A Little Night Magic Page 0,20

a magical DNA test. It came out positive, and unblocked your power."

"I don't have any power," I said.

"I know an aluminum dog might beg to differ with you there."

"Yeah, and speaking of that ... why didn't you just come out in the alley instead of throwing things? I was totally freaked out."

"Oh, I couldn't risk that man seeing me with you, baby." She leaned forward. "He's trying to kill me. Who knows what he'd do to you if he knew we were friends?"

"Kill you? Why?"

"Well, for the same reason anyone wants to kill anyone else," Davina said simply. "He's crazy."

"Who the hell is he?"

She took another sip, a grim look on her face. "His name is Cain. Avoid him. He's bad news." Her expression brightened. "I want to talk about you. What other magic have you done? Anything fun?"

I stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about, then gave up.

"Yeah. Okay. That's it." I got up and pushed through the kitchen door, walking into the living room, and hunting for my cordless phone. I never put it back on the stupid cradle, and I can never find it when I need it.

I could hear Davina's footsteps coming up behind me. "What's the matter, baby?"

"The matter? I don't know. Trash can lids turning into dogs. Strange men trying to kill you. Either I'm nuts, or you're nuts. Likely, we're both nuts. Maybe you're not even real. Either way, doesn't matter. I need to call someone. Like ... I don't know. A doctor? Maybe?"

"You don't need a doctor."

I started pawing through my couch cushions, feeling underneath them for the phone. Davina's hand clamped down on my arm, pulling me back. I stared at her dark fingers over my skin. I could feel them there. I looked at her.

"I can feel you."

I reached out and poked her cheek with one finger, and she swatted my hand away.

"I'm real," she said.

I pulled out of her grip. "Look, go away. I know you're not real. You're a hallucination, and the trash-can-lid dog was a hallucination, and that guy probably was, too. I'm going to call a doctor, and he's going to give me drugs that make the whole bunch of you go away."

Davina stared at me, and took a step back. Good. I went back into the couch cushions and my hands hit something hard and plastic. I pulled it out: the phone. I held it out to her like a weapon, hit the call button. The numbers on the dial pad lit up orange, and I poised my fingers over it to dial ...

... but I didn't have a number to call. I needed the Yellow Pages. Except - crap - it was after five. I wouldn't be able to make an appointment. Did this qualify as an emergency? Should I call 911?

I looked at Davina. She was either real, and had broken into my house, or she wasn't, and I was hallucinating. Both possibilities counted as emergencies in my book.

"Nine-one-one it is," I said, and dialed the 9, but then Davina said, "Don't do that," and touched my arm and I wigged out and tossed the phone up into the air. My hands tingled with extreme heat, and I felt dizzy and disoriented.

"Agh!" I yelled. "Don't do that. You're freaking me out!"

"Calm down, Olivia," she said.

"No. I need my phone. I need to call nine-one-one." I glanced around the floor, looking for where the phone had landed, but I didn't see it anywhere. I was just registering that I couldn't recall hearing it fall to the ground when something flew past my head. I swatted at it and looked up to see a small black body floating above my head with bony wings, wisps of electric yellow light circling around it as it flew ...

"Bat!" I screamed, pointing, but Davina just stared, watching it fly around. I stared, too, looking closer as it flew in circles overhead. It had bat wings, and a bat body, but on closer inspection, it seemed to be made of some kind of hard plastic.

And there were glowing orange numbers on its chest.

Davina just watched it, smiling as her eyes followed its circular arcs around the room, banging into walls, zooming back, and trying again.

"Oh, Jesus!" I yelled as the thing swooped down at me. I grabbed Davina and used her as a human shield, hiding behind her. "Oh, god, I hate bats!"

Davina angled around and looked at me,