"So what's this about?" the now named Cian asked the four adults
They had just had a magnificent dinner that Shonda had cooked herself. All the children had been present for dinner and then scattered to various parts of the house. Dave and Jazz had also been present along with several strange children and Cian knew that those kids belonged to the Hotchners good friends the Rossis. It was apparently a chance introduce him to everyone officially.
However, something else was going on, as Cian could somehow sense it. Cian wasn't entirely sure what made him think that, as it's not like the adults acted suspiciously. No they seemed like just a normal family to him one with plenty of money if the house they lived in was any indication.
He'd been living with the Hotchners for several months now and had really settled in. The Hotchners treated him like one of their own children, which meant with love and understanding. They had bought him a whole new wardrobe that actually fit and he had also gained considerable weight since coming to live with the family. There would be more shopping he was sure, as he was going to outgrow his current clothes due to gaining so much weight. The clothes he had been bought were still in perfect condition, which seemed like a waste of money to him. To top off his new circumstances, he actually had enough to eat, which amazed Cian to this day. He was usually so stuffed at the end of a meal he always figured he'd never be hungry again, but was starving again in a matter of hours.
"What makes you ask that?" Dave asked him with a twitch of his lips to let everyone know he was amused.
"I told you the boy was observant," Aaron told everyone.
"You did mention that," Jazz agreed with a slight smile, even as she passed out dessert plates.
Cian nearly drooled when he saw the huge chocolate brownie on his plate. He had learned over the last few months that he loved chocolate, the good kind not the cheap. He knew that Jazz was a baker and anything she baked was utterly delectable.
He'd had her baking several times already and was looking forward to enjoying it for the rest of his life. He was totally and completely hooked.
Cian took a bite of his brownie chewed and swallowed letting the chocolate taste linger on his tongue.
Shonda might have prepared dinner, but Jazz had brought a big box of the brownies with her when she and her husband had come in the door.
All the children had begged for brownies before dinner but were gently told that they were for dessert and they didn't want to ruin their appetites for dinner.
All the children had been very disappointed Cian remembered, but hadn't made a scene or anything. Cian had been amazed that none of the other children had begged, but then maybe they knew the adults well enough that they meant what they said and they didn't want to be in trouble.
Being denied desert just because they were impatience was not something most children would do when they knew what their parents likely reactions. Not when Jazz was such a good baker anyway. All the children would've known that their mother or aunt was one of the best bakers they'd ever had and Cian doubted most other deserts compared to Jazz's baking and so the children wouldn't want to be denied desert just because they got in trouble for begging.
"Some kids are just naturally more observant than others and Cian seems to fall squarely into that category," Shonda said. "Just think about Spencer and how observant he is. He's always been that way according to him since he was as young as Cian here."
"What's going on young man is the four of us have a story for you," Dave told the boy.
"It is a true story, though you might be disbelieving at first," Aaron added.
Shonda began tell him the story of immortality and magic with the others chipping in when necessary.
Cian wasn't entirely sure he believed what he was hearing. On the other hand, why would these adults tell him such a fantastic tale unless they told him it was just a story first. He was now seven as his birthday had been just a few weeks ago and Shonda and Aaron had thrown a party for him. He'd also been enrolled in the same private school as the Hotchners four children and things had been explained to the principal about how he had been adopted when his mother had died recently. He was somewhat behind the other students, which couldn't be helped, but was catching up rapidly. He already knew how to read a little and his skills were improving by leaps and bounds. He had extra homework to catch him up until he was at the same level as all the other students. He also had a tutor that the Hotchners had hired so he wouldn't be behind for long.
The two women in the room proved that magic at least was real when they each produced a witch light with nothing more than a flick of their wrists and it hoovered above their right shoulders. Shonda sent the little light in Cian direction so he could study it.
"You're welcome to touch it," Shonda told him. "It won't hurt you. It's simply a little light produced by magic."
"It's like a flashlight, except you have to have magic to produce one," Jazz added. "This is the simplest of magic that every young magical user produces by the time they are five or so.
"It's also good for reading in the dark," Shonda added with a grin trying for lighthearted.
"That's true and Shonda and I spent many nights hiding under the covers reading or just talking when we were children. We never needed a real flashlight not with our magic able to produce this little witch light." Jazz agreed with a warm chuckle. "She would stay over at my house quite often and I also spent time over at hers. We were so close that both sets of our parents just started to think of the other as their daughters as well."
Cian touched the light tentatively and when he didn't burn his finger he touched it with his whole hand taking it in his palm. The little sphere wasn't hot or cold to the touch it was just a little globe of light that was bright enough to see by or to read by in the dark.
"This is amazing," Cian said.
"I suppose it is to someone who never knew magic was real until now," Dave said his amusement obvious in his tone. "To Aaron and I it's just normal since both our wives have magic. I won't say it wasn't amazing at first, but that faded relatively quickly."
