Page 57 of Blood and Magic
“Chew your food,” he said, stabbing another piece of ham before holding it out.
I reluctantly obeyed, and then wondered why I had.
“I know this sounds like you went to sleep in one world and woke up in fantasy land, but I’m not lying to you,” he said, feeding me when I finally swallowed and opened my mouth for more. “Humans don’t know we exist, and we’re forbidden from telling anyone who’s not in the pack.”
I tried to wrap my mind around what he said, but it all sounded unreal. Werewolves and fox shifters, these things didn’t exist in the real world. But I couldn’t deny what had happened in the last three days. The bed was covered in blood. His throat had been torn open on either side, and there were wounds on his wrists. I was the one who did it. I tongued my canines again.
“That’s right,” he said, pulling his lips back over his teeth. Sharp fangs elongated on either side of his mouth, pointed and fully capable of tearing muscle from bone. I gasped and leaned forward to touch them. He sucked in a hiss and pulled away. “They’re sensitive. Touching them is…personal.”
I tried to extend mine. When they twinged and grew in response, I nearly jumped out of the seat. Eyes wide, I glanced at Mill like he held all the answers in the world.
“What the hell?” I glanced down at my fingertips, where enormous claws had grown out of my nails, sharp and predatory. I bolted upright, and the chair went flying out from under me.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he said, rising and holding his hands to either side. “You’re okay.”
“Mill, what the fuck is going on?”
“I told you.” He stepped closer to me and grabbed my palms, bringing them to his chest. “You’ve transitioned. You’re a shifter, sweetheart.”
“What does that mean?” I struggled to keep up with the words coming out of his mouth. A shifter? Werewolves? None of this was real. None of it… I touched the marks on his throat. “What happened to you?”
He grimaced and nodded back to the table. “I’ll tell you if you sit and let me feed you.”
Reluctant to accept this new reality, I lowered myself to the chair and opened my mouth so he could give me another slice of meat.
“This world isn’t what you think it is. Most of the legends you’ve read about are true. Shifters, vampires, witches, they all exist.”
“Vampires?” I balked, my eyes nearly bulging out of my head. “Like Anne Rice type of shit?”
“Worse,” he said. “The vampires in this area all belong to the Bloody Scorpions MC.” He explained that Marx was their leader, and being a vampire made his threat even more severe. “Shifter blood is an aphrodisiac to them. They’ll spend days draining you…torturing you…using you. And that’s if you’re lucky. I shudder to think what he would have done with Sol if Orion hadn’t gotten to her when he did.”
My mind struggled to keep up with everything he said.
“There’s a reason those stories have been passed down through the generations.” He chewed and swallowed before sipping his water. “They used to be warnings, and when we went into hiding, they became fairy tales.”
“How is this possible? What’s wrong with me?” I asked, still trying to wrap my mind around it. “Did something happen to me to make me like…this?”
“No,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with you, Maeve. You’re perfect.”
Some of my resistance melted away at his compliment. Perfect. He thinks I’m perfect.
“It’s genetic,” he continued. “One of your parents was a shifter. Guin and Sol think it was your mother.”
“My sisters,” I murmured. “They’re like this, too.”
He’d already said that, but it was only now that it clicked. They’d already transitioned and couldn’t tell me. A slight pang of betrayal hit my heart at their deception, but I understood. If all this was real, if there really was a separate world of monsters and magic out there, there was no way for them to explain it to me so I’d understand. Hell, I had fangs and claws, and I still barely bought into Mill’s explanation.
“Yes,” he said. “They couldn’t tell you, and you can’t tell your other siblings.”
“Why?” Not that they would believe me, even if I did, but I was curious why this was a forbidden topic.
“Humans are reckless and destructive,” he said. “If they found out about us, they’d put us in zoos. We’d be their science experiments.” Mill shook his head and sighed. “We can’t change whenever we want, but we’re stronger than normal humans even in this form.”
“When do you change?” He seemed so sure in his answers that I couldn’t help but be convinced this might be true.
“The part about the full moon is unfortunately accurate,” he said. “We can’t control it. Our magic comes from the earth. We’re compelled by the strength of the cycle, and the closer we get to the moon, the more our animal sides come to the forefront.”
I inhaled and ran my hands over my face, the weight of this information hitting me in the chest like a sledgehammer.
