Familiar!

Yesterday, after the whirlwind ended, we'd picked up the mess we'd created then Kathleen, her mother, and I sat at my table to discuss magic. And me being a Mage. Well, Mrs. Black and I tried to discuss things, Kathleen mostly sat with her arms wrapped around herself and didn't contribute much to the conversation other than a baleful stare in my direction occasionally. This morning, after I finished getting dressed and wandered into my kitchen, I got the same treatment.

"Breakfast?" I offered as I poured myself coffee. "I have cereal. And there's still some milk left."

Kathleen gave me another one of her patented glares. I sighed.

"Fine." Turning toward the fridge, I pulled out a carton of eggs and some baguette slices, adding a few assorted spices and a can from the cupboard to the collection.

"Tuna okay? Or would salmon be more what you want?"

I could feel her ears perk when I mentioned salmon.

"You don't have any salmon."

"How would you know?"

Silence met my question.

"I see."

She'd rummaged through my kitchen. Probably when I was either sleeping or showering. Or while she was wrecking my house when I was unconscious. I looked at the can and concentrated, calling the tiniest of orbs to help me. I'd never done exactly this before but it shouldn't be that difficult. After all, I'd rebuilt my house this way, twice. A can of salmon ought to be easy in comparison.

"That's tuna."

Kathleen crossed her arms and turned her head away. Her mother touched her lips with a finger to keep herself from saying anything.

"Are you sure?" I looked at the can again. "It says salmon."

"It's tuna. You don't have any salmon. You wouldn't know what to do with salmon anyway."

"Eggs Benedict with salmon croquettes sound good to you? My mom taught me how to make it." I skipped the rest of the meal preparation to concentrate again before setting one of the two loaded plates in my hands in front of her. "Her hollandaise was the best."

Kathleen glared at me again but took the fork I held out. I looked at her mother.

"Would you like some? Or coffee?"

"Water."

I dug into my breakfast. It wasn't Sunday, but what the heck, I might as well enjoy it. Kathleen's mother sipped from the glass which appeared on the table.

"How strong is he?"

"Very strong." Kathleen slowed her gobble long enough to answer then switched to me. "He's still an idiot."

"Hey."

"And a lousy cook."

I pointed my fork at her. "This is my mother's recipe. Be nice or it's two percent from now on."

She tipped up her nose. "You're lucky I even bother drinking your milk. Otherwise, you'd just waste it on some stupid racoon."

I took another fork-full of breakfast. "I'm just glad you decided to come home. I really missed you."

The world paused and went silent a moment before electricity filled the room. Kathleen's hair lifted as she looked at me, gold filling her eyes to overflowing. The papers we'd picked up and piled on the table the night before fluttered along the edges.

<Daniel . . . >

<???>

<I . . .>

Abruptly the invisible wind stilled and the static in the air vanished. Kathleen blushed and looked down at her empty plate. I smiled without moving a muscle. All you cat whisperers better move over, there's a new guy in town.

Finished with my eggs, I popped the last of the croquette into my mouth and cleared the table with a thought.

"Do you now play with magic that only yesterday you didn't believe existed?"

My neighbor's words were almost sarcastic. Instead of responding I just shrugged. I'd spent part of a somewhat restless night over that very issue. I had no answers to any of the questions I had. Kathleen's mother scanned me up and down and looked at her daughter.

"He's strong." Kathleen repeated herself as she gestured at the living room. "The other Mage attacked him without any warning and tried to incinerate us. Everything was burned or broken. He repaired all the damage afterward."

"I felt you give him power. Such a task would have been easy after you did so."

Kathleen shook her head.Her mother looked at her quizzically.

"Daniel is . . . different. He can do things. Things I've never seen or heard that anyone else can do. He doesn't need me for magic, he can draw power for himself. That's how he got the magic to fix his house."

"Impossible. No true Mage can do as you say. All need a Familiar."

"It's true. I was there. I did not give him power to do it."

"Wait, wait, wait." I stopped them. "You can tap into the magic for power. And you can use it. I've seen you do it. If a Mage can't do that, how can you?"

"I told you. I'm only part Witch. The part of me that's Familiar draws the power and the part that's Witch uses it."

"Oh."

"I'm not very strong because I can't use much magic. I don't have enough Witch in me."

