Mind Games

by Christine Amsden

  Even though my parents had dealings with the Blairs, their presence at a private family outing baffled me. My parents made frequent campaign contributions that they traded for favors, but they typically mingled at campaign fund raisers or town hall meetings, not at family picnics.

  Among other things, the Blairs weren’t “out” as sorcerers. They had done a better job than any other family I knew at hiding their magical identity, possibly because mind magic allowed them to make slight alterations of memory to anyone who found out. My immediate family knew, but only because it suited the Blairs for us to know and because we held the information as a closely guarded secret.

  The extended family, on the other hand, did not know. At least, I didn’t think they knew. Almost all had magical talent in abundance, but they lived quieter, subtler lives than my parents, and did not have access to the sort of money we had. Dad had never told me how he’d learned alchemy, but the knowledge hadn’t come from his family and he didn’t share it with them, even if he did share some of the monetary results. I sometimes got the impression that Dad’s brother, John, resented him for it. John flatly refused to take money from Dad, but they always got along well enough.

  The next few minutes were full of hugs and greetings, during which time Adam sneaked at least two cookies. Since he passed one to me I decided not to rat him out.

  “Cassandra,” my father said, leading me away from the family and steering me toward our unusual guests. “You remember James Blair, his wife, Caroline, his mother, Grace, and his sons, Matthew and Robert?”

  I nodded to each in turn, my gaze lingering on Matthew as I remembered the assistance he’d provided a few weeks earlier. I have to admit that I had never really thought of him as an individual until that day, only a part of the nebulous whole that was the Blair family. Everything I knew about him was a product of what I knew about them – that they were mind mages, secretive, and political.

  Looking at him now with fresh eyes, I wondered what else lay beneath the mysterious surface. He looked a lot like his father, not all that tall but powerfully built, with sandy hair and green-gray eyes. His face wasn’t precisely handsome, but it had a certain charm that could become more appealing with time. He smiled at me, the expression transforming his face, and I suddenly wondered if he had caught me staring.

  Turning my head quickly away I acknowledged my father’s earlier question with a slight nod, but refrained from asking the question burning through my mind: Why are they here?

  “I hope you don’t mind the intrusion,” Matthew said as if he could read my mind. “We heard some rumors yesterday that troubled us, and we wanted to talk to your father about them. Didn’t realize you had a get-together today.”

  “I told you it was no problem,” Dad insisted, though his agitated tone belied the words. “There’s always too much food anyway. I invited them to join us.”

  “What kind of rumors?” I asked.

  The Blairs hesitated, looking around at the gathered horde. They were probably making sure no one could overhear. With all the noise I didn’t think they needed to worry. After a minute, James nodded, as if satisfied.

  “A guy named Alexander DuPris has men in the area,” Dad said, picking up the thread of the conversation. “He’s trying to round up all the practitioners for a magical conclave in two weeks.”

  I’d heard that name before in connection with a nationwide magical unification effort. Evan had been more than a little interested in the idea, which, just at that moment didn’t endear me to it.

  “This guy’s dangerous,” James said. “He’s got alliances with local councils in cities across the country and I’m told he has one of the strongest gifts of charisma anyone’s ever seen.”

  “So does my six-year-old,” my father said dismissively. “I’ve learned to say no, and I bet you could fend it off even better.”

  James shook his head. “Don’t underestimate this guy. He’s left the rural areas alone so far, but we’re just about all that’s left now. He even got Little Rock on board, and from what I’m told, they went to him.”

  Shock lit up Dad’s face. “Little Rock? I’ve never run into a bunch of practitioners who hate outsiders more.”

  “Exactly.”

  “When did this happen?”

  “Little Rock? Last month. Mostly, he’s gotten the bigger cities, but the idea is spreading whether or not we pay attention to it.”

  Dad shook his head. “He’ll have a lot more trouble here.”

  “Wait a second,” I said. “What is he doing, exactly?”

  The four men stared at me as if I’d intruded into some kind of secret all-male society. Dad had never been comfortable talking to me about magical politics. Since he didn’t have a problem discussing them with Nicolas, I couldn’t be sure if his attitude was sexist or magically elitist. I suspected the latter.

  Matthew finally answered my question. “He seems to be trying to create a shadow government within the United States to govern magic users. At the moment, he has a loose alliance of local councils, but he wants to create a national backbone that includes an executive, legislative, and judicial branch.”

  It didn’t sound all that terrible to me but as a semi-outsider, I didn’t feel comfortable saying what I really thought: That these men simply wanted to continue being able to do anything they wanted without someone breathing down their necks or telling them what to do. James and my father were proud men who had created their own personal codes of ethics that ruled their lives. In their cases I thought it basically worked, but not all men subscribed to a code of ethics. I didn’t see the harm in everyone getting together and setting some standards… then enforcing them.

  “There isn’t any harm in making rules and enforcing them,” Matthew went on, once again leaving me with the odd feeling that he could read my mind. “We just think those rules need to be established at a local level. The first Blairs moved to Eagle Rock in the mid-1800s to escape some pretty tyrannical elders who had control over most of Virginia at the time. A century before that, the family fled from the governing council that still controls the United Kingdom, and now most of Europe.”

