Luca's POV
"I NEED to have a day to myself!" Sheri huffed at me once again. I'm getting beyond fed up with this woman's childish whining. The newest hideout just miles from Dreake is very nice and comfortable, but nothing is good enough for Sheri Hunter!
"For the last f*****g time, you stupid b***h! Do you not understand people are looking for us?!" Sheri rolled her eyes.

"For the Goddess' sake, Luca! Just vanquish this woman already!" My mother has been begging me to kill Sheri for days. The beginnings of yet another migraine have my head in a cloud.
"This woman has brought us nothing but bad luck since we've met her and I don't even think she's as powerful as she sells herself to be!" Sophia hissed at us.
"Speak for yourself, cow! Just what can YOU do?!" Sheri taunted Sophia. My mother didn't hesitate and attempted to turn Sheri Hunter into ash, but I intervened and shielded Sheri just before the mist hit her.
"Knock it off right now!!" I commanded. My mother stormed outside to roam like usual, while Sheri ran off to her room to pout once again. I went to my room to lay down and just as I closed my eyes, I smelled tobacco and cologne. I sat up fast and saw Marshall sitting on the spare chair in my room.
"Son, you got yourself a woman problem." Marshall drew on his cigar.
"Don't we all!" I snapped bitterly.

"When my girls start with that s**t I deal with them right quick! I run a business, and I don't have the time or the patience for that fussing and whining!"
"Do enlighten me on how you dealt with woman problems!!!" Marshall laughed at the sarcasm in my voice.
"First off, your Mama is right. Get rid of that b***h Sheri. She's dragging y'all down, and she is lying through her teeth about who she really is!" I jumped up and grabbed Marshall by the throat.
"The hell do you mean!" I snarled, emitting my smoke.

