Reality Check

by Sophie Martin

  “Hey, are you two related?” He directed the question at Jason, who tensed even more, if it was even possible. Ty grimaced and gestured for them to sit, even as he answered.

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out. This here…” He waved at the stranger, pausing as if trying to remember his name. The man didn’t seem fazed. He looked more amused than anything else.

  “Eric Phane,” he delivered helpfully.

  “This here Eric Phane claims to be Jason’s father,” stated Tyler, sitting heavily next to Jay and taking his other hand in his. Jim and Dominic went to sit next to them.

  “Well, that would definitely explain the resemblance,” muttered Jim as he took the chair Dominic pulled for him. The stranger only smirked. They all sat in silence for a while until Dominic couldn’t take it anymore.

  “As entertaining as it is, watching you all sit in silence, could we please deal with it already so that I can get some help in not turning into a murderous monster?” he quipped tersely. “So this guy claims to be your father, so what?”

  “Um, am I the only one who sees a slight problem with it?” asked Jason in a strained voice.

  “No,” Toby added quietly. “I can see it as well. He looks younger than you.”

  “Right.” There was the slightest hint of relief in Jason’s voice, as if having his doubts confirmed was a good thing. “So there’s no way he can be my father, right?” Jason looked between his men and new friends. Dominic had no answer. He was new to the whole paranormal thing, but he had his suspicions when it came to this one, especially after his father told him about shifters’ longer lifespan. It was Jim who interrupted.

  “Um, I hate being the one to break it to you, and I don’t know why Tyler didn’t tell you that, but it isn’t actually as impossible as you seem to think.” Jiminy got nervous when all the eyes, including the stranger’s, turned on him. Still, he continued. “I don’t know about him looking younger than you, but paranormals have actually much longer lifespans than humans. Sure, it isn’t common for parents to look younger than their kids, but they often look roughly the same age. I, for instance, am one hundred and twenty-five years old, but it’s equivalent to twenty-five for humans.” Both Jason and his men looked stunned. Jim frowned.

  “You didn’t know that?” He directed his question at Ty. “How is that possible?” he asked, seeing him shaking his head.

  “I’m starting to wonder about it myself. It looks to me like my parents have lots to explain about not teaching me and my siblings more about the paranormal word.”

  “So,” sounded the stranger’s amused voice, “now that the young fey explained that to you, can we get to the bonding part of my visit? Or are you still going to doubt me, son?”

  “Young?” Toby suddenly blurted, still visibly shocked. “He just admitted he’s over a century old. How can you call him young?”

  “And what is more important, how do you know he’s fey?” Dominic became suddenly suspicious. The man only laughed.

  “Oh, child,” he addressed Toby, “he’s nothing but infant next to me.” He laughed.

  “Riiight,” Jason couldn’t stop himself from saying, and Jim had to intervene.

  “As a matter of fact, I’m quite young for a fey,” he said carefully. “But I wouldn’t call myself an infant.” He scowled at the blond man. Eric laughed before showing his unnaturally white teeth in a wide grin.

  “You might be an adult among other fey, child, but for me, the oldest of your kin is just a toddler. I’ve been on this world before any one of you fey learned how to open portals.”

  “But that’s impossible.” Jim frowned. “Fey were coming to human realm since before writing was invented.”

  “True,” said the man matter-of-factly, watching Jim as the fey figured it out.

  “But that would make you older than the oldest fey, older than any paranormal.”

  The man’s face suddenly lost all of his emotions as it turned into a stony expression, very much like the one Jason sometimes wore while his feelings were gone.

  “I’m older than paranormals, older than humanity, older than most living beings in this world.” There were several gasps as he said that, and Jason’s face started turning emotionless as well, seemingly in answer to the change in the other man.

  “What the hell are you?” barked Tyler suddenly, and when Dom turned to the shifter, he noticed the tiger’s clenched fist hidden beneath the table. The stranger’s face melted into a normal expression and he smirked once again before answering.

  “Well, I’m a god, of course,” he stated simply, not bothered by everyone’s bewildered expressions. Only Jim didn’t seem befuddled.

  “Hmm, that would explain a lot, but not the fact that you were alive longer than fey. When first fey came to this world, there were some gods here, but they weren’t all that old. They might have been the same age as those fey who came here first. Zeus, for example, is younger than some of the fey I know.”

  “Let’s not get into the complete explanation of my age, shall we? What you need to know is that I am a god, and as such, can look as young or old as I want. This, however”—he motioned toward himself—“is my usual appearance. That’s how I look more often than not. This is also how I looked when your mother and I met,” he said to Jason, “And hence your looks.” There was a moment of silence right then that was broken by Ty.

  “To hell with your age and looks, what I want to know is, what the fuck are you doing here, and what do you want with my mate?”

  It was then that Dominic noticed the unusual tension in the normally laidback tiger. Tyler might have been an irritating prick, but even while rescuing the captives from that brothel, Dom has never seen him so tense. It almost seemed as if Ty never treated anything seriously, even the danger they faced when freeing Timiny. Now, however, he looked intense, like a string ready to snap any moment.

