Magical Influence Book One (13 page)

A cold, harsh breeze sliced through
the barely open window to Tessa’s side.

Both Tessa and Granny turned to it
sharply. I could see how quickly their skin paled, how their
breaths stuck in their chests.

Then I felt it, all too
late.

Something ominous. Like the sound of
twigs snapping behind you in the forest. Like the sudden blink of
headlights when you are hiding by the road.

The first hint that something is after
you.

Tessa leaned over and closed the
window with a bang. Then she stood, pushed her hands into the
glass, and glowered down at the street.

“I think we got here just in time,” my
grandmother brought a hand up and clutched at her pearls, and to my
dismay, she was shaking.

I looked from her to Tessa to the
contract.

I may not have liked the fact I had
just been muscled into a job I didn't want, but maybe it really had
been just in the nick of time.

There was a howling gust of
wind along the street, and a trashcan blew over, rolled off the
curb, and right into the path of a car. The poor driver barely
missed it, there was a screech of
tires, and everyone turned to
look.

Just then there was boom of thunder
far off towards the mountains at the back of the city.

“I can give her some work immediately,”
Tessa finally turned back to my grandmother, and her words were
quick and sharp. She was clearly worried.

“I think that would be for the best,”
Granny stood up, angling her head out the window, but for some
reason it seemed as if she was unwilling to get too close to the
glass.

“I heard about your oak tree,” Tessa sat
down, though she was still clearly uneasy, and her previously stiff
back had led way to crumpled, bowed shoulders. “You should replace
it.”

My grandmother nodded her
head
. “I'll
have to find something suitable.”

“Hurry,” Tessa noted simply.

Jesus. With the amount of tension in
this room, added to the sheer doom of the weather outside, it felt
like someone was about to die.

Me. That was the point, right? This
situation was getting more serious by the second.

Oh, and I had just been granted a new
lease on life, a new job, and a new car.

“Here's a bunch of paperwork,” Tessa
opened one of her drawers, plucked out two neat bundles of
documents, and handed them to me. “Run through them, they will give
you the general gist of my business, show you what we usually deal
with. Be sure to try to read them by the end of the day,” she noted
as she glanced back to the window.

“I will make her. The only way to reap the
magic of a new job is by working it,” my grandmother dropped her
hands from her pearls and clutched them in her lap
instead.

“What are you going to do now?” Tessa
grabbed the contract my grandmother had signed and ferreted it away
in one of her drawers.

“Fix the house, find a new guard to
replace the broken oak tree, and, of course, find my granddaughter
a man.”

Tessa nodded sternly, as if
nothing my grandmother had said was out of place
. “Good luck.”

“I imagine we will need it,” Granny stood
up, patted down her skirt, and nodded towards her
daughter.

“I warn you, this job won't be easy,”
Tessa finally turned her attention to me. “But if you really want
it, I have no problem in giving it to you.”

If I really wanted it? What
about my appearance or
behavior had suggested to anyone that I wanted to
be a private detective?

I didn't bother saying anything. There
was no point. I just had to let my whirlwind of a grandmother get
through this day, and drag me with her. Then, hopefully by the end
of it, I would still be alive, but very, very different.

With the contract signed, and me now
an employee of my Aunt Tessa, we waved goodbye and headed back to
our monster truck.

I had the oddest sensation as I
looked at it just before my grandmother jumped in and gunned the
engine. Though it was horrendously large
... at least it looked solid. Vinnie
was probably right; you could take on a train with it. It might be
a little worse for wear, but unlike my previous hatchback, it
wouldn’t be a pancake on the tracks.

It looked like it could withstand a
frightful bashing.

In other words, it could protect its
driver.

I hated the fact I was warming to it,
however slowly, but as I clambered up, showing the world my
knickers as I did, I felt all the safer once I was inside. With
that incredible bull bar and the huge engine roaring beneath us, it
seemed we could take on anything.

We would, however, need a lot more
than a truck.

As the heavens were opening up, that
sensation that something was after me grew.

At first it was an itch along my back,
then a cold feeling in my chest, and by the time we had driven back
home, it was a full-blown panic attack.

Chapter 12

“Now, before we get out of this car, I
want you to think powerful thoughts,” my grandmother said as we
pulled up to the curb outside of the house. “I know you can feel
it, child, forces are building. The tower is about to collapse. I
have protected you this far, and this car, through its monstrous
size, enormous tires, and roaring engine, has kept us safe this
morning. But now it is time to head back to the house. You will be
exposed on the walk up to our door. You must remain solid and
strong.”

I swallowed loudly and uncomfortably
as I listened to my grandmother's words.

“You must promise me that you will think
only powerful thoughts until we get into the house. Believe that
you can be a strong, self-directed, powerful witch. Believe that
you can get through this day. Promise me that,” she reached out,
clutched my hand, and tightened her grip around it.

I could hardly breathe, let alone
reply to her. It wasn't just what she was saying, it was her
general temperance as she spoke. As an influence witch, I knew that
my grandmother was more than capable of gathering the magic around
her and imbuing everything she did with its force. Well now the
whole car seemed to pulse with it. A warning, poignant and
incapable of being ignored.

I managed a nod.

I felt like a child, lost and lonely,
incapable of looking after myself, ready to run behind the nearest
adult so my sense of security would return.

