Lucien looked to Gregor.
“She shared she was in love with me today. As The Council is considering my request, I’ve reflected on this. My first instinct was to talk logic to her in an effort to prolong our Arrangement. But this is Leah. I know her better than that. She consumes life, she’s ruled by emotion. She won’t enjoy what we have for a short time. And she cannot know I reciprocate her feelings. If she does, she’ll never let me go. And I’ll not want her to. Thinking I don’t share her love, she’s already shut down on me. She’s retreating in an effort to control the pain I’ve caused. I must release her for her sake. Therefore, I do not need The Council’s permission. That said, if other vampires wish to indulge in a taming, you should know I will champion them.”
“Please sit, Lucien,” Gregor requested quietly.
Lucien shook his head. “I must get back to Leah.”
“Please, Lucien. Sit,” Gregor said more firmly.
“This is done. I must get back home.”
Home.
Home.
Not anymore.
Fuck.
Fuck!
Gregor held his eyes.
Then he stated, “What I’m about to say is known by very few. A very select few. If anyone outside of that sacred circle and the occupants of this room ever speak of what I’m going to tell you, it won’t matter which one of you shared the secret. All of you will be hunted. All of you will be captured. All of you will be tortured until you beg to be burned. Every member of your family will have the same fate. And everyone you love, immortal or,” his eyes sharpened on Lucien’s face, “mortal will share that fate too.”
“Holy shit,” Stephanie breathed, sitting back down.
“Speak,” Lucien barked and Gregor lifted his chin.
Then his gaze swept the room as he announced, “Immortal history is a lie.”
Lucien felt his eyes narrow.
“I beg your pardon?” Cosmo asked.
“Immortal history is a lie,” Gregor repeated. “Millennia ago, a decision was made. There was much fighting. Bloody battle after bloody battle was waged. Immortals tortured, beheaded, burned. It was gruesome, it was destructive and in the end it simply decimated the number of our species. Tragically. There were very few of us left. Any of us.” He lifted a hand to gesture to Avery. “Vampires. Werewolves. Wraiths. Phantoms. Golom. The Wee. So the remainder of the species came to an agreement and made their decision. Many of our people need humans to survive. A way needed to be found that we could live amongst them peacefully. The battles were mostly fought over conflicts about domination. Being vastly stronger and extremely difficult to kill, there were immortals who felt our kind should rule mortals and when I say that I mean enslave them. The others were bent on a more democratic co-existence even if they knew it would mean hiding who we are.”
“This is not news, Gregor. These ancient battles are known amongst all immortals. To this day it is a very ill-kept secret that there are those who still harbor these different political opinions,” Lucien informed him.
“Yes, you do know of that, of course,” Gregor stated, looking up at Lucien. “What you don’t know is that the different species are not mutated from homo sapiens, a transmutation of wolf and human, an evolutionary process based on geography or a metamorphosis of natural forces into human forms nor did we evolve to what we are today from primordial slime. We were made from magic.”
“Holy shit,” Stephanie breathed.
“That’s ridiculous,” Cosmo bit out.
Gregor looked to Cosmo. “It may seem so but it’s absolutely true. We are otherworldly. We are supernatural. There is no explanation for us. We are magic.”
“Explain,” Lucien growled and Gregor’s eyes came to him.
“I cannot, Lucien. As I said, there is no explanation for us. There has been much research on the topic but whenever and however we came into existence, in those ancient times there were no records kept. And there were so many of our species killed in these battles and the secret has been kept for so long, even the ancients who made the pact have since expired. If they knew the secret of our origin, they took it to their deaths.”
“This can’t be possible,” Stephanie whispered.
“It isn’t,” Gregor informed her. “That’s what makes it magic.”
“If that’s the case, explain how we share the same exact body structure as humans. We mate the same. Reproduce the same. Breathe, sleep and, for the most part, eat the same,” Lucien demanded.
“I do not know the answer to that either. But think about it, Lucien,” Gregor encouraged softly. “Each species does, indeed, share the same exact body structure as humans and yet, unless we are beheaded or burned, we do not die. On this earth, nearly everything dies eventually. Even the ancients who made that pact didn’t die naturally. Some were killed and others killed themselves.”
“We consume mortal blood to nourish us, keep us alive,” Stephanie put in. “We’d die without it.”
“You’d be weakened significantly. But you would not die. This is not a fact understood by our kind because none of us have tested this theory by abstaining. But it is nevertheless true,” Gregor stated, Stephanie’s eyes got wide and Gregor carried on. “But wraiths and phantoms consume mortal energy. How is that possible? It seems natural to us since we’ve known it for what seems like eternity but, Stephanie, it… is… not. If you think about it logically, you know it too. Not to mention, werewolves are immortal and they don’t consume anything mortal or anything different than mortals do. Except to say they consume a lot of it and metabolize it much faster.”
“Why would immortals be told we’re humans?” Stephanie asked. “Lying to us about who we are doesn’t make sense.”
“We already are different from humans and unfortunately that species is prone to fearing the unknown and we all know that fear often manifests unpleasantly. To convince immortals that they share integral parts with humans gave immortals a sense of humanity. A oneness with the other beings inhabiting this earth. Doing it built in immortals an affinity between the species. If you feel you’ve evolved from a species that is inferior to you but you have the capacity to feel compassion, it would assist in eradicating urges to subjugate your inferiors because they are an extension of yourselves. And, for millennia, you must admit, this has worked very well.”
“This is bloody insane,” Cosmo muttered.