Chapter Twenty Three
In the Gordon house, it was apparently a tradition to sit together in the living room and listen to Mr. Gordon or Mrs. Gordon explain how they, along with the other council members, had decided to keep the supernatural races in check.
Overall, they were going to tell me why the War of Races ended the way it did.
Kendall had tried to get us out of it, more for my sake than his own. He thought I would snap at them and reveal I wasn't quite as human as everyone else in the room. I had brushed his thought process away because I was insanely curious as to why they hadn't killed off the werewolves.
In reality, we were their biggest threat during the prime of the war.
The lesser supernatural were treated like the scum on the bottom of someone's shoe, and it was what they'd grown to believe they were during the war.
So they didn't put up a fight after the war.
Now, they hid in the shadows and wished for Death to sweep them gracefully off their feet and into the afterlife.
The vampires were a threat when the war started, but quickly became desperate when humans learned how to take control of their only food source: blood, particularly human.
The humans killed off any of their own kind that were unwilling to move behind the large wall they had precariously built.
One of those unwilling people had been the president at the time, which is why there is no longer a single ruler.
Now, vampires were the working force and were paid in blood but never given enough to become truly powerful.
Then there were the shifters. Werewolves had never considered themselves to be shifters and had distanced themselves further from them after the war for their cowardice behavior.
But in technical terms and whatnot, we were shifters.
At the beginning of the war, all shifters, excluding werewolves, fled.
They completely disappeared, becoming ghosts.
Now, if one was seen, which was rarely, they were killed on sight for their act of betrayal and simply for their potential threat by humans and supernatural alike.
It seemed to be the only thing they could agree on.
Lastly were the werewolves. We had attacked the humans in full force using both deception and brutality.
Our weakness had been our loyalty. We'd sacrificed ourselves for others of our kind and other supernatural.
The war had greatly affected our numbers, and we had bowed out, tired of seeing our innocent children and women slaughtered.
Now? Now, we were captured by the wealthiest humans and kept like damn pets. But my question was why.
So now we sat here, Kendall's parents on one couch, his brothers on the other. Kendall was sitting in the sofa chair while I was on its rather uncomfortable arm. He had offered to trade places, but I'd declined. I would be the first one up and out if things grew too heated.
Kendall and I had also tried to sneak out this morning to leave as originally intended, but his family had insisted we stay and listen to the story. So we were stuck here for another day. By the looks I received from Mrs. Gordon, I wouldn't make it through the full day.
"Everyone's ready," Calyx supplied, looking the most relaxed out of us all. He caught my staring and waggled his eyebrows, laughing when I flipped him off and looked away.
"I suppose I should make sure not to skim over some of the events as I frequently do, for our guest," Mr. Gordon said, acknowledging me while his wife only huffed. She was lucky a snide comment didn't slip from her mouth instead.
"That would be appreciated," I replied with a light smile, surprised when Mr. Gordon returned mine with his own. It was odd considering yesterday, but I didn't let it faze me too much because it didn't seem to affect Kendall in any way.
"I will start with a question, then. Do you know about the council?" He asked, and I nodded my head, wondering who could possibly not know about them.
"What I expect you do not know about the council is that it is not full of humans as rumored. Each race was represented on that day, excluding the shifters, of course," he explained, letting me absorb the newly acquired information.
It was shocking as he probably predicted it would be.
If each race was represented, then why wasn't each race treated equally today?
There was no attempt to hide the caste system we had in place now.
However, more importantly, why didn't the races slaughter off the humans of the council, the Gordons in this case, and divide the land among themselves?
"The council consists of five people. My wife and I represent the humans; a well-known Lilith represents the vampires; Talon, who has not been present for decades, represents the werewolves; and a demon named Dante represents the lesser supernatural," he continued, and I frowned but didn't interrupt.
"We were a very unlikely group and still are. However, we were the only ones willing to step up and try to put an end to the war that would ultimately kill us all. So we met during the nights in an abandoned cabin we had found.
We each held an immense amount of power and persuasion over our races, which were all at a weak state. My wife and I knew we would have a difficult time convincing bloodthirsty humans to halt in their slaughtering. We were able to do so in the end, though.
During the meetings, remaining ruthless and resolute was the only way my wife and I saved the human race. They threatened to kill us, but we knew they would not. Without the humans, nothing would stop the supernatural races from competing for dominance.
Near the end of the war, we all grew tired and angry.
The vampires were desperate from being starved, the lesser supernatural were beginning to feel as though living was no longer a necessity, and the werewolves feared for their population.
However, the humans were merely tired of fighting.
That was something propaganda and pro-war speeches could easily fix for the short amount of time needed.
The story portrays my wife and me as harsh.
This is not fully correct. We knew we could not allow them to continue as before, since that would only result in another war.
Thus, we had to find a way to control each race.
The only race we could be considered as harsh to are the werewolves as that was our fault.
Lilith was a woman who looked after herself, not her fellow vampires.
It was, in fact, her idea to ration out blood to the vampires as payment.
I am sure she found a loophole in this before proposing the idea, but it was sufficient.
