Chapter Two
Gabriel’s hand trembled as he pulled the door open to the old bookstore. The place didn’t look any different. In fact, Gabriel was pretty sure that it had even more dust in it than the last time he had been there, and he didn’t think that was possible.
Maybe Aldrik sprinkled dust over the room to deter customers.
“Aldrik?” Gabriel called out when he glanced around the room and found it empty. “You here, old man?” He heard a sudden chuckle from the back room and followed the sound.
“If only you knew, my boy, if only you knew.”
Gabriel found Aldrik standing at his stove pouring two cups of tea. The itching on his skin started to settle as he looked at the small cups of steaming liquid. Gabriel almost groaned in relief when Aldrik held the small cup and saucer out to him. He took the tea, drinking down nearly all of it in one large gulp.
When he looked up, Aldrik had an eyebrow arched, but he also held the teapot in his hand. Gabriel pressed his lips together and held out his cup. He felt grateful when Aldrik didn’t say anything, just poured some more tea in his cup.
He really needed to consider getting the recipe for this stuff. It seemed to be the only thing that kept him from wanting to crawl out of his skin.
“Let’s go sit down, shall we?” Aldrik asked as he set the teapot back down on the stove.
Gabriel gripped the saucer in his hand and followed Aldrik over to one of the two wingback chairs, squirming a little as he sat down.
“So, my boy, what do you want to know?”
Gabriel grimaced. He set his saucer down on the table and stood up. He unzipped his jeans and dropped them down a little, turning around to show Aldrik the tail growing out of his ass. “I want to know what in the hell this is!”
“It’s a tail, my boy.” Aldrik chuckled lightly. “And a mighty fine ass.”
Gabriel’s face flamed as he jerked his pants back up and zipped them. He wiggled around a bit as he sat back down. Having a tail made sitting—and dressing—very interesting. He had a hell of a time getting the tail to go down his pant leg when he pulled them on this morning.
Damn thing had a mind of its own.
Gabriel rubbed a hand over his face before dropping it into his lap to look across at Aldrik. “Okay, I’m listening.”
“As I said on your last visit,” Aldrik started as if Gabriel hadn’t gone storming out of the bookstore a week ago, calling him insane, “you descend from a long line of panther shifters. Your family, the Pantarius family, has been the ruling family of your homeland for centuries. However, many years ago, right around the time of your birth, a great war broke out.”
“So Pantarius really is my last name?”
“Oh yes, it is a name quite revered in your homeland. Someone in the Pantarius family has ruled for much longer than I can remember. Unfortunately, when the war broke out, those who started the war tried to kill off your entire family.”
“Why?”
“Because you are the ruling family. By eliminating everyone in your family line, they had a better chance of taking over. Your family has power, my boy, lots of power.”
“Power?” Gabriel felt like a parrot, repeating everything Aldrik said.
“Magik, Gabriel, and I am not talking about parlor tricks or card games, but real magik. Magik exists, pure and simple. It’s up to the user wielding the power whether it is good magik or bad magik. And the ones who tried to take out your family used bad magik to do it.”
“Tried?” Gabriel quickly sat forward. “What do you mean tried? Is my family still alive?”
The corners of Aldrik’s mouth turned down in a frown. He pressed his hands together and rested his index fingers against his lips. He watched Gabriel for so long without saying a word that Gabriel started to feel uncomfortable, well, more uncomfortable than he was, anyway.
“Well?”
“You have three brothers, Gabriel, but I’m afraid I do not know where they are located at the moment. When your family home was attacked, the four of you were secretly taken out of the country.”
“I have three brothers?” Gabriel whispered. He’d wished all of his years growing up that he had brothers and sisters of his own, something he watched so many people take for granted. “Who? Where?”
“You are the oldest, with Dominic being born four minutes after you—”
“Twins?” Gabriel’s heart pounded faster at Aldrik’s words. “I have a twin brother?”
