Suddenly Sorceress (9 page)

The anger rushed out of me, and with it went the electricity, the power that could possibly reverse the spell I’d cast on my unsuspecting dog of a fiancé. Plopping down to sit cross-legged on the floor, I rested my face in my hands. I was exhausted, and frustrated, and nearly on the verge of tears. Every bit of energy I had had been sucked out of me by that last bit of magic. I needed sleep, and at that moment, I didn’t care if I slept right there on the cold tile.

Drawing in a long, steadying breath, I looked up at the wide-eyed magician. “I think you need to leave, Jackson Blake.”

“Ivie, please give me a chance to explain.” He sputtered out the words, but I wasn’t listening.

I just wanted to climb into bed and rest. It was almost daylight, and I had wasted the entire night on his foolish, dangerous game. I’d never be able to turn Matt back, and I would probably be locked up for the rest of my life for killing him when he was—I stared into my four-legged fiancé’s sad eyes—right here.

“Please just go,” I begged with what little energy I had left. “Let yourself out if you don’t mind. I’m too tired to get up.”

“Let me help you.” Jack knelt beside me and tried to help me up, but I brushed his hand away. I didn’t need any more of what he had to offer.

He stood and nodded before walking out of my kitchen. I heard the faint click of the front door as he went out.

That was the last thing I remembered.

Ten

S
unlight streamed through the window,
burning a hole through my eyelids. At least, that’s what it felt like. That, or the marching band inside my head carried torches to burn their way out of me while I froze my ass off on the cold kitchen tile, still wearing nothing but Jack’s Henley. If that wasn’t bad enough, Matt stood over me, barking in time with the ringing of the doorbell.

“Go ’way!”

The last thing I wanted to do was answer the door. It was probably Jack, back with another excuse or another scam to get me into bed… again. Not that we’d
actually
made it to a bed. But the idea did intrigue me.

And oh, God… Whether I wanted to admit it or not, if I saw him again, I would definitely cave.

I gripped my head and staggered over to the cupboard. I refused to fall for his tricks. Again. I dug through the array of over-the-counter medicines until I found aspirin and choked down two without water.

“Shut it, Matt.” I scowled at the small dog. Judging by the continued ringing, whoever was at the door was in it for the long haul. “Just a minute!”

I ran to the laundry room and dug through the pile of clean clothes on the floor, settling on a pair of Matt’s green gym sweats. After tugging them on, I dashed to answer the door and caught my reflection in the hall mirror. I wiped at my raccoon eyes and ran my hands through the tangled mess of flamboyant Jessica Rabbit hair, failing miserably in taming it even somewhat. With a deep breath, I pulled the door open. Two uniformed policemen stood there.

“Can… can I help you?”

The taller of the two stepped forward. He towered over his much shorter partner, reminding me of Penn and Teller. I almost expected him to ask me to pick a card. I forced the magician reference from my brain. “Is Dr. Green in?” he asked.

“Umm… no, he’s not home. Is something wrong?”

“Dr. Green has been reported missing, and his car was found abandoned this morning.”

“His car was
abandoned
?” My voice went up an octave. I’d almost forgotten I’d deserted the car in the woods when I left with Jack. “What makes you think he’s missing?”

“Dr. Green’s fiancée called in a missing person’s report.”

“His
fiancée
?” I’d officially become a parrot.

“Yes, ma’am. We’re just following up. If he isn’t here, we’d like to have a few words with his former fiancée, Ms. Ivie McKie. We understand she was the last person to see Dr. Green before he disappeared. We’d like to ask her a few questions. Is she available?”

Things were getting better and better. They didn’t know who I was. My hand shot up to my hair, and I played with it until it spilled over my forehead a little more. I was torn between lying and coming clean. I wondered if they’d arrest me outright or just drag me in for questioning. Seeing me led out in handcuffs would make Mrs. Camp’s year.

“Um… no. He kicked her out. I’m Matt’s… um, cousin… Sabrina. Matt asked me to, um, dogsit. While he went out of town. I think he went to Las Vegas.”

The Scottie barked at the officers, clearly trying to rat me out.

The shorter of the two policemen—Teller—took out a small notepad to write down everything I said.

“When did you last speak with Dr. Green?” Penn asked.

“Oh, um, sometime yesterday?” I scrambled to think up my next lie. “In the morning. He left a key for me under the mat.”

“And did he seem fine when you spoke with him?”

“Fine?” Define fine. “He sounded extremely excited to go to Las Vegas and marry his lovely new fiancée.” The bitch. “In fact, he couldn’t wait to pack his bags and hit the road.”

