"Neaborian is not available on any language discs or in any books that exist in this time frame," Pheligar informed me, picking the thoughts right out of my head.
"Pheligar, if you'll set her down, we can introduce ourselves," the blonde said, sounding a bit snippy.
"You smell like sunlight," I said to Pheligar as he settled my feet on the floor. That brought a slight smile to his lips. "Larentii feed on sunlight," he said as he let me go.
"Then you are truly lucky," I said. "I wish I could see sunlight. Nowadays it just fries my skin."
"We know you're vampire," the blonde's husband remarked as they led Griffin and me toward a sitting area behind the kitchen.
"If you'll lower your shields, Lissa might tell you something of yourself," Griffin observed dryly. I had the idea that he wanted to laugh with glee, but was holding it back for some reason. Pheligar came along behind us; he'd picked up Justin and was allowing the child to pound him on the chest.
The blonde looked at her husband, who shrugged and then lowered his shields. The scent almost overwhelmed me when it came. Power. That's what I smelled. Along with the tiniest bit of vampire. I knew that as surely as I knew anything. He wasn't that old, however. Not for a vampire, anyway. Less than three hundred would be my guess. Now I knew whose apartment it was that we'd borrowed in London.
"Merrill said the apartment belonged to a friend," I said. "It has your scent all over it. I smell power. A lot of it. You were vampire; I still smell a bit of it around you. Less than three hundred years old, I think."
"Holy f**k." The blonde woman was staring at me now, as was her husband.
"This is Adam Chessman," Griffin said, patting my hand. We'd sat on a comfortable sofa across from the blonde and the former vampire Chief of Enforcers, Adam Chessman. I'd heard his name, here and there. Someone told me he'd disappeared. Here he was—alive, well, and now something other than vampire. What I also knew was that whatever he was, his smell was very similar to the extra scent that Merrill carried. Don't get me wrong, Merrill was still mostly vampire. But the other part of him was something wondrous. The first time I'd smelled Merrill, it reminded me of a fresh breeze blowing through a field in springtime.
"You've heard of me?" Adam asked. He was a handsome man, no doubt about it, with gray eyes and nearly black hair. Merrill might be more handsome, but Adam was the one married to the blonde.
"The vampires talk about you, sometimes. Said you took Saxom down and then disappeared," I answered.
"I did destroy Saxom," Adam nodded and put his shield back in place. It made me wonder about the shield around the woman and the ones around Griffin and Pheligar.
"I am Kiarra, First among the Saa Thalarr," the woman introduced herself. Her name rhymed with tiara, the way she pronounced it. "You know about Saxom?"
"I know next to nothing about Saxom," I answered honestly. "I'm getting to know his turns very well, however. I've killed several of them so far, and most of them have been misters. If the Vampire King and his court would turn me loose, I'd take out the rest of them."
Kiarra was standing now and staring at me, a hand over her mouth. "Enough about Saxom," Griffin whispered next to my ear. I nodded. The topic was obviously upsetting Kiarra.
"Have you always been able to turn to mist that quickly?" Adam asked, covering the ensuing silence.
"Not always. The first time I did it, it took five minutes, I think. My time improved after that, until it's instantaneous." Kiarra sat down again as I explained my misting talents. Adam rubbed her back solicitously. Something about Saxom, even the mention of his name, sure upset her in a hurry.
"You've seen her take Justin with her," Griffin said. "Lissa can transport just about anything or anyone," he added.
"I was never able to turn that swiftly, until Kiarra offered her blood," Adam said. "And I could only transport myself. This is more than interesting."
"She can mindspeak, too," Griffin went on. "She's perfect for this assignment."
I turned to stare at Griffin. He was going to have to explain things to me, some day. Adam mentioned getting Kiarra's blood and then being able to turn to mist faster. I wondered what else her blood had done for him. At least one of those things was present—he'd fathered Justin. The boy looked exactly like him.
"Pheligar, do you wish to place the implant or would you like me to do it?" Kiarra asked, turning back to business.
"I will do this," Pheligar stood and handed Justin off to his mother.
"Implant?" I squeaked. All the alien stories were about to come to life for me. The tales about experimentation on board spaceships crowded my mind; I was just about to panic and go to mist.
"Lissa," Griffin turned to me and took my face in his hands, "it is alien technology, but it's a shield that an advanced race created. It will allow you to stand in full sunlight without being burned. You'll be sluggish if you wake, that's just your nature, but you won't burn, little girl. I promise."
"How long will it last?" I asked. I sure as heck didn't want to be tossed into sunlight, only to discover the batteries had run down.
"It has a normal lifespan of a hundred years," Griffin replied. Well, somebody was way more efficient than we Earthlings.
"Is this going to hurt?"
"See for yourself," Pheligar knelt before me, holding a small, flat disc in his hand. His hand was so large it made the disc appear microscopic. "It goes here," he placed the disc on the tip of a finger and pressed it against the back of my neck. When he pulled his finger away, the disc was gone. "It has been placed," he said. "Did you feel pain?"
"Uh, no," I said, surprise in my voice. He could do that without causing pain? That was exceptional. "Where were you when I got bitten by werewolves?" I blurted.
"Possibly on the Larentii homeworld; I would have to check the timeline just to make sure," Pheligar replied. Well, nothing got past him. I could see that right away. "I am giving you the required communication skills as well," Pheligar tapped my forehead with a large, blue finger. I stared at him in shock after my eyes refocused from the bright flash he'd created. Communication skills? What did that mean?
"Pheligar will take you to Refizan," Griffin stood.
"Wait, aren't you going to explain this a little more?" I asked. "Where is this Refizan place? What am I supposed to do there? Who's going to take me home when this is over? Where are you going?" I was panicking—this was happening much too quickly.