Read First Destroy All Giant Monsters (The World Wide Witches Research Association) for Free Online Page B

monster.”
    “Seriously?” Amber shuddered, to her own surprise. “Which one? How, exactly? And what with? And how giant are we talking?”
    “Beats the heck outta me,” said Smoke. “I hadn’t heard of any dragons stealing maidens or trolls under bridges, so let’s eat. Rust made lasagna.”
    * * * * *
    They ate in the kitchen. Anyone not aware of the complicated nature of the DeGoode household walking into the kitchen would have thought they were in some sort of forced perspective puzzle. One side of the kitchen contained adult-sized furnishings and appliances, on the other side of the room were the same appliances, only child, (no!), dwarf-sized. Since kitchen duties were shared between Lucinda, usually the only large sized adult in the house, and Smoke, Robyn, and the cousins, it was necessary that the kitchen be sized for everyone. While half of the furniture was a comfortable size for Amber, the others were just perfect for tangling her feet and tripping her up.
    “Any ideas?” Amber pushed her plate away and reached for the coffee pot.
    Smoke intercepted her move and pushed it to the other side of the table. Her other cousins, Lightning, Rust, and Manny, were passing the damn Giant Monsters book from hand to hand. Smoke, still sulking she supposed because the house disagreed with his priorities, declined to examine it again.
    “Well,” said Manny, cutting an apple into quarters. “I kinda thought those guys were fiction.”
    “They are,” growled Smoke. “Though why anyone would make up a monster when there are enough real ones about, I don’t understand.”
    “What real monster am I supposed to deal with?” asked Amber.
    “Not a clue,” said Smoke cheerfully and resumed rocking back and forth on two chair legs. “Sounds like you’re gonna get thrown in deep. I’ll take you down to Aunt Lucinda’s workshop and you can take a look at her journals for anything she was worried about before she went off.” He came to his feet with a thud. “And if you could take time to reinforce the wards, I’d thank you.”
    “I’m not the guardian. I refuse the Induction until I am convinced that Lucinda … is not coming back. I’m a temporary stand it.”
    “I’m not asking you to dedicate yourself,” snapped Smoke. “You’ve made that insultingly clear. You can reinforce the goddamned wards without being a guardian! All you need to be is a witch!”
    Amber climbed to her feet and reached for the damned book. Lightning pulled a slip of damned white paper from the back of the damned book and used it to mark a damned page.
    She closed her eyes and drew in a cleansing breath. Being angry at Smoke was like punching a cloud. Useless, frustrating, and sooner or later she realized that he was right in the first place.
    “When you’re done with this, I’d like to read it,” said Lightning.
    “Sure,” Amber glanced at the slip and frowned. “You know, this book wasn’t the type to belong in Aunt Lucinda’s library. I thought it must have snatched it from somewhere, but it looks like someone bought it. This is the sales receipt.”
    “The library does not ‘snatch’ books,” said Smoke. “That would be stealing. Lassie, Come Home was from this house originally, so by the Laws of Contagion it’s easy enough to call it back.”
    “And the copy of Now magazine?”
    “No idea,” said Smoke, then saw Lightning blush. “Well, some idea.”
    Lightning’s blush deepened.
    “So, who bought this?” asked Amber. “It’s dated this year.”
    Smoke reached up to take the paper and studied it, growing paler and paler.
    “This was purchased online the week before they went missing. Paid for with Lucinda’s Visa card,” he raised his eyes to Amber, for the first time in her experience looking lost and lonely. “I don’t understand. Why’d she order it online when she could’ve just run down and picked it up? This bookstore’s not an hour down the road in Laurenville. She’d go further for a