Defining Human (Only Human Book 4)

by Candace Blevins

  How fucked up is your life when you change the conversation to something easier, and end up talking about an evil vampire who'd love to make you his pet?

  “He and Kendra have a history, and it isn’t pretty. Abbott is of the opinion Griffin won’t come into his territory. Aaron tells me otherwise. I look forward to getting Kendra’s opinion.”

  “We need to level with Lauren.”

  “I know.”

  “If a Strigorii binds her, they can help me find her if she ever goes missing. I’ll be okay with Kendra binding her, but not Abbott or Gavin.”

  “Okay.”

  “You’re being awful agreeable.”

  He smiled. “I know.”

  Cora had gone home to unpack and repack. This had given Nathan and me some time to talk, and for me to hopefully get him in a better mood. I was ready to go in and shower, but wasn’t ready to be alone with Nathan while I got ready.

  I floated and meditated while we waited for Cora to return.

  Chapter 19

  Lauren was in her Mustang, Cora and I were in my car, and we followed Nathan in his Sherpa. I had no idea where he lived, and was surprised when we followed him up the little mountain between East Brainerd and Apison. I was even more shocked when we traveled at least a mile up his driveway, and a door in the side of the mountain opened to a six-car garage. He pulled his Sherpa in, and motioned for Lauren and me to pull in, too.

  “You live underground?” I asked when I’d parked and got out.

  He smiled and took Lauren’s bags from her. “Come, let me give you the grand tour.”

  We went from the garage into what had to be a world class kitchen. “You cook?”

  “I can, but people usually cook for me.”

  I shook my head and followed him past a huge dining room and into what had to be a three or four story tall living room with a solid wall of windows looking out across the valley. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We weren’t as high up as Abbott or Bran, but I hadn’t expected a view and it slammed into my consciousness out of the blue. I walked to the window, speechless and in awe.

  “I knew you’d like it. Welcome to my home.”

  “We’re underground and above the city. It’s… it’s… perfect.”

  He put his hand to Lauren’s back and told her, “Your room is this way, right beside your mom’s.”

  “And Cora’s,” said Lauren. “There has to be a reason we’re here.”

  “Yes,” I told her. “I promise we’ll explain what’s happened. Thanks for being patient.” She’d pitched a bit of a tantrum when I told her to pack because we were staying at Nathan’s a few days. My daughter’s smart and she’s tired of not knowing why we have to occasionally pack up and hide out. I don’t blame her.

  Our bedrooms had a wall of windows looking out over the city as well, and Nathan assured us it looked like the face of a cliff from outside, and no one could see inside.

  Once we’d put our things in our rooms, we saw the rest of the house — a small home theater and gaming room, a library he called the reading room, a workout room with a sparring area, and even an indoor pool with a glass roof to let sunlight in.

  When we finally returned to the huge living room, Nathan told Lauren, “Your mom could promise you answers earlier because I agreed to tell you. In my world, you can’t tell secrets that aren’t yours to tell. Long ago, you sensed me as a cat.”

  Lauren looked at me in question, and I put my arm around her waist so we faced Nathan side-by-side. “I trust Nathan. I promise he won’t hurt you, though what you see may be scary.”

  She shook her head, but leaned into me. “If ya’ll tell me Cora’s a werewolf and Nathan’s some kind of were-cat, I’ll freak, but I’m not going to be terribly surprised.”

  Nathan smiled. “I’m a lion shifter.”

  “And I’m a werewolf,” Cora said with a touch of laughter in her voice.

  Nathan pulled his shirt off while he walked away from us, and I told her, “He doesn’t want to get naked in front of you. He’ll go around the corner to change. Don’t freak when a lion comes back — it’s Nathan. He won’t hurt you.”

  “You’re serious?” She looked at Cora. “You’re all serious?”

  “I’ll change for you in person once you’ve seen Nathan, if you’d like,” Cora told her.

  “What’s Aaron?”

