Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)

He took a deep breath, breaking eye contact, and rubbed his hand across the lower part of his face. “Well… Where do I start?” he said, resuming his former conversational tone. “In a nutshell, what I hate most about my kind is that their every accomplishment has been earned at the cost of others. They take pride in what they can plunder, rather than what they can create. I don’t want to be like that.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “I’d think if you were so advanced, you’d be able to create plenty.”

“They build their furniture from the bones of species they have driven to extinction and display it with pride in their homes; they boast cellars of blood from foreign creatures far too full for them to ever consume before expiry; they leech resources from planets on a whimsy, regardless of the consequences it might have for the local population. Once Vysanthe discovers a land that possesses something it wants, it will keep gnawing at it like a dog gnaws at the leg of a deer, piece by piece, sinew by sinew, until there’s nothing left.” He paused and drew in a deep breath. “Basically, I needed an excuse to get away; buy myself periods of time where I could just float in a vacuum without bumping into anyone of my own kind, clear my head, under the guise of embarking on missions to discover new species for our leaders’ plans. And so… I’m thankful that Jethro helped me build Soraya over there.” He cast a meaningful look at the older coldblood, and then another fond look at his ship.

“Well,” I murmured, feeling quite speechless. “Soraya’s a beautiful ship.”

“For the longest time, Navan didn’t tell anyone about his discovery of Earth,” Bashrik said. “He didn’t even tell me. Can you believe it?” His eyes widened, as though we should be shocked by that. “Though, he discovered quickly after his arrival here by taking a blood sample that human blood held the properties we were seeking. He should have returned to report his findings to our authorities—if he’s found to have kept Earth hidden, it would result in a level of punishment you couldn’t imagine but… you didn’t report, did you, Navan?”

Navan sighed. “I couldn’t.”

“Because you didn’t want to be responsible for the damage your people would do to yet another planet—and you’d rather risk punishment?” I asked.

“Something like that… It’s nothing I’d expect you to understand.”

“Why is that? Because you’re so much more advanced than we are?” I asked, frowning. “And why are you and your brother and friends here so different from the rest of your species?”

Navan shrugged, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “Every creature in the universe is born with free will. We can choose to be different, even if we share the same anatomy.”

That… was true.

“What are you all doing here, exactly?” Lauren asked.

“We’re trying to help Ronad,” Navan replied, casting a furtive glance toward the house.

“So is Ronad one of your brothers, too?” Angie asked, looking from him to Bashrik.

“In a way, yes. He’s not a blood relative, like Bashrik, but I do see him as a brother. I’ve actually got nine brothers, but only two whom I actually trust.”

“I see,” I said slowly, wondering how that must feel, to have so many brothers yet be unable to trust them. I was an only child, so I had zero experience of what it was like to have even one sibling, never mind nine.

“What happened to him?” Angie asked. “How did he get injured?”

“Injured would be the wrong word,” Bashrik replied. “He is, uh, undergoing a transformation—for which we all decided to come to support him.”

“Transformation?” I repeated.

Navan stood up and started pacing. “When I got here, I conducted a few experiments. Mostly because I was curious to know how a creature like myself might blend in better with Earth’s environment, should I decide I’d like to spend a few days at a time here. I used my alchemy skills to develop a formula that would allow us to better adapt to Earth’s atmosphere. Our bodies naturally conduct coldness—we are freezing by nature—but the formula I developed allows us to absorb warmth, and essentially become a conductor of heat. The more exposed we are to the heat, the hotter we become—and the daylight has an effect on our skin. It absorbs its rays and turns golden.”

“So you’re kind of like . . . a reptile,” I said, blown away by everything he was saying. To have the knowledge and skills to invent a formula that could have that level of transformation… It was impressive to say the least.

“And Ronad?” Lauren prodded.

Navan turned his back on us to face the house. “That’s a story for another time. We’ve suffer—I mean, he’s suffered a great loss and can no longer bear to live in Vysanthe. Let’s just leave it at that. I want to do whatever I can to help him. We are in the process of giving him a treatment that we hope will have a more permanent effect. It would allow him to adopt a warm-bodied, human-like form on a permanent basis, so he can stay on Earth full time. He would live off the blood of wild animals and keep to himself. A side effect of the treatment is losing the wings… and a lot of pain. But by tomorrow night, we should have finished our business here.”

“And then where will you go? And why come here, to this place in particular? Why were you digging a hole out the front?” I asked. There were still so many questions racing through my brain.

“I’m touched by your concern, really,” he replied somewhat sarcastically, “but you don’t have to worry about where we’re heading next. Probably back to Vysanthe, because our absence would be noted otherwise, and we cannot afford to arouse suspicion. We will take one of Ronad’s wings back with us and claim he suffered a fatal accident during an excursion, and the wing is all we have left of him.” Navan and Bashrik exchanged a glance, and I could sense the sorrow between them at having to leave Ronad behind.

“As for why here?” Navan continued. “This area is particularly hot, so conducive for our purposes. I had landed in the vicinity a while ago, and discovered this abandoned house. I had left some money and supplies hidden underground around the front of the house—which is why there’s a hole.”

“So you threw your brother’s wing into the creek?” Angie said.

“And then broke into our house to steal it?” I said.

“It’s not stealing if it belongs to you,” Navan retorted, and I could sense that he’d finally lost his patience. “And no one was supposed to find it in the creek. It’s best for everyone that humans remain unaware of us, which brings us to the conclusion of this enlightening question and answer session.” He reached into his pants pocket and withdrew the three silvery vials of Elysium. “I held up my end of the bargain,” he continued. “Now, it’s your turn. Trust me when I say our world is not something you want to get mixed up in.”

His wintry gaze found me again, and I suddenly felt a dull ache in my chest. If I drank the Elysium, everything about tonight would be wiped from my mind… Everything.





Chapter Nine





I stared at the silver tubes, a wave of dread washing over me.

I was not just going to forget everything.