Like humans.
"Sure. So you're not human."
He flashed me a curious look. "Of course not."
"Then what are you?"
"Do you truly not know?"
"Why should I know?"
"Because you are as I am."
I swallowed. "Which is…"
"Monère. The children of the moon."
"Of course," I soothed. "Children of the moon." This guy was a total wacko.
"I am not mad, as you think." Frowning, he looked deep into me, probing with the dagger of his power so that I sensed again that arcing heat from before.
"Ah, that explains it," he breathed, wonder in his eyes. "You are a Mixed Blood."
"Mixed Blood?"
"Yes. A small part of you is human."
"A small part?"
"A quarter, I believe."
"I'm totally human as far as I'm concerned—a head, four limbs, two eyes…" I said, backing away.
"No." He reached his hand out to me. "Don't go. There is even more. You are a Queen."
"A Queen! That's a bunch of crock. I'm not even a Beauty Queen in Queens. I'm just a nurse."
"No, you don't understand. You have aphidy, the unique halo of fragrance inherent only in a Queen. All Monère men are drawn to you because of this."
"Talk about natural chemistry. And here I thought it was my dripping charm and striking beauty that attracted men to me," I said sarcastically.
"All things you may doubt, but you must believe you are in danger now. I am being hunted by Mona Sera's men. They are tracking me by my blood scent. And if they find me, they will find you. Are you protected?"
"What do mean, 'protected'? I protect myself."
"No guards?"
I shook my head.
A genuinely pained expression swept across his face and I found my heart yielding to his deep concern. Although what he claimed was impossible, a part of me responded to his words. They resorted with rightness somewhere deep within me. And there was no denying his unusual power, so like mine. I started to believe him.
"Do you have anybody else like…" he waved his hand, searching for words, "… like you?"
"No," I whispered. "You're the first I've ever met."
"Sweet Mother Light." His head sank down. His perfect shoulders slumped. He laughed without humor. "What am I going to do with you?" The last was whispered as if to himself. He sounded weak, defeated, and that bothered me. A lot.
"Will you recover with time?"
He shook his head. "Not without the antidote."
"What is the antidote?"
"I was hoping you could possibly tell me," he said with that bitter, wry smile. "But, of course, that would be too much to hope for. Some claim there is no antidote, but others whisper that only Queens have it. And so I am fleeing to the nearest Lady of Light, the nearest Queen, to beg mercy and seek aid."
"You have more than one Queen?"
"Each territory is ruled by a Queen," Gryphon answered. "And the land is divided into many territories."
He said that I was a Queen, but not a true one, or I would be able to help him.
"I'm sorry," I said, deep regret in my words. "I would give you the antidote if I had it."
"Would you really?" he asked with a little smile. "A rogue male, injured by his own Queen's hand? How curious. And yet I believe you really would."
"Why did your Queen poison you? Why did you leave?"
He sighed. "Mona Sera is among one of our worst Queens. Those of us she takes in, no other Queen would have. Twenty years with her and I was sick to my very soul. But though she is a bad Queen, she is wise in matters of business and has accumulated vast wealth and power in her dealings with humans. She forces us to sleep with humans in return for concessions she desires in business. Humans are drawn to us by our uncommon beauty, even to the least of us. But we derive no pleasure in return. We are two different species. Our skin does not fill with light when we are with one of them."
"Fill with light?" What was this light thing, I wondered.
"Our hearts are left with emptiness," he continued. "Mona Sera created a caste of comfort women and men for these outside duties."
"Were you one of them?" I asked quietly.
"Yes," he said, shame lacing his voice. "I was one of her comfort men. This last time she sent out my half sister, Sonia, our beloved midwife, as punishment for her recent rebelliousness against this practice. These matings, though joyless and loveless, do bear fruit at times."
"Like me."
"Yes," he nodded, "and it is Sonia's duty to deal with such consequences. She delivers them and abandons them to the humans to keep the purity of our line. She has done so dutifully until her daughter's recent miscarriage from one of these unfortunate unions with humans. Since then, Sonia could no longer look upon the practice of abandonment with detachment and petitioned the Queen to resign from such a task. As punishment, Mona Sera sent Sonia out to sleep with a human male notorious for his twisted enjoyment of sex. Sonia returned with bloody lashes, cuts, and bruises upon her. I hunted the bastard down and killed him. I couldn't stand for anyone to treat my sister so. The dead man was the son of a Louisiana billionaire senator, Mona Sera's man in the human capitol of Washington, D.C. Instead of punishing me, Mona Sera had Sonia raped before my eyes by one of our most ferocious warriors, Amber. That broke me," he said. "The tyranny, the cruelty, the malice. I denounced Mona Sera in front of our people and severed all my allegiance to her. It was something that had never been done before. Mona Sera became enraged. She had her guards bind me to the whipping post. But instead of killing me quickly, she wanted me to suffer a lingering, painful death, so she plunged her silver-poisoned dagger into my belly. Just before dawn, one of the comfort women cut me loose and I fled."
"What is your real name?"
"My true name is Gryphon. What is your name?"
"Mona Lisa," I heard myself say, and the name felt strange. Without conscious thought, I had given him my full name, the name etched on the back of the cross that I had worn as an infant when they found me—my most cherished possession, the only tangible tie to my mother.
"It is my honor and pleasure to meet you." Gryphon bowed with a flourish, the gesture natural and graceful, until he winced.
"Stop that. You'll aggravate your wound."
"As you wish, Mona Lisa." He said my name like a caress and the lilting utterance of my birth name from his beautiful lips touched a part of me, an empty part of me that I had not known existed until now.
"I must seal this wound with something not permeable to air," Gryphon said, "or they shall continue to track me easily through my blood-spore scent."
"A doctor should see…"
"I cannot wait for a doctor. I must leave quickly. Help me, please."
How I wished I could heal him. Never before had I felt the lack of my untapped ability more keenly. "I'll get the liquid bandage," I said.
A swipe of liquid, a gust of paraffin spray, and the wound was sealed. After it dried, I applied Steri-Strips. Over it, I applied a clear plastic adhesive dressing. The sharp smell of his blood dissipated. Disappeared.
"My thanks, Lady," Gryphon said. For the first time, I felt him hesitate. "I know not if you would be better served with me, or alone here, unprotected. I am injured, weak, and hunted, and can only offer you poor protection. In truth, my chances of survival are quite dismal."
"Will the Queen you are fleeing to help you?"
"I do not know." Again that graceful shrug. "She is not so terrible as Mona Sera. I do not believe any of her men have ever fled her." He looked at me, tired, weak, clearly torn over what to do about me, and it gratified some tiny part of me that he could worry so about my safety when his own condition was so clearly desperate.