Natural Mage (Magical Mayhem #2)(42)

In spell work and fighting, I was really coming along. In just three days, I had progressed much further than in all that time with Callie and Dizzy. But that was in terms of reading spells and duplicating them. When it came to making them up on the fly—in a controlled, precise manner—or pairing a spell with a situation, I was still freezing up.

At this rate, when the Guild came calling, I didn’t have any faith I’d be able to beat them back.

I sighed heavily and fell into the couch, immediately regretting it. My butt hurt from the multiples times I’d fallen on it in the last hour. “Where are you going again?”

“I have a friend who knows a guy who said the Magical Law Enforcement office might need some help bringing in a banshee. With Darius preoccupied, it’s the perfect time for me to do a little contract work.” She waved her hand nonchalantly, a gesture she often used to make light of doing something very wrong. “It’ll be a super-easy case. Nothing to worry about. I’ll just help out real quick and that’s it. No reason to mention it at all.” She paused and lowered her voice. “Do you hear what I’m saying?”

“That you’ll beat me bloody if I go telling anyone, yeah.” I glanced at the clock. “It’s two in the morning. Who is working now? Not that I’m complaining about my practice session being over.”

“The magical community keeps different hours. Don’t worry; you’ll get used to it. But this isn’t the actual job, just a little information gathering. I want to know exactly what’s going on before I make the captain hire me. There’s no way I want Darius on my case about doing something stupid. And that’s the problem with boyfriends—they’re always on your ass about jeopardizing your future and committing yourself to an eternity of servitude.”

“Uh-huh.” Now that I was temporarily living with her, I’d decided it was in my best interest to ignore her crazy life. I rubbed my eyes. “Well, he can’t really talk, can he? What with the ongoing Ja situation and all.”

Ja was going to live, though we didn’t yet know if that was good or bad. Darius had started hitting the books really hard to determine how badly he’d messed up by making me entice her back into vampire politics (I totally blamed him for the whole debacle). Until he knew more, we were in the dark.

Not that it mattered. Reagan assured me that it was a vampire problem, and it was best to let them duke it out themselves. With Ja thinking rationally again, I was in no danger.

Or so they said. I planned to stay as far away from her as possible, just in case.

Reagan put up a fist. “I knew you’d see it my way.”

Before I could bail myself out of that sinking ship, she was striding through the front door.

“Right.” I stared after her in the sudden silence.

I was alone, really alone, for the first time in what was probably a very long time.

Wasn’t that something? I hadn’t been alone much in my life. My mother had always been hanging around, peering over my shoulder. After moving, Callie and Dizzy had always been home, not peering over my shoulder so much as wanting my company. And Veronica—

Veronica!

I’d talked to her as much as Callie since the night at Darius’s house, but I hadn’t been able to see her. It was starting to wear on me. And truth be told, I was a little worried about her. The last time I’d moved locations in order to hide from the Guild, she’d been taken hostage. I didn’t want something like that to happen again.

After painfully hefting myself off the couch, I waddled my sore butt to my room and grabbed my phone. One missed call from Callie. No 9-1-1 text, though, so she probably just wanted another crack at the day’s rant.

“Hello?” Veronica answered in a sleepy voice.

“Oh my—I am so sorry, Ronnie! I completely forgot normal people are asleep right now. Forget I called. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“No, it’s fine.” I heard her shifting. “What’s up? What are you doing?”

“Are you sure? It’s nothing important.”

“No, it’s fine. What are you up to? Did you do your training and everything?”

I told her about a breakthrough on a recent spell, and also about how much my punch was improving. I could even, almost, occasionally deflect Reagan’s punch or kick. Sometimes.

“That’s great. But how are you supposed to fight when you’re using your hands to do magic?”

“Right. I’ve asked that so many times it isn’t funny. But Reagan is convinced that knowing my body, and feeling less physically helpless, will improve my confidence.”

“Oh. Well that’s true enough.”

“Yeah,” I said miserably, finding the couch again. “That’s the conclusion I came to, too. Unfortunately.”

“So now what are you doing?”

“Sitting on the couch. Reagan went out for something. I’ve got the rest of the night off.”

“She…went out?” Alarm crept into Veronica’s voice. “Where did she go? Did she go far?”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

More shifting, and the rest of the tiredness seeped out of Veronica’s voice. “Callie and Dizzy are a bit on edge these last couple days. First they were pissed that you weren’t headed back to their house, especially after what went down at Darius’s, but yesterday John was hanging around, asking about you. We all know he’s smitten, right?”