Ninovan (Hypernaturals 10)

Vera Liaison

"Vera: When did you meet Ginger and Wyatt? I know you did not know them until recently, or you would have mentioned them." Morgan asked.

"Yeah. Try yesterday!" Vera waved her arms upwards. "Like 'Surprise! Guess what? We are the mysterious people Larry calls!' I mean, I knew he called someone, and I even suspected based on talking to my sisters that there are women on this Assembly thing, but men? Knowing guys like Larry? Not so much."

"I know we should have asked you all before including Vera tonight, so I hope you will forgive our presumption, but there is a reason. We decided to reveal ourselves to her because it is time for Vampire and Sirens to have a real connection. A better connection. Larry and the meetings have served a purpose, and they shall continue to do so. However, as you know, Larry often goes off to clear things with his superiors, and that is, among other people, Wyatt and I. We use technology to disguise our voices, because, for one thing, Larry would not be happy to know he is taking orders from a woman. The Siren Advisory Assembly or just 'The Assembly' is what passes for the ruling body of the Siren's. We rule if that is the correct word, by virtue of the fact that we own everything. 'The Firehouse' is actually ours as you correctly surmised, not Larry's."

Morgan was going up and down with her head. "That explains why I could never trace it back to him. I did not understand how Larry could have the required business sophistication required to hide the ownership so completely. I was quite sure he did not. That bar would not run except for Vera, Leslie, and the others. Larry likes to take credit for all their work. Now I see he also takes credit for YOUR work. I am in no way shocked by this revelation."

"Yes, well, your inquiries were a royal pain in my ass, dear." Ginger told Morgan. "We had to keep moving it around whenever you got close, and we never used the same ownership infrastructure for the bar as for any other Siren assets. Similarly, for the Siren Hall where the HPA made their incursion in Eastern Europe. Where your friend Kuzman is head of hall. There was much shuffling to get that to dead-end quickly."

I called in from the kitchen, "Ok. That means Sirens have people in the same places Vampire do, but you hide from us. How?"

"Let's not give away all our secrets just yet, shall we?" Ginger replied. "Back to Vera. She is both a typical Siren woman, and quite unique. She is the only one with a close relationship with three different Vampires, and the only Astral we know about. Well, two Astrals now."

Nakoma could not stand it. "You know I am an Astral? For sure? I mean, mom is, but doesn't that make me like half Astral or something?"

"You are full Astral." Wyatt assured her "The Astral traits seems to be dominant. Mix in Human, Siren, or Vampire, you get Astral, or so our legend goes. You bear that out at least as far as human/Astral goes. It does not matter biologically who your father might have been. You are Astral, and that over-rides anything he might have contributed."

"As he is a world-class jerk, that makes me very happy." Nakoma smiled and went back to work.

I had to ask, trying very hard not to look at Vera "Same if Siren and Vampire are able to conceive? You get an Astral?" I know that question is not escaping anyone's attention, but my curiosity overrode the ribbing I am going to take later on it.

Wyatt answered that one. I am used to Ginger being the spokesperson already. "Well, Adrain: We don't know. We think, in the story of the Astrals, there was an intermixing of Siren, Human, and Vampire to create the Astral, but was human always the intermediary species? Does it make sense to even call us different species if we can in fact interbreed like this? If a Siren human and a Vampire human get together and have a child, can there even be a Vampire Siren? We have no legends about that, nor as I understand do Vampires. After the event that took out the male Sirens millennia ago, who knows? Sirens hated the Vampires so much, that perhaps the legends died, and perhaps the hatred led to no one even trying to intermarry. There were only female Sirens around for a while, and male Vampires occur infrequently enough that it is unlikely there was an accidental pairing. If there was, given the time spans we are discussing here, how would we know? Would such a fertile union be openly discussed, or would the Vampire and Siren need for secrecy keep that hidden away? Even now, you and Vera's sexual love relationship occurred prior to your conversion. We are unaware of that particular union bearing children. We know, as Vera has openly stated, she tried to have a human/Siren child without success. That is our only data point. Now that you have had your genetics rewritten, would that be different? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Vampires can't have children normally it seems, so it probably takes the Astral intermediary, but that is nothing I can tell you as a for-sure thing. In theory and according to the Legend, you would have a child with an Astral. Vera would a child with a different male Astral. Down the road, offspring of offspring come together, and the Siren and Vampire traits are combined. Perhaps this is what makes the Astral SO compelling to the Siren? If you COULD have a child directly with Vera now? That would be very interesting indeed."