Chapter 13

It was a good thing that Allen was at least familiar with the streets in Chelsea and the surrounding area. Having spent most of the time since I was seven years old in other places, I wasn’t. While I was familiar with Southie and the area where my Mother now lived, the rest of Boston and its surrounding communities were a big unknown to me. I had spent a lot of time while growing up on several farms.

Allen easily found the correct street, and we cruised along it looking for the Witch’s address. We soon pulled up in front of an unremarkable looking house. There was a car in the driveway, that was similar to Allen’s, but it was a newer model being only a year or two old.

“Is that her car?” I asked to be sure.

“It looks like it,” he answered.

“Do you have any tools to remove the license plate from the front of the car?” I asked.

“Yes, I have a set of tools under the front seats, but we should remove both plates. It would look odd if we only had one, as they haven’t changed the law yet for just one plate,” he informed me.

“Yes, a lot of states only have one tag on the back of the vehicle,” I replied with a sigh. “This could be a problem. Someone will eventually notice that they are missing if the rear tag is gone. Let me think,” I told him, but it only took a few seconds before what I needed to do occurred to me.

“I’ll cast a glamour of the car around it while the license plates are still on it. When we remove them, the glamour will still show them as there,” I told him with a smile.

“We’ll need to get into the car to get the transponder,” he reminded me, “And this model has electric locks.”

“Not a problem,” I assured him, as we exited his car. Allen checked under the front seats and soon came up with a screwdriver.

“Give me a few seconds to cast the glamour, and then you can begin removing the license plates,” I told him, as I called up the correct spell for the glamour that I was going to cast around the car. The spell was a simple one, and I cast it quickly. Allen, however, had a question after I was done.

“When are you going to cast the spell?” he asked.

“I already have.”

“But I only felt you use the tiniest bit of Magic,” he replied.

“That’s all that was required,” I told him. “Go ahead and remove the plates. You can work right through the glamour,” I continued, while I went to check on the door locks. It was no challenge at all to open them, again using just the tiniest bit of Magic.

Allen soon had the plates removed and was pleasantly surprised when he moved away from the car to see that the license plates were still displayed.

“Where is this transponder?” I asked him from beside the open car door.

“Hold these and I’ll get it,” he told me, handing me the license plates and the screwdriver before moving into the car through the glamour and removing the small unit.

While he was busy doing that, I cast a locator spell on the car. This would allow me to find it from wherever I was and return both the license plates and the transponder as well as cancel the glamour. I had considered casting a ward around the car also, but had decided against it.

“We’re ready to go. Can you lock the doors?” Allen asked after a minute or so.

“Certainly,” I told him and locked the doors when he closed them. We were soon on our way again, but stopped for a late lunch, as the soup hadn’t really filled us up.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent relaxing, after Allen had finalized our route to Knoxville, and we watched a little television. This was when we learned of the Paranormal invasion of the FBI building that morning. The story, along with the videos, was still on all of the news outlets along with a number of interviews with the leaders of the demonstration.

“Agent Drum really looks upset in that last video,” Allen remarked on seeing the video of the AIC charging the demonstrators with trespassing.

“I don’t believe that those Wizards’ weak wards would have stood up to the charms and amulets that those Witches brought with them,” I told him in an amused voice.

Later we went to supper after which I transferred us to Allen’s apartment to see if there was anything that we had forgotten and to change the wards around it to timed ones that would expire before his rent was due again.

Later still back in our room at the Inn, we were just finishing packing everything but our clothes for tomorrow and the toiletries for in the morning when the Leader of the Magic Council appeared in our hotel room.

“You have certainly stirred up those in the FBI and the government,” he told us in a serious voice. “As if confining those weak government Wizards to their hotel rooms for three days wasn’t enough, the demonstration by the Paranormal’s organization this morning was the last straw. The FBI is ready to put Agent Parks on the ten most wanted list along with you, Maureen.

“They aren’t ready to admit that Magic exists yet, but are going to start a campaign against Paranormals of all types. This will eventually lead to them revealing that they have discovered that Magic does exist, and then passing a law or laws that only those working for the government or hired by the government can practice Magic of any type. This will include Witches and other Paranormals as well.

“There will be a campaign to register all of their names and what abilities they have, so the government can control them and eventually round all of them up to put them in government controlled facilities. I don’t believe they have the slightest idea of what the potential outcome of doing something like that would be,” he finished, before adding, “The two of you need to leave here before those Wizards are released tomorrow night.”

“We are ready to leave here tomorrow morning,” Allen told him, as the Leader of the Council looked at me strangely for a short time.

“Are you aware that you are pregnant, Maureen?” he asked.

“No, I can’t be pregnant. I’ve had an active pregnancy prevention spell since I was fourteen,” I told him.

“Still, you are presently pregnant. You may want to see a doctor about that,” he told me before disappearing.

“I can’t be pregnant,” I assured Allen, who was looking at me questioningly.

