Only Human by Maria Bradley Read Free Book Online Page A

have you friend, always and forever, no matter what happens.
    Looking out of the window of the coach, I have decided I am not a fan of the Capital. True, there are some beautiful , meticulously designed, and stunning buildings, but there are too many of them. They are squashed together like sardines in a tin, and it is almost impossible to determine where one building ends and the other begins. Each one is in competition with the next, and they become more ostentatious, and eventually ridiculous, as we progress through to the Centre. No doubt, all of this over the top grandeur is to accentuate the fact that the residents are all stinking rich! It just proves that money cannot buy class, taste or discretion!
    It is so noisy too, car bumper to car bumper, they crawl in their vehicles through the city to their destinations. They vent their frustrations and impatience on their car horns , as they jostle to get to the next set of lights before their neighbours. The whole City Centre is in one great big rush.
    What I don ’t understand is why they travel in their cars. They are Vampires, and can run from one side of the Centre to the other, in less than a minute. It must be just the class status issue; people wanting to convince their peers that they are First Class, and can afford a better car than them. How can people reach their two hundredth or more years, and still act like schoolchildren, boasting a better pencil case than the rest of the class?
    We ’re here, I did quite a good job of distracting myself then eh friend?  I wonder if you noticed my eagerness to admire, ‘the wonderful architecture,’ of this city, and have transformed said city, into, ‘a tin of pilchards.’ Ha, just shows how a person’s mood has direct influence on their opinion. I am so full of trepidation about this visit; I refuse to see that any good can come out of it. Vampires are my own kin, but I hate them at the moment; hate, fear and confusion, that is my life.
    The boys are filing into the building before us, I can s ee Garok looking around for me; at least I hope he’s looking for me. Yes, he’s waving, so glad I got the window seat. What on earth is he trying to say? He looks frantic, and he is mouthing something indecipherable. Oh-oh, Mr. Prados has seen him and shut him up, the mean sod, never liked him. I am definitely slipping away at lunch to find Garok.  He’s upset about being here, that’s what it is, somehow I will find him and we’ll talk.
    This building is absolutely massive! Uncle told me once that all the generations of Kings and Queens in human history once lived here. I grudgingly admit that parts of it are still beautiful, probably the parts unchanged by the Vamps.
    Oh I am in a foul mood this morning, I hope I ’m not about to have another period! I might as well have, ‘HUMAN,’ tattooed on my forehead, if that is the case or even, ‘QUICK SNACK!’
    My thoughts are switching from one thing to another, I have to focus and try and get something out of this experience. I would be completely enthralled under normal circumstances, I know I would.
    The entrance to the building has six guards, three on each side of the door. They are dressed completely in black, apart from a white silk scarf draped around their shoulders, and a top hat with a silk band of the same colour. There are two marble bowls, one on either side of the entrance, supported by a single trunk of pure gold. These are alight, and I have to admit, they look spectacular in the darkness of the night; a rainbow of changing colours, wild and fascinating.
    The doors either side must be ten feet in height at least, which is almost half the height of the whole building. I read tha t it stands at about 25 feet in height. There must have been some giant, human Kings and Queens, to require doors that high!
    There are over 750 rooms in this building, man y of which aren’t even used by the Elders, or their clans, but they are cleaned and preened for visitors