So we took advantage of it, creating the Blood Banks where vampires could exchange their recorded work hours for blood.
To this day, they still efficiently control the vampire population.
We then allowed Dante to come up with a resolution for his race.
Some demons can be honorable, I suppose, but Dante was not in the handful.
He despised being a lesser supernatural more than anything and proposed that we simply kill them off.
When we rejected the idea, he only spat at us and walked off.
Since they were not dependent on something as the vampires were, we could not control them as easily.
However, we created a law that made associating with them a crime and morally wrong.
It affected them much more greatly than we had intended, which only worked in our favor.
Talon was not as lenient as them. He wanted payment for the bloodshed and the lives of his wolves lost. He had no family, so threats were useless against him. We promised we would not ruin the reputation of the werewolves.
We were expecting our first child when we formed the idea of Protectors.
We had proposed that werewolves would not be seen in public, unless viewed as a Protector.
We had hoped they would be seen as valiant and heroic; however, we were young and full of hope at the time.
When Talon heard the idea he was furious, but we ignored him.
It is why he is not seen during the meetings anymore. He is still ashamed.
When our idea come into play, we were faced with reality. The first ever Protector was a volunteer named Steel. He watched over Cayne until he was killed by a hate-group. It was then we realized our idea was not portrayed with the mind we had hoped for.
The definition of Protector mutated over the years by humans and its craze. Everyone wanted one, whether they were willing or not. It was then that capturing werewolves became a game for humans as hunting deer used to be.
We tried to change it over the years, however no one was willing to listen. We eventually grew to accept our failure as we had other things to tend to such as our growing family."
As Mr. Gordon finished, they sat there in silence while I was unsure what to do. What I been told was much vaguer and didn't portray the humans as lenient. I was told they were murderous beings and unwilling to accept change. Yet, I had been told what sounded a lot closer to the truth.
Our fate had been in Talon's hands. He'd let the humans capture us and treat us like dogs. If he had been more determined and stayed, we may have had better life. He could have stepped in when the perspective of a Protector altered, yet he didn't. He was a damn coward in the worst possible way.
"Are you okay?"
I turned to meet Kendall's worried, blue eyes before giving him a reassuring smile. My perspective of the war and each race in general had changed, but other than that I would be fine. It was all just a shock to me.
I leaned close enough that my lips almost touched his ear.
"They're just lucky my Master isn't a complete asshole, even if he is arrogant.
Otherwise, I would be tearing them into shreds, including your brothers just for the hell of it," I whispered, enjoying his silent laughter afterwards.
But it quickly ended when I leaned closer and nipped at his ear.
It was an action of affection among werewolves, but I'd done it to watch Kendall's reaction. He certainly didn't find the nip very affectionate as he jumped and made a noise of disgust. He gave me a dirty look, and I couldn't help but laugh.
"I was only being affectionate, kitty cat," I teased, a grin growing on my face when his look worsened at the nickname.
He quickly grabbed a yelping me and pulled me into his lap. But we both stilled when we realized the others were staring at us.
"Affection is not meant for others to see," Mrs. Gordon voiced, satisfied she could finally say something.
"Hush, Marlene," her husband said, his eyes holding a gentle look. "They are young. Allow them to enjoy one another's company." Mrs. Gordon huffed silently but obeyed.
I coughed uncomfortably, not liking the attention. "Excuse me," I said softly, escaping the slowly suffocating room.
I darted into the room Kendall and I shared, feeling the itching need to shift. My wolf wanted out and demanded room to run as she pleased. But I knew better than to do so here.
It wasn't long before I was joined, but not by Kendall. Cayne leaned against the door frame, watching me pace from one side of the room to the other. When I finally realized he was there, I stopped and watched him.
He slowly walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge. He patted the spot beside him, and I hesitantly sat next to him, already knowing where this was going.
"We're just friends," I said, hoping to avoid his lecture, but he didn't even acknowledge me.
"When I told my mother you are doing more good than harm for my brother, I was being truthful. My brother would never have agreed to this reunion before meeting you. He would have rather been killed than stay with a family he wishes not to call his own. But he is here today because of you."
Cayne finally looked at me, but there was no appreciation in his eyes. They held something that I wasn't used to, something that scared me slightly. They held pity.
"However, you must divert the path down which you are travelling with my brother.
It is a very dangerous and complex one, one that neither of you can handle.
People are tolerant of Protectors but will certainly rebel when they hear of the Prince and Protector who are much too comfortable with one another.
You will both be hurt in the aftermath," Cayne warned, his words holding caution.
I replied, my own voice holding a different type of caution.
"I understand what you're saying, Cayne; I truly do.
But you don't know myself or Kendall nor our relationship.
We're nothing but friends, if that. So I say this as politely as I can: mind your own business, and stay the hell out of ours. "
He studied me before shaking his head and giving me a smile full of sorrow. "I just do not want to see either of you hurt; that is all. Please, take my words into consideration," he said. When I didn't reply, he said goodbye and left, leaving me in the room with my thoughts.