14. Cal
CHAPTER 14
CAL
I wasn’t sure what to expect of TWIST. I think I imagined some sort of zoo, but the animals in the fenced areas by the main road made it seem more like a ranch.
After we went through the heavy iron-looking gate, Greg drove along a winding road. At first it was lined by more fenced animal yards, but then it was just trees. You couldn’t see anything from the road, which was probably for the protection of the Wonders who lived here.
Greg turned down a second driveway.
I saw movement in the side mirror, and when I turned around, I jerked back and shouted, “Fuck!”
Greg chuckled, but I ignored him in favor of staring at the freaking rhinoceros running alongside the car. Its feet thudded as they hit the ground. We were probably going 25 miles per hour. The rhino ran like it could keep pace all day.
Then in front of us, a grinning red-haired man flew out from the trees on the left. And I mean he flew . He hovered over the road, and his wings were beating so fast I couldn’t get a look at them. He wore blue jeans but no shirt and no shoes .
“Fucking show-off,” Greg muttered.
We drove under the winged guy, and the SUV shuddered as he landed on the roof with a bang.
The rhino’s footfalls were joined by loud hoofbeats, so I looked back. We were now also accompanied by a big black horse. A tiny golden creature was clinging to its mane, but I couldn’t get a look at it due to the angle.
“I take it this is the welcoming committee?”
Greg nodded. His fingers were white-knuckled on the steering wheel. As much as I didn’t want to praise someone who despised me, I had to admire how much courage it took to go back to the place that was the source of his trauma.
He slowed as we rounded a turn, and the trees fell away. In front of us was a large two-story brick house. Outbuildings were scattered behind it, and I could see the tops of large nets—possibly animal enclosures?—dotted in between them among the trees.
Greg drove along the circular drive in front of the house. To the left was a gravel area with what had to be more than fifteen cars and trucks parked in it.
Greg stopped the car. He looked at me. “Brace yourself.” Then he took a deep breath and opened his door.
A cacophony of voices shouted versions of “Greg!” and “Greggy!” over and over.
I jumped when my door was yanked open from the outside.
“Hey there!” said a woman who couldn’t have been more than four feet tall. She had a Scottish accent and didn’t have a second self. “Ye must be Cal. Is it short for Callum? I’m Aileen. ”
“Uh, hi. And, uh, it’s Calvin. Sorry.”
She waved this away. “No matter. Yer parents picked it, not you, I’m sure. Now come on out and I’ll get yer bags.”
I undid my seat belt. “Uh, I can get them.” I slid my backpack over my shoulder and hurried to the back of the SUV. The winged red-haired guy wasn’t on the roof any longer.
Aileen had the hatch open and was dragging Greg’s bag over the bumper.
I reached over her head to get my duffel, but she whacked me in the stomach with her free hand.
“Hey!” I backed up.
She shook a finger at me. “I’ll be gettin’ yer bags. It’s part of me job.”
“Um.” I searched around for Greg, but he was being mobbed by a bunch of people. “Okay, but may I make it easier on you and hand you my bag? I can reach it without stretching.”
“Fine.” She nodded and stepped back a little to give me room. I grabbed my duffel and passed it to her. She tucked it under her tiny arm so she was holding both of our bags one-handed.
She pointed at the trailing strap of my backpack. “Hand that over too, and I’ll fix it in a jiffy.”
“Oh! Uh, thank you, but my laptop’s in there, and I might need it.” I gripped the intact strap tightly.
She snapped her fingers then pointed again. “Ye’ll be in the book room, yeah? I’ll bring it there before ye have need of it. Give it over.”
I opened my mouth to protest again, but she glared at me. Her eyes were black with no white visible .
Right. This was a supernatural being. It was hard to see in the sunlight, but when I focused I could see the same glittery aura Greg and Edgar had. I shut my mouth and silently handed over my backpack.
She slung it over her tiny shoulder and patted the strap. “This was given with love. Ye’ve been having it repaired as ye go, yeah?”
