Chapter 6: Supernatural Creatures & Rules

The next couple of weeks passed by with a lot of reading. Grandpa gave me a few books to study so I can learn more about supernaturals. I had a lot of questions, but my mom or my grandparents explained to me all I wanted to learn.

Throughout the centuries each supernatural kind organized its communities and set its laws. Werewolves were the keenest on hierarchy and rules. They live in packs, some small and other bigger. Each pack is ruled by the strongest wolf, the alpha. Besides him, the beta and the gamma help him with his duties. All wolves play their part in their pack and follow their alpha's orders. From time to time, there have been a few conflicts about territorial and power issues. Werewolves are wary of anyone who doesn’t belong to their kind, and they don’t easily trust others.

They are strong, fast, can heal injuries quicker than humans, and have heightened senses. Werewolves pay extra attention to exercise and martial arts; they are the best warriors among the supernaturals. They can transform or communicate with their wolf whenever they feel the need to. Their wolf is like a different being that resides in them, and at the same time as a part of themselves. Their wolf is more bloodthirsty and hothead that their human self. When they merge with their wolf; when their needs and beliefs become one, a werewolf is one of the strongest supernatural opponents someone can face.

Werewolves are overprotected and possessive of their mates, and they are capable of doing anything to protect them. One can think that a werewolf’s mate is his biggest weakness, but at the same time, it’s the best thing that happens to their life. Humans call it 'love at first sight'; werewolves call it 'mate bond'. They love, trust, care and protect, their other half unconditionally. The mark is the sign that a she-wolf is mated; her mate uses his canines to bite and leave a small scar on his mate's neck. The mark completes the mate bond and signifies the couple’s union, both mentally and physically.

Reading about the mate bond, I wished I’d be able to fall in love and have someone to care about me, more than he does for himself. Besides that, werewolves have another ability that I envy, the mindlink; they can telepathically communicate with any member of their pack. Imagine being in danger and not be able to call someone? Mindlink can be very handy!

On the other hand, Shifters can transform into any 3 animals or mythical creatures. They can’t communicate with their inner creatures like werewolves can. Their strength depends on which creatures they’re able to transform. They heal fast and they have heightened senses like werewolves. Shifters don’t form packs, nor have maters. They prefer to live alone or rarely live in the human community. Their sex desire is high, and they are polygamic. Usually, they don’t have more than two children. Among the supernaturals, shifters are the least trustworthy and the most selfish creatures.

Witches draw power from Nature to perform their spells and rituals. After the first vampire’s creation, some of them started to use blood and human sacrifices to gain more power. Besides, the healing, love, or protection spells, they started to find ways to curse someone or even kill him. These witches perform Dark Magic, and they were hunted down by The Keepers. Dark Magic is prohibited, and whoever uses it will face lethal consequences.

Witches and warlocks form little communities, and they usually mingle with humans. They sell small portions and charms or work as regular people do. Their partner can be either a supernatural or a human; they like having big families. Witches and warlocks don’t use brute force to overcome their opponents. They aren’t as strong or fast as werewolves and shifters are, but they can cause them an immense amount of pain with one spell. They aren’t the kind of rival you’d mess without a serious reason.

Nymphs, fairies, and elves live near rivers, lakes, or into the forests in small communities. As my grandma told me, they are the Protectors of Nature, and they preserve the different kinds of plants and animals. They are peaceful and calm creatures; they hate violence and they can easily be deceived. Nymphs and fairies use herbs to make potions, as my grandma does. They don’t practice magic like witches, but they are considered to be the best healers among the supernaturals. They usually marry amongst their kind and have a lot of children. 

Vampires are the most complex category of supernaturals. Shifters scorn them, while werewolves consider them mortal enemies. Witches are divided; others support werewolves, and some are backing vampires, whilst a few prefer to stay neutral. 

Vampires aren’t as strong as werewolves, but they're faster than them. They have heightened hearing and night vision and can survive in lower temperatures, due to their natural lower body temperature. They are sly and ruthless, and even though they luck in strength, they use their mind-controlling technics to win a conflict. They can read a human’s deepest desires and use compulsion to control people’s minds. 

