by Kate McLay
"It's not a – whatever." It was useless to argue with Anna – there was no way to win.
Anna leaned forward and clasped her hands together. She grinned and there was an almost evil glint in her eye when she spoke. "Mom said that you had a date last night?"
She thought of Mina and of the feel of their magic entwined, of the example they had made of those douchebags at the bar. She couldn't wait until tonight. “Date might be a bit of an exaggeration." After all, her sister was talking about the broodmare that the Pooles had thrown at her.
Their mother set the bowl of salad down on the table and spooned a portion on her plate. She sat at the head of the table. "Oh yes, tell me how it went. Was she nice?"
Anna smirked, "It probably went like all of her other dates."
"Anna." Stacy's voice was a warning.
"What?" Anna asked, all innocence. "She hasn't been in a relationship since, what? Was it even this decade?"
Stacy picked up her fork and held it tightly in her hand. "Anna, that's inappropriate."
Darby rolled her eyes. "Thanks, Mom." Darby knew that she should tell them that the date hadn't happened. They would find out eventually. But to admit to her sister and, to a lesser extent, her mother that she had been stood up would be a blow to her ego. Anna would never let her live it down. So Darby didn't lie. Not completely. "I had a good time last night," she said lightly. In fact, she had had a great time last night, after she got to the bar.
"Really?" Both her mother and her sister asked. Their bewilderment was almost insulting.
Darby looked between the two of them and had to stop herself from laying it on too thick. "Is that so surprising?"
"Of course not," said her mother. "I'm glad to hear it."
Darby shrugged, "You said it was time for me to do my duty." And she would do that duty… eventually.
But the grin on her mother's face made Darby uneasy. She had seen that look every time she was forced to do something she didn't want to do. "Well, in the spirit of your newfound cooperation, how about you come to lunch with me on Wednesday?"
"I went on the stupid date," Darby said, frustration in her voice. No good deed ever went unpunished.
"I thought you enjoyed it." Her sister sounded sincere, a tone Darby knew not to trust.
"It doesn't mean that I want to go to lunch with a bunch of political witches." Though her mother had said nothing of guests, Darby knew it would not be a social occasion. Stacy Guerin did not dine out for fun.
"You should come," said her mother. "It will improve our position with regards to the binding. Ms. Poole will be joining us."
Damn it, of course this was all about the Pooles. And Darby's little ruse would be caught out. The gears in her head started spinning, trying to figure out a way to contact the Poole girl and see if she would agree to a little subterfuge. Darby immediately threw out the thought. Shenanigans worked in the movies, not real life. But if she went to the lunch, she might be able to do a little damage control.
It never occurred to her to simply admit that she had been stood up.
"What time?"
Her mother smiled. "Be here at noon and we’ll go together."
Darby nodded and picked up her fork, "You know there's nothing that I would love more."
All three of them knew it was a lie.
CHAPTER NINE
Mina should have just stayed the night in the city, but now that she had an apartment of her own, she wanted to enjoy her own bed. What was a few extra hours on her bike? Mina drove along the highway, this time soaking up the sun and joined with many more cars than the night before.
Along with the phone number, Sarah had given Mina a copy of Chloe's class schedule. Chloe had given that to Sarah at the beginning of the semester when they were still talking. According to that schedule, Chloe had an hour-long break between her noon class and her 3 PM class. That didn't give her enough time to go back to her dorm, or, if she was staying with Alexander, to go to his place. Instead, she would most likely grab lunch at one of the coffee shops down the street from her classes.
Mina found a place to park her bike. She pulled back her hair and concentrated on pulling a wisp of magic around herself, disguising herself with a glamor. Her white-blonde hair now appeared darker, duller than normal and her skin appeared two shades darker. If it were still summer, she would not appear out of place in a bikini on the beach, but the early fall temperatures forced her into a long sleeved t-shirt and she looked much like the other coeds.
