The red was chosen as it was a power color, but the deepness of its hue and the delicacy of the embroidery, they were assured, would also communicate tranquility along with its strength.

“Are you ready?” he asked quietly.

“I am,” Jian-Li replied.

He nodded.

“They’re starting,” someone announced, and he turned his head to the bank of television screens.

“Volume, please,” he called.

The volume came up and Gregor watched a black woman with soft curls in her long bob of hair, who was wearing a smart and stylish but casual outfit all in taupe—woven cashmere turtleneck, ribbed cardigan with long lapels, expertly tailored wool slacks. With this, she wore understated gold jewelry but exquisitely elegant, spike-heeled pumps.

They’d been assured, with her history of demanding frank, in-depth interviews, prompting surprising candor and emotion from her subjects, that she was by far the most trusted member of the media, not only in the United States, but in all of English-speaking North America.

On screen, she was walking up a wide, sweeping set of stairs at the base of a castle. She moved toward the balustrade that led up from its end, which had a statue of a proud wolf carved in stone.

She did this speaking.

“I stand on the steps of Canis, the home of the king of werewolves, a man known as Callum. And I do it with the unprecedented honor of sharing with you the tales of the warriors who are on the brink of saving humanity from the shocking threat we learned we were under at the hands of a rebel faction of vampires, werewolves, and a race known as golem.”

She stopped and laid a taupe, leather-gloved hand on the balustrade.

“I am at Canis,” she went on, “but I’ll begin my report not with King Callum and his queen, Sonia. I begin my report with Lucien, a vampire whose strength is said to be unparalleled. A vampire who was the general in the last battle the immortal vampires fought alongside humans against a foe who wished the freedom to hunt, feed from, and kill members of the human race. This was a secret battle that was deadly, and great losses were suffered on both sides, but the vampires and their human allies prevailed.”

Her expression became grave before she carried on.

“But during it, Lucien lost his human partner, a woman he loved implicitly. She was captured by his enemies, tortured, and put to death. I tell his tale first, along with that of his human wife, Leah. A concubine, these being not what you might think they are when I say that word. They are a centuries-long line of strong women who swore duty to vampires, giving them their allegiance, and their blood, in order that vampires could sustain without hunting humans. Protecting us. Keeping us safe. Strong women who many saw brutally violated and murdered in recent videotapes streaming online.”