45 Chapter 45

"Almost there." Megan said as she pulled off the highway.

I looked around to see where we were then nodded. A few more minutes and we should reach the housing community. I hadn't been out here in a while so I had no idea what it looked like now.

"This world is very different." Caly commented as she looked out the windows.

"Is it?" Karen asked.

Caly nodded. "We have established large communities, but even then we are still in hiding. The twisted and mutant beasts control most of the worlds. When the gates open we always send groups through to build a new haven for us."

"So you just move every time the gates open?" Karen asked.

"Not move, expand. We still have havens in the other world's, those worlds are just more dangerous so only our strongest live there." she explained. "It is the same for your family Daryl."

I shrugged, none of that had anything to do with me.

"If it is so dangerous, why do they stay?" Megan asked.

"A lot of reasons." Caly replied. "Mana stones being a big one."

"You mentioned those before." Karen chimed in.

Caly nodded then leaned forward grabbed my hair and pulled me into a kiss.

"What was that for?" I asked when she let me go. I wasn't complaining, just confused. While she was my fiancé now, I wasn't foolish enough to believe there were any feelings between the two of us.

"I wanted to." Caly replied with a smirk. "We are going to have to have a talk soon."

"How ominous." I stated dryly.

Caly smiled while Karen chuckled.

"We're here." Megan interrupted.

I looked out of the window to see the entrance to the housing complex. As it was close to the casino the houses had been built large with a nice sized plot under them. While not as nice as the houses up in Fountain Hills, these ones were still pretty nice. While not meant for the rich, they were aimed at the well off.

Once Megan turned in I could see that quite a few of the houses were already finished, or at least they looked done from the outside. The first house that we saw after entering the complex was the model house. Personally I didn't know why they needed a model house as I had heard Micheal's father complain about the amount of customization each customer wanted. If I were to hazard a guess I believe the 'model' house was an excuse he had come up with to justify building his house first.

The biggest surprise was there was already a truck parked at the house. As the house had space for four cars in the driveway Micheal pulled up beside the dark blue truck that was already parked there while Megan pulled up beside him. Glancing back I saw Samantha park on the street.

Finally I was able to get out of the car. I paused for a moment and stretched before walking back to the trunk.

Once Megan opened it I took a minute to dump everything I saw into my spatial storage. I could pull it all back out once we were inside. I tried something different this time though and tried to put it in a space separate from all the other things I had stored. It worked surprisingly easily which made me think that some of my wild ideas just might work.

"That's convenient." Megan said with a smile.

"I do aim to please." I joked.

Megan giggled then moved closer and gave me a tight hug. I returned it readily.

"Sorry." she said into my shoulder.

"For what?" I asked.

"I kind of freaked out when you killed that twisted." she replied.

I tightened my hold on her for a moment. "It's fine." I said. I wanted to say more, but I honestly didn't know what to say. The whole situation was fucked up, and it was only going to get worse.

Megan released me, gave me a smile as she looked like she wanted to kiss me, but she resisted and walked over to where Micheal was grabbing things out of the back of his truck.

"Think she might come around?" Caly asked from beside me.

I shrugged. "No clue." I replied. "She's had issues since I met her. It's why Micheal warned me off of her in the first place."

"Guess that makes all of this Karen's fault." Caly said with a smile as she looked over at Karen.

Thankfully I could tell Caly was just teasing her, as could Karen.

"She wanted it." Karen retorted in mock defense.

"As I said, we had been dancing around it for a while." I said then wrapped an arm around each of them.

"Daryl, we could use a hand over here." Micheal called.

"Who me?" I asked innocently. "Dude I'm already carrying everything that was in Megan's trunk."

Micheal stared at me for a moment before he cursed. Seemed he had forgotten what I had done to our apartment. "Fucking asshole, grab all this shit too." he said with a grumble, setting it back in the truck bed.

I chuckled then stepped up and swept everything in the bed of the truck into the same spatial storage area I had put the stuff in Megan's car.

"This place isn't so bad." The cat said as he jumped up onto the top of Megan's car and looked around. "Mind if I go take a look around?" he asked me.