Glamors were not fool proof. This spell would not hold up if she interacted with a person for more than a few minutes, and if someone's magic senses were on high alert, they would perceive that she had cloaked herself. But for reconnaissance, the glamor would do.
Before leaving her bike, Mina checked her personal phone and smiled when she saw Darby's text. The other phone, the one she’d answered the night before, was in the bottom of her bag. It was only to be used in emergencies. She only gave out the number to those who would need it.
Had fun last night. Want 2 meet again?
The bar @ 10? :) She hoped that the smiley wasn't overdoing it, but Darby's reply was quick in coming and reassuring.
Great! :-)
An exclamation mark and a smiley face, exactly what she wanted to see. It was barely after 2 p.m. now and Mina had plenty of time to finish her work in the city before heading back. She scrolled through her text log to make sure that her cousin hadn't tried to contact her and saw nothing. Darby's text was the most recent and she had read everything else.
Mina narrowed it down to three cafés where she thought Chloe could be. They all offered student discounts and had comfortable seating sections for the kids to sit. All she wanted to do was find Chloe and make sure that everything was all right. Mina would tell her that Sarah was concerned and suggest that she give her a call. Alexander Lotharian was bad news, but Chloe would not accept her help if Mina went in guns blazing.
According to her Facebook photo, Chloe was a cute 20-year-old with bright red hair and a quarter sleeve of tattoos on her right arm. She looked very different than the pictures Sarah had shown her years ago, but everyone had to grow up sometime.
The first restaurant was a bust. There were three Asian girls sitting at a table in the back corner and two black girls at another table. The only white girl had blonde hair and was about 30 pounds heavier than Chloe's most recent photo.
Mina kept moving. There was a line out the door of the second café, so she decided to hit the third and circle back if necessary. It would seem suspicious if she bypassed the line only to walk right out without talking to anyone.
That instinct served her well. A young woman with bright red hair stood in line at the third café. There were two people behind her, so Mina joined the line and pretended to read the menu while focusing her attention on Chloe. Chloe had an old backpack slung over her shoulder, she wore a white shirt and jeans, and her high-heeled shoes made her the tallest woman in the café. Chloe ordered a sandwich and a drink and sat down at a table by the window. It wasn't an ideal place to talk, but that wouldn’t stop Mina.
The two people ahead of her ordered quickly, and once they were done Mina ordered a small coffee. She sat at a table near the restroom which gave her a direct line of sight to Chloe's table. Instead of approaching her, Mina sipped her coffee and observed. Her caution was well-founded. Just as Chloe took a bite of her sandwich, a huge man, easily 6 1/2 feet tall and with the muscles to match, walked in and took a seat across from Chloe at her table. He surveyed the café and Mina tilted her head away before he caught her eye. This was not Lotharian, but Mina would bet that he signed the hulking man's checks. The hulk had the look of hired muscle all over him.
Crap, thought Mina. This lunch break was the best time to approach Chloe, and given the guard presence now, Mina would bet that she was guarded every moment of the day. The question was, did she know?
Chloe said something to the man and stood up. She grabbed her drink and
took it with her to the little table where the cream and sugar were available for customers. Her back was to her guard, and he took advantage, grabbing her phone from where it sat next to her plate and scrolling through it while she wasn’t looking. By the time she turned around, he had put her phone back, and he smiled at her when she sat down.
It looked like calling her was out of the question.
They hung out for thirty more minutes while Chloe ate her lunch. The conversation never stopped between the two, which made Mina think that the bodyguard was watching Chloe in secret. Hired muscle did not talk when conversation could be avoided.
Mina waited around for another five minutes after Chloe left. She didn't want to get caught following her when she was pretty sure that Chloe would be back to this café. There was no reason to put Lotharian on alert. But talking to Chloe would be a difficult mission to pull alone.
