"There are also Shapeshifters. Shapeshifters are what you get when two different types of Were have a child. Shapeshifters can turn in to any of the animals their parents can change into. Because of this, they tend to be unstable. Which makes them a target in some countries. Simply because there's this myth that they will just go on killing sprees. To be fair, under pressure, they could go on a killing spree. They tend not to unless provoked somewhat. They are the strongest of all the Were animals.
"You have the Immortals. There are two types of Immortals. Regular Immortals that just don't die. They don't die of old age, they don't die of blood loss. Don't ask about that one I'm not sure how that works. I don't actually know if beheading kills them because I’ve never seen it happen. However, Immortals when they get to a certain age, it's different for each one, tend to either kill themselves or wander off and live as a hermit. Immortals can appear at any age they have already been. So while an Immortal appears thirty he might be three thousand. You just never know.
Then there are the recurring Immortals. They aren't really immortal. I'm not sure how that got their name. They are continuously reborn and they are usually surrounded by the same family, as they call it. The same recurring Immortals are born around the same recurring Immortals most of their lives. When they hit puberty she start having dreams of their memories from past lives. That is how they learn about all their lives and the people around. They know all the mistakes they've made and everything. They tend to stay secluded from the Night World because they are relatively fragile in comparison.
You have varying degrees of all of this creatures depending on how strong or how weak. If the bloodline gets diluted enough with enough human blood you tend to get people who are not quite human Sensitives but not the species their ancestors were. That, in a nutshell, is all the species of the Night World. As far as I know. I wouldn't be surprised if there was something else lurking in the shadows.
The Night World is broken up into ten kingdoms: North American, South American, Greenland, the Pacific islands, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Australia. In all of those kingdoms each have a Warrior King. That king has set up a government for each of those kingdoms. Minus Asia, long story short, the Asian kingdom is ruled by an Immortal Queen. That is the condensed version. Do you have any questions about that?"
Mia just sat there trying to absorb all that information. It was as if someone was writing a fantasy novel and it escaped into real life. It was almost too much to take in. She thought maybe if she concentrate on one tiny little piece of it at a time she could handle it.
Taking a deep breath she asked her question. "Tell me about the Spirit World."
Viking gave a curt nod. "The Spirit World and the Night World are not the same thing. Though they are intimately connected. The Spirit World has what you'd expect. There are ghosts, beings who died and that sort of thing. It also has beings that were never seen or never lived to begin with. Those are much more dangerous than the others.
Those are the things Gwen is struggling to get a handle on. Theoretically the Lady of the Dead can control the Spirit World, all of it. That is why her finding out this creature we're dealing with so imperative.
My guess is what's happening is, for whatever reason, this being has picked you as someone of interest. We don't know why but we have a theory. Before you ask, I'm not going to tell you the theory because there's no need to worry you about something we are not even fifty percent sure could be a possibility."
At first Mia was a little offended. Then she understood what he was saying. If they weren't sure about their theory or even half sure, she didn't really need to hear it when she had so many other things to get a grasp on.
She seemed okay. She didn't feel like she was going crazy. Or that she was going to have a breakdown. It was good news, unless of course she was in denial. Shaking her head Mia took a long sip of her coffee. And let the delicious liquid calm her nerves. After taking a second to inhale the calming aroma she looked at Viking.
"Okay I want to hear about you. Bare minimum, give me the abridged version. Since I'm worried about exactly how old you are. I can imagine you lived a lot."
He smiled slightly at her joke. Then he leaned back in his chair and finished his cup of water. "Well I was born sometime in the late eight hundreds A.D in what is currently known as Norway. I was raised mostly by my mother as my father died on the campaign. My guess is he would've been forty-five. Which, since Warrior bodies harden to their full strength around thirty, made him hard to kill.
"My mother was our village wise woman so to speak. She was a great healer and had a decent knowledge of the magical arts. She was a very strong human sensitive on top of that. She was a very strong, smart, and powerful woman. Then she married a Warrior which added a different dose of magic to the family tree. I, being the first son, became a Warrior myself. I also inherited some of her talents as well. Though I never got the hang of it or become skilled with it the way she was.
I had two younger sisters. One of which married a Warrior and had three children. When I was about twenty I went away on a hunting trip with some of the other young men of the village."
Mia watched his face change. There was a tightness around his eyes. The next part of the story was not going to be good. She almost didn't want him to tell it if it caused him pain. But it seemed to be a defining moment in his young adulthood.
"I separated from the group. I got a bad feeling about the way we were headed. I tried to convince them to go a different way. But they refuse to listen. I was able to convince three of my good childhood friends to come with me. But we were not able to convince the rest of the group.
"Little did I know, that bad feeling was from a village far to the north who had come down the river to attack other villages and take their resources. It wasn't the kind of infighting we were used to. So we weren't necessarily prepared. They killed the hunting party before following their trail back to the village. With a lot of the men on campaign and hunting they were able to decimate the village quite quickly.