  I shook my head. “Not my secret to tell. You’ll learn more about the rules later. I have permission to be a little more honest with you for teaching purposes, but let’s follow the rules where we can. I’ll ask Aaron to talk to you another time, okay?”

  She nodded, and then gasped as an eight-hundred pound lion padded into the room.

  I walked to him and he gave me a gentle head butt. “He won’t hurt you,” I told Lauren again. “I see a big cushion in the corner, how about we get him to lay down, and then you can go sit with him?”

  She gave a barely imperceptible nod, and Nathan walked around me to get to the cushion. I went to Lauren and pulled her into a hug. She was in shock and she’d shut down, but it wouldn’t take her long to pull herself together. “Breathe,” I reminded her.

  I counted to four in my head while she breathed in, and then four as she breathed out. She upped the count by two until she was breathing in to a count of sixteen, and then out to another count of sixteen. It had taken us years to get us to the point she could pull herself out of sensory overload, and I was so proud of her strength.

  “Okay.” She looked at Nathan. “You understand me?”

  The lion lifted its chin and dropped it, and I told her, “Most shifters can’t deal well with time, math, months, or days of the week. Otherwise, they can understand most anything you tell them. Nathan’s lion does okay with minutes and simple math.”

  “You’re beautiful,” she told him, and she went to her knees in front of his face. “I can’t believe I’m… I can touch you? Really?”

  He pushed his foot to touch her knee, and lowered his head so she could pet the top of it. My heart melted watching them, the gentle lion and the spellbound teenager. The two spent a good five minutes together with the rest of us watching quietly before Lauren said, “Can Cora be a wolf while Nathan’s a lion?”

  “Yes,” Cora answered. “We work together, our animals know each other. It’s fine.”

  “She can wrap a towel around her if you don’t want to see her naked,” I told Lauren. “Nudity doesn’t bother Cora — shapeshifters are used to it — but if you’ll be uncomfortable, she can change with the towel, and it’ll fall off as the shift happens.”

  “Yeah, that might be better. Plus, she might not want Nathan to see her.”

  Cora didn’t tell her it was no big deal for Nathan to see her, she just left the room to take her clothes off and come back with a towel looped around her boobs. Cora’s tall, so it covered her hoo-ha, but barely.

  The strongest shifters change so fast, you’ll miss it if you blink too long, but Lauren was paying attention.

  Instead of freaking because she saw a woman turn into a wolf, Lauren asked me, “How did I know?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it? I’ve taught you to trust your intuition, and I guess no one at the orphanage ever bothered to tell you not to, so you’ve grown up trusting your gut to survive.”

  The lion’s stomach growled, and I asked him, “Are you going to eat as a lion?”

  He looked to the side and back to me, and I turned to Cora. “How about you?” She dropped to the floor, so I assumed they’d both wait until they were back in human form.

  “Most shapeshifters have to eat as soon as they change. These two are some of the strongest shifters around, so they can wait until they’re human again to eat. I know Kendra and Eric are coming to dinner, but they’ll probably snack once they’re in human form again. If you want to touch Cora, you should probably go ahead so they can change and we can get started on dinner.”

  Lauren hadn’t met Eric, so we handled introductions before we move
d to the dining room. Everyone was quiet while plates were filled, and Lauren quickly noted Kendra was drinking wine but had nothing on her plate.

  “You aren’t eating, Kendra?”

  Kendra glanced at me before meeting Lauren’s gaze. “If werewolves are real, what else might you suspect is out there?”

  “Well, vampires, of course, but surely not.” She said it with a laugh, but she froze as she said the last word.

  “I won’t introduce anyone to you as a friend who’ll harm you.” I touched her leg and she put her hand on mine.

  “I thought Abbott was a monster. What I saw of him…”

  “Vampires like me don’t have to kill to survive,” Kendra told her. “I’ve drunk from Eric more times than I can count, and you see him sitting here, perfectly healthy, right?”

  “Like you? So there are other kinds?”

