I sat on one of the crates. Nikolas took the other and turned it so he was facing me. This close, his eyes were like liquid mercury and I tried to ignore the funny twisting in my gut.

“You didn’t know who the Mohiri were before the other night. How much do you know about us now?”

I lifted a shoulder. “I know you guys are vampire hunters and you and the werewolves don’t like each other. That’s pretty much it.”

“I imagine your friends don’t talk about us any more that we do about them. Would you like to know more about the Mohiri?”

“Yes.” I had no idea why he was telling me this but I was curious about him and his whole race.

My response seemed to please him because he smiled. “You seem very familiar with our world but how much do you know about demons?”

“Nothing, except to stay as far away from them as possible.”

“What if I told you there are thousands of types of demons and that vampires are one of them?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I’d ask you if you are deliberately trying to scare the hell out of me.”

He leaned forward with his elbows resting on his thighs. His eyes held mine with the same intensity I’d felt when we first met. “I am not here to frighten you.”

I tore my gaze from his and looked down at my hands. Too late.

“Do you still want to hear about the Mohiri?”

I looked at him again, glad that whatever I’d seen in his eyes a minute ago was gone. “Go ahead.”

“You sure?”

I gave him an encouraging smile. “Yes. I want to hear this.”

He looked out at the bay. “It all started two millennia ago when demons learned how to leave their dimension and walk the earth in corporeal form. Most of them were lesser demons and they were dangerous but not a major threat to humanity. But then a middle demon called a Vamhir appeared. It took a human host and gave the human immortality… and the thirst for human blood.”

“The first vampire,” I whispered, feeling a mixture of revulsion and fascination.

Nikolas nodded. “The demon soon learned how to make more like him and before long there were thousands of vampires. The earth’s population was small back then and ancient civilizations were virtually defenseless against the vampires’ strength and blood lust. If left unchecked, the vampires would eventually overrun the earth and wipe out humanity. So the archangel Michael came to earth to create a race of warriors to destroy the vampires. He took a middle demon called a Mori and put it inside a human male and had the male impregnate fifty human women. Their offspring were half human/half demon and they had the speed, strength and agility to hunt and kill vampires. They were the first Mohiri.”

He stopped and looked at me waiting for my reaction. But I was still trying to absorb the part about a demon impregnating women without squirming off my seat. It finally hit me what he was saying and I couldn’t help the incredulous look I gave him.

“The Mohiri are demons?”

“Half demon,” he corrected me. “Each of us is born with a Mori demon in us.”

I felt the color drain from my face. “You mean you live with a demon inside you like… like a parasite?”

“Exactly like that,” he said as if it was no big deal. “We give the Mori life and in return it gives us the ability to do what we were created to do. It is a symbiotic relationship that benefits us both.”

It was too much. I got up and walked to the edge of the wharf, struggling to grasp what he was telling me. Demon parasites? I peered down at the water and I could just make out a few tomcods and a sculpin below the surface. The water looked deceptively shallow here but I knew it was over fifteen feet deep at this end of the wharf. Nothing in this world was what it appeared to be.

“You’re not planning on jumping are you?” There was amusement in his voice but also something that sounded like concern.

I sucked in a fortifying breath and faced him. He was still sitting on the crate watching me expectantly. What was I was supposed to say to him? Everything I’d ever heard or read had taught me to fear demons and keep my distance from them. Now Nikolas was telling me that he was a half demon warrior who went around protecting humans by killing other demons. I didn’t know how much more weirdness I could handle.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Somehow I didn’t think he had tracked me down just to educate me on demons.

He stood and walked toward me, stopping a few feet away. “Because you need to hear it.”

“Why? What does this have to do with me? Or my parents?”

Nikolas’s face grew more serious. “I’ll get to them in a minute. First, tell me, haven’t you wondered why you’re different from everyone else you know?”

“D-different?” How could he possibly know about that? “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I think you do.”

“Listen I –”

His gaze captured mine again, his eyes turning a deep charcoal grey. Before I could contemplate how a person’s eyes could have so many different hues, I felt the softest brush against my mind. Some unseen force pushed gently against my walls, testing them, and in the recesses of my mind the beast stirred in response. Panic flared in me and I reached for my power, suddenly feeling like I was locked in a battle of wills. The comforting strength of my power coursed through me and slammed against the foreign presence, flinging it away from me. Gasping, I whirled away from him. What was that? I’d never felt so exposed and vulnerable in my life and it terrified me.