Lacey's Luhpynes [Beyond the Veil 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) by Honor James Read Free Book Online

more. I want to learn everything that you care to teach me.”
    Flipping pancakes, he took the plate of fluffy cakes to the table. “Eat and we’ll talk over the meal,” he told her. “You can think of any questions you want to ask and I’ll tell you what I know. I don’t know what you want to know and how much you may already know that you don’t realize you know.”
    “All that I know is what you have shared with me so far. Remember the races keep themselves, pretty closed off from humans. They share weaknesses and strengths but anything other than that they keep off the radar as much as possible.”
    “I’ve told you much over the years,” he said, watching her. “You just were not listening obviously. We will just start again,” he told her moving back to the stove. “The races are older than the human race as you know. Our cultures have been around many millennia. We live longer but are not immortal as many seem to believe. Luck and good living keeps us alive. My father, for example, is almost nine hundred years old. My mother is around eight hundred, though if she asks if I’ve revealed that pretend not and pacify her by saying she looks barely old enough to have a grown child. Like human females the race’s females are also, on occasion, mildly vain when it comes to age.”
    Pulling the pan, he slid the pancakes to a plate and set it aside, turning off the gas to the burner. Grabbing the carafe of coffee, he joined her at the table and sat. “There are some elders of the Luhpyne that are nearly two thousand years young. Though by that point they appear as someone in their eighties would if they were human.”
    Slipping another pancake onto her plate, he dished up eggs and bacon onto his plate and began to eat. “The Vhampires can live to be much older, as can Spirytes and even Ahnjels. Though with those last two I’ve got no clue on how old they can get to be. They never appear to age and then are just gone when they pass. We all can survive wounds that a human could not. We all can die of course, you know this, you’ve seen it. One of the most efficient ways is beheading but really, that would kill anyone. We can also be killed by magical means, different for every race, but still eerily the same.”
    “I’ve seen a Luhpyne killed by magical means,” she said with a nod. “It’s horrible. I never want to see that again for as long as I live. It’s one of those things that is just completely and fully horrific, something that no one should ever have as their mode of death.” She took a bite of the pancakes and sighed. “Oh this is very good.” She ate for a while and then finally spoke again. “And until last night you thought the tales of a Vhampire turning one of the other races was total fiction.”
    “I didn’t say that, I said that it was the sort of thing parents used to scare us. I’ve always known it was possible, theoretically, but without hard evidence one can’t exactly get others to listen. Now we know it’s fact and the other races will have to listen. Vhampires are forbidden to change someone without their full consent and it’s a death penalty to change another of the races.” He paused as he nibbled on a piece of bacon, his eyes on her. “When one of the races is condemned to death there are three levels. There is the mercy killing of one gone mad, unable to help their actions because the magic that governs them has gone haywire. Then there is the execution, a showing of force and a way to ensure that others don’t do the shit they pulled. Last there is the death by magic. The Spirytes basically send the magic in someone’s body into overload and they die from the inside out. It’s extremely painful and extremely memorable. Unfortunately there are ways for humans to cause the same effect in us. But I’m not saying how since that would have my head on a platter without gaining the Regent’s permission to tell you first.”
    “Which is why I never told you guys