Spell Cat by Tara Lain Page 0,16
a witch godfather, but yes. And the reason I’ve never just defied him, told him to shove it, and run off with James—you know, the human male?” Killian nodded. “The reason I haven’t done that is because I feel quite sure he would kill James, and while I’m a stronger witch than my father, I can’t bring the human dead back to life.” She petted Aloysius’s head. “There are ways to kill witches too, Killian. And we can’t protect everyone all the time.”
Gods, she wasn’t kidding when she said things were worse. The noose he called a life tightened around his throat. “By the Powers, Lavender, what the fuck are we going to do?”
“Honestly, I have no idea. And the wedding is in three weeks.”
“Have you told your human?”
Tears welled again. “I’ve told him my father has a husband picked out for me. He’s aghast, of course, to think such a thing could occur in this day and age. He wants me to run off with him, but he’s very poor, just a student, and he thinks he would be taking me from my comfortable life.”
“He doesn’t know you’re a witch?”
She laughed, though it sounded sad. “No, he doesn’t realize I can pretty much conjure us anything we need. Of course, I guess I’d have to do it before we have sex and I start losing my powers.” She pulled back a sob.
“I wish they’d tell us exactly how to identify depletion so we’d know what to expect instead of all their dire warnings.”
“Fat chance. They must figure if it doesn’t sound bad enough, we’ll try it just to see.” She made a hissing sound. “So they tell us oooooh, it’s scary and awful and nothing else, and they point to all the banished witches living like poor, powerless humans. What crap!”
He shook his head. “Of course, we might try it if we thought we wouldn’t destroy our race in the process.”
“That’s assuming my human ever stopped running from the idea of me being a witch long enough for us to have sex.”
Killian put his arm around her, and Aloysius rubbed against her hair. Gods, he knew so well what she meant. Imagine a physics professor accepting the idea of witches. Some joke! But if it was funny, how come he had tears in his eyes?
Chapter Six
“Excuse me, Dr. Barth.”
Killian stopped his briefcase-packing ritual. He didn’t feel much like dealing with students at the moment. Yes, but he’d been neglecting them and their questions and problems in favor of his own. He turned to see the handsome young man who’d become a favorite of his in the class. “Hi, Mr. Janx. What can I do for you?”
The boy looked at his sneakers for a minute. “Boy” wasn’t quite the appropriate description. Janx was likely twenty-one or twenty-two. Hell, Killian was only about five years older—in witch years, at least.
“Sir, I wondered if I might ever, uh, take you to coffee or something and ask you some questions.”
Ah, so maybe the psychic thing was bothering the kid. “Sure.” Not doing anything else exciting. “I was just thinking of getting some tea and a scone. You can join me if you’d like.”
“Wow.” The boy glanced at his watch. “Uh, yes, that would be great. Just need to make a quick phone call. Where shall I meet you?”
“I’m going to the coffee shop over on Prince Street.”
“Great. My favorite place. I’ll see you in about ten minutes, if that’s okay.”
“Fine.” Killian finished the packing, dipped a shoulder for Al to hop on, and headed out of the history building onto the crowded streets in the cool, fresh spring air. His eyes drifted toward the physics building. Don’t go there, Killian. Literally. The hint of green and growth reminded him of the wedding. He hated this whole thing so much. He was smart, he was powerful, and he was even educated. Why in the name of all the Powers could he not think of some way out while still solving the problem of his people? There had to be something he wasn’t seeing. Something he didn’t know.
Okay, he needed to work up some enthusiasm for the impending conversation. “What do you think Jimmy wants?” He shook his head. He was whispering to a cat.
A couple of blocks away, he looked around the small, funky coffee shop. Some faculty and several witches. No students. But Jimmy seemed to know where it was. Since the owners of the shop were supernatural, he didn’t have to conjure