Mina didn't have a lot of friends in Chicago. She had stayed out of this region for a long time. Hell, she had stayed out of this country. And right now she didn't know if it was worth it to begin cultivating contacts, especially if she decided to leave town soon.
What about Darby?
The thought hit her as she was halfway to her bike. It was crazy. She didn't even know Darby's last name, and they had known each other for less than a day. But there was something about the connection between them that made Mina want to trust her. It wasn't like this was some sort of high risk operation, and she didn't need to give Darby any details about Chloe. Lust must have addled her brain.
Living where she did, Darby could easily work for Alexander Lotharian. And if she didn't work for him, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that they knew each other socially. True, the witches of Lewistown were not closely associated with the magic community in Chicago, but their world was small enough that it was possible.
Mina made it to her bike and pulled on her helmet. She'd pay close attention to Darby tonight and make a decision later. It wasn't like she could ask her family for help.
She wasn't that crazy.
CHAPTER TEN
Darby gave herself forty-five minutes to get ready for her date with Mina. And that included her shower. She knew that if she didn't limit it, she would end up with a huge pile of clothes on the floor, satisfied with absolutely nothing, her makeup only half done and her hair thrown back into a messy bun, more wet than dry. The strict itinerary meant that she left her place with time to spare and ended up at the Black Bear in plenty of time.
She wore a scandalously short black dress that barely brushed against the tops of her thighs and black fuck-me heels that added four inches to her height. Her hair hung in loose curls over her shoulders and she had opted for a lipstick that would hold up under the wicked pressure she planned to exert over Mina.
Even though it was a Tuesday night, the bar was hopping. Darby was forced to park a block down the street and once she got inside she only made it to the bar due to a strategically placed elbow which allowed her to wedge herself in.
A woman wearing a red dress glared at her, but when Daniel put a beer down in front of Darby without taking her order, the woman backed off. Clearly no one was kicking Darby out.
It would have been difficult to hear Daniel over the music and the din of the patrons, but Darby used a tiny bit of magic to clear the air between them. The sound of the music and the patrons drifted down to a dull roar, and Daniel took the opportunity to give her shit.
He truly was a best friend.
"I thought they had decency laws in this town." Before she could take a drink, he sipped her beer and put it back down in front of her. Darby snatched it away lest he take any more.
"A girl can't get prettified every once in a while?"
He laughed. "So are you meeting that girl from last night, or did your mommy try to set you up again?" She’d told Daniel about the binding, and he said that he hadn’t heard a funnier story in months. Sometimes Darby regretted letting her best friend know about her life.
"Your face is starting to look really punchable." Darby spared a glance back at the crowded bar, but she didn't see Mina.
"You love me." Darby didn’t have a brother, but if she did, she thought he would use the same tauntingly affectionate tone that Daniel was taking.
"That doesn't mean that I won't hurt you."
"Who are we hurting?" Mina's arms slid around Darby and she placed a kiss on her cheek. Darby leaned back into the embrace, a smile blooming on her face.
"Oooh," Daniel took one look at Mina and his eyes brightened just as much as his smile. "I see why you like her."
"I am going to curse your entire family line if you keep this up," she promised. But she didn't deny that she liked Mina, and she didn't try to back away.
"Keep making promises."
"I'm honestly not sure which one of you I should offer to help," Mina said, amusement lacing her words.
Darby smiled. "This is my friend Daniel. Defend him so he gives us free drinks."
Ever the businessman, Daniel scoffed. "You know that's not going to happen."
Darby turned up the charm, giving Daniel her brightest smile. "Not even for a new girl in town who is just trying to make friends?" she asked, all innocence.
"Didn't you tell me she grew up here?" Daniel's eyes narrowed and he looked between the two women.
Mina grinned and snuggled in closer to Darby. She let her hands roam, finally resting them on Darby's hips. "You're telling your friends about me?" She sounded pleased.