  Once again, I was unbelievably proud of Lauren for picking up on the fine points, even when confronted with the news vampires are real and one was sitting at the dinner table.

  Kendra nodded and said, “Yes, and some are the evil vampires of legend, without a soul, who must kill to survive. Some are the same kind of vampire as me, but we choose to be good or evil, since we don’t have to kill to survive. That’s the reason you’re staying with Nathan — a vampire like me has decided your mother is interesting, so we’re making sure she stays safe.”

  Lauren looked at Eric. “Doesn’t it hurt? Why do you let her do it?”

  “I love feeding her. It’s complicated, and kind of private. It’s…” He looked at me, and I nodded. I didn’t know what he was asking, but I trusted Kendra wouldn’t love someone who’d say something totally inappropriate to a teenager. He finished with, “It’s intimate. Most of the time it feels really good.”

  Lauren’s face went red as she caught his meaning, and I put my arm around her for moral support. “I never let Abbott bite me, so I don’t know about that part from experience.”

  Kendra looked at me in alarm, and I explained, “As soon as Lauren touches you, she’ll realize you and Abbott are the same. Perhaps I should’ve waited, but with the leniency granted by the Concilio, I’m legal.”

  I’m pretty sure Kendra didn’t agree, but she continued with Lauren as we’d discussed. “Your mother had permission to encourage the things you sensed, because our ruling body was curious about the nurture versus nature thing with the two of you. Few humans sense us as different, and your mom thinks it could have something to do with the way she’s raised you.” She glanced at Nathan, then back to Lauren. “Since we’ve actually told you now, it means we have to bind you to the secret. I’m here because if you refuse to take the oath, I can erase your memories of being told. Either Nathan or I can handle the actual binding, though I believe your mom thinks there’s some benefit to it being me.”

  “Can’t Cora do it?”

  “I can,” Cora said from beside me. We’d put Kendra and Eric across from us, and Cora and Nathan at the two ends of the table. I sat beside Cora, Nathan sat beside Lauren.

  “Then I want you to.”

  “I’m second in power in the local Pack, but I was third in power until recently. Nathan is the…” Cora shook her head. “Nathan will have to tell you about his power.”

  “I’m the strongest lion on the planet. I’m over every lion shifter on Earth, and over every cat in North America.”

  When it was clear that was all he intended to say, Kendra continued. “Amongst my kind, I’m second in power over the Southeastern United States. Whether Nathan or I are more powerful depends upon the specific ability. Neither of us has a need to fight to see who comes out on top, for which I’m grateful. Even if I won, I’d be injured, as would he.”

  “They’d both kick my ass unless I had the element of surprise and some serious firepower,” Cora told her with a smile. “I appreciate you wanting me to do it, but you’re better off with either of them.”

  Lauren looked to me, and I gave it to her straight. “If Cora does it and you try to tell the secret, the local wolf Alpha will know. If Nathan does it, he’s the only person who’ll get the hit. If Kendra does it, she’s loyal to Abbott and will likely tell him if she feels it’s important he knows.” I looked at them and then back to Lauren. “If Kendra does it, she can find you no matter where you are on planet Earth. If someone were to take you, she could find you. For this reason, I’d like it to be her.”

  Lauren looked at Kendra. “I trust Cora because she’s practically lived with us, at times. I don’t know you, but if my mom says she trusts you, I will too.”

  “There are a few places you’d be hidden from me on the planet, though only a handful of the oldest supernaturals know how to find those places. Otherwise, your mom is right about the likelihood of me finding you.” She looked at me. “It also means Abbott would be able to find her, or…” She shrugged. “If I were taken over by a different Master, they’d be able to.”

  “Are you worried about Griffin?”

  “A little.”

  I looked at Nathan, who said, “I can smell her fear when one of us says his name. It feels like an old fear though.”

  Kendra shrugged. “He controlled me when I wasn’t powerful. Since I oathed to Abbott, he’s kept Griffin away from me. This will be the first I’ve dealt with the bastard in centuries, but Abbott will need my help. I wasn’t so high in The Abbott’s power structure the last time they came face-to-face.”