I stared at the cat for a moment. "Sure, just don't go causing any trouble, or hurt anyone." I told him.

"I don't cause trouble." the cat said as he sat back on his haunches and began to clean his face with his paw.

"You know if you don't tell me your name, I am going to have to come up with one myself." I told him.

The cat gave me a look then went back to his bath.

"You should be worried." Karen commented, "He'll probably call you Tigger, or Fluffbutt."

The cat scowled at me. "I would expect that from a child."

"Just warning you." Karen said. "If you don't like the name you have, then come up with something you do, before he decides to name you himself."

The cat's tail slapped the top of the car agitatedly then he jumped down off the car and disappeared into the neighbor's yard.

"Should we be worried?" I asked.

"No, he won't hurt any of us, and he seems smart enough to know that causing others harm will trouble us." Caly replied.

I nodded then headed for the door.

"So who else is here?" Karen asked.

"Probably Bill." I replied.

"Bill?" Caly asked.

"William Meckner, Micheal's dad." I replied.

"Oh," Caly said. "Will that cause problems?" she asked.

"No, Bill and I get along pretty well. None of us, including me, had any idea why my mom seemed to go off the deep end and left him." I replied.

"Was it after your eighteenth birthday?" Caly asked.

I paused as I thought about it. "About a week after." I said.

"Then I know." Caly said.

"What?" I asked.

Caly shook her head. "Not now, you will want to be sitting down when I tell you."

I stared at her for a moment, but decided that she might be right. So with an arm around the two of them I headed for the front door. Micheal, Courtney, Heather, and Bryan had already gone inside while Megan, Grace, and Samantha were just behind them.

Grace spotted us coming up behind them and gave me a wide smile.

"Did your 'girl talk' include her?" I asked.

"Did it need too?" Caly asked in return.

I shrugged, "Mom recommended I rope her in, she is supposed to have a gift with healing." I told them.

"Roped in, doesn't necessarily mean in your bed." Caly pointed out. "Though good healers are hard to find."

"No we didn't, and we won't unless she seems to be genuinely interested in joining us as a whole." Karen told me. "Just like Megan."

I nodded. That made sense. While Grace seemed interested in me, probably because I saved her life. That didn't mean she wanted to hook up with a guy who already had a couple girls hanging on him was another thing.

We followed everyone else inside to find Willam Meckner giving Micheal a big bear hug, which was quickly followed by William wrapping Heather in a hug before stealing his grandson away from his mother. William Meckner aka Bill, was a bit shorter than his son, but just as blonde. He had done well in maintaining his physique, but he still had the hints of a beer belly showing.

"He doesn't like Courtney?" Karen asked.

"Hmm... oh, no he adores Courtney, he would have hugged her before Micheal, we just missed it." I replied.

"Wow, you really brought a crowd." Bill said as he noticed the rest of us. He nodded to me when he saw me, I nodded back. "While I don't mind you coming by, you should have called."

"We did, your phone has been off all day." Micheal retorted.

"Usually you get the hint." Bill grumbled.

"Uncle Bill, when was the last time you checked the news?" Megan asked exasperated.

"What is today?" Bill asked.

"Saturday." Megan replied.

Bill paused to count on his fingers for a moment. "Thursday?" he said though he didn't seem sure.

"Didn't we just watch the news a half hour ago?." A familiar feminine voice asked from the stairs.

We all turned to see Tracy Sorrel, Micheal and I's college physics teacher, coming down from the floor above wearing a loose white t-shirt and skin tight jean shorts. At thirty something she was a very attractive woman with dark red hair, a modest bust, and an athletic body.

"Ms. Sorrel?" Micheal asked, seeming surprised.

"Oh, you know each other?" Bill asked.

"She is.." Micheal started.

"Was." Tracy interrupted.

Micheal paused then continued. "Was my physics teacher during the last semester."

"Oh, well what a small world." Bill said, giving his son a sheepish grin.

"Small world my ass." I commented quietly enough that only Karen and Caly heard me.

"Is there a problem?" Karen asked me.

"No, not for us." I said with a smirk.