Darby wanted to arch in against Mina and forget about talking, but she couldn't just ignore Daniel. "Just one round, Danny?" She begged. She turned in towards Mina and spoke in an exaggerated whisper, "Mina, look at him all pathetic like, he can't resist puppy dog eyes."
There was something about the way the light hit her, the way she held her chin, and Darby knew that Mina was the most beautiful woman in the entire bar. Probably in the town. "Please, Dan." Mina joined in the begging.
Daniel sighed and looked around. The other bartender had picked up his slack while Daniel talked to Darby and Mina. She wasn't paying any attention to him, and even if she was, Daniel was in charge. He put a finger to his lips, bidding them to keep silent. Darby and Mina both grinned when Daniel poured out two shots. "One round only," he said with a false harshness. "But keep it quiet."
"Yay!" Mina cheered quietly. "I love you."
Daniel rolled his eyes, "Save it for your girl." He left them and started taking orders from the people queuing up around the bar, leaving Darby and Mina alone.
Rather than stay at the bar, Darby and Mina each pounded back their shot and moved to find a table. They lucked out, grabbing a two-seater when another couple got up to leave. Darby let her sound blocking spell wrap around them and Mina shivered when the magic touched her.
"I'm glad that it hasn't gone away," she said.
Darby could feel it too, "I've been thinking about it all day."
Mina looked out onto the dance floor and Darby followed her gaze. Two men swayed closely together to the slow beat of the music. She looked back at Darby. "I don't remember this town being so queer friendly," she said.
Darby shrugged, "They're not about to have a pride parade, but the town is big enough that the bigots are never quite comfortable. This is a supernatural bar, we've been using gay bars as fronts for nearly a century."
"Good point, I guess. How did your parents react when you came out?"
Darby chuckled, "Being gay is not the most disappointing thing that I have done to my mother."
Mina laughed, "Really?"
"I've got black sheep written all over me. Hell, she would have been shocked if I were straight. Now she's trying to set me up on dates with nice girls." Darby surveyed Mina. Her blond bangs had been casually swept to the side and she wore very little makeup. She didn't need any – she possessed that effortless beauty that would make Darby jealous if she did not appreciate it so much. Mina wore a nice red shirt with a fleur-de-lis design in black, a
nd jeans. Other than a leather band on her wrist, she wore no jewelry. "What about you?"
Mina shrugged and her tone was cold. "I'm too powerful for my family to reject."
Her tone did not invite further conversation on the topic, and Darby didn't want to push. For obvious reasons some people didn't care to speak about coming out, and she couldn't blame them. She'd had it easy.
But to Darby's surprise, Mina told her more, a sad smile on her lips. "They didn't kick me out, but I ran off when I was 18. You know the story – my dad's a dick, the town is too small for me, and so on and so forth."
"Yeah, I've heard that before."
"So what do you do?" Mina asked. "Other than seduce new girls in town," she added with a smile.
Seduce? Darby would show Mina seduction. As she spoke, she ran her foot up and down the Mina's jean-clad thigh. "I write freelance articles for human woo-woo blogs. You know, natural remedies and all that shit. But you gotta do something exciting, don't you? Because if it's boring, I'm going to be mighty pissed that you left me all hot and bothered."
"I help women get out of bad situations."
"Like hostage recovery?" Darby wanted to know everything. No one in town had a job as cool sounding as that. "Are you saying that you have a very specific set of skills?"
Mina smiled, but she rolled her eyes at the quote. "Nah, nothing like that." Darby didn't quite believe her, but she didn't press. Mina continued, "I help people get the resources they need to help themselves. And when that's not enough, I do what needs to be done to help them get back on their feet."
"That's awesome, you're like a superhero. It beats writing about 500 different uses for amethyst that are all a bunch of crap." It came out more bitter than she meant. Darby didn't hate her job: it paid well enough and it wasn't difficult. But a little of her old jealousy crept up when she heard the amazing stories of people who left town.
"So you're not involved with the Council or anything?" asked Mina