Witch Interrupted by Jody Wallace Read Free Book Online Page A

happen?”
    “Sounds like he’s got that under control. It’s not unheard of.”
    “People brag.” Though Marcus hadn’t seemed like a braggart. “He’s not that clever, Tonya. He flubbed up in front of me.”
    “I had to try.” Tonya shook her tin of mints like a maraca. “Tell you what. I’ll help modify his memories, as long as you agree we’re not turning him in to the elders or your old friends.”
    “The keepers were never my friends.” They’d gotten their hooks into Katie as soon as she’d mastered the wolf and come out of it with convex magic. Over the next thirty years, they’d chewed her up and spit her out. Some days her soul still felt like a piece of old gum.
    “That’s because you were on the wrong side. You’re a sympathizer at heart.”
    “You know better than that.” Whichever way she might have leaned as a youth, after thirty years as a keeper, she’d seen and learned too much about wolves to be a sympathizer. Before the digital age and advances in forensics, wolves hadn’t been as inhibited. “But let’s not talk about me. Let’s talk about Marcus.”
    “Have you thought about what we’ll do if we don’t have enough energy for the spell? I’m flush right now, but there are only three of us.”
    “I’m flush too, and Ba’s always full of it.”
    Tonya grinned. “Full of something.”
    “Too true.” Her father’s confidence and magical muscle often made up for his lack of precision. “Anyway, I strengthened the memory mixture with cayenne.” Cayenne pepper stored magic but had no effect itself, beyond skin irritation. Katie liked to supercharge her cayenne far beyond the standard, a habit developed during her keeper days. Difficult to work with, but a little went a long way. “It should increase the impact when I do Marcus.”
    Tonya’s eyes widened dramatically. “Do him? Oh, Katie, I’m so proud. I thought you’d never wise up.”
    “Come on, Tonya.” Katie sighed. “Not now.”
    “Would you prefer I be serious?” Tonya crossed her legs and leaned against the back of the couch, a sure sign she was digging in for an argument. The woman could nag the head off a horse. “Would you prefer I compare a memory wipe to rape?”
    Katie gritted her teeth. “Don’t go there. It’s not the same.”
    Tonya launched into her case, and Katie regretted fussing at her. “Marcus doesn’t want this done to him, and we’re going to do it anyway.”
    “We’re not going to hurt him.” Marcus didn’t ooze the hostility Katie associated with the wolves she’d neutralized as a keeper. Yet that, in and of itself, made him more dangerous to her personally. He was pure temptation. “He just doesn’t get to keep any memories a wolf pack could use against witches.”
    “It’s cruel. Inside, we’re all the same,” Tonya said, echoing Marcus.
    “Agree to disagree. It won’t change what has to be done.”
    “I know. But I don’t have to like it.” Tonya, to Katie’s surprise, acquiesced. They’d argued many times to impasse, but they’d never been faced with a situation where push had come to shove.
    Katie risked some deeper honesty. “I don’t like it either. Thank you for helping.”
    “I’m helping all of us. We’re in this together, we three.” Tonya held out the tin of candies. “Want a sweetie?”
    Katie shook her head and checked her watch. “I’m worried about Marcus. I don’t know why he’s not awake yet. Hey, Ba? What did you put in that sleep spell?”
    “It was your blend, not mine.” Dad clumped out of the stillroom with a mason jar so full of Katie’s simples it looked like sand art. She didn’t even want to know. “I can’t help it if I’m strong as an ox.”
    “I didn’t know I had any sedative left.” Most of the time she used pure valerian out of laziness, but when she mixed a batch, it contained valerian, lavender and cinquefoil to instill good dreams—as well as cucumber to ensure they weren’t naughty ones.
    No wonder