Page 39 of Wooing the Wiccan
“We should introduce you to Noah.” Sam breaks it, but I almost wish he hadn’t. Noah’s a good man, but he can be… abrasive. Impatient. Short-tempered. I don’t think he’ll give Jared the best impression of our community, and I want—need—him to be impressed.
“Noah?” Jared asks, and Sam nods enthusiastically.
“He’s human, and he found out about us by accident too. That was over a decade ago, and he works for me now. He’d be a great person to help you get used to us all.”
“Noah would?” Gideon asks, doubt heavy in his tone, but Sam ignores it.
“He’s married to Andrew, who’s a vampire, and he’s been a huge driver of the program to—” He stops short and looks at me. “Um… how much did you discuss?”
I chuckle, and it actually feels natural. It’s nice not to be the only person making blunders tonight. “Jared and I met at one of the classes to reintroduce humans to magic,” I assure him. “He’s Wiccan and has an excellent grasp on his power already.”
Sam sighs in relief, but Jared stiffens. “Wait… what? It’s aprogram?”
“Government sponsored,” Sam confirms. “As I said, we have humans in our community already, and we recently decided to give those trusted members back the knowledge of their magic. Then we decided to expand the program somewhat. It’s by referral only, for humans who have the ethics not to abuse that kind of power.” He smiles warmly.
“I don’t know what to say. Thanks again? I guess… I mean, I wouldn’t abuse that power, but it’s kind of weird to think this was so much more organized than I knew.”
“Yeah, I get it. Do you have any questions you can think of right now? This is probably overwhelming, but you have Raðulfr to help you learn about us, and you might be surprised to find out other people in your life are part of the community too.”
From the way Jared’s blinking, that hadn’t occurred to him. I’m sure the next thing he asks is going to be about whether there’s a secret signal or something.
“What are you?” His gaze turns to me, and so do Sam’s and Gideon’s.
“You hadn’t got to that yet?” Sam asks, and I swallow.
“No. I… wanted to give him the history first so he’d understand why the secret was so important.”
Jared’s gaze darts between us. “What’s going on?”
Sucking in a deep breath, I brace myself. “I told you about all the species that are native to Earth, but?—”
“There are more?” He jerks back, and my heart sinks.
“Why don’t I tell this part of the story?” Sam suggests, and I nod. I’ve made a mess of so many things tonight, and I don’t want this to be another of them. “This is a very complicated part of recent history,” he tells Jared. “Some of it’s classified, but I’ll tell you what everyone else in the community knows. Just bear with me.”
“O-Okay.” Jared’s hands grip the armrests of his chair.
“Around the time Noah found out about us, CSG—that’s the Community of Species Government—was contacted by a species from another dimension. Before the species wars, they used to be frequent visitors here on Earth, but as that situation worsened, their leaders deemed it unsafe here, and they banned travel between their world and ours.”
Jared swallows hard but doesn’t speak.
“Over time, especially given the chaos that our ancestors were going through, the community’s memory of these people faded, so Caolan—that’s the name of the scout we met—was a surprise to us all. His story was confirmed by the magic?—”
“Sorry,” Jared interrupts. “That’s the second time you’ve talked about ‘the magic.’ What do you mean?”
“The life force,” I explain quietly. “A difference in terminology.”
He meets my gaze and quickly looks away, and a wave of pain flows through my being. That’s not a good sign.
“Anyway, Caolan told us that due to the repeated, prolonged misuse of magic by a person who has since been executed, their dimension was collapsing. They had only months left beforethe planet and the species who lived there were destroyed. The lucifer before me immediately offered them sanctuary here.” Sam pauses, but Jared doesn’t comment.
“The dominant sentient beings from that dimension migrated to Earth and joined our community. The species are dragon shifters”—Jared gasps—“and elves.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Jared
My instincts are calm,and that’s the only thing that keeps me from thinking this is all a scam. That, and the way energy ebbs and flows from Sam. I’ve spent a lot of years building a connection to the world around me, to the power of nature and the god and godde?—
