a hole in the bricks. I blew a bubble up inside them first, but I don’t think it was nearly strong enough.”
Jamie laughed. Pissed-off witches were always unpredictable, whether they were eight or twenty-eight. “When you punched a hole, you short-circuited my reinforcement spell. That alone would have made your barriers a lot harder to hold. What happened?”
“It was like taking my finger out of the dyke. I picked up thoughts from Kate and Mitch.” She paused. “And the baby.”
Nat’s eyes widened. “The baby in Kate’s belly? Lauren, she’s just barely pregnant.”
“I know, but I’m pretty sure that’s what happened. Nat, it was so amazing to feel the baby, so peaceful. I could hear Kate’s heartbeat. Part of me just wanted to stay there.”
Well, hell. Jamie castigated himself for yet another big training mistake. He was racking them up on this visit. That was about to end.
“Lauren.” He waited until both women were looking at him. “You need to come to California with me, and you need to do it now. You need more training than I can give you. My Aunt Jennie is a strong mind witch, and she’ll work with you.”
Lauren shook her head in protest. “I can’t, Jamie. I have a job to do here. Maybe in the summer, when real estate slows down for a bit.”
Jamie shook his head. “Trainer veto. It’s not safe to wait. There are risks to being a mind witch. One of them is that you can get so connected to another mind that you lose your way and can’t get out. You came close enough to that today with the baby.”
Nat turned white. “Why didn’t you warn her?”
Because he’d been trying not to scare the crap out of her. “You have to be both a very strong empath and a decent channeler to fall into another mind that far. Lauren shouldn’t have been able to do that yet. When a trained witch connects that deeply, they use a monitor to pull them out if need be.”
Lauren started to shake her head again. He glared her down. “It’s time to stop taking chances. You’re a strong witch, Lauren. We need Aunt Jennie to test you more thoroughly and get you trained—at least enough that you don’t put yourself or anyone else at risk. It’s the first rule of witchcraft—do no harm.”
Lauren turned as white as Nat. “I could have hurt the baby?”
Congratulations, Jamie—now you’ve scared the crap out of everybody. “No, I don’t think so, but you could have hurt yourself. I’ve blown it twice now as your trainer, and I’m not going to do it again. I’ll book tickets for tomorrow.” He collapsed her barriers long enough that she would be hammered by his seriousness and Nat’s worry. Unfair, maybe, but he needed to get her to California. He needed help.
Lauren just nodded mutely.
Nat reached for her friend’s hand and met Jamie’s eyes. “Book three tickets.”
Chapter 10
“Lauren, wake up.” What was Nat doing in her room? Lauren squinted one eye open.
“Go away. Tired.”
“We catch a plane in a few hours. I came to help you pack. Sit up—I brought you coffee.”
Lauren wiggled out from under the covers and took the go cup. “Bless you. Now, what was all that?”
Nat grinned and started over. “We’re all flying to California at noon. Jamie booked the tickets, and he’ll pick us up in a couple hours. You need to pack and take a week off from work.”
Lauren snorted. “No problem. I’ll just wave my magic wand. Hey, wait—how are you going to leave for a week? What about your studio?”
“I talked to Todd and Carissa this morning. They’re going to split my teaching load between them until I get back.”
“I guess that means I have to go.”
Nat tilted her head. “No, you can’t blame that on me. Or even Jamie, although he pressured you very effectively.”
Lauren sighed. Sometimes the truth sucked. “I don’t want any of this, honestly. If I could float plates or something, that might be kind of cool. Having my head be oversensitive to the world just seems like a big liability.”
“For now.”
“It’s a crapload of work just to be able to walk down the street right now. It’s hard to see the upside in that.”
Nat shrugged. “Maybe it’s like beginner yoga. It will just have to hurt for a while.”
Lauren made a face. Trust Nat to know how to push her humor buttons. “Just what I need, more stuff to make me hurt. You do a fine job of that