Null Witch: Secondhand Magic #1

by Lori Drake

  He nodded and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Yeah, I get it. That must’ve been surprising.”

  I couldn’t contain the short laugh that escaped me. “That’s putting it mildly. I nearly wet myself.”

  He laughed too. “That would have been awkward.”

  “You have a gift for understatement.” I chuckled, then breathed a quiet sigh. “Now what?”

  “Well, the vic may still be in danger, so we have to figure out how to keep him safe. I think that means keeping him close to you in case the perp tries again.”

  I grimaced, nodding at first but pausing after a moment. “Well, that’s not necessarily true…” Trailing off, I fished out my phone and started dialing.

  “What?” Escobar said. “What are you thinking?”

  I held up an index finger while I held the phone to my ear with my other hand.

  Hector answered on the first ring. “I’m getting a little tired of your games, Davenport.”

  “Hello to you, too. What are the odds of whoever did those wards for Christina doing some more for me?”

  He snorted. “We don’t owe you anything.”

  I rolled my eyes, glancing over at the ambulance. “True. However, you do need something from me and now I need something from you.”

  “You haven’t given me anything.”

  “I can set up a one-on-one.”

  “With Daniel?”

  “Yes.”

  He was quiet, thinking about this for a moment. “I’m going to need more information.”

  “There’s a witch in danger. I think whatever happened to Christina happened to him too. If you can help me set up a safe place for him to lay low while we figure this out, I’d really appreciate it.” I thought hard about how else I might be able to sweeten the deal, but I didn’t have anything else he wanted. I mean, I could have offered him information about my newfound ability, but I wanted to keep that close to the vest. Need-to-know basis.

  There was another pause from Hector, but eventually he said, “I’ll do it for this witch, not for you. Give me an hour.” He gave me an address, and I made frantic gestures at Escobar for a pen and something to write on. He produced both from his coat pocket, like a good Boy Scout.

  Afterward, I handed Escobar back his notepad and pen. “Okay, I called in a favor. Sort of. One of the locals is going to—”

  “Scare up someone to ward the hell out of something,” he finished for me, with a small smile. “I was listening.”

  Chapter 18

  It was almost midnight when I finally got home. The witch, Gabriel Sanchez, was safely ensconced within a heavily warded motel room on the SFPD’s dime after a brief hospital visit to ensure he was all right. Escobar’s boss had wanted to throw him in a cell or interrogation room, but I lobbied against it. He hadn’t done anything wrong, and he was even a registered practitioner. Sure, it would have been secure, once warded, but it didn’t seem right. To his credit, Escobar backed me up.

  I found out that Hector’s ward master was the older man I’d sort of met at Christina’s trailer. Apparently, he had a particular gift for wards, and he didn’t seem to mind using them for Gabriel, even if he made snide comments about me in Spanish to Hector while he did it.

  After they left, Escobar had turned to me and asked, “They have no idea you speak Spanish, do they?”

  I wasn’t sure how he knew either, but he was the professional investigator. For all I knew, he’d been putting together one of those big thick files on me, too.

  I didn’t see Dan anywhere outside when I pulled into the parking lot at my apartment complex, but that was probably a good thing. He’d be freezing the family jewels off by now unless he was sitting in a warm car, and I was beginning to suspect he didn’t deign to drive himself anywhere. My usual spot was occupied, which was annoying, but I did mention it was almost midnight. When you’re out late, you forfeit all parking lot territory when you live with others, social contract or not. I had to park around the back of the building and walk around to the front to get to the stairs since there wasn’t a pass-through. By the time I got there, I was yawning and seriously dragging ass, but I made it up the stairs, daydreaming about my warm bed and fluffy pillows. At least, I hoped it was warm. If the heat was out again, I was going to give the building manager a piece of my mind.

