“I’m Darek,” the newcomer told me as I shook his hand. “I’m a Were dryad…a wood nymph.”

My eyes widened at that. “And dryads are female…”

“Yeah,” Darek admitted, looking a little self-conscious. He shrugged. “I was pretty embarrassed about it at first, but then I kind of found out that I’m not the only one.”

“There’s another dryad?” I asked in surprise.

Darek just laughed at that. “No, but my cousin Trey is a mermaid.” Then he gestured to another guy who also appeared to be about nineteen or twenty and called out, “Hey Trey, I’ve got someone you want to meet…”

Trey came over, giving Traci and myself a curious look. “Hey,” he said, looking to Darek and asking, “What’s up?”

“He said you turn into a mermaid,” I blurted out, giving Trey a curious look. “Is that true?”

Trey gave Darek a look of annoyance before answering, “Yeah. It’s kind of embarrassing.”

“As embarrassing as turning into a satyr?” Traci asked him with a smirk.

“Or a succubus?” I added.

Trey looked surprised at that. “Really? That must be pretty weird.”

“You have no idea,” I told him, then repeated what I’d already told Darek and Traci. “I used to be a guy before my changing day, but now I’m stuck as a girl and can’t change back.”

“That’s impossible,” Trey pointed out, looking more than a little skeptical. “Everyone knows that we change back to normal at sunrise…no exceptions.”

“I’m a hybrid,” I explained again. “I’m both Touched and Were…so it kind of changes the equation for me.”

“No offense, but that’s bullshit,” Trey said, giving me a suspicious look. “You can’t be both. You have to be either one or the other.”

“It is true,” I insisted out, getting annoyed.

I glared at Trey for a moment and decided that I’d better prove that I wasn’t just making stuff up in order to show off. I triggered my talent and felt my body begin to change. I was suddenly very thankful that I’d worn some loose clothes to this gathering.

“Holy shit,” Trey exclaimed while he and Darek both stared at me in surprise.

“Wow,” Traci said, giving me an appreciative look that held the same interest I saw from both Todd and Eve when I was like this.

“Like I said,” I told them in my somewhat sexier voice. “I’m Touched too.”

“Sorry,” Trey apologized. “I just didn’t think it was possible.”

“There aren’t very many of us,” I admitted.

Just then, a cute auburn haired girl who was about eighteen came up, exclaiming, “Hey, you’ll never believe what I just heard. Someone just told me that there’s an actual sorceress here…”

“Actually,” I responded wryly. “There are two of us.”

The girl paused, giving me a blank look. “What?”

“There are two of us here,” I repeated. “I’m a sorceress in training but I came with Amylia, one of my instructors.” I pointed to Amylia who was now talking to some middle-aged guy.

“Oh,” Darek said, looking a little surprised. “So that’s who my dad is talking to.”

“That’s your dad?” I asked, pointing to the man with Amylia.

“Yeah,” Darek answered with a proud look on his face. “He’s a Were unicorn.” Then he gestured to the girl who’d just joined us and said, “This is my cousin Kaylie… Or is that second cousin?” He paused for a moment before adding, “Well, her mom is my dad’s cousin.”

“You’re Touched?” Kaylie asked me in surprise. “Then what are you doing here? I mean, this was supposed to be a place for mythics to meet up…”

“Apparently, she’s both,” Trey told Kaylie with a faint shake of his head. “Both Were and Touched.”

“Is that even possible?” Kaylie asked.

“Hey,” Darek suddenly exclaimed, looking at Kaylie and asking, “Is your boyfriend here? He really should be in on this talk…”

Kaylie gave Darek a curious look before responding, “He went to the kitchen to look for something to eat.” Then she grinned and added, “There he is…”

A minute later, Kaylie’s boyfriend Jake came over. He was tall and slender with black hair and eyes that kept darting around, almost as though he was trying to take everything in.

After brief introductions, Darek told Jake, “It looks like Erin and Traci are part of our little group.” He grinned and added, “Traci is a Were satyr and Erin used to be a guy.”

At Jake’s confused look, I rolled my eyes and explained about being a hybrid, which seemed to confuse Jake even more. He gave me a blank look and asked, “Okay… What the fuck is a Touched?”

“They’re witches,” Kaylie answered, giving me a nervous glance. “They can do magic spells and all sorts of impossible things…”

“Any more impossible than turning into an animal?” I asked with a sigh, suddenly realizing that the Touched weren’t the only ones with misconceptions.

I spent the next ten minutes explaining about the Touched, our talents, and about sorcerers. The small crowd gathered around me all nodded in fascination, and even the ones who thought they knew all about the Touched seemed to be learning new things. It was a little strange, having to explain the Touched to Were when I was used to doing the opposite.

