Outside of Chinook Library of the Manor, Mid October
Nic was almost caught off guard by Annik's faint. Fortunately he had expected that it might happen so had been watching for the signs. Not because Annik was a female but because anyone getting this kind of news. That you weren't even the species that you thought you were had a good chance of fainting. It was a bit of a shock and might give anyone a case of the collywobbles after all. so Nic was able to catch Annik before she could slide off the chair, onto the floor.
"This was going so well," Nic muttered to himself while he mover her to one of the ugly, oversized couches that his Siblings sat on during meetings. "First you manage to scare her so much that she flees from you in a blind panic. Then you make her faint." Nic shook his head, thoroughly disgusted with himself. "Great job you're doing so far."
Nic moved one of the chairs from in front of the fireplace so that it was mostly facing the couch that he had put Annik on. Not so close that he was crowding her but close enough to help her anyway he could. No reason to make her even more uncomfortable he thought to himself. Nic was watching her carefully, tracking her pulse and respiration. Making sure that the faint was only from stress and not for some medical reason. Only? what the hell? he thought wishing there was a way that he could kick his own ass.
While he waited, Nic thought about everything that he had said and done tonight. Gods, can anything else go wrong? Maybe he shouldn't ask a question like that. Knowing his luck a meteorite would strike the Compound. Right over his head. Yeah, he decided. Probably not a good time to test just how bad his luck was. Not by half. Nor should he give the universe ideas. With his luck it would take him up on them.
After what seemed to Nic to be hours, days even, but was probably just a minute or two, Annik woke up. Groaning she tried to sit up but Nic's hand shot out, almost of its own volition, stopping her from sitting up. As soon as he realized what he had done, Nic snatched his hand back almost as quickly. wondering if he should call the doctor or something.
"Stay laying down. You fainted and I want to make sure you're good before you sit up." Nic said in a calm voice.
Nic so wished that he was as calm as he sounded. Truly grateful that his panic at her having fainted didn't come out in his voice. What he really wanted to do was call the doctor that treated both the students they were training and the Siblings to check her out. But figured that more strangers were going to make a bad situation even worse. Yeah like that could happen. So far he'd told her that he, her mother and herself were not Human but instead were monsters from some horror film. That the quote-unquote fairy tales she'd heard growing up were real, not made up. And that he and by extension, her mother were not just years but decades older than she had thought. Yeah, how are you going to make that shit cake worse, Hmmm? Just what do think you can do to add the frosting and a cherry to that.
The rest of what Nic had to tell her wasn't going to be easy but in comparison to learning that your mother was an infant in nineteen forty? That alone had been a major shock. How could it not be? Still he so wasn't looking forward to telling her the rest of the information she was going to need. Mother in the Mist, he wished he didn't have to be the one to tell her this stuff. Why had her mother run from her adopted clan? No wait he knew the answer to that one didn't he. What he really wanted to know was why Ingretta hadn't come to him or one of the other Siblings. They would have helped her. I would have helped her. But as soon as he remembered how Troov Foress had acted he feared he knew the answer to that question as well. It all came back to that damned male. Nic really wished he could just strangle the fucker. He would feel so much better than.
Annik had lain back down at his urging and now looked at him with hard, wary eyes. Nic didn't blame her for that, not at all. He'd turned her world upside down tonight after all.
"My mother was like you, wasn't she." Her voice was as hard and wary as her eyes were. Making it clear that full disclosure was his only choice and it had better be the truth or heads would roll. "My mother wasn't Human and that means I'm probably not either. doesn't it,"
Not a question, more a statement of fact. Brave, very brave. And smart, she had made the correlation quickly. Sure anyone could figure it all out if their emotions weren't involved but to do so when they were under the kind of stress she was in? Much more impressive and damn a turn on too. Yeah, he'd told her as much earlier but keeping track of everything said when under that kind of stress? Who would have guessed that one, certainly not him. While he was far from a virgin by now, even if he didn't have the overactive sex life his twin rocked. Nic had never found any of the females or women that he had been with particularly engaging on more than a physical level. At least not until he had met Annik that is.
