THREE
A little scared, I just stared at Nick, tongue-tied. He, however, wasn’t tongue-tied in the least.
After just a moment or two, he cleared his throat, casting me a little look of clear irritation, although I couldn’t fathom why this would be. “The government agents didn’t let me in here to talk to you. They subdued me with bullets and abducted me a few weeks ago because, apparently, I’ve become a little too powerful for their liking.
“They obviously haven’t been successful in killing me, though, and just an hour or so ago, I decided I’m finally strong enough to break out of here. I need to talk to you first, and since time is of the essence. I drank from the government agents and guards in order to knock them all out for a while, but they won’t be out for too much longer. So, let’s have a seat and talk. Right now."
He wanted to talk to me. The very thought made me feel sick. However, I didn’t feel sick just because he had murdered my coven family and now wanted to sit down and talk to me, as if we were friends or business associates. It made me sick because for just a split-second, for just a fraction of a moment while I’d been looking at his handsome face while he’d been speaking, I’d wondered what it might be like to kiss him.
Not wanting to be stuck on the couch sitting with him, I quickly seated myself on an overstuffed chair opposite the couch. He didn’t seem to mind that I’d done this and took a seat on the couch.
Pale sunlight streaming in through the tiny, barred windows near the ceiling of the subterranean apartment illuminated his lightly tanned face, making his skin almost seem to glow. He didn’t look like any vampire I’d ever seen before -- all members of the Dormio Coven were very pale, some of them even chalk-white. Many of them, although strong, had always looked a bit sickly to me, with prominent dark circles under their eyes.
In contrast, Nick appeared the perfect picture of health, as if he wasn’t really a vampire at all, but instead, a regular human man. However, now that I was looking at them sitting across from me, it occurred to me that maybe Nick looked healthy because he’d recently dined on human blood as a method of knocking out all the agents and guards.
Seeming to read my mind, he offered me a small smile once he’d settled back on the couch. “You’re looking at us like you’re surprised by how I look. Maybe you’re used to the Dormio Coven vampires and thought that all of us vampires were pale or something.”
I shrugged, trying my best to act nonchalant, reminding myself that I was supposed to be getting Nick to trust me. “I really don't know what I was expecting. The Dormio vampires are the only ones I’ve ever known.”
Nick gave me another small smile, lifting one dark brow just a degree. “I can tell…and I know I don't look like that ‘classic’ Dormio kind of vampire with pale skin and fangs. So, I have to wonder...are you wondering if I’m some ‘special’ type of vampire?”
I shrugged again, still trying to act nonchalant. “I guess the thought crossed my mind. You do have a light tan, when...well, I guess I would have expected you to be pale.”
I would have expected him to look exactly like a member of the Dormio Coven.
Nick gave me a small smile for the third time. “Well, my people and I are somewhat of a ‘special’ kind of vampire. Our ancient creator was different from the one who created the Dormio Coven. They look more like the traditional type of vampires. But I and all my people...we’re a ‘new breed,’ you might say. A ‘new breed’ even though I’m hundreds of years old, and some of my people are even older than I am. A few of the members of the Dormio Coven are older still.”
“And yet, you don’t seem to respect them.”
I’d let the comment slip out of my mouth without thinking about it, completely forgetting that I was supposed to be trying to get Nick to trust me. So I tried to cover it.
“I mean…your group of vampires is at least not very friendly with the Dormio Coven, right? I’m just guessing that’s why your group doesn’t live among them, in Detroit.”
Now that I was thinking about it, I realized that I had no clue where the Everglen vampires did live, if I had ever known. All I could recall was that they didn’t live in Detroit.
Nick eyed me intently as he answered my question. “We Everglen vampires don’t live within this city because we’re not welcome here. The vampires of the Dormio coven are our enemies and always will be. In fact, their leader, John, is a man of unspeakable cruelty.”
I snorted, then opened my mouth to immediately say something snarky about how I’d heard that he, Nick, was a man of “unspeakable cruelty,” along with the rest of the vampires in his group. However, just in time, I remembered that I was supposed to be earning Nick’s trust. I was supposed to be just like any other regular woman. Just a regular woman who definitely wasn’t a witch, and one who definitely wasn’t having thoughts of killing the man sitting across from her once she got her powers back.
Ignoring my snort, Nick continued speaking. “My people and I live in a city called Everglen, a few hundred miles to the north. It’s something like our own sovereign city-state that’s kept hidden from non-vampire humans by magic. It’s something like a supernatural veil that keeps our city invisible and shielded from view, almost as if it’s in some sort of a secret portal.
“Dormio vampires are able to enter, unfortunately, but regular human men and government agents can’t. That is why the government has been using the Dormio vampires to antagonize my people lately and why they had Dormio vampires abduct me. Like I said earlier, we have gotten a little too powerful for the government’s liking.”
