I was still too rattled from G-Men taking Ivan. I mean come on…whose life is like this besides mine? I didn't mean to sound like I'm whining, even though I am, but…damn. I couldn't catch a break lately. Grey knew I was wiped both mentally and physically at this point and kept her head on my shoulder from where she sat in the back. I didn't know how I functioned without her before. She wasn't like the usual Familiar, not a companion I just drew energy from for magic. She was more of a constant companion. There was something familiar about her that I could never quite put a finger on. Arden's plantation—because let's face it, that's what it was—sat just outside of New Orleans along the boarder of the Bayou Sauvage National Wildlife Refuge. Though most of the land was considered a swamp, the water itself fed into Arden's Elemental Gift of Water and worked as a killer power base. The land had been in her clan for generations. I use the word clan because Arden came from a long line of gypsies that stole the land from white settlers over a century ago, gave up their wandering ways, and worked magic with the land. The plantation sat at the end of a long drive of moss-covered trees.
