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  His eyes never left Lucy, and when he spoke his voice was husky with emotion. "Except for the spikey hairdo, you look exactly the same. Seriously, you haven't aged a day. I'm assuming it's a magic thing?"

  "Yeah, it's a magic thing. But we're the same age, in here," said Lucy, pointing to her chest. "We should sit down. There's so much to tell you, things you need to know that will help you understand what's going on."

  Morgan sat, but he didn't let go of Lucy's hand. She settled next to him and gestured for the rest of us to find a place. Wyatt plopped down on the floor, Maddie pulled up a chair, and Elyse and I took the other couch. We all waited for Lucy to start, ready to follow her lead. My shifter senses let me know that Lucy was nervous—heart rate, breathing, all of her vitals were elevated. I couldn't help it. I had to stifle a grin, because seeing Lucy in such a state was amusing. She regularly threatened to light people on fire, including me, and she was acting like a timid schoolgirl.

  Elyse shot me a look and pinched my leg, hard. I didn't have to be a mind-reader to understand her meaning—Lucy needed our support, so stop being an idiot. It didn't matter that Elyse and Lucy's relationship was a work in progress, because girl-power overruled everything.

  Lucy began with the obvious. "So, magic is real, but you already get that, I'm sure. I'm what's called a battle-mage, and my powers are more geared to fighting."

  "Fighting what, exactly?" asked Morgan.

  "I'll get to that," said Lucy. "Let me get the essentials out first. So, I'm a battle-mage. Both Orson and Elyse are shape-shifters, but not werewolves like in the movies. They have the ability to turn into an animal, but keep their human awareness at all times."

  Morgan glanced at me and Elyse, recalling I'm sure, the beast forms he witnessed during the fight with the trolls. I gave the guy credit, he didn't interrupt Lucy, but I could tell he would be circling back around to that topic.

  "Wyatt," Lucy nodded at the kid and Wyatt waved. "Has the ability to teleport, which you were given a crash-course in. His power is immense and unique."

  "Unique? How?" Morgan asked.

  Wyatt's chest puffed out a fraction of an inch. "I'm the only known teleporter in the world. It's a long story."

  "Well, I'd like to hear it sometime," said Morgan, then he turned his attention to Maddie. "And you can do magic like Lucy?"

  "Yes and no," said Maddie. "I'm a healer."

  "It's why she was able to protect your mind while I removed the memory cap," said Lucy.

  Morgan looked at each of us in turn. "I know I've seen you guys in action, but it was mostly in the heat of battle. Could you all provide me with a demonstration, just to help me wrap my head around all of this?"

  "Of course," said Lucy immediately. "I mean, if everyone is willing. I didn't mean to speak for you guys."

  Dang, she really was a nervous wreck.

  "Hey," I said. "I think a magic show-and-tell for our new muggle friend is totally appropriate." I looked at the group. "Guys?"

  "Absolutely," said Elyse.

  "Me first," said Wyatt, blinking from where he was sitting to a spot right next to Morgan.

  Startled by the kid's abrupt change in location, Morgan's training kicked in and his hands came up in a I'm-going-to-karate-chop-you-to-death posture. Wyatt's eyes went wide.

  Morgan quickly dropped his hands. "Sorry about that, I'm a little jumpy."

  Wyatt smiled. "No worries."

  Wyatt proceeded to blink around the room, giving Morgan's personal space a wide berth.

  Elyse and I were up next and I said to Morgan, "As you might imagine, clothes can be a real hassle for shape-shifters, so we apologize in advance for all the nudity."

  Elyse stepped back out of the seating area—no reason to take any chances with the furniture. We pulled our sweats off and shifted into our animal forms. The appearance of a giant bear and panther brought Morgan to his feet. Elyse and I both sat back on our haunches, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

  "Well . . . that is . . . wow," Morgan stammered.

  I chuffed at Lucy and she nodded, standing to join Morgan. She looped an arm through his and said, "Orson and Elyse have a second form. You saw it earlier with the trolls."

  Morgan nodded. "Right. The scary-looking monster-human hybrid things."

