Free Thaumatology 101 by Niall Teasdale Page B

straightening up and walking back to the counter. Ceri let out a slight sigh she hoped Lily did not hear. ‘His father’s Alfred Barnes. That family owns MagiTech, and MagiTech is one of Cambridge’s main benefactors.’ Whatever the truth was, things had fallen into place for Lily. ‘When Matthew came to the Dragon he had two bodyguards with him,’ she said. ‘Vampires. Both girls and fairly young.’
    ‘Daddy probably pays them to keep him out of trouble,’ Ceri suggested.
    Lily shook her head. ‘He’d got them bound,’ she said. ‘You know the way the human thralls of a vampire look? That was the feeling I got off these two.’ Her lips twitched into a snarl again. ‘He had real trouble with the idea that “no” means “keep your grubby hands to yourself” too.’
    Ceri chewed on her lip. ‘Okay, let’s say Mat Barnes set Shane up to mess up Doctor Tennant’s experiments from the inside.’
    ‘Which he did,’ Lily said emphatically.
    ‘ Assuming that he did,’ Ceri said, indicating that she was still not entirely convinced, ‘we would need proof so solid it could actually stop a Null Thaumiton before we accused him.’
    Lily opened her mouth, pulling in a deep lungful of air to argue, and then sagged, her head hanging. ‘Damn,’ she said. Slowly she looked up at her friend. ‘They hurt you, Ceri. We can’t let them get away with this.’
    September 6 th
    ‘We have a visitor,’ Twill said, flitting into the kitchen.
    Ceri and Lily looked at the fairy, and then at each other. ‘I wasn’t expecting anyone,’ they said in unison. Lily giggled.
    ‘A woman,’ Twill said. ‘She reeks of magic, but she’s not a practitioner.’
    ‘Doctor Tennant?’ Ceri guessed. ‘Crap!’
    ‘I better get dressed,’ Lily said, bolting for the door.
    ‘What about me?! Ceri wailed. She was dressed in her usual over-size shirt.
    ‘Too late for that,’ Twill said, sounding amused, ‘she’s at the door.’
    Sure enough, there was a distant sound of knocking. Well, there was nothing to be done about it now. Ceri padded to the front doors on bare feet, opening an inner one, and then going on to the outer ones. Taking a deep breath, she opened the door.
    Tennant did not look like a woman on the verge of a momentous discovery. Her eyes were sunken from lack of sleep and she looked as though she had just pulled herself together from crying. Ceri frowned. ‘Doctor Tennant, hi. I’m, uh, sorry for the informal…’
    ‘You’re convalescing, dear.’ She sounded tired, too. ‘Would it be a terrible inconvenience if I came in?’
    ‘No, of course not.’ Ceri stepped back and waved her employer through into the hall. She closed the door and followed after.
    Twill was hovering at the foot of the stairs, dressed in her toga-like dress. She regarded the doctor calmly and said, ‘You look like you could use a coffee.’
    Tennant did a slow blink. ‘That… would be very welcome,’ she said. Nodding, Twill turned and, vanishing into fairy-light, streamed off toward the kitchen. Tennant turned to look at the slightly sheepish Ceri. ‘You live with a half-demon and a fairy?’ she asked incredulously.
    Ceri shrugged. ‘Yeah, we kind of adopted each other. That was Twill. She’s the reason the house is clean. Um, up the stairs and to the left. We’ll go sit in the lounge.’
    Lily was standing meekly in front of the fireplace when they walked in. Dressed demurely, for her, in a short, grey, jersey-dress and heels, she stood there with her hands behind her back looking like a slightly-too-short catwalk model awaiting her cue. Ceri briefly wondered how the girl had got dressed so fast before realising that pulling on a stretchy dress probably did not take too long and Lily was almost certainly not wearing anything under it. ‘Good afternoon, Doctor Tennant,’ she said. ‘It’s nice to see you again.’ A slight frown broke her cutely submissive expression. ‘You look terrible, Doc. Sit down.’
    Tennant