"As for the immortality we can prove it to you," Aaron said. "You must understand though, that you are not to talk about what we revealed. I know you're young, but you have proven very responsible, which is why we decided to go ahead and tell you, even though you're only seven."
"Who would believe me?" Cian asked rhetorically.
"Maybe not anyone, but since people are so different from each other in personalities you never know," Shonda told boy. "There are plenty of people who will try to take advantage of having such knowledge and do everything they can to get what they want. That could include kidnapping one of the kids and holding them hostage then threatening to kill them if we don't cooperate."
"While they wouldn't stay permanently dead they would still be traumatized," Jazz added.
"They could also try the old classic blackmail," Dave added seriously. "Threatening to tell our secret to the world unless we paid."
Dave didn't bother to tell the boy how they would handle such a threat and that was to kill the blackmailer, as they could spread the information that they were immortal around and the same applied to the ladies magic.
"I won't say anything," Cian said. "You've all taken me into your home so why would I want to ruin a good thing? Aunt Shonda could have just chased me out of her store that day and then forgotten about me as soon as I was gone and she didn't. Instead you took me in and you didn't have to do that."
"No we didn't have to," Aaron acknowledged. "We could've turned you over to child protection services. However, all of us know there are a lot of bad foster parents that fool the system and the odds of you getting someone who actually wanted to do the job properly were slim, especially since you would be moved from one foster home to the next every couple of years until you were 18."
"You were drawn into my antique store for a reason, even if we don't know what that reason is," Shonda added. "I choose to believe it was simply fate. You could be slightly empathic for example, which would mean that you have some magic users in your family, even if you don't know it."
"What's empathic?" Cian wondered.
"It's where you can sense others emotions," Jazz was the first to speak. "Some empaths are even strong enough to also affect others emotions. Families with magical children are taught responsibility about using the talent they have in the right way from a very young age. Both Shonda and I come from magical families and so were trained from a really early age in how to use our magic responsibly."
"However, a lot of magicals marry just regular people and eventually that leads the magic gene becoming inactive," Shonda added.
"That doesn't mean that it can't pop up again at some point generations later though by the time it does the family has usually forgotten that magic even exist," Jazz continued.
"We think that's what happened to you that either one of your parents was magical, probably your father or there's magic in your family and the gene was inactive until you were born."
"I don't know if I have magic," Cian said. "If my mother had it I never saw her perform it and I think our circumstances would've been better if she had, as I'm sure she would have used it to help us have a better life. As for my father, I don't really remember him."
"Isn't there a test you can do?" Dave asked Jazz and Shonda. "A test to prove one way or the other that he has magic?"
"Not really," Shonda answered before Jazz could. "If there was I would've already done so."
"We could have him try to create a witch light, as any witch can do that no matter what their other talents," Jazz suggested.
"I'm willing to try," Cian said.
"Are you sure you never did magic like to protect yourself? Like when you were living on the street?" Shonda asked.
"If he did, he might not of realized it. You should know some magic is very subtle and he was younger at the time," Jazz said. "Do you want me to guide him through the creating of a witch light do you want to do it?"
This question was directed to Shonda.
"I'll do it," Shonda said "since Aaron and I did kind of adopt him."
Jazz nodded knowing that that was going to be Shonda's answer so didn't protest.
Shonda turned back to Cian and told him, "Close your eyes and relax. Now breathe in and then breathe out a couple of times. Imagine a small round light right above your head.
Cian let himself relax completely and did as ordered and soon he was drifting. Shonda's voice sounded like it was coming from far away but still he listened and imagined a little light that just appeared above his head. He felt something surge within him and then he heard a voice telling him to open his eyes.
Cian's eyes popped open immediately and looked at everyone who was staring above his head. Cian's eyes flickered upwards seeing the sight of a blue little witch light. It was exactly the same as the ones that the ladies had created.
"You did it!" Shonda exclaimed looking really proud of him.
"Apparently, you were right Cian does indeed have magic, even if he didn't know it until just now," Aaron said.
"I can't believe I did it," Cian said. "I never imagined I would actually get results."
"At least now we know," Jazz commented. "I mean, you can get lessons along with the other children."
"I knew you'd come into our lives for a reason," Shonda added, as she got up from where she was sitting to give the boy a hug. Cian was very pleased at the hug, even though he flushed a little, as he still wasn't used to being shown such open affection. His mother hadn't been the hugging type so he had almost never felt her arms around him.
"If mom had magic I never knew it," Cian said. "If it was dad I really don't remember him, except that he had dark hair like mine and the same color eyes."
"It's too bad you don't know anything about your family history as that would give us a big clue, as to where your talents might lay," Jazz said regretfully. "Both Shonda and I come from a long line of magic users. Both sets of our parents had magic and so did all of my siblings. All of Dave's and my children also inherited the family talent as well as our immortality. It might happen someday that one of our children won't inherit my magic but considering our track record it isn't too likely."
"I can say the same. All Aaron's and my children have inherited my magic," Shonda agreed. "In Jazz's and my case the magic gene seems to be dominant along with the immortality gene."
