Little Red Robin Hood

V - By The Book

I stayed in the room the entire day. No one bothered me besides Abraham bringing me meals. I felt... numb, despite the fact that I had just told my biggest secret to an almost complete stranger. Hell, I didn't even know any of his favorites! Why was I considering him a friend? Because he had helped me? Because he had accepted my past? I honestly couldn't tell.

What I could tell was that the people in this town might not have been so crazy after all. The more I delved into these species books, the more logical it seemed. There were diagrams and biographies and history lessons.... I stayed on vampires for a bit, then moved on to werewolves since, apparently, the mayor of Ivory Tower was a female werewolf.

According to the books, there were rarely female alphas, so this one must have been a luna whose mate died. It was a shock to me that werewolves actually travelled in packs since, as far as I knew, normal wolves didn't really have a hierarchy. Apparently there were three types of werewolves, one book for each.

The first were called 'eaters,' and they didn't turn into wolves. They just had sharp nails and teeth and feasted on flesh. Human flesh, mostly. I hoped the mayor wasn't one of those.

The second type of werewolf was called a shifter. They were kind of the basic stereotypical werewolf. Turned at will, sometimes howled at the moon, had total control over their wolf forms, and stayed together in groups (small communities much like this one) with an alpha/beta/others hierarchy system. Basic.

The third type was called an omega shifter. Those guys seemed pretty rare, as they had mostly been killed since they were seen as a weakness. I could understand why. After all, they turned every night and often had little to no control over their wolf forms, giving birth to the legend that werewolves are evil. There was also 'less magic' in their transformations, so their clothes would rip and they would wake in the morning almost butt-naked! Hmm, I was almost glad barely any of those guys existed. Death would save them from embarrassment, that was for sure.

So maybe magic was real. Maybe I needed to rethink this. Killian had a tail, pointed ears, and telekinesis. Mika could smell my blood. Maybe she was one of those alpha vampires? A vampire who didn't need a community like the betas? That might have been possible.

And Abraham.... Was he just a normal human? Or was he something else? I hadn't seen anything pointing to him down the magic road, but there were probably species that looked like normal humans. Like shifter werewolves. And vampires. Well, betas only awoke during the night so....

He had called Nicolai his master beta. Based on the books, there were alphas and betas. Alphas could walk around during the day (although they were more sensitive to sun), and could feed off pretty much anyone, and they often had a small circle of friends, maybe two or three, to feed off of.

Betas, on the other hand, needed more blood, so they had groups of seven or eight that were 'bound' to them. They slept during the day, burnt and blistered in the sun, and were often very pale. The people that they fed off of were essentially addicted to them. It was kind of like that for alphas, but, while beta feeders only needed one to three bites to be addicted, alpha feeders needed up to eight or even ten.

So one-night stands were much easier for alphas.

"Hey, Raine!" Abraham knocked on the door, then peeked in. "Wow, you've been doing some research."

"Ah, mostly just on vampires and werewolves," I replied.

"Here, dinner," he set a plate on the desk nearby.

"Abraham," I questioned, "what species are you?"

"Oh, well, I'm a fallen angel," he smiled.

"I... haven't read the book on angels. Fallen angels are demons, right?"

"No, no, no," he chuckled. "Fallen angels happen when.... Hm, what's the best way to describe this?" He thought for a moment as I ate. "Well, Lady Lilith, Adam's first wife, is a corrupted angel, meaning she tore out her feathers and rejected everything to do with Heaven and angels." I sat on the desk, plate in my lap, ready for a story. "Fallen angels are a bit like that, just not as extreme. Corrupted angels, like, never happen. There's only been... three, I think. Fallen angels simply reject the teachings and traditions of Heaven."

"So... you rejected Heaven," I slowly nodded. "Can you prove it?"

And then there were wings around me. Huge, black, feathered wings.

"Okay, that's enough proof," I whispered, staring at the wings.

"You sure?" He laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure," I gently pushed the wing away. "You might get feathers in my food, and that would not be enjoyable." I looked him up and down. "Wait, so, where do they come from?"

He turned to show me his back, "You're lucky I'm wearing a low-cut tank top. If I were to do this with a normal t-shirt, it would rip. Think of them as second arms. They come out of... the spine, I think? I don't know, it's been a bit since year ten biology. I fell just before graduation."

"C-can I... touch them?" I asked.

"Sure," he nodded.

I hesitated for a moment, then gently ran my fingers along the soft black feathers. They seemed to shimmer in the dim winter sunlight streaming through the window. They were very soft.

"Do you have to groom them?" I asked.

"Of course," he nodded. "We molt during the summer, too."

"I don't believe this," I whispered. "Magic is real."

"Duh," Abraham laughed. "Now finish your dinner and come downstairs. The mayor will be here within the hour. And the sun's setting so Nicolai will wake soon."

The sun was already setting?! Abraham put his wings away, much to my confusion, as I finished the small meal. He took the plate, then both of us walked downstairs to the main lounge room.

It was... very nice. There was a warm fire blazing, lighting most of the room. There were old pictures framed on the walls. Everything seemed vintage, even down to the carpet. The kitchen beyond seemed very modern, but the lounge room was like a time portal to the 40s and 50s. The faded black-and-white photos were obviously from that time period.

"Those pictures are all of my family," a voice behind me said. I spun around to see a very pale man with wavy light hair. He seemed tired, and was wrapped in a deep blue robe. "But that was a long time ago. It's lovely to meet you, Raine Swann."

"You must be Nicolai," I said. "I-I read about your species. Beta vampires."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Swann," he nodded, smiling. "Abraham told me of your little run-in with Anna. I knew I shouldn't have taken her in. Non-fallen angels are almost always bad news for someone."

"Anna's an angel?" I breathed, surprised. "Of course. Why not?"

"Yes," Nicolai nodded, lightly chuckling. "She was a bully from the start. I wanted to give her a chance. Perhaps that was a mistake."

"Raine," Abraham had returned. "You should tell him."

I closed my eyes for a moment, preparing myself, then blurted out, "I have a ton of money hidden in my suitcase and someone attacked my truck and found the money and I think it was Anna and she might be planning to use it against me even though it's just hush money cause I was a prostitute." There, all done. That was easier than I thought it would be. And Nicolai didn't seem to care much.

"Well, well, well," a female voice chuckled. "That is quite the story."