Soon everybody was seated in the living room, and Tony sat beside Delfina on the loveseat.
"What would you like to drink Tony?" Dave asked the young man sitting beside his goddaughter.
Tony told him and Dave nodded as he busied himself for the next few minutes playing barman not having to ask anyone else what they preferred for their after dinner drink other than Tony himself.
Soon everybody had a drink in front of them including Tony and Dave even went so far to prepare drinks for the two ladies that were still putting stuff in the dishwashing unit and cleaning the kitchen.
Tony took a sip of his drink and found out it was very high-quality vodka and probably came from a well-known name brand. It was certainly better quality than he could afford as a private investigator at least on a regular basis.
"The ladies should be here any minute," Aaron commented, even as he enjoyed his beverage.
There was an undercurrent amongst the group, including his girlfriend, Tony noticed. He had noticed it during dinner as well, but not so much. He wasn't sure exactly what he was sensing as everybody seemed nice enough. Delfina's family was actually pretty amazing, especially considering his childhood, but that didn't mean he didn't sense something going on underneath the façade of every adult except himself.
Shonda and Jazz arrived just then with everything they needed to serve the chocolate crème brûlée. Shonda carried the silverware and napkins and Jazz, had the dessert tray and the plates.
The two women worked silently together until everyone had a portion of the crème brûlée, and then served themselves and sat down by their spouses.
"Dig in everyone," Jazz said with a half smile, as she took a bite of her own dessert.
Tony, who had been eating desserts from the owned family bakery in Baltimore, bit into the crème brûlée and almost closed his eyes in ecstasy. The brûlée was absolutely delicious, so scrumptious, that he wanted just to gobble it down instead of eating properly, but he managed to restrain himself from acting like a two-year-old on a sugar high.
There was just the right amount of chocolate taste and the caramel topping made it just the perfect combination.
"Now, Tony, we have something serious to discuss with you," Aaron began, as he watched his future son-in-law, eat the crème brûlée with a look of ecstasy on his face, as if he had never had anything so good in his life.
Tony looked up from where he was rapidly devouring his portion of Jazz's dessert, and looked around the room at everyone serious expression.
"What's going on?" Tony asked his voice suspicious.
Aaron went into to his usual explanation when he was explaining about mates and magic and Tony listened, but his expression wasn't as disbelieving as everyone thought it would be.
In fact, if his expression was anything to go by, they were just confirming something that he had always believed was real, but had no proof of.
"You don't look as disbelieving as I thought you would, like most people would be," Delfina said finally, as she studied Tony's expression.
"I would say he saw something sometime that there was no logical explanation for," Dave guessed, as he to studied Tony's expression.
"That's a very good guess," Tony told Dave.
"It's not really a guess, just a matter of experience," Dave explained shaking his head in denial of Tony's statement. "I've been around for a very long time, so I have a ton of experience in about every situation you can think of."
"So why don't you tell us exactly when you saw something that didn't have a logical explanation," Shonda suggested.
"Well, it has to do with, when I was 10 and dad was struggling to be a father to me. It was before he sent me off to boarding school. After my mom died, dad and me traveled from place to place for a couple of years. He would leave me alone in whatever hotel room we got a lot. Being as I was a 10-year-old I didn't like being left to my own devices with nothing to do but watch TV."
"So your father left his 10 year old son by himself with no adult supervision?" Delfina asked outraged on Tony's behalf. "I want to kill him."
"I don't blame you for that Del," Shonda told her daughter with a sympathetic expression anger in her own eyes. "I know what you want to do and I think everybody in this room shares those feelings, but I doubt Tony wants his father's dead, even if he wasn't much of one."
"We might be estranged, but no, I don't want him dead," Tony agreed calmly. "In any case, I was left alone for three days with nothing to do, but watch TV and order room service. By the end of the first day I was bored out of my mind, as I was a very active 11 year-old and not one to just sit around and just watch TV. Being as I was an active 11 year old, I left the hotel room, even though my father had ordered me to stay put promising he'd be back in a few hours.
"I had no idea what had happened to him at that point, as I had all kinds of wild ideas like he's been arrested and thrown in jail, which was a distinct possibility considering the way he lived his life. I even imagined he might be dead because he'd tried to con the wrong person.
"I left the hotel room and wandered over to places of business on the same side of the street. I passed a restaurant and several other places, but knew better than to get too far away or try to cross a busy street, as I didn't want to get lost or be run over, even if a lot of the traffic nowadays is up in the air, there's still enough on the ground that it was a possibility."
