“You aren’t in any danger,” Cane promised, hands lifted defensively.

Rhys raised his eyebrow, “I didn’t think I was. You’re acting like it’s a big secret but none of you are doing a great job of hiding it.”

“What gave it away?” Molly asked excitedly, eyes wide with curiosity.

Unable to control herself, her wings unfurled and fluttered happily behind her. She was a small thing, eyes big and glistening like an anime character. She raced toward him and handed over the basket.

“This is for you! I’m Molly Holliday, you can call me Mols if you want! I run the local coffee shop and I made all of this as a welcome gift!” she said, tone high and excited.

Rhys smiled and took the basket, “Thank you. Um, to answer your question, I guess it’s the fact that your vibes scream movie monsters, and… you have literal wings. And both of you,” he turned to Cane and Vic, “Have fangs and keep making weird comments that definitely border on wanting to eat me... and not in a fun way.”

“Sorry, we’re not used to humans moving into town. Been awhile since we’ve had newcomers. We’re supposed to be a bit more… secretive until we’re sure we’re safe,” Vic said calmly.

“You’re safe?” Rhys repeated with some confusion.

Vic pursed his lips and tried to find the right words, “This is a safe haven for people like us, Rhys. It’s my job to keep everyone protected and happy, so I need to know that anyone who moves in won’t disrupt what we have here. That one social media post or a call to some reporters won’t ruin our lives. We try to keep what we are a secret until we know they can integrate in seamlessly, that we can trust them, or if I need to run them out of town before they catch on. I’m a vampire, if that’s not obvious.”

“Moth-person!” Molly said with glee, her antennae wiggling atop her head. “Genus: lunar! Age: twenty-two! Genderfluid, asexual, I’m the oldest of ten, and—”

Vic set his hand on her shoulder, “This isn’t a dating profile, moth-person is enough. Let’s not overwhelm him.

Cane lifted his hand sheepishly and pointed to himself, “Werewolf. The big dog bed prolly gave it away, huh?”

“I... figured,” Rhys said with a smile. “And Cas?”

“A goth… they’re… uh… mostly human,” Cane said with a suspiciously nervous chuckle. “Okay… they’re a reaper, but! But! They won’t kill you!"

Vic chuckled. “We do have a lot of humans in town, too. We’re pretty welcoming here in the Wood.”

Rhys placed the basket down on the counter and set his hands together, “That’s… all I want, really. I just want to feel at home.”

Vic shot Cane a glance, “Let’s have a chat, I’m sure you have questions.”

“Mols, can you help me get these curtain rods hung up? We need t’get this done t'night,” Cane requested as he opened his tool box.

Molly nodded and turned to help grab a curtain rod when her eyes grew large. She began vibrating aggressively like a kid after their first cup of coffee and wandered over to the emergency light in a trance-like state, hands lifted to grasp the bulb. Vic unfolded his sunglasses and handed them to Cane before he urged the newcomer to join him outside.

Rhys left the cabin and followed Vic out into the night. He looked over his shoulder and watched as Molly’s little frame stopped moving when Cane set the glasses over her eyes. Her bright laughter radiated out into the night. With a jump, her pale wings flapped and she floated up to help Cane level the curtain rod.

Vic hoisted himself up onto the porch railing. He extended his hand for Rhys to take and helped him up so they could sit and be comfortable during the necessary but lengthy chat.

“Welcome to Wylder Wood 101, I’m not an expert and a lot of it is hearsay so the details are a bit muddy, but I’ll do my best to fill you in on everything,” Vic said as he swung his leg over the railing to straddle it.

“Okay, I'm listening.”

