At least, what she could make out of his face looked handsome—it was hard to tell in the dim moonlight. But she caught a glimpse of a straight nose and lush lips and she had the idea that maybe his eyes weren’t really green—maybe they just glowed green like an animal’s in the darkness.
Like an animal! she thought. Oh my God, is he really half animal?
She opened her mouth to ask and then closed her lips on the question just in time. It would surely be rude to ask it—like demanding to know someone’s race or nationality. Instead she said,
“Did you really just say that you’re from a whole other universe? But how is that possible?”
“If you’d like to walk with me around the parklands, I can tell you,” he offered.
“Well…all right.” Mia nodded. She would never, ever have agreed to go on a walk in a dark park with a strange man she didn’t know down on Earth. But she reminded herself that the Kindred never hurt women and that both Kaylee and Talon had promised her she was safe here aboard the Mother Ship. Besides, she couldn’t help thinking that the Satyr Kindred did look somehow familiar. Which made no sense, because she had certainly never seen anyone like him in her life.
Except maybe in your dreams whispered a little voice in her head.
But could she really have been Dream-Sharing with him? Mia didn’t know but she thought maybe talking to him would help her remember. She hoped, anyway.
“Shall we?” The Satyr Kindred offered her his arm in an old-fashioned, courtly gesture that Mia liked at once. She was a little hesitant to touch him, but she reminded herself again that he was a Kindred and that he wouldn’t hurt her. Bravely, she reached out and took the offered arm, which was hard with muscles and warm under the satiny fabric of his uniform shirt.
“Thank you,” she said and they began to walk, just as though they were a normal couple strolling in the moonlight instead of two people who had only ever met in their dreams.
If we really did meet in a dream, that is, Mia thought. She snuck a quick glance up at the big Kindred and saw that he was looking at her, too.
“May I know your name, lovely one?” he rumbled softly. “In all our dream meetings, I have never learned it.”
“Oh, Mia. My name is Mia Ro—I mean Hansen. My name is Mia Hansen,” she said firmly, remembering her decision to go back to her maiden name.
“I am Storn,” the Satyr Kindred informed her. “My home is aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship in the ‘verse next to your own.”
“So…you really come from a whole other universe?” Mia asked again. “I’m sorry, I really don’t see how that’s possible.”
“Allow me to explain,” he said and went into a technical, but still quite understandable explanation that lasted for some time. As he talked, Mia looked up at him often, trying to remember if she had really seen him before in her dreams.
“So…there are a bunch of universes stacked on top of each other like a big pile of pancakes?” she asked at last, when he finished talking. “Only some of the pancakes are good and some are bad. Our universe pancake has good pancakes stacked on top and on the bottom of it but your universe has a bad pancake below it. And now there are holes or ‘gashes’ between the universes that are letting people go from one, er, ‘verse’ to another and bad things have gotten into your ‘verse. So you came to our ‘verse to ask for help from our Kindred and warn them the bad things might be coming here next?”
“Essentially, yes.” He nodded. “We call them ‘Darklings.’ They are…abominations.”
Mia didn’t want to think about that—right now she was focused on the big Kindred beside her.
“And because you come from a whole different universe, you don’t…don’t look like the Kindred of our universe?” she said hesitantly.
“Because I am a different kind of Kindred from a different phylum,” he said. “I am a Monstrum Kindred of the Satyr variety, but there are many, many other kinds of Monstrum Kindred and many different phyla.”
“Such as?” Mia was truly interested. She looked up at him as the breeze blew past them and couldn’t help thinking how good he smelled. Like cedar wood and cinnamon and some kind of wild, masculine spice. Why was his scent so familiar? Had she smelled it in her dreams?
“Oh, there are Leonis Monstrum and Tigris Monstrum and Ursus Monstrum, and Foxen Monstrum, just to name a few,” he said. “Our Chief Commander is a Leonis Monstrum,” he added.
“And…does he look like you?” Mia asked.
Storn shook his head.
“No, he has no horns and he has a great deal more fur. Or rather, his fur covers more of his body than mine does. After studying some of the images from your planet, I believe you might think he looks a little like the Earth animal called a “lion.”