  When I opened the door, I was greeted by a rush of warm air and a surprising amount of light. Had I left the light on? No. Blinking in the sudden brightness, I quickly discovered why the light was on. Matt was there. No, not just Matt. Matt and Dan, sitting on the couch, munching popcorn and watching a movie. Barrington had assumed kitty meatloaf position on the back of the couch, ignoring them both. And me, for good measure.

  “Hey!” They spoke simultaneously and laughed over it. It seemed like they were having a good old time hanging out, which stung. Matt was my friend. I didn’t want my brother honing in on my territory. Plus, Dan and I needed to have a long talk. Even if, at that point, I was seriously tempted to put it off until morning.

  “Hey.” I closed the door and went through the process of shedding my outerwear. While I was at it, Matt must have remembered he was annoyed with me, because he got all frowny and muted the sound on the television.

  “I’ve been trying to reach you all day,” he said.

  I winced. I couldn’t even remember the last time I checked my phone, but I was pretty sure it was before dinner.

  “Shit, I’m sorry. Worst friend ever. Is everything okay?” I extracted my phone from my pocket to flip through the messages he’d left me.

  “I was wondering the same about you! Fortunately, your brother here assured me you were fine. I found him sitting on the steps like an orphan, practically blue in the face.”

  Dan made doe eyes at me, all pitiful and shit. My fingers itched to smack him.

  “Sorry,” I said, apologizing anyway. “I told him it was going to be a while. I had to wait for the ambulance and brief Escobar and…” I trailed off, looking between them. Both men were wide-eyed, but for different reasons. I’m sure Dan was surprised I was “going there” with Matt, while Matt was surprised at the mention of an ambulance. I dropped my face into my hands and rubbed my face. “I’m going to need some coffee.”

  Matt was more than willing to comply, and since he already had a pot brewed I ended up settled on the couch between him and Dan with my fingers curled around a steaming mug in record time. I filled Matt in on what had happened, then filled them both in on Gabriel being safely tucked away behind magic-stopping wards for the night.

  “Well, at least he’s safe,” Dan said. “For now. But he can’t spend the rest of his life in there. That would really suck.”

  “Yeah. Plus, once the perp figures out he can’t get to him, he’ll just move on to someone else.”

  Matt chuckled. “You sound like a cop already.”

  “I do?” Shaking my head, I leaned forward to set my coffee mug on the table, then shifted to face my brother. “What did you do?” Okay, so maybe it was an abrupt subject change, and my tone was a little accusatory, but by then it was after midnight and one way or another we had to have it out.

  “What do you mean ‘what did I do?’” he asked, going on the defensive. It was in the set of his eyes, his posture. Hell, he even cast a furtive glance at the door.

  “When we were standing there watching that witch burn out, you should have been able to stop him. Or at least try. But you didn’t. You stood there, looking panicked, and said you couldn’t. I think I know why, but I want to hear it from you.” I kept my gaze level, watching those eyes that were so much like mine. Matt’s hand touched my back. I leaned into it, letting a little of the tension that had risen bleed away, and took a slow breath. “Come on, Dan. Talk to me.”

  I think maybe it was calling him Dan that did it. Usually, I only refer to him as Daniel to his face, a subtle jab for all those years he spent calling me Null. It needled him. He didn’t want to be Daniel. It was too stuffy. He was Dan. Relaxed, cas
ual, irresponsible Dan. Danny in a pinch.

  He sighed, looking down at his lap. “I can’t do magic. I’m under a binding.”

  No surprises so far. “Uh-huh. Why?”

  “Because Mom is pissed at me. She basically disowned me,” he confessed, all but squirming in his seat.

  That was surprising. My brows went up, but I didn’t stop there. “Uh-huh. Why?” I was starting to sound like a broken record, but I was too tired to care.

  “I think what she means to say,” Matt said, “is that she’s sorry to hear that. That sucks.”

  I shot my best friend a glare over my shoulder. “I can speak for myself, thanks. But yeah, I guess it sucks. Not like I don’t know what it feels like.” The last was admitted grudgingly as I looked back over at Matt again. “But the question stands. What’d you do to piss her off?”

