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The Lovely Letters Book 1
By Rea Marie
Introduction
"Is no one ever on time anymore?" I wonder to myself as I drum my fingers across the polished wood of the conference table l am sitting at. The frosted glass of the double doors across the room doesn't allow me to see into the entryway but my eyes stay locked on them anyway, waiting for movement. I'm not bored, anxious, or even irritated. I'm just very bad at waiting. I was always told when I was younger that patience was something you developed as you grew older. After a few thousand years I gave up trying for that virtue figuring that I was as mature as I was ever going to be.
I believe some explanations are warranted but in order to understand you will have to throw out all you ever thought you knew about my kind. That is to say, everything you thought you knew about vampires. When I say vampire you probably conjure the image of one of Hollywood's versions of the provocative monster stalking after young girls to seduce them into his waiting arms and tear their throats out with his teeth. Or perhaps the tortured soul of the man who regrets all that he has become and chooses to live his life hunting deer or rats. Yeah, you're going to have to forget all that. I am not a man whose soul was consumed by a demon, nor was I turned this way by another, although that is in fact a possibility. I was made the same old fashioned way that almost everything else on earth is made, a mother and father who are exactly like me. Now there is a process in which one of my kind can turn a human into a vampire but the process is so taxing that it can only be done once. We call them the blooded kindred because they become our closest relatives by choice. That does however rule out another of those Hollywood plots, no master vampires gathering hordes of soulless monsters to do his bidding.
What else about me and my kind is different? Ah, yes, bursting into flames if the sun touches my skin. I believe this notion came from the myth that vampires are cursed by God to walk the night with the other creatures of Hell and be punished if daring to seek the light of day. Well, as I have said, not cursed and as a matter of fact, I personally prefer the warmer, dryer, sunnier regions. I can't even hold a dark tan at the rate I heal so I suppose that's a punishment? Another myth of the vampire sleeping in a coffin during the day or buried deep underground. How about the fancy idea of sleeping in the soil of your homeland. I find the idea of sleeping in a coffin to be morbid, bordering on macabre and being buried in dirt, from my homeland or not, seems claustrophobic and unpleasant to me. There is also the matter of vampires turning into bats, wolves, mist or whatever other forms they are supposed to take. Although that might be useful, it's not an ability we actually possess. We are limited to the bodies we are born into, again, like almost everyone else. Speaking of useful skills and abilities, I would have preferred mind control to perfect skin. My life would have been so much easier to date if I could have simply put ideas into or taken thoughts out of a person's mind as I saw fit.
Now there are some things I suppose the myths got right. We are very strong and very fast. I don't often find it necessary to use these abilities anymore in any practical manner since the invention of the automobile and airplane. Why run when you can drive or fly in comfort? My father has an arena of sorts, think of it like a gym for vampires, where I enjoy going when I feel the need to flex a bit and not get caught. There are creatures out there in the world with far superior eyesight and hearing than I have but mine is still far greater than that of the human population. I do not age, at least not physically and I haven’t since I was about thirty years old. I have long since stopped counting the years, decades, centuries and even millennia that go by, but I am sure if I asked my mother she’d remember exactly how old I am.
Alright for the last part, yes, I do consume the blood of mortal living humans. I do not however, drain them of their blood leaving them to die of exsanguination. It doesn't take a lot to survive and live healthy, normal albeit very long lives. On a normal basis, with all things being equal and nothing traumatic happens to me, I usually only need to ingest what would amount to a cup of blood per week or less than an ounce per day. I prefer the weekly dose to that of the daily, while it's true swallowing that much down at once is much harder than the smaller doses, I just can't stomach it on the daily. Ah, I forgot to mention the true curse of the vampire, given to us by evolution itself, we are completely revolted by the taste of blood. We have no need or desire to hurt anyone when taking blood from them and every family has others in their house, clan, tribe or whichever way you define extended family, that know what we are and help us by being regular donors. Now, don't start judging our society based on yours. These are not people we keep as cattle, they are not the family pet, they are as much a family member as the ones born to us and most stay a part of our family for generations. At any moment in time they can refuse for any of their own reasons and nothing would change for them. They are like the caregivers of the family, only what they give is from their own bodies. I will not try to justify it more than that except to say that they are simply the human side of our family and they are loved and love us the same way.