  “Isn’t it enough that I want to get to know my son better?”

  “No!” As hard as it was for Toby to show some self-confidence, it looked like he could do it to protect Jay. “If you really wanted to know him, you wouldn’t have left him when he was just a child,” he said in an unusually strong voice. The stranger looked at Toby with something akin to respect.

  “As much as I admire you for standing up for my son, there were circumstances I don’t think you’re all ready to hear about, that kept me from reaching out to him.” Then he faced Jason, who just sat there with the same stony expression that changed him to look like a statue. “I don’t know if you remember it, Jay-Jay, but I did try and keep in contact with you when you were just a child. I kept coming to you in your dreams. I visited as often as I could without causing trouble for both of us. I only stopped when you told me to. You were a teenager then, and you were very angry at me for leaving you and your mum alone. You said you didn’t want to have anything to do with me, and to leave your dreams once and for all. I saw how hurt you were and decided to do as you asked. But I still kept an eye on you as much as it was possible. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there when you went through your change. I couldn’t have helped you, as the change was unavoidable once it started, but I could have at least explained some things to you.” The man got this stricken look and Dominic was pretty sure his sorrow and regret were real. “Unfortunately, the same circumstances I cannot yet talk about prevented me from reaching out to you. But I came as soon as I could. I want to try and help you as much as I can.”

  “And how can you help?” asked Jason in the scary, robotic voice he got every time his emotions were gone. He looked at the man like a scientist would at a bug under his microscope. “What can you possibly do to help me if the damage is done? I do not suppose you can reverse it?” The man looked sad, but he shook his head.

  “No, it is irreversible, and even if I could, I wouldn’t do it. You were relatively safe when you were still human. You lived a human life knowing nothing of the paranormal world. But now you’re way too deeply immersed in it to take away the only
protection you’ve got against those powerful enemies you made.” Dominic looked as shocked as the other men at Eric’s words. Even Jason lost some of his composure and frowned slightly.

  “But I thought once the vampire was gone, the whole thing was closed?” he said.

  “No.” The man looked at each of them with serious eyes. “Not even close. The vampire was just a pawn for far more powerful people. They didn’t like it when you closed his operation, and will be on the lookout for you. You might have hidden yourself from them for now, but they won’t stop looking. Now, when you became an alpha of your own territory, you made yourself an even bigger target.”

  “But,” interrupted Toby, “Jay is powerful. He can protect himself.” He gazed at his man with adoring eyes.

  “That may very well be true,” the man said. “Jason might, in fact, be one of the most powerful beings of this world,” he said casually, ignoring all the gasps his words provoked, “but it doesn’t make him immune to being hurt. His enemies will use his loved ones to hurt Jason. They won’t hesitate before killing you all as well as Elise and her fiancé. Jason might be impossibly powerful, but even he can’t be everywhere at once.”

  “Okay,” spoke Jason slowly, “and how exactly can you help me? How can I fight against enemies I know nothing about?”

  “By making equally powerful allies, of course.” The man said it as if it was obvious. “And learning more about what you are and what you can do.”

  “And I guess you’ll be the one to teach him?” asked Tyler with a sneer. “How do we even know you’re telling the truth about being his father? How do we know you’re not someone sent by those same enemies you warn us about?”

  “Well, you ask Elise, of course.” The man smirked, enjoying annoying the tiger. “She’ll be able to recognize the father of her child, don’t you think?”

  Chapter Eleven

  “And don’t you think my mother will be surprised to see you like this?” asked Jason in a dangerous voice, waving his hand at his presumed father. “It isn’t every day, after all, that you see the father of your child looking younger than said child.” His tone turned bitter. The man frowned before answering.

  “What do you mean, she’ll be surprised? Elise knows what I am. Why should it surprise her?”

  Jiminy could almost feel the shock those words caused Jason. It was pretty obvious when he spoke.

  “You mean to tell me that my mother knows you’re a god? That she knew all this time and simply didn’t tell me?” Jay’s voice was low and dangerous, and Jim saw Toby and Tyler squeezing the man’s hands harder in reassurance. He also noticed a slight tremble of pots and cans on the counters and shelves. He suspected it wasn’t a coincidence.

  “Of course she knew. How could I not tell her? She’s the mother of my child. She had a right to know.” The man didn’t seem bothered by Jason’s anger. He was perfectly calm.

  “Then why wouldn’t she tell me?” Jay’s voice got louder with each spoken word. “Why would she hide it from me? And why would she get so sad every time I asked about you?”

  Eric looked at his son for a moment, before answering slowly with carefully measured words.

  “I don’t know why she didn’t tell you, but I can suspect her reasons. Elise was hurt when I was forced to go into hiding. She knew I had to do it, was well aware that my staying would put the both of you in danger. Still, it didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt her. She knew, as a demigod, you could have inherited some of my powers, but they should have revealed themselves in your childhood. As you were just a normal, happy human child, she had no reason to suspect it would change. It was safer for you growing up thinking you were human.

