I was immediately bombarded with questions of what the future was like, what was new or what had changed. I did my best to answer them, describing the modern technology like cars, computers, phones, even airplanes, and more.
Kade was silent, though, and stood back watching me with a tender look I didn't recognize. It made heat rush to my cheeks and I quickly tried to distract myself with focusing on answering more questions from Odis and Maeve.
Finally, looking astonished, they ran out of things to ask and Kade decided to get back to business.
"Is it true you're Eliza's great-granddaughter?" he asked quietly, sending a look of shock over Odis's and Maeve's faces.
I nodded.
"Is it true you hold the twisted bloodline?" he continued.
"I don't know. If what I read in my great-grandmother's journal was true, about the spell and all, I think so," I replied in a weak voice.
"Journal?"
I took a deep breath and began to explain to him and the others everything, while Odis began fixing up my shoulder.
I told them about the moving situation and the attic, as well as the glass and my injuries. I told them about the broken floor and finding my grandmother's collection of studies, as well as her journal and its entries. Then I told them about the coin and me passing out before ending up in the alley way.
They all listened with interest and I could see Odis and Maeve boiling up with questions, but Kade seemed to prevail.
"Thomas was a good man," he said, since I had also mentioned Thomas. "It was like any other day, he was our leader at the time, and although strict, he was very caring of others. Out of nowhere, a young lady comes in, begging for someone to help her. According to Thomas, she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He agreed to help her and we soon figured out her story.
She was on the run from a group of supernaturals we have been hunting for the longest of times, the Abominations. They're mainly gargoyles, like Xur, and demons, along with other rogues who care nothing for human life, nor us. She said they wanted her blood, that it was some sort of mixture of various bloodlines and its power was... overwhelming. What they wanted with it, we don't know. But Thomas helped her, he fell in love, and he got himself killed. Eliza was devastated when she returned pregnant with his child. She told us about the spell, though, and how it worked. But... to tell you the truth, we never expected the baby to live and have a child of her own, and so on."
I listened thoughtfully and pain-heartedly as Kade finished. I'd had enough of the tragic stories about my grandmother but they just never seemed to end.
"Is it true no one knew what kind of supernatural she was?" I asked, quietly.
"Yes, it is true. But her abilities were amazing." He paused and seemed to fall deep into thought. "Are you sure you've never exhibited any type of unusual behavior? Nothing... supernatural?" His eyes studied me hard, as if my actions would tell everything.
I look down at my bandaged hand and tried to think back. Nothing came to mind.
"Besides my eyes being purple...no," I answered.
He nodded slowly and sat on the table with his arms crossed, just as Odis finished with my shoulder and moved on down to my shin.
"It's possible for some supernaturals to exhibit late behavior, even in their late teens," Maeve chipped in, not making me feel any better.
Kade nodded slowly again and continued to study me with blue eyes, which made my chest tighten with God knows what.
"I've never seen a supernatural with purple eyes...," I heard him mumbled under his breath and to himself.
"I know, I'm a freak," I groaned, rolling my eyes in addition.
His studious gaze flashed with empathy and he shook his head. "You're not a freak."
I tried to believe him but my mind wouldn't cooperate. It was hard to convince me of being normal when I'd just found out I was an unknown supernatural with various mixes of bloodlines coursing through my veins.
How could I not be a freak?
"We're willing to look after you, though,"Â Maeve added with a smile.
"But you're under my watch," Kade corrected with a sudden harshness that made my skin tingle. "I found you. Now you're my responsibility."
Odis had just finished bandaging up my foot when he turned to look at Kade. "What? You don't trust us?" he asked with more hurt than humor.
Kade arched an eyebrow at him as if surprised.
Odis looked back at his work and mumbled a quick "never mind" before clamping his mouth shut again.
I didn't know what that was about and I didn't really care. My thoughts were too distant at the moment to be thinking about why Kade had just technically claimed me.
Five minutes later, just as Odis finished with my shin and foot, there was a small knock on the door and a younger girl entered. The top layer of her long, light brown hair was pulled back into a French braid and was accompanied by a small, gold-polished headband. She wore a short, black lace dress which made her bright green eyes pop and her pale skin appear even paler.
She smiled meekly at me and I noticed her carrying a white dress shirt in her small hands, which she tossed over to Kade.
"Forbes told me to give this to you. He said not to ruin anymore good shirts," she explained to him. Her voice was filled with innocence and youth.
I began to return a smile when I noticed something ruffling her hair, just above the small of her back. It seemed small and animal-like, based on its movements, and I figured it was some sort of cat or ferret.
But as it reached her shoulder and peeped over, I gasped in disbelief and horror.
Some... reptilian creature with a pointed snout and beady eyes stared me down curiously. It had small horn-like truffles sprouting on the top of its head and a long neck leading to a rather thick body. Its lengthy tail wrapped around the girl's neck and lay causally on her other shoulder, while it flapped a pair of small wings that barely avoided her face.
Although something I wouldn't want as a pet, its aqua scaled skin was rather beautiful and I couldn't help but stare back.
"What is that?" I asked, accidentally letting the rude-sounding question escape my mouth. I looked around at everyone, hoping I hadn't gone completely insane since the girl seemed to be unbothered by the creature.
