Of Humans and Monsters

by Candace Blevins

  “Get to the part I need to know, please,” said Nathan, and I chuckled because I was well aware of Chance’s propensity to go around the world before making his point.

  Chance sighed. “You needed to know that part. We’ve had a number of small earthquakes in the past couple of months, all around the city. They’ve all been insignificant enough I doubt any of the earthquake people are paying attention to them.”

  I put my mouth near Nathan’s, my heart in my stomach as I put it all together. “Tell me the Celrau aren’t trying to destabilize the fault line and create a nuclear meltdown.”

  “Way to steal my thunder, but bingo.”

  “Do we know the effect of radiation on Celrau?” asked Nathan.

  “Give me a minute.” More clicking, and he said, “Shifters around Nagasaki and Hiroshima were immediately affected in much the same way as humans. Some species healed by shifting and were soon sick again from re-exposure, others weren’t healed by changing, and many found their DNA had been altered enough they were forever stuck in human form. Lugat were even more sensitive to the radiation than the humans, and most died within hours. The strongest Strigorii were weakened but survived with no ill effects, while the rest were poisoned as if by silver. A few found true death, others were taken to Russia and buried in blood soaked earth, and returned to full health in years or decades. I have no information on Celrau.”

  “How do we stop them?” asked Randall.

  “Mordecai has an idea, but he isn’t sharing,” Chance answered.

  “Will Mordecai still be taking me to work this morning?”

  “Yes,” said Randall. “I don’t suppose you want to tell us what happened with you and Mordecai yesterday? Or how the two of you disappeared, and where you went while you were gone?”

  “I’m pretty sure most of that fits into the whole ‘not my secret to tell’ thing. While we’re asking questions, is there anything else I need to know about Adonis, or tonight? Am I really going to be the only human?”

  “I believe it’s been at least a millennium since he took interest in a human,” Mordecai said as he came through a hallway into the kitchen. “I have no idea what he’s up to, but don’t let him trick you into doing something you’ll regret later.”

  “If he tries to enslave me or hurt me, is it okay to kill him?”

  “He’s immortal. He can’t be killed.”

  Nathan chuckled. “Didn’t stop her from trying with other immortals.” His voice sobered as he looked to me and added, “We all hope Adonis can be handled diplomatically. Do everything in your power to stay away from fighting him. If it comes down to you or him, of course you should do what you have to, but please try to keep it from coming to that.”

  “I don’t think it will,” said Mordecai. “I don’t know what he’s up to, but I can’t imagine it’ll bring a fight.” He looked to Nathan. “Any problems last night? Is it safe to invite Ryan in?”

  “A dream she didn’t awaken from, and she says it was a controlled drink in the dream and she didn’t kill anyone.”

  “Controlled might be pushing it,” I admitted. “But I had permission to drink from him, and then there was an... aaah, an orgasm that stopped, umm...” Fuck, what the hell was I stuttering on about? I stood straighter and said what I needed to say. “In the dream, I stopped drinking when the orgasm started, and didn’t want more blood when it was over. It’s like it stopped both lusts.”

  “You fucked Bran in your dream?” Nathan asked with a grin.

  “None of your damned business.” I didn’t want to admit to being whipped to orgasm in a roomful of people, so it seemed less embarrassing for them to think I’d fucked the super-rich, cocky, playboy vampire. I looked at Mordecai. “I’d like to get to work thirty minutes early, so I can put makeup on and look over my notes for the day.”

  “It’ll take us about twenty minutes to travel, but we have plenty of time. You don’t need to rush through breakfast.”

  “But...” I stopped before pointing out it wouldn’t take any time to get there. We made it from here to France in a handful of seconds, so we should be able to make it across town in less than a second. However, no one knew where we’d gone, and Mordecai didn’t want people knowing he could teleport. It would take twenty minutes to drive there in a car, so he was trying to make people think he was no faster than a vehicle. Perhaps he wanted to talk to me while we were in the nothingness, to be sure no one heard our conversation. I finally just said, “Okay.”

  Ten minutes later I’d finished eating, and I slid my suit jacket back over my silk blouse. All my assorted cuts, bruises, and other injuries were perfectly healed, but I wasn’t sure the cost had been worth it.

  I wore my wrist brace instead of using makeup to cover the demon marks. I realized it would raise suspicion amongst those who smelled Bran’s blood on me and knew I should be healed, but it didn’t seem a good day to trust the makeup to hide them.

  “I’d be happier if I knew how you were transporting her,” Nathan told Mordecai.

  “She’ll be safe with me. We should arrive at her office in twenty to thirty minutes.” He pulled a chair out, sat, and looked at me. “Please hand your phone to Nathan. He can return it to you when he arrives at your office. This’ll be easier if you’re in my lap, to start.”

  I sat in his lap and relaxed into him as his arms encircled me. Once again, the room faded around us as the nothingness enveloped us.

  I shrank into Mordecai as I saw another man. I’d assumed we weren’t in an actual place and I’d have to rethink everything — but later, once I’d found out whether this man was friend or foe.