I look up to the clock on the wall before sighing and staring back at the doors. There are so many things in my mind and such an overwhelming feeling of urgency and I don't know where it comes from but it's been driving me for weeks now, leading me here to this meeting. Just as it was important to forget what you thought you knew about vampires, you will need to let go of your thoughts on shifters as well. The first being that like vampires, they are a true species that walk, talk, work and play with humans on a daily basis. There are so many groups of shifters that it would be like listing all the species in the animal kingdom. I have personal knowledge of dragons (yes, yes, dragons), bears, wolves, eagles, lions and other big cats. Predators at their finest, yes, that's true but I've even met shifters who were rats, snakes, peacocks and even a sheep once. In their human form they are stronger and faster than mortal humans, yes, even the sheep but they are not as fast or strong as vampires. On the other hand their senses are far more advanced than ours. They can see in the dark just as well as in the light, they can see for much longer distances and in far greater detail. They can hear you whispering in a locked room a block away if they choose to. They do not however shift on any lunar cycle and they begin shifting from birth although they are not in full control of their shifts until puberty. I have known a few shifters that can shift certain parts of themselves at will while maintaining a mostly human form, like a claw or talon from a fingertip. Shifters and vampires alike are thoroughly rooted in the human world but for the more obvious reasons we are also quite separate from it. The group I am waiting on includes a few shifters, high ranking ones at that.
There is another race of the supernatural who, we are fairly certain, was a mixed breeding of humans and shifters. Obviously we can't prove it but it makes the most sense. They have all the attributes and strengths of the animals whose DNA they share, but they do not shift, they do not sprout fur, claws or feathers. To look at them they would always be considered human and they have complete use of all their gifts including strength, speed, enhanced senses and above average intelligence. This race is known as the Hybrid.
In the United States the species of vampires, shifters and hybrids are collectively known to each other as the supernatural community. This community has been broken down into five regions governed by the more dominant, or Alpha, of the area. Cato, the alpha of the Swift Wind Dragon Clutch, handles the Southeast. Leander is the alpha of Golden Pride, home of the lion shifters, which is located in the Southwest. Sebastian, the alpha wolf from the Black River Pack holds the Midwest. There is Benard, the hulking bear shifter alpha from the Pine Valley Den that takes care of the west. The current leader, for the last two hundred years, of the Northeast is Damon, a hybrid human/lion and he’s one of the men I’m still waiting to show up. I have called a meeting with these leaders to address an issue of possible uprisings from inside the community and outside threats and what I want to do about them.
For as long as we have been alive we have had to make sure we stayed off the radar for those who would attempt to wipe us out. Namely, humans. I’m not making any political statements here when I say that humans seriously suck. No matter what the species, if it’s not human, it will be hunted by humans. If they don't kill it on sight, they will poke and prod it until they are satisfied with whatever they can learn from it and then they'll kill it, or try and reproduce it in order to control it. Having superior strength, speed, senses or even the ability to change into an animal can't save you if your numbers are drastically inferior to those who believe you don’t belong here or are a subspecies not on par with theirs. We have all been called monsters, mutants or my personal favorite abominations when they tell their tales. The thing that annoys me the most is that up until the invention and widespread use of cellphone cameras and social media, the supernatural has always been mostly that of a myth, a story, a campfire tale. They never actually saw us, but they heard of us, tales told from family to family and the stories grew into a worldwide cultural fan base complete with trendy t-shirts and shot glasses. If only they knew the hype was so much more exciting and romantic than reality maybe they wouldn't have pursued it so hard.
It used to be mildly annoying but mostly amusing to see snapshots of Bigfoot or the chupacabra or to listen to clips of Banshee screams and werewolf howls. The problem is that so many people started taking the wrong thing seriously that now they are accidentally searching for the right things. As if that doesn't complicate things I have been hearing whispers that throughout the different terr
Just like the humans have their myths and legends, we have one that holds out a hint of hope for us if this situation begins to spiral out of control. It’s a vague story about a council of women who stood between the supernatural world and the human world. They acted as liaisons, judges and mediators for any occurrence between different species of supernatural with each other and also with humans. The thing is, humans don’t know about the supernatural so it doesn’t make sense and on top of that I cannot find any information about the women. Who these women were, why they were in this position, when they were even around, where they had held court or whatever it was they did. I know that I have no particular reason to even buy into this story, I have never found a shred of proof of it, but for some reason, perhaps the extreme lack of evidence, it just rings true to me and so I am here to see if I can get assistance from these leaders to go forward with my research. However since it would sound rather absurd to summon the Alphas from all five regions for assistance with a myth, I have to proceed in a more roundabout way.
Finally they appear in the hallway outside the conference room. Do they synchronize their arrival times or have they been having their own private meeting before deciding to come speak with me. Ah well, if they want to be suspicious I can't blame them, I did request a leaders only meeting. I suppose it could look like I planned to take out all the heads of the regions but they should really know me better. Besides, that would be pointless, stupid, time consuming and messy. Nothing I'm interested in.
I stay seated and watch as Cato, Leander, Sebastian, Benard and Damon go to assume seats that are all across from and facing me. Let me tell you what the stories do not get wrong. Alpha attitude. It's a thing to behold, seriously. I'm not going to laugh but Lord do I want to.
