Chapter 2

Still a little upset with Professor Dumont and just as confused about Katrina, I walked back to my dorm, Trinity House. I wanted to drop off my books before heading out to get something to eat. The day had been one inane little incident after another and though I knew it had nothing to do with karma, I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe the universe didn't want me to remain idle and mediocre anymore. I had done that for four years at home, struggling to stay below the proverbial radar while working and doing what I was supposed to do so I could move to a college far enough away that no one from home could influence my life. Balance was a bitch.

My dorm was closer to my Psych class than the UC, and though I was tempted to go eat first, I decided that I needed to go to my room and sort of check in with my belongings. I had a roommate, Danny Novato. He was cool, but I usually only saw him on Mondays after I was done with classes. We would talk for about twenty minutes, and then he had to leave for some intramural sport I wasn't interested in. He had tried to talk me into it, because of my size, but the rest of his team had filled the spot before he could get me to commit. To be honest, I was relieved. I had enough issues without taking on extracurricular activities.

I crossed West Nedderman and was close enough to the corner to the entrance of Trinity Hall to see the way several guys were stumbling over each other as they left. They were all looking back at someone or something. Curiosity forced my remaining confusion and irritation out of me, and I turned the corner.

Jordan was standing next to the entrance, dressed casually. Of course, for Jordan, dressed casually was no less intense than if she had decided to doll herself up. She was wearing a plain white tank top, jeans, and a pair of red open-toed high heels. Her clothes hugged her curves, showing off everything she had in that sexy, teasing way that got the blood racing and made men, like the ones I had just seen, forget what they were doing in the first place. Her long light brown locks ended in lose curls around her impressive breasts and when she looked my way, I caught the blue in her steel-blue eyes.

She smiled at me and I shook my head at her. She blinked, looked herself over and said, "What?"

I chuckled. "Nothing. I thought you were at work."

Her smile vanished and she stepped close to me. "I came home early. Danielle called from the apartment. She left class early, feeling faint."

Fear shot through me and I frowned. "Faint? You're sure it wasn't just something bad she ate?"

Jordan shook her head, hooked her arm through mine and guided me toward her car in the parking lot. "No, I looked her over when I got home. It's the first sign."

I felt all the air go out of me, like someone had punched me in the gut. "But she looked fine when she dropped me off this morning."

We stopped next to her car and she fished in her pocket for the keys. "I wish I could say for certain that she's just come down with something, but none of us can take the chance." She pulled out her keys and hit the button to release the locks.

We got in, and I tossed my backpack in the back seat. "So, what do I need to do?" I asked. I was certain what the answer was going to be, and just as certain I wouldn't like it. Jordan hadn't let me forget her warning after my Initiation had ended.

She started the car up. "You need more Fonti. There's no getting around it." She looked at me. "If Danielle is feeling like this now, there's no telling how long before Jana or I will be in the same condition."

"But doesn't it affect each of you differently?" I asked, wanting to get as much information as possible before making a decision. "Couldn't she simply be more susceptible or something?"

Jordan shrugged. "I've been told that, but, Seth, if Danielle's feeling like this after only a month, what does that say about your powers?" She put the car in gear and pulled out of Trinity Hall's parking lot. "Don't get me wrong. I wish it was something mundane, but we really can't take the chance."

"And abstaining isn't an option?" I asked.

Jordan rolled her eyes toward me. "Do you want to be the one to tell Danielle and Jana they can't have sex with you for a week or more?"

I looked away from her sheepishly. "Actually, being that you're our expert, I thought you might suggest it."

"Oh, no you don't," she said. "You're the Magus, you have to take responsibility." We stopped at a light on South Cooper. "Besides, even if we all agreed to your idea, and everyone recovered perfectly, there's no way to know when we'll come down with the symptoms again."

I groaned. It wasn't the lack of sex that bothered me. It was the idea that when the girls came around looking for attention again, and they wouldn't wait very long, that I might hurt them. I hated that part of my heritage, and Jordan was insisting that I add more to our group, put more women in that kind of danger. I tried to explain my concerns to her.

"Lover," she said gently, "if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, forget it. We're not leaving. That leaves you one other option."

I sat back and watched traffic go by. After the light changed, Jordan turned south and drove. I was lost in my thoughts, trying to think of a way to give the girls what they wanted and keep them safe at the same time. If Jordan was giving me the honest opinion of the other two, I didn't see a way around it. I didn't like it, but I didn't have another choice.