  “There are those who hate demigods. I can’t say I blame them after what came of the last few of them. I could mention a certain German dictator, for example. Still, these people hunt those demigods who show their powers and seem to be turning out to be bad people. You were safer being a simple human rather than a demigod, aware of your parentage. These could all be reasons why Elise told you nothing of my true nature. As I said, I can only guess.”

  “If it is so dangerous for Jason to be a demigod with powers, than why did you show up and tell him the truth now? Wouldn’t it be better if he didn’t know who he is?” Tyler’s voice was full of venom.

  Jiminy realized his friend was almost ready to attack this stranger who claimed to be a god. Jim had an urge to warn him not to, that there was no way he could take on a real god. Still, he knew it was no use. Tyler felt his mate threatened, and he would do anything to protect him, even something suicidal like attacking a god.

  “Oh,” spoke said deity, “but the situation is far more complicated now, shifter. Jason isn’t some demigod now. He went through a transformation that is so rare that it is almost unheard of.”

  “What transformation?” It was Toby who braved the question.

  “He gained divinity. He lost his humanity and turned into a proper god. He’s not a Halfling anymore. He’s immortal, and one of the most powerful ones. Excluding me, of course, but that’s to be expected.”

  The man smirked, pushing back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy, and Jim couldn’t say he blamed them. It really was a farfetched story. But it was also an explanation as to Jason’s incredible abilities. Jim felt he had to point it out.

  “You’re insane.” Ty’s voice interrupted him at the last possible moment. “You’re completely out of your mind. You want to tell us that my mate is a god? How stupid do you think we are? And don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question,” he added when it looked like Eric was about to say something.

  “Um…” Jim had to stop his friend’s rant. He saw Tyler was only winding himself up and would soon shift and attack the stranger he perceived as a threat

  “I hate to point it out guys”—he addressed the trio—“but Jason can change reality. Don’t you think it is kinda godly power? I know some pretty powerful fey with lots of magic at their disposal, but even they cannot do what Jay can. It’s a rather sound explanation to me, Jason being a god, that is. I see no other option as to where he got his powers from.” The three men looked at him, speechless, and Jiminy felt himself squirming under their perusal. Dominic had to have felt it, because he took Jim’s hand under the table and squeezed it.

  “Sorry, guys, but Jim is right. Besides, how is that weirder than me being a shifter and never realizing it? I wasn’t even aware paranormals existed until I met Jimmy.” He looked at Jim with a barely visible smile. “And since then, I learned about shifters, vampires, demons, fey, and god knows what else. I don’t think it’s such a big stretch to assume gods are equally real and Jason turned into one. After all, I’m turning into a werewolf, and how crazy is that?”

  The long speech from the usually-silent Dominic seemed to bring Jason from some sort of haze. He suddenly took on a worried expression and said.

  “Shit, sorry Jim, Dominic, but we got so caught up in this little family reunion of ours”—he glared at Eric and his voice dripped with sarcasm—“that I completely forgot to ask what brings you here. Are you in some kind of trouble?”

  “You could say that.” Dominic laughed nervously “If turning into some kind of crazed serial killer because my wolf, that I never knew existed, goes feral, is trouble.”

  “Oookay…” Jason was at a loss “And how can we help you?” Jiminy knew it was time for him to take over the conversation. Dominic seemed too uncomfortable with the subject, and Jim couldn’t blame him. For a person who had just learned about the paranormal world, then discovered they were indeed a werewolf and could go feral if they hadn’t learned to control their beast, Dominic was holding it together pretty well.

  “When I met Dominic, we had a little misunderstanding during which I discovered he’s a wolf shifter. He had no idea about it and wouldn’t believe me until Jack confirmed it. Recently, we went to visit his parents to learn more about why he hadn’t known his true nat
ure. What we found out is that Dom’s grandfather was a shifter who was unable to shift. Dominic’s father said that he was born with the same inability that went even further, as he couldn’t even sense a wolf within him. He’s, for all intents and purposes, human. Dominic was as well, at least until our meeting. Then he accidentally came into contact with my mating dust which awoke the beast inside him and strengthened his shifter nature. Apparently, Dominic’s grandmother was the daughter of alpha, and as the strength of a wolf is often carried in blood, we suspect Dominic might be an alpha wolf himself.

  “The problem is that there is an affliction among shifters that is extremely dangerous. Sometimes, when a shifter loses control over their animal, the animal can take over. And I don’t mean ‘heat of passion’ losing control. I mean a complete loss of their humanity, losing everything that made them human and falling back on the instincts of an animal while at the same time retaining a functional human way of reasoning. It makes them pretty dangerous and unpredictable. Some of them simply become recluses, living in the wild, but there are those who become the most feared serial killers. It is called going feral, and some of the most famous serial killers who were never caught were, as a matter of fact, feral shifters.

  “You probably wonder why I explain all of this. The thing is, Dominic’s wolf got awakened suddenly and is very strong. The stronger the entity within a shifter, the harder it is to control its instincts. Because Dom’s wolf appeared now, he had no time to learn how to control it. And as powerful as it seems to be, we probably don’t have much time to teach him how to do it, and if he fails to learn control, he is prone to fall victim to his newly acquired instincts. In other words, if we won’t help him, he’ll go feral.”