Fur Magic Boxed Set: Talisman, Sage, Fawn, Lola: Paranormal Romantic Comedy (3 page)

Chapter 4

“Amelia, I think Dr. Collier was about to ask me out on date when I picked Tali up from his bath and brush today. I don’t know what to make of it.” Penelope leaned back in the comfy sofa of her living room and took a sip of her herbal tea.

“Really, Pen?” Ami rolled her eyes and snorted. “You know exactly what to make of it. He likes you. And you like him. What are you waiting for?”

“It’s that man. The one with the black hair that I keep seeing but he disappears before I can talk to him. There’s just something about him.” As she spoke, Penelope wrinkled her nose and furrowed her brow. “Like I’ve seen him before. Or, I knew him in another life.”

Or, she knows ‘him’ in this life. If she would stop getting herself in to mishaps, I wouldn’t have to morph. Then, she wouldn’t be distracted by the highly hot but highly mute human Talisman. This had to stop and it had to stop now. Maybe I could get Ami to see the light. Of the pair of them, I had a better chance with her.

Penelope and Ami sat before the hearth sipping their tea in Pen’s beautifully appointed, mauve parlor, complete with two wingback satin, upholstered chairs. The low light in the living room made for the perfect ambiance for girl talk, but not for the job at hand. I knew there was a book of love spells somewhere in the room, and I jumped up on to the built-in bookshelf to the right of the fireplace and perused the titles there.

The Joy Of Cooking Eye Of Newt.

No.

How To Jump Start Your Broom.

Double no.

Love Witch and Wizard Style.

That had to be it.

While Pen poured them both another cup, I batted my paw toward the book and it fell to the ground with a large thump. Then, I sat there, perfectly still like a Grecian statue so neither woman would sense that something was up. Luck was with me; the book it fell right at Ami’s feet and opened to the exact page I’d been looking for.

Ami reached down and picked it up. She intended to slam it shut and return it to its rightful place, but the headline of the chapter caught her eye and she scrunched up her face in consternation.

“Hmm … True Love’s Kiss. Have you ever had True Love’s Kiss, Miss Penelope DeLacroix?” she asked.

“Have you, Miss Amelia Foley?” Pen countered, not wanting to answer.

Because Ami already knew the answer. They’d shared everything since the second grade. They’d both had boyfriends and crushes over the years, but neither woman had fallen deeply in love. I already knew that Penelope’s true love happened to be none other than Dr. Collier. Ami’s hadn’t appeared yet. Or, if he had, we hadn’t met him.

Ami read the chapter, while Pen held her tea cup in an iron grip. I watched them both and prayed to Bastet, the Egyptian God of Cats, for a miracle. That bad-ass feline was definitely my celebrity crush. When would Ami understand that Penelope needed to share True Love’s Kiss with Lucas? I just knew that would break the funk she’d been in. The one that was siphoning off her powers, even though I hadn’t figured the ‘why’ out quite yet.

“Pen, it says here that True Love’s Kiss is the most pure form of love in the entire Universe,” Ami noted as she glanced up to find me staring deep in to her big, brown eyes. “Tali, why are you staring? It’s rude.”

Good grief.

“Anyway, if two people share True Love’s Kiss, that pure white light energy can break any spell or chase away any demons that may inhabit the lover’s body,” Ami continued with her explanation of what she was reading.

“Really?” Pen said.

“Kind of like Sleeping Beauty, I guess,” Ami continued. “Do you think that Jessie and Harry need to share a True Love’s Kiss in order to break the spell that you cast? The one that isn’t going according to plan? If so, I think we’re all in for a rocky ride. Jessie is chasing and Harry is retreating like the troops at Gallipoli. I think the spell only reached Jessie and somehow, Harry was immune.”

“I know,” Penelope admitted as she sighed and slid her fingers over her face. As if she needed to cover her eyes in order to hide her distress over the spells that continued to go so wrong. “I’ve cast that spell a hundred times and nothing like this has ever happened before. I don’t know what to do. Jessie is walking around like a lovesick fool over a man she used to despise and Harry is running around like a depraved stalker is after him. Throw in Elias Stout poking his pointed nose around and we have a recipe for trouble.”

