nancy werlocks diary s02e14
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Authors: julie ann dawson
Nancy Werlock’s Diary: Family Feud
By
Julie Ann Dawson
Episode Fourteen of the Nancy Werlock’s Diary Series
Features Two
Nancy Werlock
Stories:
The holidays can be a nerve-wracking time under the best of conditions. But when Nancy’s dead mother starts complaining about who should host Thanksgiving, things get unusually tense between Nancy and her brother.
Nancy and Houston find themselves investigating a paranormal poultry problem.
Bards and Sages Publishing
Bellmawr, NJ
© 2015 Julie Ann Dawson. All rights reserved.
These stories are works of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, or undead is coincidental and vaguely disturbing.
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Family Feud
November 5
th
,
“
I think we should have Thanksgiving here this year
,” says Mom as she manifests behind me in the kitchen.
I put down the bottle of coffee creamer and tap my fingers on the counter. “I was…going to Scott’s this year.”
“
Well, they can come here. I want to see my grandchild. I haven't seen her since my funeral!"
“Mom, Megan thinks you’re in Heaven running a gift shop for angels.”
“
Who told her that nonsense
?”
“Mom, it is the sort of thing parents tell their children when a loved one dies.”
“
That’s just silly. I never told you and your brother that sort of stuff
.”
“True. I seem to remember you traumatizing Scott when you said Uncle Charlie would spend a hundred years as a lemure because he lost a bet with a devil.”
“
It was your uncle’s own stupid fault. Who plays poker with a devil?”
“I have to get ready for work.” I grab my coffee and go into the living room.
“
Nancy Clarice!”
Mom follows me out of the kitchen.
“Why are you doing this? Now?”
“
I just want to see my whole family together one last time
.”
“Wait, one last time? What does that mean?”
“
Oh, so now you’re worried
.”
“What does one last time mean, Mother!?”
“Calm down, Nancy. Your aura is flaring. I just mean I may not be around all that much after the new year starts. Rudarvathrion is planning a war with a rival and I’ll be busy
.”
“You know, this is why Nanna Morrie didn’t want you taking that Overseer position. And I thought you hated politics?”
“
I hate human politics. Demonic politics are rather exciting.”
I just shake my head and grab my jacket. “I gotta get to the shop. Eric is still in London. Houston is on vacation. And Anastasia won’t be in until the afternoon.”
“
Nancy, what is going on with your brother?”
Mom asks flatly.
“Maybe you should ask him. I’m a Warlock, not a psion. And no, I won’t have Houston read his mind for you.”
“
I wouldn’t expect you to, missy. And I would be happy to ask him myself. Except he had a spirit ward installed recently. Don’t suppose you know anything about that?”
I drop my jacket on the sofa. “He what?”
“
You really didn’t know, did you
?”
I sit down on the sofa. “No, Mom. I didn’t. I haven’t really spoken with him a lot with everything that happened with Vivika and Mrs. Williams.”
It has been a rough year.
Mom died in a car accident at the beginning of the year. She was killed by a drunk driver. I ended up closing my family counseling practice to take over the family business, Three Wishes. The shop has been in the family for generations and, despite wanting to get away from the Craft, I couldn’t just let it die, too. Then I took on an apprentice, whose mother turned out to be a three-hundred-year-old (give or take a few decades) soul-eating monster that we had to put down. Then the widow of the man who killed Mom tried to kill me and then committed suicide in jail while waiting to post bail.
And those are just the big ticket items. There was also the Thought-Beast turned gremlin that ended up infesting the Guild hall. The lemure turned skinwalker that I had to bind as a servitor (okay, that part actually has turned out to be one of the bright points. But it didn’t start that way). There is the fiend living in a pocket watch that I still have in my house because the Guild hasn’t had time to figure out how to secure it.
Yeah. Rough year.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with you, Mom,” I lie. “Laurie is due next month and he is probably just worried for the baby. There has been so much spirit activity this year, and a lot of it has been malicious. He’s being cautious.”
The truth is that Scott doesn’t want to expose Megan to any more supernatural stuff than absolutely necessary. He’s never been comfortable with magic, even growing up around it. Maybe it is because he grew up around it but didn’t have any talents himself. Mom had tried to get him to attempt wizard training, but he never took to it. And his wife stopped pursuing Transmutation after passing her Rank Four trials. Neither of them wants Megan to manifest magic. They want her to have a normal life.
And that means no holiday visits from her dead grandmother.
“
For a person with how many years of psych training, you sure aren’t a good liar
,” says Mom.
“Mom, please…”
“Talk to your brother, Nancy. Just…for me. Talk to him?”
“I’ll talk to Scott, Mom.”
