Page 40 of Magnum, Volume 2

“Your friend Nickie in Atlanta knows.”

“But she writes about werewolves! How did she get away with that, if the cartoon guys got in trouble for it!”

“I understand she wrote those books before she found out about the supernatural. There are restrictions on future work, so she has to run new manuscripts by someone higher up before she can publish them.”

“And she couldn’t tell me because of the binding thing?”

“Correct. Someone much higher than me handled hers.”

“Really?” Kitty said. “Who?”

“It was before the split, so Apollonius handled it.”

“Fuck,” Squatch said.

Brooke nodded at Squatch, then told Storm, “A big rule in our world is that most can only tell their own secrets. I can share a little about your friend, but I can’t tell you the circumstances that allowed her to be brought into the secret. Magnum can set the two of you up on an encrypted video call, so you can talk to her about what you’ve learned. I will get word to her that you’ve been bound, and she can speak freely with you.”

Brooke looked to Squatch. “It’s time for us to leave. We’ve answered her questions, and now she needs to speak with her friend.”

I didn’t really breathe easy until Brooke was off my property, and the first thing Storm said when I came back inside after seeing them off was, “You didn’t have to invite Brooke inside.”

I shook my head. “Nope. That part of the myth isn’t accurate. You can see them in mirrors, too. They seeded a bunch of untruths back when the vampire hunters were so good at finding them and killing them. Someone who was thinking they might be a vampire would see their reflection in a mirror, or would see them crying real tears that weren’t bloody, and would assume humanity.”

“It bugs me that you can’t tell me who’s human and who isn’t in the club.”

“That’ll be fixed this weekend,” I told her again. “Works best for all the wolves to stand together, all the cats, etc. You’ll know what everyone is because they will tell you.”

“Can you get me set up to talk to Nickie?”

I desperately wanted to talk to her, to get a feel for what was going through her head, but common sense told me to let her handle this on her terms, so I said, “Yeah. Text her and make sure she’s available for a video call.”

Her phone signaled an incoming text message, and I could see from across the room that it was from Nickie. “OMG! You *know*!”

“Yeah,” Storm typed. “Magnum’s going to set up an encrypted video call, do you have time to talk?”

“Fuck yes. Set it up. I’ll grab my tablet.”

I initiated the call using the club’s encrypted app, and the first thing Nickie said when she came on was, “And now you know why his cock isn’t normal. I don’t suppose they told you about werewolf cocks?”

I actually appreciated Nickie going there to start — making it seem like normal supernatural gossip. I already knew how close these two are.

Storm had told me that as soon as it’d been safe to call Nickie, once she was back home in Pennsylvania, she’d called her friend over an encrypted video call to tell her everything — starting with her time at my house, and most every detail about Storm’s rules and why our relationship worked for her. It turns out, Storm knows all about Nickie’s unconventional relationship, too.

Tonight, the first ten minutes of their conversation included me and Bud, who told her he’s a wolf, but then the two of them told us to get lost so they could talk in private.

I left, but stood outside the door because I needed to know what was said — except Nickie played music that fucked with what I could hear. Even standing right outside the office door, I couldn’t make out individual words.

Shit. Nickie was going to teach her all kinds of things I’d probably rather my girl not know.

But that was okay. It would make things a little more fair, probably.

I’d known since Storm’s first week with me that, should we ever reach the point I could get permission to tell her about my true nature, this would be a huge make-or-break moment for us. I still wasn’t sure what it was going to be, and that thread of sorrow I’d scented on her had me terrified, as if she was already grieving something, but it’d faded while she talked to Nickie — and I hoped that was a good sign.

I needed to get my mind off my worries while she talked to Nickie, so I headed downstairs and tried my hardest to lose myself in a video game.

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Storm