"Oh." I repeated myself feeling dumb as I said it. "I didn't think about any of that. Does this mean I have a part of me that's a Familiar?"

"No." Kathleen's mother spoke up. "You are a true Mage. A true Mage cannot draw power."

"He can." Kathleen pointed at me.

"Impossible."

In response I envisioned the glowing orb. It appeared where I wanted it, floating over the center of the table.

"DANIELl!" Kathleen shouted at me as her mother shoved her chair backwards, leaping and landing in the corner, hands up and defenses ready. She growled long and low, her eyes huge and filled with terror. "Put it away!"

I flicked the mental switch and the orb disappeared.

"It's okay. It's gone." Kathleen reached slowly out to her mother who hissed in fear at the approaching hand. "Mom, it's me. It's okay. I made it go away. It's gone."

More soft words and assurances there was nothing to be afraid of followed Kathleen touching her mother's face gently. Slowly she smoothed her mother's hair in a petting motion while shifting closer until she could gather her mom into her embrace.

"I got you. You're okay." The words were gentle. "We're okay."

Two skinny cats appeared in my kitchen. They just ran through the door like it wasn't there and slid to a stop. So that's how Kathleen got in and out of my house through my locked doors, she used some kind of trans-dimensional warp. The cats vanished and two little girls took their place.

"Wait." I held up my hand to prevent them from moving toward their big sister and parent. "You mom's really scared right now. Let your sister handle it. Okay?"

They both looked at me and took a step back.

"Hey, you know me. I'm your neighbor. A friend of your sister. You don't have to be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you."

"You're a Mage." Katrina told me warily. "Mages are bad. They do bad things."

"I made you a Mage too," I reminded her. "Or, I made it so you'll be one when you grow up. You don't think you're bad, do you? I don't think you're bad, I think you're nice."

"I'm nice." Katya interjected, not wanting to be left out.

"Are you?" I tapped the table. "Jump up here and let me see."

A skinny cat leaped to land on the table in front of me. I scratched it behind the ears, ran my hand down it's back, and finished by stroking her tail up high.

"You are a very nice kitty-cat." I petted her again. "I think when you grow up you're going to be a better kitty-cat than both of your sisters combined."

A second black kitten joined the first. Katrina pushed her nose under my fingers wanting attention too. I pulled her tail until she swatted at me with a paw.

"Hey! I'm petting. See? I'm petting. You don't need to be greedy and mean."

I continued to pet the two cats while they preened and pranced in circles on the table in front of me. Eventually Kathleen coaxed her mother out of the corner and into her chair again. At that point I stopped giving the girls attention.

"Okay. That's enough. Why don't you two go see if you can catch the mouse that's been living under my chair?"

I wafted some of the smell of the toy mouse I'd just created under the chair toward them. I made it smell like a real mouse just for the effect. Two sets of eyes squinched half-closed as the pair dropped to their bellies and oozed silently off the table in hunting mode. One went to the left, and the other took the right as they slunk behind the furniture toward my chair. Step, step, pause. Step, pause, step. The mouse was a goner when they found it.

With a little rear-end wiggle, Katya pounced and slid underneath the chair. Paws out, her claws extended, she latched on to the prey and scooped it into her mouth. Katrina, a half-second behind, clawed only empty air as Katya jumped to the back of my couch with her prize. She looked down at her sister and smirked. Katrina lidded her eyes and thrashed her tail.

I knew that look.

"Don't break anything." I warned them.

Two faces swivelled wide innocent eyes in my direction, before turning toward each other again. Both focused intently on the other as tails began to whip and thrash once more. Katrina's rump tensed right before she leapt at her sister. Katya dropped behind the couch and raced away, the toy mouse still in her mouth. Katrina was inches behind her sister as they disappeared down the hall toward my bedroom. A thump and a crash announced their arrival there.

"I said not to break anything." I called out over my shoulder.

There was a pause, then more thumps and some low growls announced their return to wrestling for possession of the mouse. I just sighed instead of saying anything. I was going to have to fix all the things they broke while they fought over the toy anyway.

Chapter 13

At first Kathleen's mother had refused to drink when Kathleen held the glass for her.

"It's not a lure. It's just plain water." Kathleen touched the glass to her mother's lips and held it there until her mom sipped carefully.

