9. Greg
CHAPTER 9
GREG
I wasn’t proud of my first reaction to Cal Steadham.
I should’ve been professional, should’ve stood up to greet him with an apology and a smile, put him at his ease so we could talk.
Instead I gaped at him. For—I am not kidding—almost a full minute.
And I know this is true because Craig told me later how excruciating it was for him to stand there calling my name as I stared at Cal with my mouth hanging open.
He was amazing.
And he was appalling.
Physically he was everything I secretly dreamed of in a man. I’d seen his photo already, but it didn’t do him justice. His face was stunning. Not conventionally handsome but riveting. His dark hair and beard, round cheeks and plush lips—those were lovely, but not as enthralling as those brown eyes blazing with magic and innate charisma. He was tall and strong, but soft enough I could tell he’d give hugs to die for. I wanted him to pick me up and hold me so I could revel in the resonance thrumming between us.
Except.
Except I couldn’t ignore the way he was a little too unkempt, like he didn’t care how he walked through the world. His overgrown hair, the untrimmed beard. The coffee stain on his t-shirt. And who wears a t-shirt that says, “Moist”? His dirty, ancient Converse. The ratty backpack with a broken strap hanging down.
My chest tightened and I heard roaring in my ears. Memories of a childhood spent neglected, my brother and I left to fend for ourselves, tried to claw their way to the front of my brain. I shoved them back.
Just because Cal and I resonated didn’t mean I had to bond or even connect with him.
“Greg!” Craig’s voice finally penetrated my thoughts, and I jerked in my chair.
“Sorry. Um, I—” I cast around, trying to find something that needed my attention urgently. Fuck it. I stood, not looking at Cal again. “I need to use the restroom.”
Cal was standing slightly between me and the door. I edged by, leaning to the side so I wouldn’t touch him. It was mostly futile, though, since we were still close enough his magic and mine reached for each other, humming louder in an effort to connect. Fuck.
I made it past him and rushed through the office door. Avoiding eye contact with any employees or clients, I race-walked across the lobby and burst through the doors into the daylight.
I walked down the sidewalk in front of the building as if I were heading to my car. I thought wistfully of my keys and my phone, still sitting in my desk drawer. I’d have to go back in there. I’d have to talk to Cal, tell him about this new world he’d been thrust into without his consent.
I hesitated, my step faltering. No, best not to think of Cal and thrusting in the same sentence.
I neared an old white pickup. It had to be Cal’s. Bark & Purr’s clientele skewed toward people who drove fancy European cars. This one was a Ford, and it was easily twenty years old. I could see spots, large and small, all over the exterior where someone had inexpertly removed and painted over rust. I itched to find a professional painter and have it fixed.
I glanced around, but no clients were in the parking lot, and the employees in the yards seemed occupied with the dogs. I walked closer and couldn’t stop my nose from wrinkling. The bed of the truck was littered with trash. Cal was a fan of fast food and cigarettes. A glance through the passenger window showed more trash on the floorboards along with stained upholstery.
My head spun. The roaring sound filled my ears again. I fought to keep the anxiety at bay, but I had to lean over and put my hands on my knees.
It’d be okay, I told myself. I didn’t have to form a connection with Cal, and I certainly didn’t have to bond with him. Obviously we’d never be truly compatible.
I chuckled darkly, thinking of the call with my mother an hour ago. She’d been upset at Ellis and Shane for frightening Cal, but she’d also been gleeful that they hadn’t resonated with him. Which meant—to her at least—that he was destined for me. Well, sorry, Mom. Resonation or not, Cal and I would not be connecting. My mental health wouldn’t allow it .
After thirty seconds or so I was able to stand upright again. I turned away from the truck and faced the daycare yards. The dogs ran around in the sunshine, barking playfully and chasing each other.
I breathed through my nose and exhaled through my mouth.
I could do this. I could talk to Cal in a professional manner, and everything would be fine.
Gritting my teeth, I walked back into the lobby. I waved calmly and cheerfully at the employees and clients. Then, taking a deep breath, I turned the corner to the office.
I hadn’t closed the door all the way when I’d left, and Craig was talking.
About me.
“...doesn’t have OCD or anything. It’s just some coping mechanisms for some shit I’m sure he’ll tell you about eventually. But it’s nothing major. I mean, look, he lets me be as messy as I want as long as I confine it to the top of my desk.”
I shoved open the office door, scowling at Craig. He merely smiled sunnily at me from where he leaned with one hip on my desk.
