Magical Midlife Madness (Leveling Up #1)(49)

“There is no way being a rat among wolves is less normal than this crazy town,” I said, downing the awful Chardonnay in my glass.

“You know what a shifter is,” Austin said, and I just wanted him to stop talking. I wanted to wake up from this sudden nightmare. Because I’d tried hallucinogens in high school, and I knew how they worked. If the wine had been drugged, more things would be morphing and changing. I wouldn’t feel this horribly sober if I’d just hallucinated a woman turning into a rat. A rat that docilely stood in the center of the wine tasting room, staring intelligently up at me.

I shook my head and turned around. “This isn’t possible.”

“You learn new things all the time,” Austin said. “How is this so different?”

I widened my eyes at him and pretended not to see Donna change back to human out of the corner of my eye. My stomach rolled with the implications.

“This is different,” I said, my voice uncontrollably rising. “This is much different.”

“How?”

“How?” I gestured around me. “How?” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “If magic existed in the world—real magic, I would know about it. It’s that simple. People would know about it. That’s not something you can keep a secret.”

“Governments keep things secret all the time.”

“The government knows about this?” I screeched.

He poured a larger taste of the next wine. I gulped it down. Then coughed and grimaced. “See?” I said hoarsely. “That’s why you don’t gulp wine. It’s gross.”

“A very tiny sector of the government knows about it, and they use their influence to make sure everyone else, including the rest of the government, stays unaware. Magical people don’t want Dicks and Janes knowing about them, for the most part. Watch the X-Men movies and you’ll see why. It’s easier just to blend in, and it’s surprisingly simple.”

My head probably looked like it was on a swivel, moving back and forth and back and forth. “No. Vampires? People sucking blood?”

“The legend had to come from somewhere.”

“Yeah, from TB sufferers who turned sallow. Their gums receded, making their teeth look elongated, and they coughed up blood…” All the blood left my face as I remembered Edgar dragging that guy’s body across the grass. His red-stained teeth. His long canines. His—

I was running out of the tasting room before I could stop myself, needing to get away from this. Unwilling to believe it.

“Jess. Jessie!” Austin caught up to me and stood in my way with his arms out, corralling me. “Jess, talk to me.”

“I do not want to talk to you. I want to get in my car and go back to L.A. I want to go back to a place where everything makes sense.”

“This won’t go away—you’re too bright and inquisitive for that. If you go back, you’ll start noticing all the magical people in that great big place. Those who glide instead of merely walk. Those who move like predators. Those who hunt the night. Now that your eyes have been opened to what is possible, you’ll continually notice the proof that it exists. There’s no hiding from this, Jacinta. It’s all around you. It always has been.”

I pounded a fist against his chest, tears in my eyes. I pounded him with the other fist, too, needing a release from this insanity. He didn’t move away, but closed his arms around my back, pulling me closer.

“Shhh,” he said, trying to rock me. “I know this is a shock, but—”

“But do you?” I struggled to get some space so I could look up into his eyes. “Do you know this is a shock? Did you always believe one thing, only to have someone destroy your reality?”

He shook his head slowly. “I change into an animal—I was clued in pretty early about all this.”

“Then don’t pretend to have any idea where I’m at right now. Don’t…” I wiped a tear and scowled at someone walking by. They increased their pace. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to take this out on you, but…”

“It’s fine. I’ve dealt with much worse.”

I sighed, but I sank into his hug instead of pulling away. He was mostly a stranger, but the solid warmth of his embrace felt like a rock in a turbulent ocean. “This is going to take a minute for me. I mean…” I pushed back again. “This is crazy!”

He nodded and directed me back to the tasting room. “I…can’t imagine, but I…am…supportive of imagining.”

“You sound like William Shatner.” I wiped another tear, laughing, my head spinning. My brain not wanting to handle it. Within the space of a few minutes, another world had been revealed to me, one where fairytales and nightmares were as real as 401ks.

“Are there fairies?” I murmured, realizing a young couple had walked into the tasting room when I was in the process of storming out.

“Yes. They are mean little buggers. I avoid them at all costs.” Austin strolled up to his place at the bar, his shoulders back and chest puffed out slightly. The magnitude of his presence nearly engulfed the room. It was certainly felt by the twenty-something guy, who rolled his shoulders and sent over an annoyed scowl.

I didn’t have the ability to rein in Austin’s dominating behavior. And honestly, I didn’t want to. I needed some time to process my new reality, and for that, I needed the strangers to skedaddle. I had a feeling he could make that happen.