The Dashing Witch (The Ward Witches)

by Lauren McMinn

  “I don't need sleep that badly. I'd like to be held. I've got all day tomorrow to rest.”

  “Alright then.”

  She lay down with her head in his lap, and he petted her hair. He put on a nature documentary, but turned down the sound.

  “Tell me about growing up with your siblings.”

  “Seb was my best friend growing up, and he's my best friend now. But I've got some great embarrassing stories about him. Which to start with? Alright, so when we were about fifteen, Seb started to get interested in girls. I was way ahead of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “So I did the brotherly thing and gave him some advice.”

  “Sure. You were his best friend and all.”

  “Exactly. I told him that his favorite girl would really like it if he pinched her butt, then when she objected, give her a big kiss.”

  Melanie started laughing. “Did he try it?”

  “Hell yeah he tried it! She slapped him so red on one cheek, and when he still went for the kiss, she got him on the other cheek too.”

  Melanie started laughing harder. “What happened next?”

  “I consoled the poor girl and took her on a few dates.”

  “The consummate brother. How did Seb take it?”

  “He beat my ass in football. Then he gave me a black eye to boot.”

  “I have a hard time believing Seb beat you up.”

  “When I was younger, before I had really accepted that I'd be leading Coven Protection when I was at the age, I didn't work out. I was in it for the laughs and the ladies.” He laughed a little at himself.

  “What changed?”

  “That incident right there. I declared Seb would never beat my ass again, and I immediately enrolled in the local dojo. I had to split my time between aikido and girls, but it was worth it.”

  “Do you still practice?”

  “As often as possible. Before I met you, I was getting up to the dojo about three times a week. My sensei can still beat me, but I'd challenge anyone else to try. The basements of the Coven House are gyms, as you know. In one of the closets, I stashed all the gear I need to practice. I keep in shape, and I practice here every day don't go to the dojo.”

  She ran her hands down his arms. “I see. Have I been keeping you from your practice?”

  “Somewhat. A few mornings I've been able to sneak out before I wake you. But I will need to get back into the routine.”

  “I see.”

  “Now when Dymphna was younger, she was a lot quieter and gentler than she is now. Mostly everything would roll off her back. You couldn't insult her without feeling bad yourself. She'd bring home all kinds of animals, and she'd rehab them before letting them back out into the wild. She'd use her magic to help anyone or anything that needed some healing.”

  “Really? She's so different now.”

  “That's for sure.”

  “What happened?”

  He sighed. “That, I don't know. The best I can guess is that something happened to shake her conviction that the world is a good place. I wish I knew how to help her, I really do.”

  “I asked Dymphna if she wanted to come volunteer at the hospital with us. She was really quick to say she was too busy with work.”

  “That's my sister. Whatever it is that hurts her, she sublimates the energy into work. She wins a lot of her cases, but I can't think all that is good for her. I don't know if she's told you, but she deals with workplace harassment lawsuits. Every day she goes to work and sees horrible people doing horrible things to each other. And she gets in there and fights for her victim. But I think she puts too much of herself into it. I think she's lost track of where the line of horrible people ends and where the good ones begin.”

  “I could see that as very possible.”

  “But I certainly don't know how to tell her that.”

  “To be honest, I don't think she'd listen. At least not now. I know you said that you wanted to get closer with your family again. Maybe somehow if all of you were to get as close as you were when you were children and teens, you could all help each other out.”

  “In counter, I know that when Leo found Skylar, he turned into a better person gradually. He picked up extra help at the office so he could be home more often. He started letting people into his world more and sharing how he felt. I wonder if Dymphna wouldn't be helped a great deal by finding her own magical alignment.”

  Melanie's thoughts were screaming at her to ask if Justin had become a better person for knowing her. But she didn't ask. She couldn't.

  “I could see that helping her, yeah. Do you think Seb will ever find his?”

  “I can only hope. He also needs his own reality check. Besides, he needs to reproduce to keep the title in the family.”

  “If he doesn't, it would go to our twins, right?”

  “Yes. And I don't want that to happen. The title has taken a lot of the fun loving young man out of my brother and replaced it with someone who looks too much to his responsibility and doesn't dare have fun. I don't want that for anyone, least of all our twins.”

  “I agree.”

  “But that's enough serious talk. Let me tell you about the time Dymphna tried to rescue a wolf.”

  “Before you evens start, I need a spoiler. Who won: Dymphna or the wolf?”

  “Dymphna of course.”

  They both laughed, and he kept her laughing for a long time that evening with stories from his childhood. They had all been really close then. A little after midnight, they went to bed, and Melanie's earlier nightmares didn't come back.

  Justin monitored the situation all day Sunday, but he was most worried about what would happen Monday when Melanie and her volunteers left the Coven House and went to the hospital. He and another agent would be riding with Melanie and the others who lived in the Coven House. The ones who didn't would be meeting at Ward Manor, where a third agent would go with them.

