16)

I managed to get as far as showing off the indoor pool with the topless mermaid statue pouring out water from what Grampa's girlfriend told me was an amphora before I heard people begin making their way down the steps from the attic.

Neal looked in that direction the same time I did, so I told him that "Looks like the wolf report is over."

He did that cute head tilt thing I had noticed he did whenever he was confused. “My Grandpa decided to let his whole family in on the Werewolf thing, and let them decide if they want to be one.”

His eyes went a little wide, then he looked thoughtful "That's not how we do things here, but then most of our families are all either Werewolves or know about it even if they can't turn. Would all of your family be moving here, or trying to stay where they are? Vampires might be a problem for them if they live near a big city."

Neal narrowed his eyes. "A small city might even be worst, I've been told they get more territorial in smaller places. They don't feel safe unless they have enough of them around that they won't be singled out if someone comes after them."

Well, that got my attention. "Do you guys talk a lot about other people... like us?"

He scratched in front of his ear again. "I guess I can talk about that. My Granddad and a bunch of guys his age got recruited to fight in World War Two, they keep running into Vampires in France that were pretty mad about what they called Cabots in their cities. At least until some of the younger ones very politely told them off for insulting the Americans who had come to fight for them."

“Granddad got to talk with a couple of them and found out the German Vampires would be a lot less welcoming, but he never saw any of them but the time he got to Germany. He guessed they figured out how things would go them and cleared out.”

At that point, I heard little feet headed our way and looked over to see Aran at the sliding glass door between the pool and the little room with the mini bar that stood between the men's and the women's changing room and had the door back into the main house. "Dad said you have guests, so boy time is over."

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He seemed disappointed that boy time meant me and a boy talking alone quietly.

I wave at Neal to follow me rather they grab him by the hand in front of my little brother. Dad had ways of making people talk, and he might have questions for Aran about what me and Neal had been up to.

Outside the neighbors had arrived and Milinda rushed forward to shove what felt like a book wrapped up in shiny pink wrapping paper with purple ribbon and grabbed both of Aran's hands before looking up to glare at Erica who had been walking over. Still glaring at the other little girl she demanded "Let's play Aran." before beginning to try to drag him off.

Dare followed her over. “Gently Milinda. No roughhousing with…” He looked around at all my family members he didn’t know. “...little kids.”

After tucking the wrapped up book under my arm. “It’s okay, they all got filled in on the wolf part. I don’t know if they all believe, even after Grandpa turned into a wolf in front of them. But you don’t have to worry about what they might overhear.”

I held the book up and wiggled it around a bit. “And really, the bookstore owner got me a book for a present. Sort of one stop shopping there.”

The older man smirked. “That last year’s yearbook. You can check out your young man’s picture from back when he was a seventh grader, check out the club's photos, and find out what your teachers look like before you show up to school. "

He leaned over and held his over to one side of his mouth. “I put a little black dot in the lower right corner of the pictures of the faculty who aren't human, so you know not to worry about seeing or overhearing anything.” Then he pursed his lips. “But then they don’t have any clue what all you can do, I’ve seen you and your sister practicing outside every now and then when I had to hunt down Milinda and I am not so disappointed that turning into a wolf is the only thing I can do. Oh, they're digging up the deer, talk to you later."

I waved at him and turned to tell Neal I had to drop off my gift at the card table set aside for them when I realized he was looking at me with a surprised look. "You can do magic? I thought you only did like, Captain America stuff."

I think I may have blushed, or at least my face felt hot. "I'm not strong enough to do real spells and rituals, just little things like make light or snuff out a candle." I wasn't going to mention being able to set things on fire, that felt like it would lead to showing off and that's how people's houses got burned down.”

"I'm about as strong as someone can be and do Captain America, or inner magic. While my sister Ami is too strong to do inner magic at all. In fact, she's so strong she was doing magic at random until she trained all summer so she could go to school too."

I gave him a questioning look "And if what I can do is Captain America stuff what is it that you do?"

Neal stood up straight. “Larry Talbot stuff, or at least Lon Cheney Jr stuff. We Werewolves have a long cinematic history.”

He grinned for a moment, then tried to look serious. "So other than sneak around so I can't hear you, do first level spells, and talk about lifting eight hundred pounds like it was nothing, what all can else can you do?"

I gave him a smile at him while I thought that over. "Well, I guess I can tell you… but maybe some other time, I got guests. But let's just say a lot of things, but not necessarily all of them all that well. I’m still in training.”

He nodded after a moment. “I’ll take that as a promise, and I’m going to get some food. It’s been almost four hours since I ate anything.”

I sighed as he headed off. I guess it wasn’t just my Grandpa that ate like that.