I was re-reading Tuck, and when the bit with the blood oath and the therapist came up my mind got to wondering what might happen if a different sort of patient needed one.

My mind kept nagging and this is the result.

---

Yeah, OK, I freaked out back when it started. But it's actually surprising that that was all I did.

Except, of course, I couldn't tell anybody why I'd freaked out. Which is why I've been seeing a therapist.

She's not too bad, and it's not like I didn't have problems before. She could help with those.

Alas, that still didn't explain my freak-out. And her guesses were getting a bit too close to stuff that could either get her in trouble or be really bad for me. Getting tossed in a nuthouse would be bad. Being effectively defenseless there could be fatal or worse.

But today I accidentally said something under my breath. Well, I thought that's what I'd done. Apparently I said it a bit louder than I intended and Sheila caught it.

"Did you just say something about a blood oath?"

Oh hell. Saying stuff out loud without intending to could be really bad for folks like me.

She misunderstood the look on my face.

"It's OK. A few others have wanted that sort of assurance. It's a bit unusual, but not something I'm going to freak out over."

That's what you think, I thought to myself.

She wouldn't let it drop, so I said I'd think about it and get back to her next week.

We spent the rest of the visit with me trying to come up with answers that weren't lies, about the stuff that'd worried my parents. Things like my refusing to go to the church we'd been going to before things changed.

I managed to get away with saying the minister and a few other people creeped me out without having to go into detail about why.

I did some research over the next week and managed to come up with something that I thought would work. It was risky, but if it worked it'd beat having to dodge around things. Avoiding mistakes was hard enough, but the wording made things even harder. I needed to slip a few things by, and that made it a lot wordier than I liked.

Inscribing the oath on parchment was a pain, especially since I didn't want to have to use up more sheets of my supply. One mistake and I'd have to destroy the sheet (which would be a pain in and of itself).

All too soon, I was sitting in front of Sheila and pulling the tube with the carefully rolled sheet out of my bag.

I held my breath as she read it. Her eyebrows quirked a bit at some of it, but she finally nodded.

She surprised me by pulling out some alcohol wipes and a box of sharps to get the blood.

I think I surprised her when after we'd both applied bloody thumbprints over our signatures, I took out a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide and insisted that we use it to clean the blades before they went into the sharps container. No way did I want my blood or her blood where it could be gotten at if I could prevent it.

"Well, can you tell me now?" she asked.

I looked at her and then invoked the spell. She froze in place.

"I'm sorry, but there was no other way."

Then I removed the box from my bag and set things up. I placed the candles at the cardinal points and took my athame.

I raised the athame and went to the first candle.

"Saint Raphael, Healer, Guardian of Wind and Tempest, may we be guarded and healed in mind and soul and body this night."

I could feel Sheila's surprise as the candle lit.

I carefully laid out the boundary as I went to the second candle.

"Saint Michael, Defender, Guardian of Eden, protect us in our hour of need."

It lit and I proceed to the third. It was getting harder to move as the power built.

"Saint Gabriel, Heavenly Herald, carry our supplications to Our Lady."

The fourth point.

"Saint Uriel, Dark Angel, come gently, if you must, and let all fear die here within this place."

Returning to the east, where I had begun, I drew the final stroke which bound the circle, then raised my blade in salute a second time.

I think even Shiela felt the wards close.

I laid the athame on the desk and released the bonds on Sheila.

"Again, I'm sorry, but it's the only safe way to talk about any of it."

She stared at me for a moment after a quick test showed her she could move again.

"Wha... what is that?" she got out.

I assumed she meant the faintly glowing walls inside the walls of her office.

"Wards. They prevent anything outside from listening in. Or getting in."

"You mean like magic or something?" her tone was clearly skeptical.

"Yes. Exactly. Magic, evil spirits, and a whole host of things I wish I didn't know about."

"But that's fantasy!"

"Was it fantasy when you couldn't move?" I asked. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but I couldn't let you argue or interrupt. If anything had noticed the spells before I got the wards up it'd have been bad. Mostly for you."

She sat and thought for a few minutes.

"You... you invoked angels. No, archangels. So much for your parents fears that you were turning pagan."

Good. She was actually thinking, in spite of the impossible seeming situation.

"I can't blame them too much. Being so adamant about that 'church' and the books on magic and stuff, I guess it was a natural assumption. And being thought pagan provides a good bit of misdirection if anybody who knows the truth about magic is trying to get to me."

"So why did you not want to go to that church?"

"OK, the short version is that I started to discover my talents and early on I started seeing things normal people can't. Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut and had learned enough to realize that I wasn't hallucinating before we moved. So when I saw what that minister and some other others there had riding them, I had to stay away."

"Riding them?"

"Let's just say that there are things other than humans in the world. And some are not good or nice. Some like to use religion as a cover for feeding or worse. If they'd spotted me it'd have been bad."

"I'm having trouble accepting this."

"I don't blame you. I was lucky enough to run into a few people early on who got me steered to some things that could help."

"Let me guess. Most of the troubles you got sent here for have to do with your talent/abilities/whatever-the-hell it is."

"Pretty much. Mind you, that doesn't mean you can't help me. With the oath we signed, I can protect you enough to tell you the truth. And even if you don't know anything about magic, you probably can help me get my head straight."

[not sure where to take it from here, or even *if* I should take it from here]