As she was walking through the parking lot with her groceries, her phone rang. She pulled it out – it was Derek. Her stomach fluttered, which she hated. She wanted to have control over her reactions at all times. The vampires had taught her that.
The vampires, especially Victor, had stressed that the wolves were often led astray by their turbulent emotions and their ever-changing instincts.
The vampires did not suffer in the same way. They were able to conquer their bloodlust within the first few months of their lives, and then their emotions were static, unchanging. They made their decisions based on logic. Morals didn’t necessarily play a role in their decisions because their sole goal in life seemed to be furthering their own self-interest. She lived with them, but she’d never been blind to their faults.
She decided to answer the phone. Even if her stomach was fluttering, she didn’t have to let Derek know that. “Hello.” She stopped behind her Honda Civic. She’d driven a Range Rover in Seattle, but Augustine had said that kind of car would stand out too much in Anchorage, for a college student with no family to speak of.
“Hi, Lyra. I’d like to take you out on a date. What do you say?” he asked.
She hesitated, wrapping her fingers around the cart handle. Was this really a good idea?
Her coven had thought so. They said it was the best way to get close to someone and gain someone's trust. She didn't entirely feel comfortable with that. But she had to remember the plan.
"Yes. I'm free tomorrow night." She uncurled her fingers and popped the trunk, lifting her bags out of the cart.
"Great. I'm so glad. If you'll text me your address, I'll pick you up at seven,” he said.
Did she want him to have her address? Was that smart? It would be fine if she kept him at arm's length for the first few dates and did not share her address. That was reasonable. But at some point, if they got serious enough for him to really trust her, then she would have to reveal the address of her apartment.
He’d probably want to visit. She didn’t want him in her space. The vampires had decorated for her, and they’d staged it, to make sure it looked like a college student with a small trust fund lived there.
Even though the vampires had scoured the apartment for anything that might reveal who they were, it still didn’t seem safe.
She went ahead and gave him the address. She could hear the smile in his voice. He could pick her up, but she wasn’t going to let him inside.
That night she ate dinner alone and then went back to the coven. "If I'm going to keep going, I need to know what the plan is. I'm about to start dating someone, and I need to know what’s going on, so that things go as smoothly as possible with him.”
Victor smiled at her.
"We will share it with you." He had never bothered to learn how to speak naturally, for the times he was living in. Maybe she wouldn't have either, if she was five hundred years old. He relied on other coven members to deal with the public for him.
“Come into the parlor,” he said. He was flanked by his five most trusted coven members.
Victor and his advisors still called it the parlor, in an ironic way.
"We have learned that a vampire can effectively turn a wolf shifter into a vampire. In most cases the wolf shifter will not die. But he or she will become a hybrid shifter vampire, able to survive on food or blood, depending on what's available. The shifter becomes even stronger and even faster than he or she already was. His eyesight will sharpen, her hearing will strengthen and so will all of her skills and powers.”
She’d heard them whispering about hybrids before. She’d thought they meant her. "So how are you going to use this?" Kyra asked. Would she be turned? Would she allow it if they suggested it? She wasn’t sure if she wanted immortal life or not. While she was grateful to be alive, the life she’d had so far hadn’t exactly made her want to extend it for another one thousand years. If she had a family, maybe she’d feel differently.
Or maybe once she was a vampire, she wouldn’t care about the aching loneliness any longer. Victor and his coven sure didn’t seem to mind.
“Are you planning on turning me into a hybrid?” she asked. Despite her half human blood, she'd never noticed a deficit in her abilities. But, of course, they’d get better if she were turned.
"No,” Victor said. “We are going to kill all of the oldest members of your pack as planned, starting with the monstrous Alpha. But the younger group we will turn. We will raise them the same way we raised you and they will answer to us."
A shudder ran down her spine. She had not foreseen this. She wasn’t sure how she felt about children being affected. She knew all too well what it was like to have her life upended. "How long have you known about this?" she asked.
"We've had quite a few of our colleagues studying it in Iceland for about two years. We had to find the correct age that worked best."
“Oh my God.” Her mouth dropped open. "Are you saying you practiced? You killed pups to do this?"
Victor waved his hand. "Oh no. We did not kill anyone. It just did not work. They remained shifters. And before you start to become agitated with morality issues, just know that these families volunteered."
She was dubious. Victor's ethics were questionable on a good day.
"So what happens to the vampire? To the hybrid? Do they age or do they stay the same?" She wasn’t sure what good it would do to have a coven of hybrids who were twelve years old.
"They age. Just more slowly than a wolf shifter."