Excerpt From Bloodthirst: Payback

Payback
She was three years old and playing with a couple of paper birds of her own creation. Her beautiful, pure white half-angel wings flickered slightly then fluttered with delight as she squealed with laughter. Her silver hair had already grown to fall at the middle of her back. She also had a small moon-shaped birthmark on the bottom of her throat. A woman with equally pure white half-angel wings and even longer silver hair strided into the room with quite stillness, her face like liquid paper. She gently lifted her laughing daughter and held her close to her chest soothing her with a sweet lullabye. The night was wasting quickly and she was very worried, not just for herself, but for her daughter as well, then she heard the hurried footsteps in the hallway. She walked briskly over to her child's crib and placed her in it, telling her to sit quietly. She placed herself defensively in front of her daughter's crib, and just in time too, for the door blasted off its hinges and lay in pieces as a tall strange man with very dark curly hair walked into the room.
"Why didn't you tell me of our daughter?!"
"I knew you would be mad, because you didn't want her!"
"Let me see my child, after all she is my daughter too!"
She scooped up the girl in her arms and quelled her trying to clarify the situation to her daughter. The man grabbed his daughter and held her close looking into her eyes, her amazingly pure green eyes. She smiled at him and giggled sweetly. He laughed in return and played with her, throwing her up in the air and catching her again. He hugged her tightly, but not too tightly. The man looked at his wife.
"They shouldn't be separated Strena. Let me take her with me, back to where she belongs."
"No Lennox, she belongs here with me." She took her daughter back and placed her on the floor, so she could resume playing with her cranes.
"I knew you would say that Strena," He grabbed for something at his side in a holster,"So, if I can't have her, neither can you." He pulled out a pistol and pointed it at her while she was putting their daughter into her crib.
"Are you mad Lennox? Let's be reasonable here, I'll let you come and visit her as often as you want. You don't have to do this."
"No. If she can't live with me, then she can't live with you either." He shot off the pistol at Strena and it hit her in her chest. Lennox then presumed to shoot himself in the head. He crumpled and fell to the floor. Akuya climbed out of her crib and rung a little bell that would alert the servants. She went over to her mother and knelt beside her.
"Mama?" Her eyes filled with tears as she saw her mother's blood flow around her.
"I'm here baby, don't cry anymore, Mama will be all right."
As if on cue, several of the servants came in, and covered Lennox's dead body with a sheet. Some of Akuya's nurses tended to Strena's wounds, while the other nurses took Akuya out of the room. Akuya looked behind as they left and saw them casting a white sheet over her mother's body. Akuya jumped out of the nurse's arms and ran to her mother.
"Mama, mama, you gotta wake up, you said you was going to be okay. Mama? Mama?! " Then she walked over to where her father lay.
"Daddy why did you shoot mama?! Why did she have to die? Daddy why did you have to die? Why couldn't everything just be okay with me and mommy and daddy?"
She fell down and layed on top of her dead father and cried. She cried for her mother, for her father, and for herself. She was alone now, and she was only three years old. That's where her grandparents found her. Her grandmother carried her out of the room, whispering the lullabye her mother had created for her. Just before they covered her father's body with a white sheet, she noticed that her father also had a moon-shaped birthmark at the base of his neck.
"Hush little one, precious little one,
Everything is going to be fine,
One day you will fly away,
Just hush sweet precious child of mine.

You are the shining star of my world
You are the one I love the most
You are the queen of the world
Just wait until you can fly out of here

Hush little one, precious little one,
Everything is going to be fine,
One day you will fly away,
Just hush sweet child of mine.

If ever something goes wrong,
Just remember I'll always be there,
If all else fails remember this song
Just don't play foul, play fair

Hush little one, precious little one,
Everything is going to be fine,
One day you will fly away,
Just hush sweet child of mine."