  Monday morning, five volunteers showed up at the meeting point. Melanie was beautiful in a bright green shirt with a big smile on it. The others were similarly outfitted for dealing with kids. They put on their jackets and got ready to go. Justin already had his jacket on. He couldn't bring a firearm into the hospital, so he had two water bottles under his arms. In a tight situation, if he could get water on someone, he could super heat or super cool the water and take care of the problem. But it seemed perfectly innocent to carry around water bottles. He didn't mention that to Melanie or the others.

  The second agent, Skylar's mentor Timothy, was driving. Since there were seven of them, they were taking one of the vans the Coven owned. He honked his horn and pushed forward slowly to get through the picket line. Luckily, the protestors didn't push the issue and let them through with no real trouble. They met up with Skylar's group in the parking lot. Skylar had with her another five volunteers, which made ten volunteers, three agents, and one Melanie. There would only ever be one Melanie, though. Justin was realizing that more and more lately.

  Melanie found her contact with the hospital, and they all signed in and got visitor's badges. Melanie's contact, one of the head nurses, had set up a room with all the kids who wanted to come. Apparently, that was a large number of them. Justin figured that out when it turned out the room was the cafeteria. A lot of eager little faces looked back at them, some in wheelchairs, others on IVs. Melanie was doing a good thing here for the Coven. And he knew it wasn't all about the publicity for the Coven. It was about the kids. He saw it in the way her eyes lit up when she saw her audience. She'd make a great mom here in a few months.

  All the eyes turned to them, and the cameras turned on, but Justin wasn't sure Melanie even knew the cameras were there anymore. She used her magic to create a great popping noise, heard without turning on the microphone. When she spoke, she used magic again to project her voice rather than use conventional means.

  “Thank you all for having us here today. I'm sure you all know what's going on, but we're witches from the National Coven, a
nd we're here to show you a little about magic. And for the brave of heart, we'll take some volunteers from the audience later,” she added conspiratorially. “So be thinking about that. First, I'd like to introduce my sister Skylar.” She made an impact on Skylar that Justin could see when she referred to her as her sister. “She's a fire witch who only recently came into full use of her powers. But don't worry, she won't burn the building down.” The audience laughed. Melanie had them laughing within minutes of entering a somber room.

  Skylar stepped forward. Melanie's magic projected her voice as well as Skylar created progressively bigger fireballs. Justin knew enough about magic to know that there was no real danger in there. It wasn't even hot. They were more images of fire than harmful fire. She called out to another fire witch, and the witches parted so everyone could see Hank.

  “Hey Hank. I know you liked to play baseball. Can you catch?”

  Before anyone could say a thing, Skylar had lobbed a fireball right at him. Hank jumped and grabbed it, extinguishing it immediately.

  “So you can catch.” Another witch walked over with a baseball bat, handing it to Hank. “But can you still hit a home run?”

  “I can certainly try!”

  He got the bat, took his time about making sure he was ready. Suddenly, Skylar threw her fireball, and he hit it up into the air. Or rather, they manipulated it perfectly to where it looked like he hit the fireball and that's what changed its direction. He really hit nothing but air. But that wasn't what the show was about.

  His home run swing got the progressively larger fireball up to the ceiling in the middle of the cafeteria. Then when Skylar snapped her fingers, it exploded into little harmless fireworks that rained down on the crowd. The children shrieked with glee when the little bit of fire dust fell on them.

  The two fire witches did their show a little longer. Then the two earth witches came up. They had plants, and made the plants dance to music, made their flowers bloom and curl back up in sync to commands. Melanie's other air witch levitated the flower pots so that everyone could see.

  All this was to the elated sounds of the audience. They gasped when they should, they laughed when they should. It was going really well. But Justin was, as a water witch himself, wondering what the water witches would do for their part of the show. The majority of the witches there were water witches, and they hadn't done anything at all.

  Melanie quieted the audience. The whole of the cafeteria hung on her words. “Now we all know that medicine heals people. What witches have is no substitute for doctors and medicines and treatment. But I have five water witches up here, and if you'd like, they can adjust your pain threshold a little. It won't make the pain go away, mind you, but for a little while, likely until the end of today, you won't feel it as badly. Here's where I'm going to ask for volunteers. If you want to try it, knowing that it won't last long, raise your hand. They're going to try to get to everyone. If you'd rather not mess with it, I think Skylar can come up with some more fireworks for your enjoyment.”

  The first hand tentatively went up. Then another, and another. Skylar's water witches, including her friend Rita, fanned out to go help the people with their hands up. Justin knew from experience that what they were doing now would cost them later. Raising someone's pain threshold was relatively easy, but doing it a lot of times was wearing. Valiantly, though, they went forward, helping kid after kid.

  Justin signaled to Timothy, and asked him to take over watch. Then Justin himself went into the fray. His first one up was a little boy, about seven. Justin could feel the lymphoma. He could tell the kid was in a lot of pain, and couldn't get out of the wheelchair. But he helped. Justin sent just enough magic to raise his pain threshold for the day into the kid.

  When he took his hands away, the boy looked at his own hands like he couldn't believe it. He stretched and turned, and then he laughed.