Ami continued to peruse the pages for clues. Pen was right. If Elias got wind that some type of spell had been cast on Jessie to make her personality morph in to Paula Deen, he’d stop at nothing until he’d outed Penelope. Then, all hell would break loose and Pen would have no one to protect her. All the more reason to hook her up with Dr. Luke so I could have an ally in my mission to keep Pen safe.

“Pen,” she exclaimed. “It says right here that only True Love’s Kiss can break the spell. Do you think that we have to get Harry alone and cast the spell on just him? Or, do they have to be together when you try the do-over. Oh, I’m so confused.”

The one I trusted to understand wasn’t getting it. She hadn’t read the most important part. The dedication.

It said:

Just one kiss to break the spell …

I was going to have to morph in order to get her to go back to the page I wanted. I was going to need hands in order to get my point across. Damn. I didn’t want to have to morph again so soon. Especially, when Pen was already thinking about my human form which distracted her from Dr. Luke.

I trotted in to the kitchen and looked around. Penelope had left the walk-in pantry door open. Perfect. I slid through the oak doorway and concentrated hard on my jade amulet. The tell-tale tingling started in my tail and worked its way up to the tips of my ears. Once I saw the electric coffee maker at eye level and heard the usual ringing in my ears, I knew it was over. I’d morphed successfully. Now, how to get Amelia to read the passage quickly before I changed back. The power in my jade amulet usually only lasted about fifteen minutes, max.

Even though I was pressed for time, I didn’t want to terrorize the two women, so I thought it would be best if I slipped out the back door and then walked around the house to ring the doorbell. If I just ‘appeared’ in the kitchen, Amelia might grab the nearest knife and whack my privates off. I still needed that bad boy to potty for crying out loud.

I trotted around the house as fast as I could and rang the doorbell before I realized I had forgotten an extremely important fact. The most important fact of all. When one morphs in to human form and they aren’t wearing any clothes, then they aren’t wearing any clothes. That’s right folks. Standing buck naked at the front door with Penelope three feet from swinging the door open and Amelia hot on her heels. I was just going to have to go with it. Just as Penelope flipped the dead bolt, I noticed the American flag flying proudly on the front porch.

George Washington and all our founding fathers, please forgive a desperate cat for what he’s about to do.

I ripped the flag down and off its wooden pole just in time to wrap it around my waist so Penelope wouldn’t see my, er … assets. I’d seen them before and they were spectacular. Poor Dr. Luke couldn’t possibly be as well-endowed as I was. It had to be at least three inches.

“Ami,” she said as she swung the door wide. “There’s a present on the doorstep and it’s not even Christmas.”

Ami skidded up behind her and then peered at me through the space between Pen’s arm and rib cage.

“Hmm …,” she said as her brown eyes got as wide as saucers. “It’s a great present and its wrapping is so unique, so … patriotic.”

Pen motioned for me to step over the threshold and in to the foyer as she spoke, “I think it’s time I know your name, mystery man. Also, what do you want with me and why do you keep appearing at the strangest times. Almost like you know when I need you.”

Shoot. I didn’t have an answer to that question. Because, I didn’t have an answer to anything. I blew by both of them, not only because I didn’t have the gift of speech to make small talk but because I was on a time constraint. I’d already wasted five minutes getting clad in my USA team gear and using the front door.

As I trotted in to the living room and picked up the book of love spells, I hitched the flag up around my flanks and made sure it was secure. I didn’t want to flash them a glimpse of my perfectly round behind. That view would ruin Penelope for anyone else.

I opened the book and slapped it down on the engraved coffee table. The one that Pen adored because it had been handed down for generations. Her grandma had just presented it to her for her twenty-fifth birthday. As I shuffled through the pages to find the spell I wanted, the one at the beginning, Ami reached me and peered around me.

I pointed hard until my finger was white from the effort of pressing against the page. She read it over a few times and then looked at me in confusion.

“Hot guy,” she said. “I have no idea what you’re trying to tell me.”