"You can't sense what she truly is??" Marshall gasped out, and I dropped him.
"She's a human that my mother gave witch powers too!" I growled at him.
"Luca, you know my line of work. I've dealt with hundreds if not thousands of supernaturals. Sheri Hunter has been a hybrid long before your mother's witch powers!!"
"We have spent over a month with the woman, we would've sensed it!" I hurled Marshall back down into the chair.
"Why do you think Sheri is so hellbent on wanting to get out so much, huh? Why does she try to sneak off every chance she gets?" As much as I hated to admit it, Marshall was right.
I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at Marshall as he re-lit his cigar. "Luca, she's been lying since the beginning. Her husband probably doesn't even know!"
"What do you think she is?"
"My guess? She's a half-demon." I laughed right in Marshall's face.
"If Sheri has demon blood, how did she survive the witch power transfer!"
"That's if Sheri was a full-blood demon. But she's not. And you better just go on and end her before she figures out a way to use her powers if she hasn't already!" Marshall snapped at me.
"We need to find my mother." We went outside and found my mother sitting by a small creek deep in thought.
"Mother, Marshall thinks Sheri is half-demon." My mother snickered.
"What makes you think that she got by both me and my son?" Sophia challenged Marshall.
"Because I've been dealing with supernaturals for damn near thirty years and have a keen eye for them. That woman is half-demon and is using something to throw you off her scent!" Marshall adamantly stated.
"What could she use to do that?!" Sophia asked him.
"Demons have a very strong odor, like sulfur. My girls used to hate getting set up with them and b****d about their smell! So one day, I researched and figured something out. I have my girls carry water purification tablets, and they have the demons drink a lot of water before they engage in relations with them. Ain't had another complaint since! Bet if you search old Sheri's personal items, you'll find those tablets. And she's probably running low on them and that's why she's itching to get out!!"
There was only one way to find out. The three of us went back to the house, right to Sheri's room and tore the room apart.
"Luca, I think I found them! And just like Marshall said, there are only two left." Sophia opened the bottom dresser drawer and pulled out a brown bottle of purification tablets.
"See? I know all the tricks of this trade, y'all!" Marshall grinned at us.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THREE DOING IN HERE!" Sheri came out of the bathroom and my mother pinned her right to the wall.
"You have been lying to us all this time, half-demon!" Sheri's eyes grew frightened.
"I...I don't know what you are talking about!" Sheri sputtered out in vain.
"Then what are these?" I showed the brown bottle to her.
"You have been going through my things!!!" Sheri screeched.
"Never mind that! Why did you hide this from us?! Does your husband even know?" I questioned.
"No! No one knows!" Sheri started to cry. "Remember how I told you King Arlen's father, Adrian, killed my parents and I said it was some war? My father was a demon, a pure blood demon. My mother was a human woman and her and my father fell deeply in love. But by some horrible twist of fate, she learned after she met my father that she was the mate of a Fae!! She rejected the Fae to be with my father, but he did not accept the rejection. So the Fae went to King Adrian and wanted to challenge my dad. Of course, my father won the challenge fair and square, but King Adrian killed him anyway!" Tears started rolling down Sheri's face.
"You are full of s**t!" Sophia snapped at her, making Sheri glare hard at her. "Luca, don't believe her. That isn't what happened at all!!"
"And what do you know about this?" I asked her.
"There was no f*****g challenge!! It's true that her mother rejected her true mate and the rejection was accepted without incident. But right after that, Domico Rossi and his human wife murdered the Fae in cold blood! THAT'S why your parents were executed, Sheri! You also left out the part where, out of the kindness of his heart, King Adrian paid for the funeral himself and ensured you and your brother Lorenzo were well provided for!"
Sheri reared her head up like a cobra. "And just how do you know that?!" She challenged Sophia.
"Because all of this happened when I just became a Luna, that's how! It was a big story throughout the supernatural world then! It's why King Adrian changed the location of his kingdom, to prevent a demon from ever entering it again!"
"His son really should have done something different about his security then!" I laughed in delight.
My mother looked at me. "What are you talking about?"
"My mole is a demon by the name of Lorenzo...wait a minute. Mother, did you just say this woman's brother is named Lorenzo?!"
"Yes, Lorenzo Rossi. Sheri's birth name is Rossi!" I hit the floor laughing.
"Lorenzo has been my mole to both Fire Moon and Dreake! He is the one who has been giving me information during his delivery runs! He even got into Arlen's kingdom under false pretenses to keep me appraised about Brynn!!" I told everyone.
"Well, isn't that a marvelous coincidence?" Marshall tapped his chin and c****d his head at Sheri.
"The hell are you looking at?!" Sheri snapped.
"I'm wondering how you kept that side of you hidden for all those years from your husband. How could you stand all those water purification tablets all that time!" Marshall asked her.
"Because I had to!! He couldn't suspect anything! Besides, Ezra lied to me too!" Sheri shouted bitterly.
"None of this is adding up. Ezra gave us his reasoning for keeping his lineage from you. So what is yours and what were you, and are, so afraid of? And for once in your life, tell the f*****g truth!!" I commanded Sheri.
Sheri looked at all of us with defiant rage. "There is nothing to tell!"
"Oh, I beg to differ. I'm discerning not just your usual deception with you, but fear. You have been hiding a rather disturbing secret, Sheri! Now either talk, or I will force it out of you!!" My mother raised her hands and Sheri raised hers back to protect herself, but only emitted a glimmer of orange dust from them. Internally, I breathed a sigh of relief that Sheri's new witch powers are useless.
"What...what the f**k! You said I'd be powerful, you b***h!!" Sheri screamed at my mother.
"See, there's that selective hearing thing again!! I TOLD you, just as I told the others I turned into witches before you, that there is no guarantee. It is not up to me what powers a witch has, though I admit I prayed to my Wiccan Goddess not to make you too powerful! She must have realized the demon side that you hid from the rest of us and gave you her own placebo!" My mother cackled at a raging Sheri.
"THIS IS BULLS**T!!! I DEMAND YOU FIX THIS NOW!!" Sheri hurled more of her orange dust around, but it did nothing but make the room a little brighter. All three of us laughed hysterically at her.
"You know something? I wonder what your brother may know?! Perhaps we should give him a call??" I taunted her.
"NO DON'T!!" Sheri ran up to me in utter panic.
"Luca, I'm right here! King Arlen figured me out!" Lorenzo was standing in the doorway and stared in shock at his sister.
"Sheri, it's been a long time." He told her blankly.
"Not long enough!" Sheri snapped at him venomously.
"You two aren't close?" I asked Lorenzo.
"No. We were separated by Arlen's father and haven't been in touch for years."
"So we have learned your sister has gone to great lengths to hide the fact she is a half-demon. She managed to evade us, her own husband, just about everyone around her. Why?" I asked him.
"Your guess is as good as mine!" Lorenzo said. His brown eyes burned into Sheri's.
"Whatever you are hiding, you need to tell them, sister. I know firsthand the Lombardo's aren't one for idle threats!" Lorenzo encouraged her.
Indignation was apparent in Sheri's eyes. "It is nothing Lorenzo!"
"We aren't kids anymore, Sheri! You can't lie and omit your way out of this! If they want to know, they're going to find out!"
"Enough of this s**t!!" Sophia began to chant and suddenly, a circular ball formed above all of us. Within the ball, two people were standing and talking.
"That's King Adrian and his wife, Queen Elsbeth!" I shouted. Can my mother recall the past?!
"NO!! NO MORE!!" Sheri screamed in agony.
As Adrian and Elsbeth kept talking, a dark-haired teenage girl walked up to them with her head down.
"That's Sheri!" Lorenzo exclaimed. We all watched as Sheri walked right up to the King and Queen and bowed.
"Young lady, we will not harm you. But we need to know just what you saw." King Adrian gently encouraged.
"My father used his powers and my mother killed Phillip!!" The little girl wailed.
"IT WAS YOU?! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO RATTED OUR PARENTS OUT TO THE KING?!?!" Lorenzo lunged at Sheri with pure murder in his eyes.
Sophia stopped him and stared at Sheri with complete disgust in her eyes. "Shall I show them the rest of it, Sheri??"