“Sorry about that,” I said to Cal, who was sitting in Craig’s desk chair with an irritated expression on his face.
“I’ll go help Marie out front so you can talk,” Craig said. He stood and turned to Cal. “It was nice to meet you. I hope we see more of you in the future.”
As he passed me on his way out, I tried to incinerate him with my glare, but he only wiggled his eyebrows and grinned.
I sat behind my desk, grateful for the barrier between me and Cal .
“So,” I said, striving for a calm, professional tone. “I imagine you have some questions.”
To my surprise, Cal made a slashing motion with his hand. “They can wait. I’m here because I had a vision, and someone’s going to die.”
I stiffened in my chair. My gaze sharpened, my body ready to go into combat mode. “Shit. Okay, what was the vision?”
His expression was grim. “A female-presenting person was sitting on a park bench. She wore a short skirt and Doc Martens. She had a blue lunch sack, but the sun was at an angle so I don’t think it was noon. The bench was next to a curved walking path that went through wooded areas on each side of her. I couldn’t see any road or parking lot. The woman looked to her right, then she jumped up and ran in the opposite direction.” He gave me a level look. “Then wings came out of her back, and she flew into the trees.”
My stomach clenched. “Okay.”
Cal glanced to the side and ran a hand through his hair. “There was a weird fog, and I couldn’t see the trees anymore. She screamed, and the sound cut off. Then the fog went away, and I woke up.”
My mind raced. I had questions about the fog, but saving the woman—and if she lived in my district there were only a few candidates for who it could be—was the priority.
“What did her wings look like?”
“Um.” He closed his eyes and spread his arms out. “Wider than her armspan from her body. Kind of... iridescent? And I don’t know what they were made of, but they moved more like an insect’s wing than a bat’s or a bird’s.” He opened his eyes. “Did that help? ”
I nodded, yanking open my desk drawer and pulling out my phone. I dialed, drumming my fingers on the desk in a sharp staccato.
I was afraid the call would go to voicemail when she finally answered. “Hi, Greg. How are you?”
“Annie, hi. Listen. Are you wearing a short skirt and Doc Marten’s today?”
She hesitated. “Yes?”
I nodded at Cal. He slumped in the chair and rubbed his beard.
“And do you have a blue lunch bag?”
“Yes. What’s going on?” Tension filled her voice.
“The new Cassandra had a vision about you. Where are you right now?”
“ What ? I’m at work. At the law office.”
I sagged in relief like Cal had. “Good. Please stay there. Where do you usually take your lunch break?”
“Um, it varies. It’s nice out today so I was planning to go to Wharton Park.”
“Wharton Park,” I repeated.
Cal gave a sharp nod and picked up his backpack, pulling out a laptop covered in all kinds of stickers.
“Okay, so please, until I tell you otherwise, make sure you have people around you at all times.”
“Greg,” she snapped. “What happened in the vision?”
“He didn’t see a lot, but you were frightened, and you flew into the trees. And then you screamed. ”
“Oh, fuck,” she whispered. “Please tell the Cassandra I said thank you. I’m so glad you called.”
“I’m grateful he came to tell me.”
Cal, who’d been looking intently at his laptop screen, held up a finger. “Ask her what time she was planning to go to the park today.”
I repeated the question. Annie said, “My shift starts at 6am so I take my lunch at 10am. It’s a ten-minute walk from here.”
“10am. Got it.” It was 8:40am now. “I’ll let you know what we find out.”
“Thanks, Greg. And be sure to thank the Cassandra for me.”
“Of course. Stay safe.”
We hung up. I put my phone down on the desk and put my hands over my face. “Thank fuck,” I muttered.
“No shit,” said Cal. “Okay, I think I found the bench where your friend was sitting in my vision. I’m gonna go hang out there and see what I can see.” He slammed his laptop shut and started to put it in his backpack.
I dropped my hands. “What? By yourself? You don’t even know what... she was escaping from.” I opened the drawer to get my keys.
He stood up. “No, but this is the second vision I’ve had with the same weird fog. The first one, the cops found the victim’s duffel bag right where my vision said he’d been. But there was no sign of the guy or what happened to him.”
“Hold on.” I put up a hand. “You’ve had a vision about this fog before? And someone died?”
He swung his backpack over one shoulder using the remaining strap. “Or vanished. But that guy screamed too. ”
I swallowed. “Was he also a Wonder?”