“Cas Wylder, our resident spooky person, is the sixth generation of Wylder to inhabit this town. Wylder Wood was founded by a man named Caspian Wylder who, at one point in time, was known as ‘the luckiest man in New York City’. The reason Caspian Wylder was known as the luckiest man in NYC was because he was married to ‘the most beautiful woman to walk the new world’. Ophelia was fair, pale like the moon and kindhearted, and she had many, many suitors. So, the fact Caspian Wylder of all people was the one to claim her heart made many of these suitors angry. He was an odd fellow who was as elusive and unknown as the night itself, not well liked, either. One of Ophelia's suitors was a man named Edgar Allemand, a wealthy businessman from France looking to make it big in the New World.

“Now, the newly christened Mrs. Wylder had no interest in Mr. Allemand but he was relentless in his pursuits and vowed that he would win over her heart, going so far as to arrive on the Wylder's doorstep in the wee hours of the morning. Caspian Wylder refuted his presence and managed to use his connections to the elite and powerful of New York to destroy Allemand’s reputation, casting him out of the area in disgrace. Edgar Allemand vowed revenge, publicly stating to all who listened that he would one day take that which was most precious to Caspian Wylder as his own,” Vic explained with wide gestures and wild eyes.

Rhys found himself leaning in close to listen to the tale. The way Vic spoke was entrancing, it drew him in like a spell caster hypnotizing his mind.

“Caspian Wylder obsessively planned and plotted to prepare for this revenge over the course of the next near-two decades, with the tension building to the point it nearly drove him mad. When Mr. Allemand finally came to enact his revenge, Caspian Wylder thought he would be ready. What no one could have expected, however, was that Edgar Allemand arrived looking the same as he did eighteen years prior when he first came to profess his desire for Mrs. Wylder all those years ago,” Vic continued.

“A vampire?!”

“A powerful vampire. One who set his sights on nineteen year old bachelor Caspian Wylder II, heir to the Wylder fortune and beloved figure in the town. The most precious thing in the world to Caspian Wylder.”

Rhys gasped. He was fully engrossed in the tale, in the history of the town he now called home, and the wide and weird world of, well, otherworldly beings he only just discovered the existence of. It was exciting, and for the first time in months he found himself invested in something other than his failing health.

“Did he get bit? Did Mr. Allemand turn him? What happened next?” Rhys asked.

Vic chuckled, “Yes, he did bite and turn him, but something much more catastrophic happened. Something that shook the very foundation of the Wylder family, something that even the well-prepared Caspian Wylder himself could never have foreseen.”

“What happened?”

“Caspian Wylder II fell in love.”

Rhys blinked a few times and titled his head to the side in question.

“Caspian Wylder II—who I’ll call CJ to help keep things simple—fell in love with Edgar Allemand, and the vampire returned those affections. Edgar’s desire for revenge dwindled and the secret love affair lasted for nearly half a year. They met in secret until Mr. Allemand's return to NYC was discovered by the long-thriving hierarchy of the city and he was ousted as a ‘demon’. This was before Bram Stoker brought Dracula to the public eye, so the world at large had no idea what he was. It… didn’t end well, and CJ found himself thrust into a harsh physical change, unable to walk in the sun, and alone.

“So, like any good father, Caspian Wylder did what he could to protect his family and enacted his contingency plan, albeit a bit adjusted. He packed up everything and moved out west, long before it was common to do so."

“And they came here.”

Vic extended his arms out and nodded, “Yessir, they came here. They didn't know where they were headed, but Caspian Wylder had an idea of what he desired and he would be damned if anything got in his way. On their journey, the Wylder family met a couple named Clementine and Julius Monroe. They were expecting their first child and lost their ranch to a wildfire. They had nowhere to go, so Caspian Wylder told them to pack up what they had and follow him into the unknown. The Wylders quickly realized when the full moon rolled around that the Monroes weren’t normal, either, and they discovered that the world of the supernatural went much, much deeper than they realized.”

“The Monroes were werewolves?”

“Bingo. The Wylder family understood that a safe haven for people of the night was something that was needed and, as a man of immense wealth and ingenuity, Caspian Wylder bought an unholy amount of acreage for the time and planted roots right here. That building,” Vic pointed to the funeral home though the tree line, “Was the first one built in Wylder Wood. And this one right here, this cabin, belonged to Caspian Wylder II as a place for him to grieve and rebuild his life in silence. This building is special.”

