Spirit Unbound-A Paraworld Chronicles Novel

Chapter One: Coffee & Shifters

I wasn't quite sure which was creepier: the dead guy standing on my right whose face was falling off or the shifter in the corner of the coffee shop who's eyes were glued to my back. He was definitely an alpha, judging by the amount of power rolling off of him. A shifter being in the human part of town was weird enough on its own. What the hell was an Alpha doing here? Ever since the para-worlders unveiled their existence ten years ago, para and human relations have been a bit shaky.

Most paras tended to stick to their own territories. It had taken only five days for the para-worlders to gain control after The Unveiling. It still amazed me how coordinated it all had been. I was in high school at the time. One minute, I was sitting in calculus, tapping my pencil against the desk as I impatiently waited for the remaining fifteen minutes of class to be over with. The next, I was staring wide-eyed, mouth agape, as over half of the class dropped their glamour and turned into fairies or shifted into animals.

Apparently, the same reveal happened everywhere, all across the globe. 10:45 AM on a Tuesday and the world as I knew it changed forever. The vampires unveiled later that evening, just when all hell was breaking loose. The humans had either run away screaming in terror or attacked, the latter being exceptionally stupid. No human could stand toe to toe with a para-worlder. They're supernatural beings. Oh, the humans had tried. They'd brought in armies, weapons, tanks, the whole shebang; but most of the armed forces had been supernaturals in the first place and once they'd weeded out the paras, the humans were left with a fourth of the military personnel they'd thought they had.

The news, radio, and Internet were flooded with statements from high ranking paras asking the humans not to panic. They claimed they weren't interested in taking over. Their only goal was to live out in the open, but the humans idiotically attacked anyway. They lost very quickly. Sending the human military to fight the supernaturals had been like sending a baby to fight a gorilla. The whole thing had been ridiculous. Tensions had gradually eased over the years. Especially once the humans realized the paras really didn't intend to control them. There is still some prejudice out there between the paras and humans, but overall things ran smoothly.

The world is now split up into territories. There are shifter, Fae, vampire, and human territories scattered all over the place. Each territory governs itself and has a leader that is voted in by the people living in that territory. Humans have presidents for their territories. Shifters have Alphas, Fae have Lords and Ladies, and Vampires have Masters. These leaders make sure those living in their territories follow the laws and bring any issues or requests for improvement to the Councils. Councils rule over regions. Currently, there are five councils: The North American Council (NAC), The South American Council (SAC), The European Council (EC), The Asian Council (AC), and the Council for the Middle East (CME). The councils comprise of at least one member for each species and officially their job is to promote peace among the species by passing laws that benefit everyone.

In reality, though, the Council are groups of terrifyingly powerful paras (and their one token human) who keep their region in check. Break the law enough times or in a really bad way and you have to answer to them. No one wants to go before the council. It's worse than a death sentence if you're found guilty. A few years back, an older vamp went crazy with blood lust and killed a bunch of humans. The council sentenced him to 100 years of torture for his crimes. Seriously, 100 YEARS. A shiver ran down my spine as I thought about the kind of torture a para could inflict. Of course, it could also have something to do with the two creepers I was currently dealing with.