Chapter 5

“We haven’t seen anything, Master Sage.”

Clyde foraged through the trash can until he found what he was looking for while his mate, Bonnie, stood watch. A raccoon could find a plethora of tasty treats in the garbage. A human’s waste was an animal’s treasure.

Sage sat on his perch atop the light pole and surveyed everything beneath him. Rather like a monarch reigning over his kingdom.

“Clyde,” he said in his perfect British accent. “You can’t tell me anything more about Bianca Chokecherry and her family? I find this hard to believe since you’ve been rummaging through her trash nightly for the past three years. You had to have found something of interest along the way that might lead us to a clue about Penelope’s curse.”

Clyde shook his head in the negative as he held up a brown apple core and started gnawing away at it. The crass behavior caused Sage to point his beak heavenward as if he could no longer stand the sight. Of course, I could read the ancient one’s thoughts, so he tried to temper his negativity where I was concerned, but others weren’t so lucky. I had to admit, I got some good laughs when Sage and I were together. He cocked his feathered head to one side.

Blighter.

“All right, then,” Sage said out loud. “Cheerio.”

He spread his massive wings and soared high above me as I kept my paws on the ground and trotted down the cobblestone street toward the park. Sage had some bird friends there that might know something, and he’d suggested that we try talking with that group before heading home. There had to be someone in their community who knew something about Bianca Chokecherry and her evil family. The only think I knew for sure is Bianca didn’t like Penelope so I didn’t like Bianca.

As I moved swiftly over the pavement, my mind drifted back to the time a few years back at the annual Shadow festival when Bianca had given Penelope a purple stone carved in the shape of horse, Penelope’s favorite animal. She even had one that lived at the shelter. Mr. Oats was a twenty-year old gelding that was starting to get arthritis in his hocks, so Pen could only ride him a couple of times around the yard before he’d start whinnying in protest. He'd been abandoned in the middle of town square after he'd pooped a giant pile of manure in his owner's flower bed.

I often wondered if there was something about that horse-shaped stone that had to do with the siphoning off of Pen’s powers. Like the rock was cursed itself or its curse transferred to all who held it. If that was the case, someone would know about it and those that could fly so they had a bird’s eye view were my best bet.

Sage settled himself on the back of a park bench, careful not to sit near any bird poop. Even though his shit was as white as the rest of his brethren, he still felt he was classier than they were. No one seemed to argue with him on that score and that suited me just fine. Sage was an elder as well as an old friend, and I respected him for that reason alone. He actually did have the wisdom and grace his kind were known for.

As soon as Sage arrived, a myriad of other birds flew into his vicinity and remained still. The birds waited patiently for Sage to reveal the reason why he’d come tonight. A crow, named Coal, let out a shriek and pecked his beak in to the ground near the bench. He brought a fat earthworm up from the ground and slurped it down his throat in one gulp.

“Sage, my old friend,” Coal said. “What brings you to the park tonight? Anything we can help with?”

“It’s good to see you, Coal,” Sage replied. “I’m wondering if any of you have any information on Bianca Chokecherry or her family.”

Coal peered behind him and gave a questioning look to the twenty or so birds that had gathered there. One stepped forward to talk. A vibrant, yellow finch, named Tweety. I’d heard that kid before, performing at the local bird Karaoke. She had the most glorious voice. Too bad I’d rather kill and eat her than listen to her. Thank God Sage was here to stop me from indulging in my natural instincts.

“Master Sage,” she said as she flew to sit underneath Sage on the bench, giving him the reverence that his position dictated. “I saw something that might be of interest when I was taking voice lessons in her eucalyptus.”

“Do go on, Tweety,” Sage replied.

His voice remained calm but inside he seethed.

Slapper.

Apparently, Sage had seen her the last time she’d flown off with Grip for a little avian hanky-panky. Sage liked to judge. Of course, it did keep him above it all which kept him in charge and that was how he liked it.

“Master Sage,” Tweety continued as she flapped her tiny wings for effect. She seemed truly frightened. “Bianca is a very bad witch. She’s mean. Evil. I saw her dancing in a circle in the woods with her family. They had on black capes with hoods. She hates Miss Penelope.”