Cal cocked his head, his magic sparking. “A Wonder?”
I grimaced. “Part of what I need to explain to you. A magical being, a non-human person, usually with abilities or physical characteristics that have to be hidden from the general human public.”
“Magic,” Cal said. He shrugged and nodded. “Got it. Um....” He tilted his head and closed his mesmerizing eyes. “It was night, so I couldn’t see him very well to begin with. But the guy didn’t seem to have any trouble seeing in the dark. He was walking along a road, and when he got scared he ran for the trees—like your friend did in my vision this morning. But he bent over, and I didn’t tell the police this, but it almost seemed like he started running on all fours.” He opened his eyes and the full weight of his gaze punched into my brain. “Like a shifter.”
“Fuck,” I said. “I’m coming with you.”
I checked with Craig to make sure he didn’t need me for anything the rest of the day. I could tell he was dying to ask where Cal and I were going, but he just smiled and said they’d be fine without me.
“I can drive,” I told Cal when we walked out of the pet resort. “You can navigate.”
He lifted one shoulder. “Sure.”
I silently breathed out in relief. I could not handle riding in Cal’s trash-covered truck on top of the stress of figuring out what was after Annie.
We got into my SUV, and I was relieved the seats were far enough apart that Cal’s and my magic couldn’t quite connect. But the sparks kept reaching for each other. Shit, I’d have to be careful today, or I’d end up halfway to being bonded without meaning to.
And this was a much smaller space than the office, so I couldn’t avoid Cal’s scent. The spilled coffee on his shirt didn’t override the minty-herbal smell of his body wash and his enticing underlying musky man scent. Damn, I wanted to stick my nose in his armpit. Or his groin.
I mentally slapped myself. That would not be happening.
Grimly I started the SUV and backed out of the parking space. Before I’d even reached the road in front of the pet resort, Cal had pulled a cable from his backpack, plugged his phone into my car, and entered our destination into the navigation app. Why the hell did the Chief Technology Officer of a software company drive a technology-free rattletrap pickup truck?
“We’ll be there in thirty-four minutes,” Cal said. He dropped his phone into the tray on the console between our seats. “Since we have the time, why don’t you start by telling me about Wonders? Wait, scratch that. Start with you. Your mom’s psychic. What abilities do you have?”
I took one hand off the wheel and rubbed my neck. “I have some enhanced senses, like smell, hearing, that sort of thing. But mainly I’m what was originally called a Center. I can create magical connections with Wonders, and kind of keep tabs on them if they stay within a certain distance.” I drew a circle in the air with my forefinger to demonstrate. “I also act as a sort of mediator if any of the Wonders I’m connected to need help or accidentally expose themselves to humans.” I shrugged. “Mostly it ends up being non-magical assistance like helping them with housing or jobs.”
Cal digested this for a moment. “That’s... interesting.”
I chuckled. “It doesn’t pay anything, but it’s rewarding. ”
“Okay. So what’s a Cassandra? Oh, and what the fuck was up with those guys outside the restaurant yesterday morning?” He glared at me.
I sighed. The navigation app said we had thirty-one minutes left.
“It’ll take hours to tell you everything, so I’ll give you a basic overview right now and we can get into the details later, okay?”
“Fine.” He picked up his phone. “I’m gonna take notes, though, so I don’t forget all my questions.”
“Great.” I tried to moderate my sarcasm at the last second. It wasn’t Cal’s fault he got thrown into this.
Even as I watched the road, I could sense his magic sparking out, trying to reach mine. It would be so easy to lean his way and feel the warmth of a new connection.
Nope. I glanced over at Cal’s stained t-shirt. It was the splash of cold water I needed. He was obviously a great guy, but I could never be with him, much less live with him.
Not to mention how wrong it’d be to create a connection without his consent.
I cleared my throat. “Wonders—paranormal people—have always existed. But they didn’t evolve on Earth. They came through portals from another dimension. Most of them kept to themselves, but as the human population increased, Wonders were killed for being ‘monsters’, or their habitats were destroyed. Their numbers dropped and some species died out here completely.”
Cal nodded. “Makes sense. Humans’ first reaction tends to be to kill whatever they don’t understand.”
“Exactly. You’ve heard stories about Elves, right? ”
His head whipped toward me. “Elves?” He gave a disbelieving laugh. “Like The Lord of the Rings ?”
