nancy werlock's diary s01 - episodes 8 by julie ann dawson Read Free Book Online Page A

his hands together to fight the shaking. “About an hour ago. I was vacuuming the living room and he came down the steps in a hurry and went out the door.”
    “Did he say anything to you?” asks Stewart.
    “Sorry,” says Harlan.
    “Don’t be sorry. I’m just asking if he said anything to you.”
    “No. No. I mean, he said he was sorry. He almost tripped over me.”
    “You have a way of getting in touch with him?” asks Steve.
    “Quickest way to find him? Let me call Risha.”
    Risha is Houston’s liaison with the College of Psionics and, despite his denials to the contrary, his kinda-sorta-not really-but-yeah-maybe new girlfriend. It isn’t serious yet. But I don’t need to use a Third Eye incantation to tell something is developing there.
    Risha is a telepath, so she doesn’t need a cell phone to “call” Houston. I, however, need a cell phone to call her. So I go back upstairs and retrieve Houston’s to find her number.
    I hear a yawn on the other end of the call followed by “Hmmm, wa…hello?”
    “Risha, I’m sorry to wake you at this hour, but—”
    “You need me to find Houston? Do you think he’s in danger?” she is suddenly wide awake.
    “He left his cell phone and went out an hour ago unexpectedly. I just—”
    “Why are there Justicars at your house?”
    I put the phone down and put up the Iron Wall incantation before continuing. “I’m sure Houston mentioned my friend Steve to you in the past.”
    “Oh. Yes, of course. Hold on. Let me see if I can get a connection to him.” A minute later, she comes back on the line giggling. “He said to tell you he’s fine and to lower your Iron Wall so he can talk to you.”
    “Thank you, Risha. I’m sorry to get you in the middle of this at this hour.”
    “It’s no problem, Nancy. After all, I am his C-Psi.”
    “His…what?”
    “Senior Psion.”
    “Oh, well, thank you anyway.” I hang up with Risha and open my mind to Houston.
    “I can’t believe you went through my phone,” he thinks.
    “That’s what happens when you leave your phone here and I can’t reach you. Deal with it.”
    “Why is Steve there?”
    “Whatever you are doing, you need to come home. Now.”
    “I’m kinda in the middle of something.”
    “Whatever it is can wait.”
    “Ah, Boss, that’s a big, fat ‘no’. I’m in Lawnside following a wisp.”
    “Wait, one of Nanna’s wisps?”
    “Yeah. It woke me up because it saw something peculiar. I’m following it while it follows what it is watching.”
    If dealing with Houston’s dead mother and her drama wasn’t enough, I’m also hip-deep in a mess involving necromancers who are possibly using forbidden magic to artificially extend their lives. Mom and Nanna worked out a few dozen pacts with wisps and promised them imphood in exchange for serving as scouts around the region.
    “I thought the plan was that if a wisp found something, you would just astrally project to the location. Not physically go there?”
    “Once I was up I figured it quicker to just get over here than to try to go back to sleep.”
    “Are you talking to him now?” asks Steve. “You have that annoyed look on your face.” I nod at Steve and explain to him where Houston is. “Get me a cross-street. I’ll meet him there.”
    “Steve wants to meet up with you. What’s your location?” He doesn’t immediately answer. “Houston?” He cuts me off. “Let me throw some clothes on.”
    It doesn’t take us long to locate Houston. We just follow the ambulance to the Wawa convenience store parking lot. Two EMTs are putting a body on a stretcher for transport. Another is treating Houston for a head injury.
    “Are you alright?” I shout. I get intercepted by a police officer before I can reach him.
    “Ma’am, I need to ask you to stay back,” he says.
    “My name is Dr. Nancy Werlock. Houston is my employee.”
    “Well, in that case, maybe you can explain what your employee was doing out at this hour?”
    “You mean