Chapter 34

“I feel like a useless human.”

Brome laughed softly. “You’re not hiding up here if that’s what you think you’re doing.”

“Well, it feels like that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

Glancing out the window, he was quiet for a minute. “Leontes is downstairs, and your two young vampires are on the roof to stop anyone should they try to get to you.” He grinned at her over his shoulder, “I am the last defense in your protection should they fail.” Turning, he gave her a serious look, “But it is not because you are a helpless human, Remi. It is because nothing can happen to you.”

Remi leaned back and shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

His smile was warm. “I know.” He moved in her direction in a slow stroll. “There is quite a lot you don’t understand about who you are.”

Crossing his hands behind his back, he continued to look at her, a contemplative expression on his face. “Perhaps it’s time someone filled in some of the blanks.”

Remi gave him a wide-eyed look. “How is it you know more about me than I do?” She snorted. “I don’t even know who my parents were.”

“Who is not important,” he gave her a sympathetic look, “I don’t say that to seem cold. I understand the yearning to have family and a connection.” Brome waved his hand around. “You have both here at Serenity.” He quirked an eyebrow at her, “If you’d known your parents, would you have found your way here?” Shrugging, he sat down in the chair across from her. “I don’t think you would have, and then what?”

Studying him for a moment, Remi tried to picture what her life would have been like if she hadn’t been a part of the foster care system. There would have been no fleeing when she turned eighteen, no Riverside, and no Serenity. Her chest felt tight when she thought of it like that. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled slowly and leaned forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “Okay, fill in the blanks.”

Brome nodded once, a pleased look on his face. “You seem to believe what you can do has something to do with Doyle and his passing.” A brief, grieved expression crossed his face. “Doyle had nothing to do with it other than helping you find your way here.” He paused and looked at her, his eyes searching her face. “I helped Doyle spell the sign he placed in the window looking for you.” He shrugged. “It took five years for it to lead you to Serenity’s doorstep.” Rubbing his jaw, a faraway look filled his eyes, “we were beginning to worry that we’d missed you.”

Shaking her head, Remi squinted at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Grinning, he tilted his head to one side, almost as if he were listening to something. “Your soul,” he motioned to her, “the piece that makes you so unique is several thousand years old.”

Remi opened her mouth and then realized she had no idea what to say, so she closed it and waited for him to continue.

“If you die,” he raised one eyebrow at her, “the older you get, the less likely that is to happen. But possible during early life. We were afraid you’d passed on, and we’d have to wait until the next Keeper was grown enough to seek us out.”

“So,” she frowned, “I’m a Keeper?” It sounded ridiculous to say, but she learned a long time ago that a lot in the para world was odd.

“If you must label it, I suppose that’s close enough.” He smiled at her, a warm expression in his eyes. “You, for lack of a better way to say it, are the balance, the one that keeps the scales even.”

Sitting back, she opened her arms and gave him a frustrated look. “You’re making less sense the more you say.”

Brome laughed quietly. “I suppose Hope would be better at explaining it than I, but let me blunder through the rest and see if we can sort it out.” Huffing out a breath, he looked around the room for several seconds. “As you know, there are a vast number of para beings in our world, each with their own abilities.” He shrugged. “Not always good, I admit, but still true. No matter the ability of a being, it won’t work on you…”

“Yeah, I know.”

“You are otherwise in every way almost normal. Almost human.”

Remi shrugged her shoulders.

“A few thousand years ago, our world wasn’t as civilized as it is now.” A look of regret was in his eyes. “One para clan would plunder another, bringing it close to extinction in some cases. There was no council to dole out justice, to patrol the communities and prevent chaos.” He motioned to her with a smirk, “By whatever means a seemingly normal human came to exist, one that could tell a specie with a glance, immune to their thrall or magic…”

Remi held up her hand to stop him, “Wait. Are you saying that I, or the past versions of whatever I am, were the…” she stopped, her mouth hanging open, not quite sure what to call it, “Some sort of law?”

Brome nodded. “In a sense, yes. The Keepers defended the normal humans from all the paranormal clans and from themselves as well.”

Puffing out her cheeks, she blew out a loud breath. “I don’t do any of that.”