"Thank you all for coming, gentlemen. I know that requesting a meeting without your Betas or Enforcers," I look over at Damon, "I apologize Damon, I do not know the title Aaram and Julius hold. However I know that it is a show of faith that you have agreed and- "
"Orion and Bodhi are both right outside the door, Avalon." Leander cuts me off. "I was summoned to this meeting and I was curious what you could possibly be so concerned about that you wanted only regional heads present, but my Beta and my Enforcer are never left out. I simply came in alone out of respect for you. "
The other men at the table nodded their heads in agreement and I just sigh inwardly. It really wasn't all conspiratorial, they could have simply said they only come as a trio. I left my brother Raphael and his blooded Phillip, as well as my blooded and best friend Nichlos out of this meeting simply because I didn't see the need. I represent and speak for our family and our kind so dragging them out for this seemed needless. Besides, Raph absolutely hates groups of more than, well, one I think.
"It's fine. I left my cloak and dagger at home, you don't have to leave them in the hall unless you feel there is some danger they should be watching for. Whatever you wish." I say gesturing toward the door while looking at each man.
"Enter." Cato says in that strange dragon voice of his that is always present even when in his human form. Such an odd sound but, at his word the room fills with ten more large men who file in behind their Alphas. Betas always stand behind and to the right while top Enforcers always stand behind and to the left.
"Well, I see no reason not to just jump in now if that's okay with everyone?" I'm still torn between annoyed and amused at this point. Leander nods his head at me and waves his hand telling me to begin.
"I wanted to check in with all of you in regards to your people and their safety in light of the onslaught of supernatural hunters that have been springing up across the country. In our own community we have had to take steps such as removing children from public schools, placing individuals in positions such as police and even minor political roles. Mostly so we can be informed of a situation as soon as possible and ascertain how to handle it." I leave off so that one of them can pick up the thread and again Leander is the one to speak up.
"We have done all of those things as well, Avalon. We have also built our own clinics, hospitals and labs to improve health care without the need to cover up the blood work and test results. We have brought in doctors as well as veterinarians from our people to run things. There are humans employed and of course we can care for them as well but our main focus is the healthcare of our people. " Leander leans back looking proud and rightfully so. Locking down an entire Healthcare system is an amazing feat and gift for his people.
"We have small clinics set up as well although all of our testing goes through the facilities set up by Leander's people." Benard, the alpha bear chimes in "Recently we have acquired a local television network which helps in keeping some of the problems that can arise from these stories to a manageable level. Even if we can't stop a story from running elsewhere we can offer a different perspective so to speak and show more logical reasons for things that might happen. It comes in handy."
"My people are working on neighborhood watch programs." Sebastian states and leans over to look at Leander, "The local hospitals are an excellent idea but the labs must have been difficult."
"To get started, yes, we've had to buy the land, build the facility, buy all the equipment that was needed, we had to train everyone who worked there and we have to monitor constantly to avoid accidental leaks." Leander says.
Cato and Damon haven't said anything which is fine because I'm really not concerned about how they look after their people. That's literally their only job and I never hear complaints about them or talk of usurping them so I assume they do a good job. I do however need them willing to share for the next part.
"I never doubt your abilities to look after your constituents but it is always good to hear from others what is working for them and I may be able to help apply it elsewhere." I say, then I take a deep breath and get to the part that concerns me. "I wanted to ask you, have any of you had trouble with or heard rumors in your territories about people, our people, trying to rise up and take action that would in effect bring all of us to the attention of humans?" I watch their faces, all of them, not just the leaders, for any sign that we may be heading towards discovery and disaster. I see nothing until Jasper, Sebastian's Enforcer lips thinned slightly, it wasn't much but it was enough.
I stare straight into Jasper's eyes. "You know something huh, Jasper."
Sebastian jerked his head up at me and pulled his lip back for all the world looking like the snarling wolf he was. "If there is something you want from one of mine you can address me about it, Avalon. We don't keep secrets from you." Sebastian turned his head and seemed to stare at Jasper like he was reading him, the other man tilted his head slightly and Sebastian turned back to me. "We have our concerns, yes. Are you asking Avalon, because you think us incompetent to handle any discord with our own? Or are you looking for a check in from our territory?" The last part was practically a growl. If it wouldn't just irritate the man I’d laugh. Focus, Avalon, bigger picture.
“The information I am seeking pertains to what could threaten the entire supernatural world, Sebastian. I’m not questioning your ability to care for and govern your people. I will say this as directly as I can. If there are factions inside families, inside clans, packs and dens, inside communities, that are looking to create trouble, it doesn’t matter what region it starts in, it will spread to all of the others. I’m hoping to head this off, prevent the inevitable outcome from something like this.” I am speaking in as even a tone as I can. I do not want to sound paranoid and conspiratorial but I also need them to see more of the picture than they are used to looking at.
“In my family, there is a legend about a group that used to belong to both the human race and that of the supernaturals. The details are not really there but I know that they acted as liaison of sorts. Helped to calm and contain matters." Oh this is going to be really hard to express without sounding crazy.
