When I was about seven years old, I had a taste of sushi for the very first time. My mother had taken me out to an Asian restaurant and ordered some for us because at that point I was a strictly junk-food only child. To this day, I was always surprised I didn’t end up growing up to be rolled around in a wheelchair unable to walk due to weighing 500 pounds. Anyway, where I was expecting some French fries or chicken fingers, I instead got what looked like vegetables wrapped up with coconut shavings and held together with black masking tape.

“What is it?” I had asked my mother, who was smirking at me with a twinkle in her grey eyes.

“It’s called sushi. Take a bite and I’ll tell you what it is.” When I had bitten into it, I remembered it being salty, and it felt really weird on my tongue. But it wasn’t altogether bad. My mother had smiled before saying, “It’s raw fish.”

Back then, I had proceeded to spit it out and exclaim an amazing amount of disgust, but by the time I grew older, sushi was one of my favorite foods I’d ever had. So I would say I had a great deal of experience in trying new foods, but as I looked down at the dish presented before me by Aveline and Xander, made by apparently an invisible kitchen staff, I wasn’t sure I had much experience after all.

“It’s called hachis Parmentier,” Aveline told me from beside me. Xander was sitting on the other side on my left. We were in a dining area at a large rectangular table which was so shiny and unblemished that I felt it was a sin to have any dish on it at all. I didn’t know why exactly Aveline and Xander wanted to sit so close to me rather than on the opposite side of the table like normal people, but here they were, eyeballing me while I stared at this… hachis Parmentier.

“It looks like cheesecake,” I finally said quietly, feeling a bit better than before. I wasn’t a fan of cheesecake though, and yes this did look like cheesecake. But perhaps only from afar. I guess if I looked closer I could see what Aveline meant when she said it was potatoes, not cheese, and beef, not crust.

“Just taste it, I’m sure you’ll love it,” Xander coaxed me, barely tapping my arm with his elbow teasingly. I was still only in a bathrobe but so far we hadn’t come across anybody so I felt relatively safe. Well, as safe as I could feel in this situation. I sighed, digging my fork into the cheesecake-looking dish and bringing it to my mouth. And then I sighed in relief. It was delicious. And definitely not a cheesecake.

Next to the dish was a glass of water that I had requested, though I had been offered some wine. Apparently it was slightly offensive to the invisible kitchen staff to not drink wine with their amazing dish, but I wasn’t much of a drinker no matter how small the quantity of drink. So water it was. I had to say though after some food and liquids, I felt my energy start to return and felt less like curling up and crying my life away. At the same time, I felt that same energy feed the fear that wasn’t quite leaving me and send a small tremor throughout me. Something inside felt like this was similar to having a last meal. It made it slightly less enjoyable.

“How long have you two been, um, together?” I asked shyly. I knew they referred to each other as mates, but something about the word sounded too animalistic to me. And it didn’t quite explain what exactly they were to each other except obviously a couple. They glanced across me to look at each other and I looked from one to the other, noticing that intimate look in their eyes that they had each time they met each other’s.

“We were mated in 1952, back in Chicago when I was in the Bennett coterie,” Xander said softly, as though the memory were the most precious thing he could think of, “Aveline was in this coterie, the Bryant coterie, and was in our territory on some business or another. She walked into our headquarters to offer our Master his greeting for permission to access the territory and when I saw her…”

Aveline smiled happily, “Love at first sight. We’ve been inseparable since.” There was an awkward pause following the statement. Well, awkward for me being that I was in the middle of their eye-sex session. I stared for a moment, blinked, then coughed.

“Was it hard to switch from Bennett to Bryant coterie,” I asked curiously, “If… if that’s what you did, or are you still with the Bennett?” I was confusing myself quickly. The whole coterie business was confusing to me, but I guess in a way it did make sense. I was just surprised this level of society existed; a supernatural society.

“You’re right. I’m a part of the Bryant coterie now. But no, it isn’t easy,” Xander confessed, moving his gaze from Aveline to me, “It’s a little complicated. Members of a coterie are bonded, I believe Aveline told you. So to move from one to the other, you have to break bonds which only happen if a Master breaks it. It can be either your Master or another Master, though if another Master besides your own does it, it’s an act of treason. There’s a whole process to go through just to get permission to do this. It’s a whole mess, but one of the easiest ways to be approved is to have a Mate in a different coterie. It’s like… it’s like becoming a citizen of another country and how marriage makes it easier in some cases.”

“Plus, it’s really painful,” Aveline continued where Xander broke off in a hushed voice, “When you’re in a coterie, you can feel everyone. You can’t read their minds or control them, but it’s like they’re a part of you. And when you’re broken off, it hurts so much. Xander didn’t want me to feel it so he did it for me.” She reached across to pet his hair lovingly, though there was a small pang of sadness in her eyes. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the bonds and pain involved being that I hadn’t ever felt anything like what they described. It pulled at my heart to know people like them have.

“What would have happened if your Master had denied it?” I asked quietly.

Xander looked back at Aveline, pain flashing over his face almost as though the thought terrified him. “It would be even more complicated, too complicated to go into detail. There are options, but none are good. The best one would be… appealing to the Royals,” He explained slowly, “Which as you’ve heard, their numbers are pretty slim. Perhaps in the past it would be the easiest route, but now it would be near impossible. They can break bonds easily, though, if they deem fit. They can force bonds even, which are something not even Masters can do, but they rarely ever do that. It’s not healthy to be in a coterie that doesn’t want you.”

I had completely devoured my food and was feeling plenty better now. I thought the whole system of coteries, masters, and royals were fascinating. But I could tell the details would probably take hours to explain and that was time Xander and Aveline obviously didn’t want to spend explaining things.

