When people said they needed to talk to you without speaking right away, it never boded well.
Especially not when it was your pack leader Ivana saying the dreaded words: 'we need to talk' over the phone, along with a message that she was already on her way to your house.
I assumed I wouldn't like what Ivana had to say.
I knew I wouldn't like what she had to say when I saw the grim expression on her face as she walked past the threshold of my little house in the woods. She didn't even give me the time to offer her tea like the gracious host I was, and marched past me without taking off her jacket or uttering a single word.
"Lovely to see you too," I called after Ivana as I followed her to the living room.
Ivana made a beeline for the couch and dropped herself down on it with a defeated sigh. "Boris, I won't beat around the bush. The vampires want to exercise their rights as decided in article five of the supernatural accords. They sent a vampire man to our territory. He wants to live in Pinewood town to study humans."
"What? " I stared at Ivana incredulously. "You've got to be kidding me. You turned him down, didn't you? Tell me you turned him down."
Ivana shook her head wearily, like she'd already expected this reaction. "You know I can't just turn him down, Boris. Believe me, I wish I could."
I sat opposite Ivana on a creaky chair. "Let's see if I understand this correctly. You want to set a vampire loose in werewolf territory? My territory? We can't. Especially not now. You know how fragile the integration program is, and we're just about to introduce the first group of young werewolves to the humans. Is there nowhere else this vampire can go slinking around?"
"Unfortunately, we don't have much of a choice when it comes to location." Ivana sighed, running a hand through her thick, black hair. "The supernatural accords we all signed are very clear about this. Every species has the right to make contact with humans to see if living together in peace is possible, and no other species can stand in their way unless there's a valid reason for it. If the vampires wish to make use of that right and choose to do it here, there's little we can do to stop it."
I snorted. "You know I'm all for learning how to get along better. But you have to admit the vampires are not exactly like the rest of us. It's like unleashing a starving fox in a chicken run. How's that for a 'valid reason'?"
"I share your concerns, Boris," Ivana said. "But we can't think of vampires as beasts either. Hungry for blood as they are, they are thinking people. Remember that it wasn't easy for some of us either when we first came into contact with humans."
She meant her son, Aquila.
Aquila had definitely been a handful when Ivana, at the end of her wits about his disdain of humans, placed him in my care to expose him to a high school in Pinewood town. There were many other young werewolves like Aquila who thought of humans as weak, craven, and unworthy of our protection. They didn't see we needed them as partners to continue our existence, and that we had to share their world now so it was only fair to let them know, gently, that we were here.
Simple exposure seemed to be enough to change things, however. Humans like Xavier, bless him, eventually showed Aquila humans weren't all bad. With Xavier as his mate, Aquila had finally calmed down and became accepting of the idea of human mates for others, too. A great result we hoped to repeat with other young werewolves. We even considered stepping out of the shadows and letting the entire of Pinewood town know we were werewolves.
All of this was possible because there was one very important difference between our disdainful young wolves and a vampire. A difference I didn't hesitate to point out to Ivana: "Aquila never saw humans like a walking juice box, though. He was all bark and no bite and everyone knew it. A vampire is tempting fate an awful lot more than we should be willing to do."
"The accords, Boris," Ivana reminded me.
The accords, yes. The eternal argument to end all arguments. The accords, which had failed to consider that the vampires might suddenly decide to stop self-isolating for whatever reason. They'd never been interested in mixing with other species they considered lesser, which was everyone. Instead, they preferred to live in decadent, often underground, castles far away from human or other supernatural civilisations.
There were many rumours about vampires and their lifestyle, and none of those rumours were positive. They kidnapped people and held them captive for food. They snuck into towns every once in a while and took attractive humans with them to turn into vampires.
Of course, nothing was ever proven because the vampires didn't allow anyone into their castles, and none of the other supernaturals wanted to burn their hands on vampire matters and risk their ire. Our blood was just as tasty to them as human blood, after all.
It didn't make sense to me that a vampire would ask for our permission to enter werewolf territory, either. Not if he could simply go to any big city at night, blend in, and take whoever he wanted in the shadows. Why here? Why now?
No matter what their reasons, no matter what the accord said, and no matter how dangerous the vampires were, I wasn't about to put the lives of my humans on the line.
"Fine," I said. "I understand your hands are tied. And you are my pack leader, so I will concede. But, this is still my community to protect. You entrusted the people of Pinewood to me. And if the vampire wants to see them, he must first prove to me that he's able to be near them and keep his fangs to himself."
Ivana frowned. "What exactly are you suggesting then, Boris?"
"I am suggesting I will meet this vampire first. He won't be denied access to my town, as the accords forbid it. But he won't immediately see the humans. He will live with me, and only if I'm certain he's not a threat, he can he see the rest of the people. The same way I kept Aquila inside the first week and laid out some ground rules."