“It’s not as needed as it once was.” He stood up and walked over to look out the window. “Yet, you open the doors downstairs each day, allowing normal and paras to mingle among one another in a safe, peaceful environment.” Turning away from the window, he leveled her with a serious look. “Do you know how many other places like this there are in the world?”

Shaking her head, Remi didn’t even bother to make a guess.

“None.” Leaning back against the window ledge, he glanced outside again before looking back to her. “Species from all over this planet keep ending up here.” He examined his hand for a moment. “The council has records of registered clans, their origin, and present locations.” Nodding toward the window, he glanced at her again. “Within a three-hundred-mile radius, throughout the rural space that surrounds Riverside, are more species from all clans than exist anywhere else.” He gave her a soft look. “Your power is like a beacon to them, Remi. The peace of your existence calls to them.”

“I…” She frowned and looked at the floor, “I didn’t know this.”

“Perhaps it wasn’t necessary for you to know yet.”

Clasping her hands, she looked down at them. “I don’t feel at all powerful, Brome.”

He laughed softly. “Yet you heal the broken, soothe the beasts, and calm the wild.”

Remi snorted. “If you say so.”

Pushing away from the window he came over and sat on the arm of the chair. “You don’t believe me?” He smirked when she shook her head. “You stopped two werewolves from turning, with a touch.”

Remi wanted to say that wasn’t true, but now that she thought about it, as soon as she touched Garrett and Darien, they had settled down.

Brome continued before she could speak. “Your Finn was very broken, let me assure you,” a sad look entered his eyes, “the council had been monitoring him for several years, it was on the table to end him before he endangered our world.”

“End him?” She shook her head. “He was just hungry and…”

“And out of control, believe me.” He sighed. “The vampire he is now is so completely different than that creature you first saw.” Tilting his head, he narrowed his eyes at her. “Did he ever tell you he made his way from Iceland to here?” She shook her head. “It was what confirmed your powers were beginning to flare.”

“I didn’t know.”

He nodded. “You weren’t meant to, then.” His serious look changed to amusement. “If he isn’t a good enough example, I could tell you from experience that your two charming bartenders are completely reformed because of you.”

“Pascal and Attis?”

Smirking, he rubbed his jaw. “Yes, they created more havoc across the globe than any other pair the council has on record.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, he closed his eyes for a moment. “They always managed to walk a thin line between outright breaking of our laws, at least we were never able to place them at the incidents…” he waved his hand around. “Let’s just leave it there. You may not feel all-powerful, Miss Foster, but you are.” Getting up again, he paced across the room. “Emery would have been ended, with no sire claiming him. By all rights, he should be out of control and insanely wild, yet he’s not.”

She felt she needed to defend him. “He didn’t know what he was doing when he attacked me.”

“My point exactly. He didn’t even know he had been turned.” A scowl appeared on his face. “If his maker is ever found, they will be punished.”

“Emery is fine now.” Getting up, suddenly she wasn’t able to sit any longer.

Brome nodded. “I know and it’s because of you he is.” A pensive look appeared on his face. “I understand, from talking to Attis that he’s more than fine.”

Hugging her arms around her waist, she tried to settle the tight feelings in her gut. “What do you mean?”

Giving her a soft look, he smiled. “You can relax, nothing is going to happen to your son. What I meant was the fact that he can get up before two elders like Pascal and Attis is because he drank from you.” He sighed. “A death sentence under normal circumstances, you understand, to ingest the blood of a Keeper, but at the same time it’s been allowed due to the situation.”

“Because I claimed him?”

“There’s that, but also mere curiosity. We want to see what else happens. He can already do what vampires wait three or four hundred years to do.” He smirked. “Rise before sunset. What else may develop?”

Remi swallowed the lump in her throat. “I don’t know what I’d do without him…”

“I understand, and no one will take him from you.” He studied her for a moment. “His bite has connected the two of you. No other has ever been joined with a Keeper in this way.” He chuckled. “Although all the previous norms seem to be broken where you’re concerned.”

Remi was beginning to wish Darien would come back, so she didn’t have to hear anymore. “What do you mean?”

