Page 25 of Rock Bottom
I zoned out, watching Davy stroke the lion’s mane. The whole scene looked like something out of a dream. A Wizard of Oz kind of dream. Or Alice in Wonderland.
Micca’s voice brought me back. “Queen of Alfheim and King of the Lions — and they’re a couple. Well, part of a throuple, actually. Their third isn’t here right now.”
Right. Because the only thing missing was polyamorous monarchs.
The dragon, Aaron, had his jeans on again, standing with us like nothing had happened. He started talking about two other classes of supernaturals, and my mind tried to keep up.
Classes? Oaths? Why were Mikey and I even here? He mentioned knowing what Nathan had said, and my gaze flicked to Nathan, who’d been a lion less than a minute ago.
How had they talked while Nathan was a lion and Aaron was a fucking dragon? Telepathy?
I tried to hang on to that thread, but Kirsten was walking Davy back to us while Nathan stepped into his jeans like he did it in front of people every day. Probably an Incredible Hulk thing, right? Take your clothes off so you don’t bust out of them.
“If you know lions and dragons are real,” Nathan said. “What other mythical creatures might be real?”
“Werewolves and vampires, right?” Davy said.
Will spun and stared at Hailey, and his look told me he was thinking she was a vampire. I wasn’t so sure about that because Hailey eats food, but my mind immediately went to Julian.
Had I ever seen him during the day? And why hadn’t I realized he’d only been around at night? I’d thought it kind of stupid that he wouldn’t eat around me, but it wasn’t a big deal for me to eat before we went out. He often tried to feed me, but I managed to avoid it because I didn’t want things to be awkward.
I tuned back into the conversation and the emo-dark guy said, “There are two kinds of vampire. Hailey was bitten by a Lugat vampire, while I’m a Strigorii vampire. My kind is magical, meaning we can read your mind and even readjust your memories if we choose, some of us can fly, and there are other magical talents.”
The wordsreadjust memorieshooked in my chest like a skewer, sharp and painful, and fear grew up from my groin like poison coiling through my body.
“My kind, Lugat, isn’t magical,” Hailey said. “Almost everything I can do, you’ll find something in the animal kingdom with the same ability. I can see as well as animals with exceptional sight, my sense of smell is a thousand times better than a human’s, I can jump up about four stories, though so far I haven’t jumped down more than three, I can heal quickly, including regrowing limbs.”
“My kind literally dies at dawn,” Mister tall-dark-and-handsome said — had his name been Josef, maybe? “While Hailey can choose when she wants to sleep. She’s stronger when the sun isn’t reigning. The dawn saps her strength, but she can choose to stay awake. As you know, she can go outside on overcast days, while my kind cannot.”
“Let’s walk back inside and sit down,” Kirsten said. “Those who’ve shifted need to eat.”
While they walked inside, I told Mikey, “I’ve been seeing someone a while, since the end of the tour. He never eats food, and I never see him during the daytime.”
“Yeah. Me too. Kind of fucky, isn’t it? It never even occurred to me that I’ve only seen her at night.”
We followed the group back inside. Everyone sat on sofas in a little square, set up the same way the sofas had been on Kirsten’s patio during the party.
“Long, long ago,” Kirsten said, “the vampires in Europe formed a council, so the strongest vampires made the rules for everything supernatural. This council had one purpose — to keep the humans from finding out supernatural beings exist. People knew at that time, which was why they often staked people they thought might be a vampire, but the point was to hide the knowledge from that point forward. Myths about vampires and werewolves have persisted through the ages, but most don’t actually believe they exist, anymore.”
Nathan put his arm around her and continued. “The magic of the Strigorii means they form groups with a clear hierarchy and an established leader. Josef and Venom are both extremely high in the local hierarchy, both strong enough to be Master elsewhere, but they choose not to be. Their Master isn’t just over Chattanooga, but over Tennessee as well as a number of other states — most of the Southeast.”
“A while back,” Aaron said, “one of the most powerful vampires in Europe decided he wanted Cora, Marco’s mate. Cora didn’t want him, but if he took over Marco’s territory, everything that belonged to Marco would belong to this vampire.”
Wait,Marco’s territory? So he was like, the vampire boss? What would that make Julian? His assistant, sure, but…
Fuck. Knowing Marco’s a vampire took all doubts away.Julian is a damned vampire.
“If he’d taken over Marco’s territory,” Kirsten said, “he’d have controlled around twenty percent of the United States, and it’d just been a matter of time before he took over the other states. This vampire was so old…” She rubbed her arms. “He looked like the pictures of the neanderthal, and he had hair on his fingers, the long parts, not the joints. He was barely over four feet tall, butterrifying. I’ve heard estimates that put him at ten thousand years old. There was no way for Marco to beat him without a whole lot of help, but even with help, the rules of how to defend your territory mean you have to duel with the challenger.”
“Vampires can share power, though,” Aaron said, “And thousands of powerful American vampires came to help power Marco up.”
“Long story short,” Kirsten said, “Cora could help with the fight since she’s bound so closely to Marco, and the two of them managed to kill the invading vampire. While the American vampires were on a roll with all that power, they formed their own American council and declared they are no longer under the rule of the council in Europe.”
Okay, Cora isn’t a vampire. I’ve eaten with her, and been outside with her during the day. So what is she? Something supernatural, clearly, if she could help Marco defeat the other vampire.
Micca stepped in front of Will and Davy. “It was this new American council that voted to allow me to tell you my secret, and it’s the European assholes threatening to kill you if I do. I’m pretty sure that’s why Nathan stopped me from telling you what I am, because you’ll need to decide for certain whether you want to know what I am once you hear everything they plan to tell you.”
“Exactly right,” Aaron said. “As it stands now, you have the idea she’s some kind of shifter, but you don’t know what she is. We’ll do our best to protect you, but that might mean we must keep you hidden in order to do so, and your chosen career means you can’t remain hidden for long.”