  "It's called beast form, and for shape-shifters it's their preferred form for battle," explained Lucy. "Whenever you two are ready."

  Elyse and I simultaneously shifted into beast form.

  Even though he'd seen us earlier and was expecting us to change, Morgan rocked back on his heels. "Damn," he said. "Can I come over and take a closer look?"

  I raised one of my massive clawed hands and waved him over. It was such a human gesture that Morgan let out a small laugh. He approached us slowly, hands out in front of him. I could sense his excitement and fear. Morgan stopped in front of us and then gestured that he was going to move around us for a full view.

  "They can understand me, right?" Morgan asked.

  "Every word," said Lucy.

  "You guys are exquisite," Morgan said as he walked around us. "You're the perfect soldiers. I bet a platoon of creatures like you would be unstoppable."

  Elyse growled.

  Morgan stopped moving.

  I didn't blame her—being called a creature wasn't cool. And the fact that Morgan's brain went immediately to possible battlefield ramifications regarding shifter capabilities proved the necessity of the Paragon Society, even with its flaws. Magic and those of us that were bound to it needed to remain in the shadows. The world just wasn't ready for the reality of our existence and probably never would be.

  "Morgan, they're not creatures," said Lucy. "They're just people with an amazing ability."

  Morgan moved into our field of vision, his hands still up. "I didn't mean any offense, really. You can take the man out of the military, but it's hard to take the military out of the man. I apologize if I offended you."

  Elyse shifted to human form. She made no attempt to cover up her nakedness, standing tall and proud. "I accept your apology. And I'm sorry for the growl. You're actually handling all of this very well."

  I shifted and reached for my pants. Only then did Elyse pull her sweatshirt back on. I also caught the look that Elyse gave Lucy—it was an acknowledgment of Lucy's defense of us and shifters in general, and I sensed a further loosening of the tense relationship between the two of them.

  "I guess it's my turn," said Maddie brightly, helping to lighten the mood. "Thankfully, nobody is currently injured, so how about a demonstration of my shielding ability?"

  Maddie moved to the front of the theater, as far away as she could get from us. "Morgan, I think using your rifle instead of the handgun will make for a better demo."

  "My rifle?"

  "Oh, I see what she has in mind," said Wyatt. "This is going to be good."

  Lucy picked up the tactical weapon and handed it to Morgan. "Try to shoot her."

  "What?" The horror on Morgan's face was real. "There's no way I'm going to fire on her. Not going to happen."

  "Do you really think any of us would let you do it, if we weren't sure she was safe?" asked Lucy.

  "It goes against every instinct I have."

  "I get that, but it's okay," said Lucy.

  Morgan stared at Lucy and then at Maddie. I could see the sweat beading on his brow and hear his heart hammering in his chest. Morgan blew out a breath, shouldered the weapon and aimed.

  "And not just one shot," Maddie called out. "Really let me have it."

  I switched on my sight and could see the shield spinning around Maddie. She was currently the safest person in the room.

  I zeroed in on Morgan's trigger finger, and it was still resting on the side of the weapon. He was a pro.

  "Everyone should cover their ears, this is going to be loud," said Morgan.

  We did as he instructed. The moment our ears were covered, Morgan's finger slipped around the trigger.

  "Are you ready?
" Morgan asked Maddie one more time.

  "Let her rip."

  Morgan squeezed the trigger in short, quick bursts. I counted half a dozen rounds fired. With my enhanced senses I could trace the trajectory of the bullets. They slammed against Maddie's shield and, unlike ricocheting off metal, the magic absorbed their kinetic energy and the bullets simply dropped to the floor.

  "Whoo!" said Wyatt, bouncing on his feet.

  Maddie took a bow.

  Morgan lowered the rifle, his mouth wide open in shock at what he had just witnessed. "I think I need to sit down again," he said.

  I grabbed the rifle as Morgan tumbled back onto the couch.

  When he spoke, his voice didn't crack, a testament to his military training I'm sure.

  "Well, Maddox, that just leaves you," he said to Lucy. "Wow me."

  A mischievous grin spread across Lucy's face.

  Oh, boy.