  “What happens if I don’t want to say the oath?” Lauren asked Kendra.

  “I’ll erase your memory of seeing Nathan and Cora, and of me telling you about what I am. You also won’t remember your mother’s promise to tell you.”

  Lauren looked at me, fear in her eyes, and I tried to explain. “These aren’t my rules. You can’t know unless you’re bound to keep you from telling their secrets. Kendra can alter memories. It’s why I’ve been teaching you how to shield, but yours aren’t strong enough to keep her out, yet.”

  “And yours are?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll work harder.”

  “I’ll do what I can to help, but for today, she can wipe your memories of being told if you don’t take the oath.”

  “I don’t like this.”

  “I don’t blame you, but we have to work within the rules.”

  “Penalties for telling are death, Lauren,” Cora told her. “It’s a big deal, and no one in this room could save you. The people who enforce the rules are scary powerful.”

  Chapter 20

  Lauren went with my recommendation, and I was relieved. My greatest fear is someone taking off with her, and I knew Kendra would literally help me turn over Heaven and Hell to get her back. So would Cora and Nathan, but Kendra would have a better chance of finding her through the blood connection. Our little group spent hours handling the oath and answering questions, and it’s possible Nathan made me fall in love with him a little more, watching him explain things to my daughter.

  When Lauren finally went to bed, we got down to business with Kendra.

  “The rumors say Griffin’s people expect him to regenerate in a few weeks,” she told us, “though they fear it could take a few months. Abbott will keep a close eye on the territory and will let me know if he senses any of Griffin’s people.” She looked to Nathan and back to me. “Nathan has vampire quarters here. I’ll be moving in, per Aaron’s request and with Abbott’s permission.”

  “Thank you,” I told her. “I consider you a friend and I’m glad we’ll be able to spend some time together.”

  “I’m glad you consider me a friend, because perhaps it will make this next part easier. I know Abbott took advantage when you lowered your shields for him, but if I’m to see a blood connection, I need you to let me behind them.”

  My head shook before I had time to even consider the question, and I stopped it and said, “Wait. Give me a minute. Help me understand what you’re asking.”

  “You don’t need to drop your shields, you only need to let m
e in. You know at least two vampires must have set up a blood connection. If you let me in to look around, I can tell you if I see missing time. Also, I can usually see individual blood bonds, but even if you’ve protected the area so I can’t, I should be able to sense whether there are two, five, twenty, or more.”

  “We need the information.” Nathan wasn’t telling me what to do, but it was clear he expected me to see things his way.

  We’d moved back to the living room with the fantastic view, but I needed to talk to Kendra alone.

  “Do you have a soundproof room Kendra and I can use?”

  He looked at me a good five seconds before he nodded. I think he expected me to be open with him about everything, and I’m certain he considered insisting Kendra and I stayed in the room with him and Cora, but thankfully, he acquiesced.

  He walked us to a room, opened it, and told me, “I’m at risk, too.”

  Right, because I knew things about him an enemy might use against him.

  “I know. Kendra won’t blab, but I understand how it could weaken you if she does. There are things about me you don’t know, just as I’m sure there are things I don’t know about you. I need to do this with just Kendra.”

  He nodded and moved to close the door, and I put my hand to it. “I need your word that there aren’t electronic means for you to hear us — or any other way for you to hear. The room is totally soundproof, right?”

  He sighed, walked in, lifted a vase of flowers from a table, and closed the door on his way out.

  Kendra crossed her arms, looked at the closed door, and back to me. “I don’t have to get into your head to see there’s something going on between the two of you. This can’t end well.”

  I shrugged. “Nothing’s going on. I mean, not officially. Xaephan fucked with the nice friendship we had going. Nathan and I both knew we couldn’t let it go farther without things getting complicated, but we kind of had to for Xaephan, and then…” I shrugged. “It can’t go anywhere and we’re finding a balance.”