Free Bloodmagic (Blood Destiny 2) by Helen Harper Page A

try to squeeze the information out of her.  I opted for a half-truth instead.  “There’s a guy.  He used to hang out at the pub where I worked before here – he’s the reason I had to leave.  Well, the reason I was fired, actually.  He came upon me in the street on the way home and…”
    She patted my hand, softly.  “Oh my dear.  How terrible.  Did he hurt you?”
    “Um, not really, I managed to get away this time but I’m worried about what he might do if I see him again.” 
    I hoped her strain of clairvoyance wouldn’t detect the slight lie.  I had, after all, been set upon by Derek in the street.  But I’d sort of swapped my pronouns when I mentioned the guy who I was worried about seeing again.  Derek I could take care of easily myself – Corrigan, or indeed Solus, I might have a bit more trouble with.  She’d foreseen before that Corrigan wouldn’t ever come to Inverness and that Solus meant me no harm.  But that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t do harm ‘accidentally’ and that Corrigan wouldn’t just send some shifter minions in his place.  Besides, if her clairvoyant skills were that strong and reliable, she’d probably have been a fully fledged member of the Ministry of the Mages and I was almost completely sure that wasn’t the case.
    Still, concern was clearly written all over her face.  Whilst I’d managed to avoid setting off her soothsaying warning system, I felt a bit guilty about not telling her the whole truth, especially when she was so obviously anxious about my welfare.
    “Oh my dear Mackenzie, that sounds just awful, just simply awful.  I’ve not felt that anything bad like that will happen but then my feelings, as I call them, are hardly an exact science.”  Her face took on a pensive look.  “I hope you won’t think I’m intruding but I have a friend who might be able to help.”
    I doubted that very much, not unless they happened to be a ridiculously powerful denizen of the otherworld .  Still I tried to look interested, just to play along and be polite.
    Mrs Alcoon continued.  “She’s the one I was telling you about – the one who has been a bit sick.  You collected the blisterwort for her.  She has some, um,” she searched around for a word, “…tricks, that you might be able to use in case you get in trouble again.  She’s very trustworthy, I promise.”
    This would be a total waste of time.  I dreaded to think what these ‘tricks’ might be – a bit of self-defence 101 perhaps?  The old knee in the groin ploy had worked once with Corrigan but as a serious long term defense tactic it was going to be completely pointless. 
    “I…I’m not so sure that’ll help much,” I started to say, trying to think of a way to let Mrs Alcoon down lightly.  Her intentions were well meant, after all.
    “Please, Mackenzie, it will make me feel so much better.  You look so pale right now that I’ll be worried every time you walk out the door.”  She added a little quaver to her voice just for a bit of effect and widened her eyes at me in expressive hope.
    I sighed.  Manipulated by an old aged pensioner.  “Okay, then.  I know some self defence already though so it might not do a huge amount of good.”  Well, at least when I said I knew some self-defence I could take down most otherworldly monsters if I managed to focus my bloodfire and concentrate hard enough.  It was just unfortunate that Corrigan wasn’t most otherworld monsters and Solus was an uncontrollable Fae.
    She beamed at me, full wattage.  “This isn’t just a bit of karate.  I’ll ring her right this minute.”  With a light-footed flourish that belied her years, she immediately walked out of the kitchen.  I could hear the sounds of her picking up the phone beside the shop’s till and the soft murmur of indistinct talk.  I sat heavily back in my chair and wiped a hand across my forehead.  Oh, what a tangled web we weave.
    Moments later Mrs Alcoon wandered back into