  The nurse beside him turned to Justin with tears in her eyes. “He hasn't laughed in a long time. Whatever you did, and however temporary, thank you.” Justin was more touched than he wanted to admit, and he moved on to the next person, and the next, and the next, seeing similar wonderment on the faces of the people whose pain he was making manageable, if only for a day. At one point, he saw Melanie watching him with a particularly tender look on her face. He winked, and he went back to work.

  When they were done, Skylar stopped the fireworks. Melanie said some kind of goodbye and thank you for having us speech, but Justin didn't really hear the words. He looked out at the kids they had helped, and his heart felt lighter than it had in a long time. He was exhausted, but pleased.

  Melanie went around thanking the camera crews while Justin and the other water witches collapsed into chairs. “Hard work,” Rita said, and they all nodded.

  “But look how much good you did,” one earth witch pointed out.

  “How much good all of you did,” Justin corrected. “You all made them laugh, entertained them, and lightened the load they have to carry. It'll be back, but they'll have a blissful day to remember for months to come.” They all nodded. “It's the least we can do, right?” They nodded some more.

  Melanie returned to the group, and they all reassembled into their vans and headed back to either the Coven House or Ward Manor. Justin was glad to see that the news vans that had taken up residence outside the Coven House were all gone. Off to a better story, no doubt. The picketers were still there, but they were getting tired. Melanie was winning.

  He tried to tell her so, but got dizzy. She laughed, and he felt himself buoyed up by her air magic so he could walk upstairs to their bedroom. He fell asleep, fully clothed, and barely noticed when Melanie got in bed beside him. It had been a good day.

  Justin got up early and went to train in the gym. He had gone to bed so early the night before that he woke up around three in the morning. He started doing some practice, just moving by rote in the aikido forms. As he did it, he cleared his mind.

  So when he got done, he had a lot of room to think. He returned to his room for a shower, feeling peaceful. He thought about yesterday's exertions. Melanie was one of a kind, managing to do a publicity stunt while really helping out a lot of kids. He couldn't wait to see it air.

  But while Justin was thinking about Melanie, he realized something important. He didn't want her to leave in a few months. He didn't want her to leave ever. The consummate womanizer had turned into a man in love. In love with one woman nonetheless. He didn't know how long it had been, but it was strong.

  He wanted it all, the wife who he loved and who loved him and kids to raise for better or for worse. He wanted, and now he was going to have to find a way to make it happen. It was too much to hope that she loved him too already, so he'd have to convince her.

  He'd been with plenty of women, some of whom had claimed to love him. But when it came to the one woman he needed to convince, he didn't know how to start. He came up with an idea finally, and he wanted to make preparations for it to work out. Unfortunately the stores he wanted to visit weren't open yet.

  So he went to his office and started checking his email for any hints from the police. Still no strong hints, but Justin had more hope now that they had more outside help. The damn picketers arrived with the sun, but there were less than half of the ones who were there yesterday.

  Justin held his morning briefing in the ops room, reminded everyone of the duty schedule, and he left to go prepare for tonight. He'd have to be awfully convincing, so he'd better work hard.

  149

  CHAPTER NINE

  That night, he and Melanie cuddled up on the couch to watch her story air. The reporter's take on the events was very positive, as were all the reporters' stories Melanie had been tracking down through the day.

  “You do good work, Mel.”

  “Thanks. I appreciate that you pitched in. I know you were involved in keeping us safe, but then you got down there and got your hands dirty.”

  “It was the least I could do,” but he was inordinat
ely pleased that she liked his actions. It made it worth the effort and more. “Now I've got dinner reservations, and we'd better get ready.”

  “Dinner?” She asked, surprised.

  “Yes. I told Skylar not to bring any food by, so you'll have to come with me or starve.”

  168

  THE DASHING WITCH

  She laughed. “How should I dress?”

  “Dress nice.” She did, in a floor-length black dress with red trim and embroidery on the chest. “You look great.”

  “You're not bad yourself.” He was wearing a suit jacket and everything. He escorted her out to his black SUV and drove off to the restaurant. It was a nice steak place which came highly recommended by Skylar. Since Skylar had worked in a similar restaurant before, she would know where to send them.

  Justin could tell Melanie was impressed. He gave his name, and they were shown to their seats.

  He didn't press while they chose what they wanted and gave their orders.

  “I love the restaurant. Thank you.”

  “I've never really taken you on a date. I've gotten you pregnant and you're moving into nine weeks. But I haven't even taken you to dinner.”

  She laughed. “It's not all that important to me.”

  “But I have something important to say, and I wanted a bit of fanfare with which to say it.” She was quiet, just watching him for cues. “I've been thinking about what's going to happen here in a few months when our arrangement is done.” Her face went totally still. She clearly didn't want to talk about it. “I know we had planned that when you have the babies, you'd leave. But I've come to realize that I don't want you to leave. I want you to stay with me and be my wife. I want to raise our children together. What I'm saying is that over the last few months, I've fallen totally in love with you. I love you, and I want you to be with me.”

  Tears started dripping down Melanie's cheeks, and she didn't even reach to stop them. “Oh Justin!”

  Afraid of what he was going to hear, he quietly said, “Talk to me Mel. What's going on in that beautiful mind of yours.”