A Modern Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,44

was Jamie’s pretty lady. She was indeed pretty, and clearly captivated by one punk four-year-old witchling.

Aervyn peered up at Nat as they walked. “Can I play with him?”

Nat looked puzzled. “Play with who, sweetie?”

“The little boy who looks like me. When you and Uncle Jamie have a baby, can I play with him? He can share my fire truck, too. Mama says I’m getting pretty good at sharing.”

Nell had never wanted a camera more. Jamie looked like he’d just walked into a wall. Sweet! Aervyn had just exacted revenge for thirty years of little-brother mischief.

Lauren was clearly holding back laughter. One look at Nell’s face and she just doubled over, making odd choking sounds.

Nat never stopped looking at Aervyn. “I don’t know yet if that baby is meant to be. If he is, I would like nothing more than for you to be his friend.”

She took my troublemaker seriously, and she didn’t give him an easy answer. Nell was impressed. The pretty lady had some layers to her. Good. Any candidate member for a family of witches would need them.

Chapter 11

Nell led Aunt Jennie into her brother’s living room. Jamie and Nat sat on the couch, and Aervyn played with Jamie’s old Matchbox cars. They had opted to bring Lauren to Jamie’s house, since he had enough space and a lot fewer witchlings underfoot.

“Lauren’s been sleeping since we got in from the airport,” Nell said.

Jennie nodded and set down her camera bag. “I’m sure being in such a crowd for that long was hard for her.” She turned to Jamie. “Nell filled me in a bit about your Lauren. What can you tell me about her powers?”

Jamie shrugged. “Not sure I have a clear picture, honestly. In the airport today, when my barrier gizmo ran out of batteries, an awful lot of heads turned, so I’d say she can broadcast distress with some pretty serious volume. We haven’t spent much time on sending, though.

“As far as receiving, when I first tested her, it was obvious she’s highly sensitive. She picks up more sensory detail than anyone I’ve ever worked with, including Aervyn. Yesterday she picked up stuff from a barely-conceived fetus. That scared the crap out of me, so I packed her up and brought her here.”

“I’m not a souvenir T-shirt,” Lauren said from the doorway.

“Oh, good—you’re up.” Nell rose from Jamie’s huge and very ugly armchair. “Lauren, this is our Aunt Jennie. She’s a wonderful trainer, and the most powerful mind witch in our family. I want to give you two a chance to talk, so Nat, Jamie, Aervyn—out. Come help me in the kitchen or make yourselves scarce.”

I’ve got to learn that trick, thought Lauren as the room cleared in seconds. She looked over at the woman sitting on one end of a couch just as ugly as the armchair. So this was the witch who was supposed to train her. Hopefully she was good, and quick. Needing a four-year-old to ride to your rescue was embarrassing.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Come sit down, Lauren. I’ll tell you about my new grandbabies, because I just can’t help myself, and then you can tell me how you feel about all this.” Jennie gestured to the couch, and then sighed as a cup of tea appeared on the table beside her. “Bless Nell. If you sit down, I imagine a cup will arrive shortly for you, as well.”

Lauren blinked. Welcome to witch central. “You can teleport too?”

“Oh, no—I wish. That would have come in very handy over my lifetime. I’m a photographer, and all that equipment is heavy to lug around. How lovely to wave my magic wand and have it be where I need it.”

Lauren blinked again. “You use a magic wand?”

Jennie laughed and picked up her tea. “Not usually. A few crystals, nothing as fancy as a wand. Mind magics in general aren’t much helped by fancy tools.”

She gestured toward the tea that had appeared next to Lauren. “Teleporting, on the other hand, often benefits from a few bells and whistles. It requires large amounts of external power, and a wand can be useful to concentrate and focus those energies.”

Lauren frowned. It was hard to think straight with a fuzzy head. “Sorry, I just woke up. If you’re not teleporting the tea, how are you getting it here?”

“I imagine Jamie or Aervyn is sending it, since they’re the only two witches in California at the moment who could teleport something as large as a teacup without any preparation. Probably Aervyn—Jamie’s