I smiled wryly and shrugged. “Maybe? I never met one. They’re a race of beings from the dimension the Wonders came from. They created the portals.”
“You’re shitting me.”
I shook my head, smiling more broadly this time. “I shit you not. Our understanding is that they have the most magic of any creatures in their dimension and as a result they’re in charge of it. They visited Earth frequently but the Elves themselves never settled here. The Wonders, though, they came to Earth and many of them stayed.”
“But if humans tried to kill them off, why didn’t they just go home?”
I shrugged. “Some did. But others liked their new home better than their old one.” I grimaced. “And now they can’t go home.” Cal stayed silent, waiting for me to continue. “After World War II, the Elves decided humanity was essentially unsalvageable. They didn’t want to watch us kill the Wonders or each other anymore.”
“So they left?”
I nodded. “They closed the portals and haven’t been back. But before they left for good, they did two things.” I paused to switch lanes so I could exit the freeway.
“First, they offered passage back to the Elven dimension for any Wonders who wanted to leave Earth. Some of the older beings went, but most of the younger ones had been born here, and it was all they knew. So they stayed.”
“Understandable. ”
“It is. But that led to the other thing the Elves did. They didn’t want to leave Wonders here without some sort of protection, so they picked several human families on each continent, and they sort of... infected them with magic.”
“I’m sorry. Did you say infected ?”
I lifted a hand, palm-up. “There’s really no other way to look at it. These families agreed to be champions of the Wonders who remain on Earth, and to help them do that, the Elves infused magic into their DNA.”
“Infused sounds better than infected.” Cal grumbled.
“Anyway,” I said, turning into the parking lot of Wharton Park. “It’s all a passive sort of magic, like your visions, or my increased sense of smell. We can’t do spells or turn people into toads or whatever.”
After parking, I undid my seatbelt and started to open the door, but Cal held up a hand to stop me.
“You’re saying you think I have this magic?”
I raised an eyebrow. “I know you do. I can sense your magic with mine. The records from the people who were directly infused by the Elves all say that after everyone present was given their magic, the Elves sort of....” I swooped a hand through the air like a fairy godmother waving her wand. “Gestured. Then ten or so years later some people showed up with magic, but they weren’t related to the original families. So we’re always on the lookout for new magic carriers. It’s been at least sixty years since we found any in Texas, though.”
I opened my car door then turned back to Cal, who was staring out the front windshield with a dazed expression on his face .
“Um,” he said. “Does that mean one of my parents had magic?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. But sometimes it acts kind of like a recessive gene and just pops up. And magic carriers can have non-magical children.”
Cal nodded and unplugged his phone. He got out of the car, shouldering his crappy backpack.
There was a map of the park trails next to the entrance. Cal pointed at the one Annie had used in his vision and we set off.
The trail was about four feet wide and mostly made of some sort of crushed stone. Trees surrounded us on both sides, and—based on the sounds—were full of birds, insects, and frogs. I heard a stream off to the left.
Cal ended up walking in front of me, which was a relief since I could control how close we were to each other. On the other hand, I wished I didn’t know in detail what Cal’s ass looked like as he walked. I forced myself to gaze into the trees instead.
We crunched down the trail for a few minutes before Cal asked, “Are there any Wonders who can turn into fog?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“What about vampires? Don’t they turn into fog?”
I snorted. “Vampires are a myth.”
He stopped and spun around, putting his hands on his hips. “Well, excuse me, Mr. Expert, but I’m still learning this shit.”
I winced. “Sorry, you’re right. It’s something kids ask a lot, so most of us are pretty knowledgeable about it. Bloodsucking demon myths are believed to have been started thousands of years ago to explain how bodies appear as they decompose. Modern vampire stories are just fiction. Think of them like unicorns and dragons.”
“Well, damn. There go my hopes of meeting a unicorn.” He threw his hands up and turned back around to start walking again.
Shit.
“I can check about the fog, though. Maybe some of the Wonders will know. We have a Discord server.”
Cal laughed, but the sound had a bitter edge to it. “Of course you do.”
The path curved and broke out into a clearing with a bench and a sign ordering us to pick up after our dog.
Cal moved to the side of the path opposite the bench and gazed around. “This is it. This is where she was sitting.”
I pulled my phone out. “It’s 9:43am.”
Cal pointed back the way we’d come. “That’s the direction whatever it was came from. Annie ran toward those trees.” He pivoted to point to the trees at the far end of the clearing.
