Struck (A Vampire Novel) ✔

Five

Aveline smiled happily, “Love at first sight. We’ve been inseparable since.” There was an awkward pause following the statement. Well, awkward for me being that I was in the middle of their eye-sex session. I stared for a moment, blinked, then coughed.

“Was it hard to switch from Bennett to Bryant coterie,” I asked curiously, “If… if that’s what you did, or are you still with the Bennett?” I was confusing myself quickly. The whole coterie business was confusing to me, but I guess in a way it did make sense. I was just surprised this level of society existed; a supernatural society.

“You’re right. I’m a part of the Bryant coterie now. But no, it isn’t easy,” Xander confessed, moving his gaze from Aveline to me, “It’s a little complicated. Members of a coterie are bonded, I believe Aveline told you. So to move from one to the other, you have to break bonds which only happen if a Master breaks it. It can be either your Master or another Master, though if another Master besides your own does it, it’s an act of treason. There’s a whole process to go through just to get permission to do this. It’s a whole mess, but one of the easiest ways to be approved is to have a Mate in a different coterie. It’s like… it’s like becoming a citizen of another country and how marriage makes it easier in some cases.”

“Plus, it’s really painful,” Aveline continued where Xander broke off in a hushed voice, “When you’re in a coterie, you can feel everyone. You can’t read their minds or control them, but it’s like they’re a part of you. And when you’re broken off, it hurts so much. Xander didn’t want me to feel it so he did it for me.” She reached across to pet his hair lovingly, though there was a small pang of sadness in her eyes. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the bonds and pain involved being that I hadn’t ever felt anything like what they described. It pulled at my heart to know people like them have.

“What would have happened if your Master had denied it?” I asked quietly.

Xander looked back at Aveline, pain flashing over his face almost as though the thought terrified him. “It would be even more complicated, too complicated to go into detail. There are options, but none are good. The best one would be… appealing to the Royals,” He explained slowly, “Which as you’ve heard, their numbers are pretty slim. Perhaps in the past it would be the easiest route, but now it would be near impossible. They can break bonds easily, though, if they deem fit. They can force bonds even, which are something not even Masters can do, but they rarely ever do that. It’s not healthy to be in a coterie that doesn’t want you.”

I had completely devoured my food and was feeling plenty better now. I thought the whole system of coteries, masters, and royals were fascinating. But I could tell the details would probably take hours to explain and that was time Xander and Aveline obviously didn’t want to spend explaining things.

“Is there a book on all of this?” I asked curiously, “It’s really very interesting.”

Aveline raised her eyebrows in surprise. “There is. I’ll have someone grab some literature for you later, my curious little tiger.” She brushed her fingers through my hair almost affectionately. I blushed, but I ignored it. I preferred affection over torture.

“Are the Royals scary?” I suddenly asked absently. There was a silence in response. I looked up to see both Xander and Aveline were looking at me with hesitant expressions.

“It… well,” Xander began, but faltered, “Are we scary?”

I stared at him openly for a full minute, taking in his normal looking face. Then I tilted my head to the side, observing his shadowed manly chin, blonde hair, soft green-blue eyes, and thick pink lips. Sure, he had big arms and obviously muscled frame, but a human could appear like that. Maybe not as beautiful as him and Aveline were though. They were supernaturally beautiful. But without the fangs and bleeding black eyes, I had to say they weren’t actually scary. At the same time, they were technically holding me hostage and only treating me kindly while I was on death row.