I woke in a very dangerous mood, but I knew I had to control my temper. I took a few deep breaths and went in to take a shower. I’m amazed that the water didn’t immediately turn to steam. Inside I was a raging fire. I wanted blood, and I wanted the one who was messing with my mother to see me coming and know fear like never before.

Other than that, I was having a great day.

Okay, I have issues. It was hard to pretend to be the average teen when I had the power and ability to kick some serious ass. This was my MOTHER! I was so far past angry, it wasn’t funny.

Emily! Grandma said. You have to get yourself under control! You need to understand, it takes considerable power to get past the wards we have on the house. There’s either a bunch of them providing boost, or they’re very near. I’ll put my money on the nearness theory. They have to be watching the house closely, so Stifle It! Do you understand me, young lady?

(Sigh!) Yes, yes, get your morning “fix” and I’ll be right down. Just act as normal as you can, all right?

Grumbling to my self, I went into the kitchen.

“Well, look who woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

“Yeah, I had a bad night. I need coffee, desperately.”

“I’ve got it ready and waiting. Is something bothering you this morning?”

“Yeah,“ I started angrily.

EMILY!

“I’m still ticked off at some dumbasses at the mall yesterday. They were bugging me and Debbie, and things went a little too far. I handled it, though, and Debbie and I were fine.”

“Were either of you hurt? Did you call the Police? You should have had them arrested!”

“And be stuck going to court, wasting my time so that a judge can give them a slap on the hands? No, I’m pretty sure they don’t want to try that again”

“You would think that with all the video surveillance we have today, things like that would stop happening.”

Oh crap. I hadn’t thought about that at all! But...did they see anything?

“Maybe we were in a blind spot? There are a lot of places that cameras don’t see, Mom.”

“That’s true. I certainly hope you didn’t get caught on the tape, either.”

“Yeah, me too. I gotta head off to school, Mom.”

“Bye, Honey! Any plans after school?” Mom asked.

“No, but that could change. I’ll call if it does.”

I got to my truck and headed over to Debbie’s. It looked a little gray, which fit with my mood. I made it to Debbie’s house, and saw her waiting for me. She walked out and got in to the truck. She looked a little sleepy.

“Hi, ready for another big day of nearly useless knowledge?” She asked with a fake smile.

“Somebody’s not happy this morning!”

“Oh, I spent most of my weekend studying for a test in World History 2. Politics in the early 1900’s...what a boring way to blow a nice weekend. I’m sure that I’ll need to know about hundred year old politics in Europe darn near every day, especially while I interact with my elite client base, and ponder that immortal question, “Do you want fries with that?”

“Oh, come on, Debbie. ‘Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat the mistakes,’ right?”

“Oh, you’ve had Mrs. DeBrayle too? I completely and totally hate that saying. I’m pretty sure that if I can just keep from assassinating some Austrian dude, I’ll be fine.”

Talking to Debbie helped me to relax. I was still feeling stressed, but I didn’t feel quite as “on edge” as I had been. We listened to the stereo, enjoying our “morning girls” as they joked around. Alison and Amy were hilarious, and weatherman Bill West was a huge part of that. He took to his part as the “token guy” with a will, and he had a fantastic way of saying something funny without being obvious about it. He was a surprisingly older man, and frequently made reference to his impending retirement, while keeping us in stitches.

We were both giggling and laughing as I pulled into the school’s parking lot. My day quickly got better when I saw my fiancé pull into the lot and park. He got out and hugged me and gave me a kiss.

“Now that’s how I like to start my day!” He said.

“Hey, me too!” I said, kissing him again. “Isn’t that convenient?”

“I’ve got to go, so I’ll see you later, pretty lady. I’ve got to set-up a demo before class starts.” He gave me a quick kiss. “I love you, and I’ll talk to you afterschool, if not sooner, all right?”

“I love you, too. See ya later, handsome.” I smiled and watched his backside as he walked away. Yummm.

I guess I expecting something to happen, but it all seemed so boring, and completely normal. The whole day was like that. The only “real” excitement came when Miss Edwards’ chalk snapped as she dissected a Shakespearean sonnet. Absolutely gripping drama.

