Chapter 53

The room turned silent and tension filled the air as everyone tried to figure out how they should respond.

"Congratulations!" Enya cheered happily as she flew over and circled around the three of us happy.

"Oh! Oh! This is so exciting!" Sil said as she joined Enya flying around our heads.

The tension in the room eased a bit.

I couldn't help but laugh at all the shocked faces. Even Tracy, who had been pacing worriedly by her phone waiting for her husband to contact her, had paused to stare at us. She smiled wanly at the antics of the two elementals before turning her attention back to her phone.

Only Megan didn't look surprised. Instead she looked resigned, and hurt, really hurt. Grace while looking surprised also seemed a bit disappointed.

"What… how?" Bill finally asked. "Boy are you messing with us?"

I shook my head. "You remember that my father had taken me to meet Caly's family, which is when we were engaged with a bond right?" I asked.

Bill nodded.

"The three of us agreed to allow the engagement bond to become a marriage bond. I used that template to marry Karen to me as well." I told them it wasn't the exact truth, but close enough for them. I didn't really want to get into what my bond ability could do, or even the fact that I had powered up my bond ability. "While the bond is permanent, the benefits are too good to pass up, especially when we know we will be sticking together anyways." I explained.

"That is a pretty big assumption." Bill pointed out.

"I had already chosen to come back and make things work with Daryl before all this crazy shit started." Karen stated calmly.

"I chose to stay in this world with Daryl instead of going back to my own world with my family." Caly replied.

I just shrugged and left it at that.

Bill sighed then shook his head. "I see, well it was your own choice. Though I am curious at what the benefits are?" he asked.

"We can sense when each other is in danger, and Daryl can use the bond as a homing beacon for his teleportation ability." Caly replied obviously not letting anyone else know about the telepathy. I didn't argue with her as I didn't think it would be bad if only those in our marriage knew about the telepathy.

"Is that all?" Bill asked, looking confused.

"That's all you need to know about." Karen replied with a smirk causing everyone else to laugh.

Bill nodded then sighed before letting it drop. "Congratulations then." he told me.

I nodded back to him, then my gaze landed on Micheal who was just smiling at me. It was kind of creepy in its own way.

"I knew you looked up to me Daryl, but I never thought you would do this. Just so you could be like your big brother." he said shaking his head mockingly while giving me a shit eating grin.

"You are only two months older than me, and this has nothing to do with you!" I argued.

"Still older." Micheal replied obviously pleased with himself.

"Ass." I muttered darkly, but with that the rest of the tension eased.

A couple minutes later and most of the girls had all gathered in their own group to chat with Karen and Caly. Samantha and Heather had heard my shout and came out to investigate with a very sleepy Bryan in hand.

Bill, Micheal, and I all sat together by the end of the table. Bill had Bryan in his arms, the little man was fighting a losing battle with sleep while his grandfather stared down at him with a happy smile.

"Seriously Daryl, you know you didn't owe them anything." Micheal told me quietly.

I smiled at him. "I am well aware of that Micheal, but you know how I feel about Karen." I replied.

Micheal sighed, obviously he wanted to say something else but decided to keep it to himself.

"Spit it out Micheal." I told him.

"He's probably worried she got pregnant and came back to you when the father dumped her." Bill said.

I looked away from the group of women to look over at the pair of men, but both seemed serious.

'Not pregnant.' Karen sent to me telepathically.

'How did you know?' I asked her back mentally. I was surprised neither Karen or Caly had been looking in our direction.

'It's what I would assume if I was them.' Karen replied telepathically.

"She isn't pregnant." I told the other men then sighed. My gaze shifted to the anxious Tracy as she seemed conflicted as she held her phone. I had already lost count of the number of times she had called her husband's and brother-in-law's numbers. She had even called their friends to see if they had heard anything. So far nothing.

"Have you tried the hospitals?" I asked her.

Tracy looked over at me and just stared for a moment before she nodded. It seemed to take her a few moments before she understood what I had asked. "Yes, it took a while, but I got through to all the hospitals in the area, none of them have seen either of them come in. I tried the police too, but I keep getting the run around with them." she said sadly.

I nodded. I honestly didn't know what I would do in her situation. Staying here and waiting seemed like torture, but it sounded like her own home had been trashed so she couldn't stay there.

Micheal and Bill remained silent, whether because they didn't have anything else to say, or because they didn't want to wake Bryan. So I let my eyes wander the room for a while. Finally I realized there was someone missing. "Where did Chewy go?" I asked quietly.

"Out, he wanted to check the neighborhood over." Micheal replied tiredly.

I nodded and worried that Chewy and that cat would cause trouble with each other.

"Delilah?" I called out softly.

"Yes master?" my shadow responded.

"You know that is kind of creepy." Micheal commented.

I nodded feeling the same way myself. "What is going on outside?" I asked.

"Not much master. Chewy and the cat are patrolling the area. They have spoken to each other once, but haven't bothered each other besides that." Delilah replied.

"Is the cat behaving?" I asked.

"Yes master, he hasn't caused any trouble. There doesn't appear to be any other mutant beasts in the area, and the other households seem to have settled in for the night." she told me.

I nodded, happy that things seemed to be going well, I had a date with my two beautiful wives that I didn't want to miss. "That's good, just need to awaken everyone and then get some sleep. I'm pretty sure tomorrow is going to be a bitch of a day." I said.

"You trust your mother's word that much?" Bill asked, sounding skeptical.

I shrugged. "Not completely. She hasn't really been wrong yet, and some warning is better than nothing." I replied.

Bill nodded. "Did your Caly tell you why she left?" he asked, looking sad while he stared off towards a wall, though I was sure he was just lost in thought.

I shook my head. "No, not yet." I replied. "No guesses either. Neither of my parents seem to be native to this world, though I am pretty sure they met here." I told him.

"Explains so much." Micheal commented.

I nodded in agreement. "Do you think you could use the sight thingy your mom seems to have?" Micheal asked.

"No idea." I replied honestly. "Not completely sure I want it. She seems so certain when she gives me those hints, but I also get the feeling that she isn't as certain about everything as she lets on. If the ability isn't reliable then I don't really want it." I said. I had considered the idea a bit before but not enough to attempt gaining the ability.

"You sure?" A bit of a heads up could go a long way." Bill encouraged.

I hesitated a moment, "It could, and it might sound weird after what I just said, but I am afraid it would just make me prone to jumping at shadows." I said truthfully. "Does that make sense?"

"None whatsoever." Micheal replied.

I groaned.

"I get it." Bill said. "It would be nice to know though."

"That is just it, I don't think mom knows either, she just said it would be bad and I shouldn't go out. Never said whether I will be in any danger, or why it was bad." I replied.

The three of them were silent for a moment then a phone rang. It took us a few moments to realize that it was Tracy's phone. By the time we did she was already answering, "Hello?" she asked nervously.

Everyone in the room was silent as we stared at her hoping that she might get good news, while fearing that it would be bad.

After a couple of moments Tracy threw her phone away then screamed. "I don't care about my car warranty you fucking parasites!"

What horrible timing. I thought to myself then got up to retrieve her phone. It had skidded across the floor until it hit the wall. Picking it up I was happy to see it wasn't broken. However the phone hadn't disconnected and I could hear laughing coming from the other side of the line.