by Lauren Hodge
ask her what to do, but she has enough on her plate. It probably wouldn’t go well; she’s not big on dating or romance.
Thomas pulls the Land Rover out from the garage, then hops out and opens the front passenger door. Cora bolts for the invitation and gets shotgun. Maybe I can sit next to him during the movie.
As everyone else files into the backseat, Thomas won’t take his eyes off me. He can’t possibly know I like him; I’ve barely said hello.
Aggie goes ahead of me. That puts her in the middle of the backseat, while Ruben goes around to the other side and sits behind the driver’s seat. That leaves me sitting right behind Cora. Aggie just wants to be able to reach the radio, but at least I can still watch Thomas without anyone noticing.
Thomas closes my door for me. Does he know how much women dig this kind of treatment? Especially when it’s obvious this is just how he is. We’re staying with him. He doesn’t need to put on a show.
This neighborhood is so exclusive it takes us over six hundred meters till we get to an actual public road. Thomas turns left onto Remington Drive. I pay attention to road signs so if I ever stekie here, I’ll have a better idea of how to get around.
Thomas puts on some music. I don’t know who the composer is, but I’m sure they’re dead now. The guys are all so formal. Thomas more than Ruben. Sometimes I half-expect Alex to say something like, “Excuse me, have you seen my monocle?”
Cora asks, “So, what movie are we gonna see? How about a retarded comedy?”
Ruben says, “There is no way I’m seeing a chick flick.”
Cora replies, “I’d hardly call the Hangover trilogy a chick flick.”
Aggie says, “Those movies should have been rated PG-13: pretty good for thirteen-year-old humor. Those guys are one click beneath Adam Sandler bathroom humor. Who cares about a bunch of guys wishing they were still twenty-something frat boys? What about a literary adaptation? Something like The Help.”
Cringing at both of those options, I take comfort in the fact that I can just stekie into another theater if that’s what is chosen. No one will notice a ghost sitting in the back or me sleeping through The Help or The Hangover. There’s no amount of sitting next to Thomas that’ll make me want to watch either of those.
I suggest, “What about a horror flick? There’s always some sort of possession or ghost movie out.”
Ruben laughs out loud. “Ann, we are a horror movie.”
Now I feel stupid.
Thomas says, “I agree with Ann, I’d like a horror movie.”
I see Thomas won’t make my infatuation with him any easier this evening. Why can’t he be mean like Alex was to Tara? It’d make my life so much easier.
Cora says, “Remember when Tara and I went all MST3K on The Fog?”
Aggie says, “You mean The Flop?”
Thomas turns right onto Algonquin Road, then suggests, “Why don’t we look over the showtime kiosk and see what’s playing?”
Cora nods eagerly. “We don’t all have to see the same movie.”
Thomas replies, “It’ll be easier for me and Ruben to suppress your appetite if we’re closer in proximity than spread out over the multiplex.”
Sweet! Thomas just gave me an excuse to be around him, and I can make it look like I’m just worried I’ll kill a tasty human.
Cora chokes and laughs really hard. I ask, “What?”
Through her laughs, she replies, “I was…just imagining Thomas’s face…on a box of Dexatrim or a…Weight Watchers shake.”
Without missing a beat, Thomas says in a low narrator voice, “Give us a week, we’ll take off the weight.”
I, along with everyone else in the car, laugh so hard I’m wiping tears from my eyes.
After a few more minutes, Ruben looks over Thomas’s shoulder. “Now that we’re over five miles away from the house, I want to ask you ladies about the whole witch thing.”
I ask, “Why would you have to wait till we’re out of Tara’s range?”
Thomas replies, “Because it also means we’re out of Alex’s range, and he wanted us to make you feel welcome. That included not prying into your past.”
I say, “But we don’t mind answering questions.”
Thomas shrugs. “Given our new living arrangement, Alex didn’t want you to feel we tolerate you for your abilities. He’s sensitive about that and it’s a way of being polite.”
When he glances back at me I can feel my face getting hot. I wonder if he can tell.
Ruben cuts in, “But I like you guys, and it’s not my way of being polite, so I have questions.”
Thomas interrupts, “You don’t have a way of being polite, Ruben.”
Aggie answers him quickly. “What do you want to know?”