My grandmother tightened her
grip, and her old fingers almost cut off the circulation in my
hands
. “I
said think powerful thoughts.”

I knew she couldn't read my mind
exactly; she didn't have to though. As an influence witch she
picked up every little sign she could, stored every fact, and could
read a situation better than any other magical creature I had ever
met.

Think powerful thoughts. If only it
were that easy. It really didn't help that the day had become
strangely dark, that the wind now sounded less like a thing and
more like a howling animal, that every time I looked over to the
house, all I could see was the space where the oak tree had once
been.

“You can do this,” she
affirmed.

I guess I would have to.

Without another word, she opened the
door, looked meaningfully at me, and waived me on.

It was one of the tensest moments of
my life. Though I had been through danger before, I’d never touched
on anything as frightful as this.

My grandmother had almost
guaranteed that I would be attacked on the way up to the house
unless I managed to shore up my magical
defenses, push out my doubt, and
believe in myself.

The second I opened the door, the wind
caught it, tugged it out of my hand, and banged it open. Startled,
I gave out a gasp.

“Powerful thoughts, think only powerful
thoughts, do not make startled sounds like a little girl,” my
grandmother added ominously.

Powerful thoughts,
I kept on saying to
myself.
I am
thinking only powerful thoughts.

Once I had jumped down from the
truck, it managed to close the door for me. I say it, I meant the
wind. Before I could turn around and reach for the door handle, the
whole thing was snapped from me in enormous gust. I jumped back
just as it slammed closed and the truck shook on its
monstrous
tires.

Don't be startled,
I told
myself.
A
powerful witch is not startled by something as simple as the
wind.

I tried to leave my thoughts at that,
but the mutinous little things could not be helped. The wind, I
knew perfectly well, could be a disastrous thing. A breeze you
could ignore, a gale was a pain, but what about a tornado? A
hurricane? Were those little, innocent things, or could they pick
you up, slam you into a building, and bring a tree and a couple of
cows smashing down over your broken body?

Wrong thoughts.

As soon as I thought them, I felt
weakened. As soon as I felt weakened, the wind howled all the
louder, that animal-like sound of it pitching high.

I made it up onto the curb somehow,
instinctively falling into step behind my grandmother.

Then we made the usually short trip
over to the fence, through the gate, and up the garden
path.

It was not short today. It felt
like I was travelling the River Styx, waiting for
judgment to be
heaped upon my weary body.

I was so focused on getting up to the
gate, locking my eyes only on my grandmother's back, that I was
surprised when I heard a voice behind me.

I say surprised, I mean completely,
deafeningly shocked. I screamed, I do mean screamed. And I jumped
behind my grandmother like a scared little girl.

Expecting the worst, believing
a massive demon would be behind me, ready to spike me through the
chest with its tail, I turned to see
... Agent Jacob Fairweather.

His mouth was open and he had a
humorous if surprised look on his face
. “Are you hiding behind your
grandmother?”

I didn't know how to answer.
Because I
was
hiding behind my grandmother.

“Get in the house now, dear, ignore the
attractive man on the garden path,” Granny warned, clutching at my
hand and tugging me along.

Jacob snorted. He seemed to do that a
lot around my grandmother.

“I came to check on your house, I noticed
the tree is already down... and the wall is fixed, are you too
okay?” he asked as he followed us up the garden path.

I just wanted him to go away. I also
wanted to get in the house. My hands were so slick with sweat and
my heart so wild with fright that I knew I was seconds away from
fainting. And I didn't want to faint right there in front of Jacob,
not wearing a summer dress, I already had to keep one hand latched
on it so it didn't fly up.

Somehow we made it. And maybe
it was the distraction of having Jacob walking up behind me, but
the last few steps were not as frightening as the first few. I was
no longer pressing my addled mind into thinking only powerful
thoughts; I was distracted by the fact my least
favorite Federal Agent was
harassing me again.

But by the time I’d walked through the
doorway and into the house, I could have collapsed on the floor
from relief.

“There, that wasn't too hard,” my
grandmother said under her breath. Then she turned. To face Jacob,
who had followed us in, like an uninvited puppy.

“Jacob,” she clapped her hands together,
warmth returning to her smile, and just a little bit of the crazy
old lady shining through. “What a dear you are for coming to check
on us. Do you want a treat for your troubles?”

Despite the situation, despite the
fear and the pressure of the walk up to the house, I snorted.
Because my grandmother made it sound like Jacob was a faithful dog
who’d performed a fantastic trick and now needed an instant
reward.

He locked eyes on me. That
cold, challenging book was back
. “I just came to check that you were okay
and not getting into any more
trouble
.”

“Now, now, I do believe it is actually
fate. Tell me, you handsome young man, are you single?” My
grandmother jumped in.

It took me a second, but I
suddenly
realized what she was doing.

My eyes opened wide like she was about
to light the fuse on a bomb.

“Sorry?” Jacob gave an awkward
cough.

“Single,” my grandmother walked over,
plucked up one of his hands, and checked that he wasn't wearing a
ring. “You look single. You are, aren't you?”

“Yes, but what does that have to do with
anything?”

“Fate. It's surprising how it works. I
need to get my granddaughter hitched, and a lovely eligible young
bachelor walks in the door. It's when you think you're at your
lowest that it turns out your luck is about to blossom. Now what
about that tea?”