Hot Magic by Holli Bertram Read Free Book Online

her drifting consciousness. No fair. She refused to enter into the Great Beyond before her life passed before her eyes. She didn’t mind missing a replay of the Married Years, and strangely, she felt no tinge of sorrow at leaving Tash and her mother behind. She did, however, want one last memory of that kiss with Harrison. Death had obviously released her inner floozy.  
    Try as she might, she couldn’t hold her thoughts together. They slipped out of her head like wisps of morning fog meeting the sunrise. The last thing she remembered was a remarkable feeling of peace.
     
    G randma’s head jerked and she stood. Her whole body trembled. “Something’s happened.”
    “Of course something’s happened. People are teleporting all over the place and Mom has disappeared.” It only took Tasha a moment to realize her grandmother meant something else. Dread filled her and a band tightened around her chest. “What? Is Mom okay?”
    Grandma sat down again, a shaky hand running through her short curls. “I don’t know. I’m a bit of a Sensitive. I just felt a huge jolt of power. I don’t know what it means.” Her brown eyes, usually bright and laughing, were full of despair. “I don’t know what it means.”
    Tasha sat down beside her and took both her hands. “I need you to tell me what is going on.” She still managed to speak slowly, even though her heart felt like a ping-pong ball bouncing against her ribs. “Tell me about Sun Dancers, the Penum-whatever and Sensitives. Tell me where Mom has gone and what is wrong with her.”
    Grandma nodded, taking a deep breath. “I thought I could escape all this. Keep you and your mother free of it.”
    “Escape what? Keep us free of what?”
    “Your heritage. Your birthright and your birth curse.” Her grandmother spoke in a voice of doom.
    “Stop with the mumbo-jumbo horror movie stuff, Gram. Talk in clear English.”
    “All is not what it seems.”
    “Grandma!”
    The older woman shuddered and gave Tasha a defensive look. “Well, it’s not. There’s more to this world than meets the eye. Humans are only part of God’s grand equation. There are immortals, spirits and mortals with special powers. You, my dear, are a mortal with special powers.”
    Tash didn’t say anything for a moment. Obviously her special power was her ability not to scream in frustration at the craziness coming out of her grandmother’s mouth. Instead she said, very slowly, “Tell me more.”
    “Several types of these special mortals exist. The ones you need to be concerned with now are the Sun Dancers, the Shadow Walkers and the Penumbrae. These three together form the Triad and serve as a buffer against evil. ‘Wherever three or more are gathered, evil cannot prevail.’” Her grandmother spoke the last sentence as if it was a known truth.
    “Is that a Bible verse?” Tash’s head felt like it was whirling. She had so many questions.
    “No. I really have no idea where that came from or even when it was said, but it’s something all Triad learn in the cradle.”
    Except, apparently, for Tasha and her mother. “I don’t have any powers.”  
    “Your mother didn’t either. Your grandpa was human, and I thought you’d both somehow missed out on the magic gene.”
    Tasha closed her eyes. If she hadn’t beamed from Harrison’s front porch to this kitchen, if she hadn’t seen her mother blink out of the kitchen in Harrison’s arms, she’d think her grandmother had truly taken a dive over the edge. “Do you have powers?” She opened her eyes to see Grandma shrug.
    “I’m a Sensitive, which means I can sense others with power. I’m very rusty at the whole energy wielding business.”
    “Grandpa was a normal human?”
    “As normal as they come. Not a whiff of power about him.”
    Soft, cuddly Grandpa Abe had loved nothing better than to sit on the couch and tell Tasha endless stories. He always smelled like he smoked a pipe, and she often thought of him on cold winter nights