She looked to Abel and me and had clearly been informed we were new to this supernatural business, because she kept explaining.

“We aren’t actually ghosts. We’re born in this form and have always lived in it. We are much like all other beings. We live. We sleep. We love. We make babies.” She smiled. “And for us to make babies, we need phantoms.”

“All right,” I said when she stopped.

“The problem with this is, we and our phantom mates had a falling out some time ago. There was…” She hesitated before continuing, “A situation and we didn’t agree on how it would be handled. Our mates are quite protective and felt we should stay safe and they should deal with it. We wraiths felt we should fight at our mates’ sides. They’d demanded we stay behind and they do the fighting. We did what we felt was necessary and had joined the fight against their wishes. They thought that was disobedience. We found that concept repugnant as we’re not children; we’re simply a different gender. The situation we were engaged in was sorted, however, our mates are quite stubborn. Rather than being grateful for our assistance, they punished us by disconnecting.”

“When did this happen?” Sonia asked.

“Twelve hundred years ago,” Serena answered.

My eyes got wide. “Whoa, phantoms can hold a grudge.”

Serena smiled at me. “They can indeed, as can wraiths. The longer they stayed away, the more the grudge switched from one side to the other, turning us away from them should one try to approach for reconciliation. As you can imagine, this has gone back and forth for over a millennia. There were, of course, some…” Another hesitation before she went on with a not-hard-to-read-grin, “Connections as we all have needs.”

I got her so I grinned back.

She kept going.

“But this struggle started over equality. The sisters who have not turned traitor still wish for nothing but a lasting reconciliation with our mates when they accept us at their sides, not at their hearths. However, we were able to convince the traitors that we were tired of our disconnection with our lovers, and could deliver the phantoms to the other side through our subjugation to our mates. As the traitors are being led by males, it’s not surprising they would believe this, as even vampires, who well know that females of their kind have the capacity to be exceptional warriors, can be chauvinistic. Therefore, it didn’t take much convincing.”

“And the sisters who have turned traitor?” Sonia asked, and Serena’s expression became anything but serene.

“To survive, we feed off mortal energy,” she stated.

I tensed and felt Abel tense beside me.