The Vampire And Her Human Mate

28| The committee

She brought Bronson with her and left Raven to stay with Beau.

The office was in the Empire State Building, but they had no opportunity to admire the architecture nor the view.

"Hello." A handsome honey-blonde-haired woman greeted them. "I am Carruthers. It is great to meet you Ms Larsen-Boucher."

Bianca shook her hand, feeling something underlying within the woman.

There was a quiet pause as Bronson and Carruthers regarded each other. "Please," the woman said distractedly, "come this way."

Bianca gave Bronson a questioning look. He just pointed at the center of his chest. Bianca understood he was saying Carruthers was also part dragon. Interesting. Not many dragons stayed in the human realm.

The meeting room was standard and she met the other two, both men- one Latino and the other white- both as handsome as you would expect from vampires. They both seemed to be pure blood, but Bianca knew that wasn't always the case. Like with her.

"Ms-" Carruthers started.

"Please, just call me Bianca."

"Bianca," a smile, "we were happy you reached out. We have wanted to have a meeting with you for a while but Cordon has explained you had a long backlog of assignments. Additionally, he gave us the impression you were already spoken for."

Bianca took a second to absorb all this. What the hell?

"Well, I am often tied up in work." Bianca tried to be vague and not contradict anything but she had so many questions but that would tip her hand that she didn't know what was going on.

"Yes," the swarthy man, Mateo, spoke. "We have a number of eligible suitors and we have wanted to do more traditional alliances as they seem to stick better with our... old world counterparts."

"Right, well, I have to admit this is far more of a fact finding- I haven't broached the subject with the council yet. They may well want to be a party to the choice I make."

It made her sick to pretend she was looking for a mate here. And she hadn't expected them to be champing at the bit to marry her to someone. She had always assumed she would be considered a liability. Maybe the Americans didn't care about her history.

"Of course," Carruthers said. They really did seem hungry for this.

"I would have thought our ties were going well though," Bianca ventured. "I was under the impression Cordon was progressing the agreement that Vigo had put in place."

There was a glance between the three of them. Richard spoke this time. "Of course, but we want to show our allegiance in any way we can. We know we can benefit each other greatly."

~*~

Richard walked her out. Bianca had an arm of information sheets on the committee's proposed suitors. She walked swiftly, ready to be away from this place.

"My son is one of the shortlisted suitors." He was watching her intently.

"It's impressive how quickly you could collate these."

Richard's face barely showed any variation in expression as he talked. "We actually had this list established a year ago but Cordon had said you were already betrothed. I assume that has fallen through."

"Oh that. Yeah it was not an equitable match." She lied easily but inside she was confused. Why wouldn't Cordon not just sell her to be the highest bidder?

~*~

Click.

Raven took the photo of Beau and went straight to their laptop and finished the layout of the fake passport.

Beau watched as the vampire worked swiftly.

"You do this alot?" Beaue asked.

Raven flashed a beautiful smile. "We're experts at slipping in and out of countries."

The sound of the printer was very loud, so Raven directed Beau to move to the front of the plane where they took a seat with Bronson. Bianca had been gone only half an hour and Beau couldn't help the nerves he felt, his leg bouncing up and down.

"Is it okay if I ask..." Beau trailed off, not sure if it was appropriate to question someone's bloodline. Was that not an okay thing to do?

"You want to ask about my demon heritage?"

"And my dragon?" Bronson asked.

He could only nod in answer.

Raven didn't look offended in the slightest. "My mother is a demon, my parents fated." They shrugged their delicate shoulders. "My father is of the house of Jin, they rule the eastern continent-," They tilted their head and added, "Asia."

"What does being a demon mean?"

"It's a very broad term. My mother is a fiend- they are similar to humans but with elemental magic- most demons do- fire element the strongest." When Beau raised an eyebrow, Raven just grinned. "Unfortunately, it seems that vampire genetics really suck all that potential out."

Beau just nodded and absorbed the information. "Does your mum... have horns?"

Raven laughed very prettily. "No. Though, there are some that do. Fiends look pretty much like humans. There are goblins, succubus and incubus, tiefling- they have horns... um... I'm sure there are more."

"Is the Netherrealm our hell?"

Raven shook their head, "it's just another place- not a very nice place. It's been war-torn for a long time- that was why my mother fled and came here- where she met my father. Neither of them are very nice- I don't speak to either of them anymore."

Beau gave a sympathetic look. Raven didn't seem affected by the estrangement of their parents.

So not hell, but maybe it inspired it, he thought.

Bronson took over. "My father is a vampire and my mother was a dragon shifter. Dragons are from Therien."

"Bianca told me, where the werewolves, Werecats and warlocks are from."

Bronson nodded. "My mother was here for a diplomatic contingent- she was a warrior sent here to guard the old Dragon King." He sounded proud. "She stayed when she met my father, her fated mate." He went quiet for a few moments. "She died when I was young- an assassination attempt on my father and me."

"I'm sorry," Beau said softly.

Bronson just shook off any sadness he felt. "Unfortunately, I cannot shift but I can feel my dragon. It is there. I also cannot yield a flame, though that is common for dragon shifters."

"There's perks of being a vampire, though, right?" Beau asked.

Both Raven and Bronson flashed toothy smiles.

"Yeah, we're super fast and strong- faster than shifters even." Raven explained

"Though not always stronger," Bronson cut in.

Raven nodded. "We heal fast too and age slower."

"And you can't make a vampire?" He asked. He didn't like the idea of aging ahead of Bianca.

Raven shook their head, "No. We are born not made. Our blood is very powerful though and can give short term abilities, though it usually just makes people sick as it's too much- but if you were to have enough to "turn" you would just become a mindless monster."

"And not live long. The body would just burn out," Bronson added.

"Bummer..." Beau sat back and thought through everything. He had so much more to learn.

~*~