“Uh, yeah.”
She gave me a sharp nod. “I’ll put some protections on it, so it’ll be more resilient. And dinna worry. I’ll treat it just like you would.”
Inexplicably, a lump formed in my throat. “Um, thanks.”
A new voice said, “Cal? Is that you?”
I turned to find a woman who could only be Delphia Shaw. She was almost as tall as Greg, with thick brown hair held back in an untidy braid. She had brown eyes instead of Greg’s gray, but her sharp nose and jaw were the same, as was the sparkling aura around her. I guessed she was around 70 years old.
“Hi, you must be Delphia.” I glanced around, but Aileen had vanished.
“Give me a hug, you, and welcome to the family.”
“Uh... family?” I couldn’t ask my question because she was in my arms, squeezing my ribcage harder than I would’ve liked.
“Hey, is that Cal?”
I looked up to see a big, muscled guy, even taller than me. He had to be Greg’s older brother Dominic. He’d gotten the gray eyes, but his features were a little rougher than Greg’s. His brown hair was cut short, and his face and arms sported several scars .
Delphia finally released me. “Yes! Cal, meet Dominic, my other son. Dominic, just look at this connection!” She moved her forefinger along an invisible line between me and Greg, who was standing in the middle of a mob of well-wishers with a desperate expression on his face.
Dominic raised his eyebrows, looking down at my gut then up to my face. “Wow, welcome to the family.”
Oh, shit. “Uh, I don’t think....”
“Come on.” Delphia grabbed my arm. “Dominic, go rescue your brother. We’ll meet you in the kitchen.” She started pulling me toward the front door of the house.
I glanced over my shoulder for Greg, but he was blocked by Dominic, who was wading through the crowd to get to him.
I barely had time to see the entryway of the house before I was dragged through a kind of great room with seating areas and tables scattered around. The kitchen was huge, and I could see a large dining room through a doorway at the other end.
Delphia sat me down at the enormous butcher-block island. “Coffee or iced tea?”
“Um, I don’t need anything right now, thanks.”
She made a dismissive noise. “You’ll be in a tiny room with the books the rest of the day. Beverages aren’t a good idea in there with all that old paper. You’ll get parched. I’ll get you some water.”
“Okay,” I said faintly. Holy crap, she was even pushier in person than she’d seemed on the phone.
I heard the front door open, the sounds of people shouting and laughing outside spilling through the house before suddenly cutting off. Two sets of footsteps echoed through the empty rooms as Dominic and Greg came closer.
“Boys, you want coffee, iced tea, or water?”
“Nothing for me, Mom,” Dominic said as he walked into the kitchen. “You know I’ve got to get on the road.”
Greg came in behind him. His face was pasty white, his eyes wide. He moved stiffly, and he had his arms crossed as if he were cold. Fuck.
I used my foot to shove the barstool next to me out a little, nodding at Greg to sit down. He gave me a quick smile and sat. He scooted the stool closer to the island, and I used my bulk to take up even more space than I usually did. I felt Greg relax slightly as my shoulder and upper arm pressed against his. Maybe he didn’t dislike me as much as he once had.
It didn’t make him any less of an asshole, but it was something.
I just wished my dick wasn’t so excited about me and Greg being this close to each other.
Dominic examined us, then he flicked his eyes to me and gave me an approving nod.
Delphia passed a glass of water to Greg, who gulped it gratefully. She rushed back to the other end of the kitchen and swiftly returned with a plate of cookies, which she set down in front of us.
Greg made an appreciative noise and said, “Thanks, Mom.” He snatched a cookie from the plate.
Delphia nudged the plate in my direction. “Have one. They’re Greggy’s favorite, peanut butter chocolate chip.”
Greggy? I’d heard people outside yelling it, but... wow. I slid my eyes to Greg. He was glaring at me as he chewed, daring me to say something. At least his color was better.