There was a glimmer of understanding in Ivana's eyes. "Ah," she said. "Very clever. His leaders won't accept an indefinite waiting period, though. How long?"
"For as long as I can stretch it out. The longer I have to investigate what his true intentions for this town are, the better. And I'll make him trip up and bite me long before he sees any human. If he takes a nibble, we'll have a strong argument to kick him out."
I cast my eyes to the ceiling, already exhausted at the thought of hosting a vampire in my house, keeping him away from the people of Pinewood, and fighting him off the moment he inevitably tried to bite me. "Gods. I made sure my nephew gets settled in well, and just as he moves out and that's all settled, I get a vampire to wrangle as thanks?"
Ivana snorted. "You know what they say. If you're good at your job, you don't get a promotion—you get more work."
I smiled sourly. "Right you are because you're always the one giving me the extra work. Fine. No point delaying the inevitable then. Tell the overgrown mosquito to come. I'll talk to him and we'll work out the exact guard rotation tomorrow before he arrives."
"Actually..." Ivana looked a little uncomfortable. Her eyes darted to the door.
"He's already here, isn't he?" I rubbed my brow. "Ivana."
"There was nothing I could do," Ivana defended herself. "He arrived on my doorstep too, without as much as a call ahead of time! I turned him away, but he was very insistent that it was his right to be here, and you know no court is going to rule in our favour."
I sighed deeply and made a dismissive gesture. "Fine. Let's go get him."
Ivana and I went outside together.
"You can come out now!" she called towards the road.
Thankfully, I could hear the vampire's footsteps approach, as I could barely hear his breathing or heartbeat. That was normal for them, but their natural stealth was definitely a problem. The vampire could easily elude me, and that didn't bode well for me if I was supposed to keep an eye on him and keep him away from the village. I needed to sleep as well, and I'd probably have to start doing it during the day as the vampire couldn't leave my house when the sun was out.
A man stepped out of the shadows of the trees. I crossed my arms as I sized the vampiric stranger up.
He was at least a head shorter than me and donned in all dark colours, slim fit clothing. His short, dark brown hair was neatly brushed back and stood in sharp contrast with ghostly pale skin. He had a heart shaped face, delicate features, dimples, and a mischievous spark in his red eyes.
The look of someone who knew far too well he was pretty.
Vampires needed to be appealing if they wanted people to willingly ignore the red eyes and fangs and get closer anyway. Along with the fact that vampires were shallow snobs and only chose the most beautiful people they could find to turn and eternalize, they made for a very dangerous people.
I knew exactly what this man was and what would happen if I ever made the mistake of letting my guard down around him. Yet, even my breath caught for a split second as he titled his head back and looked at me through half-lidded eyes framed by long and dark eyelashes. He seemed to be appraising me as well, perhaps trying to decide what my blood would taste like.
If he tried to bite me, my blood would be the last thing he ever tasted.
The vampire nodded at me. "And you must be Boris, the guardian of this... quaint little town," he spoke politely but with obvious disdain in his velvety smooth voice. "My name is Etienne. I'm from Logoria castle. A pleasure."
I had heard of the place. Of course I had, even if I'd barely ever spoken with a vampire face to face. They always needed to mention where they were from. Like humans from any big city who were obsessed with their place of birth and thought themselves better because of it.
Etienne stepped closer and reached for my hand. It was highly unsettling how he hardly had a natural scent. His skin felt cool when I reluctantly shook his hand.
"Boris," I introduced myself. "But you already knew that. Now, here's how it's going to be Etienne from Logoria castle. You get your chance, but you get it with me. You will live here for the foreseeable future. The village people can't know what you are and you don't go near them. Do you understand?"
I narrowed my eyes. If Etienne was at all intimidated, he wasn't showing it. The vampire only raised a brow. "You're going to keep me in here?" he asked, gesturing at my house. "How long?"
"As long as I believe necessary," I said.
Etienne's eyes narrowed. "That I can't accept. It might as well be forever if I sign a blank paper like that. I demand a timeframe."
"A month," Ivana spoke up.
"I'm to be imprisoned for a month? Surely you're not that scared of me, wolves?" Etienne smiled, bearing his sharp canines seemingly on purpose. "Why, you're twice my size, Boris. You could snap my spine like a twig. But, very well. A month it is."
"Get your suitcases, vampire," I said, refusing to respond to his goading. "I'll help you get settled in for the night."
"Thank you kindly." Etienne made a mocking bow. Then turned around and headed down the road, towards a parked car.
"I don't trust this smarmy mosquito any further than I can throw him," I muttered to Ivana the moment he was out of earshot.
Ivana snorted. "You are twice his size, Boris. You could throw him pretty far."
"Do I really need to do this?"
I pulled a face. Ivana patted my shoulder sympathetically.
"You won't have to do this alone, okay? We'll figure something out, and I'll have wolves on standby in the nearby woods. They'll come immediately if you howl. In the meantime...do whatever you can to make him fail, Boris."