“Do you know what Watson’s exact position is? Knowing a little bit more about him and Exo might make me feel a little less panicked.”
“I know Watson is one of the eleven representatives for Virginia.” Kroven explained, grateful that he was still rubbing my arm for added comfort that was doing wonders on padding my earlier panic. “He represents the district in Piper and a few surrounding areas, from what Exo has told me.” His head tilted, and he took back his arm at the mention of his friend. “Exo is…a much longer story that we don’t necessary have the time for.” I sighed, unable to hold it in and Kroven was quick to take notice even as I plastered a grin on. “I promise I’ll explain everything involving Exo after the dinner.” His face faltered, but he did facial acrobatics to cover it before I’d seen it. Too late. “You deserve to know the truth.”
That simple sentence continued to send pulses of concern from the center of my spine to the rest of my body the entire ride to the restaurant, like icy drips of arctic doom that was poised to attack my system. What truth could be so bad that Kroven had to talk himself into sharing it with me? There wasn’t anything he could have told me that would have changed my feelings for him. I was already in way too fucking deep. I’d never felt so connected to another being before. I’d only had a handful of serious boyfriends before, but every one of them paled in comparison to the happy jolts I got from being with Kroven.
The restaurant was nice, to put it mildly, and I was glad I’d opted to bring dressier clothes with me. Kroven had hinted that he had an idea that Exo would suggest this particular restaurant before we’d boarded his private plane and his intuition had paid off on all accounts.
After disclosing that we were there to join a party that was already in attendance at the host stand, a pretty blonde woman nodded along when Kroven gave her the name Exodus. There were many tables that had both humans and Orbs enjoying themselves. It also looked like a few human-Orb couples were on dates, something I wouldn’t dream of seeing in Piper.
She led us to a huge table in the back, Kroven quickly explaining that ‘Exodus’ was a name Exo commonly used when conducting business, even though it wasn’t his name. Apparently there was something about a joke involving how Exo could be short for Exodus, but I had stopped listening as we were presented our table and I gawked at the two men we were there to meet.
Wallace Watson was a fairly average human. Short and styled red hair paired with his darker red beard made him very attractive. His navy suit made him look more like a politicianthan the rest of him did, evident muscles daring to bulge against the confines of their polyblend prison. Watson wasn’t what stood out to me.
It was Exo. I knew I wouldn’t be able to withhold my jaw from dropping, becauseholy shit. Kroven and Exo might both be sangamar, but they couldn’t have looked more different. As someone who had tended to my fair share of sangamar thanks to the blood center, I thought they were all slender, pale, and of varying heights. Exo wasn’t any of that. The sheer size of his chest made him more likely to be related to The Hulk in species than Kroven. His skin, while still pale, was a shade or two darker than what I’d grown accustomed to. Kroven and I both standing shoulder to shoulder wouldn’t be long enough to match Exo’s own shoulder width, surprised that the suit he was wearing even covered everything.
I’d never seen a jacked sangamar before, never thought they could look like some type of Hulky version of a vampire. Admittedly, he was fairly attractive in his own way. But when I looked at Exo, I felt more fear than anything.
“Kroven, my boy.” Exo said, delicately teetering around the table and chairs to envelop Kroven in a wide hug. If I listened close enough, I could have sworn I heard Kroven’s back cracking. “So good to see you.”
“You too, Exo.” Kroven winced as he came out of the hug, clapping Exo on the back and chuckling as he regarded the only other human. “You must be Wallace Watson.”
Wallace extended his hand for Kroven to shake. “Nice to put a face to the name, Mr. Kroven.”
“Just Kroven, please.” They shook hands and Kroven gestured toward me. “This is Bas Grant. He works at one of the blood centers in Piper. I thought his insight would prove invaluable.”
“Absolutely,” Wallace said eagerly, dropping Kroven’s handand firmly shaking mine. “Thank you so much for coming, Mr. Grant.”
“You can call me Bas.” Exo and Kroven took their seats opposite each other, and Wallace and I let go of each other hands so we could do the same. “Thank you for having me.”
“This is the fellow you mentioned, yes?” Exo said, taking a swift gulp of his water. Half of it was gone by the time he set the glass back on the table. Exo looked at me acutely. “You’ve witnessed the protests outside of the blood centers?”
Oh, so we were just getting straight to it, okay. I felt Kroven sneak a hand on my thigh underneath the table. I gave him a nod, appreciative of the soothing gesture before I regarded Exo.
“I have. Day by day, it’s getting worse. More people join the protestors everyday, and they get more agitated when there’s an Orb visible.” I dared a glance at Kroven, who just hung his head indifferently. “They were shouting awful things today when I stopped by the blood center I work at.”
“And you witnessed this as well, Kroven?” Wallace said, chiming in and looking disgusted at the prospect of hate I had waxed into the restaurant’s more casual atmosphere.
“Yes,” Kroven cleared his throat. “I opted to wait in the car while Bas informed the blood center of his absence.”
“What were the idiots shouting?”
Kroven turned away at Exo’s question and I could tell that the memory of their words hurt him deeply. Rage thrummed through me like an irritated guitar chord, needing to expel the sound welling within me for fear of breaking my string of morals.
“They were chantingOrb-omination.” I sighed. “Instead of the usual abomination.”
“So they’ve branded.” Wallace shook his head. “This is exactly what I was afraid of. Did they have signs with this moniker?”
“Yes.” Kroven and I spoke in unison, and I lightly laid myhand on top of his, the one still residing on my thigh. I traced a pattern along his pale knuckles, and he gave me a feeble smile that only hurt my heart more.
“Do you think this is enough to convince them that we need ORBIT?” Wallace gave Exo a stern gaze full of hopeful highways.
“What the hell is ORBIT.?” Kroven mirrored my confusion.
“That’s the silly little name Wallace has given to the hypothetical board of creatures he wants to assemble within the House of Representatives.” Exo scoffed, waving a hand in his comrade’s direction.
Wallace ignored him and addressed Kroven directly. “It stands for Other Realm Beings Integrity Trust. I want to assemble as many representatives for varying creature species that can bring issues concerning Orbs’ way of life directly to the lawmakers. Orbs deserve to have a voice in what happens to them,” Wallace was passionate in his words, and hope radiated like beams of positivity throughout my bones at how much he believed his decree. “They deserve to set the standard on how they’re treated in society. This world we inhabit isn’t just for humans anymore, and it’s about fucking time every person on the planet makes their peace with that.”
“Cheers to that.” I said, lifting the water that was already at the table and taking a quick sip.