Before long we arrived at the Parks at Arlington Mall. To me, malls were fine if you were going clothes shopping or maybe to some of the bigger movie stores, but since I had plenty of clothes and didn't have a TV or DVD player for movies, I couldn't understand why we were there.

Jordan parked but left the engine running. She turned to me. "Okay, we're going to make you a fetish." From my expression alone she knew she would have to explain. "A fetish is a device through which you channel your magical energy. It's designed for a particular purpose or spell, so you don't have to remember the incantation or gestures to make it work."

I nodded. "Okay, sounds easy enough. What do we need?"

"Well, the first question to ask is: what spell or purpose is the fetish for?" I nodded and she continued. "In your case, to gain more Fonti. Now, since you're done with your Initiation, you don't have the supernatural Charm that event granted."

I nodded again and was glad to not be attacked by hordes of horny men and women. However, it was beginning to sound like Jordan was about to suggest something similar.

"The difference between the innate ability and a fetish is that when you take off the fetish, the power stops," she said.

I nodded. "Okay, it has an on-off switch, but when it's on, I'll have to be careful where I go, right?"

She shook her head. "That's the cool part about a fetish. It can be tailor made to work on select groups of people."

I nodded in appreciation of that tidbit. "Then what do I need to make one?"

"Okay, you need a Charm fetish that only attracts women," she said.

"Can we narrow that down a bit more?" I asked. "I don't want to wreck any marriages."

She nodded, "Sure, but we can't be too specific."

"How about avoid anyone in a serious relationship?" I asked.

She shook her head. "The best we can do is avoiding anyone in a relationship. They have to willingly leave the relationship in order for the fetish to work."

I nodded, getting excited at the prospects of building something that millions of people would pay tons to get a hold of. Then I remembered why this was necessary and that exuberance was gone like a candle flame in a strong breeze. "Couldn't we make a fetish to keep you guys safe instead?"

Jordan shook her head slowly. "Magi have been trying to do that for a long, long time, but no one's ever figured it out."

I slumped in my seat. "Okay then. What do we need for this?"

"We need an object to represent each component of the spell: two or three items for the kind of people you want to attract, something to represent your Magic, and something as an attraction agent."

I blinked, trying to think of things she was suggesting. "Okay, but what kinds of items?"

"Well, the attraction agent is the easiest, so we'll get that last," she said. "The magical agent can be found at another store I know of, and the other items should all be here at the mall."

"But what items?" I was getting frustrated with her elusiveness.

She smiled. "That's up to you. You're the Magus."

I rolled my eyes and slumped back in my seat.

"Relax," she said, killing the engine. "I'll help you."

We got out of the car and walked into the mall. Being that it was lunchtime, there were plenty of cars and most of the patrons were on the food court, but the place wasn't very busy otherwise.

"First we need something for you to wear the fetish on," Jordan said. "A simple chain is best."

I nodded and we walked around until I spotted a cart with necklaces and rings. A simple chain was only five dollars, but I only had ten on me. Jordan was flat broke.

"How do you pay for gas to get back and forth to work?" I asked, bewildered.

"Jana loans me and Danielle money," she said waving away my concern. "Besides, this is a good time for you to learn a simple spell too," she said.

The guy working the cart frowned at her. I turned away from him. Jordan took my hand and pulled me from the cart. "C'mon."

She led me into a corner store built into the mall next to the entrance. We waited behind a woman buying scratch-off tickets. After she left, Jordan stepped up to the cashier. "We'll take two five dollar tickets."

My eyes widened. I snatched her elbow and pulled her back. "What are you doing?"

She smiled, gave me a peck on the lips, and said, "Relax, Seth. I've done this lots of times." Then she turned to the cashier again and nodded at him. He looked past her at me and I nodded. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of using my only ten for a gamble.

With the tickets in hand, Jordan led me out of the store and to one of the many benches along the main halls of the mall. We sat down and she scooted over and pressed close to me. Her excitement was almost palpable. "Okay, this is really easy. What I used to do was draw a small dollar sign on the back with a pen. When I scratched it off, it would be a winner, usually between twenty and fifty dollars."

"So what's the spell?" I asked.

She shrugged. "That's it. Concentrate on the dollar sign you draw."

I snorted. "No words? No incantations?"

She shook her head. "It's a simple spell. It only lasts a few minutes and only affects the ticket you draw the symbol on."

"So why did you buy two tickets?" I asked.

Her answer was simple. "Practice."

"Okay," I said taking one of the tickets. "Do you have a pen?"

Her eyebrows rose. "Well, your Magic is a lot more potent than mine was. I figure if you draw the symbol with your finger, that'll be more than enough."

