“Bran, this is Kirsten O’Shea. Kirsten, I’d like you to meet Bran Petrescu.”
“Mr. Petrescu, it’s nice to meet you at last. I’ve been wanting to thank you for your gift. I’m fond of my left arm, so thanks for letting me keep it all in one piece.”
“Please, you must call me Bran, and think nothing of it. You rid the world of Sutherland, the supernatural community should be thanking
you
.”
“That’s part of the problem, though,” Aaron said as he approached us, “Kirsten is an unknown, and many in the supernatural community are scared of a human with the ability to wipe out someone such as Sutherland.” He looked at me and then back to Bran. “There’s a European contingent calling for her execution.”
My heart slowed, then sped, as I took in his words. Why had he waited to give me this news now, around people? I knew the answer as soon as I asked it — he’d wanted me relaxed and calm when I met the new people, not shocked and terrified.
Abbott stepped towards us as well as he said, “I was afraid of that. They haven’t voted yet, have they?”
“No. Mordecai and I’ve discussed the pros and cons of inviting them here to meet with her before they vote. Mordecai believes if they meet her they’ll see she has an honorable code of conduct and won’t vote to execute her. However, I don’t believe Mordecai has yet seen Kirsten when her temper fully erupts, and I’m pretty sure the European contingent would trigger her temper, which would be counterproductive.”
“Mordecai is up and talking?” I had a zillion questions for him.
“No, he’s talking, but not up and around yet. If the injury had been made by a normal sword he’d have been up and around in less than a day, but with a sword of light it’s taking him a lot longer to regenerate.”
I took a breath and tackled the subject at hand. “What authority does this European contingent have to order my execution?” I asked. “I’m an American citizen, and a human. I wouldn’t think I’d fall under their purview.”
“Normally, you wouldn’t,” Aaron said. “But since you killed Sutherland with metaphysical weapons, they feel you’ve put yourself under their jurisdiction. Also, since Sutherland, under his other name, is part of the end of the world Ragnarok prophecies, he was supposed to be off limits for killing. Secretly, I think most everyone is glad you did him in, but politically, not so much.”
“Kirsten,” Bran said, “if you don’t mind, I’d like a little demonstration of what you can do?”
I looked at Abbott and Aaron, who both nodded, so I took a breath and pulled in energy as I held my hand out and imagined first the handle and then the sword, solidified the whole thing, looked up at them, and levitated up a few feet. The whole thing took less than about three seconds now.
Bran went pale — a nice trick for an already pasty-white vampire.
Alex looked dumbfounded, and I made a mental note to try get together with him soon, too.
I drifted back down so my landing was gentle, and let the sword absorb back into my arm. I breathed out slowly, hoping to hide any pain. It once again hurt, but I was pretty sure no one realized it.
Aaron smiled at me, happy. “You’ve been practicing. You’re getting faster and you didn’t start out with a solid handle. You did it from scratch.”
Bran stood and walked to the window, his back to the room. When he turned to look at us, he said, “My advice would be for Aaron, Mordecai, and Abbott to go to Europe and lobby on Kirsten’s behalf. Based on what Alex and Abbott have told me of her, I would be willing to go with you as well to vouch for her, though I’d feel better if I spent some more time around her before doing so. Any other leaders you could round up would also be helpful. I understand the wolves have named her a Friend of the Pack? This will help as well, and even more so if the Alpha could be persuaded to go.”
Abbott looked at me as he said, “Bran spent some time as a member of the ruling body and left in good standing. I recommend we take his advice.”
“Aaron, what do you think?” I asked.
“I agree. We should listen to Bran’s advice.”
“Can Mordecai be reached by phone?”
He shook his head. “He was awake a few hours today and pushed too hard. He fell asleep before I left and needs his rest. I’ll have to get his input tomorrow.”
Bran had come with three people — I’d known Alex but no one had introduced the other two, and they’d looked at me with fear while I held the sword. They still looked uneasy, so I turned to them and said, “I guess the two of you know I’m Kirsten, but things got a little crazy when you came in and we weren’t properly introduced.”