Garlic, sun, and Holy Water don’t affect vampires as humans believe; it’s superstitions. They need to feed on alive beings to survive, but that doesn’t mean they can feed only with humans. Some vampires prefer to feed on animals’ blood, although they need to consume more. It seems that humans’ blood has the right proportion of nutrition a vampire needs. They don’t necessarily have to kill the human they fed with since they don’t drain all their blood. Vampires who feed on humans have their blood banks, or pay, or compel humans so they can feed on them.

Vampires don’t have mates, and they can’t have children. Their community is a very closed one. They don’t turn whoever they want into a vampire. The Senatus de Sanguine is a group of the oldest and most powerful vampires. That said group supervises all the vampires and decides who can be turned into a vampire or punishes the ones who broke their law.

Vampires unlike the other supernaturals, aren’t born but turned at some point in their life. The Senatus chooses the best candidates and guides them through their tuning period. To turn into one of them, you will have to die with a vampire’s blood in your system. Their blood has the power to heal every injury or disease and beat the aging process; that’s why vampires are the only supernaturals that are immortals. Nevertheless, they can be killed, either by ripping their heart of their body or by decapitation. Considering being half dead, they’re quite a tough rival.

The Keepers are strong as werewolves, fast as vampires, and have intensified senses, too. They can read someone’s mind and see his wrongdoings. They can play with his mind and emotions, and make one feel guilty or regret, by forcing them to face their evil deeds or fears. Keepers can sense other supernaturals presence or a supernatural’s criminal action, within the area they’re guarding.

The leaders of each kind are responsible to keep their community in check, and usually, they are the first to deal with someone who broke the law. Keepers are summoned in difficult situations, such as when the lawbreaker is a rogue, or the crime was committed in an area that is outside everyone’s jurisdiction.

Keepers don’t have mates and can marry either a supernatural or a human. They pass their abilities to their children like any other supernatural, besides vampires. There is a principle that applies for or supernaturals; hybrids can not be born. That means, if a child’s parents belong to different supernatural kinds, it can inherit only one of its parents’ traits. When a supernatural breeds with a human their offspring can be either supernatural or human. 

The rules that applied for all supernaturals were quite simple; don’t kill anyone human or supernatural, and don’t reveal your true identity at humans. Of course, there were exceptions to these rules. Especially for the latter one. We kept concealed our true nature from humans because we’re a minority compared to mankind, and at the same time, we are a threat to them. A war could break out and both humans and supernatural would die. That’s why we kept our identity secret, to protect not only ourselves, but the humans, too. Exceptions of this rule are made for supernaturals that have human mates or spouses. 

“Ophelia, what are you reading again, angel?” my mom inquired as soon as she stepped inside my room.

“Oh, you know, these books that grandpa gave me.”

“Have you finished your homework?”

“Of course, I did, mom,” I replied with a sigh. School assignments always come first.

“Okay then,” she said.

“What is it, mom?” I asked since she seemed to be troubled.

“Well, do you remember that David and Chris invited us to spend the Christmas holidays with them, at a winter resort?”

Uh, I had completely forgotten about that, but I nodded. “Yeah, although we never gave them a final answer.”

“David asked me again today. He is making the reservations, and he wants to know if he should ask for one more room,” mom stated cautiously.

I tried to keep my face emotionless. “I thought we’d spend Christmas with my grandparents.”

“We do that for the past 12 years. I thought we could do something different this time. Besides, we're going to be with your grandparents on New Years’ Eve,” my mom countered back.

Obviously, she wants to be with David. “You are right. It will be fun since we’ve never been on a winter resort before,” I said, trying to smile.

Her eyebrows shot up. She didn’t expect me to agree with her that easily. “You’re right, angel. I’ll tell David to find an extra room for us,” mom said happily and kissed me on the chic.

“This is going to be interesting,” I muttered to myself when mom left my room.