Part 24

Caprice's first instinct was to laugh out loud. He'd come all the way from - wherever he'd come from to tell her she was a dragon? Her other thought was it was some cruel joke. "Uh-huh," she said flatly, crossing her arms.

Rylan smiled. "You don't believe me."

Of course she didn't believe him. Was he totally insane? "No. I've never heard anything so ridiculous in all my life." She shook her head. "I don't know how much you've had to drink - or what you've been smoking," she added snidely, "but I think you'd better go."

"You know the lumps on the back of your neck?"

Caprice frowned. What the hell was he going on about? It wasn't like she could call her parents. When she'd come home from school that afternoon there had been a note on the table telling her they'd gone on vacation for a while. They'd left cash in the cupboard for her. They'd call soon. She had been more than a little pissed off she hadn't been let in on this. Screw them, then. Now *this*. "Yeah they're why I'm freak, remember?" she said bitterly.

Rylan shook his head. "They're horns. The seat of a dragon's power."

Caprice just laughed at him. "Yeah right. Next you're going to tell me I'm adopted and my real parents were some famous dragons who were killed for some stupid reason. What are you? An imp? An elf?" She snickered.

"I'm a vampire," he said reasonably. His tone had been calm as he'd been telling her all this. He acted like this was the reaction he'd expected from her.

"Vampire," she repeated dully. She hadn't expected that one. Vampires weren't something she tended to associate dragons with. Dragons she associated with fantasy, mainly Middle Earth and Hobbits. Vampires came with Buffy and Anita Blake.

Rylan sighed. "I suppose I should explain the whole thing. Forget what you think you know. The real supernatural has nothing to do with what you see on Buffy or read in Anne Rice. And dragons aren't all like Smaug."

Caprice frowned. How could he know what she was thinking? "How did you - "

"Vampires can read minds," Rylan said simply. "Most of the time we just get a vague idea, but we get this reaction a lot from people who think they're human but find out they're not. You're not even *supposed* to know about the Night World."

Caprice blinked. That was one she hadn't heard before. "What's Night World?" Wait a minute...she *had* heard if something along those lines before. Something to do with Sandra and Lance, who everyone seemed to use as a threat - you don't want to end up like Sandra and Lance. She'd heard Night World mentioned several times there. There had been fights and riots all over town that had eventually been stopped, most people never talked about it.

"It's a society for us non-humans, vampires, witches shapeshifters." He paused. "I'm fairly certain there's more than that to the supernatural world, but that's ours. Dragons used to be a part, but they were all put to sleep by the witches when they tried to end the world."

Caprice forced herself not to comment as he explained about the history of Night World, the story of the dragons, of Maya and Hellewise and how the Night World formed, and the prophecy that made everyone think she was a dragon.

"So what's the deal with this new guy that's shown up - Lucifer?" she asked.

Rylan frowned. "I don't know. The people you want to talk to about that is Nia and Ross, you know them?"

Caprice shrugged. "Vaguely." She remembered being pissed off that people were whispering about her a while back. This was why? She remembered Leandra's new "friend" as well. "Who's the other guy with Leandra?" she asked.

Rylan's frown turned into a scowl. "That's Ash Redfern. His a big name in the Night World ranks, rumour had it he became good when he found a human soulmate, but I don't believe it."

"What's soulmates?" Caprice asked, one of the lines of the prophecy floating back to her. /Salvation will come/From a joined soul./

"Soulmates is a concept in the Night World than everyone has one true love. When you meet that person something happens - like sparks and lightning - and you know they're the one for you."

Caprice noticed he looked almost embarrassed as he said it. Her eyes rolled. "And you think that sometime soon a revelation will it and we'll find out we're soulmates and won't re-destroy the world?" That was what the prophecy seemed to be telling her would happen. When she found out she was a dragon, her powers would waken, she'd know all about her ancestors and want revenge for what happened to them, she would try and destroy the world, she would find her soulmate and that would save everyone.

Rylan flushed. "I doubt it," he said. "But the Night People - Leandra and her friends are hunting you to take you to their people, while the Daybreakers - the good guys - wand to take you to their leaders."

Caprice sank deeper into the couch. She still wasn't sure she believed any of this crap - but he was dead serious, which unnerved her. "Which is worse?"

Rylan shrugged. "I'm not sure," he confessed. He stood up and started pacing around. Caprice sighed. Two lots of people had to plans for her - and she didn't know either one. She wasn't all that surprised, actually. Now she knew the basics only two questions were important to her - one: how did she use her dragon powers? and two: who was her soulmate?

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