“I figured since all these exist that I should make sure jebus isn’t here too. I might need to ask for forgiveness since every other mythical creature exists, I am assuming he does too and need to make sure I cover all my bases if I’m gonna die.” I say, looking past him and searching the faces of the many people passing by.
I hear Theo chuckle. “Ask forgiveness for what? And just so you know, Jesus or jebus as you like to call him is human, not a supernatural creature.”
“What, so he does exist?” I question. Shit, I’m going to hell for being an adulterer.
I hear Theo chuckle, obviously reading my thoughts. “Human, not supernatural, Imogen, and he is just some man someone wrote a story about, doesn’t mean what they wrote is real or not real, people just needed to believe in something bigger than themselves to help them sleep better at night.”
Tobias and Theo both find my shock at this place amusing. We walk for a few minutes, finally coming to the biggest building in the quad. It kind of resembles a sandstone courthouse. It is a huge imposing building with guards out the front that I can tell are vampires by their red eyes and godly looks. We march up the steps and walk inside. Caroline and Josiah are inside, waiting patiently on some red velvet seats.
Caroline stands up and walks over, giving me a hug. “We have registered that we are here, so we shouldn’t have to wait long,” she says.
I sit next to her; this room is some kind of waiting area, lined with seats and pictures on the wall of scary looking men and women, who definitely aren’t human. The huge paintings and photos lead up a huge corridor with doors running off each side.
I sit nervously twiddling my thumbs when Tobias places his hand over mine, covering my shaking hands. I instantly calm down, the heat of his skin is soothing.
Suddenly, a tall woman in a black dress that reaches the floor walks out, her red eyes indicate she is another vampire, her eyes roam over all of us, before settling on Tobias and Theo.
“Alaric will see you three now,” she says, brushing her long, black hair over her shoulder and turning her back on us. Tobias pulls me up from my seat and suddenly, my mouth goes dry. We walk up the long corridor to the last door, he opens it and steps aside allowing us to enter.
I walk in after Tobias and Theo, a man is sitting behind a huge desk, wearing a suit. He looks up as we enter. “Tobias, Theo,” he says, standing up and walking around his desk. He shakes their hands before turning to me.
“You must be the human woman, Imogen,” he says. I can hear the distaste in his mouth as he looks at me before escorting us over to some chairs and a table on the other side of the room. The room is full of bookshelves and old looking scrolls dumped on different surfaces, the walls covered in old painted portraits. A portrait of the man from the photograph Josiah found is hanging above the fireplace. Only he doesn’t look like the same man from the photo, he looks demonic, with his red eyes he looks slightly crazed, the perfect predator, the sort of man you wouldn’t want to bump into on a night down a dark alley. I swallow and freeze, staring up at the picture.
Theo suddenly pulls me down on the soft gray armchair that is behind me.
The man, Alaric, looks over his shoulder at the painting I’m so engrossed in before he growls, snapping my attention back to him. “Sorry,” I whisper.
He cocks his head to the side, his beady red eyes boring into me as his lips pull back slightly, revealing his fangs.
“Alaric,” Theo growls when he realizes the man is scaring me.
“Apologies, miss. I find it hard being around your kind when you smell as delightful as you do.” I nod, not liking the way he is staring at my neck.
“Well let’s get down to business, then. The courts have ordered some tests to check for anything in her bloodline. Tarina will escort her down soon to have her blood taken. I’m still waiting to hear back on when it will be decided what will happen with your mate, but seeing as you have marked her already and your family’s reputation, we have decided we won’t condemn her death and you won’t be punished for taking her as your mate. However, we can’t allow her to remain human. I honestly don’t know what you see in this human, but luckily for you, your father has said he will leave the council if anything happens to her that would jeopardize his sons. You’re lucky your father has stepped in on your behalf and that Maxwell has a soft spot for your father, because if it were my choice, she would already be dead,” he says, looking over at me with disgust on his face.
I suddenly feel exceedingly small, I can tell humans are nothing but blood bags to this man. The way he keeps glancing at me makes my skin crawl.
“Don’t talk of my mate like that, Alaric. You may be in a position of power now, just remember who got you where you are today, disrespect my mate again and we will have problems,” Tobias growls.
Alaric smiles challengingly at him but doesn’t glance in my direction again. The door opens and the woman from the lobby steps in, making me glance in the direction of the door.
“Go with Tarina, she will take you next door to have some blood taken,” Theo says, not taking his eyes off Alaric.
I can tell he wants nothing but to kill the man, I feel his hatred strongly through the bond. Walking over to the woman, she smiles down at me before I follow her into the room next door, which is like a small infirmary, with different creatures on the wall and their anatomy. I sit on the stool next to the steel table.
“I really don’t understand his hate for humans. We were all human at one stage, after many centuries as a vampire, I think he often forgets that” she says softly.
I relax a little, realizing she doesn’t share the same view he has. She puts a strap on my arm before pulling a needle out of the drawer under the table and a vial. She attaches the vial to the needle and holds my arm.
“You won’t pass out on me, will you?” I shake my head.
She is vastly different to the man next door; she is actually nice, and she kind of reminds me of Sally. I flinch when she jams the needle in my vein. I can tell she is holding her breath, as she holds my arm steady, letting the small vial fill with my blood. She then withdraws the needle and places a cotton bud on it.
“I was a nurse before I was changed, back in the 1800’s” she says.
That explains why she looks like she knows what she is doing. She holds the vial up to the light, obviously able to see something in the red liquid that runs through my body.
“Most peculiar indeed,” she whispers so low I don’t think I’m meant to hear. She then places the vial in a small box before placing it in the fridge under the desk.
“Come on, I should take you back.”