  Mordecai didn’t seem alarmed, but I didn’t relax my guard. The stranger was gorgeous. Masculine and beautiful, when I thought only Dawg could pull both off at the same time. His face was full of sharp angles with enough scruff you’d feel it when his face was between your legs, and my fingers itched to run through his thick mane of wavy, blond hair. He was shirtless, and his jeans set low enough on his hips I could see his Adonis belt — and it was no wonder they’d named it after him, because his was angled and sculpted as if a master craftsman had chiseled it from the finest marble.

  He looked nothing like the statues I’d seen when I’d looked him up. Not his face, and especially not… well, the artists had portrayed someone you hope is a grower instead of a shower, but the bulge in his jeans was impressive.

  “Hello, Kirsten. It’s nice to finally meet you. I am Adonis.”

  My instinct was to stand, but I looked at Mordecai and asked, “Do I have to stay in your lap or can I safely move away from you?”

  “That’s part of what we’re here to find out. Don’t let go of me, and make sure we keep physical contact. Gradually pull one part of your body away from me at a time, and if something feels different or wrong then touch everything back again.”

  “Why’s Adonis here?”

  “Let’s see if you can exist in this place on your own,” said Adonis in a deep, sexy voice that sent vibrations to my clit. “If you can then I will explain much to you.”

  Could the old ones really not figure out contractions?

  “And if I can’t?”

  “Then I won’t be able to tell you much. If you can, then we have a legitimate reason to state you’re one of us, so there’ll be few restrictions on what we can tell you.”

  And now he was using contractions. Had he read my mind? I determined to stop looking at his perfect body and see him as someone with hopes, dreams, and feelings. I didn’t know if gods had those things, but it’d have to get me by.

  “I wish you hadn’t told her that,” Mordecai said. “I don’t want her ignoring signals that something’s wrong.” He shook me a little. “If you let go and we lose you, we may never find you again, and even if we do it’s doubtful you’ll survive with your sanity intact. Do not take risks in this place you mule-headed human.”

  “If she’s going to learn hundreds of years of knowledge by this afternoon then she’d better b
e stubborn.”

  “She’s already learned much without one of us to teach her. We just have to open the way for her and she’ll grasp more than either of us could usually teach in a dozen years.”

  “Guys, I’m still in the room. Or... whatever this is. I can hear you. It’s not nice to talk about me like I’m not here.”

  Mordecai gave me a small squeeze and said, “Hold your right arm out to the side, so none of it’s touching me.”

  I did, and then he had me move a foot, and then my other leg, and he gradually moved me until I was standing beside him with only my left hand holding his right hand.

  Adonis moved closer to us and said, “If you’re comfortable doing it, let go of Mordecai as you take a step to me. Touch me as quickly as you can. The idea is that you’ll only have a split second you aren’t in physical contact with either of us. Have the momentum so that if you lose yourself, you’ll still fall into me. Okay?”

  “Both of you think I can do this?”

  Neither of them said anything.

  “You don’t know. Okay then... Here goes.”

  I did it before I could think too much about it. No problem. I stepped from one to the other. There was nothing under me, but it didn’t matter — I took the step anyway, landed in Adonis’s muscled arms against his ripped torso, and immediately felt him probing into my head.

  “Enough of that. I’m not sure if I can push you out of my head, but I am sure I can hurt you for being in there. So... out. Now.”

  His deep blue eyes seemed to look into my soul, and I stopped breathing as he dropped his hand and stepped back.

  I felt a little motion-sick, so I took a breath and centered my aura. I needed a tree, or something as a point of reference, but nothing was available so I stood taller. I’d be my own point of reference.

  “She’s one of us,” Adonis told Mordecai. “No human can stand on their own here.”

  “I don’t know what she is, but she isn’t fully one of us. She still injures like a human, which is why she has so much Lugat blood in her. Also, she succumbed to bloodlust yesterday.”

  “Guys, you’re talking about me like I’m not here again.”

  Adonis was starting to creep me out, the way he seemed to measure me with his eyes full of ancient knowledge. The man was drop-dead gorgeous, but I wished he wasn’t so focused on me.

  “You’ve studied various meditation practices?”

  His voice still reverberated through my body, but being horny around him felt uncomfortable. I was both attracted and repelled at the same time. I took in another deep breath to clear my thoughts of sex, and nodded to answer his question.

  “Have you ever made something happen with only your thoughts?”

  “If you have something to say, say it. I’m really not up for twenty questions right now.”

  He seemed taken aback, and I wondered if perhaps I shouldn’t be so short with him. He didn’t say anything about my snippy tone though, and merely asked another question.

  “If you were meditating and knew you could likely affect things with your thoughts, and scary things were coming at you, what would you think?”

  I shrugged. “I’d either imagine myself completely safe and protected, or I’d imagine the scary things were my friends and were here to protect me. If I knew the scary things would hurt someone else if I let them by me, I might have to trap them until I could figure out the best way to handle the situation.” The motion sickness I’d overcome earlier was edging back, so I stepped closer to Mordecai and put a hand on his shoulder. “Without more information, it’s hard to say.”

  His beautiful blue eyes narrowed. “If you were going to try to affect the Earth, to lessen the intensity of an earthquake, what would you do?”

