I just subbed the third Sentinel novel, Captive Magic, so it should be out within a few months, yay! This book is about what Manny was doing back home while the rest of the gang was in Seattle during the events of Emerging Magic. Here's a bit off the top, completely unedited:

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Chapter One

It started on Friday, a week before Christmas Eve. Manuel Oliveira didn't know anything was starting, but later on he looked back and saw that was it, the afternoon his fourteen-year-old niece Anita came dashing into his bookstore, the Grove, after school and babbled, "Uncle Manny! Mama saw a man disappear!"

Someone who didn't know better would've said that obviously his sister'd been mistaken, or had been drunk, or was just messing with her kid. Manny did know better, though, so he asked, "Where? When?" tensed to get on the phone if it seemed to be something that'd need action right away.

"Yesterday at Peralta! She was in the bedroom that evening, you know, to make sure all the visitors'd left before they locked up, and there was this guy standing right there and he looked at her and then he disappeared!"

All right, last night. And Lupita hadn't called him about it, so she must not think it was anything urgent. The fact that she hadn't called him at all was kind of weird, but he'd ask about that later.

"What did she think it was? A ghost?"

Manny was pretty sure there weren't any ghosts, but that didn't mean Lupita might not have thought her guy was a ghost, and besides, Manny might be wrong about ghosts.

"No! It couldn't have been a ghost 'cause he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt -- Mama said it was an old Giants shirt -- and if it was a ghost he would've been a caballero from olden times, right? Or even a peón if it was a servant. So it had to be an actual guy disappearing! Do you know anyone who can do that?"

"Not personally, not just vanish, bam. I've heard of people being able to do that, but I've never met anyone who could." Manny answered on auto-pilot while thinking. A good caster could do a transport spell, but that'd make a doorway to step through, and it'd be obvious what was what happened; they wouldn't just vanish. And even a great caster would take a while to cast that spell 'cause it was big and complicated and you could only draw so fast, right? Even Aubrey, the best mage on their Sentinel team, would take a few minutes to cast a portal spell.

"I wish I could do that! Wouldn't that be awesome? I'd never have to worry about being late for school again, or missing the bus, or not having money, or getting Mom to drive me." Anita was all about efficiency. Or maybe she was just trying to get through life doing as little work as possible, although that was pretty close to efficiency when you got right down to it.

A white lady who looked old enough to be retired came up to the counter with half a dozen fantasy paperbacks. She was giving Manny and Anita both the There Has To Be Some Logical Explanation glance, so Manny grinned and said, "Roleplaying game. Like D&D, but paranormal," while taking her books and sliding his rolling chair over to the register.

"Oh!" The lady laughed and smiled back. "My old group used to play the Hero system -- mostly Fantasy Hero and Champions -- before Harry and I moved up here. I never found a good gaming group after that. So many people just want hack-n-slash and our group was into serious roleplaying. Sometimes we went a whole session without killing anything if we were busy with politics and deals and all." She had a nostalgic smile and completely missed Anita's eyeroll, which was probably just as well.

"If I want to just hack-n-slash I'll play a computer game," said Manny with a nod. He took her money while smiling at her reminiscences, then thanked her and said goodbye.

As soon as she was gone, Anita was eyerolling again. "I swear, who plays with paper and pencils anymore? So lame!"

Manny glared across the counter at her, and Anita gave a heavy sigh and said, "Fine! Paper and pencil games are stupid and boring and anyone who plays them is a pathetic loser. Better?"

"Better. Still obnoxious, but at least you're not insulting a group of people who have nothing to do with it."

"That's not what it means and you know it!"

"That's exactly what the assholes who are all, 'That's so gay!' say. Am I supposed to ignore them too?" Manny was still glaring; she knew better, she was just picking up shit from some of the kids she hung with.

Anita did get the point. She shut up and looked away. "Okay, fine. I know, it still hurts even if you don't mean it to. I'm sorry."

Manny said, "That's fine, mija. Just try to remember it counts for all groups, even if you don't know anyone like that, right?" Manny knew better than to believe all the kids who used "so gay" as an insult were actually fine with homosexuals, but he wasn't going to argue it with Anita. She'd heard it before, and agreed with him; she just had to learn to think before she repeated shit.

"So what about Mama?" She brightened up and leaned closer, with her elbows on the counter. "She didn't hallucinate it or anything, right? It was actually a guy who can teleport?"

"Maybe so," said Manny. "I'll have to talk to her and see."

"Are you going to try to find him? If you do, can I talk to him?" She was bouncing up and down on her toes at the thought of meeting a guy who could teleport. Manny figured she was collecting talents; it wasn't like she didn't know other folks who could do stuff most people thought was fiction.

"I don't know, it depends. If I do have to talk to him, we'll see about letting you meet him. He might be dangerous, or he might just not want to meet a pesty teenager." He gave her a teasing grin and got an offended scowl in return.

"I am not pesty! I'll bet he'd love to meet some folks he can just talk to! Most of you have to hide, but he wouldn't have to hide with us, right?"