She didn't even seem to notice it was there.
"It's a dragon," Kade informed me, also seeming quite causal of the creature's presence. "Kiki, here, is what we call a 'dragon tamer'. She's able to control these things, tame their feral behavior, and also communicate with them quite well. No other supernatural possess that ability."
My mouth eventually fell open and my eyebrows pinched in disbelief.
"You mean... dragons are real, too?!" I yelped, meeting the turquoise eyes of the so called "dragon" again. It tilted its head slightly and chirped lightly at me.
I hope that meant it liked me.
"Yes. And they're quite fascinating creatures," Kiki answered, her voice as smooth as silk. It was so soft, I could almost drift off to sleep just listening to her speak.
"But they tend to live in the shadows," she continued, "just as we do. The smaller ones like Cecil here, are far more common and can be found throughout the city. The bigger ones, though, are extremely rare and-so I've heard-almost impossible to tame. No one knows where they live, exactly, due to that rarity. All I know is whatever part of Earth they've decided to inhabit, it's far away from human civilization. But some say Salazar's been able to find and tame a great big one; one the size of a sky scraper. I'd both, like and not like, to see it."
Kiki seemed to be getting jittery as she spoke. Her eyes flashed with excitement and I could tell dragons were one of her favorite things to talk about. But the information she shared led me onto something completely different.
"Speaking of," I began, "Who's Salazar?"
The room fell into an eerie silence as everyone seemed to hold their breath, including Kade who broke eye contact with me to stare down at his feet. I could see something like sadness, maybe, or anger painting his face.
And I instantly regretted asking the question.
Maeve also seemed to notice his sudden tension and flashed me a crooked, but reassuring, smile.
"Salazar is a... a demon that really doesn't have a good past with the Freelancers. He's caused so much destruction that everyone flinches when the name is even mentioned," she explained, eyeing Kade carefully.
Her eyes suddenly drooped with sympathy and grief.
"He's... taken a lot of lives... caused a lot of agony for us and others. It's really... heartbreaking to see the damage he's caused. Awhile back, Kade and a few of us managed to condemn him and a good percentage of the Abominations back to the Underworld; or Hell, some prefer to call it. But apparently, he's managed to crawl back."
Everyone in the room seemed to be focusing on Kade, including Kiki's dragon, Cecil. His jaws were slightly clenched and it didn't take a genius to figure out he wanted someone to change the subject.
Obviously, there was more to this story than Maeve was telling me.
As if on cue, the door to the conference room squeaked open and another reptilian creature (another dragon) poked its head in through the small crack.
This one was similar to Cecil, but instead of aqua scales, it was painted with beautiful, candy red ones and had a pair of bright orange eyes.
It chirped and tilted its head at Kiki, as if trying to communicate with her. She giggled and stretched out her arm, which the dragon used as a landing perch when it took flight towards her.
Looking back at me, her eyes seemed to sparkle brighter.
"This is Stella," she told me. "Stella this is...,"
"Bella," I answered when she paused for my name.
"Bella," she repeated cheerfully.
Stella chirped at me and flapped her wings, which I took as her waving.
I waved back and couldn't help but smile at the creature. Dragons didn't seem that bad. But then I remembered Kiki mentioning the bigger ones which I'm sure I wouldn't have the same opinion about.
All fell quiet again when I noticed the girl's smile suddenly starting to fade.
Maeve's calm look became uneasy.
Odis became tense.
And Kade became more angry.
Odis tilted his head to one side as if trying extra hard to hear something the rest of us didn't. But then Maeve did the same and so did Kade.
Cecil and Stella both made low, guttural sounds and shifted their feet on Kiki's shoulder and arm.
Her nervous look, along with everyone else's, made my spine tingle with something indescribable and I quickly shot my gaze to Kade, hoping he'd explain what was going on; what I was missing out on.
But no one said anything.
Kade's eyes suddenly went from crystal blue to a raging neon orange in a matter of milliseconds and he jumped down from the table, balling his hands into fists.
I heard Odis emit a low, dog-like growl as the pupils of his amber eyes constricted into tiny black dots.
Growl... plus amber eyes... plus a supernatural creature. Did that mean Odis was a werewolf?
I glanced over at Maeve who had her lips pursed together with a look that proved she was about to lose her temper. Her vibrant eyes dulled into a menacing army green and her crimson nails tapped anxiously on the wooden table, adding to the eerie vacancy of voices from both inside and outside of the conference room.
I was so confused but I didn't want to be the first one to speak.
Cecil and Stella had started squawking slightly while Kiki tried to shush them, also seeming to sense something horribly wrong.
"So... you guys hear it too?" Maeve finally spoke up as she shifted her jaw uncomfortably with anger.
Odis growled again but didn't speak.
Kade also let out a growl, a human-sounding one, and twisted his neck to pop out its stiffness. "Yeah," he mumbled more to himself than to Maeve.
They all glared heavily at the door, as if expecting something to barge in any second.
And I half expected something to do so, also, considering I wasn't the only freak here or... out there.
But nothing barged in, instead, the only thing I noticed was the sound of heavy glass breaking at the front of the bar and a loud, familiar screech.