  Lucy stood and backed slowly away from the seating area, her arms spread wide, drawing power into herself. A magic-created wind blew through the theater, rustling Morgan's hair. With my sight, I could see the amount of power she was pulling and I knew she was going to put on a show.

  Fireballs appeared in each of Lucy's upturned palms. She tossed them lazily in the air, like giant glowing softballs. And in a blur she began to twirl her arms, creating a whirling ring of fire in front of her body. She twirled them faster and faster, becoming hard to look at, the brightness of the magical fire as intense as a mini-sun. Lucy suddenly slammed her palms together and the fire shot out in an explosive wave washing over the tops of our heads, and Morgan flinched at the intense heat. The fire was still warming our cheeks when Lucy switched to kinetic magic. She levitated off the floor, rising three feet into the air, and just in case anyone doubted her power or ability she lifted the entire seating area into the air. Both sofas, the chair Maddie was sitting in, and even Wyatt who had returned to his spot on the floor, took flight.

  Morgan shouted when the sofa floated up, but stayed seated, staring over the side of the couch as the floor receded below.

  "Show off," said Wyatt.

  Lucy smirked and flicked a finger, releasing Wyatt who only avoided smashing back into the floor by blinking to a standing position. He stuck his tongue out at Lucy. I could tell that my aura was giving Lucy some trouble. She had her magic focused on the furniture, but sitting on one of the sofas put me close enough that my anti-magic insulation was sending a wobble through her spell. She set us all gently back in place and powered down her magic.

  "Was that enough wow for you?" Lucy asked Morgan.

  "Yep, that will do," he said, doing his best to not sound totally blown away. Morgan waited for Lucy to rejoin us before continuing the question and answer session. "So, I'm sure it's safe for me to assume that the five of you aren’t the only magic people wandering around?"

  Lucy nodded. "Correct. People like us have lived among the population . . . well, since forever."

  "But how?" Morgan asked. "The demonstrations I just witnessed, there's no way a secret like that could be kept. Someone, somewhere has to know."

  "We're very good at staying hidden," said Elyse. "We've had lots of practice."

  Morgan frowned. "But why? Why stay hidden? The world could benefit from many of the things I've seen." Morgan pointed at Maddie. "Especially the healing stuff."

  I gave him the short answer. "Because absolute power corrupts absolutely. Thirty years ago you witnessed firsthand what the knowledge of magic can and does lead to."

  "You mean Marcus," said Morgan.

  I nodded.

  Lucy explained. "Marcus is what we call a blood-mage, someone who uses murder to fuel their abilities. And unfortunately they aren't as rare as you'd hope. It's like Orson said, people become corrupted, intoxicated with the power." Lucy cast her eyes down, her shame evident. "You saw how I reacted when I found out magic was real, when we won all that money in Vegas. I was willing to walk away from you.” Lucy's voice cracked. "Away from my family, all because of the things Marcus promised to teach me."

  "You're like a real life Rambo," Wyatt said to Morgan. "So you've been in the field—that's what it's called when you go to war, right?"

  "Deployed," said Morgan.

  "Exactly," Wyatt said. "Deployed. Doing some top secret Zero Dark Thirty stuff, so you know there are some really bad dudes in the world. Well, imagine if those dudes were able to do magic."

  I watched Morgan as he thought about what Wyatt said. It was clear by the set of his jaw and the tension in his body that the idea of fighting any one of the five of us scared the crap out of him. Morgan had seen real war, not the sanitized version the rest of us get to experience watching the news or documentaries. I could only guess at the kind of enemies he'd encountered, but if just one of them had been a shape-shifter or some kind of mage, Morgan wouldn't be here—because he would be dead.

  Maddie leaned forward. "We're not saying that people are inherently evil, but some of them . . .”

  "I get it," said Morgan. "After you've experienced the things that I have, you come to understand very quickly that some people just need killing." He turned to Lucy. "People like Marcus."

  "Yeah," she said. "And that brings us to why we crashed our way into your life."

  "And blew up your house," added Wyatt.

  Lucy gave Wyatt a hard stare and the kid pressed his lips firmly together. "Yes, and blew up your house," she said.

