Witches on Parole Unlocked - By Debora Geary Page 0,1

you said quietly in your head. She'd learned long ago never to say anything that weird out loud.

Maybe it was the words in the letter that had her walking through a nice neighborhood in the dead of night. It was totally creepy. No noise, nobody skulking on the sidewalk, nothing.

She pulled the crumpled paper out of her back pocket. It had an address and directions. She was looking for a house on some stupid cul-de-sac. Which was another very cool word, but she was pretty sure she'd never actually met a cul-de-sac in real life.

Something about the words on the page sucked her in again.

Elizabeth,

We're delighted that you've chosen WitchLight as your way of giving back to the world around you, or perhaps as a form of penance. We trust you'll find it an acceptable alternative to your ninety-day sentence.

Your guide for the next three months is Jenvieve Adams. You can find her at the address listed below, along with directions on how to get there. We trust your ingenuity and the threat of lock-up will ensure your arrival on or before July 9th of this year.

Give us a chance. It's possible we might surprise you.

Blessed be,

Veronica

There were so freaking many things wrong with the letter. First, nothing surprised her anymore, and second, they'd had the nerve to call her Elizabeth. Maybe that's why they'd sent her off to visit some wimp named Jenvieve. A name like that could only belong to some do-gooder witch who ate bonbons all afternoon and cuddled her cat Fifi.

However, they had one thing right. It had to be better than jail. Curses on the previous stupid jerkwad who had turned her in for borrowing his car. Memo to self - if you're going to suck up to some old guy so you can take a joyride in his really nice car, make sure his daughter isn't a cop.

It had, however, been a really mag car. Almost worth it.

She looked at the attached map and directions. She should be close. In a normal neighborhood, she'd just ask one of the street skulkers for directions, but they were conspicuously absent here.

"Conspicuously" was another one of those cool, inside-your-head kinda words.

Taking the last turn on the map, she discovered that "cul-de-sac" really meant "dead-end street." No wonder she'd never seen one - no escape routes. Who the heck lived in a house with nowhere to run?

She eyed the fences. They'd slow her down some if she had to take off, but at least there was no barbed wire.

Geez. The jerkwad had really done a number on her if he could make her feel fifteen again. She was legal now. Twenty-one blessed years old and no one could make her run if she didn't want to. And if she did want to, she sure as hell didn't need to go fence-hopping anymore.

Yeah, she could just go creeping around hoity-toity neighborhoods late at night. That was so much more grown-up.

The letter said "on or before July 9th." Well, she was going to be a little before. Take that, Jenvieve and Fifi.

She peered through the night at the house in front of her. Yup, she'd found it. Hard to tell in the dark, but it was more angular and modern than she'd been expecting. "Angular." Good word. One of the upsides of this little adventure was the opportunity to sweep out the little-used corners of her mental vocabulary.

Time to see how Jenvieve felt about late-night guests. Probably not great, but given a choice between that and spending another delightful evening with jerkwad and friends, she was gonna take her chances with Fifi.

She knocked on the door, and then snorted. Jenvieve was probably one of those matronly types who slept with eyepads and earplugs. Rolling her eyes in disgust, she leaned on the doorbell. Rise and shine, people - you've got company.

~ ~ ~

Jennie was carefully clipping the second-last image to her drying wire when the doorbell started to ring. Sighing, she glanced at the last photo. Not ready to take out of the processing fluids - it would have to be redone.

She left her darkroom, closing the door carefully behind her, and hurried to deal with whatever minor emergency had someone on her doorstep at 2 a.m. Whoever it