  “So basically, there’s nowhere left to run?”

  “Cassandra!” Dad said. “That is no way to talk to our mayor and senator.”

  “It’s all right,” Matthew said, the ghost of a smile playing at the corner of his lips. “She may even have a point, although it doesn’t change the fact that I think we should enforce laws at the local level to help protect our independence and anonymity.”

  “Anonymity?” I arched an eyebrow.

  “Independence,” Matthew said. “You’re free to cast spells in the streets, and we’re free to remain safely anonymous.”

  “And of course, if there were a local ruling council, you’d be free not to let them know you existed so you could keep doing whatever you wanted? And if they ever did find out about you, you could run away again.”

  “Cassandra Scot!” Dad said, his face turning red. “Watch who you’re talking to.”

  I knew what he meant, but I didn’t care. My face, too, had reddened, and I let all the Blairs know what I thought of their independence and anonymity. “Yes, I’m talking to people who could hurt me badly if it weren’t for my family standing behind me. Good thing I have that luxury.” For now, I added silently. Ever since the disownment spell, I couldn’t trust them entirely.

  The Blairs stared at me, James’s expression passive and Matthew’s a bit wide-eyed, but it was the younger brother, Robert, who grew angry. “We don’t go around hurting people, or threatening people, or cursing people. Do you have any idea how many people we’ve helped?”

  I had no idea, which made me feel somewhat ashamed, but I didn’t back down.

  “Calm down, Robert,” Matthew said. “She’s entitled to her opinion.”

  It was true and yet Matthew’s calm statement made me feel more ashamed than Robert’s hostility. Truthfully, I didn’t have an opinion, only grievances,
and I certainly didn’t know enough about the Blairs to lay those grievances at their feet.

  “I’m going to go help Mom,” I said.

  Mom already had more help than she could use since Caroline Blair was dishing out plates of food for the young children, so I wandered into the nearby trees to give myself a chance to cool down.

  Maybe I wasn’t being fair to the Blairs, especially Matthew. The man had helped me with a gunman and otherwise been nothing but polite to me. The trouble was I had evil sorcerers on my mind all the time now, and had ever since David McClellan had been murdered.

  If anyone deserved to be murdered, David did. The man had made a living from selling dark and cursed objects. Including some, I suspected, which contained trapped human souls. Evan even suspected him of doing some of the trapping. Yet for years he had thrived in our community. Now that he was dead I was supposed to find and arrest whoever had done it. I’d have been more inclined to hand the person a medal, but the McClellans and their allies expected answers.

  Would Alexander DuPris’s unifying efforts stop men like David? Or would those allies end up corrupting the power structure?

  “Hey.”

  I jumped, then spun. Matthew Blair, full of power and grace, strode toward me from the picnic area, thankfully alone.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  He smiled, and I found my eyes drawn to his mouth. “You seemed upset.”

  “Oh, it’s nothing that hasn’t been bothering me for the last 21 years.” I smiled and shrugged.

  When Matthew took another step closer to me, I took a subconscious step back. A sign of weakness, I knew, but Matthew was an unknown quantity. And he made me nervous. I mean, the guy was a mind mage, capable of altering people’s thoughts, feelings, and memories. What might he do to me without my even knowing it had been done? At least with other practitioners I could see or feel whatever they might throw at me.

  “You don’t like me, do you?” Matthew asked.

  “I don’t know you,” I countered.

  “Very diplomatic.” He smiled, sending an odd, shivery sensation running down my spine. “So why don’t we get to know one another? Ask me anything.”

  “Can you read minds?” The question bypassed my brain and went straight to my mouth. You don’t ask sorcerers about their powers. It just isn’t done. When I realized what I’d said, I clapped a hand over my mouth and started to apologize.

  Before I could, he held up a staying hand. He nodded, once, very slightly.

  “You can?” The admission stunned me, since I doubted anyone outside his family would know. Though I supposed if he thought I might use the knowledge against him, he could always erase it later. But it didn’t explain why he had told me in the first place.

  “I thought being honest with you might help us become friends,” Matthew said.

  In this case, I didn’t think the truth would help him much. How could I be friends with someone who could read my every thought?

  Matthew’s face fell. “I understand. It’s why I don’t tell many people. But it’s not like it’s something I can help.”

  I hadn’t meant to hurt him. As a rule, I hated hurting people. Wincing, I wondered what I could do to make him feel better, especially when he could read the truth in my mind – that I really didn’t think we could be friends. Words, I could control. Thoughts were something else entirely.

  “Can’t you block it out?” I asked, finally.

  He shook his head. “I think of it as hearing thoughts rather than reading minds. When you say you can read minds, it leaves the impression that you can close your eyes and stop seeing the thoughts. For me it’s is a lot more like trying not to hear a loud noise, especially when someone broadcasts her thoughts as loudly as you do.”

  My cheeks went a little pink. What did he know about me just from listening to me think? Anything was possible. I sometimes lived a bit of a fantasy life in my own head and lately, most of my thoughts had been about Evan.

