“You still haven’t told me the reason for your unexpected visit, old friend.” The alpha filled a new cup with wine and offered it to him.
“I was returning home when I was blinded by a blue light. It shone in the sky over the forest.” Leaning back into the cushions, Benic took a sip of the fine wine the Payami produced. Benic always kept a stock of the decadent, rich liquid in his cellar. “It’s my duty to investigate such anomalies. What do you know of it?”
The alpha met his gaze, but a slight tic pulled at the corner of his left eye. It wasn’t in shifter nature to lie—they could sniff a fib from miles—but it made them proficient in twisting truths. “We sent some hunters out to investigate. It didn’t happen on our lands.”
Chaska stared at the cushions, picking at non-existent lint and chewing on her snack like it was the tastiest piece of dried leather.
Neither of them fooled him. This day kept getting better and better. First the strange light, then meeting a new species and now these alphas wanted to keep something from him. He’d been playing politics since before their grandparents were pups. This was like taking toys from babes. “Whose land, then?” This forest truly belonged to him by vampire law, the only laws that carried any true force. Inali could delude himself all he wanted. The blue light was a slight curiosity, but the alpha couple’s reaction just made his interest grow tenfold.
Sighing, Inali shrugged. “It was on Temple grounds. Neutral territory. I can’t guarantee your safety there. Not all packs have taken to vampire rule as mine has. There are some who would like your head.”
Benic ground his teeth. “I’m quite aware of my popularity.” Would it be worth risking his three-hundred-and-fourteen-year-old neck to explore the blue light without his warriors? His castle lay a few hours’ ride south of here. By the time he reached it and returned there might be nothing left to investigate. The light had been strong enough to see from the edge of the forest where he’d been riding in the northern region. Had the shifters discovered a new energy, or maybe a weapon? He swirled the wine in his cup as if looking for an answer within its depths.
Inali frowned. “What do you make of the human?”
“I don’t know. There hasn’t been a new species discovered in as long as I can remember.”
“Sorin says she fell from the blue light.”
Benic set his cup on the table before he dropped it. “From inside it?”
The alpha shrugged. “So he says. One should take what an Apisi says with a grain of salt.”
Pursing his lips, he allowed his gaze to wander toward Sorin’s hanging form. “Would you mind if I fed upon the human?” The only way he could learn the truth was by questioning the creature himself.
Chaska made a gagging noise.
“Behave, mate.” Inali grinned. “As long as she consents and you don’t kill her, then it makes no difference to me. Ahote on the other hand…”
Benic rolled his eyes. Ahote’s interest in the human just made her more appetizing. “If he doesn’t want me around the female, he should protect her better.” He rose in one graceful motion.
Strolling up the den’s staircases, he watched the main floor. Night covered the area but his keen eyesight penetrated the darkest shadows. Especially the one concealing Ahote as he drove his cock into some omega female he had pinned to the wall.
Fool. He had enough dominance to obtain a proper mate among the pack’s stronger females, yet he wasted his seed on the submissive, weak ones. Apparently his interest in the human wasn’t that strong; otherwise she’d be the one with her ankles clasped around his hips.
The faint sounds of the female’s climax reached Benic’s ears. He shook his head and grimaced, continuing his journey to Kele’s room. Only one hinge appeared still connected to her door, and splinters bloomed from the frame. He stuck his head past the doorway and pointed at the damage. “Your mother?”
Kele’s eyebrows shot up and she nodded. “I wondered if you’d be able to resist your insatiable curiosity.”
“Three days of hard work for the carpenters to assemble the frame and three seconds for your mother to destroy it.” He traced the sharp break with his finger. The end punctured his skin, and he hissed with pleasure. A precious ruby drop formed on his fingertip and he licked it clean.
“My female parent doesn’t comprehend the work it takes to build things.” An adorable crease formed on her forehead as she frowned at the damage.
Their dislike for her mother was a commonality they’d bonded over ever since she’d been a child. From there a friendship had developed. It wasn’t something he often allowed himself outside his species, but Kele’s sharp wit and intelligence acted as a natural magnet. Now that she’d developed into a stunning adult female, he hoped to convince Kele a more intimate relationship could be possible between them.
“May I come in?” Benic asked.
She gestured for him to enter her modest living space. As the only offspring of the pack’s alphas, Kele should have had more. In any other culture, she would have been a princess. Instead, she still occupied a room meant for a child. Who could understand shifters? He remained by the doorway and nodded to Susan. “Good evening, Dr. Susan Barlow.”
The human female sat on a pallet across the room. Her knees were bent up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. “I thought your kind could only travel at night.” She skipped any kind of social pleasantry. He enjoyed women who could converse with skill, not those who used words bluntly.
He raised an eyebrow and leaned toward her. “Why would we only travel at night?” He approached her and stopped as her eyes went wide. “I never heard that rumor before. Kele?”
The pretty shifter shook her head and joined Susan on the wide pallet.
“The sunlight doesn’t harm you?” The human scooted closer to Kele. Her reaction and questions set his already growing curiosity on fire. The drive for knowledge, to explore new places and discover fantastic things, would always rule him.
“What an odd thing to believe. Does it hurt you?” he asked the human.
She gave him a watery smile. “No.”
Benic could hear the pace of her pulse quicken as he inched toward her. His mouth watered. He hadn’t fed in days, but taking what wasn’t freely offered left a bad aftertaste. He could wait a little longer.
Her blood rushed through her veins. As a new species, it potentially contained unknown hormones and cells with all the possibilities to save his people. He needed a blood sample to study before he allowed his imagination to go wild.
He’d spent the last century taking samples of every species of Eorthe but in the past ten years his interest had waned. His theories had all been tested and proven wrong. Nothing he’d discovered could save his race. And here arrived Susan. He’d lost hope years ago, and his studies had been neglected for far too long.
The human paled, the muscles in her legs tensed as if ready to spring. She kept her gaze focused on him yet clung to Kele.
“You shouldn’t be frightened of me. I don’t attack people. Not like some mothers in this den.” He glanced from Kele to Susan and gave a mental shrug. Susan didn’t mince words, at least not that he’d witnessed. She was a direct creature. Maybe he should just ask? “May I feed from you and get a blood sample, Susan?”
She gripped the collar of her coat closed, her eyes so wide she appeared part owl. “I don’t want to become a vampire.”
He scratched his head and watched the human almost strangle herself with her collar. “You can’t become a vampire from a bite. You’re born as one. Just like shifters or incubi or—where did you get that idea?”
She blinked and tossed Kele a glance. “Stories my people tell. If you get bitten by a vampire or a shifter, you’ll become one.” She looked from him to Kele again. “At least that’s what I’ve heard. I never really had time to indulge any thoughts about it.”