She's a strong, competent woman. She won't want you here to see this.
It was a dismissal, and one far more polite than she would have given anyone who had reduced Devin to such a state. Lauren stood up, locking away her desperate need to do something. Beth was obviously in good hands.
She headed for the door and then stopped to make one last offer. Chicago was still her town too. I'll be downstairs in a coffee shop. If she has questions, or if you do, just yell. I'll keep a mindlink open.
Liri's eyebrows shot up. You can mind-listen through walls?
Yes. For a while.
For as long as it took. She closed the door very quietly behind her. Time to go find a steady supply of sugar.
-o0o-
It wasn't often that Lauren McCready-Sullivan got mad. Nell watched the steaming woman across the table from her and decided she was very glad she wasn't the target.
Unfortunately, there wasn't really a target. One big collective Witch Central screw-up.
Devin reached for his wife's hand and glared at his sister. "What happened?"
She wasn't entirely sure. "I think Lauren has a lot more of the story than I do." They'd watched as Lauren and Beth vanished, transported under sharp mental orders from their resident mind witch - and then thirty minutes of nothing.
So she'd called in the cavalry. Which had nearly charged, a dozen strong, to Chicago before a terse eight-word text had arrived. Snowing. Cell reception is crap. Need ice cream.
Devin had beamed in on his wife's signal with the force of an invading general, six pints in his arms. And found Lauren holed up in a coffee shop in her shorts, amusing the locals. The arrival of Devin, California beach knight in shining armor, hadn't toned down their amusement any.
Nell had arrived hot on his heels, carrying spoons. And didn't give a damn what the locals thought of her attire. Lauren's eyes had been furious - but her cheeks had been pasty white. Witch in serious need of sugar.
However, that need met, somebody needed to find out what the hell was going on, and Devin's brain wasn't going to function well again until his wife looked halfway human. Nell lined up a second pint of Phish Food for her sister-in-law - half of the first had already disappeared. "Talk. Where have you been?"
"Right here in Chicago," said Lauren wryly. "Freezing my butt off. Why do people live in places like this?"
Nell's lips quirked. It wasn't that long ago a certain mind witch had called this place home. "We could have ported you a jacket. How's Beth doing?"
"She's a mess." Lauren shrugged, a motion that still oozed weariness. "We transported someone without any warning. How would you feel?"
"She was so quiet." Nell tried to align the stillness of Beth's face with the panic of her mind. "Like a statue. And thinking about such odd things." Moira's pendant, and the number of spindles on the chair.
"She was trying to cope." Lauren's voice was still edgy, a witch far too close to magical exhaustion.
"We were trying to help her." Nell tried to tread carefully. "Surely transporting her again so quickly only made it worse?"
"I made a judgment call." Quiet words didn't cover the lingering anger. "I don't know if it was the right one, but we were panicking her at least as much as the transport spell did. Too much new and different."
Nell exchanged looks with Devin. That made no sense.
"She's got Asperger's. High-functioning autism." Lauren still spooned ice cream, but her eyes were steadier now. "Imagine you got yanked out of bed and dropped in a war zone in Afghanistan." She looked at the two of them and sighed. "And imagine you're not a crazy Sullivan."
Huh?
"Never mind. I'll try to explain later." Lauren frowned and moved her chair sideways two feet. "Dammit, I can't get a clear read."
Nell could feel Devin's radar going off beside her. "Wait. You're still monitoring her?"
"Not Beth. Liriel. Her partner. Coven mind witch." Spoonfuls of ice cream interspersed short sentences. "They wanted to be alone."
That clearly wasn't resting easy with Lauren - she was chewing through power at ridiculous rates