Changes

Chapter 1

The sun shined down brightly as the hot summer sun blasted Texas with its unrelenting heat. This was one of the worse summers Texas has ever had, throwing the entire state into an unforgivable drought. My mom didn't seem to notice as she worked on her embroidery for her latest quilt. I had moved home last month after my father had a stroke and passed away. My mom needed help with the land and my two younger brothers, Jay and Jaden. They were twins who had just finished high school, and were living it up the only way they knew how, partying and sex.

They were gonna take a year off to relax and enjoy life before going to college, and my parents had given their full support. It was what I had done and even after graduating I feel that I had made the right choice.

"What do you plan to do Allie dear," My mother asked, not looking away from her work. "What do you mean," I asked her. "I mean, do you plan to follow your father's work, or do you feel that there is a different path you should take," she answered. I looked at the glass of sweet tea in my hands, unsure. My father was a man who worked in the shadows. He hunted down Paranormal beings who broke the laws, nearly exposing themselves to the humans.

There were five families who devoted their lives to the cause, ours, the Denvers, the McGonalls, the Ulrics, and the Borsilas. We were known as the Zios. You could trace the lineage of the five families to the beginning of time, many of the members having died of questionable causes. Each family has special abilities passed down over time. Our family was the strongest with our array of psychic abilities. The Denvers were able to control the elements. The McGonalls possessed unrivaled strength. The Ulrics could shapeshift into anyone or anything their mind could think of. The Borsilas had the ability to change the matter of their bodies either becoming as hard as steel or like gas and can be passed thru with ease.

The five families stayed in constant contact, assisting each other when faced with beings our abilities didn't work against. When our father had his stroke he had been on a job, working with Brandish Ulric, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The stroke was caused by a being who could affect the heart and mind with a single touch. Brandish needed him to read the minds of some of its victims to try and piece their minds back together. The mind was a dangerous place to be in, but he knew what he was doing.

None of the family elders had ever come across a being like what they had faced. Over the last ten years questionable creatures had started coming through tears that linked our world and a much darker one.

Growing up my dad taught my brothers and I to control our abilities and how to fight. He also taught us about every creature our world had. He was slowly gathering information on the newer beings but so far it was only a couple of pages in his journal.

My brothers didn't want anything to do with the life, wanted to be free and not burdened with the weight of the paranormal. It's very rare either of them used their abilities, just wanting to be normal. They only learned so their abilities didn't become uncontrollable and showed the world they weren't normal. When I lived in New York, I learned just how dangerous our father's profession was. I also learned how thrilling it was to save the innocent and survive something that outranked me in power.

I nodded, "I informed the elders I would be taking his place. They're disappointed Jay and Jaden will not." She sighed, "To be honest, I'm glad they're choosing a different path for themselves. Even your father at one point wanted a normal life, but unfortunately he wasn't so lucky. His father forced him into the life, just as my father had done to me." My mother was from the McGonnall family, and her strength was why we never pissed her off. She may look petite, but she could stop a speeding eighteen wheeler with just a finger. That's not a mom you piss off. Ever!

Jay was the only one who inherited her mind blowing strength, but he also had telekinesis, while Jaden and I had the whole spectrum of psychic abilities. Dad had told us it wasn't unheard of for kids who have a parent from two different families to receive a mix of the gifts, one more stronger than the other.