Mila and Cora told her a few more funny stories about their shifters and vampires. Their good humor and matter-of-fact attitudes made Beatrix feel much better.
Suddenly she wasn’t in the middle of an alternate reality or worried about being in the middle of a psychotic break. No, she was simply in a nontraditional relationship.
At least that was how she decided to frame it.
When Cora told her about sharing souls, she listened intently, only interrupting to ask an occasional question.
“What if you guys get angry with each other?” she asked, thinking about all the bitter, angry conflicts her parents had when she was young. “Are you allowed to leave?”
Mila and Cora looked at each other, making Beatrix uneasy. “What?
“When you’re upset, it hurts them,” Mila said in her gentle South Dakota accent. “And you can feel their pain too. Carter had a nightmare a few weeks ago and it woke me up, even though he wasn’t thrashing around or anything.” She rubbed herchest. “His fear felt like my own. I wasn’t sure what was going on at first. Gio figured it out and pulled Carter out of sleep through our link.”
Beatrix wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “What if they use the link to hurt you?”
“They wouldn’t fucking dare!” Briar said, pressing in to join their group. She had a big grin and a frosty mug of beer. She took a large swallow before addressing Beatrix. “Look, the one thing vampires hold sacred is their flock.” She pointed to where Memphis and Tobias were talking to Arthur. “My last period was a rough one. I felt so bad I told the guys to go away and leave me alone. Memphis called his mom asking what to do. The next thing I knew, I had two heating pads, a fuzzy robe, socks, blanket, an entire grocery bag full of chocolate, and every type of drug available and not all of them were over the counter.”
“That’s um, nice,” Beatrix said, unsure how to handle Briar’s interesting overshare.
Briar didn’t take offense to her lukewarm response. “What I’m trying to say is that they’ll feel anything you feel as their own. So unless they’re sadists, they don’t want you to be in pain. Get me?”
Beatrix was starting to understand. This wasn’t a situation where Titan and Arthur could decide when they felt like “dealing” with her or not. They had no choice. It brought up a whole new worry.
“What if they get tired of me?”
“They won’t.” Briar’s conviction didn’t convince Beatrix.
“How can you know that?” The words came out a little more aggressively than she meant them to, but Briar didn’t seem to care.
“Because you’re a match made by the void,” she said. “It's hard to get bored when you’ve got that going for you.”
“Arthur and Titan said something about the void. What does that mean?”
“The void is the source of all magic.”
All four of them turned at the new voice, and Beatrix let out a startled little gasp. Sitting in a giant, overstuffed, wingback chair was a small creature, probably about three feet tall if he was standing. He was mostly green, with a lizardish-frogish face, rough looking skin, and little horns on his head.
All around the chair were stacks of books, and he was holding a paperback book in one hand and a steaming mug in the other.
She swore he hadn't been there a moment ago!
“Sopek!” Mila said. “It’s nice to see you again.”
Sopek gave Mila a nod of acknowledgement before addressing Beatrix. “Most creatures can only access void magic as it filters into the world. A few of us can access it directly. Humans have very little ability to sense, gather, or use magic. Are you sad about that?”
Beatrix wasn’t sure how to answer. “Maybe a little?” She glanced at Mila, then Cora. “It’d probably be easier if I had magic, right?”
“Then I can solve that for you,” Sopek said. “You have pixie in your bloodline. Let me bring that out for you.”
“No, that’s?—”
Before she could finish, her eyesight suddenly changed. Everything got brighter and more in focus. She blinked and looked around, noticing colors she’d never seen before. Even more strange was that everyone was covered in swirling colors.
“You can see auras now, you’ll be stronger, and it’s almost impossible for you to get drunk,” Sopek said, then frowned. “I hope that’s not upsetting. I know some humans really enjoy being inebriated."
“What have you done?!” Arthur’s roared words made her jump. She turned around to see him charging toward them,Titan right behind him. Suddenly, Tobias, Kimble, and Memphis were between Arthur and her.
“Don’t challenge the hobgoblin!” Titan begged, grabbing Arthur from behind. “Please, he could kill you without even setting his mug down!”