Siren Song (Hypernaturals 2)

Rum and Hypers

Jessica sat on the couch and indicated I should sit between them by patting the cushion. "I am starting to wonder many things about my husband here."

"What things?" Helen asked, intrigued, and sitting forward. She had an old bottle of Rum and poured us healthy doses in tumblers. Spectacular rum: A crime to mix anything in it, so we didn't. I am a Scotch person, and so is Jessica, but this stuff is amazing. We talked as we sipped and savored

"In the hospital, when he woke up from the coma, he could already smell Gangrene, from a fully dressed leg. When he was recovering from the beating in the deer shed, he told me about standing outside on the balcony and being able to see by the light of Snowballs body heat. Only a few weeks turned! Then there is the way he tastes. The way he smells. How early his pheromones became effective: Remember that night in the bar with Holly? And in the shower, while I know you give him shit about his control, it is actually pretty good for how short a time it has been. And while we are on that topic, how close were you to having sex with Adrian in that shower? You are over 500, and you are that affected? One tiny hit and it was everything Lori could do to not drag both of you off. When you went first and hit Lori and Danny, your dose of pheromones lasted at least twice as long, wall clock time, as his because he didn't really want to do it. When we killed those three drug dealers, he had significant time elongation, meaning his brain is already very different structurally. You saw that kill, Helen. Have you ever seen a half day of training result in precision like that? He remains pretty much standard in terms of strength, but he is very fast for his age. We spar four times a week as I teach him some of the self-defense styles I have learned, and he is very quick. In raw strength, I am far stronger, but in reaction time, his nervous system rewire seems to be in hyper-drive. He is already as fast as I am, and I think he will be faster soon enough. A few months at most if he keeps up this rate."

"So Speedy here can't avoid being nailed by Sirens with Tasers?" Helen pointed out.

"I was not ready!" I protested "I was trying to figure out why Arnold was even there, and if I should play dumb about knowing him. It was off being other engaged."

"It usually is." Helen said.

"I admit it. Would it be better if I said I admitted to thinking about you naked? After that shower, I was. I was off trying to figure out what in the hell happened." I said. "Can we move past my shortcomings and talk about what Jessica thinks is going on here?"

Jessica shrugged. "I have no idea, Adrian. You are the first male Vampire I ever spent any time with. Unlike Helen, I have never been with one. Had sex with one I mean. I have no idea what is normal for your gender of our species, or even if there is such a thing as normal when you are talking about such a small group. You were thinking about Helen naked?"

"Yes. And you. Everything that happened in there. Not important: I learned to never think of Helen naked: It gets me tasered. You told me I am one of 40 or 50 in all of North America. How many worldwide?"

Helen took that. "Well, North America has been more accepting than some geographies. In China, there may not be any. The secret is hidden from the government with extra zeal. There are some other reasons, like the one version of that the Conqueror being that he supposedly came from AsiaPac. Europe has been as lenient as North America. Oceana and South America not as much. Guessing.. Worldwide there are not 500. Probably more like 300."

"Out of billions of humans. Wow. Not even a rounding error." I paused to think it through. "I can detect more subtle scents than Jessica, and my brain seems able to map some scents to things like when a human is ready to conceive a child, assuming my nose and brain are right about that and who really knows? How do we know if I am right about that?"