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“Aaron will land with Davy soon,” Nathan told Micca, “let’s save the personal stuff until both your men are here. Meanwhile, I’ll demonstrate what I am.”

He only stepped about five yards away to disrobe, and the next thing I knew, ahugelion was standing where he’d been. I kind of saw the change this time, saw him fall forward to all fours as the lion sprang into being and the human was gone, but it happened fast.

I looked at Micca. “You’re having the others change first, so it won’t be as big of a shock when you turn into whatever you are?”

She shook her head. “On my honor, I had no idea this was going to happen, and I don’t know what else they have on their apparently top-secret agenda. This isn’t how I’d have done this, but I understand why it has to happen this way. There’s a lot to explain in probably a short time, and it’s going to be a lot to take in. No matter what realm I’m in, I can only tell my secrets. This means I’m not authorized, even here in another realm, to tell you much of what you’ll learn, so I’m going to owe them big time for getting the information to you.”

The dragon landed, Kirsten disappeared and then reappeared on top of the dragon, she held Davy’s hand and talked to him a few seconds, and the two were suddenly standing in front of the lion.

Davy looked at the other set of clothes on the ground, and then the lion. “That’s Nathan? Wow. Can I pet him?” Davy asked.

And that’s the difference between being educated and smart. Davy figured out who’d turned into a lion because he’ssmart.It’s one of the many reasons I love him. But also, he was jumping in and experiencing this strange world we’d found ourselves in, while I was just standing and watching, which isn’t like me, but it was just too much, too fast. I was still trying to figure everything out.

The lion went to the ground in front of Davy, and Kirsten said, “That would be a yes.”

Davy walked forward and touched the massive lion’s forehead in front of the regal, gorgeous mane, and then tentatively touched the mane. “Walk to his side and touch his body,” Kirsten said. “I’m a little addicted to petting my lion when he hangs out with me in this form.”

“Queen of Alfheim and King of the Lions,” Micca said from beside me. “And they’re a couple. Well, part of a throuple, actually. Their third isn’t here right now.”

“Is he royalty, too?” I asked.

She blew out a breath. “Not that I know of. Technically, I probably shouldn’t have told you Nathan is the Lion King.”

“It’s okay,” Aaron said, now back in his human form, stepping into his jeans. “Nathan tells me he explained the hatched versus born thing, but let’s move away from shifters a minute, because you need to know about another class of supernaturals before we can explain why we had to come to Alfheim to keep you safe.”

Kirsten walked Davy back to us, and the Lion was suddenly a man again, stepping into his jeans as well. I assumed they undressed so they didn’t destroy their clothes, and they must do it often enough, they aren’t concerned with their nudity.

“If you know werelions and dragons are real, what other mythical creatures might be real?” Aaron asked.

“Werewolves and vampires, right?” Davy said.

And then it hit me. Hailey and her sun allergy. We’d joked about her being a vampire, and she hadn’t told us she really is?!I turned to her and met her gaze, and she said, “The rules about who we can tell are quite strict. You aren’t a lover, and while I feel like the four of us are family, the ruling body saw us as business associates and would’ve never allowed me to tell you, even if you weren’t famous.”

“There are two kinds of vampire,” Josef said. “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.”

“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, and I can heal quickly, including regrowing limbs.”

“My kind literally dies at dawn,” Josef said, “While Hailey can choose when she wants to sleep. She’s stronger when the sun isn’t in the sky, so the dawn can sap 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.”

Chapter 26

Will

Aaron and Nathan both made themselves a plate, and we sat in a seating arrangement of four sofas in a square to talk.

Kirsten walked with Silver, Animal, Hailey, and Ghost. She hugged Silver and said something to her before Silver sat between Animal and Hailey. Did they already know each other?

“Long, long ago,” Kirsten said as she sat on a difference sofa, “the Strigorii 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 knowing supernatural beings exist. People knew at that time, which was why they often staked people they thought might be a vampire, or burned them, or beheaded them, 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.”

We still had some written works that talked about monsters, like Beowulf, but everyone assumes they were just made-up fairy tales. Fantasy.

Fairy tales. It struck me all at once.Fairyis real.Vampiresare real.Werewolves.Dragons.

But I needed to pay attention while I was learning stuff. I’d listen to what they told me and then ask questions.

“I don’t know when the vampires formed their organization,” Kirsten said. “I know it existed when Jesus walked the earth,but I’ve never been able to get a handle on how long before that. Since they’re based in Rome, it’s possible they formed during the Roman empire, but…” She sighed and rolled her eyes. “The point is, this organization is beyond ancient, and because Strigorii vampires live until someone kills them, many of the ruling vampires were around when Christ walked the earth and even farther back. I know several who were around to see the Iron Age. It’s the same assholes in charge.”