Rhys shifted a bit and yawned, “So, Caspian Wylder senior was also a mortician?”

“Not just a mortician, he was a reaper,” Vic explained. “That’s how he made his wealth, as scary as that is, but he was well versed in the business of Death, and the nearby towns close to here as they began to spring up once the migration out west started needed a place to bury their dead. The Wylder family has two purposes here; tend to the dead and build up the living in the Wood.

“Caspian Wylder also had a daughter, Cassiopea, who gave birth to Caspian Wylder III. Caspian the III fathered Caster Wylder, who then fathered the first set of twins, Cashel and Casey. Cashel was the father of Cassius and Casper, and Casey is the mother of Cassidy who doesn’t live in town at the moment. Sadly, the only living generation of the family is the sixth, meaning Cas and Cassidy are the only ones left. I know that’s a lot of names, and they aren't all that important but what is important to understand is how deep the roots run. The Wylder family is powerful, and though the energy is dwindling through time and generations, it exists. It keeps us safe. So long as a Wylder is in the Wood, we’re safe. Or, so the legend goes.”

Rhys contemplated the information he had been given for a moment before he turned his deep blue eyes to the vampire. Vic cocked an eyebrow up and waited for him to begin his inquiries. Rhys had so many questions to ask; safe from what? From who? What other creatures existed here? And, most importantly, what happened to Cassius Wylder?

“Rhys knows Cassidy, Vic!” Cane called from inside the cabin. “I ain’t eavesdroppin’ so don’t give me any guff ’bout it!”

Vic turned to the open door, “Really?” he called back.

“Yeah, she’s the one who told him 'bout the farm! She called t’give me the heads up that he was interested!”

Rhys smiled, “Yes, she was a regular of mine. We don't know each other well, I was friends with her husband, but she was the one who mentioned the land went up for sale.”

“Well, that makes a lot of sense,” Vic mused.

“So, why are you mayor?” Rhys inquired.

Vic sighed and set his hands together, “Cassius—we called him Cash but I’ll call him Cassius since that can get confusing—was the mayor before he passed. He lived here most of the time even though the mayor is supposed to live either at the funeral home or the mayoral office in town, but he got sick in the spring last year. Quickly, almost too quickly, but we… were together, and he asked me to keep an eye on the town, keep an eye on Cas, so they could run the funeral home and do what they wanted with their life. He was adamant that his family was able to do what they wanted and not be tied down to the legacy they were born into, and I wanted to honor that. Cassidy is out at college right now, which I’m sure you know, and it didn’t seem fair to make her come home. We didn’t want to force Cas to run things so… the duties fell to me.”

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you. That was a lot of info, sorry.”

“No, it’s fine! It’s interesting! I have so many questions—” Rhys’ excitement was interrupted by a yawn. He shivered and blinked his eyes slowly. His gaze turned to the sky when he heard thunder rumbling. He could feel the electricity in the air grow and his line of sight shifted to the woods, the darkness, and the unknowns. The stars above were blocked out by the heavy clouds, so it was darker than he wanted it to be.

He wanted Vic to stay, wanted to keep talking, but he couldn’t stop yawning.

Vic laughed, “Tomorrow. Let’s get you unpacked and get you to bed. I’ll take you out on the town and you can ask anything you want, okay?”

Rhys pouted a bit, “Fine, I should probably take my meds, anyway. I’m late.”

“Yes! Yes, you should!” Vic said, nearly aghast.

Rhys laughed and nodded. The vamp slid off of the railing and extended his hand for the newcomer to take. Rhys did so, and he felt his heart race as Vic’s slender fingers grabbed hold of his own.

Don’t fall for the vampire. Don’t fall for the vampire. C’mon, Rhys, do not fall for the vampire!

It was too late, he was falling for the vampire.