Page 14 of Professor and the Seer
“Let’s try to not end up in a Mexican prison,” I mumbled. Not that I saw that happening but you never knew, one day the future might surprise me.
“Bah, as if one could hold me,” Dina boasted, snapping her fingers and making them dance with sparks.
Given anxiety had us restless, we exited the van and waited for Bane to return. The moist evening air was redolent with spice and visions of life. A lizard racing through the brush that would be eaten by the nocturnal bird waiting for it, which would later end up in a snare as fodder for a cookpot. The mouse scampering to its burrow with food for the babies already eaten by a snake.
I shut my eyes against the useless information. John’s hand slid into mine, and some of the stimulation receded to be replaced by a different sort. Awareness. Arousal.
Why did it have to be him who provided a rock in my mental storm and made my panties wet?
It took about twenty minutes before Bane returned, his leopard slinking out of the shadows but not transforming. He eyed Enyo, who appeared to understand him.
“How many patrolling the property outside?” she asked.
He pawed the ground six times. Then made a barking noise.
“Dogs?”
At his nod, he scratched twice.
“Inside?”
He waggled his head and pawed four times, paused, then added two more swipes. So at least four but up to six in the house.
“What about security devices? Did you see cameras?”
He nodded and drew a circle with an extended claw.
“Only around the perimeter?”
He chuffed and flipped around, ready to return.
Enyo eyed us. “I’ll go ahead and clear a path to get inside. Dina, you cover my ass. John and Frieda, you come in once you get the all-clear.”
I should have been insulted to be left out of the plan. After all, this did involve me. However, even though my mother ensured we’d all been trained to protect ourselves, I’d never been much of a fighter. And if I were honest, I still trembled at what I’d done to the men earlier. I’d never used my power offensively before, and it surprised that doing so didn’t even take touching them. My fear had been so great I’d lashed out in the only way I knew how, by showing them the futures. The worst of them. Unfortunately, if John hadn’t arrived, I don’t know if I’d have been able to break free, as I’d been just as caught.
My sister and Bane melted into the shadows. A few minutes later, Dina followed. Just John remained with me, leaning against the van.
“Stick close to me,” he offered. “I might not be a fighter like your sisters and Bane, but I was top of my class for defensive spells.”
“You went to a wizarding school?” I teased because it kept my mind off what we were about to do.
“Of a sort. Didn’t you get any schooling for your powers?”
“Barely. Mom had this thing about keeping us secret. Something about people not understanding.” She was the one person I could never get a read on. Like literally. I only ever saw a blank wall when I attempted to look.
“I can see why she’d be cautious. Triplets with arcane abilities are unheard of. In the case of multiple births, only a single child usually inherits. Sometimes, but not always, from birth. My understanding is you all got it at once in your teens. That must have been shocking.”
“Understatement. Any idea why we’d be different?” I asked.
“Not without knowing your full parentage. Your mother is a witch, correct?”
“Yes. And our father was human.” A one-night stand, supposedly, who never knew he’d impregnated our mom.
“Which makes it even more unusual that all three of you have gifts.”
“Not according to Mom. She claims she always knew we’d be special. The whole being born on Friday the 13th during an eclipse.”
“The Friday the 13th aspect is actually meaningless when it comes to arcane matters. The movie franchise made that the cult thing it is today. However, a birth during an eclipse… That is interesting. It’s a time when doorways between our world and another sync, if even for a moment. It is possible that, upon your birth, you were noticed, and when that cycle repeated, it triggered something.”