"I am here because I am picking a side," said Greyson forcing himself to calm down. Richards had pushed him into the deep end, but he was determined to swim.
"Oh?" asked Viktor raising his eyebrow to look at the man. "And what do you have to offer us?" he continued, not really putting the human in his eyes at all. As far as he was concerned, this was a monster matter and best left to monsters.
"I have the information that General Richards has shared with me," said Greyson looking at the man across from him. "And I am sure that I can get even more out of him."
Viktor snorted at that idea. "I don't think that that information is even important in the grand scheme of things," said the man truthfully. Before Greyson could say another word, the door to the study opened, and in walked a very sleepy Natalia in fleece pajamas with a black housecoat over top. Both men jumped to their feet as the woman shuffled towards the desk, rubbing her eyes. Her long black hair was twisted on top of her head into a bun and she had bunny slippers on her feet, not the most formal of outfits for this meeting.
"Why are you awake?" asked Viktor as he pulled her into his arms and placed her on his lap as he and Greyson both took their seats again. She simply glared at the man as he wrapped his arms around her.
----
Not bothering to answer Viktor's dumb question, I turned my attention to the other man in the room. "Why are you here at this ungodly hour?" I asked, letting out a yawn behind my hand that was big enough to crack my jaw.
"Picking sides," he said looking between me and Viktor. "And I am choosing yours," he added after a minute of silence.
I will fully admit that my mind was not fully working right now as another yawn escaped me. "Ok," I said before another one could overtake me. I had felt Viktor getting out of bed and, even though he assured me that he would be right back, I was not able to fall asleep after. Figuring that I might as well get out of bed to see what was going on, I didn't expect this to turn into a full meeting with a General.
I felt Viktor's attention swing from Greyson back to me, his eyes burrowing into my skin. I was sure that if I looked at him, there would be a look of disapproval on his face, which was why I didn't look. Letting out another jaw-breaking yawn, I curled myself in a ball on his lap and rested my head just under his chin.
"If they can use humans, why can't we?" I asked confusion in my voice. "I mean, it can't be breaking any laws if they have been doing it for years under the radar." I could feel Viktor stiffen under me as if I was accusing him of not doing his job. Giving him a gentle kiss on the underside of his chin I tried to reassure him.
"It is by no means your fault," I said and I rubbed his arm up and down. "But let's face it, they used humans, and if we are going to try to put an end to all of this, then we will need our own humans. Otherwise, we would be the ones breaking the laws."
"What are these laws that you are talking about?" asked Greyson, leaning forward in his seat and staring at me. I opened a single eye to look at the man in front of me. His thread with still one of the most pristine threads that I had ever seen in anyone. Well, except for the Van Helsings. I hadn't seen a single Van Helsing with any rot on their thread.
"The Laws of the Six Houses," said Viktor grudgingly as I was too lost in my head thinking about the Van Helsing threads that I forgot what the question even was. "The six monster Houses created a set of laws that every monster had to follow. If they didn't, it would bring forth a Hunt and the Van Helsings would have permission to hunt them down and kill them."
Greyson looked even more confused at that statement. "Van Helsings? I thought that there was only one of you."
"Oooh, look at you doing your research," I said with a smile on my face. I might refuse to open my eyes, but that didn't mean that I was completely asleep. "Each House has hundreds of members in every city and even a few towns around the world," I continued, trying to give him the same ground rules that I had given Mike when he became my Beta. "However, even though there are over a thousand House Heads, there can only be one that is considered to be the strongest of all. They are generally referred to as simply 'the'."
"Okay," said Greyson, his complete focus on me as he tried to understand what I was saying. "So you are saying that there are thousands of monsters in the world."
I couldn't hold back the laugh that threatened to escape. "More like almost 9 million of them," I chuckled, opening my eyes to look at the man. "House Gypsy has about 1 million people in it alone. Not including the ones that have been dropping dead lately," I said, waving off the fact that almost half of that number had been killed in the past few months.
Greyson's eyes widened. "So if that is the case, then there has to be a lot of Houses." I hummed, trying to think of the sheer number of Houses that were out there. "Yeah," was all I said, not able to keep the numbers straight. "But I am THE Tesalor, THE Head of House Gypsy. I am the strongest out of all of those that are recognized as part of my House. Viktor is THE Van Helsing, the most powerful of all the Van Helsings in the world."
I waved my hand like the intricacies of our world were nothing more than a mere inconvenience. And truth be told, they were.
"Anyways, you are willing to come over to our side and help us against the demons?" I asked looking at the man in front of me as I continued to rest my head on Viktor's chest. Taking in a deep breath of his scent, I rubbed my head against all that deliciousness.
"Demons!" shouted Greyson as he stood up so fast, he managed to knock his chair over, creating a huge bang. The door to my study was flung open as a team of Knights came swarming in, their guns at the ready, ready to defend us. Viktor merely waved his hand to dismiss the men.
"Sorry!" I yelled at their retreating back. "We'll try to keep it down!"
Greyson turned around to pick up his chair, now that there were no more men holding guns to him, and then sat down.
"Demons?" he repeated, this time in a much softer tone.
I looked at Viktor. "I hadn't gotten that far," he admitted as he gave me a kiss on my forehead. "But yes, demons. The one that she killed this morning was a demon on Earth, brought forth by Jenny probably and I have no idea how many others managed to pass the barrier between our worlds and theirs."
Ooh! I knew the answer to that! "6,870,459… well… 8 now," I said, forgetting to subtract the one that I killed yesterday.
Greyson looked at me like I had grown a second head. "Demons?"