"I was passing this drugstore when I heard yelling and being a curious boy and let's just say, I was indeed very curious as to what was going on. The yelling sounded angry and also a little afraid."
"Of course, you were curious. You were only a eleven year-old boy. Any boy your age would've been," Jazz said outraged at what she was hearing. Tony could've very well have been killed or at least kidnapped and sold for all kinds of slimy evil, purposes.
"The sound was coming from the back parking lot of the drug store where two men were really going at it. I got as close as I could without being seen so I saw one of the men's arm become furry and I saw claws form on the same hand. What I had seen scared me enough that I crept away, hoping they hadn't seen me and once I was out of sight, I ran back to the hotel room. I had made sure I'd taken the extra key Dad had left so I could get back in.
"I tried to tell myself I had imagined it that I hadn't really seen what I had that the man with dark hair hand hadn't turned into claws or his arm hadn't gone all furry.
"When dad finally came back, I was relieved that he was OK, but I also yelled at him for leaving me alone for three days and that was when he decided that put me in boarding school was probably best. Dad never even realized I had disobeyed and left the hotel room, as I was over what I had seen by the time he returned, though I did dream of what I thought I had seen for months afterwards," Tony finished.
"I doubt he would've believed you if you had said anything and he might've decided that you were crazy and had you committed," Dave commented.
"Probably true, I'm still not sure what I saw actually, just that it was not normal," Tony said.
"It sounds as if you saw a shifter start to transform," Jazz said. "Sometimes when a shifter gets angry, they start to change into their animal shape involuntarily."
"Shifter?" Tony questioned.
"There are many things in this world that most humans never know about Tony," Delfina said. "The supernatural does exist and not just immortals and magic but other things like shifters."
"Is anybody going to explain what a shifter is?" Tony asked.
"It's where somebody is born and they can shift into a specific animal," Shonda explained calmly. "There are all kinds of supernatural beings in this world, Tony, but most of us go out of our way to not reveal ourselves to ordinary mortals. It sounds like what you saw was something with claws like a wolf or a tiger for instance. There's no way to know at this late date what kind of animal that man was."
"If that's true, how can you conceal this from ordinary people like me. Even if you only change when you're alone like in a forest for example, if that guy I saw as a boy was any example, the change can be involuntary due to anger. If that change happened out in public, how can people not have seen it and reported it to the cops if nothing else."
"Most shifters have better control than that," Aaron said. "Even if they get really angry, they don't shift, but there is a small percentage that does if they get really, super furious and sounds like that's exactly what happened."
"And a lot of times, if there are witnesses either whoever they tell thinks they were drunk or taking drugs or just trying to get attention or they're considered unreliable," Aaron said.
"I'm still surprised that most people don't know about the supernatural," Tony said, "but I suppose we can get into that later. Right now, I want to know why you took the risk of telling me, especially because I was a cop at one point and now I'm a private detective."
"We have a very good reason for telling you, Tony," Shonda said before Aaron could say anything, but Delfina knew, even before her mother looked at her that this was her cue.
Delfina's mother looked worried Tony noticed and so did her father, though he was better at concealing it. Worried about how he would react to what he was about to be told, and when Delfina started to speak, Tony listened to her in disbelief.
"You see Tony, every immortal has what is known as a mate," Delfina began her voice mostly calm with just a hint of worry. "This is someone that they can build a life with, have children with, who will never betray them in any shape or form. When I saw you running on one of the treadmills at the gym, me and Caspian started five years ago well, you don't want know how shocked I was. You didn't notice, because it was clear you had other things on your mind, so you weren't paying attention to anything or anybody around you.
"I met Shonda in Houston, Texas, and I knew immediately that she was the one," Aaron told Tony. "Luckily, for me, she didn't reject me like I half feared, as it's always difficult to get an ordinary mortal to accept that something so unlikely like immortality exist. I found out after we had been dating for a couple of weeks that she wasn't exactly ordinary herself, and that was because she had magic."
Tony started to say something, but Delfina simply touched his arm and then formed a little witch light with her other while Tony looked at her.
"What?!" Tony exclaimed shocked when a little blue globe of light formed out of nothingness.
"Witch light," Delfina said. "It's basically a flashlight, except no technology can create it. Witch lights take very little power to produce, and need no extra preparations."
"For major spell casting they take more than power from the caster," Jazz added, producing her own witch light, while Shonda did the same in order to show Tony that Delfina wasn't trying to trick him.