“How do vampires not know about witches? If the Noricum knew, then Alex would know, but he was just as surprised as I was.”
She says, “Vampires are too powerful for banishments. If witches don’t hunt or protect your kind, you don’t know about us. We’re good at keeping secrets.”
“When you say ‘we,’ you mean witches, right? Is it something you’re born into? Is there a school like in Harry Potter?”
Cora waves her arm. “Wingardium leviosa!” A bush we’re driving past flies across the road in front of the car, disappearing into the trees lining the road.
Aggie rolls her eyes. “Pay no attention to the embarrassment in the front seat. Yes, we’re born into it, and to my knowledge, there’s not an academy for it. Witches are homeschooled.”
Ruben turns a little more toward Aggie, and his face looks like Cora’s when she asks Alex about Queen Elizabeth.
“So what do you, err, banish?”
“Really, anything supernatural that causes humans problems. Demons, plane shifters, berserkers, gamayuns, kishis, warlocks, sorcerers… You know, stuff like that.”
Aggie is smiling a lot, around Ruben in particular. Does he even notice?
I think Ruben looks cute asking questions that would normally put you in a loony bin. But he’s a vampire, so he doesn’t get to play the “you’re insane” card like human men could do if we ever told them about witches.
Aaaand now she’s discreetly stroking his arm.
Oh. My. Gosh… She really likes him!
I didn’t think Aggie would ever like anyone. She never went out on more than one date with a guy, always too deep in her schoolwork to notice men around her. And she doesn’t have to hide the fact that she was a witch, because he’s a vampire. Wait, that means I can do the same with Thomas. I’ve wanted that ever since I was given my power back. Maybe, just maybe, I could go on a date with a man and not feel like I have to hide everything about me.
Ruben’s mouth hangs open. Thomas watches him through the mirror.
Aggie continues, “We banished a grendle right before Tara was turned and a sorcerer’s students right after.”
Cora grumbles, “The sorcerer himself got away through a portal puddle.”
Ruben finally snaps out of it. “Portal puddle? What else? Are faeries real?”
Aggie says, “Yes, but a weaker, newer coven of witches would protect them if needed. We get the harder banishments.”
“What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever banished?”
Aggie racks her brain. “It’s a toss-up between seven harpies at the same time and the power-stealing demons.”
Cora says, “Tara really saved us on that last one.”
Thomas hits the gas and merges onto Interstate 90. “Aggie, am I clear to speed? Will we get pulled over?”
Aggie takes a deep breath in and closes her eyes. “You’re clear all the way into the city.”
Thomas really floors the pedal. Looks like this drive won’t take an hour after all. “How did Tara really save you with the…power-stealing demons?”
I know how this story goes. I thought for sure when they got both mine and Cora’s powers we were gonna die.
Cora says, “It was only three of them, but they managed to pull my telekinesis out of me.
They got Ann too. Tara mimicked their abilities and not only pulled our powers back out of them, but pulled all of theirs too.”
Ruben’s mouth hangs open. “So, are you guys just really cool or are all witches like you?”
Cora offers Thomas a high-five, which he takes. “We’re so cool the Oracles named us the Taeleoni and told the Twelve to instate and train us as full-ranking member witches, even though we’re only half-bloods.”
Ruben asks, “When you say ‘training’—what exactly did you learn?”
“How to focus our blood powers, write spells, make elixirs, and do different types of banishments. Elemental balance. Tara knows Judo. I’m the best at elixirs.” Cora blows on her nails and rubs them on her boob.
“When you say banishment, what does that mean?” Ruben asks. “You kill weird things?”
Aggie takes one of his hands in each of hers. “Okay, think of this hand”—she holds one up—“as your soul, and this hand”—she holds up the other—“as your body.”
“Ooookay.”
“Now, if I cut one hand off, you can still do your normal daily tasks, but it takes longer and you have to find different ways to do it. Right?”
He nods. I see Thomas glance back in the rearview mirror and imagine myself holding his hand the way Aggie is holding Ruben’s.
Aggie continues, “So if I don’t want you to be able to function at all, I’d cut off both your hands, but souls are tricky things. They’re sentient energy that can reincarnate when released from mortal bodies or possess other living things.”
“So how do you kill both?”
She puts his hands together. “That’s what a banishment is. We use specialized elixirs and elemental casting power to arrest the