any idea how close a call that had been - and sought out the face that had chased her out into her dream. "How did you know?"
Lizard shrugged and crossed her arms. "You dream loud."
Elsie stared, shocked to her core by the invasion of privacy. And then shock receded as Lizard's words truly sunk in. "No." Elsie shook her head slowly. "I didn't dream loudly enough. My deepest hopes only got to come out and play at night when I wasn't really listening."
She closed her eyes, feeling the truth of what she was about to say next. "Thank you for listening when I couldn't."
"No big." Lizard looked insanely uncomfortable now.
Elsie grinned. It was about to get far, far worse. She walked slowly over to her bag, keeping one eye on her roommate. And pulled out a brochure.
She turned to the waiting crowd. "You're all invited to the Great WitchLight Dare, part two, tonight at the Starry Plough pub. 8 p.m."
She turned back to a totally confused Lizard. "This is my dare for you, Lizard Monroe. You have an open-mike slot in the pub's Poetry Slam at 8:15 p.m." Which had required a minor act of God and several witches. She handed her roommate the brochure. "I dare you to speak one of your poems."
Watching the blood drain from Lizard's face, Elsie was suddenly very glad to be a fire witch. It might take a ring of fire to get Lizard in the pub's door.
Chapter 24
Lauren walked in the door of the pub, filled to the rafters with noisy witches and assorted college students. She found Jennie's worried eyes. Sorry, I got nothing. No idea where she went.
Nobody else does, either.
Lauren sighed. It's not all that easy to vanish in Witch Central. You think she left Berkeley?
Jennie shook her head. Melvin says no, and he's never wrong about this kind of stuff.
Does Melvin know if she's coming back?
Jennie's mind was leaking concern. He's not sure.
Crap. Lauren knew why Elsie had given Lizard hours of notice on the dare. Most people couldn't recite a poem with no warning, although their blonde delinquent might be the exception. But it had given Lizard way too much time to think. And way too much time to run.
She turned to look for Elsie. If Lizard didn't put in an appearance, it was going to be hard on a lot of people, but none more so than her roommate. Her friend. The one who had stepped up to her own dare and served a wicked-hard one in return.
"Elsie's doing better than the rest of us," said Vero, handing Lauren a mug of beer. "She says Lizard will show."
"I hope that's not just wishful thinking." If wishes could get the job done, Lizard would have been back hours ago.
"Not anymore." Vero climbed up onto a stool. "Even back before WitchLight, Elsie was often an effective therapist, you know. Not always, but she had a reputation for being quite insightful."
That hadn't been Lauren's first impression of Elsie, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Vero had a big soft spot for their once-obsessive witch. "Well, she nailed this dare. Not what I expected from the woman who once had us all texting words to Lizard to improve her vocabulary."
Vero snorted into her beer. "We all take wrong turns sometimes, and Elsie's were often spectacularly wrong. She also had a reputation for that in her professional community, although I'd wager she's unaware of that."
Lauren raised an eyebrow. "You seem to have a lot of background on your WitchLight charges."
Vero's lips twitched. "Information is power. You know that as well as any witch in this pub."
She did. "I don't suppose those files of yours happen to say where Lizard goes to hide."
Vero shook her head, sipped her beer - and watched the door.
Lauren had just settled down into errant-witch watch when her pendant sent out a long, slow hum. The kind of sound you might expect from a rock exhaling in relief. She glued her eyes to the door, along with all the pendant wearers in the room.
And watched Lizard come stomping in. With an enormous, smiling black man at her side.
Who the hell is that? sent Jennie. Lauren could hear versions of the same question from two dozen minds.
No idea. But I intend to find out. She stretched a link toward Lizard and ran into a blank wall. Deciding she wasn't taking blank for an answer, Lauren turned her scan on the hulking man standing beside her assistant.