I smiled and said, “Thank you, they look delicious.” I took one, and it was possibly one of the best cookies I’d ever had, warm and buttery, the peanut butter and semi-sweet chocolate perfectly complementing each other. I swallowed and said, “This is amazing.”
Dominic grabbed two cookies. “I’ve got a report of a group of goblins being held near El Paso. One of them’s a newborn.”
Greg grimaced. “You need to get going then.”
“Yeah,” Dominic said. “Hopefully Ric and I will get it sorted in time for me to come help you with the fog monster things, or whatever you and Edgar are calling these fuckers.”
Greg nodded. “I think it’ll come down to a fight. But we can’t fight them until we know what they are.”
“And how they can be killed.” Dominic kissed his mother on the cheek then came around the island to hug his brother.
“Stay safe,” Greg told him.
“You know it.” Dominic stuck his hand out to me. “Welcome to the family, Cal. I hope the next time I see you we can spend more time together.”
“Uh, sure,” I said uncertainly. I carefully did not look at Greg.
I wanted to believe Delphia and Dominic were using “family” to mean their group of magic carriers. But they were really commenting on the connection they could see.
Greg and I were magic-married.
Fuck.
Dominic said, “You’ll probably meet my daughter, Caroline , at some point too.” He grinned proudly. “She just took over as DM of the Panhandle District.”
“Oh, wow. That’s impressive.” Or at least it sounded like it was. What the hell did I know?
Dominic left a few minutes later.
I took a sip of water, then I said, “Should we get started on the books?”
Delphia pointed at our glasses. “After you finish your water.”
Grumbling, Greg and I did so.
It turned out Edgar and his wife Bettina had already started on the book room.
That is, if you meant started in the way of the old saying, “a journey of a thousand books starts with moving a few of them around.”
Bettina, a woman of undetermined age with dark brown eyes and jet black hair without a speck of gray, told me she was excited to meet me, and that Edgar had sung my praises to her. I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d done to earn Edgar’s compliments, but I’d take them.
Bettina informed me she was the bookkeeper for TWIST. “But,” she rushed to add, “the accounting type, not a keeper of books like this.” She waved her hand around to indicate the dusty stacks.
The room was about twenty feet long and twelve feet wide. No windows, or at least if there were any windows they were covered by bookshelves. It was impossible to estimate how many books were in the room. Every shelf was filled, not only with books placed in the traditional upright and spine out way, but also with more stacked in front of and on top of those books. The floor was covered in additional piles, and I had the impression there was a table in the center of the room, but we couldn’t see it due to it being surrounded by and covered in even more books. Here and there I could see parts of a few non-book items, but my view of them was blocked by—you guessed it—books.
The room smelled of dust and old paper.
I turned to the others. Greg was pale again, staring blankly at the haphazard mountain of books. Well, he and I were on the same page for once.
I told Greg, Edgar, and Bettina, “We need face masks, gloves, and dust cloths before I’m setting foot in there.”
We ended up commandeering the room next door, which was a guest room Delphia had apparently meant for me and Greg to share. There was only one bed, so I was glad we’d dodged that bullet. We’d figure out sleeping arrangements later.
Aileen appeared with my cleaned and repaired backpack. She’d also brought several Wonders, who she efficiently directed to move the furniture out of the guest room and to bring in a couple of tables and some chairs. She took one look inside the book room, then closed her eyes and shook her head before turning her back on it.
While I would’ve preferred to catalog the books as we examined them, we didn’t have that kind of time. We brought a stack of books out of the room, then each of us would grab a book, dust it off, and decide whether it might have information about fog monsters in it. Any books needing a closer look were stacked on one of the tables. The others were put in a corner to eventually be moved back into the book room, though I suspected we’d just created a second book room .
Aileen set us up with a bucket of clean dusting cloths and another bucket to put the dirty ones in. She or someone else came by regularly to switch the dirty cloths out for clean ones.
After two hours we only had five books set aside to look at later, and about 200 stacked in the corner. Some of the books were in other languages, and we’d had to google translations of the titles, which took extra time.