“Okay. I guess we wait.” I went over to the bench and sat down at one end. It was long enough that even if Cal sat in the middle we wouldn’t touch.
Our magic probably would though.
I relaxed when Cal sat at the other end.
He unlocked his phone and started typing and muttering. “Fog killer? No—that’s something else. Fog monster? No, that doesn’t work.”
“Cal? ”
His head came up and he blinked at me. “Yeah?”
“Um, are you sure the fog was part of the, er, killer? My mom says she can’t see people’s faces in her visions if she doesn’t know them. Could this be similar?”
He started to reply then shook his head a little and started again. “My visions are like hers. I couldn’t see Annie’s face because I’ve never met her or seen her photo. But I could see her clothes and her lunch bag very clearly. The fog wasn’t there at the start of either of my visions, but in both cases it showed up after Annie and the first victim got scared and started running away.”
I rubbed the side of my face. “Like it was chasing them.”
“Yep.” He went back to his phone.
I looked around at the trees, clocking the various birds and squirrels. There was no change in the insect noises between where we were sitting and the parking lot. The breeze carried the expected scents of woodland flora and fauna, along with the car exhaust and concrete of the road at the edge of the park. And of course, I could still smell Cal. Dammit.
“Okay,” Cal said after several minutes. “There are some stories or myths about creatures who can turn into fog. Um, is there like a list of all the kinds of Wonders?”
I shook my head. “Not definitively. Different species settled in different parts of the world. We’re all aware of the more common varieties, but, for instance, the Bigfoot legends in the Pacific Northwest could be sightings of bears, or bear shifters, or something else entirely. We won’t know unless one of them comes forward.”
He rubbed his forehead. “I guess I’ll have to start a Google Sheet.” He dropped his hand and frowned at me. “But in that case how are you so sure vampires don’t exist? ”
I stifled an impatient sigh. “Legends about bloodsucking demons are well-documented and have different origins in different cultures. Most folk stories based on actual Wonders tend to originate only in the region where that species of Wonder settled when they arrived from the Elven dimension. And the Wonders themselves all agree there aren’t any vampires. It’s just a myth.”
“Yeah, yeah, like unicorns and dragons. Fine, got it. No vampires.” Cal held up his phone and opened his mouth to say something else, but the park went silent.
Absolutely still.
The hair on the back of my neck prickled.
I stood up and spun in a circle. My eyesight sharpened and my hearing became more acute. But combat mode didn’t help. I couldn’t hear anything except the faint noise from the road in the distance. I didn’t detect any unusual scents.
Cal got to his feet as well. He held up his phone to record. His breath was coming fast but he stayed quiet as I cast around for clues.
We’d been idiots to come here, unarmed and with zero idea of who or what we were facing. Though we didn’t have any other way to find out. Cal couldn’t call his visions yet. My mother and Uncle Edgar were at TWIST, which was too far away for either of them to see anything happening in this park.
A branch cracked about fifty yards to my left. I whipped my head around and moved so I was between Cal and the threat. Slightly closer, a step crunched on the gravel of the path.
We waited. I wished I had a weapon. I was decent at hand-to-hand combat, but most Wonders had claws or enhanced strength. They could kill a human without much effort .
Something brushed against leaves, also in the same direction.
Cal leaned over so his mouth was next to my ear. I forced down the instinct to recoil away from his magic. He barely whispered, “I feel like it’s trying to get us to go searching for it.”
The shiver I suppressed was no doubt due to my magic brushing against his. I nodded and cupped my hand over my mouth so I could whisper back. “We’d be at a disadvantage in the trees.”
He nodded back and stood upright again. He panned his phone around without moving his feet.
We waited.
Shrubbery rustled.
Another footstep on the gravel.
I was so on edge that I flinched when car tires rolled onto the pavement of the parking area. Electric vehicles were more difficult to hear as they approached.
The car stopped. By the time the first door slammed, the birds and insects were tentatively making noise again.
Cal and I both let out huge breaths. He bounced on his feet a little, shaking the tension out of his hands.
I glanced at my watch. “It’s almost 11am. How do you feel about greasy food and something to drink?”
“Fuck, yes.” He reached out one of his huge hands and lifted the backpack from the bench. Then he turned and gestured for me to precede him back to the car.
On the way we passed a pair of women with three small children. They weren’t Wonders, but I still shuddered thinking of what might’ve happened if they’d been inside the park when that thing had come hunting.
Whatever the fuck it was.