Hot Magic (13 page)

Julie stared at her mother, but nodded. “I have to agree, Tash. Something is going on here that we don’t understand. I think it might be a good idea if you move back home for a while.”

Tasha frowned. “I can’t do that. I have classes, a roommate, a pre-paid dining plan.” Her voice grew softer. “A life.”

“Just until we know there’s no danger.” Julie paused. “Marguerite, Luc’s sister, attacked Linda. She’s playing for real.”

Tasha looked at Linda, her face pale. “Are you okay?”

Linda nodded her head briskly. “The b–witch caught me by surprise, otherwise I would have taken her.” She flexed her arms and they all watched her muscles bulge.

“Mom,” Tasha turned back to Julie, who was rubbing her own less-than-ripped biceps. “I didn’t know he threatened you. I never would have gone with him.”

Julie pushed away from the table and walked over to Tasha. She put an arm around her shoulders, and Tash leaned into her. “He didn’t threaten, but he was definitely playing wingman to his sister. I think his sister is the one we have to worry about.”

“And you think I’m in danger?”

“She might hurt you to get to me, Tash.” Julie ran a hand down her daughter’s soft hair. Fire hair, she’d always called it.

Tash pulled away and looked at Julie. Her lips set in a straight line that Julie knew meant she was thinking things through. “Can’t you renounce your powers so this will all go away?”

Julie looked at Jean to see if that was an option. Jean gave a negative shake of her head.
 

“Apparently not.”

 
Tash nodded and straightened her shoulders. “Okay. I’d worry about you all the time if I were at the dorm, anyway. But I still need to go to classes and the library.”

“Linda will go with you.” Thank goodness Tash wasn’t going to fight her on this.
 

Linda shook her head. “No way. I’m stuck to you like glue, Dancer.”

Jean spoke up. “I’ll go with her. I can call a couple of Gigis if we decide we need more protection. They can be here in a flash.”

“The Gay Grays are going to be my protection?” Tash rubbed her head as if she suddenly had a headache.

Julie knew exactly how her daughter felt. She headed for the cabinet next to the sink. “Ibuprofin, anyone?”

T
hey’d made a quick trip to Tash’s dorm so she could pick up clothes and books and tell her roommate she’d be gone for a few days. Tash was now upstairs in her room, studying. Julie sat, legs curled, on the soft, brown couch. Her mother sat in the matching chair, a laptop on her knees, probably online with the Gigis. Linda perched across from her on a wooden chair she’d pulled in from the kitchen. It felt strange to have so many people in the house. She’d been alone since Tash went to school. Which, okay, had only been a month, but it felt like longer.

Linda stared at her, unmoving.

She’d never hosted a Penumbrae Guardian before and wasn’t sure whether she was supposed to ignore her or entertain her. But, since ignoring her was impossible, her decision was made. “Would you like a magazine, or should I turn on the television?”

“American TV is crap.”

Brief and to the point. “Um, I could go through my movie collection. We could watch
Pride and Prejudice
or
Sense and Sensibility
.”

Linda perked up. “Do you have any
Monty Python
?”

“No.”

She slouched back.

They stared at each other in silence until Julie started to feel prickly. She reached for the remote. There must be a repeat of
Fawlty Towers
on one of her two hundred odd channels.

The house phone rang at the same time that a knock sounded on the door. Julie jumped up, glad for something to do. She hurried to the kitchen, grabbed the phone and clicked it on as she walked back toward the front door, still feeling the weight of Linda’s gaze.

“Hello.”

“Don’t answer your front door!” Dorie’s breathless voice squeaked over the line.

Julie froze, hand on the brass doorknob. “Dorie? What are you talking about?” Another knock sounded—a soft tap, as if the person on the other side sensed she was near and just needed to nudge her to open the door.

“Dorie, who’s at the door?” Julie whispered. Linda sat up straighter, eyes narrowing on Julie. “Marguerite, Harrison, Vampires, Werewolves? Talk!” Julie hissed into the suddenly silent phone.

