Free Waiting for Magic by Susan Squires

softly. Then her eyes filled and she turned away. “Sorry. It’s just that I understand what it’s like to look at the Tremaine family from the outside in.”
    Kemble started to panic. Jane, calm and collected Jane , couldn’t start crying on him. “You’re part of the family, Jane. As much as Devin.”
    Jane dabbed at her eyes and turned around with a smile. “You’ve all been very kind to me over the years.”
    “We have not.” No, that wasn’t right. “I mean, it wasn’t kindness. The whole family loves you, not just Drew. I heard Mother and Senior talking when you and Drew were maybe fifteen. They were trying to figure out how to adopt you. But with your mother still living.…”
    “Oh, that’s sweet. Of course, I would never have abandoned my mother.” She sounded wistful. “But it’s nice of you to tell me that.”
    “Well.” He cleared his throat. “Only right.” He’d better get back to safer ground. “So, I’ll, uh, keep an eye on Devin, and see if I can’t get him to, uh, open up.” He clenched his jaw. “And maybe I better get a ball and chain to keep him in at night.” He forced himself to smile. “Now, how about some coffee?”
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    Jason huddled in a deserted bus stop shelter on Hollywood Boulevard with his cell to his ear as the rain drove against the glass sides and clattered on the metal roof. “It’s Jason,” he heard Hardwick say. He swallowed hard and tried to stop shivering. It was one in the morning. Even the denizens of the Boulevard had packed it in on this dismal night. He noticed that blood was dripping onto the bench from his right arm. There was only one way he could play this and come out whole. He prayed to … well, to whomever there was to pray to, that he could manage the old woman.
    “So, you have him?” Her voice crackled with expectation as she got on the line.
    “Not exactly.”
    “What do you mean, not exactly?”
    Uh, oh. “I can confirm that he’s is the real deal.”
    “Define ‘real deal.’  ” The voice had turned dead, unforgiving.
    “He’s got some kind of supernatural something—force, beast? I’m not sure—protecting his house.”
    “You couldn’t get through, even Cloaked?”
    “ Cloaking was how I got out with my life. I’m heading over to the E.R. to get some repair work.” She’d know he was in bad shape. He never got stitched up. He heard her acknowledgement that he was serious in her silence.
    “You think he’s got the gene?” she asked after a moment.
    “I don’t know,” he admitted reluctantly. “I’m not sure if it’s a power, or if he’s just called up something from the abyss with some spells. He’s got a collection of all these old books and shit up there. At least that’s what his cook says. She thinks he practices Old Magic.”
    “Hardwick says he’s Golden Dawn,” the old woman mused. “A Magister. He must have studied the texts. He could have used a demon to protect the place.”
    “He sure used something.”
    “Do you think he knows you were there?”
    “Yeah.” Might as well admit it. Jason would never forget the still figure silhouetted against that lighted upstairs window, watching as Jason had fought shadows that ripped and tore at him. He had been Cloaked, invisible. But Pendragon had known he was there, Jason would swear it. And the magician had been enjoying the mayhem and bloodshed.
    “Get treatment,” she said. “And get a hotel room. Fly back when you’re ready.”
    That was as much forgiveness as he was likely to get. He was grateful for that much.
    *****
    Kee threw her caution-sign-yellow Prada shoulder bag over the office chair. Kemble was seated at his computer, but at her entrance, he swiveled, a concerned look on his face. “So how did it go?”
    “It was Starbucks, not the prom.” She flung herself into a visitor’s chair.
    “That bad, huh?”
    When had Kemble started to get a sensitive side? “I don’t know what was worse, the