"We'll see what happens, and what your mama says." Anita scowled again, but Manny ignored her. "You gonna stay?" he asked. "If you're gonna stick around, it's either homework or store work."

"I know, I know." Anita frowned down at her backpack and said, "Store work. Shelving?"

Manny nodded. "New box in back, checked in and ready to go out."

"Yay!" She scooped up her pack and dashed up the center aisle toward the curtained doorway that led to the tiny stockroom.

"No reading!" Manny called after her. "You bend spines or fold corners and I'll swat your butt!"

"I know!"

Manny grinned after her. She was a good kid, just needed someone to ride herd on her sometimes. Like every few minutes, but still, Manny'd been a lot more trouble at fourteen and he knew it.

He pulled out his phone and tapped out a text to his sister. Even if her disappearing guy wasn't urgent, it was something that should be checked out.

***

The store closed at six every weekday evening, and by then Anita'd shelved all the new books and done all her algebra besides. Math was actually her favorite subject, and Manny expected she'd end up an engineer like her dad.

They closed up together and he drove her home, to his sister and brother-in-law's three-bedroom house up the road a ways. It was in a mostly white neighborhood, but the high school -- diagonally across the intersection from Manny's store -- was the best in the district and they'd hunted until they found a place in that area.

Manny said hi to Anita's dad Miguel (except everyone called him Mike) and headed into the kitchen to talk to Lupita while Anita vanished upstairs, doubtless to get in some Warcraft, since apparently gaming on the computer wasn't at all stupid, boring, or pathetic.

"Hey, Manny!" Lupita was putting together hamburgers while a dutch oven on the stove waited for fries. Lupita made the best fries in the county because she fried them twice -- in lard. He'd have to hit the weights extra hard the next day to compensate, but they were absolutely worth it.

"Can I stay for dinner? Thanks, glad to!" Manny ducked a chunk of raw potato, then picked it up to toss in the sink.

"You're such a brat."

"You raised me."

"I should've tossed you out with the dogs."

"Then you wouldn't have anyone to help you with disappearing men."

"Heh. Anita wanted to be the one to tell you, so I let her. What do you think?"

"What do you think? Did he do anything? Say anything? Take anything?"

"It was really nothing. I mean, aside from some huge gabacho just going poof! in front of my face." She finished shaping the patties and went to check the thermometer in the lard. "It was only a second or two. I walked in, he looked at me, and poof!"

"Huh." Manny watched her put a handful of fries in the hot lard. The smell was awesome.

"Put the burgers in the broiler for me?"

"Sure."

She stood aside, keeping an eye on the clock, while Manny put the broiler pan of burgers into the oven, on the top rack close to the broiler element.

"So he was a white guy? Tall or fat or naked...?" Manny asked with a grin. "Anything about him memorable?"

Lupe just smirked. "Right, white guy, tall and built. Medium brown hair, down to his collar, Giants shirt from at least ten years ago, jeans. I didn't notice his shoes. Or his eye color. Sort of a beard, not like Papi's but really light, like he just hadn't shaved for a while. No jewelry that I noticed. It was really just a couple of seconds, and I was too shocked to take notes."

"No, that's fine. You got as much as anyone would've," Manny said, moving over to lean against a chunk of counter, out of the way. "And he didn't take anything? Did you check after?"

"I checked, and I don't think he did, but I couldn't swear to it. It was the second room and he might've been looking for something -- I could tell a couple of things had been moved. Nothing was broken, and I couldn't say if anything was missing, but there were things out of place. Inventories aren't kept on the property; I let Marjorie know and she'll come out with the lists to check."

"You told Marjorie some guy vanished?" Manny was teasing; he was pretty sure she hadn't, but it was an obvious question and it was natural to needle his sister.

She swatted him with an oven mitt and said, "No! I told her he pushed past me fast and got out before I could stop him. Not that I could've stopped him if he'd actually pushed past and not wanted to stop, you know? But I had to say something normal."

Manny nodded. He knew there wasn't anything incredibly valuable in the Peralta house. Stuff there had value because it was historical, and a few pieces might bring some cash from museums, but not without provenance, which a stolen piece wouldn't have. It wasn't like there was jewelry or anything in there, or a stack of two-hundred-year-old gold coins.

"So what do you think?" Lupita wasn't joking anymore, he could tell. She might kid about it, but it'd bothered her more than she'd admitted before.

"I think it depends on whether anything was missing. If so, then he's a thief and we need to do something about him. If not, then he's probably just figured out his talent and he's joy riding, in which case we need to contact him and give him a lecture on manners and not getting caught." He thought for a second, then added, "The stuff that was moved -- might it've been someone else?"

"I--" She paused and thought. "I suppose so. I don't think so, but I couldn't swear to it. There were a few people in earlier and I didn't have my eye on everyone at once. We tell people not to touch, but sometimes they do anyway. So yes, someone else might've moved those things."

Manny nodded. "I'm thinking joyrider, then, but let me know whether anything's missing."