Page 55 of Rock Bottom
Why did it feel as if a piece of my heart was walking out the door?
“Kirsten and I have brownies about to come out of the oven,” Cora said from behind me, while I stood in the middle of the room staring at the door like an idiot, “and some mint ice cream to go with them. Want to join us?”
I nodded. Brownies and ice cream were just what the doctor ordered.
“Yes. Ignore the way I’m dressed — I seem to be in total girl mode right now.”
Cora smiled. “I know.”
I must’ve looked confused, so she touched her nose, and I nodded. She could scent the difference, just like Julian.
Well, it was nice the shapeshifters and vampires knew I wasn’t making it up. Too bad so many humans didn’t get it, but I guess that just sucked for them.
I wanted to ask how often humans and vampires fall in love with each other, but I didn’t know if I’d insult Cora by calling her a human, so I considered how I could word the question. Well into our brownies-and-ice-cream girl talk, I finally asked, “How often does the thing happen where a sunshine person falls in love with someone who can’t be in the sun?”
“I mean, probably less than a thousandth of humans, but maybe twenty or even thirty percent of vampires? Possibly more. I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention enough to know the exact percentage, but it isn’t that unusual.”
“My daughter fell in love with a vampire,” Kirsten said.
“And a lion,” Cora said. “Like mother like daughter.”
Kirsten shook her head at Cora and told me. “Lauren helps run his businesses, and they live together. She goes to sleep between two and four in the morning and sleeps seven or eight hours. The lion acts as the shapeshifter liaison, smoothing things over between the animal groups and vampires, which is more than a full-time job, but he handles it well.”
“I’m busy managing my wolves,” Cora said, “but I handle any issues between wolves and the coterie. Nathan handles problems with the cats. Marco has someone else who handles issues with the other animal groups, but it’s a much smaller job with the two biggest apex predators handled in-house, so to speak.”
“You’ll probably do better talking to Ronnie tomorrow night, who handles an outside job,” Kirsten said. “Your hours are more flexible than hers, but I think she’ll be able to give you more pointers than Cora.”
“Mostly, I guess I want to know about…” I fiddled with my ice cream a minute and then just spit my question out. “He tells me he’s stayed out of my head. I mean, I know Marco has been all in it, and it didn’t hurt. I couldn’t even tell he was looking through my memories, which is totally creepy, right? But I get the feeling there are extra vampire things, enjoyable things, convenience things, if I invite Julian in?”
“I can keep Marco out, which I now know was unbelievably frustrating for him back in the beginning,” Cora said. “Big Master Vampire is used to knowing what everyone around him is thinking, and here he was, falling in love with me, and couldn’t see even a tiny bit into my head. He had to go by scent alone.” She grinned. “Poor, poor vampire.”
I laughed, and she said, “At a certain point, though, either I trusted him or I didn’t, right?”
“Plus,” Kirsten said, “he knew I’d make him the sorriest vampire on the planet if he hurt my best friend even a tiny bit, so letting him in wasn’t actually all that risky, since he was also well aware of that fact.”
“Serious talk,” Cora said. “Marco is aware you’re important to Kirsten. We know the two of you already know each other, and have known each other for years. Since I didn’t know you were on friendly terms with her before you arrived, I can guess what that relationship is, though Marco won’t have to guess.”
Which meant I may as well just say it, so no one felt as if they had to talk around it. “Right, she was my therapist for years, but now we’re working on being friends.”
“Nothing to work on,” Kirsten said. “We’re friends now. Period.”
I nodded. “Right.”
“I dated a vampire for a while,” Kirsten said. “It didn’t turn out well for me. He lied about something big, and then turned into an immature baby when I broke up with him despite the fact he was thousands of years old.” She rolled her eyes. “Water under the bridge, but the point is, I was super careful about letting him past my walls, and in my case, it was a good call.”
“How do you keep them out?”
Kirsten looked at Cora, who said, “We’ll invite Sophia to dinner tomorrow. She’s the shield expert. The simple explanation is that you just have to think it, to start. So, imagine your entire body in a great big mylar balloon, but then change it from mylar to something you think is super protective. Kevlar, or a brick wall, stainless steel, whatever. It’s about your beliefs, so the substance varies by person. It’s best not to share whatever it is, though, because whoever tries to get past it can do so with whatever would get them through that fabric, metal, or whatever.”
“That’s it,” I said. “Just imagine it, and it’s there?”
“Sounds simple, but it isn’t,” Kirsten said. “It’s like the process toddlers go through when potty training. They have to learn to hold that muscle all the time, and if they forget, they pee themselves. Same thing, you have to learn to hold it all the time without thinking about it.”
I nodded, understanding the problem. “Okay, thanks for the explanation, and thanks for inviting me into your home.”
“When we built it,” Kirsten said, “we had an idea we might someday have a vampire spending time here. Marco lived in New York at the time, but we knew he was trying to do a territory swap to move here. I never thought he’d live here full time, bringing a few flock members and enough staff to help him run his empire, but it’s fine that he has.”
“We didn’t know Mordecai and Nathan would be moving in, either,” Cora said.