“You’re sure?” he asked, as both of us remembered all of the nights that we’d had sex, and how wonderful it had been.

“Yes, I’m sure, but I’ll check,” I told him and looked into my Talent to find the spell that Jill had helped me cast when I turned fourteen. It took a little time to find it, as I hadn’t visited that area in a long time, since the spell doesn’t expire. The one who cast it must cancel it or make it inactive if she wishes to have a child.

I was sure I knew where it was located, but when I reached that area of my Talent, it wasn’t there! It wasn’t inactive, it was missing! It wasn’t that the spell had expired or run out of Magic, it was like it had never been there or existed. There was NO trace of it, and I started to panic then!

What could have happened to it? Could it have moved to a different area of my Talent? Thinking this, I started a hasty search of my Talent to see if it had moved. The search produced nothing, and I started a more deliberate search of my Talent, going to every nook and cranny, checking each of the many spells that I know. It took time, but in the end I was disappointed. There was no trace of my pregnancy prevention spell or any indication that it had ever existed. I stared at Allen in shock and disbelief. He had been watching me while I searched.

“What’s wrong?” he asked in a quiet voice seeing the look on my face.

“I can’t find the spell. It’s like it never existed. There isn’t even a trace of it that I could find,” I admitted in a worried voice. “Could I be pregnant?” I wondered to myself.

“What about your period? When are you due?” Allen asked in a knowing voice.

“I had my last period just before I left Ireland, so I should be due for the next one in a few days. I haven’t had any morning sickness, so I can’t have been pregnant for very long, if I am pregnant,” I told him, trying to hedge if I was pregnant.

“We should definitely know in a few days then. Will you be all right traveling when you are having your period?” he asked, obviously hoping for the best.

“I should be all right traveling by car or transporting, but I had to put off flying until my period was over,” I told him, feeling strange talking about my most personal physical problems.

“I can understand why you would do that,” he told me.

“We should get ready for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day,” he told me next in a serious voice.

“When are we going to change the transponder and the license plates?” I asked.

“In the morning just before we leave. I’m not sure of what to do with my transponder. We don’t want to keep it in the car when we are traveling, as it could respond to a signal from one of the gantries giving us away,” he told me.

“I could send it to the secure storage area, or to the cabin on the Duffield’s farm,” I told him.

“Perhaps that far is best. It’s a long way from Massachusetts,” he told me with a smile.

“All right, in the morning will be fine. Those government Wizards won’t be released until late tomorrow evening, and any Magic signature that we generate will be long gone before they get here. Just to be sure though, I’ll leave a little surprise in our Magic Signatures, in case they have another one of those machines,” I told him with a smile.

We prepared for bed following that but only to sleep tonight, as we wanted to get an early start in the morning, and we were both still in shock from learning that I could be pregnant.

We were up by 7:00 the next morning after an excellent night’s sleep following a little hugging and kissing. Allen was spooned up against my back and had an arm around my waist when I awoke.

“You ready to get up?” he asked, appearing to have been awake for a time already.

“Yes, I guess so. I’m going to shower again, as there is no way to know what the place we stop at tonight will be like,” I told him, and we both showered together, but only showered.

“Are we going to eat here?” Allen asked, as we were drying off.

“No, let’s have breakfast away from here. I’ve changed my mind about leaving any Magic signature here. I’ll cancel the wards around the room, which will only require a tiny bit of Magic, and we can carry the luggage down to the car like normal people. After we eat, we can change the license plates and the transponder well away from here,” I told him, as he prepared to shave, and I worked on putting my long red hair in a braid.

Down at the front desk, I checked out using the glamour of the business woman. The room was on a business charge account, and there was no trouble or questions when I checked out. We had loaded our luggage in the car previous to this, and I maintained the glamour until I was in the car, and we had pulled out onto Everett Ave, and away from the Residence Inn and the FBI building.

We stopped at the diner several blocks from the FBI building where we had eaten previously, and had a large breakfast, as we weren’t sure when or where we would be stopping for lunch or dinner. In the parking lot behind the diner and out of sight, Allen changed the license plates on his car to those from Cook’s car. He then removed his transponder and handed it to me.

“Can you send it to the farm from here?” he asked, as he handed it over.

“Certainly,” I assured him, and the transponder vanished.

“I wish I could do that,” he told me in an envious voice.

“You’ll be able to eventually, when you learn enough Magic,” I assured him with a smile.

“What’s our route to get to the Turnpike?” I asked following that.

“We’ll take US Route 1 and the Maurice Tobin Bridge to the interchange with I-93, thus avoiding the tunnels. We’ll take I-93 to exit 24 and get on the Turnpike there. That way even if they check later, they won’t be able to tell where we came from,” he told me before stopping for a number of seconds.

“My God! I’m becoming as paranoid as the criminals that I used to chase,” he exclaimed in shock.

“Or as paranoid as a Magic user?” I suggested to a crooked smile from him.

“Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry for thinking all of you were paranoid before. Careful is a much better term,” he agreed.