced her eyes from the young vampire before her. "Don't ask this Mina, not yet."

Mina blinked suddenly releasing Gitana's wrist. She blinked seemingly confused as if something else had driven her. "I… I'm sorry Tana." She turned then and moved back to her bed her eyes on the carpet with the realization that she had wanted to force the issue. That she had been quite prepared to get the information regardless the cost. Gitana sighed behind her and deftly crossed back over to Mina. She wrapped her arms around the younger girl and dropped to her knees holding Mina against her. Mina reacted without thought her head falling back and to the side offering Gitana her neck. Gitana sighed again and placed a far from appropriate kiss on Mina's neck. "I told you this would be hard Mina." Mina nodded her eyes falling shut. "I don't understand what I just did. What I wanted… it… I don't know." Mina's voice fumbled to a stop and Gitana rested her head against Mina's shoulder. "We are dangerous creatures Mina, gods and demons both. There are times when you forget that you are human too. It's in our nature to dominate and take from those weaker then us. You wanted something that I am not willing to give and you were willing to take it however you can. It is our gift and our curse."

Mina took a deep breath and turned in Gitana's arms. "This is the game he plays with me isn't it?" Gitana did not need to ask whom Mina meant. "It's what we are, what we are designed to do. This curse... it is in the blood pet. The trick is to learn how to control it." Mina nodded and eased back from her sister-cousin's arms. "But Drago provokes it?" Her voice was layered then, as if coming home to an understanding. "Why would he want me to loose control like that? I don't understand why he provokes it and you stifle it." Gitana smiled sadly. "We all have some vice or another pet, the trick is to find yours and learn to live with it. How you do that is up to you. We all fall to the temptation pet, and you don't learn from it the first time… in fact..." Her eyes dropped and she got gracefully to her feet and released Mina before her eyes returned to her child like mirror. "I don't think we learn from our vice…"

Drago's husky tones cut through their conversation before Mina could respond. "Where would be the fun in that, my pet?" Gitana stiffened and Mina shifted from her to see Drago lounging in her bedroom door way. "Gitana, Jessinia is going out and you are to go with her." Gitana turned and studied him. "I just got back, perhaps you should go with Jess I don't mind staying with Mina until you return." Drago narrowed his golden eyes as he straightened from the doorway. "Mina and I have things to discuss." Gitana stiffened more and glanced back down at Mina. Mina knew instantly why Drago wanted her alone. "I'll be fine Tana." Gitana's eyes flashed silver but she nodded and looked back at Drago. "You won't like what you find." She didn't wait for his response and instead glided from the room snapping the door shut behind her. Mina studied Drago and found her eyes caught in the glowing red of his. She took a deep breathe in an effort to fight her instinctive response and turned to her bed gathering her books and dropping them carelessly into her school trunk.

"Am I in trouble?" Drago chuckled and crossed to her side as she continued packing her school supplies. She hesitated wondering if she should hide her mother's journals better but decided against it. She shivered in awareness but continued her measured packing. Drago sat on the edge of her bed and watched her through heavily lidded red eyes. "You fight what you are?" Mina paused in her packing but then continued as calmly as she could. "No, I am just always surprised when it happens." Drago slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. "When what happens?" Mina forced her eyes to his, they were a pale and bright amethyst the silver nearly drowning out the purple of her eyes. She swallowed nervously and answered softly with a touch of awareness. "The power." She felt her stomach drop when he smiled. "You mean when you want something denied to you." He shifted her in his lap and pulled her hair to the side baring her neck. "You want me to bite you, as I do my victims." It was not a question.

Mina tensed in his arms but he paid it no mind and pulled her closer his breath wafting over the shell of her ear. His voice dropping in cadence and making her shiver again. "It's in your blood to want it Mina, don't deny the decadence of it, you are a god among gods. If you want something you have the right to take it." Mina sighed and tried to fight her reaction to his words. She really tried to fight his soothing caresses down her back but he gave her no other option as he sank his fangs into her neck. Mina gasped her silvery eyes falling shut as she relaxed in his arms. He smiled against her neck and drank from her. Mina fought to remain still, awareness barely understood and pooling in her stomach. It was nice and she sighed and relaxed. It was not as nice as Gitana's bite though. The thought had him pulling back from her sharply. He gripped the back of her head harsh and jerked her back so that he could see her eyes. "She bit you."

Mina smiled somewhat drowsily her voice danced over his skin, a fluttery caress. "I asked her too." His eyes flashed and he growled. "When?" Mina smiled her lips soft, as if remembering secret love. "When you gave me the tablets." Drago read the haze in her eyes and he felt rage surge. He fought his own instinct to throw her across the room. "Have you had her blood?" Mina shook her head and he read the disappointment in her eyes. "She wouldn't let me." He heard her disappointment and felt his anger abate just a bit. He raised his wrist to his mouth and sank his fangs into his wrist deeply. When his blood flowed easily he held his wrist to her mouth. Mina followed his silent direction and closed her mouth over his wrist drinking from him lightly at first. It was only a minute before the darkness in her surged and she gripped his wrist tighter and drank quickly. He let her feed from him until his wrist healed she tried to bite his wrist again but he twisted from her grasp. "You know I will punish you."

Mina lifted her silver laden eyes back to his and smiled, his blood staining her lips. "No you wont. I'm special and you want to keep me as yours." Her grin grew with new knowledge her voice suddenly layered. "Who is it you don't want to take me?" Drago narrowed his red eyes at her and stood abruptly dropping her to the floor. "You don't get to demand of me, child, you would not exist if not for me." Mina smiled and got deftly to her feet and raised her hand to him her eyes flashing with darkness. He blinked realizing that this girl that he created already knew more then she should. It was disconcerting to see her act so much like his sire. He took a cautious step back from her as she spoke again. "Take what I want, right. Wasn't that your lesson tonight? You wanted my blood and I offer you more of it… my price is your answer." Drago felt himself freeze as his own desire washed over him. Her blood was potent to one like him, born as she was it had a richness that human blood lacked. His twin assessed the situation quickly before moving between the two her green and gold eyes on him.

Her voice held anger and warning. "You should hunt Drago, Gitana and I will finish here." He growled. "Gitana bit her." Jessinia's eyes flashed pure gold before looking down at Mina her own voice belled as she spoke. "So it would seem." Mina held her gaze defiantly and Jessinia looked back at Drago. "I will finish what was started." Drago's red eyes burned into his twins for several long minutes before he faded from view. Jessinia turned back to Mina her gold eyes full of displeasure her voice that of a disproving mother. "Crossing him this early is not to your favor dearling." Mina smirked then, an echo of the man whom had just left. "You know why I did it... and you know why she agreed." Jessinia sighed and slipped closer. "Gitana and Drago have history." Mina nodded and Jessinia dropped to her knees. Mina tilted her head offering her neck. Jessinia surveyed her brother's slowly healing bite and shook her head reaching for Mina's wrist.

A/N: Reviews warm my heart and hasten this version of shadowed dreams.

-DJR