  Dan licked his lips, clearly anxious about the way the conversation was going. “Because a girl I was seeing got pregnant.”

  I narrowed my eyes, still suspicious there was more to it. “That’s it?”

  He sighed. “She’s a mundie.”

  Oh. Well, that would explain it. I was quiet for a long moment, mostly because I was trying to stem the tide of hysterical laughter that was bubbling its way up from my insides. I failed, but at least it came out as a snickering chuckle instead of huge guffaws.

  Dan looked offended enough as it was, shooting me a glare. “It’s not funny, Em! She cut me off! Told me to pack my shit and get out!”

  “It’s a little funny,” I protested, getting myself under control again only to break down in another fit of giggles.

  Dan got to his feet, stiffly. He still had his pride, and I felt a little bad for wounding it. A very little.

  “Come on, don’t be that way.” I caught his wrist and tugged gently. “Sit down, let’s talk.”

  He yanked his hand away but sat back down again, this time on the edge of the couch. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his legs and put his head in his hands.

  Matt nudged me. I both hated and loved that he challenged me to be a better person sometimes. Sighing, I put a hand on Dan’s back, giving it an awkward pat. I was a nurse. Comforting people was my job. Yet when it came to my family, I was way out of my element.

  “Okay, so… you knocked up a mundie. I can see why she’s pissed, why she kicked you out and cut off your allowance. But why did she bind you from doing magic?”

  His answer was quiet but audible in the otherwise quiet room. “She said if I liked mundies so much, I could find out what it was like to live like one.”

  He sounded so miserable, so alone that I couldn’t help but sympathize. I’d experienced that isolation, that separation, firsthand. I might not have been able to understand what it was like for someone that grew up with magic to have to live without it, but I knew what it was like to be an outsider in your own family. A pariah. In a way, he was like those burned-out witches except he could still sense the magic inside him. He just couldn’t do anything with it.

  “That does sound like her,” I said, with a grimace. I patted his back some more, then retracted my hand. “So, why’d you come to Santa Fe, of all places?”

  “Liam told me you were here. He’s been slipping me a little money under the table, but it’s not much. I thought maybe you’d understand. Maybe you’d know someone that could undo the binding spell. Maybe you could lend me a little scratch…”

  I laughed again, motioning at my humble living room. “Three bare walls and a secondhand sofa. Do I look like I’m rolling in dough? I work for a living. Besides, if you’ve got enough money to hang out at the casino I don’t think you’re hurting.”

  “I don’t have much left. I was trying to gamble my way into some more, but you pulled me away before I could get a good streak going. You don’t get an allowance?”

  I shrugged uncomfortably. “I don’t want their money. I haven’t accessed that account since I left.”

  “Christ, Em. In ten years? There has to be like half a million dollars just sitting there gathering interest.”

  There wasn’t. It couldn’t have been more than a quarter-million, but it was interesting to find out just how big a gap there was between my allowance and my siblings’. Not surprising, but interesting. At least he didn’t ask me to give it to him. Yet.

  “So, what are you going to do now?” I asked, changing the subject. I was afraid to look over at Matt, but I knew he was still sitting there being supportive, soaking up all the family drama. At least he hadn’t gone so far as to resume eating popcorn.

  “Try to get back into her good graces, I guess. Somehow. I thought maybe if I helped you figure out what was going on with the witches here that maybe she’d reconsider, maybe she’d let me at least have my magic back.”

  I smirked. “That’s not what I meant. I meant what are you going to do about the girl you got in the family way?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” He sat back again.

  I studied him for a long moment, feeling the corners of my mouth turn downward. I was about to protest that it did matter when he finally turned his head and looked over at me.

  “You know,” he said, a speculative gleam in his eyes. “I bet Mom’d be interested to find out that her little ugly duckling may be turning into a swan after all.”

  I narrowed my eyes, frowning again as I eyed him. “Don’t even.”

  He smiled, some of the life coming back into his features. “Don’t even what?”

