A knock on the in-law unit front door told me that Gavin arrived. I opened the door.

My brother stared at me for a moment, his motorcycle helmet dropped to the ground, then we both embraced in a hug. We didn’t say anything. We didn’t need to. We both knew we loved each other.

I stepped out of the doorway so that he could come in and see Dad.

Dad lay on a makeshift mattress on the floor. Sensei Hector’s studio apartment was complete with a small kitchen and dining area, a couch with a pull out bed where I slept, and a shower. Dad had the floor because he tended to thrash around a lot. If he slept on the bed he’d fall off repeatedly, and I didn’t want him to get more hurt than he already was. Plus he sporadically shifted back to Tain now and then. He groaned as if Gavin’s soft footsteps caused him pain. I knew they didn’t. He’d been like this nonstop since he transformed back to a human. Having to witness this myself was bad enough. Watching my brother’s reaction brought fresh tears to my eyes again.

Gavin leaned over Dad and ran a hand through his hair. “Hey Dad. It’s me Gavin.”

He stood over Dad for a while, silent. “Dad, if you can understand me… I don’t know what to say. We thought you were dead. I know you’re not doing good. I promise we’re going to do what we can to help you feel better.”

An orange tabby cat entered the doggy sized door flap. It was none other than my eternal servant, Rob Swellfellow the hobgoblin. “Hey Gavin,” he said, and shifted into his humanoid hob form.

“Hey Rob.” He shook Rob’s stubby hand. “Sean tells me you’ve been helping out a lot.”

Rob shrugged. Normally Rob would have some sarcastic retort, or some snide remark. But he chewed his lip instead, eyeing my dad.

Like me, Rob was in shock that Tain turned out to be my dad.

Tain was the family dog, the German shepherd that my mom adopted as a stray off the street. Tain had shown up on Mom’s doorstep one day. I’d never considered that the very dog my mom took in was somehow my shape-shifted father locked in a dog-state. Who knows how long he was like that, or why.

After I’d had time to think, I’d run over the timeline in my head. Without my dad’s body ever turning up, it made sense that my dad was a Celtic werewolf, and somehow got trapped in the body of a dog. It checked out with the vision that the Dearg Due showed me, the truth from Nehemiah’s mind.

I shook the thought of Nehemiah away. I only had wrath reserved for him. It was hard to think about him without wanting to break stuff.

“So what do we do for him?” asked Gavin.

I sighed. “Not much we can do. Rob and I have been taking turns feeding him. It’s hard to get the food down, so we’ve been forced to give him applesauce, yogurt, and smoothies.”

“Charice has been over helping a lot too,” said Rob.

“She didn’t... get weirded out?” asked Gavin.

“After everything she’s seen happen to me and herself…” I didn’t need to go on. Gavin got it.

My brother rested a fist on the wall. “But how do we fix him? Ease his pain?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’ve been trying to figure that out. But there’s only so much I can do. I figure I need to maintain the essentials. Keep him fed and bathed.”

“Do you have him in Depends?” asked Gavin.

I nodded. I loved my dad, so I didn’t care that I had to change a grown man’s diapers.

“Geez, Sean. This is rough.”

Tears formed in my eyes again. “I’m happy he’s alive. But I never thought it’d be like this.”

Gavin nodded. Neither of us wanted to see our father brought down to this level. It wasn’t right.

“Where’s your car? I didn’t see it out front.”

“The ‘Stang? Yeah, I don’t know.”

“What?”

There was so much to explain about Dad and Nehemiah and how it all went down, there was no way I’d remembered to include all of the details, like the fact that Dad’s muscle car that he handed down to me was missing somewhere in Oakland.

I took a few minutes to explain it then.

Gavin kept any comments to himself as I spoke.

“Rob?” Gavin said.

The hob snapped his head to my brother. “Yeah?”

“You think you can handle taking care of our pops while Sean and I get some fresh air?”

Rob nodded. “You two get out of here. Take your time.”

We left the in-law unit and walked around to the front of Sensei Hector’s house. He wasn’t home right then. In a way I was relieved. I knew he wanted to be as much help as possible, but if he saw Gavin we’d have to have another reunion. Right then I just wanted some bro time while we sorted through all this crap.

I motioned to the Toyota Corolla beater I’d got from the junkyard fight after Nehemiah and I duked it out. “This is my temporary ride.”

“You wanna drive? Or should I?” asked Gavin.

“Where are we heading?”

“Oakland. We’re getting your car back.”

“Right now? As much as I want to get my car back, it doesn’t feel right prioritizing this over helping dad.”

“What was the love of Dad’s life, Sean?”

“Mom.”

“Besides her.”

“Us kids.”

“And besides that?”

“The ‘Stang I guess.”

“Right. I’m betting if we get Dad behind the wheel of his old Mustang, it’ll jog his memory.”

“But Tain was in the ‘Stang all the time.”

“That was Dad in dog form. I’m telling you, if Dad feels the steering wheel under his fingers, smells the upholstery through human nostrils, it could bring him back.

“You’ve been doing everything you can. Plus Rob can take care of Dad for a few hours. I can’t bear to see him like this. I want to help him, but I can’t stand around and do nothing. He’s already been like this for too long. So we’re going to get the ‘Stang back and then figure it out from there.”

My hands balled into fists. “There’s a good chance my car got snatched up by the Dearg Due’s henchmen, and most likely someone from Raza del Norte. I told you most of them got reborn as vampires, right?”

Gavin nodded. “I’m counting on them having it. From what you told me, the Dearg Due orchestrated our dad’s demise. It’s time we repaid her. I could stand to get a little rage out.”

I gnashed my teeth and inhaled through my nostrils a long deep breath. “Alright. Let me suit up.”