Free An Imperfect Witch by Debora Geary Page B

of superboy’s caliber.
    He nodded solemnly.  “Big-people stuff.”
    “Yup.”  She ran a hand over his curls.  “We’re not really sure about this ghost just yet, but that’s something for the big people to worry about.  Your job is to be the best MonsterZilla ever.”
    He didn’t budge.  “But I really love Lizard.”
    Lauren sighed.  Sometimes the line between taking his feelings seriously and overburdening a boy who had a right to his childhood was as murky as hell.  “I know, cutie.”
    His eyes brightened.  “But you love her too.  Really, really a lot, right?”
    Ooph.  “Yeah, I sure do.”
    “Okay.”  He gazed at her with the kind of little-boy trust that made her heart melt and puke all at the same time.  “Then you take good care of her, and if the ghost is being bad, you can tell me, and I’ll use my most awesome roar and scare it away.  And you can bring your plant, too, after Ginie fixes it.”
    That sounded like a heck of a deal.  She grinned at his awesome self and let out her best burp.  And reveled in the giggles that rocked the cottage.
    Take that, stupid ghost.  She had MonsterZilla sleeping over.
    -o0o-
    Two could hear.
    The orb sat in quiet shock, processing the new information.
    The forces were very interested in the child.  And the child could hear the forces.  There had not been such a one for centuries.
    The orb, the boy heard only very dimly—but even that was an earthshaking event.  Two in one century.  A richness of listeners.
    Or perhaps not.  The forces were very clear.  They had other plans for the small one.  Other needs.
    It discomfited the orb—some kind of atavistic protective reaction on behalf of those younger.  Or perhaps something simpler than that.  The boy’s mindtouch had been kind.
    -o0o-
    Shit.  Lizard froze in the door of her apartment, aware, seconds too late, that she wasn’t alone.
    Josh, sprawling in her decidedly lumpy armchair, looked up from his laptop.  “Hey.  Welcome back.”
    It was her house, dammit.  “What are you doing here?”
    His eyebrows flew up at her tone.  “Waiting for you.”
    “Nobody asked you to wait.”  She was picking a fight, and she had no idea how to stop it.
    His eyes traveled, taking in information.  A guy looking for a way out.  “What’s up with the duds?”  He tried a smile.  “New choice of Halloween costume?”
    It wasn’t that long ago that dirty jeans and scruffy boots had been as familiar as her own skin.  And now Trinity was kicking her off the streets.  “They’re my clothes.  You have a problem with that?”
    She felt his annoyance morph to anger—and then just as fast, to something else.  Deep concern.  His hands reached out, moving gently up and down the tats on her bare arms.  “You’ve got your armor on tonight.  What’s going on?”
    He saw way too much.  “I went for a walk.  That’s all.”
    “Okay.  And now you’re back.” 
    Somehow she was being herded to the couch.  “I didn’t expect you to be here.”
    His mind suddenly got very careful.  “Is that a problem?  I’m sorry—I know your space really matters to you.  If I’m invading it, just say so.”
    Gods.  Most days she loved having him here.  Lizard wedged herself behind a convenient pillow and tried to man up.  “I went to do something hard, okay?”  She swiped a hand at her tattered jeans.  “Something that reminds me about all this.”
    A skin she needed some time to shed when she got home.
    “I wish you hadn’t done that alone.”  His fingers traced the lines of the bracelet on her arm.
    She felt like a shapeshifter caught mid-shift.  She might be too soft for Trinity’s streets, but she wasn’t soft enough for Josh Hennessey.  Maybe it was time he learned that.  “I had stuff to do.  You would have just slowed me down.”
    Lizard jumped off the couch, way too frenetic and worried and mad to sit still.  And caught a sideswipe from his gentle, hurt