Conclave (Hypernaturals 3)

Aftermath of a Pheromone Fight

Once we were all in Helen's office, and the door closed, I flopped in a chair. "What an ASS!" I said to myself, not caring if his Vampire hearing could hear it through the door, even across the lobby. To check I got back up, went back to the door and looked out, but William was nowhere in sight.

Closing the door again, I looked at the three women, and they all looked at me with odd, blank, and slightly confused expressions.

"Really? Did he affect you all that much?" I asked, unhappy. "No wonder female Vamps don't trust males."

Helen looked over at Rachel "He affected us? You?"

"I thought he is very nice." Rachel said simply.

"Me too." Jessica said.

"Happy fellow." Helen added.

"Really?" I felt completely at a loss for words.

"Why Adrian? Why didn't you like him?" Jessica asked, a sudden suspicion in her voice. I am pleased to hear that she at least trusts me that much.

I screwed up my mouth as I mentally collected it all. Organized. Replayed the encounter. Things I had been physically responding to bubbled up, became more than feelings and gut reactions. The computer in charge of scents gave me a tally of the encounter.

"For starters, his scent makes me insane. He released pheromones that made you three think he is peachy. Jessica about peeled my muscles from my arm. Going to be a deep bruise here." I rubbed my arm ruefully and shot Jessica an accusing look. Her eyes went wide. "It was not until I countered and gave three a tiny dose of my pheromones that you quit acting like he is Santa Claus incarnate, and Jessica quit trying to remove my tricep."

Jessica looked at her hand puzzled "Sorry.. err... You hit me with your pheromones? I don't remember that."

I lifted my arm to show her the already visible bruise. Pointed. Said nothing. Wider eyes.

"Rachel?" I asked.

Rachel sat on the edge of the desk and crossed her arms and started to look very considered. "I liked William. Thought he is very nice. It was not until I suddenly realized I like Adrian more that I came with you. I do not remember consciously detecting scents." Rachel looked at me with an element of distrust. She added "From either one of you. Disturbing."

I asked Rachel "When you did that experiment on me with Anne and Denise, you knew then what I was doing? Right?"

I referred to a Probation-era experiment. Rachel had me release pheromones in her presence, with Denise in the room, and Anne isolated on the back porch. Rachel wanted to see how my pheromones affected herself and Denise. A big concern female Vampires have is whether male Vampires will try to control them in various ways.

Rachel admitted "I did. A noticeable scent. Very... Masculine, shall we say? Well, if you exposed me just now to some of your attractants, I am going to have a period in a few weeks anyway. Do it again. Now." Almost an order, but not quite. I heard the concern in her voice.

My Vampire pheromones are designed by nature to make human females insane with desire, same way female Vamps can use theirs to snare human males for feeding and sex. Well: That is not really accurate. It's for Vampires to use against humans, and how it works is filtered through the human's particular interests and predilections.

I agreed to Rachel's demand. "Ok."

With the nearly infinite scent gradient control I have thanks to Helen's bitching about my constantly smelling like a male whorehouse, I let a small amount of the Adrian-flavor pheromones waft from my skin. A tiny amount, but in the confines of the office, it took no time to reach the three of them.