Sorcerer's Luck by Katharine Kerr Page A

men.
    â€œIt’s okay,” I said to them. “I’m not hurt or anything.”
    Just the opposite—the pain in my legs had disappeared. The guy made sure he kept his
distance after that, unfortunately. I needed more élan. In the crowded
supermarket, a skinny shrew of a woman pushed past me at the vegetable display
to grab the primo head of broccoli I was aiming for. As her arm swept along
mine, I sucked up a long swallow of her life force. My eyes eased, and the
bright light over the display dimmed to a comfortable level. She got the
broccoli, but I noticed that when she turned away, she shook her head and
rubbed her forehead as if it suddenly ached.
    I’d taken too much from her. If I could have apologized, I would have. I hoped she’d
recover, even if she was a bitch. I did no more hunting in the market. When I
got outside with my purchases, the sunlight looked normal, no longer painfully
bright.
    The thefts gave me enough energy to scrub down the mildew when I got home, but the smell
of the cleanser drove me out of the studio. I took my backpack and laptop with
me so I could leave the window open to let the place air out. I owned nothing
else worth stealing. I sat in my car out on the street and wondered where I
could go to pass some time. Maybe I could find a crowd where I could steal more
élan.
    The memory of Tor’s flat haunted me, the beautiful rooms, the comfortable bed, the good
food he’d fixed for me. I kept remembering him saying that if I wanted, I could
live there. What would it be like, I wondered, to share a flat with a sorcerer
who claimed he turned into an animal now and then? Terrifying, I decided.
Unthinkable. Crazy dumb idea. I refused to live with sorcery all around me,
especially not if he was going to tell me I had talent. I had to have a place
of my own to return to after the days I worked.
    But I kept thinking about him. He’d treated me really decently, not just by hiring me, but
in normal ways. No one else had cooked a meal for me in years. He’d taken the
time to make me a special breakfast even though he’d been tired. No one else
had given me a comfortable bed to sleep on and made sure I had clean towels and
good soap for a bath. And I liked the way he looked, lean but muscled, a strong
clean jaw, thick sandy hair. I wondered what it would be like to kiss that cute
dimple at the corner of his mouth.
    â€œTorvald Thorlaksson.” I whispered his name, just once, before I realized what I was
doing.
    My phone rang: Tor.
    â€œHi,” he said. “Uh, you weren’t thinking of summoning me, were you?”
    â€œNo. Why?”
    â€œI was just kind of thinking about you, and then I thought I heard you.” He sighed. “Sorry.
I won’t bother you.”
    â€œIt’s okay. Really.”
    A pause. “Do you want to go out for lunch?”
    â€œYeah, I’d like that. Let me tell you where I am. I’m sitting in my car.”
    I gave him the cross-streets and hung up. In about three minutes, if that long, someone
knocked on the sidewalk-side window of the car. I yelped, turned in my seat—Tor,
smiling at me. Before I could say anything, he opened the car door and slid
into the passenger seat. He rolled the window all the way down before he shut
the door.
    â€œWhy are you sitting in your car?” Tor said.
    â€œI had to do some heavy-duty cleaning in my apartment, and I’m letting it air out. Mildew
behind the shower.”
    â€œThat apartment. It sucks.”
    â€œYeah. I’m afraid so.”
    â€œYou really could come live in my place. The full-time job. Room and board and five hundred
a month.” He stared out of the windshield. “It was cool, having you there.”
    â€œIt was kind of cool being there. Well, until the noises started.”
    â€œYou got the better of those. You’d have your own room and your own bathroom.”
    I reminded myself of the spell he’d tried