Brome walked by the window and looked out it as he moved. “No other Keeper has ever had a mate.”

“Is that bad?”

Stopping in front of her, he looked at her arms crossed over her stomach before he looked at her face. “It’s not breaking a law, if that’s what you’re asking. It’s just never happened in the history that we know.”

“Oh.” Her mind tried to process all the information, as she searched for something to say. “I just found out.”

A surprised look appeared on his face. “Darien has ironclad control over his beast then, being this close to your mate for so long without claiming them is unheard of.”

“So I’ve been told.” Her heartbeat wouldn’t settle down. “Darien told me when, if, we are mated then our lifelines join,” she swallowed, “What does that do?” Shrugging, she tried to figure out how to ask it. “You said the older I get the harder it is for me to die and werewolves live a long time…”

Brome grinned down at her. “I suspect Darien may end up being the oldest werewolf in history.”

Frowning, she exhaled and rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “What do you mean?”

Turning, he walked back toward the window. “Keepers have been known to live two, even three hundred years.”

What? The idea of being that old was more than she could digest. She knew Attis and Pascal were old and Darien was the best-looking older man she’d ever seen, but this was her they were talking about, Remi Foster, tall, average looking, not some para.

“I’ve stunned you,” Brome said quietly.

Blinking, Remi looked at him. “It’s just information overload lately.”

“I can only imagine what it’s been like.”

“I doubt that.” Remi moved over to the other window and looked out it. “Does Darien know all of this?” She didn’t know what she was going to do if he’d known all this time.

“I suspect he senses there’s a part of you that’s extraordinary.” Brome continued to look out the window. “Pascal and Attis probably have an inclination as well, as they’ve been on this earth for the last few Keepers, but no one knew for certain but Doyle.” He turned his head and smiled at her. “He was fiercely protective. He made the council promise to only tell you when you wanted to know.”

An ache filled her chest. “I’m glad he did.” She shook her head. “A few years ago this talk would have gone very differently.”

“How so?”

She watched out the window, not seeing any movement. The night was eerily quiet. “Well, after I threw up from laughing too hard, I probably would have started packing.”

Brome chuckled. “I envisioned you throwing me out.”

Looking back at him, she started at his feet and took in the size of him. “It would have crossed my mind, but no, leaving would have been easier.” Exhaling, Remi glanced back outside. “So, what does all this mean?” She shrugged. “I’m not normal, which I already knew, but what am I supposed to do with all of this?”

Brome came toward her and looked out the same window. “When you need to do something, you will. Until then, nothing has to change.” Giving her a quick look out of the corner of his eye he sighed. “Once the threat to you has been resolved, we’ll leave, and you can continue your silent magic as you’ve always done. If that’s what you want.”

Remi nodded, even though she wasn’t sure what that meant. “Then the threat is to me and not just Serenity in general.”

“They’re coming back,” he motioned down the street to where Remi could see the outlines of Darien, Garrett, Hope, and Alaric walking, she couldn’t see Attis and Pascal, but knew they wouldn’t be too far away. “And yes, the threat is to you. Serenity without you is just a café by day and bar by night.”

“I was afraid of that.” She couldn’t take her eyes off Darien as he got closer. The shadows from the streetlights kept his face hidden from her, but somehow, she knew he was watching her through the window the same way she was him. “Why are they targeting me? Does that mean they know what I am?”

“No harm will come to you or those you love, Remi. The council won’t allow it.” He studied her for a moment. “I don’t know how anyone could know, but we’re going to find out.” Brome turned on his heel and headed in the direction of the back stairs.

Taking a deep breath, Remi debated on following him or staying where she was. Her head was swimming with information, her heart was pounding a nervous, anxious beat, and her body just wanted to curl up in a warm blanket and sleep for hours. Blowing out an annoyed breath, she turned and slowly moved toward the door, only to stop a few feet from it. She didn’t want to see everyone right now, that might make her a coward, but she didn’t care. After they debated and discussed, someone would fill her in. Right now, she just wanted a few more minutes of silence to think about everything Brome had just told her. You could have given me a manual, Doyle, she thought with a defeated moan—something to explain what the hell I’m supposed to do with all of this.