"I'm with a student," she said, the professional tone back in her voice. "I'll be with you in a moment if you'd like to wait in the hall. Could you shut the door, please?"

Nick winced, looking awkward as he stood in his jeans and casual shirt in the doorway. "Ah, it's Rachel I need to see. I'm really sorry for interrupting like this. I'm working in the next building over." He turned to look down the hall and back. "I wanted to see that she was all right. And possibly find out how much longer it was going to be?"

"Who are you?" Dr. Anders asked, her face blank.

"That's Nick," I said sheepishly. "My boyfriend."

Hunched in embarrassment, Nick fidgeted. "I don't know why I'm even bothering you," he said. "I'll go wait in the lounge."

A flash of what looked like horror passed over Dr. Anders. She looked from me to Nick, then surged to her feet. Heels clacking, she pulled him in and shut the door behind him.

"Stay there," she said as she left him bewildered in front of her desk. Nick's pentagrams sat before us like guilt given substance. Standing before the windows with her back to us, Dr. Anders looked at the dark parking lot. "Where did you get a familiar binding spell that was in Latin?" she asked.

Nick touched my shoulder in sympathy, and I wished I'd never gotten him into this. "Uh, out of one of my old spell books," I admitted, thinking she wanted Nick there for verification. "It was the only charm I could find on such short notice. But I know the pentagrams. I just didn't have the time to do them."

"There's a binding incantation in the appendix of your textbook," she said, sounding tired. "You were supposed to use that one." It wasn't the pentagrams she was worried about, and a cold feeling slid through me as she turned around. The wrinkles in her face looked harsh in the fluorescent light. "Tell me exactly what you did."

At Nick's encouraging nod, I said, "Uh, first I made the transfer medium. Then I closed the circle."

"Modified to summon and protect," Nick interrupted. "And I was inside it with her."

"Wait a moment," Dr. Anders said. "Just how big was your circle?"

I tucked my hair back, glad she wasn't barking at me anymore. "Maybe six feet?"

"Around?"

"Across."

She took a breath and sat down, motioning me to continue.

"Um, then I stood on my scrying mirror and pushed off my aura."

"What was that like?" she whispered, elbows on her desk as she stared out the window.

"Damn—uh—darn uncomfortable. I got the mirror into the transfer medium without touching the surface. My aura precipitated out into the media, and then I put Bob into it."

"Into the transfer medium?"

I nodded, though she wasn't looking at me. "I figured that was the only way to anoint a fish. Then I said the incantation."

"Actually," Nick interrupted. "I said the incantation first in Latin, then translated it for her, giving her an alternate interpretation on the last part."

"That's right," I admitted. "I said it, and then the demon showed up." I glanced at Nick, but it didn't bother him as much as it bothered me. "Then I knocked over Bob's bowl. My aura was all over him. I was afraid he might break the circle if my aura touched it."

"It would have." Dr. Anders was staring at the parking lot again.

"Is that why some of my aura is missing?" I asked. "Did I throw it away with the paper towels?"

Dr. Anders brought her gaze to mine. "No. I think you made Nick your familiar."

My jaw dropped. I spun in my chair and looked up at Nick. His hand had fallen from my shoulder and he took a wide-eyed step back. "What?" I exclaimed.

"You can do that?" Nick asked.

"No. You can't," Dr. Anders said. "Sentient beings with free will can't be bound to another by incantation. But you mixed earth magic with ley line magic. I've never heard of binding a familiar like that. Where did you get that book?"

"My attic," I whispered. I looked up at Nick. "Oh, Nick," I said, embarrassed. "I'm really sorry. You must have picked up my aura when you were trying to catch Bob."

Nick looked confused. "I'm your familiar?" he whispered, his long face quizzical.

Dr. Anders made a bitter-sounding bark of laughter. "It's nothing to be proud of, Ms. Morgan. Taking a human as a familiar is heinous. It's slavery. Demonic."

"Hold up," I stammered, feeling myself go cold. "It was an accident."

The woman's eyes turned hard. "Remember what I said about a practioner's abilities being linked to his or her familiar? Demons use people as familiars. The more powerful the person is, the more power the demon can wield through him or her. That's why they are forever trying to educate the foolish in the dark arts. They teach them, gain control over their souls, then make them their familiars. You used demon magic by mixing earth and ley line witchcraft."

I put a hand to my stomach. "I'm sorry, Nick," I whispered.

He was pale, and he stood unmoving by my shoulder. "It was an accident."

Dr. Anders made a rude noise. "Accident or not, it's the foulest thing I've heard of. You have put Nick in a great deal of danger."

"How?" I fumbled for his hand. It was cold in mine, and he gave my fingers a squeeze.

"Because he's carrying some of your aura. Ley line witches give their familiars a portion of their aura to act as an anchor when they pull on a ley line. If something goes wrong, the familiar is pulled into the ever-after, not the witch. But more important, familiars insulate you from going insane from channeling too much ley line force. Ley line witches don't hold the energy they store from a line in themselves. They keep it in their familiars. Simon, my parrot, holds it for me, and I draw upon it as I need. When we're together, I'm stronger. When he's ill, my abilities decrease. If he's closer to a line than I am, I can reach it through him. If things go wrong, he dies, not me."

I gulped, cold as Dr. Anders eyed me as if I had done it on purpose.

"That's why animals are used as familiars," she said coldly. "Not people."

"Nick," I murmured. "I'm sorry." That was what, three times now I'd said it?

Dr. Anders's face wrinkled up. "Sorry? Until we get him unbound, you will not store any ley line energy. It's too dangerous."

"I don't know how to bind ley line force," I admitted. I had made Nick my familiar?

"Wait a moment." The woman put a thin hand to her forehead. "You don't know how to store ley line force? At all? You made a circle six feet across strong enough to keep out a demon using energy straight from the line? You didn't use any previously stored energy at all?"

I shook my head.

"You don't know how to hold even an ounce of ever-after?"

Again I shook my head.

The woman sighed. "Your father was right."

"You knew my dad?" I questioned. Why not? Everyone else seemed to.

"I taught one of his undergrad classes," she said. "Though I didn't know it at the time. I didn't see him again until thirteen years ago when we met to discuss you." She sat back and cocked her eyebrows. "He asked me to flunk you if you ever showed up in my class."

"Wh-Why?" I stammered.

"Apparently he knew how much strength you could pull from a line, as he wanted me to persuade you to turn to earth witchcraft instead of line magic. He said it would be safer. My class was overcrowded that year, and bending to a father's wish to protect his daughter was no skin off my nose. I had assumed he meant safer for you. In hindsight, I think he meant everyone else."

"Safer?" I whispered, feeling ill.

"Making a human your familiar isn't normal, Ms. Morgan," Dr. Anders said.

"Could you do it?" Nick asked, and I flicked a glance at him, glad he had asked, not me.

She looked affronted. "Probably. If I had the binding spell. But I wouldn't. It's demonic. The only reason I'm not calling Inderland Security is because it was an accident which we will soon rectify."