"Even with your experiences, as a child we know how hard immortality and magic are to believe in," Dave spoke up.
"Especially in this advanced technological time," Shonda agreed. "Both Jazz and I come from magical families and magicals also have mates, so I didn't disbelieve Aaron when he told me what he was and explained about mates."
"I've been very happy for a very long time now, because Shonda didn't reject me," Aaron added, even as he kissed Shonda's cheek affectionately.
"The same goes for me and the only difference is I met Dave in Moonlight Gorge where both Shonda and I grew up, as was mentioned a few minutes ago. Also, it should be mentioned that, I met him first while Shonda didn't meet Aaron for three years after that," Jazz said.
Everybody slowly took Tony through the high points of what was their history and Tony listened his face unreadable for the most part.
"You took a big risk telling me, which I can appreciate," Tony said.
"We know we did," Aaron answered Tony's statement. "You're not the first cop we have told just so you know."
"Jazz and my daughter Marla met a cop named Derek Morgan who also happened to be her mate several centuries ago now," Dave explained.
"We always knew we were taking a risk telling him about us, but we did so. We knew he could cause great trouble for us if he was of a mind," Jazz added. "Luckily, Derek accepted it, because he loved Marla enough that he would never have betrayed her, which by extension meant he would never have betrayed her family."
"It was still dangerous to tell this Derek Morgan about yourselves just like it's dangerous to tell me. I might not be on the police force anymore, but that's only because the department I was placed in was corrupt and I didn't want to have my ethics compromised. That doesn't mean I don't have a contact I can call if I make up my mind to do so," Tony said,
"While you can do that and cause great trouble for Delfina, Caspian and Ewan for that matter if you cared to do so, they would just leave behind the life they have in Baltimore and by the time your story worked its way up the command chain they would be gone," Shonda told Tony seriously. "They would shut down their businesses and just disappear to where no one would be able to locate them and then just pop up somewhere else a few decades from now."
"Any immortal knows that if they have to pull up roots and move ahead of schedule, then they do so and are all prepared to disappear if necessary," Dave added. "Also, in our case, we have an advantage over most immortals."
"What's that?" Tony asked.
"We have magic," Delfina explained softly. "We could take your memory if we had to and mom and Aunt Jazz have done that in the past when necessary to protect one of the family."
"We don't do that unless we absolutely must," Shonda told Tony seriously with a worried look in her green eyes. "For one thing, it's Jazz and I, that have to do that, mostly because it's easy to mess up someone's mind to where they start having memory problems. While all our children are capable of casting the spell they have no experience in doing so."
"It would be like having selected amnesia," Jazz said. "You would forget ever meeting Delfina, us and Caspian," Jazz added. "It's a delicate spell and takes a certain gentle touch. You can't be ham-handed or blunt with this particular spell, as that would be like using a sledgehammer instead of a chisel."
"Luckily, the ladies have never had to use that particular spell against someone who is a mate to one of our children," Aaron told Tony in a soothing tone, as Tony had gone absolutely white.
Everybody in the room was sure that Tony's imagination was working overtime, imagining the worst case scenarios of having them take his memory in order to protect themselves.
"So you've only had to use it on those that prove themselves dangerous to your family," Tony finally spoke.
"We never use it without a good reason," Shonda promised Tony with an understanding smile. "For one thing, both Jazz and I were taught ethics back when we were growing up. Our parents would've been severely disappointed in both of us if we used our magic to commit crimes. While our parents have been dead for centuries we know they are watching over us."
"Both my parents would probably come back to haunt me if I decided to use my magic for nefarious purposes," Jazz said sounding perfectly serious. Tony was sure she was joking or at least he hoped she was.
"Same," Shonda agreed.
"Delfina can tell you more once you've had time to absorb what you've learned," Aaron told Tony who had regained his equilibrium.
Tony's color had come back as Jazz, and Shonda had been explaining how they would never use their magic to take his memory unless he proved a danger to their family.
"Yeah, I do need some time to absorb everything," Tony agreed.
"Luckily, we're staying for a few days," Delfina said. "I told my regular clients that I'd be gone for a few days so that's taken care of and Tony finished up the case he was working on before we caught our flight out here and just didn't take any more clients."
"You let us know if you need anything," Shonda told her daughter giving her significant look, and Delfina subtly nodded to her mother letting her know that she understood the silent message.
"I will," Delfina promised before she and Tony took their leave.

~~~Tony and Delfina~~~