I did nothing, said nothing. They had answers I needed and I could wait until Kathleen's mother recovered from her fright. Eventually, she pushed her daughter away and mumbled.

"That was . . ."

"Overwhelming." Kathleen filled in the blank. "I've seen him do it before but it's still very scary."

Her mother didn't dispute her word choices. There were a few more minutes where they both looked uncomfortable before my neighbor sat up straighter in her chair. At that point Kathleen stopped hovering and moved to sit in her own chair again. Her mother visibly steeled herself, gathering her self control over what she was about to ask for.

"I would like . . ." Her throat bobbed as she swallowed before she went on, warning me as well. "Another look. This time I will shield us from you, Mage."

"Mom!" Kathleen blurted out.

Her mother held up her hand. "He is a Mage and a danger. We should protect ourselves in case he lies."

"She's right. But, you should be the one who shields you both." I interrupted Kathleen's denial that I lied. I agreed with the assessment, I was dangerous to them because I didn't know what I was doing.

"Why?" Kathleen was suspicious.

"Because you're perfect." I realized my gaff and amended my statement. "Your shields, I mean your shields!"

Kathleen glared at me.

"Not that the rest of you isn't perfect too . . . I just . . ." I was digging a bigger hole for myself and didn't know how to stop. "Meant your shields."

Which earned me another glare. I gave up.

"Whatever."

<Not your Kitty.>

"Will you stop with the 'not your Kitty' thing already?" I rose to my feet and leaned on the table. "I already said it; you're not my Kitty! Okay? You're not. You're not anyone's Kitty. You don't ever have to be anyone's Kitty!"

"You changed me!" Kathleen rose to match me, glaring at me as the flames flared gold in her eyes.

"I didn't do anything to you."

"You stole my soul!"

"I gave you what you wanted more than anything in the world, your freedom. I didn't take anything from you. You didn't even have to ask, I just gave it to you. I did it so you wouldn't be afraid of me anymore."

"Ah! So, that is why the binding."

"What?" Kathleen and I both said it at the same time.

Her mother pointed a finger at me. "One gives." The finger switched to point at Kathleen. "One takes."

"I didn't take anything from him." Kathleen refuted her mother's finger pointing.

"Did you not? Are your shields not stronger?"

Kathleen opened her mouth to retort then closed it again. Her mother just waited for her to speak. She did.

"I don't want to be bound. Not to him." The words were vehement.

"Then refuse him. Dissolve the binding and cast the Mage aside. Be as you were."

Kathleen glared in my direction. Her shields flared, appearing around me as she drew a deep breath and tensed. I sat back down in my chair and waited. Abruptly, her shields disappeared. Crossing her arms over her chest, Kathleen plopped into her own chair.

"I can't."

"Thus, the binding remains and you keep what is yours. The Mage is bound to you." She looked at Kathleen. "This carries a risk."

"What risk?"

"The mage is bound to you, not the other way around. He cannot come to your aid if you are shielding from an attack. If the attack is successful, or you are caught unaware, the Mage will also be bound by your new Master."

"Oh." Kathleen looked thoughtful.

"You should banish the binding and eliminate the Mage. For your own protection as well as ours. He is a risk that should not be tolerated in our territory. Remove the binding and kill him."

Kathleen's shields instantly surrounded me.

"Thus, the risk increases for us all." Her mother only flicked a finger at the silver rainbows. "You cannot bring yourself to give up what is yours."

Before Kathleen could reply something brushed my legs. I looked down to see both Katya and Katrina twining themselves under and around the chair beneath me. Reaching down, I rubbed both of them on the tops of their heads for a moment.

"Do not try to steal more of my Kits, Mage. Your binding notwithstanding, I will protect them from you. Even if I have to wait until you are unguarded."

At that point the golden eyes in my mind reopened. The freckles on her cheeks glittered and the flames in her eyes roared.

"I'm not." My voice was calm enough that the two looked at me and stopped glaring at each other. "Katrina will go beyond being the Familiar she has become, after I unlocked that part of her, and will be a Mage herself some day. Katya just needs a mouse whose stuffing isn't falling out."

I looked Katya in the eyes as the two kittens jumped up on my lap. "Couldn't you have just let her play with it too, instead of ruining it?"

She looked up at me before switching to glare at her sister, biting harder on the mouse and making more stuffing leak out of the hole where the head used to be.