“This is Michael and Preston,” Bran told me. “If we had an official hierarchy they’d be my second and third.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” I told them. “I take it neither of you knew what to expect from me?”
“No,” Preston told me with an unhappy smile, “but we shouldn’t be rude. You have the respect and backing of both Abbott and Aaron, which means something in our community. However, supernaturals are used to being at the top of the food chain when it comes to one-on-one dealings with humans. Those of us who’ve lived through the inquisition and the professional vampire hunters of old are a little more wary of humans with the ability to cause us harm, which I believe is going to be your biggest sticking point with the Europeans.”
I took in his words and responded, “Thanks for the perspective. It’s much appreciated.” I looked at Bran and asked, “Can you explain your reasoning, why you think it would be bad for me to speak on my own behalf?”
“Because,” Abbott said, “we will tell them how you couldn’t get away right now because your daughter is in school and can’t travel until the summer, and because you need to schedule vacations well in advance so you can prepare your patients ahead of time before you can close your office. We will use this to point out what a good person you are, that you’ve adopted an orphan child, and you’re a single parent and it would be wrong to orphan this child twice. We will talk about how much your patients depend upon you for their mental health. We will paint you as responsible, with a code of honor.”
“But, I’m not a saint because I adopted!” I protested. “I adopted because I wanted to be a mom. It’d be wrong to try to make it sound like a selfless act. It wasn’t.”
“They won’t understand that,” said Aaron. “These are ancient vampires who will see adoption as a charity act, and it will play in your favor.”
I looked at Aaron a few seconds, full eye contact until I was sure he knew how serious I was about this, and enunciated every word as I told him, “I don’t like using the fact I’ve adopted as any kind of game piece.”
“Then we’ll tread lightly making you look like a saint,” Abbott said with a patient smile, “but I
will
lay it on heavy about not orphaning the child twice. Plus, we have other stories to show you have honor. I’m sure Aaron has plenty of battle stories, and while Randall might not tell the entire story of your first meeting, I’m betting he’ll get the point across.”
Somehow, I doubted a bunch of ancient vampires and powerful shapeshifters with enough initiative to sit on a voting board would bother with annoying human emotions. “Do these supernaturals
have
guilt?”
“Most of them do — some more than others,” Nathan said. “If they thought you were a danger they’d still kill you, but if there’s doubt then it’ll make them think twice.”
“And if you didn’t think you were convincing them, would there be a benefit of videoconferencing me in so I could speak on my behalf?”
“Yes, but only if we felt we weren’t being successful,” Aaron said. “I know you can hold your temper most of the time when it’s important, but these men and women have ears all over the world, and they are all quite shrewd. They will likely
try
to trigger your temper.”
Honest, I’m good at holding my temper when it’s important, but Aaron and Nathan can set it off it almost as easily as my mother, so they have the wrong idea about my control. There was no need in trying to convince them, but I wanted to be sure the rest of the room understood.
“I only speak my mind when I’m pissed, I don’t throw things or start shooting up the place. Wouldn’t it be better for me to speak my mind in person, so they can see I’m mostly all talk when my temper goes?”
“Not if they behead you in mid-sentence,” Nathan said, and his look told me he’d contemplated doing so a few times.
“They might be able to handle you throwing things better than the things you say,” Aaron said. “When your temper is speaking you have a way of hitting the most sensitive nerves. As a therapist, you know how to get to people, how to slice them with your words, and doing so with these individuals would be disastrous.”
Sadly, I couldn’t argue his point.
“Okay then,” I told the group. “Unless Mordecai disagrees then I say we go with Bran’s proposal. If Mordecai disagrees then I’ll need to talk to him to find out why, and then decide based on his reasoning.”
“I would be willing to publicly put her under my protection as well, and travel with the contingent,” Nathan said to the group as he seemed to make an effort to keep from looking my direction.
“But, you don’t like me!” I protested.
“We got off to a bad start, and I’m sorry about that,” he said, finally looking at me. I could still see the arrogant cat in his expression, but also the man, and our eye contact made me lose the ability to breathe for a few seconds.