Annik's voice was steady. No longer seemingly afraid or anything along those lines. Instead she seemed resolute and determined. Intent on the truth of who and what she was. What it was going to mean for her life. Nic watched her starting to recast everything she had ever known into a new mold. It wasn't going to happen over night or in one conversation but he watched her start. Nic realized that he was proud of Annik and how she was handling all of this. Sure she wasn't taking it all calmly but he would have been more worried if she did. Who could take any of this stuff calmly? Only someone who was stupid, which she wasn't, or didn't believe what he said, which she did.
"I won't faint again if that's what you're worried about," Annik added when he hesitated.
Nic scrubbed his face with his right hand briefly before starting to speak. How the hell was she going to take this part he wondered. How was he going to tell her that not only was she a different species than she had always thought she was but that she was going to have to drink blood in order to survive not only her Tempering, and wasn't that going to be a blast to fill her in on, but for the rest of her life. Why the hell was she the one doing this, Sabrina would be so much better. But when he'd asked her to do the info drop she had refused. Stating that Annik already trusted him because he had saved her and that it would be better coming from him. boy was she wrong on that one.
"You and I are members of the Anvidai race. We aren't vampires, not the way you're thinking at least. And how the Hollywood and pulp fiction portray us is all wrong. We don't turn into bats or wolves. We don't summon insects or control the weather. We are just another species. We just want to live our lives just like the Humans do, that's it."
Nic waited to see how she was taking it so far. All Annik did though was nod and make the universal gesture for continue. Clearly she was intending to hear him out before she decided anything. Good plan and Nic really hoped that she would be able to stick to it. The info was only going to get weirder as he continued. Annik had sat up on the couch she had been laying on, intent on everything that Nic was saying. Totally focused and not allowing anything, not even her own questions, to distract her. Nic was as impressed by her fortitude as he was by her brains. She was so accepting, or least she seemed to be. Who knew how much of this was just shock though.
"We just want to live our lives in peace," Nic finished.
Nic waited for her response, again. Annik was nodding, not in agreement but as though she was marshaling her thoughts. Neither of them spoke for a couple of minutes. Annik was clearly thinking about what he had told her. And for his part Nic was caught up in looking at her. God how he wanted to protect her. Comfort her and keep her safe from all danger. He wanted to provide for her, food for her to eat, clothes for her to wear. Anything that she wanted he wanted to give to her no matter what it was.
Stop it! Nic told himself firmly when he realized what direction his thoughts were taking. Just stop it. If you want to keep her safe then you need to find her a place to go once her Tempering is done. It wouldn't be safe for her to stay here with you. No matter how well protected the manor is. For Gods sake remember what happened to your parents.. You will have to find someone, somewhere else for her to be and be with if you want her to be safe. Nic welcomed the pain that flared through him at the thought of Annik being with someone else. He deserved it for leaving her mother with that archaic thinking arsehole and his clan. He didn't deserve her or anything from her. He needed to let her go. Still he wanted to do something for her, right now. Something that might help her even a little bit. Again his brain went back to food. Everyone knew about comfort food, right? Before he could offer to get something for her to eat or drink, Annik spoke.
"I have to admit it's more than a little overwhelming. After all it isn't everyday that you learn that the movies are right." Annik held her hand up in a placating gesture before he could speak. "Okay," Annik smiled a little as she finished. "Partly right. But you said you and I are whatever it was... Anvidai?" At his nod she continued. "You said that we're Anvidai. But what about my mother? She was Anvidai too, right?"
Nic could smell her confusion as well as see it. But there wasn't as much of it as he would have expected. Not that he'd ever told anyone that they weren't Human before. To the best of Nic's knowledge this had never happened before. Not this close to their change at least. The only other cases he'd ever heard of, the pre-change youths had been found before their tenth birthdays. No one had ever been lost to the Human world for this long before, not and lived at any rate.. But wasn't that just his luck? Bad to worst, yep, that was him alright. Pain ran through him again when he thought of how close a shave it was. If he hadn't smelled the Undying and gone down that alley he wouldn't have found her. And then she would have died when her Tempering hit. Which from her scent would be any day now. Nope that had been far too close a call for his peace of mind.