"You sure?" I asked.

She nodded. "Just concentrate on having a winning ticket while you draw the symbol. That's the Magic, your force of will."

I shook my head, thinking we had just wasted my last ten dollars, but I closed my eyes and with my fingertip drew a dollar sign on the back of the ticket. Under my breath, I repeated, "Winning ticket," over and over.

I didn't feel anything happen, so I opened my eyes and looked at Jordan. She handed me a nickel. I took it and played the game on the face.

At first, I wasn't sure I was seeing things right. One of the squares I cleared looked like the grand prize icon on the side, but that couldn't be right. I looked at Jordan and she was staring at the ticket with her mouth wide open.

I looked again, read the instructions on the side, and studied the icons. I had a grand prize ticket worth thirty thousand dollars.

The first words out of Jordan's mouth were, "No way!"

I glanced around to make sure no one else was too close. The halls were mostly empty. The closest people were heading into a clothing store more than twenty yards away and didn't even look our way. I looked at Jordan and said, "I think your simple spell needs some work."

She looked up with a manic grin. Holding up the other ticket, she said, "Not if it happens twice."

I shook my head. "No. I'm not doing it again. This is too much already. We can't even cash this at the store."

She rolled her eyes. "There are a lot of people who would love to be able to do what you just did."

"There are a lot of people who need the money more than I do," I said. Oddly though, I didn't see myself giving the ticket to the first needy person to come along.

"Seth," Jordan said in a softer tone. "You didn't do anything wrong. Nothing anyone could prove anyway."

I frowned at her. "But I know what I did."

Her smile didn't fade in the least. "You asked for a winning ticket and the Magic did the rest. I once had a two hundred and fifty dollar ticket."

I sighed. "You said between twenty and fifty."

She shook her head. "I said usually. That ticket helped me out of a jam. It was good to have the money."

"If this was only two hundred and fifty, I wouldn't feel so ... so..." I couldn't find the right word.

"It's called Winner's Guilt," she said. "A lot of people feel it when they win, like they don't deserve it."

I shook my head. "If I didn't feel like a cheater, I would probably be as happy about it as you are. As it is, we don't know whether I was just really lucky or if the Magic did the work."

She rolled her eyes. "If you want to find out whether it was already a winning ticket or the random element of Magic, play this one." She held out the other ticket.

"Random element?" I asked, ignoring the ticket for the moment.

She nodded. "That's what I call it. You can't control it to the point of absolute precision. Nature isn't like that."

"Magic isn't natural," I said.

"Sure it is," she said. "Think about life. We don't know what makes anything live. If we did, we could build people and animals without procreation. It's a form of Magic that's accepted by everyone."

I couldn't argue with that logic. "Okay, but I seriously doubt Texas would believe me if I showed up with two grand prize tickets."

She nodded. "True, so adjust the spell. First, don't draw the symbol. Just take the ticket, think, 'Winning Ticket' one time, and hand it right back."

I considered the idea. "So, I'm lowering how much effort I put into the spell."

She nodded. "Exactly."

I stared at the ticket in her hand. "Have you ever had a ticket that didn't win?"

She shrugged. "I had one that gave me back my five dollars. I took it as a sign that I needed the money for something else."

"That happens?" I asked.

"Rarely," she said. "It's like the Magic is trying to tell you something you hadn't thought of."

I nodded. "Okay, then let's try this."

She handed me the ticket. I thought, "Winning ticket," and handed it right back.

She played the game and smiled at me. The ticket was for fifty dollars. She bumped me with her shoulder and stood up. "C'mon."

I got up and we went back to the store. The cashier congratulated us on the fifty dollars and paid it out right there. Jordan told me to show him the other ticket. "The store gets a bonus for selling winning tickets. It'll help them out."

I nodded, held it up so he could see, and asked, "Where can I get this cashed?"

Unlike me, he didn't need to check the icon twice. His eyes grew wide and he burst with laughter.

I glanced at Jordan thinking there was a joke I was missing.

The cashier pulled out a Polaroid camera and when I looked at him again, he clicked a picture of me holding up the ticket.

I was a little confused and watched him airing out the developing picture.

He was still laughing when he held up the picture so I could see. I looked like I had seen a ghost. "It's the best picture of a winner I've got," he said. Then he turned to a section of wall with several other pictures. All of the winners looked excited. I stood out due to my expression. He looked at me again and nodded at the ticket in my hand. "Call the number on the back. They'll confirm everything and tell you where you can go to cash it." He held out a business card. "They'll ask what store you bought it at, as your girlfriend said. This is my info."