Only Human (17 page)

“How old are you?”

“Older than you can fathom.”

“Ten thousand years? One hundred thousand years? A million years? More than a million years? Were you born from the womb of a woman? Were you raised by a mother?”

“I have a proposition for you.”

I sighed. “What?”

“I would like to train you to make use of your powers. You’ve figured much out, but you seem to think you only have fatal weapons. You haven’t learned how to use those tools to injure, and without the ability to cause injury to merely slow someone down, you don’t have bargaining power. If you can only kill them or let them live with nothing but the threat of your heated hand, then you’re having to kill too often.”

Yeah, I’d figured that out myself a long time ago. I wanted to learn, but I wasn’t going to just agree to it without asking questions. “And what kind of payment will you require for this teaching?”

“Very good. I’m impressed. The only payment I ask is for you not to embarrass me. People will know I’m your teacher, so you must show honor, and must act in the manner befitting a student of mine.”

This meant he could dictate my actions. “No deal.”

Mordecai seemed to grow a foot taller, even while seated. “What do you mean,
no deal
?”

The dishes vibrated. I could see ripples on top of the tea in my glass. Wow, I seemed to have pissed him off. Aaron wasn’t reaching out to touch me in warning, though, so I kept at it. “I’m my own person, and I act as I feel each situation warrants. No one dictates that to me.”

“You are not afraid of me?” It was as if his voice had power in it, as if he was projecting the energy I could shoot out of my hands through his voice. It was creepy and scary, but not enough to make me agree to his shitty proposal.

“A little, I guess. More wary than afraid, but I don’t sense that you mean me harm. My guess is, if you meant me harm I’d be properly terrified, if it makes you feel any better.”

“You
are
a most unusual human.” The power was out of his voice, the dishes no longer vibrated, and I no longer felt his words rolling through every organ and cell of my body.

I rolled my eyes. Did all supernaturals think ‘
unusual human
’ was some sort of compliment? “I’ve been hearing that a lot. Do you still wish to train me, and have you thought of an alternate payment?”

“If I earn your respect, will you consider whether your actions will show disrespect to me before acting?”

“If you earn my respect, yes, I’ll take it into consideration, but I won’t be obligated.” I found it ironic this was one of the things Master James requested of me as well — that my actions reflect well on him, as my trainer.

Mordecai nodded. “I will train you, and I will ask you to at least keep in mind how a student of mine should act, even though I will not obligate you. We need to work out a schedule of time when we can work together.”

“The time thing isn’t so easy. Where will you want to train me?”

“I’ve made arrangements with The Abbott to stay at the local vampire coterie house. There is an area nearby, partway down the cliff face, only reachable by levitation, flying, or climbing gear. It’s perfect for my purposes — outside where humans can’t see what we are doing or hear us talk. I understand you can levitate?”

I glanced at Aaron, surprised he’d told Mordecai so much about me, but then looked back to Mordecai and said, “Yes, though stepping off the edge of a cliff is hard for me, as it takes me a second to feel for the ground under me and push up, so I fall for that second, until I can catch myself.”

“Well then, you’ll be getting practice in more than one skill. I understand the coterie house isn’t far from yours, and I’d like to see you at least three times a week, from thirty minutes to an hour at a time. Our first couple of sessions probably won’t last much more than thirty minutes, but you’ll likely need at least fifteen minutes to build your reserves up enough to be able to drive, when we’re done.”

“Can Aaron come to at least the first couple of sessions?”

“If it will make you feel better, and if everyone’s schedules work out, certainly.”

“Are both of you free tonight about nine o’clock?”

They nodded. I called Xiaolan’s cell phone and asked her if she had plans for the evening, as Lauren is afraid to be home alone at night. Xiaolan intended to stay home, as she was waking early the next morning to go to an art exhibit with some friends.

I disconnected and told Mordecai, “If you can get me the address of the house, I’ll be there at nine. Anything special I should wear?”

“Footwear appropriate for walking around outdoors, and warm clothing.”

