Page 37 of There’s a Way (Mythic Beast #2)

Will

While we showered, someone brought clothes that fit us. Dress pants and oddly styled shirts for me and Davy, and a simple dress for Micca. It didn’t look like much until she put it on, and then I wanted to bend her over and fuck her all over again.

We were all showered and dressed when the hourglass ran out, and the door to our room opened as the last grain of sand fell through.

“Excellent,” Nathan said as he came through the door with Kirsten and the vampire they’d called Venom.

“The three of you are an even stronger unit. We blasted you with more information than anyone should have to absorb so quickly. It’s good to see you’ve accepted Micca for what she is, even if you aren’t sure exactly what that might be at the moment. ”

“It was a lot,” I agreed, “but it’s good we finally have at least an idea of what Micca went through before we all found each other.” And with that out of the way, the question I’d been wondering for hours. “Where are Silver and Animal?”

“In a room something like this one, completely safe,” Kirsten told me.

“The musical instruments are a little different here, and they’re in a room with some musicians who are showing them how they work.

They’re both completely happy learning about music in this realm.

Ghost and Hailey have a way to stay safe back in Midgard, so they’re back in your home realm. ”

I nodded. “Thank you for keeping us all safe.”

“What can I do to repay you for this?” Micca asked.

Kirsten shook her head. “Aaron and I are friends, and though we’ve never kept track of favors, he’s done way more for me than I have for him, so I’m more than happy to be able to help him keep his people safe.

” She looked at Nathan and back to us. “Not to mention, Nathan and I don’t keep score, either, and you’re as much his as you are Aaron’s. ”

“Josef is going to handle Silver and Animal’s oath, and Venom will handle yours,” Nathan told us.

“And it’s time for the oath, should you choose to take it,” Venom said.

“We do,” I told them.

He nodded, and a man in fancy clothes came in with a wine service. He popped the cork and poured wine into three glasses and about an inch of water in two glasses.

“Easiest way to get blood without a vampire biting you is the way diabetics do.” Kirsten showed us the little spring-loaded stickpin things and handed them to Micca, who used one to pierce the side of Davy’s finger and then milked a dozen drops of blood into one of the water goblets.

“You want me to do you, or do you want to do it yourself?” Micca asked me.

I held my hand out for her to hand me the other device, and I did to my finger what she’d done to Davy’s, dripping my blood into the other water goblet.

I have no idea why I had to drink the wine while I said the oath, but I was told I would drink it while Venom drank the water with my blood in it.

There were instructions about thinking about all the things I’d learned, and then saying, “I will keep your secrets” while imagining that the promise was for everything involving the world of the supernaturals. Everything I’d learned tonight.

I went first, saying it, drinking the wine, and then saying it again, and I felt… I don’t know how to describe it, like the click of a lock, securing everything into a safe, of sorts.

I was still trying to work through the feeling when they had Davy do the same oath, and I put my arm around him after he’d taken his drink of wine, to help fortify him through the feeling, reminding him he’s mine and we’re in this together.

“Are Davy and I the only humans in the room?” I asked.

“I started out as human,” Kirsten said. “Same as Micca. The vampires did, too, but it was so long ago for them, I don’t think they count.”

“I started out as human as well, but yes,” Nathan said, “you’re the only people still human in the room, but that doesn’t make you less than us. I spent centuries lamenting my lost humanity, and while I’ve come to terms with who I am, it still feels like a loss, sometimes.”

“Not all of us feel that way,” Venom said. “I occasionally wish to feel the sun on my skin, or desire the foods of my youth, but mostly, I revel in who and what I’ve become.”

“I pretty much fought the idea of being other-than-human all the way to the end.” Kirsten said.

“I still consider myself human with special abilities, but since…” She shrugged.

“There’s a whole story about how I became Queen and all the abilities that came with the title.

I haven’t been able to legitimately call myself human since then. ”

“How long will we be here?” I asked.

“Unknown at this time,” Nathan said. “I need to get back to our realm, but I’ll return to help with negotiations and any fighting that may break out, though I don’t expect there to be any fighting in this realm.

No matter what, though, Kirsten is more than capable of keeping you safe in her castle. You have nothing to worry about.”