  “Why do you want to be friends with me, anyway?” A possible answer flickered through my mind, too quickly to examine, leaving me with the odd impression that I was forgetting something. I didn’t usually forget things. Matthew was a mind mage and self-acknowledged telepath so…

  Of course if Matthew posed any actual danger to me, my parents would intervene. Prejudice could cause wariness more easily than anything else, so wasn’t it more likely that, having braced myself for a mental whammy, I had imagined him giving me one?

  Matthew took my hand in his. The simple gesture drew me back to the present, warming my skin where we touched. It didn’t feel anything like Evan’s heated caresses, which always carried in my mind the expectation of his erotic kiss. But it made my skin tingle and my heartbeat quicken.

  “I want to be friends with you because you’re a very interesting and attractive woman.”

  My breath caught, my first instinct to refute the compliment. I was no great beauty, though I supposed I might be attractive enough. I had been more attractive when I’d had access to my mother’s amazing hygiene potions.

  “Don’t put yourself down,” Matthew said.

  I looked away but left my hand where it was, enjoying the warmth of his touch. I hadn’t realized how much I had been craving basic human contact over the past couple of months.

  “Now may not be the best time,” I said. “You probably know that I’m still not over Evan.”

  “I do know. He doesn’t deserve you.”

  “Or want me,” I said bitterly.

  “I can help you forget him,” Matthew said.

  For a moment I thought he meant with magic, and I drew my hand back in alarm.

  “No, not with magic.” Matthew leaned casually against a nearby tree. “I could, of course, but you never learn anything if you just forget everything that causes you pain.”

  “Oh.”

  “I was thinking in a more traditional way. We could start with a ride on my boat tomorrow, just the two of us, and see where things go from there.”

  His eyes held mine, and though a part of me still felt uneasy, I couldn’t think of a single reason to refuse. A handsome, powerful, charming man wanted to spend time with me. It might not go anywhere; he might decide he needed a more powerful woman than me by his side, or I might decide I couldn’t handle his politics. He might break my heart again, but it was already in pieces. Besides, how could I repair it until I started to live, love, and risk again?

  2

  SUNDAY MORNING, I WOKE TO THE smell of fresh coffee and bacon. My parents never had coffee in the house, so it was taking me a while to get used to the aroma. I didn’t think I would ever get used to the taste, and in fact, had stopped trying. It was all right at about a ten-to-one ratio of cream to coffee, but I still preferred tea.

  It hadn’t been quite a month since Kaitlin, Madison, and I had moved into a cozy three-bedroom house, and we were still adjusting to one another. Madison had introduced coffee to our household, while Kaitlin had apparently been craving bacon every morning for a month. And sometimes in the afternoon. All in all, I thought I’d be happy never to have to smell bacon again.

  At least I had my own bedroom, and a real bed – thanks to almost two months’ accumulated salary at the sheriff’s department. It wasn’t much after rent, utilities, and groceries, but Saturday morning garage sales had helped populate my bedroom and even the living room. Instead of the bean bags, we now had a lime green sofa and a pair of clashing plaid recliners.

  My friends sat at the breakfast table when I emerged, fully clothed and ready for a day on the lake. Madison was dressed for church in black slacks and a light pink blouse, while Kaitlin had yet to change out of her pajamas.

  What a trio of misfits we made, I thought as I took one of the two empty chairs at the small kitchen table. There was Kaitlin, alone and pregnant, Madison, painfully shy and recently turned out of her home by her father, and me, the throwback from one of the most powerful families in town.

 
I would have said that we did, at least, have one another, but the idea didn’t seem to be working. Ever since we had moved in, Madison had taken several steps backwards on the shyness scale, reverting to a near high school level. I had no idea why she had done that, nor why she continued to date my younger brother, Nicolas. Aside from being several years her junior, he overshadowed her in every conceivable way.

  Kaitlin, meanwhile, refused to believe she had any help or support with her pregnancy, despite the fact that my parents were giving her magic lessons every afternoon after work. And despite my assurances that I would be there for her when the baby arrived. Maybe it was too much to hope that she wouldn’t think of her own absent – and anonymous – father at a time like this. Would her baby grow up like her, never knowing its father?

  New rumors about Jason circulated regularly. He had turned into a vampire, they said. He had teamed up with an old and powerful vampire to overthrow the newly forming magical council. He had helped kill six of his fellow hunters during an attack on said powerful vampire. Each time we heard something new, Kaitlin retreated farther into her isolation.

  My roommates had suddenly stopped talking when I entered the room. They now had the guilty expressions of those who had just been caught talking about someone else.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” Kaitlin said, way too quickly.

  Madison bit her lip, which was getting terribly chapped, and looked away.

  “Come on,” I said. “Whatever it is, you can tell me.”

  “Evan’s back in town,” Kaitlin said.

  “Oh.” I told myself I didn’t care. I willed myself not to care. He had abandoned me and run away so quickly I hadn’t even had a chance to learn the reason why.

  “Are you okay?” Madison asked.

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”