Page 33 of There’s a Way (Mythic Beast #2)

“Totally unnecessary when it’s just us,” Kirsten said.

“It’s fine to eat and drink while you’re here.

This isn’t the case in all the realms, but feel free to feast.” She motioned to a long table along the side of the tent with food that smelled wonderful, but I had questions.

So many questions, so I started with the most recent.

“Realm?”

“Another world,” Aaron said. “You’re from Midgard, and you can guess what Helheim is like.

Vanaheim is what you’d think of as Faerie, Svartalfheim is where the dwarves live.

Jotenheim has giants. There are more, but we don’t want to overwhelm you with information because a whole lot more is coming. ”

“Basically,” Kirsten said, “it’s against supernatural law in the human world, on Midgard, to tell humans about supernaturals, but everyone knows about them here. So, we aren’t breaking any laws by telling you all kinds of secrets while you’re here.”

“We’re still going to follow the Midgard rules and oath you to the secrets,” the man introduced to us as Josef said. “But that will come later.”

“It’s the reason Josef and Venom are here,” Aaron said, “Because they’ll handle the oaths. Okay, first things first, let’s walk outside.”

Kirsten had said this was about supernaturals . What the fuck did that mean? Again, I decided not to demand answers just yet, since they’d just told us they intended to explain.

The tent was the kind people erect for outdoor weddings when the weather isn’t cooperating, circus tent sized, but all white.

I walked outside holding Micca’s hand. She was between me and Davy, holding both our hands. It felt like I should be in the middle so I could make sure Davy was okay, but I trusted Micca would stop the proceedings and help him if he wasn’t.

We walked into a large field, or perhaps meadow was more accurate, and I immediately saw a huge castle high on a hill a few miles away.

It’s hard to gauge size when you aren’t sure of the distance, especially at night, but it looked like a city-sized castle.

Huge. Not exactly like the medieval castles from our world, but some of the same elements. Impressive, though.

The whole thing was surreal, and I was tempted to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

“Mythology tells us of werewolves, vampires, and dragons, yes?” Aaron asked, and I looked from the faraway castle glowing in the moonlight — or I assumed it was a moon — to Aaron.

I let go of Micca’s hand and stepped to the other side of Davy.

I wrapped my arm around him and tucked him into my side.

I needed to be sure he was okay. I knew Micca was fine but I worried about our boy.

We’d just seen someone teleport, and then we’d been teleported to what they told us was another realm — and now they were talking about werewolves, vampires, and dragons?

“No one here will hurt you in any of our forms, and I’m going to give you the first demonstration.” Aaron stepped about twenty yards away from us and began removing his clothes.

“You’ll understand in a few minutes,” Micca said. “I didn’t want to do it this way, and they surprised me with this trip, but I believe I understand the strategy.”

Aaron was nude now, standing twenty yards from us, and then there was suddenly a dragon where he’d been. The dragon was huge. Beyond huge. House sized. Well, not my house, but a normal-sized house. And, for that matter, about ten or twelve times as big as the cabin I’d grown up in.

The dragon’s head was where Aaron had been and the tail was way out in the meadow.

And then the beast kicked off the land, his huge wings beat, and the creature was grace personified as it flew around the sky above us, occasionally shooting fire at nothing in particular.

After a few moments, the dragon landed and stepped closer to us.

“I’m still me,” the dragon told us in a voice so deep I wondered that we could understand it.

“You can touch me, if you wish. Walk closer and feel my scales. I won’t harm you.”

Davy stepped out of my arm, reached for my hand, and led the way to the dragon, which surprised the hell out of me, but he said, “If I miss out on the opportunity to touch a dragon, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, Master.”

I caught up with him and walked beside him, so the two of us reached the dragon at the same time.

Davy reached out with caution and touched the dragon’s cheek, under his eyeball, which was beyond creepy. It was bigger than most of the windows in my house.

“Kirsten, why don’t you help Davy climb up, so I can give him a quick ride?” the dragon said, and Kirsten stepped forward to show Davy some handholds and toeholds. Or maybe footholds? Not quite steps.

Nathan touched my shoulder, and the first thing I thought of was how warm his hand was. Just like Micca always seems to be really warm.

“It’s quite safe,” Nathan assured me. “And I’ll answer a few questions down here while Aaron answers them in the air. Aaron was hatched from an egg rather than being born, and he’s been a dragon shifter his entire life.”

He moved his hand and stepped in front of me.

“He isn’t two-natured, as most shifters are.

He’s always the dragon, it’s just that sometimes he’s human shaped and sometimes he’s dragon shaped.

It isn’t possible for most of the creatures hatched from an egg to bite someone and turn them.

Mammals, on the other hand, can usually do so.

So, with wolves and other mammals, they were either born that way or turned by being bitten.

” He tilted his head. “Or in the case of the largest mammals, sometimes we extract saliva and blood and inject it into the human to turn them — much less painful than being bitten by a bear, you understand. Also, some mammals, like bears, don’t have the same kind of survival rate as, say, the wolves.

Doing it with modern tools gives them a better chance of surviving the change . ”

I wanted to rant and rave, challenge what he was saying, but I just watched a man I knew and respected turn into a fucking dragon and fly away with my boy.

They weren’t telling me what I really wanted to know, so I turned to face Micca and asked, “What are you?”

She shook her head. “This isn’t the way I wanted to do this. I was about to die, and the only way to save me was to turn me into a—”

“Stop.” Nathan said with enough emphasis I jumped a little, and Micca shut up.

“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, a huge lion 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’s smart .

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.”