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House and gate had to be two, three hundred years old I tried the larger, older of two keys, four inches in length, a heart shape on one end The lock clicked and I squeezed the latch, two bars that coate It opened without a squeak Boots on cobblestones, I walked ate closed behindthe bike down the two-rut garden lane beside the house Or storefront, or boardinghouse Fros at one tiotten a car back here A small car But the lane was clearly intended for walkers, or maybe horseback riders There were all kinds of plants, so stems and elephant ear-sized leaves of various color co roses and jase of botany was li and sht a hint of catnip Beastsound deep inside I wasn’t always sure what thatboth positive and negative discoveries In this case, nition

The house was narrow on the street side, but long, with a deep second-story wooden balcony covering a ground-floor porch that overlooked the tiny side lane and back garden I could see chairs on the porch, a few tables More wrought-iron trellises and rails served to keep people fro off The porch on the lower level was slate floored, with more iron The house had tall s closed with French shutters, five s on each story, and there was one door on each floor with stairs near the back leading between Four doors total, all flimsy Not much security

I could check out the interior of the house later The back garden first I pushed the Harley on around The garden widened into a thirty-by-forty-foot rectangular space at the bottom of the lane, and was exquisite It was surrounded by ornah, and was lined with plants of all varieties A big fountain splashed in a corner, water pouring fro atop The sculpture was finely detailed, a masterwork, and I noted the statue’s reseiveaway I wondered how many houses she owned on this block Maybe all of the when you had lived over two hundred years Maybe three hundred Maybe more

Over the city sounds and even with the roar of the Harley still affectingthe puht bird, the garden was silent

Across from the fountain, soith dozens of healthy plants, were three large boulders and half a dozen sht in by the crane Troll had ood job; the boulders looked like they had been here forever

I set the kickstand and walked the garden, looking for wires, scuffs on the brick, signs of work other than the gardener’s I spotted theh to be fro froht down to the brick wall

I pulled off the straps that secureddown on a conveniently placed bench, I tugged off athered three loose cobblestones and dropped theainst my skin at my waist, held in place by my belt Then I pulled the bench to the wall, spat on my hands for effect ular, with so out just enough for a rock climber to knohat to do with them I hadn’t climbed Everest, but I’d lived in the Appalachians and had taken a few classes I had taken at least a few classes in lots of things

I caught a slightly protuberant brick and swung out, catching another withup for a second handhold, another toehold I reached the top of the fence and studied it There was no barbed wire, no broken glass e A half-assed job, security-wise

I pulledthe yard next door A s in my mind as the moon rose and darkness fell, and she spat at it, not that the stupid little dog could tell I reined her back and, because she understood that the safety of the den was paras, and she didn’t ot a bit harder to sub in the scents of the place, the brick wararden with eyes and nose and considered the walls on the houses adjacent to my freebie-house wall I came to the back corner where the scuff was and toed a tiny lu away dirt that had been carefully sprinkled there I reached down and pulled theit in place The tapesounds as it broke

The electrical wires powering the camera ca it level I smiled at Katie, or maybe Troll Or maybe a security firer of my free hand and shook it slowly side to side Then I raised the caht it down on the wall, lens first, and broke it into pieces I did the sa to the other two ca off Katie My Web site was firm about my privacy requirement, and I insisted it be part of ot they were there"? Yeah, right

When I was sure I had all the ones within easy reach, I positioned hbor’s wall I didn’t want to sht the three cobblestones I hefted theood at throwing as I was at other sports I threw like a girl It took all three stones but I smashed the last ca with the brick handholds With the cas and, barefoot, unlocked the door with the sh the house fast, locating carilles, one in an air return, one in a fanlight in the twelve-foot-high ceiling, which I hit with a broo security devices in a house was a lot harder than in a garden I’d have to go over it later in better detail, but for now, I had a lot to do First things first--a call to Molly

Molly, a powerful earth witch andwater in the background "Hey, witchy wo yell, and I laughed with her

Vamps and witches came out of the closet in 1962, when Marilyn Monroe tried to turn the US president in the Oval Office and was killed by the Secret Service There was a witness, Beverly Stumpkin, a White House maid, who ran for her life The Secret Service quickly set up a suicide scenario for the actress and staked her in her bedroom Not that anyone believed she had offed herself with a wooden stake to the heart and a garroting wire that beheaded her The governot away clean Sloppy work all the way around

Soed to do what the Secret Service couldn’tThey found the e-old myth Vamps, and then witches, came out of the closet If there had been other supernatural beings, it seeood time for them to come out too, but so far no elves, pixies, wood nymphs, or merpeople had appeared No weres or skinwalkers or shifters of any kind either I was a singularity in a human world that wouldn’t like me if it knew about me, which meant I had to keep my secret close And that meant that I had to live without true backup Except for Molly

"I’m proud of you," she said "Here, talk to the dirtiest child in the world Maybe she’ll letnoises, as if she held it under her aran Everhart Trueblood, the witch who had spelledline of witches Not the kind in a pointy black hat with a cauldron in the front yard, and not the kind like the Bewitched television show Witches aren’t hu little witches about fifty percent of the ti witches have a poor survival rate, especially the e of twenty froh puberty, however, tend to live into their early hundreds Mol was forty, looked thirty, and was fearless

I had wondered whether witches and skinwalkers had sieneration to generation on the X chromosome About ninety percent of the witches who live to maturity are female; only a few sorcerers, the tereneration Nobody knoitches have such a poor survival rate, but Molly was one of the lucky ones when it came to kids So far She had married a sorcerer, Evan, and they had a son, Little Evan, and a daughter, Angelina--Angie Both have the witch X gene The girl is a prodigy And she is only six years old

Most witches coie cae five, and it was atohter has a witch gene on both of her X chromosomes, one froirl one of the most powerful witches on the planet, and soovernrams, to the council of witches, to the Chinese, the Russians, you name it And anyone who didn’t have her would want her dead Molly kept Angie’s power level under wraps, a lot like I kept what I was under wraps And she and Evan warded their children and their property with protection, healing, and lots of prayers

A delicate, sweet voice said, "Hi, Aunt Jane" My heart started to , in oogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true">