“Is there a book on all of this?” I asked curiously, “It’s really very interesting.”

Aveline raised her eyebrows in surprise. “There is. I’ll have someone grab some literature for you later, my curious little tiger.” She brushed her fingers through my hair almost affectionately. I blushed, but I ignored it. I preferred affection over torture.

“Are the Royals scary?” I suddenly asked absently. There was a silence in response. I looked up to see both Xander and Aveline were looking at me with hesitant expressions.

“It… well,” Xander began, but faltered, “Are we scary?”

I stared at him openly for a full minute, taking in his normal looking face. Then I tilted my head to the side, observing his shadowed manly chin, blonde hair, soft green-blue eyes, and thick pink lips. Sure, he had big arms and obviously muscled frame, but a human could appear like that. Maybe not as beautiful as him and Aveline were though. They were supernaturally beautiful. But without the fangs and bleeding black eyes, I had to say they weren’t actually scary. At the same time, they were technically holding me hostage and only treating me kindly while I was on death row.

“I guess… you’re not,” I responded slowly, “But the others… the girl, Corentine and… and that man…” I started shaking without even realizing it, the fear of just remembering them coming back to me. Xander reached out and grabbed my hand, rubbing the back of it soothingly.

“They’re just like us, Elysia,” He told me carefully, “They’re just angrier than us. And the Royals are the same; only more powerful… they can be scary when they want to be. You shouldn’t worry, though; you’ll probably never meet any Royals.” It was meant to be reassuring, but for the reasoning behind his words. I was going to die before I met anybody much less Royals.

“Let’s go back to the room, I’ll bet your clothes are here,” Aveline said happily, moving to stand up. I pushed myself away from the table. Xander suddenly reached out and grabbed Aveline around the waist affectionately, pressing his lips against her smile. I rolled my eyes, but the sight made me feel a bit more relaxed so my shaking passed. I moved to the door of the dining room ahead of them, knowing they’d follow just as soon as they were done making out.

When I opened the door, a hand suddenly snatched my neck and threw me to the ground viciously. I screamed, terrified of the sight of Corentine baring her fangs at me. Her long blonde hair was up in a ponytail and her black clothes aided in making her face strikingly dangerous. I could feel her rage burning through my body with her expression, her black demon eyes demanding my death.

“You fucking bitch,” She snarled, making a move towards me. I screamed again, but Corentine didn’t reach me a second time. She was thrown back into the hall so powerfully that it was as though she was flying. Aveline stood where Corentine had just been, her eyes no longer hazelnut brown but black as the abyss. I would have been horrified, except that Aveline was standing in a protective stance in front of me and her features were facing where Corentine was.

Corentine didn’t stay down long. In fact, she seemed to only land on the ground for half a second before she was back, throwing herself at Aveline like a hurricane. I had never before seen a supernatural fight, but it was absolutely horrifying. Corentine slammed into Aveline, who turned as she connected, and they both rolled into the ground with sickening cracking sounds of broken bones. Aveline wasn’t alone for long because suddenly Xander appeared, snatching Corentine by her hair and ripping her off of Aveline. He then gripped her by her upper arms and kept her captured. I would have thought with the power she showed that she could pull herself out of the grip, but she only managed to struggle slightly without any results.

“Control yourself, Corentine,” Xander roared, his fangs visible as well. His muscled rippled threateningly as Corentine glared at him. “Our Master has ordered her unharmed until Darsana gives the go-ahead. Do you really dare to ignore a direct order?”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about orders,” Corentine screeched before glaring at me, “She killed my mate. I want her dead. I want her dead right now! Not prancing around eating our food! I want all of them dead. I don’t care if it means expulsion from the coterie and an execution!”

“She’s in our care until ordered otherwise,” Aveline growled dangerously, “She’s mine and I will die to protect her. Are you willing to kill one of your own, too?”

Corentine huffed, obviously taken aback by Aveline’s statement. “They’ve killed so many! What about Leah? Kendrik? Nicholas? Adelaide! Countless others! So many, all by her kind, and you’d sacrifice your life for her?”

“I will, until Jacobi says otherwise,” Aveline responded determinedly. Corentine looked from her to Xander and back at her again. Corentine’s eyes bled back to white and her natural color of light brown. It was significantly less frightening than her demonic face.

“And you, Xander?” She asked, appalled.

He looked at Aveline, his serious expression softening easily. “She’s my mate. I stand by her decision,” He told Corentine simply. “The Monet girl is ours, if you attack her, you attack us. If you want to kill her, you’ll have to kill us first. And even then if you do manage to kill both of us and then kill her, you face expulsion and execution. It’s your choice, Corentine.”

She turned her head to glare at me on the ground. I had the bathrobe hugged tightly against my body, a weird mixture of feelings flooding through me. One part of me was terrified because I had just been attacked again and this girl obviously wanted to rip me apart no matter who else wanted what. But another part of me was shocked, in wonder, and filled with something like gratitude because these two strangers were offering their lives to defend me. It was more than I had planned for; help to escape would be nice, but to risk your life?

“Fine,” Corentine snarled, “I’ll wait for Darsana, but don’t think for even a second that she’ll spare the Monet girl’s life. If I have my way, Jacobi will let me take her last seconds after he’s left her with only an inch of her life remaining. I will roll in her blood and laugh for centuries.” Xander released his grip on her, making me hold my breath in terror, but Corentine only disappeared without harming me as promised.

There was a moment of quiet. Then Aveline said, “She’s sooo dramatic. Come on; let’s go see if your clothes are ready, little tiger.” She held out her hand for me to grab, which I did with a minimum amount of hesitation. And then I hugged her quite suddenly without even knowing I was going to do so.

“Thank you,” I whispered, trembling all over as the adrenaline began to seep away.