“I see,” Sage replied. “Did you hear anything they were saying?”

The old owl’s mind raced as he tried to come up with any information about Pen’s curse. He’d been in this area for so many years, he knew all of the families with powers. The Chokecherry clan had been tormenting people, witch and non-witch, for centuries as well as spreading their unique brand of black magic everywhere they went. Many had tried to irradicate them from Shadowkeep. Everyone that had tried had failed.

“They were chanting. I couldn’t understand them, Master Sage,” Tweety continued. “It didn’t make any sense to me.”

“Thank you, Tweety. You’ve done well.”

Sage left the bench and soared high in to the sky toward home. I’d been dismissed. At least he hadn’t left me with his usual goodbye.

Bloody chancer.

I still had about a mile to go down the dark road before I’d make it home to the shelter and Pen’s warm bed. I hope she’d left some kitty treats in my dish. Some sustenance was in order after my long evening of detective work on her behalf. I planned on one final stop along the way. I knew a chick named Fawn who resided in the woods with her family; they should be in the area. I sent her a mental message that we needed to talk.

I’m here, Tali. I’ll wait for you on the shoulder about a quarter mile down the road.

As I approached, I noticed Fawn’s bushy white tail first as she foraged in the ditch for cacti fruits. Even though deer have great hearing and a sixth sense for danger, I’m a cat and I can stalk my prey at a hundred feet in silence, so my voice startled her.

“Hey, Fawn,” I said as I broke the silence of the black night. It was so still and calm you could have heard a cactus needle fall and hit the ground. “Long time no see.”

“Hi, Tali,” Fawn replied as she walked up and nudged me with her black nose. “I’ve missed you. Where have you been? I don’t think I’ve seen you since that night that you morphed in to human form to save me from that hunter’s bow.”

I’d been behind Bianca Chokecherry’s brother, Damian, that night on my way home and I’d caught him poaching. He was going to shoot a baby deer in the dead of night using a spotlight to find her. I normally only morph in a Penelope emergency, but saving Fawn’s young life classified as just that. She had a lot of life before her, and she was a gentle soul that deserved to live on.

Fawn shivered as she stared at me with her huge, black eyes. “If it wasn’t for you, Tali, I wouldn’t be here right now. I hope you know how much that means to me.”

Aww … shucks. The female adoration was starting to get to me. I felt my kitty eyes start to well up in response.

“Fawn,” I replied. “It was my pleasure to save you. Damian Chokecherry is an evil man and so is his whole family. That’s why I’m here tonight. Is there anything that you or your family have seen or heard that might help Sage and I figure out why Penelope’s losing her powers?”

“That night,” Fawn paused as her whole body tensed, “Damian raised his bow to shoot me, and I couldn’t move, Tali. I couldn’t move. At all. It was like something had turned my whole body to ice, cold granite. Before he raised the bow, he was chanting some kind of gibberish, and then when he brought the string of the bow back, his arrow pointed right at my heart, he …”

“Fawn! Get away from that cat and back here right now.”

Her father, Stag, appeared on the edge of the woods. His eight foot rack gleaming in the moonlight with their points in my direction. Fawn jumped, gave me a look of sorrow and trotted back to her dad. Something had scared Stag silent. Or someone.

I trotted off, my mind racing. I had to get to Sage, and I sent him a message as strong as I could through the dark of night.

Sage, it’s Tali. Fawn knows something and Stag won’t let her tell me what it is. We have to find out.

I’m already home, you bloody cat. We’ll talk when you get here.

Those damn Chokecherry’s. Constantly up to something and none of it good. Something had to be done about them. Especially, if they were threatening the town’s animals in to terrorized silence. I know what I’ll do. I’ll morph in to human form and seduce Bianca with my massive hotness, that’s what I’ll do. Then, I’ll cut her loose and give her the biggest heartbreak she’s ever experienced in her twenty five years. Then, I’ll find some other girl to seduce and rub it in. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do …

So, caught up in my daydreams of thwarting Bianca, I didn’t notice the delivery truck until it was too late.