“However,” he continued, “whether we can get along or not, I have a lot of respect for you, and there are few people I’d rather have by my side in a fight. I trust you with my life, and the life of any of my people. The Pride doesn’t have an official moniker like Friend of the Pack, but there’s a way for me to officially put you under my protection. If I do, you’ll have the protection of every lion on the planet and every cat in North America. I know some of the worries you had with Randall, so I’ll save you the questions. You’d be under no obligation to be subservient to me, and no obligation to obey me, though I’d appreciate it if you argued with me in private. There is no downside for you to agree to it.”
I tried to wrap my mind around it, but couldn’t. Nathan detested me, but was willing to put the people under him in a position to fight to the death should someone threaten me. “I don’t know what to say.” I told him. “I’m speechless, and that doesn’t happen much. Thank you.” My eyes were tearing up,
dammit
.
“Are you going to cry?” Nathan asked, incredulous.
“I might,” I said, smiling as I looked at him through watery vision. “You got a problem with that?”
He shook his head and, for the first time ever, gave me a gentle smile. “Let me at least hug you, if I’ve made you cry.”
I walked to him and gave him a hug, and my heart slowed as he pulled me into his muscled, warm, embrace. It felt like going home. It felt safe.
You know how you feel when a cat who’s kept his distance finally
allows
you to pet him? It seemed Nathan had this trick down pat as a man, too, as this hug felt more important than any hug I could remember giving anyone.
Aaron couldn’t let this happen without saying something. “It’s about damn time. I’ve been waiting years for the two of you to kiss and make up.”
His words let me laugh, which broke the spell Nathan seemed to have me under, and I told Aaron, “Well, you’ll have to live with a hug and make up, we haven’t kissed.” I gave a final squeeze and pulled back from Nathan, looked at him, and said, “Thank you.”
Abbott inquired about drinks for the humans and shifters, poured them for us, and then filled wine glasses with what I assumed was blood for the vampires.
I sat in a chair instead of a sofa so no one could sit beside me. I needed my space at the moment, and I worried Abbott would try to make it clear I was his, somehow, when I didn’t want to be publicly known as his.
Also, the blood thing kind of squicked me. I noted that Alex declined and wondered why. Maybe he wasn’t comfortable drinking blood in front of me? He’d seemed to be hung up on the whole
monster
thing. I really hoped I could help him with that as a friend, since he wasn’t going to let me help as a therapist.
I looked at Bran again and he looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place him. He wasn’t a large man, maybe an inch or two shy of six feet, and not especially bulky. He had a mostly ordinary face when he wasn’t being animated. In a photo he’d be attractive but not handsome; however, when he smiled and talked, his face was expressive in a very understated but incredibly sexy way, and it made him into something special. He had light brown hair and baby blue eyes, and his body language was that of complete self-confidence.
“Bran, you look familiar but I can’t place you. Have we met?”
“We’ve never officially met, but we’ve seen each other before. When it was open, I was a member of
Haven
in Atlanta. I was present for a scene orchestrated by Master James that’s become something of a legend.”
I knew the scene he was talking about.
Haven
is closed now, but it’d been my favorite club in Atlanta, situated in an old warehouse, with rooms people could go to for semi private scenes, and two large rooms where people could scene in public. I’d been restrained in a standing pose on stage and whipped by someone in front and back at the same time, and I’m told I orgasmed for something like twenty minutes almost straight, with a few fifteen second breaks between climaxes, but for the most part there had been twenty minutes of orgasmic bliss. And then they’d pulled me down and stretched me out on the gigantic bondage table, and one of my female Domme friend’s had done the candle wax thing on me, and words can’t express the kind of painful pleasure one can feel by the skilled application of hot wax on raw skin. Once they’d removed the wax, Master James had bent me over a barrel, gagged me, and caned me. I’d screamed into the gag and cried real tears, but when Master James touched the spot under my ear and ordered me to come, I’d done so quite violently.
I needed to say something in response, and the only thing that came to mind was a question. “So, I take it you’re in the lifestyle as well?”