“Oops. Sorry, Dylan just put gum in Danny’s hair. Why don’t they just make peanut butter shampoo for kids? I don’t know how many times—”

“Doreen! The door?”

“Oh. It’s Super-Slut Cindy. And unless you want to go to her Halloween party and watch her prance around in a skin-tight Catwoman costume, don’t answer the door.”

“Are you going?” Cindy was ringing the bell now.

“Duh. Jim answered the door. We’re going, but you still have time to be saved.”

Dorie was diabolically clever. The adult party would be held after the kids finished trick-or-treating. If Julie didn’t answer the door, she’d be available to babysit that night for the devilish duo. And they would be a devilish duo—even without the cute little pointy-tail costumes Dorie was already sewing. Dylan and Daniel on a candy high were not a pretty sight.

Julie would take a bullet for Dorie. But she would not babysit for her on Halloween night. She opened the door.

All five feet eight inches, one hundred and twenty curvaceous pounds of Cindy Lui almost fell into the living room. Cindy had an African-American mother, a Chinese father, and she was the most stunning woman Julie had ever seen. To top it off, she taught Biology at the University of Michigan and would probably win a Nobel Prize someday. She wasn’t a slut—Dorie just called her that because Jim couldn’t say a straight sentence whenever Cindy looked at him. If it wouldn’t mean giving up her daughter, Julie would want to be Cindy Lui.

“Julie! I thought you were home.” Cindy handed her a sealed envelope with little ghost and witch stickers on it. “An invitation to my annual Halloween Party. It’s the night of a blue moon this year, so the goblins and ghosts will be out in full force.” She smiled and glanced around the room, her eyes widening as she got a look at Linda. She took a step backward. “I’m getting the invitations out early so my party gets on your calendar first.”

“Thanks, Cindy. I’ll be there.”

Cindy dragged her gaze away from Linda. “You wouldn’t happen to know if Harrison is out of town? I’ve knocked on his door a couple of times, but haven’t gotten an answer.” A long-fingered hand tucked a strand of her short, wavy hair behind her ear. “I’d hate for him to miss the party.”

“I don’t know where he is.”

“Isn’t he the most amazing man? I had him to dinner the night after he moved in.” She lowered a conspiratorial eyelid at Julie. “As his landlord, to welcome him to the neighborhood.”

“I’m sure he appreciated it.” The air seemed blocked in Julie’s lungs. She concentrated on taking deep, even breaths.

“Oh, he did. Yes, I’d say he definitely appreciated it.” Cindy looked closer at Julie. “I’m not stepping on any toes, am I?”

“No. No. My toes are just fine,” Julie wheezed. It was her breathing she was having trouble with. Suddenly, Linda stood behind her.

“You’re sucking in air like you just choked on a pile of buffalo chips. What’s the matter with you?” Linda plucked the extra invitation out of Cindy’s hand. “Shoo. We’ll give this to Harrison.”

Cindy tilted her head to look up at Linda, something she probably rarely had to do with another woman. “I can—”

Linda pushed her out the door. “Get going while you still can.” She didn’t give Cindy a chance to reply before she slammed the door shut.

Immediately, Julie could breathe easier. She put her hands on her knees and pulled in a deep whiff of Cindy’s tantalizing perfume. “That woman is such a slut.”

Her mother clicked shut her computer and looked up. “You wouldn’t think that someone who came into her power at well past her prime would have such problems controlling it.”

“I am not well past my prime! Was that my power? You told me to ignore my power. How can I ignore suffocation?” Julie wanted to yell at someone and Cindy wasn’t handy.

Jean sighed. “I was wrong. You need training. You shouldn’t have had difficulty breathing. I think that was a panic attack. Probably triggered by the fact you wanted to blast Harrison’s girlfriend but wouldn’t let yourself.”

“She’s not Harrison’s girlfriend! I do not have panic attacks!”