Or maybe a little too evil for the government’s liking, I thought, although obviously, I had to keep these thoughts to myself. Instead, I decided to ask a question.
“So, what is it that you want from me? Why are you trying to break me out of here?”
Before responding to my question, Nick just looked at me for a long moment, with his stormy gray eyes seeming to stare right through to my soul. “Before I answer you, I want to tell you a little about the history of the Everglen Coven, which is what my people and I have been calling ourselves for a few decades now.”
The Everglen Coven. That name didn’t sound nearly dark enough for vampires who had killed a coven of witches in cold blood.
“See, in the beginning, my coven was very small. Only a hundred members, maybe. We’d always lived in this area, but a hundred years or so ago, the Dormio Coven decided they wanted us out. They wanted this whole territory, and all the supernatural inhabitants in it, for themselves. Being that they were the much larger group, they killed many of our members, but they couldn’t kill us all.
“Over the decades, we continued to fight them, and we continued to protect the human citizens in this area from their attacks. As I’m sure you’re aware, Dormio Coven members feed exclusively on humans, sometimes even killing them, whereas most of the members of my coven, myself included, prefer to take ‘hunting’ trips to feed on wild animals.”
This wasn’t at all what I’d always heard, and I stifled another snort of derision, but just barely. James, and then John, had both told me that the Everglen Coven fed exclusively on humans and killed them every single time, and not because they necessarily needed to in order to get their required sustenance, but just for fun.
Ignoring my stifled snort, Nick continued. “I’ve also always made sure that my people coexist in peace with all the other supernatural creatures, including shifters, in the state, even helping them at times.”
“Oh, I bet you do.”
Momentarily forgetting that I was supposed to be earning Nick’s trust, I just hadn’t been able to resist making the sarcastic comment. It had just tumbled right out of my mouth before I’d been able to think better of it. But now that it had, I tried to cover what I’d said by a few words that hopefully sounded more genuine.
“Yes, I bet you protect all the supernatural creatures in this area well. It sounds like you do, even though I never knew this before. Please continue, Nick.”
With his gaze directly on my face, my own face was becoming a bit hot for some reason, and I began tightening my folded arms across my chest.
“Really…please continue.”
After studying me for a moment that felt like a year, with his expression unreadable, he did. “Anyway. Back to the history of my people and the Dormio Coven. After the Dormio Coven essentially chased us out of Detroit, my people and I moved north, and using magic from one of our members who is also something of a witch, we built Everglen. We recruited thousands more vampires into our coven from all over the nation and world; we built roads, dozens of short skyscrapers, and a hospital; and we built schools for our children.”
“Children?”
I’d really almost gasped the word. I’d never in a million years expected the Everglen vampires to have children. The members of the Dormio Coven didn't have any, and they couldn't have any. They’d never been able to reproduce by sleeping with human women or vampire women, and for some reason, draining a human nearly dry and then refilling them with blood, which was the process by which they created new vampires, just simply didn’t work on children or young teens. It never had. It had only ever worked on humans very near or at adulthood.
I’d even used these facts to try to reason with the government agents ever since I’d been in captivity, asking them why they cared if I was were-gene positive if I couldn’t even produce a hybrid vampire-wolf child with a vampire anyway. The agents had never answered my question, and now I was pretty sure I knew why. They hadn’t answered my question because they knew that even if I couldn’t produce a child with a Dormio Coven vampire, I could with a member of the Everglen Coven. And that was what apparently scared the government.
Nick didn’t seem at all surprised by my surprise regarding what he’d said about his community having children. Sitting back on the couch in a relaxed sort of way, with his long, muscular torso at an angle against the cushions, he just nodded. “Yes. We have children in Everglen. We have a couple hundred of them, actually, although they’re still only a tiny percentage of the city’s residents.
“Counting all adult Everglen Coven members, we have a population of about thirty thousand, a number that will hopefully continue to grow in the coming years as our supernaturally-veiled city-state becomes stronger and more established. See, our coven may have started small, but since establishing Everglen, we’ve become the largest coven of vampires that has ever existed.”
As much as I hated Nick for what he and his people had done to my coven family, I couldn’t deny that everything I was being told was piquing my natural curiosity and making me want to ask further questions. However, I didn’t want Nick to know I was so intrigued by what he was saying, so I asked my next question in what I hoped was a fairly emotionless, almost bored-sounding voice.
“Well, how is it possible that you have so many children in Everglen already? And how, exactly, did your people go from such a tiny group to thirty thousand people, anyway? I’ve never heard all this before, and I guess I’m just a little curious.”
Nick opened his mouth to respond, but then closed his mouth for a moment, frowning. “Hold up a second, here. Just wait a minute.” Leaning forward with his hands on his long, muscular thighs, he peered at me, frowning even harder. “Something’s not right here. I don’t think you’re being completely honest with me, Tiffany.”
He wasn’t wrong, and my heart began hammering in my chest.