"We both know though, that if our descendants marry too many humans over the centuries and that magic gene can become inactive," Jazz added. "Both of us have seen it happen before."
The two women exchanged a glance that Cian couldn't decipher.
"Does that mean that the two of you don't have any magic?" Cian the two men who had been silent.
"No," Dave answered shaking his head. "I knew about magic before I met Jazz, but I can't actually perform it myself. Both Aaron and I were around for centuries before we met Jazz and Shonda. That they were both magical was kind of a shock to us."
"Unlike Dave, I didn't know about magic when I met Shonda. That she was magical didn't really matter to me, just that she was my mate."
"It basically means we're soulmates," Shonda answered the question that Cian didn't ask. "Both magical and immortals have someone that they can depend on and will never abandon them or break up with them like happens to humans all the time."
"It's finding them that's the problem," Aaron said with a slight smile.
"That's definitely the hard part," Dave agreed with Aaron's comment. "I met Jazz in a small town known as Moonlight Gorge. Shonda was her best friend and she met Aaron three years later in Houston Texas. I don't think we need to give you the whole story now as you need time, I'm sure, to absorb that we're not like normal families."
"I would like to hear the whole story sometime, but I'm still trying to absorb how I didn't know I supposedly had magic and didn't know it."
"You probably caused all sorts of things to happen whenever your emotions are running high as it happens to all magical children rather they realize it or not," Shonda offered. "If you were angry for some reason there might be lightning in the sky that will startle you and anyone else. You might not know where it came from, especially if the sky is clear otherwise. Also, if you were scared for whatever reason that was, really deeply scared, it would cause your magic to react."
"You also could cause something to fall to where it lands on the floor and possibly breaks depending on what it is. You might believe it was just near the edge of a shelf or table and fell on it's own, but it could also be that your magic causing the object to fall, because you were angry or scared," Jazz added.
"Some children, even cause objects to move on their own without the use of hands and sometimes they hit someone whether deliberately or accidentally.
Cian felt comprehension dawning and the four adults knew that he had remembered something.
"So what do you remember," Jazz asked him. "Your expression is telling us that you've just remembered something.
"There was a couple of times I got really mad and scared. The trash cans in this alley just kind of turned over. They were outside a restaurant and created quite the mess. It stunk too, because there was lotta food and things in them that hadn't been picked up by the garbage trucks."
"So what caused you to get mad and scared?" Shonda asked.
"Some bullies chasing me," Cian answered. "They wanted to beat me up and it didn't matter I was just a kid. I believe I was only five or so at the time. I got mad at them for not just leaving me alone as I had done nothing to them other then them thinking I was spying on them but I was just walking home always on the lookout for trouble. I was also scared that they would catch me and beat me to a pulp. I couldn't afford to end up in the hospital as my mother had no insurance."
"That was probably your magic reacting to protect you. It happens when a magical child is scared as Jazz and I explained," Shonda said.
"They slipped in all the garbage that had spilled into the alley because there was a lot of liquid and other things like vegetable peels that made it slippery. I just thought I was lucky at the time as it allowed me to get away. I thought maybe I had brushed against the cans as I was running past and that was what caused them to tip over and spill because they were overfull."
"You've had a rather hard life haven't you," Dave observed with sympathy in his expression and tone of voice.
"I suppose," Cian shrugged. "I didn't know any different. I didn't know that life could actually be pleasant. That I could actually get enough to eat and actually have clothes that fit me. That I wouldn't have to worry about finding a sheltered place to sleep."
"You're lucky that it was warm and the weather was pleasant when your mother died and that you weren't on the streets for longer," Aaron said. "A lot of unpleasant things could've happened to you and not just death."
"I think it's time for everyone to head to bed as it's late and it's definitely time for Cian and the other children to get some sleep," Shonda proclaimed.
"Yeah, you're right it is getting late," Jazz said checking her watch. "We've been talking longer than I thought."
"We need to get the children and head home," Dave added. "We enjoyed dinner very much and we'll have to reciprocate sometime in the next few weeks."
"We'll look forward to it," Aaron said sincerely. "I can never get enough of your cooking and especially Jazz's baking.
"If Jazz's baking is any indication you must be a really good cook," Cian said.
"Oh, both of them cook really well and often share cooking duties," Shonda said smiling at the boy. "I always look forward to when Aaron and I go over there for lunch or dinner, usually dinner though, since both Jazz and I have businesses to run."
"We'll have to set up a time," Jazz said.
Jazz and Dave gathered their children and headed for the front door.
"Bye Aunt Shonda, bye Uncle Aaron," all of the children called not a single one raising a ruckus because they didn't want to go home to bed. All the children were yawning, Cian noticed.
"Bye, we'll see you all soon," Shonda told the children, even as she watched the family get in their SUV from the front door. Once the Rossi family SUV disappeared down the driveway she shut the front door.
~~~Aaron and Shonda~~~