“I’d never heard of the Touched before this,” Jake admitted with a sigh. “Hell, I didn’t even know the Were existed before my fucking Changing Day.”

“What?” I asked in surprise.

“My folks died when I was a kid,” Jake told me with a shrug. “I grew up in a bunch of foster home and didn’t know shit about being a Were until one night I suddenly turn into fucking Tinkerbell.”

“If it wasn’t for my mom finding him that night,” Kaylie added with a grin, “Jake still wouldn’t know what he was.”

Jake shrugged at that, then admitted, “I didn’t really know anything about my own family tree until Doctor Merchant contacted me.”

“That would have to be rough,” I said carefully, thinking about Amylia’s son and how he hadn’t been expecting it either. Fortunately, things seemed to have gone much better for Jake.

I looked at Jake and then his girlfriend, realizing that they were both descendants of Amylia. I looked back at the family tree on the wall and saw that they were both on completely different branches, with the last ancestor they had in common being Robert himself. Kaylie, Darek, Trey, and of course Darek’s dad were all on one branch. Traci was on another branch. And to my surprise, Jake was not only on my branch of the family tree, but he and I shared the same great grandpa.

After this, we continued talking about the one thing we all had in common, other than being Were. All of us, except for Kaylie, went through gender changes when we changed form. But unlike the others, I was the only one who remained permanently changed afterwards.

“You know,” Kaylie joked, “For once in my life, I don’t mind being left out of something.” She gave an exaggerated shudder and added, “Turning into a guy would just be weird.”

“Yeah, but it’s not really bad,” Traci told her with a grin. “It kind of helps me understand guys a lot better too…not that it does a lot of good anymore.”

“What do you mean?” I asked curiously.

“Well,” Traci answered, blushing brightly. “I used to like guys, but ever since my Changing Day, I kind of…well…I kind of like girls instead.”

Darek, Trey and Jake all shuddered at that and I could see that they didn’t understand. Clearly, they didn’t have to deal with that issue and couldn’t possibly know what it was like. However, I most certainly did.

“Yeah,” I told Traci quietly, knowing that I was probably blushing too. “Ever since I changed, I kind of like guys now.”

“Damn,” Darek exclaimed, giving me a sympathetic look. “You’ve really got it rough.”

All I could do was shrug at that and tell them, “Yeah, but I’m getting used to it.”

Traci just nodded and gave me a look of disappointment. “Yeah,” she said with a sigh. “Unfortunately, I kind of scared my best friend off. I mean, we’ve been besties since we were kids, and then after…well, I kind of kissed her and freaked her out.” Traci let out a sigh and continued, “She doesn’t know about my being Were and just thinks I’m gay. I can just imagine how much worse it would have been if she’d seen me change.”

At that, all of us nodded in understanding. One thing that Were and Touched had in common was that we had to hide our very existence from normals. That meant we had to lie to our friends and neighbors, doing anything we could to keep them from suspecting that there was something odd about us. There were only the occasional exceptions, such as when you found a normal who you could trust absolutely…and wanted to marry.

A few minutes later, our little group split up, though Traci remained with me. The two of us went around and met some of our other distant relatives, though I couldn’t help but feeling that this wasn’t a proper family reunion since only the mythics had been invited. Still, it was interesting to meet some of them. There were a pair of twin girls, one of whom could turn into a centaur while the other could turn into a naga. And there was a guy in his mid-twenties who claimed to turn into a sea serpent. However, I didn’t really connect to any of them the way I had to the ones I’d already met.

While I was doing this, Amylia was mingling and making sure to meet each of her descendants, though of course, she neglected to mention that she was either a Were or their ancestor. I couldn’t help but feeling a little disappointed at that or thinking that it wasn’t really fair to everyone else, but it was her decision and I didn’t interfere.

Most of those Amylia talked to seemed surprised by her presence, though some were quite suspicious as to why a Touched would be here at this gathering. She could have eased that suspicion with the revelation of her relationship, but she continued to keep that to herself. Instead, Amylia remained polite and courteous, and of course, no one was foolish enough to directly insult a powerful sorceress.

“What do you think?” I asked Amylia once I’d excused myself from Traci and returned to my teacher.

“This is very…interesting,” Amylia responded with a faint smile. She looked around and admitted, “I have never been around so many Were in my entire life. I find myself feeling apprehensive, yet I am also glad I came.”

I nodded at that, knowing that this had to be extremely strange for her, being surrounded by her own descendants whom she didn’t even know existed a mere three days ago. She had a strange look in her eyes as she looked around the room, one filled with regret. I could only imagine what she felt right now.

“If you think this is interesting now,” I told Amylia with a grin. “Just wait a little longer.” At her curious look, I explained, “Once the sun goes down, then things will really get interesting.”