Greg’s phone chimed, and after checking it he said, “Lloyd and Silvia have arrived, and Mom’s got lunch for us in the dining room.”
“Great, I could use a break.” I stood up and stretched. Greg watched my t-shirt ride up my stomach. I pulled it down self-consciously, and he looked away.
We all washed up and went to the kitchen.
A tall Black man with salt and pepper hair and a wolf as his second self was standing next to the kitchen island talking to Delphia. At his side was a short older Hispanic woman with sparkly glasses propped on her head.
Greg greeted these two with hugs, and then he introduced me to them. Bettina and Edgar already knew Lloyd, but they were excited to meet Silvia.
As we walked to the dining room, I ended up next to her. I said, “I just found out about all this a few days ago.”
She smiled and latched onto my arm with an amazingly strong grip. “I’m so glad it’s not only me. Lloyd is everything I ever wanted in a partner, but my poor brain is having trouble absorbing that these Wonders actually exist.”
I patted her hand. “I understand completely. ”
After lunch Edgar, Bettina, Greg, and I got back to work. We’d made a decent dent in the books, and we could walk several feet into the room. I looked for anything that wasn’t a book in the hopes it could be the mysterious Elven weapon an old armadillo shifter named Karsha had told Bettina about when she was a teenager.
I managed to reach a small vase with the remains of a desiccated flower inside, but that was it. The rest would have to wait until we got through more books.
When we had ten books to look at, we took turns examining them while the other three continued to go through the stacks in the book room. Most of them were duds. From a fog monster perspective at least.
I itched to read some of the books. We’d found one that claimed to be a history of Elves on Earth. Another was titled “Representation of the Wolf Shifter in Popular Novels”. It’d been published in 1932.
I checked in with Steve in the afternoon, but he said everything was going fine at work. The first draft of the contracts defining our separation from Rogues Gallery as employees but retaining our intellectual property ownership was almost ready. I told Steve I’d be back in Bent Oak hopefully tomorrow but by Thursday at the latest.
We stopped for the day at 6pm. I felt good about the progress we’d made, and I suspected we might finish going through all the books by the end of the day tomorrow.
Greg said, “Let’s find out where Aileen put our bags. There’s time to get a shower before dinner if you’d like.”
“Ugh, yes,” I groaned. I felt like book dust had settled into my pores .
I followed Greg down the hall. Aileen apparently had an office somewhere on the ground floor of the house. The building was silent.
“Where are all the people?” I asked Greg, idly admiring his ass in his jeans as we walked. “Does everyone we saw when we arrived live somewhere else?”
He sort of hunched in on himself. “They live on the property. This building is mostly offices, though my family and a few other people like Aileen live here. Mom asked most of the others to stay away while we’re visiting so my anxiety doesn’t get triggered.”
I decided then and there that Delphia could be as pushy as she wanted to be, and I’d never say a word. I’d kill to have a mother who’d clear out an entire houseful of people to make sure her son wasn’t uncomfortable.
“She’s invited several good friends for dinner, so it’ll be a little more lively than lunch was.”
“Okay. Um, I’m guessing Aileen wasn’t here when you were a kid?” I could not see her leaving two children to fend for themselves if she could help it.
Greg shook his head. “No. She came right before I graduated college. I’ve only met her a couple of times before this visit.”
We came to Aileen’s office, a cozy little room with a desk and a sitting area, complete with fireplace. Nothing was out of place, but the ambience was comfortable and welcoming.
She looked up from her desk, where she’d been typing on a small laptop. “I hope your day was productive,” she said, eyeing us up and down. “I’m sure you’ll want to bathe before dinner. I’ve put the two of you in your old bedroom, Gregory. ”
She turned to me. “He shared with his brother, so there are two beds. This connection is very strong.” She waved her finger between me and Greg. “But I can tell it wasn’t created intentionally.”
“Um, no.”
She smiled briefly, then said, “Should you decide to change that, you can always push the beds together. Have a pleasant evening.”
She looked down again, dismissing us.