“You’re not in denial either.” Jean shook her head.

Harry and Cindy were not a couple. One dinner did not make a relationship. Then again, what did make a relationship? She hadn’t seen all that much of Harry herself, but there was certainly something between them. And that something made her want to be as tall and pretty as Cindy Lui.
 

Maybe all this emotion was hormonal. Maybe she was starting menopause. Maybe she’d been around her mother for too long. “I’m going to sit on the back deck.” When Linda made as if to come along, Julie shook her head. “Alone.”

Surprisingly, Linda just shrugged and went back to her chair.

Julie took a sweater off the hook by the back door and walked out onto the deck. The early October evening held just a hint of the cooler weather soon to come. She shrugged into her sweater, more for comfort than for warmth, and sat down on a white plastic chair.

She wasn’t surprised when a figure stepped through the bushes that separated her yard from Harry’s. His white shirt glowed in the light from her kitchen window.
 

“You’re back.”

“London is five hours ahead of Michigan time. The Council meeting lasted until midnight.”

Julie did the math while he walked up the deck steps. He leaned against the rail, an arm length from her. “That was an hour ago. I take it you didn’t take a commercial flight here.”

“Right.”

“How did your meeting go?”

“The Council wants Marguerite. They’re angry I didn’t bring her in.”

“Why didn’t you? You said she placed a curse on you. Can she control you?”

“No. Not with one tie. Tying her consciousness to mine takes an enormous amount of power and can only be done in two steps. Once the second tie is placed, however, she may be able to influence my actions.”

“Why didn’t you bring her in?”

“I’m judge, not police. That isn’t my duty.”

“Couldn’t you perform a citizen’s arrest?” The guy was way too rule-rigid.

“The Dancers and Walkers must police their own. Without that check in place, the Penumbrae would become nothing more than dictators.”

Julie stretched out her legs, propping them on the rail of the deck. “So this Triad you keep talking about, this society of Dancers, Walkers and Penumbrae, they have to answer to both Triad law and human law?”

“Yes. Before the Rift, Triad neighborhoods existed in most large cities or towns. Regional heads, called Lions, settled disputes and kept order. After the Rift, the Triad mission was shattered, along with our sense of community. I’ve been trying to build trust and reinstate some of the old structure since I became Balance. You’re aware of the growing violence both here and abroad?”
 

“Yes. I worry about Tasha and her friends.”

Harry nodded. “Demons are becoming bolder. The strength of the Triad, our Threes, used to keep them in Gehenna. I need to convince our people to work together again, and I need to do it quickly. If demons grab a foothold on earth, life as we know it will be altered forever.”

“Demons?” The thought scared the hell—ha-ha—out of her. “Why is saving the world your responsibility, Harry?”
 

“I could say that someone has to do it.”

“Don’t.”

He lips curved in a small smile. “I trained my whole life for this responsibility. But more than that, the Triad is my family. I want our people united, strong and healthy. I want us to do the work we were born to do.”

“No wonder you’re so upset about Marguerite placing this curse on you. If you don’t have your wits about you, the repercussions could be major.”

“She will not place the second tie. The Council will block it.”

“When is the next new moon?”

“October sixteenth. A week and a half from now.”

“What if the Council thing doesn’t work? What happens if she succeeds?”

“She won’t.”

“But if she did? What happens?”

Harry shifted and looked out into the cedar trees edging one side of her yard. “She will walk through my thoughts. Know where I am, hear what I hear. Talk with me at will.”

Julie’s feet thumped back on the deck, and she reached out and put a hand on his arm. “That’s the ultimate in lack of privacy.”

He looked down at her hand. He gently removed it. “This thing would be a rape of my mind. I think it would drive me insane.”

Julie suddenly wished she could just sleep with him, break the spell and make it all go away. But he’d made it clear that wasn’t an option anymore.
 

“Harrison, why are you here?” Perhaps the better question was why she wanted him to stay.