Page 144 of Monster Daddies

“Where did you travel to that you liked the least? Anywhere you don’t want to go back to?” I wasn’t sure what kind of answer I’d get but it came without him having to think about it.

“New York.” He frowned and even his dick reacted negatively. “Something about it felt off and the people’s auras were all wrong. I don’t want to go back.”

Good because I had no desire to suffer through looking human for that long for that kind of environment.

But we needed a change in questions, so I jumped again. “What’s a BDSM topic or kink that you’ve read about or drew for your work that you want to try in person but haven’t?”

His soft surprised sound had me smiling, but my favorite part was the pleased, excited expression that flashed over his face and the way his dick jerked. “I… Shibari, I think.”

“That would be fun to learn with you.” And if we couldn’t find a teacher connected to the community in some way then we could learn online.

“Really?” His smile brightened but another pinch before moving my hand lower turned it into a moan. “You’re… you’re making me crazy.”

But at least he was giving me information and he’d stopped worrying.

“Why thank you.” He shivered and squeaked as I caressed around his belly button, making me chuckle, but he didn’t get me sidetracked. “Where do you get your ability to read auras from?”

There were probably a half-dozen options but none felt quite right.

“My… my maternal grandparents are mages and there are some rumors that the Scandinavian human relatives on that side might not have been just human, but that’s just family gossip because they were kind of weird.” He shrugged like that really didn’t concern him but I’d found interesting histories in some groups people thought were simply human.

Alton gave me more wonderful information before I could question him about it. “I have a paternal grandmother that was part fae. Like, small part fae so not immortal or anything odd. Oh, and my grandfather’s family was Italian and Caladrius. That gets mixed up a lot because he wasn’t a dove. Most people don’t know what that is but I can’t shift. I remember him being hairy but I didn’t get that gene.”

What?

Blinking, I didn’t realize I’d stopped caressing him until his eyes popped open. “What?”

His question mirroring mine was what had my brain working again. “Sweetie, how much do you know about the Caladrius?”

It wasn’t a new world lineage and I hadn’t realized any had come over from Italy. The Roman empire was the last time they showed up in mythology in any meaningful way and most people would’ve never heard of them.

“Um, that the rumors were one of the old kings had us trapped in his palace in the shape of a bird, but our family history said that it was a ridiculously dramatic threesome with the king and his wife and it was all kinds of crazy.” Alton frowned as he gave me a rambling answer. “It was one of the reasons I was glad you didn’t want any kind of poly relationship. Those can be messy.”

Messy enough to end up in mythology.

“They don’t absorb sick people’s diseases but full Caladrius can heal the sick in different ways and are empathic.” Alton’s head cocked as lower parts got too distracted to stay hard. “That was probably a bad part about the relationship too now that I think about it.”

There were a few parts to that questionable decision but he didn’t seem to know about them.

“Oh, and little bits can be passed down in the bloodlines without the full magic manifesting. I put my emotions into my art if I’m not careful which is part of the reason why I work on so many different things.” Alton’s tone and the way he kept offering up random bits of knowledge said he thought he was telling me the whole truth.

“It helps me channel that side of myself. It’s small, though, so it’s not like I can influence your emotions or even heal you.” That was not what I was focused on, but it was good to know he understood that. “If I draw you a picture, you’ll probably feel a bit of what I was feeling when I drew it.”

When he paused, I realized that seemed to be the extent of his knowledge.

That wasn’t good… but I wasn’t going to hide the rest of it from him.

“Sweetie, one of the big pieces of the Caladrius is that if any of it is in the bloodline… even the smallest bit… they travel the world looking for their mate.” Their fated mate.

The ones they sometimes went crazy trying to find if it took too long. Which was part of the reason there were so few of them and so many confused people who didn’t understand why they always felt so restless.

“Oh.” Alton’s brain seemed to be going too fast to track or too slow because he was quiet and just blinked for a while. “That’s probably why I haven’t lived in my apartment for the past coupleof years. I was getting tired of living out of my car too but I couldn’t seem to stop.”

Okay, that answered several of my questions.

“You’re going to be able to stop now and you won’t need your apartment any longer.” But did he understand why?

“That’s going to save me a lot of money. I like my job but it doesn’t pay a lot right now.” His answer didn’t give me enough clues. “My abilities make me sought after, though. It might be cheating but the job market is hard, so I’m not going to feel bad. I make my viewers happy.”