Excerpt: On a Saturday: Book One

It didn't seem fair that Abby had to almost jog to keep up with a woman several inches shorter and a good forty years older than her. But then, Lindsay Cartwright seemed the sort of excessively competent woman who was always a step ahead of everyone whether she meant to be or not. Apparently that was literal as well as metaphorical. It didn't help that her brand new pantsuit was hot in the late summer sun spilling down the street...

Abby sidestepped a pack of college students heading back up to campus from one of the bookstores down Middle Street, arms full of books for the new semester. A year ago, she would have been one of them. "Ms. Cartwright-"

"Lindsay, please."

She paused momentarily before carrying on, "Lindsay. I just wanted to thank you for-"

"Oh, you don't want to do that," Lindsay said, and somehow she didn't have to raise her voice or speak more quickly to cut Abby off, she just spoke and Abby stopped before her brain had time to process that she'd even want to. She wondered if she'd ever be able to manage to get a complete sentence out, or if she should just resign herself to this.

"I'm sorry?"

"Thank me. You don't want to thank me, Abigail." Lindsay sidestepped a couple more students, and Abby followed in her wake. "You don't get grades like yours in pre-law because you want a job like this."

Abby considered pointing out that no one really planned on a job like this, monsters and magic and God knew what else... Or at least, no one planned on a job like this without being seriously delusional. Instead, she shrugged and smiled and replied, "Well, it's better than law school."

"It's your first day. Tell me that in the morning." Lindsay glanced back to smile at her. Abby wasn't sure how to interpret a smile like that - perfectly pleasant, but with a hint of something else to it. Sympathy? Concern? Maybe she was over-thinking all of this.

"Why?"

She slowed, so quickly that Abby was caught off guard and nearly ran into her, and turned to stop in front of a nondescript building in the middle of all the coffee shops and bookstores and New Age stores that were scattered all along this street. Abby frowned a little. She'd gone to school in this town for four years, walked down this street hundreds of times, and not once had she ever noticed this building. It looked like a dentist's office, minus a sign anywhere that she could see.

Lindsay's hand settled on the doorknob, and she turned back to address Abby again, long enough to say, "Because after tonight, you just might hate me."