  “I’m not going to pay you off to keep your mouth shut.”

  He widened his eyes, laying a hand over his heart. “Dear sister, you wound me. But now that you mention it, there is something you can do for me. Several somethings, actually. Let me help with the investigation, help me find someone to get this binding undone, and let me surf your couch until I get back on my feet.”

  Anger bubbled inside me. He had some nerve. There he sat, looking all pleased with himself while he held my feet to the fire. And somewhere back east was a young woman he’d abandoned, pregnant and alone.

  “My couch has a pull-out,” Matt offered.

  “No offense, man. You seem like a nice guy but I don’t know you. I’d rather stay here.”

  I drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly, getting to my feet. “Fine. I’ll agree to those terms, but not because you might rat me out. I’ll do it because you’re family. Maybe someday you’ll figure out what that means.” I turned and walked away, down the hallway to my bedroom where I closed the door with deliberate care not to slam it. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing how upset I was, and I wasn’t going to let him see me cry.

  I crawled into bed fully clothed and curled up around a pillow to do just that. I heard the door open and close quietly after a little while. The light flicked off, and I felt the bed shift as Matt climbed in behind me. He wrapped his arms around me and held me while I cried myself to sleep. One of these days we were going to have to set some firmer boundaries, but this wasn’t that day.

  Chapter 19

  The next morning, I woke to the smell of coffee and bacon. I felt like I’d run a marathon. Everything ached, but those fragrant aromas were enough to lure me out of bed. I shuffled down the hallway wearing yesterday’s clothes and found Matt in the kitchen making breakfast but my brother nowhere to be found. I didn’t miss him.

  “My people demand coffee,” I mumbled.

  He laughed and supplied me with a fresh mug. I leaned against the counter to sip while he served up a couple of plates. French toast, eggs and bacon. He’ll make someone a great wife one day.

  I wasn’t fully awake, but it wasn’t hard to notice that there were only two plates and nothing left over for a third. “Where’s Dan?” I asked, trailing him out of the kitchen to the table and settling in front of the plate he set down for me.

  “Not sure. He was gone when I got up.” He set his own plate down and slipped into a chair. Everything we could possibly want was already on the table. “I figured he didn’
t deserve breakfast anyway.”

  I snorted, nodding as I set my mug down on the table and reached for the syrup. “Preach it, sister.”

  The French toast got a light drizzle in the thick, sugary liquid, but after a moment I went ahead and gave the bottle an extra squeeze to squirt out about twice as much, indulging my morning petulance with extra calories.

  “How are you feeling?” Matt asked, buttering his French toast.

  “Like I want my normal boring life back.” I cut into my French toast and speared a bite on the tines of my fork.

  Chuckling, he shook his head. “Em, your life has never been normal or boring. I know you like to think it is, but it’s not.”

  “Well, it was normal-er and boring-ish,” I muttered in between bites of food. “This is delicious, thanks. But shouldn’t you be at work?”

  “It’s Sunday.”

  “Oh. Right.”

  “Anyway, I wanted to talk to you, so I’m glad Dan made himself scarce.”

  I smirked. “Yeah. Making himself scarce seems to be his thing, these days.”

  Matt said nothing to defend my brother. He didn’t really know him, after all, his only experience being limited to the previous night’s events.

  “Be that as it may…” He paused to bite into a piece of bacon that he’d dragged through the syrup on his plate. “You’ve been through a lot in the last few days. Particularly in the last twenty-four hours. It might be a good idea to take a few minutes to stop and assess.”

  “Ah, yes, the voice of reason.” I eyed him over the rim of my coffee mug as I took another sip. “I’m afraid if I do that I might end up in a quivering ball of uselessness.”

  “That’s what I’m here for.” He smiled gently.

  “To be a quivering ball of uselessness?”

  Chuckling, he shook his head. “To make sure you don’t stay one for too long. So, talk to me. How are you feeling? Really. Don’t be flippant.”