* * *
The shop is always so quiet after Halloween. Between witches placing last minute orders for must-have reagents and mundanes looking for “authentic” witch merchandise to create their costumes or for decoration, the shop was an almost non-stop center of activity. I’m thankful for that. I think all of the work involved in keeping the shop running forced me to remain focused on the task of dealing with Vivika without straying into the what-in-the-nine-hells-have-I-gotten-myself-into area. I think it was good for Houston as well. He just didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on the fact that we had to destroy his mother.
Risha talked him into going with her to Florida. The College of Psionics is having one of their conventions at the Walt Disney World Resort. Joshua Brynwolf, Lord Advocate of the Eighth of the Nine, paid for Houston’s tickets and expenses so he could attend. Houston didn’t have the money to make arraignments at the last minute. I would have found the money, but Brynwolf insisted.
I keep fluctuating back and forth regarding the Lord Advocate. At times, I see his interest in Houston as guilt. Brynwolf was the one tasked with eliminating Vivika. He’s the one that arranged for her original murder. The Nine had given the order. They had realized that Vivika was, in fact, Chana Magus, a Haemomancer that had developed a forbidden magic that allowed her to drain the life force of others to extend her own life. They had been trying to track her for centuries and finally caught up with her most recent incarnation. Her death had been made to look like a case of domestic violence. Her ex-husband killed her. No, he wasn’t being mind-controlled by the Lord Advocate. The Lord Advocate just shielded his intentions long enough for Vivika not to realize what was happening until it was too late.
Of course, Vivika had a contingency: her “niece” April. She had donated her eggs to her sister Ruth so Ruth could have a child. And in doing so, she created a host body to jump into upon death. She took over her niece’s body as an infant. It would have been the perfect escape if not for the fact April developed Leukemia. The disease killed her before she was old enough to join a College herself and get treatment. Which left Vivika without a host body.
We all knew she had to be destroyed. Houston most of all. She had betrayed his trust; living with him as his cousin and letting him believe she was gone. Trying to manipulate his life so he would father a child for her to possess. But I often feel Brynwolf still feels incredible guilt for what Houston went through because of that fateful night his biological father killed Vivika.
But then other times I start worrying that Brynwolf has other plans for Houston that I am not going to like. He seems to be firm in his belief that the man named on Houston’s birth certificate is not his actual father; that Houston’s real father was a witch and that Houston’s abilities are the result of not Imprinting but hereditary magic. Psions don’t have any great “families” in the College. Most psions develop spontaneously. So evidence of a strong hereditary psionic line would be a big deal. But I feel like there is more to it than purely academic interest.
And then my less-suspicious-self thinks maybe he just wants to mentor Houston, and it is really that simple.
Houston called me last night to tell me they had sat in on a panel entitled “The Impact of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on how Mundanes Might View Empowered Individuals in an Open Society.” It was moderated by Simon Pald, a Rank Three Telekinetic who has an MFA in Comics. I thought Houston was just screwing with me, but damn if such a degree doesn’t exist.
Apparently Brynwolf is holding a lecture tomorrow called “Jedi or Sith?: Psionics, the Force, and the Ethical Use of Power.” The lecture is being held in the largest auditorium of the convention and is already booked solid.
The entire College of Psionics is run by geeks. And they wonder why the Colleges of High Magic have a hard time taking them seriously.
I’m surprised to see Laurie’s mother, and Megan, walk through the shop door.
“Darlene!” I say and give her a hug. "Hey, sweetie!" I say to Megan.
“Aunt Nancy, I missed you soooo much you have been gone forever!” she says as she wraps herself around my waist.
“Laurie had a doctor’s appointment today so we are having a girl’s day out and were in the neighborhood,” says Darlene. “She wanted to stop in and see Nanna Wanda’s store.”
“Have you been having fun?” I ask Megan.
She nods her head vigorously. “First, we went to breakfast and I got blueberry pancakes.
Then
, we went dress shopping, because we have school pictures coming up and Nanna Darlene said that was reason for a new dress.
Then
, we went shoe shopping because the dress we picked. I don’t have any shoes that match. And
then,
we went to lunch.” She dramatically raises and lowers her shoulders. “I’m exhausted!”
I try not to laugh.
While Megan is focused on me, Darlene gentle touches my forearm and mouths, “Is Wanda around?” I shake my head. Darlene nods.
“Aunt Nancy, can you show me around the shop. I haven’t been here since Nana Wanda went to Heaven.”
“I said we would just stop in and say hello,” says Darlene. “Nancy is busy.”
“It’s fine. We can walk around. I can show the new crystal display my employees set up.”
“Does Nana Wanda have employees in Heaven?”
“Your Nana always liked to do everything herself,” I reply and distract her with glistening crystal figurines of fairies and unicorns and other supernatural creatures.
“I like that one!” says Megan as she points at a blonde fairy figure with green translucent wings and a green and blue glass stand that resembles a pond. “Can I get one with red hair?”