Induction, T.K. Eldridge [read aloud books txt] 📗

about half a mile in, in the clearing to the left of the trail. I sensed a few more off to the right of the trail and some on the trail further in. I didn’t push too much because I didn’t know if magic would trigger them. Sin’s out in the forest right now, trailing Dad.” I waved my hand as she started to ask questions. “We don’t have time for that right now. They both know about the explosives and were headed out of the forest. I’m worried that a freakin’ squirrel is going to run over one of those and trigger a chain reaction of explosions.”

“Wait, what did you find in the clearing?” Sett asked.

I leaned against the back-porch railing, stretching as I cooled down. I described the scene in the clearing to her. “So, it looked to me like Dad interrupted those two running off after they planted the explosives, wounded them and chased them into the clearing. They cornered him, he gave the killing bites and when they fell, they trapped him. If he’d jumped over one, he would’ve hit a bomb. He could’ve jumped the other, but he couldn’t sense the explosives like Sin, and I can with our magic.”

“Okay, so I have one question,” Sett said. “How did you know to go to the clearing? Two hours before you’d normally be up and running?”

“Um, I had a dream?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“I had a dream. But in my dream, Dad was dead in the clearing.”

“You’ll need to tell your Grandma about this. Precognitive dreams are a whole separate study group of magic.”

“Oh, joy,” I mumbled.

“What was that?” Sett asked.

“Nothing, Auntie. Are we going to get a power circle together?”

“I’ll talk to your Grandma in a few minutes. You call your brother home and go shower and change. No running this morning. Someone has figured out your schedule and planned a nasty surprise. Time to change things up a bit.”

I hadn’t thought of that. Yet. I like to think I would’ve put it together after I had some coffee, but yeah, whoever planted those explosives knew roughly where Sin and I had been running every morning. I sent out a mental call to him to come to me as I ran to our cottage. I slowed as I got closer, the feelings of paranoia made me want to scan around the house too, just to be safe.

It was a good thing I did. Tripwires ran across the front steps, but whatever they were going to trigger hadn’t been set up yet. As I made my way around the house, I saw why. I pulled out my cellphone and took a couple of pictures before calling Sett. “Hey, Auntie. I have a couple of presents for you at our cottage. I need you to come by right now.” Then I sent her the pictures.

I heard her answer through her laughter. “On my way.”

Sin was seated, in wolf form, just below the little awning roof over the basement’s outside door. Perched on the awning, clutching the drainpipe to the roof, were two men in gas company overalls.

“Let me guess. You two do not work for the gas company, correct?”

“Get that wolf away from us, you stupid twat! He took a chunk out of Eddie’s leg and almost took my hand off,” one of the two yelled at me.

“Yeah, like asking me so nicely means I’ll do it?” I reached out and rested a hand between Sin’s ears.

~Go ahead, snap and growl at them.~ I said. As long as we were touching, we could use telepathy.

~Naw, I don’t want to clean the piss off the side of the house.~

~Good point. Sett’s coming with a couple of helpers to arrest them.~

I smiled up at the two and fought a yawn. I was going to eat my weight in food and then sleep after all this.

Sett showed up with two SPD agents and got the two off the awning and into a squad car before they could piss all over the house. She took photos of the tripwire and then took it down to bag up as evidence. I watched her work while Sin went inside to shift back and get some food started.

“Are you going to need us to take the IED down?” I asked Sett.

“No, I’d rather you two stayed here for a while today, out of sight but near to hand. Take today as a book study day, would you? For me? I’ll get an explosives team out to help dismantle the mess in the forest and a couple more teams to make sure there aren’t any other nasty surprises anywhere. Tonight, at moonrise, come to the main house and we’ll all do some different wards using the maps.”

“Okay, we will. Thanks, Auntie.” I hugged her and went inside to shower and change. The wards had been set individually and with several filters since the shop was on the farm and some of the fields bordered other property and we didn’t want to zap a neighbor for chasing an animal over a stone wall or something. Now, with today’s events, we’d have to be more proactive at keeping danger away.

I came down in sweatpants and a t-shirt to find Sin stacking food up on the counter. I pulled out the juice and a bowl of chopped fruit and added it to the pile.

“Thank you for cooking,” I said as I slid onto a stool and grabbed a plate. “I’m starving.”

“Well, I knew I could eat a ton after this morning and figured you would need it too, so I tossed some of those leftover pancakes on a tray in the oven to heat up, nuked some sausages in the microwave and scrambled up eggs. This whole cooking extra for later thing you’ve been doing is paying off.”

“It’s something Mom used to do, and I realized with all of the training and studying we’ve got going on, having some quick meals sometimes would be good.”

“So, what did Sett have to say?”

I swallowed the mouthful of pancake and washed it down with some juice before I answered. “We’re to stay here and out of sight for the day. She asked us to please just do a book study day and hang around the house. I’m cool with that.”

“I wanted to try and track Dad again before too many people mucked up the scent trail.”

“Dad knows we’re here now. He’ll come to us when he’s ready. I’m sure he’s working some angle or something and doing his best to keep us all safe. You know how he works.”

“I know. He was already healed up by the time he lost me along the highway. We did talk a little, once I got furry, but while he was grateful we pulled his ass out of the fire, he was not happy that we were out there at all. So, with Dad and Auntie Sett both wanting us to stay put for a day, I think we should. Besides, I have a lot of laundry to catch up on and you’re three chapters behind me in Procedures reading.”

“That’s because I did my laundry more than once in the past month,” I retorted and pinched my nose. “Your dirty clothes are stinking up the house.”

He stuck a grape on his spoon and shot it at me and I retorted with a handful of scrambled eggs.

Needless to say, the laughter kept on even as we cleaned up our mess and settled in to study. Sometimes, childish antics with your sibling were the only answer to a very weird and unsettling day.