By the time my three friends and I got back two days later, our village had been burned to the ground. They had not spared anyone. Almost a dozen children's' bodies were missing. We tried to follow the tracks of the scouting party, I guess you would call them. We weren't able to catch them. Until they got to the next village. We helped that village slaughter them. But we weren't able to find the missing children. We have no idea if they were killed or more likely sold into slavery. Among those children were my nephew and his little sisters."
Vikings stopped talking and Mia didn't blame him. She wouldn't push him to restart. She felt the lump in her throat that his story caused and she knew her eyes were brimming with unshed tears. That was a horrible experience to live through. To find all of your family dead in one fell swoop. She didn't know how long they sat there. It couldn't have been longer than ten minutes but it felt much longer. She reached out and did the only thing she could think of and laid her hand on top of his.
It seemed to jar him from his memories because he looked up at her and she could see the pain in his eyes that was still strong after all these hundreds of years. He took her hand in his and squeezed it.
"After that my friends and I wandered for a while. We eventually settled down in a small fishing village. They all married, had children and grandchildren. They all knew my father and my brother-in-law. So they knew I wasn't going to age with them. So after about twenty years I moved out of the village into the woods where people would not notice my lack of aging. I watched my friends grow old and the children grow old and by that time I was so far removed from their grandchildren and great-grandchildren it simply was not the same.
So I packed my stuff up and began to travel. Living in one place or another for no more than five years. And then sometime in the middle nine-hundreds I managed to meet the current king of Europe. He wasn't king at the time but he was the king's son. Amore was younger than fifty years. Back then that w
as still old age. Even though it wasn't for us.
I made my way down to the most northern part of, what is now, Germany. I grabbed food from the ancient equivalent of a street vendor and was sitting, eating in a small city when Amore came up to me. Warriors have a way of knowing when they're coming in contact with another Warrior. It's hard to explain. You just know. Anyway, he walked right up to me and showed me his palm."
Viking showed his palm to her and she saw there was a tattoo on his hand, it looked like a brand. It was a picture in a small square done in red of the male hand lifting up a sword.
"That is how Warriors greet each other. I of course had not pledged allegiance to the European king. Since at the time northern Europe and the rest of Europe were not necessarily on speaking terms, I guess is how you put it. We were kind of seen as northern savages. So when I didn't respond in kind, Amore sat down next to me and asked me where I hailed from. When I realized I wasn't going to get rid of this young Warrior I told him where I was from. He asked me how old I was. I told him I was in my Second Life. Which in Warrior terms means you are over a century. But beyond that I wasn't sure. The young Warrior was floored by the fact that I could be so old and no one knew of my existence.
“So he took me to his father's palace. It wasn't really a palace, it was more of a fortress, but Amore calls it a palace because he finds it entertaining. You just kind of get used to it. He introduced me to his father who goes by Gaul. I should mention that the fortress is on the French side of the border between France and Germany so we actually had quite a few days trek. Amore had been out wandering because he's prone to do that.
“When he introduced me to Gaul, the king asked me about my story. Where I was from. He was again surprised he never heard of me or my father or my sister's husband. He explain to me about his kingdom and those neighboring. Then asked if I wish to pledge my allegiance to him. When I told him I didn't particularly wish to pledge allegiance to a man I didn't know in a kingdom I didn't know I was a part of his generals started to get a bit angry. Gaul held up his hand and waited for me to continue. I said that I would never cause a problem for him. That I would even help him if he needed but I didn't believe in pledging allegiance to someone I didn't know. He found this absolutely fascinating and ended up taking me in and training me.
“I ended up becoming the equivalent of a fortress guard. But that didn't last more than a couple decades. Gaul realized my true talent was in not being seen. Being able to wander places and not have people notice me. So I quickly became a messenger. Which suited my hermit nature much better. I did that through all sorts of wars and battles and into the fourteen hundreds.
“It was on one of those missions I met two older Warriors in Rome who went by Cesar and Roman. They looked so much alike they could've been brothers. They were in the same boat I was. They had not pledged allegiance to Gaul but continued to live in his kingdom.
“But in the mid-century Gaul decided he wanted out of the limelight and stepped down as king and Amore took his place. Amore became a little more demanding than his father when it came to people pledging allegiance. That caused some strife and migration in and out of Europe and the other kingdoms. It was under those circumstances that I met Cesar and Roman.
“One of Amore's generals at the time became crazy with people pledging allegiance to Amore. He was downright scary about it. If you didn't pledge allegiance one of two things happen: you were killed or tortured or two, you were deported from the kingdom. The latter became more popular in the early fifteen hundreds.
“America became the dumping ground, the penal colony. All the Warriors from all the other nine kingdoms that were dumped here were breaking the laws Warriors live by. I had stopped running messages for Amore because of this general.
“The general saw that as treason. It wasn't until the fifteen-forties when Gaul came out of retirement and killed the general that Amore even realized what the general was doing.
“Once that general was killed people were no longer forced to pledge allegiance. However, the damage was already done and in that time there was quite the exodus of Warriors from Europe. That included myself, Cesar, Roman, and a Greek by the name of Apollo.
