Page 20 of Transfiguration
Bella lifted her hand, holding out her palm, and the spider crawled out from the sleeve of her shirt a few moments later. A giant fuzzy thing coming from a space far too narrow for it. It was no less impressive the second time he saw it, but it was Luca who screamed.
“Holy fuck, that’s an enormous spider,” he said as he hid behind Sam.
“You can fight giant werewolves, but a spider frightens you?” Sam wondered, looking at Luca. “What is it? A familiar?”
“Molly takes care of me,” Bella said.
“A spider with magic power?” Sam wanted to know. “How do I get one?”
“No, just no. No spiders! Especially giant ones,” Luca said, keeping Sam between him and the bug.
Hart picked up the phone and put it to his ear, dialing, and then issuing a handful of orders in another language. Italian maybe? Con only caught a quarter of it. His language strengths were the Asian ones, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian. Part from video games, and part from living with Sam for over a decade. Sam really poured over languages. Learning and mastering close to two dozen now.
“Familiars are forbidden,” Page said from his spot near the door. “There was a book in the archive that said witches would bind them and burn through them like vampires burned through blood slaves. Sucking energy from them to make themselves more powerful.”
“Do you remember the title of that book?” Hart asked as he hung up the phone. “I’d like to ensure its retrieval.”
Page squinted for a minute. “I don’t, but Rou might.”
“Familiars, to my knowledge,” Hart said, “are much like Focuses. A bond to help the witch cast. Though it’s been centuries since I encountered one.” He stared at the spider. “I wonder if Rou ever encountered one.”
“Not to my knowledge,” Page said. “It was in a book about vampires, not witches.”
“Rou spent a great deal of time studying vampires. Perhaps Santini has more knowledge about it. I will send him a message,” Hart said. There was a knock on the door, and Page opened it, accepting a stack of books. “These are the books that are on site about familiars. Most only mention them in passing. I’ll have the Fellowship library combed for more. I suggest keeping the familiar hidden as much as possible. But be aware, to my knowledge, familiars, even the animal ones, are more aware, thinking, if you will.”
“You’re saying the spider can think… like a person?” Luca asked, sounding horrified.
“I’m not sure the awareness is that detailed, but yes, to protect their bound witch, they would need to be more sentient,” Hart said. “Tuned into their emotions. If the witch is in danger, they would step up to cast a protection spell or offensive spells if the danger is imminent. The familiar can use the power of the witch if necessary, as often a vampire Focus can use the abilities of their vampire.”
“An animal that can cast spells?” Sam said with his eyes wide. “I want one. Can you imagine a badass critter, like a Tasmanian devil or something, following me around. Don’t fuck with me, or my little friend…”
“Language,” Con muttered.
“No,” Luca said. “No psycho animals that can cast spells. Especially giant spiders.”
Molly vanished back up Bella’s sleeve. She put her hand down, looking away. Whatever secrets the familiar bond had, she wasn’t sharing with them. She yawned, and Con felt that too. Drained and needing sleep badly, willing to set everything aside and face the nightmares tomorrow for a few hours of rest. He grabbed the stack of books and Bella’s hand. “We’re free to go then?”
Hart nodded. “Rest. File your report about the book. Tomorrow is soon enough to start the next assignment.”
NINE
The ride home was mostly in silence. He flipped through the books on familiars, letting the information wash over him. Much like most spells and witch casting, it was individual to the caster. Lots ofanswered calls, whatever the fuck that meant. Con could think of a couple dozen times he’d thought about screaming for help into the void of magic and had not wound up with a familiar. Perhaps there had to be specific intent?
He would ask Bella another day, when things had a little time to calm down. She sat curled up beside Con. Luca hid on the other side of Sam as though worried the spider would reappear. But Blake delivered them to their giant loft space and left them with a wish for a good rest of their evening. Not that there was much left of it.
They took the elevator up, and the long hall down to their wide-open living space and Con assessed the space, searching for anything that could be harmful to kids.
Okay, Luca collected a lot of phallic art. That was probably something they were going to have to do something about. The open layout worked for them, their room up on a mostly closed-off partial landing that was a half second-floor type of thing. It had its own full-sized bath and walk-in closet, but no real door. The entire front portion of their bedroom was open, with a metal railing separating them from the living space below. That might make intimate time with his guys a bit more troublesome.
Downstairs, the living space was wide, with walls lined in books, video games, and movies. Con collected them all, preferring the physical thing to digital files. There was a 60” TV hooked to a half dozen game consoles and all the streaming and cable options they could dream of.
The kitchen, a smaller space, was useful with all the basics and a small island, but not the focal point. There was technically one guest bedroom, though they’d never used it that way. It had its own bath, small, but with a shower stall in designer style. The room itself was Con’s craft space. He headed there with Bella curled up in his arms. Had he left a mess?
It was a small room. A twin-sized daybed shoved off to the side, which often became a dump space for whatever project of the moment he was working on. One entire wall was desk space, a drafting table, a flat cutting table, an industrial sewing machine, and the rest of the wall space was filled with bookshelves of fabric, categorized by type and color, designer, and function. He crafted his own bag here, upgrading as he learned. He had also created things like the leather jacket Sam wore, which had Kevlar stitched into the lining and acted as a bulletproof vest might. Years of practice made it look quality, designer brand, but much more practical. And for Luca, often Con bought something with a big label, and then added safety features while still making it look like the real thing. He filled his guys’ closet with things he made to ensure their safety. His own much the same, though he needed less, as the wind provided plenty of shielding. Now he had a little girl he had to keep safe and didn’t know where to start.
Sam followed him into the little room to help him move boxes off the bed, shoving them into the dark recesses beneath. Usually, he kept the room well organized, but sometimes if Con was in the middle of something when he was called to a job, he left it all out, only to return to it when the job was done. Sam put Con’s bag on the desk, and Bella’s beside it.
Con set Bella down. “Sorry it’s cluttered in here. I can move things around tomorrow to give you more room.” He pointed to the door off to the side. “That’s the bathroom.” He turned and headed to open it, checking to ensure the room was clean and stocked with toilet paper. It even had towels. They had a cleaning lady who came in every other day at Luca’s insistence, and it was the first time Con was ever grateful for having to put up with someone else in their space. He opened a drawer in the washstand and pulled out a new toothbrush and some paste. There was also a hairbrush that looked relatively clean. What else would a kid need?