"Thank you," Faith said quietly. "What happened to the others? The humans that could use magic?"
"Do you truly not know?" When she shook her head he grimaced and spoke again. "There was a war. As I said before, paranormals aren't much different than humans, and there are those of us that are greedy and those of us that are lustful, or arrogant, or cruel. One of the vampire covens in Europe was greedy for power, and they were led by a cruel, sadistic, evil vampire named Wilhelm. He started recruiting mages to cast spells for him. They enchanted objects and weapons, armor and machines of war. Soon he was taking land and stealing humans that had magic whether they wished to work for him or not, and killed anyone who stood in his way."
"That's horrible! How did he do all this without the world noticing?" Faith gasped.
"The world did notice. I'm sure you read about it in your history books when you were in school. You simply didn't learn about the power behind the power. One despotic madman used another to cover his campaign, and both the paranormal and human worlds were swept away in it,” Aldric grimaced again. “World War Two had many repercussions, and what happened then is still sending ripples through the world."
"Holy shit," Faith breathed.
"Further away from Welhelm’s influence, covens and packs and clans like ours that are comprised of both kinds of human-like paranormal— we all reacted differently. Some tried to hide any humans that had magic that they could find. Some followed Wilhelm’s lead and enslaved them. Some..." Aldric was reluctant to finish the story. Faith had thus far shown him a great deal of trust. He understood that he was, by nature, a predator. He could not help what he was born as.
"Some?" she prompted.
Aldric shook his head sadly. "In the world, one may either be magic, like vampires and werewolves, or they can have magic, like you." He glanced up to see her reaction, but otherwise stayed as still as he could. "Your magic flows through your blood, and as such, is prized by many. Willhelm ultimately fell victim to the lust for that power, and mage families around the world paid the price for his greed.”
Aldric couldn't bring himself to say outright that her kind had been hunted to extinction for their blood. He wasn't that brave.
9
He couldn't be saying what she thought he was saying. Could he? But Aldric sat there, his shoulders slumped, looking slightly ill.
"Do you mean to tell me that my blood is magically delicious?" The phrase from the old cereal ads just popped out of her mouth.
Aldric, however, didn't laugh. He actually hunched slightly further into himself. Either he was an amazing actor, or she was making a big, bad, monster-killing vampire cower in his seat like a naughty school kid.
"I am afraid that is exactly the case,” he said. “Well, that is the idea at any rate. Some covens took Wilhelm’s actions as permission to hunt all humans freely. Others were simply just as greedy as he was, and they all wanted to accumulate enough power to either defend themselves against him or to be attractive to him as an ally. The war provided them all with an excuse, just as it did for the humans who turned on one another. The Nazis unwittingly made it easier for those who would hunt mages to do so."
"So..." Faith was putting it together. "Wow. My great-grandparents sent my grampa and his brother away to their best friend's ranch. I know that Grampa was pretty young at the time, and didn't understand, but they never saw their parents again. I bet the friends were hiding them."
Aldric glanced up at her. "It likely saved their lives. I wonder now how many more families did similar things. I had thought that mages were.. ah... extinct."
"An endangered species, perhaps," Faith grinned, imagining herself as the blue whale of humanity. "But clearly there's still a few of us."
"And you were taught to keep your secret at all costs," Aldric nodded. "A wise choice."
"Mom always said that it would be dangerous for us if anyone found out what we can do, so we had to learn to control it so we didn't accidentally use it in public. Like by knocking a glass over from across the room or using a magic breeze as personal air conditioning something."
"You have the power of moving objects?" Aldric tipped his head in thought. "I suppose, considering how you created that shield, it makes sense. A solidified mass of magic could be used to manipulate other things."
"I can't do much. I can move things a bit. Make that shield. I can make light breezes blow around me, that kind of thing. Crissy was better at lighting candles and stuff than I was, and she never could raise a breeze or a shield. Mom didn't know how to do much either, but she taught us everything she could. She had Grampa’s journal, and he was around the first few years I was learning stuff, but I guess he was pretty young himself when they were sent away, so he didn't know a lot yet."
Faith remembered the man. He had been quiet and a little grumpy, always retreating to his bedroom to watch sports with the door shut halfway through family gatherings. But he had built her and Crissy a sandbox when they were still very little, and was always willing to help out when they needed it. Faith