“I’m sorry,” Micca told him. “I just wanted to be honest with the men I love.”

“Aaron and I advised you,” Nathan told her. “This isn’t on you. Enjoy your men while holed up in the castle a few days. We’ll get it figured out.”

Micca looked at him a few seconds and said, “Or we won’t.”

He nodded. “Possibly, but I wouldn’t bet against us.”

Nathan walked to a credenza, opened it, and then walked to us with a few sheets of paper and a pen. It seems some things are universal across realms. Or, maybe the pen was invented in one realm and the idea travelled to other realms?

Nathan put the paper on a table near me and handed me the pen. “Write on the paper that vampires and werewolves are real.”

He’d just told us we had to keep the secret, so I shook my head. “I just took an oath to keep the secret. I’m not writing it down.”

He smiled. “Excellent answer, but humor me. The lights in here are magical, but Kirsten can light a candle for you once you’ve written it, so you can burn it.”

Kirsten walked to a large candle, a flame appeared on the end of her finger, she lit the candle, then blew her finger out.

I shook my head, leaned down, and wrote Would you believe it if I told you …

My hand froze. I couldn’t write the first letter of werewolves . I was sending all the signals from my brain to my hand to keep writing, but it wouldn’t move. It wasn’t like it was paralyzed. I could squeeze the pen harder or softer, I just couldn’t write the next word.

I put the pen down, picked it up, and tried to write the W in werewolves again. When I was convinced I couldn’t, I tried to write the word vampire . Again, my hand wouldn’t do it.

I decided to change the wording of my intended sentence and wrote the unbelievable tale that …

Again, I got those words out, but then my hand wouldn’t write anything more.

I grew dizzy. The room swam around me. I gripped the pen tighter, looser, tighter. I imagined I was writing it in a different language. I could hear my breath now, short and rapid. My heart raced in my chest, beating against my rib cage.

I put the pen down, wiped my hand on the odd fabric of the pants I’d been given, which just reminded me all over again I was in a different fucking realm, and I lifted the pen and tried again.

And again.

Eventually, Micca wrapped her arms around me to tell me that was enough.

Not being able to write it meant the oath had taken hold, but I shook my head and kept trying.

It wasn’t until I could hear the stress and worry in her voice that I stepped back from the table.

I couldn’t look at anyone in the room, so I stood with Micca’s arm around me and watched Davy try to write it, and then accept that he couldn’t right away.

* * * *

Micca

Everything was fine until it was time for Will to write out that he’d learned vampires and werewolves are real. When he realized he couldn’t write it, he big-time lost it. He didn’t just try a few times, like most people, but kept on trying until I finally had to talk him into stopping.

Which isn’t surprising, really. Will has created a life where he controls everything around him, so losing control of anything is a problem for him, but losing control of his willpower wasn’t acceptable.

Davy handled it much better, possibly because he’d seen his Master go through it, but more likely because he isn’t used to being in control all the time.

Eventually, Will could at least fake maintaining control. I could scent how messed up he still was, but he got his breathing and his attention span back under control, at least.

They let Will ask some more questions, mostly about the care and feeding of a shapeshifter, which warmed my heart, and then everyone left again, telling us dinner would be brought to us soon.

We were encouraged to turn in for the night shortly after we ate, with a promise to wake us thirty minutes before breakfast the following morning.

When they left, I apologized, again , to Will and Davy for putting them in danger, but Will told me, “Stop, Micca. We know enough now, and I understand why you couldn’t tell us.”

“How often do you have to go to other realms for your job?” Davy asked, clearly changing the subject.

“It’s rare. I’ve been to Alfheim twice, and both times I was here less than an hour.

Electronics don’t fare well here, so I just collected evidence and went back home to test it.

I’ve never been to Faerie. I’ve been to a few other realms a couple of times, but again, never more than an hour or two.

” I wanted to change the subject, so I ordered him to, “Tell me where things are with the visit to your grandparents.”

I’d been gone for ten days, completely out of contact with them, so I really did want to know. I was supposed to go to Alaska with them, after all. I’d meant to ask it as a question, but it’d come out as an order, but that was okay. Davy does well with orders.