Page 13 of Coven

“Of course not!” Stephen replied, sounding affronted as his back stiffened. “That was some sort of goo Kana slapped on us. He said it would help protect us.”

“Kana?” Amanda asked, and suddenly the entire room was looking at him.

He should have expected this. Kana wracked his brain, trying to come up with a plausible story.

“Well,” he said, trying to stall for time to think. He didn’t bother trying to hide his nervousness or the shaking in his voice. “It’s probably not something you’ll want to share. I went to a bunch of different shops, but no one had anything that would repel vampires. But I stopped at a little pop-up tent in the square—you know where they hold the flea market every Friday? The old lady running it promised the oil would keep vampires and mosquitoes away, so I bought it. I figured it was better than nothing?”

“You bought snake oil?” Stephen gasped. “You put some sort of unknown grease on me?”

“It worked, though,” Amanda cut in sharply. “Snake oil or no, you still have all your blood thanks to it.”

“Well, I can’t talk about some unknown old lady and her creepy goop,” Stephen said, his voice firm as his outrage vanished.

Amanda shrugged. “So, we spin it. Despite being invited, you weren’t certain of their intentions. You were smart enough to take some precautions just in case, and they paid off. It makes the network look good for doing something to protect our employees.”

And it wouldn’t hurt Stephen’s image either, Kana thought when Stephen immediately jumped on board.

“All we have to do is iron out what we want to say on air, and what we want to write for the newspaper and website columns,” Amanda said when Stephen stopped preening.

Kana let out a breath, relieved attention had been diverted from him, then focused on taking notes for the meeting. He and Beth were likely going to write the first drafts of the columns—which would then be completed by the writers with bigger names so they would get the author credit and drum up interest—so he needed to know what was hashed out.

Two very long hours later, Kana and Beth staggered back to their desks. Beth immediately went to her desk in search of more painkillers while Kana collapsed into his chair.

“I need a nap,” he said aloud.

Told you we should have skipped work, Sora said, sounding smug. He yawned and stretched on the pillow, then curled up again and pressed his nose to Mika’s side. A second later Sora was as asleep as Mika, and all Kana wanted to do was crawl under his desk and join them.

“If only,” Beth groaned. “But I don’t think we’ll be allowed to leave today until we submit an acceptable draft.”

Beth’s words proved to be prophetic. She and Kana wrote four drafts. The first three were returned heavily edited. The first was edited by Amanda, the second by Stephen and Marilyn—mostly Stephen—and the third by the writing staff who would be putting their name on the final product. Each draft had to be approved by every single person on the list, so they had to wait for Amanda, then Stephen, and finally the writing staff to approve the fourth and, thankfully final, draft before they could finish work that day.

Kana was just short of staggering and was yawning heavily when he and Beth were finally allowed to leave. The sun was setting, its blinding glare making Kana squint as he stepped outside the building.

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you home?” Beth asked, concern in her voice.

Kana yawned and waved his hand at her. “Thanks for the offer, but I live in the opposite direction. No sense in you going out of your way. I’ll just take the bus.”

“If you’re sure…” Beth trailed off, but when Kana didn’t change his mind, she sighed. “Don’t fall asleep on the bus and end up two towns over.”

Kana laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not that tired. My brain is fried, that’s all.”

Beth smiled at him. “Mine too. Okay. See you tomorrow.”

“See you.” Kana walked to the bus station while Beth went in the other direction to the parking garage across the street. He had about five minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive, which was more than enough time to mosey his tired body across the street and down one block to the stop.

The crosswalk light changed quickly, and Kana walked to the other side of the road. He turned to walk to the bus stop when a black SUV suddenly stopped at the curb right next to him. Both passenger-side doors flew open, and two werewolves jumped directly into his path.

“Get in the car,” the closer one growled.

Kana shook his head. “No thanks.” Either Mika or Sora were growling from inside Kana’s backpack. Kana widened the channel between them, letting more magic flow. His circle to repel werewolves would need aconite, but Kana would combine that rune with the rune for flower so it would only stun them. The roots and seeds of aconite were deadlier than the flower. Werewolves called aconite wolfsbane, and it was extra potent against them.

Kana couldn’t go with the werewolves, but he still had to stay hidden, so he would also need a secrecy spell. A second rune layered beneath and around the wolfsbane one would keep any passersby from noticing.

The closer wolf reached out and the second one put a piece of paper into his hand. The wolf held up the paper for Kana to see.

“What would happen if this photo were put online in a blog post reading: witch with two familiars!”

The photo was of Kana, toast in his mouth and two cats running after him as he sprinted for the bus that morning.

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