“Okay, I need to go. Aaron can provide you with my numbers and my email address. I’ll see the two of you tonight. I’ll obligate myself to you for three sessions that do not include any pain on my part, and then we’ll discuss whether or not we want to continue.”

I left them both sitting there, and would’ve loved to know what they talked about after I left. I would ask Aaron later, though I doubted he’d tell me everything.

As I drove, I remembered Abbott saying he awoke several hours before sunset, and I wondered if he’d be awake. He was, and he answered on the second ring.

“Hello my darling, it’s a pleasure to hear from you.”

“Really, Abbott, I’m not your darling. I might not be quite as irritated by just
darling
instead of being
your
darling, but, oh, whatever... I’ve had a full day. What can you tell me about Mordecai?”

“I am aware he’s in town, though I was not aware his presence had anything to do with you. Mordecai is a force all unto himself. Please tell me you haven’t made an enemy of him? This would be most unfortunate. I’m not sure that even Aaron and I combined could protect you from him.”

“Oh, I managed to royally piss him off twice and just moderately piss him off again later, but I don’t believe I’ve made him an enemy. He’s offered to train me to make better use of my, ummm,
talents
, I guess. I’m supposed to meet him at nine o’clock tonight at your golf course house for my first lesson.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m sitting in the car line at Lauren’s school. The final bell will ring in about five minutes.”

“Would you like to bring your daughter up on the mountain to spend some time with me?”

“No, I want Lauren to be around supernaturals as little as possible.”

“But not all supernaturals, she’s been around Aaron a good bit, right?”

“Aaron is...different.” He’s my friend and I trust him, but that probably wasn’t a good thing to tell Abbott. Instead, I told him, “I knew him a while before I knew he was a supernatural, or maybe I would’ve kept her away from him, too.”

He sighed and said, “Then can I get you to come to the house on the golf course early so we can talk? Also, I’d like to introduce you to as many of my people as I can, they need to know you’re under my protection.”

“Do I
need
to be under your protection? I’m pretty good at protecting myself.”

“Yes, and when you protect yourself from them you will kill them, and then I will be angry with you. I’d really rather they know up front that you aren’t to be messed with.”

Oh, well, when he put it
that
way. “Does being under your protection imply some kind of special relationship between us? I’m not obligated to act a certain way towards you or anything, am I?”

“Yes, being under my protection is a rather formal status in our world. If you were a vampire there would be protocols for you to follow, but you are not vampire and I will not hold you to them. If I were being openly challenged then being under my protection could put you in danger, but my position is secure and my protection makes you safe. Aaron Drake’s protection also gives you a great deal of safety.”

“I’m going to be dressed in hiking clothes for my lesson, hopefully that will be acceptable dress to meet your, umm, people? Maybe you can talk to me a little bit more about how this works. How did you get to be the Master Vampire over them? What exactly is the relationship? Is it formal? Relaxed?”

“You must give me a spot between questions to answer,” he said with another of his sexy chuckles. Somehow, the man could titillate my girl-parts even over the phone. “Hiking clothes will be fine. The story of how I became Master of my territory is long and will have to wait, but the relationship is both formal and relaxed, depending on the situation. Other Master Vampires require formality at all times, I merely require they don’t show disrespect on a day-to-day basis, and I only ask for the formalities during ceremony and when we have visiting dignitaries.”

“Is Mordecai a visiting dignitary?”

“Yes, but not the kind we need to show formalities for.”

“The line is moving, I need to let you go. I’ll get to the house as soon as I can, hopefully around eight.”

Chapter Thirteen

Lauren was talking a million words a minute when she got into the car, and I heard all about her day, who broke up with who, the cool things she learned in science lab today, and the fact that calculus “bites.”

She asked if we could have pizza tonight, and we called to be sure Xiaolan hadn’t already started dinner, and then I let Lauren place the order while I drove.

My evening consisted of a huge pizza feast, going over Lauren’s latest assigned project and what she planned to do (and thus, what supplies I needed to buy), and then stretching out on her bed while she went over her lines for the parts they’d be practicing tomorrow.

