Page 57 of Nugget

“There’s so much I still don’t know. This paranormal shit just keeps getting more and more interesting.”

“If someone was writing a book then it could go on forever,” Stryker mused.

“Maybe someone will.”

“So, if you couldn’t shift like everyone else than you needed a way to run,” Stryker said.

“The plan was for me to go into the woods. Wait. I did that but no one ever came for me.”

“They were killed? All of them?”

Gavin swallowed hard then nodded. “My parents, my grandparents, my brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins. That was when I became the last of my kind.”

Stryker’s eyes filled.

Gavin was shocked by the unusual show of emotion.

“It’s okay.” He grasped Stryker’s hand.

“You were just a child. Alone. Afraid.”

Ah, so that hit close to home. Gavin didn’t know Stryker’s full story, but he’d put enough of their conversations and things that Stryker said when he was bragging about his hacking to know that he’d been failed by those who should have protected him.

“My father and brother made sure I knew how to survive. My mother and grandma showed me other life lessons. Each member of my family made certain to teach me whatever skills they knew. I was the most well-trained child in all the realms.”

“They wanted you to be prepared.”

“I think they knew,” Gavin admitted.

“Knew what?”

“That we wouldn’t be able to outrun the hunters. No matter how far we went. Eventually the hunters would catch us. Our days were numbered.”

Stryker hissed. “I don’t know what would be harder? Knowing there was nothing you could do to keep the ones you loved safe or being the one left behind.”

Gavin had asked himself that same question for decades. Would it have been better to die with his family? “I chose to live.”

“I’m glad you did,” Stryker said.

“Me too.”

“If I'd been there, I would have fried every electronic they owned. They would have been powerless against my masterful hacking.”

Gavin chuckled. “You do realize this was before the internet, right?”

“Wow,” Stryker drawled. “You really are an old man.”

Gavin pinched Stryker’s side. His hands were under the blanket, but it was all he could reach.

“Now tell me how you hunted the hunters,” Stryker demanded with a little bounce.

“What makes you think I did?” Gavin asked.

“Really?” Stryker rolled his eyes. “You’re my Papi! Of course you hunted them down. They killed your family.”

“I did,” Gavin revealed. “It was after I met Axel. I’d just turned twenty-five.”

“You met Axel that long ago?”

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