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Henry followed and looked back, but he was the last one. He faced forward and saw Meixiu was finished greeting Dayshia’s family. “I think the final guests are the Kings. When will they arrive?” he asked when she was alone.
“They said after lunch,” she said with a smile.
“Do you think they might enjoy a feeding?” Henry asked, and Meixiu burst into giggles.
“Henry, even having someone offer is a delight. Vampires are forced into a life of sneaking their meals just to survive. I remember my first meal from you, and while I do not regret doing it as it granted me my freedom, I am sorry it frightened you so badly. I did not have time to ease you into it.”
“All was forgiven the same night,” Henry insisted, and Meixiu smiled sweetly.
Henry frowned. “It’s too bad Sigrid isn’t here.”
“I’m sure she wants to be here too. Let’s get you some breakfast,” Meixiu said, gently pushing Henry towards the dining room.
He grinned and shook his head when he saw twenty-six adults and three newborns squeezed around the twenty-seat main table. “Where are the kids?” Henry asked Meixiu.
“We had to set up a second table in the front sitting room as there are twenty-three kids,” Meixiu said.
Henry looked at her. “Any adults with them?”
Meixiu shook her head, so Henry spun and marched to the front room to peer in the doorway. No chaos. No explosions. No tears. There was sound, but it was excited chattering, laughter, and the crooning of the twins. He stepped into the room and saw Aadiya and Maliha enjoying their favorite snack, coconuts, while the kids split their attention between watching them in fascination, talking, and eating breakfast.
There were spilled drinks, but paper towels had been used to clean up. The teens and the twins knew how to do that. Some of the older male kids struggled not to ogle Aadiya and Maliha, wearing their usual outfits of a simple cropped t-shirt and short shorts.
Dayshia’s niece Emily rushed over to him with wide eyes, so he knelt down, so she didn’t have to crane her neck. She gestured for him to get closer so she could whisper.
“Mr. Gable! Are the red ladies, demons?” she asked quietly.
He smiled and shook his head. “No, they’re Succubi like Camila and Marisa but a special kind. They are very sweet-natured and special to me.”
The little girl smiled in relief and nodded to him. She rushed back to her seat at the table and shared her knowledge with the girls sitting next to her.
Danny and Tommy Nelson were sitting amongst the Satyrs, and Henry could tell by their expressions that they would ask their parents if they could be Satyrs, too. Henry worried about Chris’ resistance and his shape bias.
He moved to the twins, who looked up at him in question, chewing noisily on the coconut, their fangs catching the light. None of the kids seemed put off by the display, but many of them were equally noisy chewers.
He dipped down and kissed their temples, and they purred at him.
His stomach growled at the smell of the food, so Meixiu took his hand, and they headed for the kitchen. She made him a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon with toast, and he carried it into the dining room. Some of the moms had left the table to check on their kids, so Henry was invited to take the spot between Brian Evans and Chris Nelson. Brian was the oldest of Tish’s brothers and had obviously been muscular before his transformation. Lyle was across the table and was far more svelte.
Chris was grilling them on how it felt to be Satyrs.
“I feel better than I have in years,” Brian sighed. “I used to ache so badly after my upper body day, and the doctor told me I’d have to stop because of the Arthritis in my shoulders. Since the transformation, it’s gone. My joints don’t ache anymore. Not at all. My muscles hurt when I strain them, but even that goes away faster. I’m also lifting fifty to sixty percent more than I could before, and these crazy legs are ridiculously strong!”
Lyle rolled his eyes at his brother-in-law then turned to Chris. “I’m not a gym rat like Brian, but I do long-distance running. My fitness is now off the charts. I could easily best the current world record. I think all previous records for physical pursuits will be surpassed. With all the different shapes people are transforming into, we’ll be learning their new physical capabilities. There was a report on the news yesterday about someone transforming into a Centaur. Half man, half horse.”
“I don’t want that!” Chris blurted, and heads turned to look at him.This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .
“Probably, that fellow didn’t wish for it either,” Lyle responded sadly.
Henry finished up his breakfast. As he wiped his mouth with a napkin, he felt eyes on him. He looked up and saw it was Chris, who was frowning at him.
Henry sighed. “Chris, the only Humans who didn’t change, are gone. You survived, but you’re in a pre-change state. I can’t prevent it. It’s going to happen. Unlike the vast majority of people left on this planet, you’re aware of a means to choose.”
“What about Mary?” Chris said, gesturing to her. “Is she in the pre-change state? She looks human.”