  "I assumed you didn't just drop by for tea," said Morgan. "You've stayed away for thirty years . . ."

  "It was to protect you."

  Morgan smiled. "I understand. And thank you, but you better never disappear on me again, okay?"

  Lucy had tears in her eyes. "I promise."

  "Alright," said Morgan, giving her knee a squeeze. "Tell me what’s going on."

  Lucy didn't beat around the bush.

  "Marcus is alive and we need your help to hunt him down."

  "Well, damn," said Morgan.

  Chapter Ten

  It took more than a few minutes to bring Morgan up to speed, but between the five us we hit all the important points.

  "So, you guys traveled back in time?" He asked this for the third time, his confusion clear. "Because I don't remember you at all and Orson, you would kind of stand out in a crowd. If you affected the timeline, shouldn't my brain have downloaded the new memories or whatever? I mean that's the way it works in the movies, right?"

  "No, there was no time travel," said Lucy patiently. "All of them were in my mind's version of the past, a memory construct."

  Wyatt said, "Yeah, it was a full blown sense-around, THX, IMAX-driven memory construct. It even smelled like the eighties, dude."

  "What? Smelled like . . . what are you talking about?" asked Morgan, staring at the kid.

  Maddie spoke up. "Everything that we experienced only occurred within Lucy's brain. And the magic, her magic, made it seem as real as this." She gestured to the theatre around us.

  "So nothing in the timeline, none of the things that I remember, changed?" asked Morgan.

  "Correct," said Lucy.

  Morgan rubbed his temples. "Okay, so if everything only happened in your mind," Morgan asked Lucy, "How did Marcus show up with you guys in the forest? Is that normal? Well, normal for the magic world?" Morgan rolled his eyes and mumbled, "Magic world? I sound like a kid talking about Larry Potter."

  Elyse giggled and Wyatt snorted.

  "What?" Morgan asked.

  "It's Harry, not Larry," said Lucy. "And no, the situation with Marcus and Elyse's mom are unprecedented."

  "Well, that's something at least," said Morgan. "Magic is one thing, but bringing back the dead, that's—"

  "Biblical," said Wyatt.

  Morgan nodded, "Exactly."

  "So, what do you think?" I asked. "About Marcus, is there a way for you to track him down?"

  "I'm not sure," Morgan confessed. "The group I work for has almost unlimited resources, but you're talking about trackin
g down a guy who supposedly died thirty years ago." Morgan stood up and started doing his pacing thing again. "How did he look? Marcus? Was he older, like me, or did he still look young?"

  "He looked the same," said Lucy. "But that doesn't mean anything. Remember the magic would keep him young."

  "How about his clothes?"

  "His clothes?" said Elyse.

  "Yeah," said Morgan. "The clothes he was wearing in the memory thingy, were they the same clothes he had on in the forest? And more importantly, did they match the clothes on the other dead Marcus?"

  The five of us paused and looked at one another. We hadn't even considered that when we checked out the Marcus corpse at the compound.

  Elyse said, "They were the same, right?"

  "I wasn't exactly checking out his fashion choice," said Wyatt. "The dude was shooting that green fire junk everywhere."

  Maddie shook her head. "I can't be sure, but I think they may have been different."

  I looked at Lucy, her forehead scrunched up in thought. "We chased him, but I can't say for certain, what do you think?" I asked her.

  "He had on a white shirt, but the body was also wearing a white shirt, the same shirt Marcus had on that night in '88. His pants . . ." said Lucy, closing her eyes, deep in concentration.

  We stared at her expectantly. She stood motionless for a full minute. The silence in the theater was deafening.

  It was Morgan who finally broke the silence, "Lucy? You still with us?"

  Lucy opened her eyes and clucked her tongue. "The Marcus that Orson and I chased into the trees was wearing different pants than dead Marcus."

  "Are you sure?" I asked.

  "Positive."

  "Then that means . . ." said Maddie.

  "That the Marcus who got away . . ." said Elyse.

  "Wasn't a magic clone!" said Wyatt.

  Morgan grinned. "Bingo."

  Wyatt wasn't finished. "Then what in the crap was he? Where'd he come from?"