I was almost sleepwalking as we walked out to the truck, but a shout behind me made me smile again. Tim came up behind us, lugging a few boxes. I offered to help, but he told me they were no trouble, so I unlocked and opened his trunk for him.

“Thanks, honey! You’re kind of handy to have around, sometimes.” He joked,

“Yes, the amazing, um, make that awesome, no, how about “the Amazingly Awesome Emily, at your ser–”

Tim planted a kiss that made my toes curl. I looked at him and almost fell in love all over again.

“You know, you talk entirely too much,” I said. “But I do like what you say!” I planted a few kisses of my own right back.

“Ahem?” Debbie interrupted. “BFF, waiting impatiently?”

“Sorry, Debbie,” Tim said with a grin.

“No problem, I’m just jealous!”

“Oh, come on, you’re always the one with the guys!” I protested.

“But not right now, everybody’s already left!” Just as she said that, several guys came out of the school. I would guess that gym class ran late.

“Hmmm. This has definite potential...”

I don’t even pretend to know what she did, but before I knew it, one of the guys had led Debbie to his car, where they quickly got down to business.

I looked at Tim and smiled. “Now, where were we?”

“Hmm, I’m not sure...wasn’t it right about here?” He pulled me into his arms and our lips met. I was really enjoying his full attention, when I heard Debbie’s scream. I looked over and saw several boys attacking the guy she had been with. Tim started to run over to help
her, but I asked him to stay back and I would handle this. He smiled and told me to have fun.

I threw a shield up over Debbie, and we went to start pulling the bad guys off of Debbie’s friend. To my complete surprise, they vanished into thin air! Debbie and I were so surprised that we just stood there for a minute until Deb ran over to the guy she had been kissing.

I thought I could help him, so I ran over and helped Debbie to pick him up. My thought was to covertly give him some healing energy, but Debbie and I were surprised when he suddenly started throwing punches at us!

He hit me hard in the face, and I felt my nose break and I fell hard into the dirt. It stunned me a bit, and when he grabbed my collar and my brace, I couldn’t resist. He tried to take the ring, but it wouldn’t come off. He kicked me in my stomach, then slammed Debbie up against a car and ran off. By the time I had recovered enough to focus, he was gone.

Debbie had hit her head and had a small gash in her forehead. It probably looked worse than it really was, but I looked around quickly, and seeing no one, I focused my energies on healing both of us. I had to straighten my nose (Wow, that was educational!). In a couple of minutes, though, we were completely recovered. I looked at Debbie to make sure everything was okay, and then turned to tell Tim we were all right.

His car was still there with the door open, but I didn’t see Tim. I thought that he had gone to chase the guy that hit us, so we walked over to his car. The keys weren’t in the car, so I closed and locked the door. Debbie thought we should try to go after them, but neither of us had seen which direction he had gone.

I noticed my armband was gone, as was my collar. The ring was still on my hand, and I had a sense that it had no intention of allowing itself to be removed.

“It worked, Debbie. They actually fell for it! Now, if Mama Gwen can really track them, we’ll be able to go after the bastards!” I smiled. I was looking forward to round two with the shithead that hit us, so I called Mama Gwen and told her what had happened. She told me to go to my house where she would meet us.

I waited for Tim, but after almost half an hour he still hadn’t shown up. I was really worried for him. What if he’d been beaten up by the shithead, and was laying in some alley or something? They might have been arrested for fighting, or something.

So many different scenarios ran through my head. I tried to “feel” where he was, but I got nothing. With my range, he was either unconscious or...

No! I refused to think like that. Debbie finally convinced me that we should head home. There was nothing we could do right then, but I decided to cruise around and see if we might see him. After two hours of driving around, and several phone calls from Grandma, Mom and Mama Gwen, we finally headed home.

Debbie got a sudden look of anxiety. “Emily...do you think maybe he was kidnapped? If he was drugged, maybe you wouldn’t be able to feel him, and they could use him to threaten you.”

Damn.

I headed home quickly. I had an idea who might know what was going on.