Beth was frowning at her husband’s belligerence, but Henry knew it was just his fear talking.
Henry looked to Mary, who sighed and turned to Chris.
“Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning?” she asked the frowning man.
He blinked at her. “Y-yes, it was very good.”
“Are you a crispy or chewy bacon lover?” Mary asked.
“Uh, crispy,” he answered.
“Mmmm, yeah! I remember that. So good,” she sighed.
Chris was hearing what she was saying. “Do you not eat bacon anymore?”
She held his eyes. “I don’t eat anything anymore, and I’m stuck with this physique.”
Chris looked confused. “How are you able to live without eating?”
“Oh, I eat, just not food. Roy?” she said, glancing at him as she stood.
Roy’s face pinked up. He still didn’t like doing this in public. He stood as well, reached back, and struck Mary’s back with a brutal slap. Many people around the table jumped to their feet and cried out in anger. Mary held up her hands and people quieted down.
“That’s how I eat. I’m a kinetic sink. I absorb kinetic energy and convert it to energy.” She turned to Roy, who was glaring at the people who’d yelled at him. “I’m sorry, Roy, for making you do that in front of people.”
He nodded gruffly and sat.
Mary looked to Chris. “I really miss eating food, but my body rejects it now. I can drink water, and that’s it. I kind of wish I’d become a Satyr, but it wasn’t meant to be. When I was exposed to Wild Magic, I was in full contact with Henry, but his influence didn’t work in that circumstance. His hands were cuffed behind his back, as I recall.”
“Wooo!” Steph called out excitedly, and the group laughed as Henry stared at Mary incredulously in the hope she would shut up.
Mary dipped her eyes in apology to Henry then looked to Chris. “The point is, if looking Human is the only consideration you’re focusing on, you need to think about the downsides before you decide on being a kinetic sink like me. My job in security makes this state very useful. What do you do?”
“I’m an electrical engineer,” Chris said.
Mary’s smile dropped away, and she shook her head. “This isn’t for you.”
Chris looked at her in disappointment, and Henry stepped in. “I still haven’t had a chance to speak to the experts regarding the possibility of creating a glamor powered by Wild Magic.” He thought for a moment. “Actually, it’s not the creating of the glamor as much as the binding process that’s the difficulty. You can ask Dayshia how that went for her. I don’t know if there is another way to do it.”
The conversation turned to other topics, and Henry enjoyed watching the families interacting. The Nelson’s seemed to fit in with Tish’s multiple household family effortlessly. There was much laughter, and occasionally one or two kids would venture into the dining room as they explored the mansion. Henry didn’t contribute much to the dialogue, but he loved being immersed in it.
After what seemed like hours, Danny and Tommy ran into the dining room straight for their parents. Henry knew what they were going to say before they grabbed their parents’ hands, begging to be Fauns. Emily arrived seconds later and leaned against her mom.
“I still want to have eyes like you and Auntie Dayshia,” she said sweetly. Beth squeezed her daughter and kissed her head.
Some of the older kids showed up in the doorway. “It’s snowing hard outside, and there’s a lot on the ground already. Can we go outside and play in it?” Layla asked.
“Certainly,” Henry said.
“Wait!” Kristen called out, and the kids stopped to look back at her. The mother turned to Henry. “Just how safe are the kids running around outside together as Fauns? We can’t let them do it at home.”
Henry looked at the worried woman. “Safe from what?”
The mother clutched her hands together nervously. “We don’t know any of the people living in this area, and we don’t know if they’re gun fanatics or spies willing to sell pictures of Fauns playing in the snow to some media outlet.”
Henry looked at Tish, who was watching her sister with a sad expression. They were seeing the fears lying just under the surface. He scanned Baba’s spell inventory and found something he could use to ease her concerns. Likely not what Baba would have used it for but, he wasn’t his Baba.
Henry stood and walked over to Kristen and gave her a hug. He smiled down at her as he stepped back. “Give me a second.”
He walked out of the dining room and into the front sitting room. He recalled the glass had a spell on it that prevented people outside from seeing people inside. He placed his hand on the glass and closed his eyes as he made a copy of the spell in his mind. He chuckled at the clever method used to disguise the occupants inside the glass. He could use this. He left the sitting room and went out onto the front step, then down into the snow. He pulled up the shield spell from Baba’s inventory and copied it. He then merged the glass spell into the copy of the energy shield. After some fine-tuning, it was ready to deploy.