Page 34 of Jack of All Trades

“Okay, where?”

“The library.”

Chapter Ten

The library. He hadn’tbeen there in years. He used the internet to research for his scripts, so there was no need.

Jack walked up the stairs to the entrance with him. “This place is huge.”

“I remember. I used to love coming here, but that was before the internet. I feel rather badly now, for not coming back for a visit sooner.”

“Well, we’ll be here a while so you can reconnect.”

Inside, they walked together to the desk, and Ms. Tempest smiled at them both as they neared. She spoke first to Jack but didn’t take her eyes off Maltin. “Is this the mate?”

“Yes,” Jack confirmed rather shyly. “I mean, we think so, but we don’t know anything about,” he started, then moved closer and lowered his voice further. “what exactly we do.”

“Oh, well, I’m very happy for you both, and that goes for discovering what you are and finding your mate. Not all shifters do, you know.”

She led them back to an area he’d been in before that day, but again, it had been a very long time. Jack was practically bouncing with excitement, but Maltin knew that his happiness was more about sticking it to his family than actually being a shifter.

“Alright,” Ms. Tempest said, waving a hand over one of the stacks in the shifter section. “This is some of it. Now, you two are like other shifters in a lot of ways. One difference is that you won’t shift until you’ve found your fated mate.”

“Well, we’ve done that,” Jack pointed out. “That’s where we are now, and…well, now what?”

Her orange-painted lips curved into a patient smile for Jack. Like Maltin, Jack had wrapped her around his finger quickly. It was hard not to take to him. “Jack, there is no timeline. You see, most hellhounds are given tasks from the underworld gods. Some people shouldn’t be on the earth any longer. They’ve made deals, did spells, spit in the face of death to live millennia longer than they should have,” she said, and then her eyes finally fully fell on Maltin. “You, darling, come from witches that have done that very thing, yes?”

“How…how do you know?”

“I know a great deal, Maltin Graves.”

Maltin’s head spun to Jack, but he held up his hands. “I didn’t tell her your name.”

“I’ve read a lot, obviously, and I know the names of all the hellhound families.”

“Then you know my family, on my mother’s side, are witches.”

“Don’t worry about your family. No one would ever expect a son to go after his own family. They may get away with their witchery for centuries yet. Hellhounds are rare, you see. And once they are given their…marching orders, they will shift and do the bidding of those spirits of the lower realms.”

Jack’s worry came back. “We kill people?”

“Jack, the lives you’ll be taking are meant to go south if you understand my meaning. They’re likely terrible people. Those that aren’t will likely be caught and sent to the nicer place. People who extend their lives for selfish reasons aren’t necessarily evil. They just fear death or aren’t finished with their tasks here yet, or so they think.”

Jack was pale again, so Maltin whispered, “We’re not evil, Jack.”

“No, honey,” Ms. Tempest agreed. “Not at all. You are the wrath of time and the realms of the gods. We all have our places, dear.”

Maltin stared at her, and she gave him a wink. Something deep in him felt her power, but she was so old and serene that he couldn’t place what he felt.

“What books can we read?”

She shuffled along until she came to the end of a stack and pointed to the second shelf at the top. “Dear boys, indulge an old woman. Get that book up there, the thick red one.”

Maltin did the honors and got the book from the high shelf, handing it to the old woman.

She placed it in Jack’s waiting hands. “I’ll check it out for you if you like.”

Jack asked her, “Why didn’t you give me this book when I first came?”

---