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FOUR
The library was phenomenal. The first thing to catch her eye was the dark, rich red carpet spread like a sea of blood across the floor. How appropriate, Harlee thought.
Duncan and Adrian had taken her from the residence to the elevator and up to the corporate floors housing the operation known as Dark Moon. Apparently the lycan and vampire headquarters was also where many of the vampires lived, so corporate shared space with housing, with housing located underground and corporate aboveground. The building was located outside the city on several thousand acres of private land. Very secure, very private.
The library was filled with floor to ceiling bookshelves, antique Queen Anne furniture and glossy cherry wood tables, where they now sat with thick volumes of gold encrusted books spread open for her perusal.
What she wouldn’t give for her laptop right now so she could make notes of everything she saw and heard. The lineage of both the vampires and the lycans was astounding, going back multiple centuries.
“So what you’re telling me is that vampires and lycans have lived among humans for at least ten centuries?”
“As far as we can tell. The history books only go back so far,” Duncan explained. “For so long much of our history wasn’t documented for fear it would fall into the wrong hands.”
“Human hands, you mean.”
Duncan nodded. “The elders who started these volumes wrote as far back as they could recall, but it’s estimated that we have been here since the time of Christ.”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
“It’s not like the movies, Harlee,” Duncan said with a smirk. “Actually, we’re very similar to humans in a lot of ways.”
Harlee choked back a snort. “How do you figure that?”
“We look the same, we run businesses, we raise families.”
“You drink blood, you shapeshift into wolves…” she finished. “That’s hardly the same as humans.”
Duncan laughed. “Oh lass, you sound just like them. Humans are meat eaters, just as lycans are.”
“Yeah, but we tend to avoid eating each other.”
“Meat is meat. Granted, at first our people didn’t discern, but eventually they figured out that eating humans not only called unwanted attention to themselves, but there were much tastier things to eat. Long ago, lycans stopped eating humans. Now, only the occasional rogue will do that.”
“That’s the freaking understatement of the year,” she replied, shaking her head at their rationalizations. She wished she could reveal what she knew but then they’d know who she worked for, so she had to bite her lip and keep her mouth shut about the atrocities she’d seen photographs of. Atrocities committed by vampires and lycans. Instead she turned to Adrian. “What about blood?” Harlee asked. “Legend says you need it to survive.”
Adrian nodded. “That’s true to a certain extent. We eat food, just as you do. But we drink blood to heighten our senses and increase our strength.”
“Human blood.” Harlee fought back a shudder. How could she possibly be a hybrid of both species when the very thought of drinking blood or tearing flesh from bone made her nauseous?
“Not necessarily. While it’s true that the blood of a human is the richest and enhances our powers the most, any blood will do, and just as Duncan said, vampires stopped doing humans, well, the unwilling ones anyway, long ago. And we never drink lycan blood. It makes us sick,” he finished with a direct look at Duncan.
Duncan shrugged. “Good thing, too. There’d have been massacre otherwise. It’s to your advantage that vampire hides are tougher than buffalo and taste like burned leather. Otherwise the lycans would have obliterated your species centuries ago.”
“Kiss my ass, lycan. There’s no way a bunch of Neanderthal wolves could defeat us,” Adrian said.
“Up yours,” Duncan replied.
Then they grinned at each other. Harlee rolled her eyes at both of them, wondering if testosterone was universal for all species. It had to be, since it appeared to be the key to men acting like idiots.
Listening to the two of them insulting each other made her laugh for the first time since she’d been there. Once again she found it difficult to reconcile these people with the information the government spouted about vampires and lycans.
“So if not from humans, where do you get your blood?” she asked Adrian.
“One of Dark Moon’s enterprises is cattle ranching. Cattle blood is rich enough to enhance our powers. If we could only keep the lycans from hunting and eating them we’d have a copious food source.”
“Hey now,” Duncan objected. “Hunting and killing prey is ingrained. We can’t help it. Besides, there’s plenty of cattle to go around.”
Admittedly, Harlee could sit and listen to both of them talk for hours. Not only was the information fascinating, but Duncan’s Scottish brogue was like beautiful music, and Adrian’s husky tones were like a caress on her skin. Her senses were in overload just from their voices. Before she started drooling, she turned away and focused on the volumes of history spread out on the table before her.
