Twist of Fae by Tom Keller Read Free Book Online Page B

was up
and it wasn't good.
    "Well, it's kind of complicated. But if you have a
minute, there's someone here that wants to talk to you," he replied.
    "Put them on," I said after a moment.
    "Mr. Hoskins, this is Agent Guerrier from the EAB in
Los Angeles. Special Agent Hoskins and I are enroute to Las Vegas for a noon
meeting in your area. I have been asked to request your presence at that same
meeting. Is that agreeable?"
    EAB? What the hell did that stand for? But there was no
doubt as to what he was. They were polite, I'd give them that. But O'Malley had
been right, they'd come at me sideways by inviting Jay along.
    "Well, Agent Guerrier, you certainly have my attention.
But let me make it clear that I do not appreciate my son being involved. You
could have just called yourself if you wanted to meet," I said, trying to
suppress my anger. "I expect that any differences we may have will not
reflect on my son, or his career, for that matter."
    My conversation with O'Malley this morning had apparently been
a wakeup call, and now the alarm bell was ringing. I'd made a big mistake and
now it was going to catch up with me. Although I hadn’t known it at the
beginning, I'd later learned that just as the magic had manifested itself in
me, it would eventually do the same to my children. There was no way to know
just how it would do so, but I'd known I needed to talk to them about it. Like
an idiot, I'd put it off, hoping to find the right time. Now it was probably too
late. They were going to find out what they were from someone else.
    I should probably mention that both of them have followed in
my footsteps as to career choices. Nikki, my daughter, is a CSI at the local PD
while Jay is a Special Agent for Homeland Security based in LA. As such, both
had been involved in cases that brushed on the magical world even though they
hadn’t known it at the time. There had been one case where several strange government
agents had shown up to an autopsy that both the kids had been involved in due
to jurisdictional overlap. Jay had heard of them before, as they were from the
same agency, but described them as so secret that he didn’t even know who they
answered to. He'd also called them spooks, and not the CIA kind.
    "Mr. Hoskins, you misunderstand our intentions. I assure
you, Special Agent Hoskins is a valuable member of our agency and this meeting
is just to iron out a few simple issues. As to his involvement, well, let me
just say that his exceptional work had already come to our attention and we
just assumed he was aware of his, shall we say, genetic disposition.
Unfortunately, we had already departed when we realized that that may not be
the case."
    "I see," I replied, not wanting to drag the
conversation out. I could just picture Jay trying to process the part of the
conversation he could hear. He'd either think they were all nuts or figure it
partially out. Damn! I just hope I could fix any damage this would do between
us. "Where shall I meet you?"
    "We'll send a car," Guerrier said. "Shall we
say 11:00 a.m.? Your residence?"
    "Tell them to pull up on the street in front," I
replied. "I'll be waiting."
    "I look forward to meeting with you then," he said
before disconnecting.
    I'm sure you do, I thought as I backed out and headed back
to the house. As I pulled through the gate I saw Charlie waiting again. I
jumped out of the car before he could get to me.
    "Danger?" he asked, following me to the door.
    "Not exactly," I replied as I opened it. "Just
one more thing I haven't had time to deal with." I threw my phone and keys
on the table and called for Sendy.
    "My Lord," she said as she appeared before me.
"I have spoken to your Aunt and a few of the others, but have yet to
complete your task."
    "Forget about that for a moment," I said.
"Can you find my son if he is travelling here from LA by jet?"
    "Perhaps," she answered. "But even if I found
him, I could not match the craft's speed."
    "What do you mean?"
    "Although I can transport to