“We all came to America and headed west. Which was fine by me because I was used to being a hermit from my first century. Within our first century here Apollo met his mate, Arianna.
“It was sort of the Wild West on steroids. Cesar gathered Warriors around him and several other species from the Night World. He created a capital in his fortress. In time and many struggles, I won't bore you with the details, he was able to shape America up into its own kingdom. That was in the eighteen-sixties.
“So we struggled for several centuries trying to survive and wrangle this kingdom together and then getting it recognized by the other kingdoms. Cesar became the king of North America, Roman became his right hand, Apollo the Greek became the second general and I became the third. We continued on like that, policing the North American Night World, building infrastructure and things like that until twenty years ago.
“An MP named Narcia who lived up in BC, she called Cesar one night. She told him she had a vision. That she had seen the Lady of the Dead. The newest one had been born in Washington State. She described the little girl in the area in which she lived. This particular MP is a very strong MP, was very strong, she died this year.
“So Cesar took her word seriously and sent me out to investigate. Since, out of the Warriors he trusted, I had the most experience with children. I was able to find Gwen after a week of searching. I watched her from a far for about a month. Then I saved her from some very nasty spirits who were attempting to drown her. And I have been the head of her security since. That is me in a very long nutshell."
It was quite the information dump. Mia wasn't even sure if she took it all in. But he had taken her at her word and given her a lot of information. Part of her felt bad for Viking. He spent most of his life completely by himself. She couldn't imagine how lonely that must've been. It also explained his closeness to Gwen. She was the closest thing to a family he had in centuries. There was no response, as far as Mia could think of, that would be appropriate for what he just shared.
"Are all Warrior's lives so lonely?" She had not known she was going to ask until it was already out of her mouth.
Viking gave a half-hearted chuckle. "Not all, I wouldn't even say most, but it is not uncommon. When you outlive those around you it can become difficult to form attachments."
Mia thought about that for a moment. How hard it would be to outlive her children, maybe even grandchildren. It would be heartbreaking.
"Do the Immortals have the same problem?"
"No, two Immortal parents makes you Immortal no matter what. Most Immortals live on one of the Immortal compounds. They are constantly surrounded by others like themselves. Their problem lies in that they become disconnected with the world. Immortals as a general rule struggle heavily with change. In some cases become sadist and fascinated by death. Those don't last long, other Immortals usually kill them off."
They sat in silence after that. Viking wasn't trying to push her and Mia just felt adrift.
"I'm not ready to sleep with you!" Mia covered her mouth in shock. It was too late. The words had already passed her lips. She barely thought that thought when the words erupted from her mouth. She couldn't believe it. She was mortified. She could feel her cheeks flashing red again.
Viking's eyes widened in surprise for second before he gave a small smile. And that smile turned into a laugh. Before she knew it he was grabbing his stomach and almost rolling out of his chair he was laughing so hard.
Mia could not be more surprised by his reaction. That was certainly not what she expected considering the dire consequences. He seemed to recover after at least a minute. When he seemed to be calming down a bit he coughed and looked at her.
"Oh, you should've seen the look on your face when you said that. It was priceless. I understand you not being ready. B
ut your expression when you said it and afterwards, I'm sorry, it was hilarious. Look, Mia I have another day maybe two. While I would like to sleep with you sooner rather than later and I do find you attractive both physically and from what I'm seeing personality wise. I will wait until you feel you are ready. I'm certainly not going to push you. Yes, we're under time constraints. I realize that is pushing you but beyond that time constraint I'm not going to push. I think you're under enough pressure as it is right now." He continued to smile at her.
It was a genuine smile. She hadn't seen one like that on his face. His guard was down. His eyes were crinkled. He was genuinely enjoying himself. Her heart palpitated. A little thought snuck in that she could have that type of happiness every day. She needed to change the subject.
"Okay how about we play a game of some kind? That's a good way to get to know each other right?" She knew her words came out a bit quick. That she sounded almost anxious.
"What exactly did you have in mind? Warriors are not necessarily up-to-date on popular games."
Mia thought for second. "A card game? I have a cribbage board if you know how to play cribbage."
He was laughing again. It was much shorter this time. "Gwen refuses to play that game. She insists it is for old people."
Mia wanted to be offended. But she learned cribbage from her grandparents. And she knew most people that played it were older. But that didn't mean she didn't enjoy playing. Plus it was a perfect game for just two people.
"So does that mean you're up for playing?"
Viking nodded.
With that she jumped up from her seat and strode into her living room to the shelf where she kept all her board games. She hadn't realized Viking was following her until she heard the chuckle behind her.
"Exactly how many board games do you have?"
Mia straightened. Setting her face in a frown she turned around with her hands on her hips. The board and cards under her wrist. "I'll have you know a person can never have too many board games. There are all kinds. Plus I host a weekly game playing get together with a group of about a dozen female friends. Playing the same thing over and over again would just get boring."
Viking Sensitivity (Night World Series Book 2) Page 11