Damn it to the deepest depths Nic was starting to think that Annik was his Veyas, his Pair Bonded mate or spouse as the Humans would say. The one person that he was meant to be with and was meant to be with him. Gods if that was true it was going to make letting her go almost impossible. Almost? Hell it would make it completely impossible. A Pair bonded Anvidai, especially a male that lost their Veyas was the walking dead. Alive but not really. Only a heart beat and some respiration's away from a grave. Niculai pushed those thoughts away and refocused on Annik she was speaking and he had missed it. Now was so not the time to be distracted, damn it.
"I'm sorry, can you say that again?" Nic said shaking his head at himself. "I missed that."
Annik looked at him for a second before speaking. "I asked if the sunlight thing was true. My mother could and did go out in the sunlight. For that matter so can I." Annik looked as though she was remembering something that both pleased her and made her sad. "Although unlike me she didn't burn if she got to much sun. I think I need to know more about all of this." Annik looked up at Nic, catching and holding his gaze, a small smile on her lips.
"We," Nic's hand swept between them, back and forth, indicating both of them. "As I said are the Anvidai. There are two separate but related groups. Not really sure what to call it." Nic gave a self-depreciating laugh. "I'm not really good with scientific terms. I speak four languages so I can get the terms wrong in multiple tongues. The Anvidai is made up of two distinct groups. The Anvidai and the Lushidai. Traditionally the Lushidai were the servant class. Over last few millennium that has changed though. For the most part the Lushidai can do any job that the Anvidai do. As long as they have the prerequisite abilities and inclinations to do the job."
Nic sat back, trying to rein in his zeal for teaching. If he hadn't been born and bred to fight for his race, he would have been a teacher. Nic loved to teach and at times wished that his path had lead that way instead of being War Prince and a warrior. His reality was what it was and she needed to have this information.
"The Lushidai handle sunlight just fine. The Anvidai? not so much. At least if you don't want to be a puddle of goo on the ground." At the look on Annik's face Nic had to smile, just a little. "Yeah, the Humans got that one totally wrong. We don't go up in flames, we melt into goo that quickly dries out and blows away as dust. Your mother was Lushidai. That's why she could handle sunlight without burning. Her being Lushidai is also why you never saw her take a vein. As a rule the Lushidai only need to do that during their Tempering. We Anvidai how ever have to do so more often."
"I had been hoping that since my mother could go out in to the sunlight that you were wrong about me." Annik looked hopeful but when Nic just looked at her sympathetically her face fell. disappointment taking over.
"I'm sorry, but no. I can smell your change coming. You are Anvidai," Nic tapped his chest. "Like me. You will go through it in the couple of weeks, probably less."
"So much for that theory," Annik said with a short laugh. "So what is this change you're talking about. What exactly are you smelling?" Annik looked at Nic intently,waiting for his answer.
"The Tempering is what I'm smelling. It's how we become adults. It lasts about a month. Think of it as a seriously speeded up puberty. As it approaches it changes your scent. It also affect how and what you eat. It can cause headaches or your mood, Making you angrier than usual for longer than usual."
"What do you mean by take a vein? I'm not going to bite and kill some poor person for any reason." Annik said getting angry. "I don't care if I die. I'm just not going to do that."
"We don't hunt or kill Humans for blood. We don't drink Human blood at all for the most part." Nic was appalled. "We drink the blood of our own race not that of Humans." Nic shuddered, disgusted at the very thought. "Human blood is too weak to serve our needs. Especially during the Tempering. That is one piece of lore that is very wrong. We don't kill Humans for blood."
Nic told her everything that he could about what the Tempering, her change, was going to mean and what she would have to do. It wasn't going to be pleasant or fun. It was a grueling, dangerous time. Many died during their Tempering from both sides of the race. The reality that she might die was a stinger into his heart. He just couldn't think about it. It was too much, especially when she was right there in front of him safe and sound. Surely she would be safe. Surely the Mother of the Race wouldn't bring her into his life just to take her away? Nic was terrified and there was nothing he could do about it.
Nic wasn't sure how much of what he was saying was actually sinking in. Annik was so very calm that he worried that it was false. That her calm was from shock not acceptance. After all a whole lot of stuff had come at her tonight. Annik being in shock, no matter how calm she seemed was a serious No Duh. And just like her danger of dying in her Tempering, there was nothing Nic could do about her being in shock. All he could do was give her the information as many times as she needed to understand it. Nic would be there for her when the shock finally ended. Any way that she needed him, he would be there.
