sport for some reason.”
“Probably because you keep asking to be retired,” Mr. Tom said. “It’s no fun when the prey asks for it.”
Retired meant killed permanently. Every time Edgar made a mistake, which was pretty often, he insisted that I kill him. It would’ve been a running joke if he didn’t actually mean it.
“What was in that soda?” Jimmy asked softly. “I feel like I’m on acid or something.” He rubbed his eyes, watching the wooden tableau move and shift, less like wooden carvings and more like a TV screen.
“Shall we?” Mr. Tom put his fingers on the buttons of his jacket, awaiting my directions. “I want to bring in Master Jimmy’s things and get his room set up.”
“Just call him Jimmy, Mr. Tom. And yes, that’s fine. Edgar…” I motioned for him.
Edgar puffed into a swarm of insects.
“Holy—” Jimmy staggered backward. “What just happened? Seriously, was there something in that soda? Did I take an edible and not know it?”
So my son had tried edibles and hallucinogens—that was something I could’ve gone my whole life happily not knowing.
After a deep breath, I motioned for Mr. Tom to hurry up.
A hidden door popped open down the way, Ivy House wanting to show off her stuff as well.
“No, no. Why is he dropping trou?” Jimmy asked, backed against the door.
“Hold off,” I told Ivy House. “Let’s give him a second to adjust. Show him the hidden tunnels and whatever else after he’s gotten used to the idea. He’ll like it better by then.”
The hidden door down the way clicked shut again. For once, she agreed with me.
The sound of boulders moving and scraping against each other filled the space. Mr. Tom, in his birthday suit, bent slowly, his skin mottling from pasty white to a deep coal as it hardened into a tough hide. His wings rose behind his back, taking shape and stretching out before he pulled them back in, something he could do even while changing forms. Large teeth protruded from his pronounced jaw, and his ears rose to points within his growing black hair.
“What in the…” Jimmy’s breath went out of him. His mouth hung open and his wide eyes took in the slow transformation from man to gargoyle.
For a moment, Mr. Tom crouched on the floor, utterly still, hard stone. Then he straightened to his full height of nearly eight feet, propelled into action by my need for him to show his gargoyle form. Otherwise, if I didn’t have the need, he would stay stone until naturally emerging, the time that took dependent on his age. Given Mr. Tom’s age, that would take a very long time.
“He looks like the gargoyles from the cartoon,” Jimmy whispered. “Am I really seeing this? Am I tripping?”
“It’s magic.” I held out my hand, palm up. A foot from my skin, a collection of sparks popped and fizzed. “Edgar, change back.”
The swarm of insects changed back into the stooped vampire with long fingers and nails and pronounced canines.
“My magic came from the house, but magic exists all through the world—they are proof.” I magically extinguished the sparks and lowered my hand. “I didn’t believe all this either, at first. Someone I know turned into a large rat in front of me.”
“A shapeshifter,” Jimmy murmured.
“That’s right.”
“They usually turn into predators,” he said through a slack jaw. “I’ve never heard of a rat shifter.”
“Who wants to write a story about a shape-shifting rat, you know?” Edgar chuckled. “But vampires do drink blood, so you had that right. See? You were already looking for magic in your reading. Now you’ve found it.”
Jimmy looked at me with dazed eyes, completely gobsmacked, his mind in overdrive and ready to shut down.
The scene of a winery tasting room appeared in the wood on the archway, and I narrowed my eyes at it. Austin had told me about magic at a wine tasting. My mind had been in overdrive too. It had tried to shut down. Austin had been there to help me through it. He’d essentially held my hand, kept me level. He’d guarded my back while I learned about a whole new world.
When Ivy House picked sides, she really rubbed it in.
Six
Magical people crowded in the bar, unusually packed for a Sunday night. Austin pulled out two beers and flipped the caps off before setting them down in front of two women in their mid-twenties with roaming eyes and simpering smiles.
“Ten bucks.” He knocked on the bar and moved on, knowing Paul or Donna would follow