  Ah, now we were getting somewhere. “I’m not qualified to mess around with the planet like that. I wouldn’t risk doing anything for fear I’d make it worse.”

  “For the sake of argument — let’s say you could stop a nuclear meltdown if you were to intercede. In our little scenario, the plates are about to let go and cause some very bad shaking and rupturing right under the reactor, but you have the ability to keep all of that radiation locked away. What do you do?”

  I shook my head. I’d learned I could mess around with the weather once, and I’d given myself a beautiful day when it was supposed to rain all day. A tornado had touched down where I’d sent the rain. I couldn’t be certain it was my fault, but I’d never fucked with anything I didn’t fully understand again. I didn’t tell him any of that, though. I just said, “I could create repercussions much worse by messing with a complex system I don’t understand. I might make an even bigger earthquake, and set off ten nuclear plants instead of just the one.”

  He nodded. “Excellent point, and I’m impressed. For the sake of argument though, if you were going to do it anyway — what would you do?”

  I thought for a moment. “I’d concentrate on the plates settling into wherever they’re headed, but doing so gently. I’d try to hold together the fracture directly under the nuclear plant and let the other fault lines move around instead, and I’d concentrate on everything relaxing into place, soft and gentle. I’d picture the humans sleeping through it, not aware of the soft movement of the Earth under them. I’d hang onto the idea of soft and gentle.”

  “You wouldn’t tell it to not be severe?”

  “No, because that would make it severe. The last thing I’d want to do is give any energy to a cataclysm — that would just increase the chances of us getting one. You have to concentrate on what you do want and completely ignore what you don’t want.”

  Adonis looked at Mordecai. “Take her to her morning obligations. I’ll see the two of you in a few hours.” He returned his gaze to me, and I wished I knew him well enough to try to interpret the look he gave me. Wistful, sad, and perhaps a little angry. “You and I have much to talk about, but first you’re going to get your trial by fire. If we all survive the coming days then I’ll work with Mordecai to give you the tools you need to survive if the others discover you.”

  Mordecai stood and wrapped his arm around me, and the nothingness faded into matter with form and structure until a parking garage materialized around us. We’d arrived in a dark, unlit corner, where it was unlikely anyone would see us appear out of thin air.

  “Come, let’s get you into your office. Do not tell anyone of our meeting this morning. If asked, you have not met the party in question.”

  “Of course.”

  Most days, I enjoy being a therapist. I get to help others work through their problems, and I get to totally focus on something outside of myself. My sessions on this day were almost as good as a meditation, because I set aside all thoughts of the supernatural, of people trying to kidnap me, of an ancient sexy-as-fuck god wanting to see me in a few hours. Nothing existed in my world except the patient in front of me.

  However, when I walked my last patient out at two, it was time to focus back on the supernatural quagmire I’d found myself in.

  As soon as the elevator doors closed on my patient, my waiting room filled with people. I ignored them a few moments to check my phone as I turned the ringer back on. I’d talked with Lauren that morning and didn’t expect to hear from her again until school was out, but I had a text from her letting me know she thought she’d aced her trig exam. Another text from Cora let me know she’d help me get dressed for the party, and that she was going to attend as one of my guards.

  “Mordecai wants to take you somewhere the rest of us can’t know about,” Nathan said, his arms crossed and his eyes several levels beyond pissed.

  I shrugged. “You couldn’t see us in transit this morning. I have no reason to believe others can see us, either. We should be safe enough.”

  “I don’t like it.” Nathan practically bit the words out.

  “I appreciate that.” I looked at Mordecai. “Is there anything we can do to satisfy Nathan’s need to know?”

  “Nathan isn’t the only one unh
appy with his charge being spirited away,” Ryan said from the doorway.

  I hadn’t been happy about handing my phone to Nathan that morning. I keep a signal-blocking bag in my desk at work — just in case I need to make a get-away without anyone being able to follow me — and I’d put it into my pocket when I arrived at work. Now, I took it out, put my phone into it, sealed the bag, and stepped into Mordecai’s arms. He took the hint, and the room faded around us.

  “They’re going to be pissed,” I said once we were enveloped in the nothingness once more.

  “What did you put your phone in? I assume it’s something so they can’t find us? If so, I’ll take us where we’re going. If not, I’ll take us somewhere for you to leave your phone.”

  “It’s a signal blocking bag. Nathan won’t be able to track my phone, and I don’t think he put anything else on me.”

  Chapter 14

  I once again experienced a brief flash of motion-sickness as the world coalesced around us. We were near the water, with the nuclear plant across the river. Ah, we were on Skull Island. I turned at the sound of a zipper, and my pulse sped as Adonis stepped out of a large tent. I didn’t want to have sex with him but I couldn’t deny his appeal.

  “The campground won’t let you picnic here unless you buy a camping spot and put up a tent or have a camper,” he said as he walked to a blanket spread on the ground. “We don’t have any immediate neighbors, the tent blocks the view of us from the road, and I’ve situated us in the trees so we shouldn’t be seen from another direction unless someone’s actively looking for us.”