“How about you eat your sweet at the shop, mo grah thu, where Barion can talk to the others and doesn’t have to watch us.” The amusement in Dre’s voice was almost enough to gloss over the hint of worry Barion detected. He very pointedly stared at the wall. A sigh, then, “We’ll see you at the store.”
When Barion turned, Dre and Sammy were gone, the rift in time and space Dre had used to travel to Beaconville already closed. Barion took a few fortifying breaths, readying himself for meeting Sammy’s and Dre’s friends again. He had talked to them at the wedding party his brother had hosted after Sammy had become his mate, and they had been friendly enough. Still, Barion felt a little shy around them, seeing them as this homogenic group of book lovers who always had something to talk about, be it their mutual love of Jane Austen or Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, a novel they could argue about seemingly forever.
Barion wasn’t a keen reader. He had a vague love for books as something that had to be preserved and respected, but his true interest was video games, hence his enthusiasm for this book club meeting’s topic. It was the first time he felt he could contribute something besides a vast pool of ignorance. Plus, some stealthy questioning of his brother had revealed that Mavis and Maribel would be providing the snacks for this meeting and their baking was superb, as Barion had found out at the wedding party. He drew himself up to his considerable height of eight feet, a little smaller than Dre, which never ceased to annoy him, and opened a rift in time and space to get to Sammy’s bookstore in Beaconville. There was no need to glamour himself because the meeting was strictly paranormals, and Sammy’s human shop assistant, Milo, knew about demons because he’d been the one to try to sacrifice Sammy to Dre—a long story and one Barion still wasn’t sure what to make of.
He stepped into nothing to enter pandemonium—or so it seemed.
“And I’m telling you that Vision is still out there somewhere, waiting for Wanda to find him.”
“You’re such a romantic sap, Troy. He’s dead, killed by Thanos. All that’s left of him is in Wanda’s mind.”
“Then explain to me, Emilia, why they introduced White Vision to the show?”
“To keep up the hopes of people like you. What else?”
“People like me?”
Barion risked a glance around the stack of old wine crates where Sammy had displayed his latest manga purchases and saw Troy, the blond alpha werewolf, standing toe-to-toe with Emilia, the ancient vampire. Both of them were showing their fangs, which didn’t seem to bother anybody. Sammy was over at the coffee machine with Dre, busy filling mugs, Amber, the banshee, was helping Declan, the other alpha werewolf, to arrange the delicious bakings of Mavis and Maribel on two huge plates while the two witches were cuddling on one of the couches, watching Troy and Emilia duke it out. There was growling involved by now.
“People who can’t face harsh reality.”
“You do know the Scarlet Witch and Vision have two children in the comics, don’t you?” Troy was almost snarling. Emilia wasn’t impressed.
“Children of the devil or whatever, not really theirs, as you may recall.”
Troy threw his hands in the air. “There’s no sense talking to you. You always assume the worst.”
“Because that’s what usually happens.” Emilia was unflappable. “Believe me, Marvel is priming Wanda to become the ultimate villain.”
“She’s too sweet for that!” Troy looked as if he were only a second away from jumping at Emilia with his claws out.
“Man, don’t you realize she’s just yanking your chain? Emilia, stop bullying him. Troy’s had a rough week.” Declan sounded almost bored, as if violence wasn’t imminent. Then again, from what Barion knew about werewolf culture, violence was always just a wrong word away with them, very much like it was with demons.
Emilia grinned broadly. “I was just trying to get him out of his funk.”
“Thank you for your trouble, but as you can see, he’s not receptive to your special brand of encouragement at the moment.” Declan held out the plate with cookies, muffins and miniature apple pies to her and his fellow alpha. “Take some sugar, you two.”
Both Emilia and Troy huffed before grabbing one of each treat, devouring them so fast that Barion started worrying about missing out.
“Don’t be alarmed. They’re always like this. I guess it’s part of their charm.”
Barion spun around to see who was talking to him. It was Jon, the zombie, the quietest of the group. He smiled at Barion, his brown eyes barely visible under the mop of unruly dark strands that fell to his shoulders.
“It’s nice to see you again, Barion.” Jon nodded at him, not offering his hand, a quirk Barion had already gotten explained at the one book club meeting he had attended, as well as at the wedding party. Apparently, the zombie didn’t like feeling the warmth of other people, and demons ran hotter than everybody else. Barion nodded back, glad for this soft entry to meeting Sammy’s closest friends again.
“It’s nice to be here. I can’t wait to talk about The Witcher.”
Jon smiled broadly. “Me neither. It’s such a broad field, what with the books and the games and the series. I’m so glad Sammy finally picked it up for the group. It will hopefully derail them from discussing Marvel to death.”
“They do seem to take it quite seriously.”
Jon rolled his eyes. “You think?”
He stepped around the crates and Barion followed, grateful for Jon taking the lead. Everybody greeted him warmly, the wariness he usually encountered from other paranormals completely missing.
Good thing they’re already used to Dre. It makes it easier to strike up a conversation without sending everybody running away.
It had happened more than once to Barion. In fact, it happened so often that he had stopped trying to meet non-demons some three centuries before. Demons had a bad reputation—admittedly rightfully so, at least in many cases—and Barion had gotten tired of fighting against something he would never be able to change. Looking around the group while he sat down in the huge yellow beanbag chair next to Jon, who had chosen a cozy-looking armchair, Barion realized that finding a mate and adopting his friends was a good way of changing at least a few people’s minds.