"I see." It was a trophy and she'd fought to keep it. I held out my hand. "Can I have it? I'll give it back, I promise."

Reluctantly Katya released the mouse into my palm. I picked it up by the remainder of its tail and looked at it. It was ruined. Shredded and missing the head, half the stuffing no longer inside, it wasn't worth fixing. So, instead, I erased it and made two nearly identical toys appear on the table top. Nearly identical except one was ringed with pink and white stripes, the other purple and white.

"New rules." I stopped them from snatching the toys by holding them both against me. "Katrina's is pink. Katya gets the purple one." The toys disappeared. "If you can find them that is. They're somewhere inside the house. They won't be easy to find but you can if you try hard enough. You will have to think as well as hunt to do it."

They wiggled, asking to be let go.

"More rules. If either of you finds the other one's toy, you can't touch it. I'll know if you try and I won't like it. You got that? If you find the other one, you don't have to say where it is, just don't touch it. You both hunt for your own mouse." I eased my grip on both kittens. "Go. And remember to try not to break anything else."

The kittens vanished.

"You toy with them. Despite my warning you still try to steal them from me."

I waved off that line of accusation with my hands. I remembered all the times when Mr. Espinoza had done the same or similar things for me. The times we'd played catch together, the talks and stories, going to Chavez Ravine to see the Dodgers play the Angels, all of it. The whole time he'd been teaching me how not to be selfish, and how to get along with others. To be, and know, myself. I was a better person because he took the time to show me how to be one.

"I'm not. I'm playing with them. I have no desire to steal them from their mother." I held out my open hand toward Kathleen. "Or their sister."

There was more uncomfortable silence as Kathleen first glared at me then dropped her eyes to her lap where she twisted her fingers together. I turned to her mother to give Kathleen time to think, she had the most knowledge of the three of us and I needed information. Plus, it was better to have me on her good side rather than wondering if she was going to go ballistic and try to kill me again when I wasn't looking. Once was enough for that kind of thing.

"Tell me more about magic. What is it and what does it look like?"

My neighbor looked at me for a long moment then glanced at Kathleen who was still looking down at her lap.

"I was taught power is a river. It flows like a river, wild and powerful but with quiet shadowed pools where the current isn't so strong."

I nodded. "Kathleen told me power is a river with currents and eddies. Is that what you taught her?"

She nodded yes. "This is a good metaphor because it is easy to envision. All know what a river looks like. What we know, we can see. What we can see, we can take. What we can take, we can control. But there is also danger."

"Danger?"

She drew a circle on the tabletop with her finger. It was another example of how much mother and daughter were alike. She rapidly tapped several points inside the circle as she talked.

"Think of magic as all the electricity behind all the lights in the city. You can look down on them as you fly overhead in the night sky. The lights are all the people who use magic; Witches, Familiars, Mages. The brighter the light, the more magic is being used. The more magic used in one area, the less magic it leaves in others."

I could see what she was talking about. All those TV news-helicopter shots of LA at night during blackouts were a good visual.

"Mages want power, always more and more power. But there is only so much magic, so they challenge each other to get control of more of it. They eliminate each other to stop them from using the power they have. The victor gets the other's magic and territory." Her eyes flared and dampened. "And their Familiars."

"So that's why . . .?" I pointed over my shoulder with a finger.

She nodded. "You cast a challenge. It was answered and you prevailed, his power became yours. Yet you gave away the power you won. This is unheard of, yet you did this. Why?"

I thought for a second. "I didn't want it. Katrina needed it more than I did anyway."

"And Katya?"

I considered how to say what I'd done.

"Mage? Katya?"

"There is only one mouse." I leaned on my elbows to get closer so the two girls wouldn't hear me, dropping my voice and tapping on the table with my finger where both toys had appeared.

"Just one toy, not two. They will have to work together to find it. If they do, they will each get one. Until they do, they will not find their own toy, only the other one."

Both of the women on the other side of my table just looked at me in confusion.

"Katrina will be a Mage when she matures. Right now she is still just a Familiar. Enhanced with latent magic, but still only a Familiar. Yet, she will be a Mage some day and will be able to protect herself when that happens. Katya will not make that change. She will always need someone to protect her; someone she will trust. Someone she knows and who she will not be afraid of. But, she will have to work with that person for the benefit of both of them.