When she decided she wanted to get started on the preliminary work for her project, I went into my room to change clothes and meditate, as well as load up on energy.

I ended up wearing not-quite hiking clothes — silk long johns with black jeans, and a mint green three-quarter sleeve blouse with a black and grey microfleece pullover. It was a bit chilly, but I thought it would be enough for outdoor wear, and I could take the pullover off while I was inside. The hiking boots were clunky, but the rest of the outfit didn’t look too bad. My hair was down now, but I put a ponytail holder in my pocket to pull it up later.

It was a beautiful night with a few billowy clouds and hundreds of twinkling stars between. I breathed in the energy of the night as I neared the Tennessee River, and felt myself center a bit more. I pulled into the golf course and glanced at the GPS again, even though I was pretty sure I knew which street I was heading towards. Two turns later I arrived at Abbott’s impressive golf house at almost exactly eight. There were no cars out front, though the driveway appeared to go around back as well, so the resident’s vehicles were likely out of sight. It made sense to hide how many cars were here, with this many adults living in the house. There was an obvious place to park in front, though, so put my car there and stopped a minute to take in the house. It was a huge brick monstrosity in an ultra-posh neighborhood, likely built in the last two or three years and probably between six and seven thousand square feet, which made my thirty-five hundred square foot home look tiny, but that’s okay. My house was more than enough space for the people living in it. Also, my house didn’t have vampires — another bonus.

I didn’t see or sense anyone, so I stepped out of my car, but before I’d taken two steps a strange man was suddenly standing in front of me, leaning down, his face inches from mine. “Mmmm, you smell,
good
.”

Creepy. Time to let him know who I was here to see, just in case he thought I looked like a snack. I didn’t step back, though every muscle in my body wanted to. Instead, I looked him straight in the eye, and said, “Hi, I’m Kirsten. Abbott is expecting me. Is he inside?”

“You are Kirsten?” He straightened, stepped back slowly in an attempt to appear dignified and powerful, and looked me over as if deciding whether I was telling the truth. Finally, he said, “I expected you’d be...
taller
. Follow me.”

Okay, so he knew who I was. For some reason I was reminded of Roadhouse and Patrick Swayze, but the idea that my reputation preceded me was a bit disconcerting. I followed him across the yard and through the front door, and was beginning to have misgivings about following him when Abbott stepped into the foyer to welcome me. He was again wearing one of those beautiful suits that were certainly not off the rack, but his expression went dark as he looked me over. “I hope there were no problems? Mark, you didn’t scare our guest, did you?”

“Sorry Abbott, I didn’t realize who she was.” His grin didn’t look sorry, but I didn’t point this out. “She looked me straight in the eye so I assumed she couldn’t be our guest, only strangers who don’t know what we are will look us in the eye. So, I tried to play with her a bit, thinking she was trying to sell something, but she didn’t scare, and then she told me who she was and I brought her straight in.”

That wasn’t quite true, he did the whole drama about my smelling good before I spoke to him, almost the second I saw him — I didn’t have a chance to look him in the eye first. Granted, I’d done it later, but he’d stopped trying to scare me by then. I’d have to keep an eye on this one.

Abbott glanced at me and looked back at the vampire. “You don’t think she smells scared?”

“No, and not only that, but she looked me straight in the eye with no fear.” He looked at me. “Are the stories about you true?”

I shrugged, trying to look casual but probably not pulling it off. “I don’t know what the stories say, so I can’t really answer the question.”

Abbott put his hand at the small of my back and directed me further into the house. “Enough questions, let us go meet everyone.”

You smell afraid to me,
he told me in my head.
Interesting that Mark doesn’t smell it. Are you okay?

Yes, I’m fine.
I responded.
He didn’t really scare me, just had me a bit off balance, I guess. I don’t want to meet your people smelling of fear, though. Can we divert elsewhere until I don’t smell afraid, maybe?