Author's Note:
Dearest readers, I wanted to take a moment and thank you for the amazing and very helpful feedback that I have received through email, as well as the comments that are posted as I bring out new chapters! It helps me so much to know that I have people's attention with my stories, and it makes me work harder to make these chapters compelling, to make the characters come more alive! THANK YOU!
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"Seriously? There are centaurs here? That is so cool." Domino gave Samir a dirty look when he laughed at her later in the day, they were sitting together on a couch in front of the television where they'd just been watching a movie as they waited for their dinner to finish cooking. Samir had made a casserole.
"Yes, they're certainly cool. But they're moody and when they mate, it's not exactly timid." Samir shook his head at her, the small blond had asked him what types of non-humans worked for Mr. Hughes. Yet another conversation topic that didn't involve the angel that they had both been thinking about throughout the day.
"I don't think any of you non-humans are timid when it comes to mating." She muttered as she crossed her legs in front of her, her back resting comfortably against the couch.
"Not really." He nodded, he couldn't think of any.
"So besides centaurs, who else?"
"There's a female vampire that comes here, and I suppose Mr. Hughes will have to hire a new male vampire. He already hired on a new pack of werewolves from the Boston area."
"Do non-humans want to get a job here?"
Samir shrugged, "There are a few places like this around the world. This is the only one in North America, though, and I think it's probably the one with the most rules. But that just makes it safer for our guests, and our non-humans."
"What kind of rules do the other ones not have?" That made her curious.
"No pain, Mr. Hughes is big on that one, no injury to anyone involved."
"That's a good rule."
"No pregnancies, the women who come here are given a meal each morning that contains birth control. Only Chrysanthulus can make a woman pregnant and take her to term."
"What is Chrysanthulus?"
"A plant creature...who lives at the bottom of the lake. He fucks women and within six hours or so, they give birth to his little baby plant creatures." He smiled at the look of wonder in her eyes.
"Which is why I can't swim in the lake."
He nodded, "Precisely."
"We also aren't supposed to tell personal details to the clients, or try to get involved with them." He told her.
"So Anya broke that rule big time, huh?"
He grinned mischievously, "Yeah, she did. But it was only partially her fault, light sirens make us all go a little starry eyed. When she left, everyone around here moped around for weeks. But she didn't really break the rules until after she left. She found Grigory's phone number in her lawyer's office and tracked him down to find him and the rest of his pack."
"Her lawyer had a werewolf's number?"
He nodded, "Mr. Bricker was the one who sent Anya to us. He's an incubus."
"A lawyer who is really a sex demon. That's funny."
"He hears that all the time." Samir ran a hand through his blond hair.
"Any more rules?"
"Let's see, the clients only get one appointment with each of the non-humans that they visit. They also don't choose who they see. Some places, you can make appointments with certain non-humans."
"Self-serve sex." Her words made him chuckle again and he shook his head at her.
"Sometimes you remind me of Anya, she talks like that sometimes."
"I don't know if I like hearing that, I'm not really happy that she made Mr. Hughes disfigure himself over her." She frowned, turning slightly so that she could face him more easily on the couch.
"We're not talking about that, remember?"
"Oh, I know, but I can still be upset to see him go through so much pain. At first, when I got here, I didn't really like him, he seemed like sort of a sourpuss. But he is trying to help me have this baby. I didn't realize that his shitty mood was because he had a broken heart and that he had cut off his wings, Jesus, he cut through bone, Samir."
He shook a little beside her and nodded, "Did you know that we have a male and female dragon working here?"
"No fucking way, those are real, too?"
"Yup, and elves are real, there are a bunch of different kinds of them, actually, and they don't all get along, nor are they all light or dark. I've met some real jerks over the years. Mermaids, satyrs, fauns, you name it, most of the non-humans you've read about over the years are real." Samir was glad he got her off of Mr. Hughes again, he really wasn't ready to discuss how he felt about what the angel had done to himself.
"So like, we're talking Chronicles of Narnia menagerie. That is so amazing. But, if you all want to remain so secret to humans, how come there are so many books and things out there about all of you?"