“You guys… are vampires?” Jaya asks as she sits there, stiff-backed in her chair.
“No,” Vel says, smiling and shaking her head. “Although there is a school of thought among my fellow Earthophiles that one of our kind must have illegally visited your planet, confused the humans, and that’s where your tales of the mythical fanged creatures come from,” she pauses to giggle to herself as Lois, Jaya and I remain quiet. “I like that one. I don’t think it’s likely, but I do enjoy the theory,” she tells us, clearing her throat. “But, no. There’s no sucking of blood. During copulation, both parties experience an overwhelming urge to perform the bonding bite. Remember how I told you about the venoms we possess? We inject our bonding venom into our mating partner, and this used to form our most sacred of unions. Nothing could penetrate a bonded pair-”
“I saw that little holographic display,” Lois comments. “Someone was definitely getting penetrated.”
Vel presses her lips together and briefly closes her eyes, trying to stop herself from laughing. “That was a bad choice of words. What I mean is, nothing would come between the two. A bonded pair experienced an attachment like no other. The connection was strong. And once mated, the thought of sharing pleasures of the flesh with someone outside of your bond would be abhorrent. Xaviann’s back then simply did not think of doing such a thing. Once bonded, that was your person. For life.”
Jaya sighs. “That sounds romantic.”
“What do you mean Xavianns back then’?” I ask, trying to lean forward in this huge chair.
Vel nods her head and looks down to her touchscreen. Suddenly, a new holographic image appears, this one of a singular male Xaviann, wearing layers of beautifully rich robes embroidered with intricate patterns of golden thread, his horns looking like the sharp tips have been dipped in molten gold too. His miniature image stands proud above the tabletop in front of us, slowly rotating so that we get to view him from all angles. “This is King Gahaari, he ruled one nation of Xaavia around twenty generations ago. His rule is made infamous by how his actions drastically changed our very culture.” My eyes narrow at the little figure in front of me. His face looks smug, as if he can hear Vel’s words, and is relishing the idea that his impact has been ‘infamous’ all these generations on. “As you may have already guessed, the partner a Xaviann decides to mate with will be with them for life, so this is an important decision because once the bonding bite is performed, your connection to that person cannot be broken. Unfortunately, King Gahaari here did not like the prospect of being forced to choose just one female. He had traveled, and he had learned of other species where their males could bed many females, even when paired. He began to become more and more obsessed with the prospect of having his own harem of brides that he could enjoy without being tied to just one.”
“I’m starting to not like this guy,” Lois comments, folding her arms across her chest as she blows strands of her auburn hair from her face, scowling at the tiny image of a king in front of us.
“Oh, it gets worse,” Vel replies, shaking her head to herself. She lets out a long breath and wets her lips before plowing on with our Xaviann history lesson. “King Gahaari started with peasant females. He held these banquets for the poor where he would wander among his people and pick out the most desirable females, telling their families that when he chooses a bride, she will need female companions and that their daughters are lucky indeed to be chosen for such a role. These poor females were then taken to the palace and-” Vel pauses, her eyes closed as she inhales through her nose like she’s feeling nauseous or something. When she opens her eyes again, she makes one single tap on the screen in front of her and the image of the king is replaced by one of a Xaviann skull, this one featuring a set of double spiraling horns.
It takes me a few seconds to realize there are teeth missing.
“King Gahaari would have their fangs removed so that when he bedded them, they could not perform the bonding bite on him, leaving him unbonded, and free to bed the next female.”
I hear Jaya gasp softly beside me. “That’s awful.”
Vel nods her head in agreement. “No-one of the time besides those loyal to him knew this to be happening. Remains of the poor females were found many, many years after his reign had ended. The theories were rife, but what I’m telling you today has been corroborated by discovered records - records from the very males who were performing the fang extractions to ready the females for their king. They also told us that he would lie to the females, telling them that what was done to them was not under his orders and that he would punish the males responsible. He would then seduce them, telling them he did not care that she was fangless, and that he would make her his Queen, tricking her into copulation. Unfortunately, he would not even try to hold back his urge to bite them while mating, meaning that she was bonded to him-”
“But he wasn’t bonded to her,” I say, seeing where this whole messed up scenario was going. “What a piece of shit!”
“Yes, the female would feel an intense connection with the king, but it wasn’t reciprocated,” Vel confirms. “And from the accounts found from the king’s loyal household surgeon, this one-sided bond drove the females to severe illness, not just mentally, but physically too. Ultimately, all of King Gahaari’s brides became shells of themselves and gave up on life.”
I’ve felt anger for injustices before. I feel it all the time on a large scale when the rich and powerful get away with committing heinous crimes. When serial killers become celebrities, immortalized in the latest Netflix documentary while their victims get forgotten. Or, on a more personal scale, when I’ve been cheated on by a boyfriend, or when my best friend, Polly told me about how her dad had a whole other family that she and her mom had no idea about.
This is that same feeling. I stare at the image of the Xaviann skull in front of me, her two canine teeth missing. That shithead king mutilated her and then made her fall in love with him until it drove her insane knowing that he never felt the same. That she was nothing to him except a good time between the sheets.
“As sad as the peasant female’s fate is,” Vel says, continuing on with her history lesson, “it is not what changed Xavianns forever.” She tapped on her screen and changed the hologram once more. This time, we see the king sitting on a large, ornate throne, surrounded by Xavianns in a big hall. In front of him, small groups of his people would approach him, their mouths moving as if addressing him but we’re unable to hear the words. “King Gahaari’s court began to press him to choose a bride to bond with. Knowing that once he does this, he will be forced to finally be bonded on his end, and he’ll no longer be able to bed other females, he was not in any rush to do so. This weakened his relationship with his nobles and the other nations who had offered up their daughters for his consideration, as well as his advisors who were keen for him to sire heirs. But King Gahaari had a plan, and he would not concede to the demands of others until his team of scientists had concocted something to help him with said plan.” The hologram shifted to a closer view of the king sitting around a table with other male Xavianns. One of them approaches and offers an open palm with a single pill resting on it.
“What does that do?” Lois asks.
“Gahaari knew he couldn’t pull the fangs from his official bride. She would be the daughter of a noble or even a Princess from a foreign nation. Something like that would not go overlooked. He needed something that would allow him to be bitten, but not affected by the bonding bite. This drug promised to do such a thing,” Vel explains as the image zooms in on the single pill like it holds the power for evil. “So he took it. He took the drug, and then he took a bride, and he did not feel the effect of her bonding bite. He became bold, too. He started bragging to other, unbonded males on how he can bed females without consequence, and soon they too, wanted this experience. The demand was evident, so, seeing a new way to strengthen relationships between himself and his younger, unmated noblemales, the king started to secretly supply the drug to males, unbeknownst to the females in their lives. Soon, a black market for the stuff emerged and it became more widespread. The problems started to arise when infidelities were uncovered, trust, hearts, and health were all broken or breaking, but most worryingly, it affected the offspring.”