I had no idea what came over me. I’d given false information to the police. I was going to jail. No, worse…

I was going straight to
hell
.

“Do you mind if we have a look around?”

“Oh… um. A look around?” My knees threatened to give out. “I’d have to ask Matt before I let strangers into the house.” That’s what Mom always said, so it sounded good to me.

“It shouldn’t be a problem to get a warrant. We’ll at least need your information and a contact number,” Penn said.

Teller tapped his pen against the pad and waited for me to give him my fake name and Chloe’s address and phone number.

Correction,
she
was going to kill me… and then I’d go straight to hell. I had to call her and fill her in.
Immediately
.

“And ma’am?”

“Yes?”

“If you happen to speak with Ms. McKie, please tell her it would be best if she didn’t leave town.”

I watched through the window until the police pulled out of the driveway before I sprinted to the kitchen to grab my cell phone. It wasn’t there. After pulling apart the entire downstairs searching for it, I realized it must still be in the pocket of my jeans… in Jack’s car.

“Damn it!” My fingers wove into my hair, tugging painfully as I tried to think. “Matt’s phone!” I darted up the stairs and grabbed it from the bathroom counter. I fiddled with the drawstring on Matt’s sweats while it powered up, then I dialed Chloe’s number. “Chl—”

“Ivie! Where the
hell
have you been? I’ve been trying to call you all morning. I’ve been worried sick! Who’s Jack, and why does he have your phone?”

I paced over the cold tile. “I don’t have time to go into the whole story, but I need your help!”

“Not so fast,” she said. “I need answers.”

With a groan, I switched the phone to speaker and shouted as I ran to the master bedroom, grabbing Matt’s clothes and stuffing them into the bag he’d started packing. “I’ll tell you everything, I promise. I need you. Can you come over right away?”

Matt barked at the phone, and I heard Chloe gasp. “What the hell was that? Was that a dog? When did you get a dog?”

“That’s why I need your help. Please! Oh, and if the police call, tell them your name is Sabrina and…” I zipped up the bag. “Better yet, don’t answer your phone until I have a chance to explain.”

Her silence was completely uncharacteristic.

“Chloe?”

“The police? Oh, my God, Ivie… What have you gotten yourself into? Did you steal the dog from the guy who has your phone? Does Matt know?”

The dog growled, and I bit down hard on my bottom lip as I glanced his way. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure he knows.” I picked up the phone and clicked off the speaker. “Please hurry. I’m in a lot of trouble, and I really need your help.”

“Okay, okay. Should I stop off for a latte on the way there?”

“I’m not in the mood for a latte. Just
hurry
.”

“Cinnamon dolce skinny decaf? It’s your favorite,” she said with a teasing lilt.

“It’s
your
favorite… and I don’t think my stomach could handle anything right now.”

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll be there in ten. But this had better be good if I’m giving up the gym
and
a cinnamon dolce latte!”

“I don’t think
good
even begins to cover it.”

Eleven

“D
o you have any idea
what this means?” Chloe stared into my eyes with a look of wonderment. “Ivie, you’re a witch!”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” I said before dropping my face into my hands.

After initially freaking out over my ever-changing hair—currently flaming red and shoulder length—Chloe sat quietly on the edge of my bed while I went through the entire story—from the part where Matt came home to say he was leaving me to the part where Jackson Blake walked out my door and the police showed up. I didn’t leave anything out. Not that any of that mattered in comparison.

“I knew something was going on. I just
knew
you were holding out on me. My best friend… a witch! Oh, my God. That’s so cool.” She yanked off her designer jacket, flung it behind her, and plopped down on the bed again. “I still can’t believe you let that hot magician leave. Who does that? And I don’t get how he ended up with your clothes, your purse, and your phone.”

“Weren’t you listening? We had
sex
in his car.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Chloe waggled her eyebrows at me. She’d obviously tuned out the part about Jackson Blake tricking me into getting naked in the woods.

“It
was
a bad thing. Unlike you, Miss Impulsive,
I
don’t do things like that.”

She smirked. “Well, maybe you should.”

“Stop right there.” I threw up a hand. “I don’t want to talk about the magician anymore. Besides, you didn’t even see him. How do you know he was hot?” I dismissed her silly thoughts with a flick of my wrist but caught myself thinking about him again.

Chloe rolled her eyes. “Ivie McKie, I’ve known you my entire adult life, and there is one thing I am absolutely sure of. If you had sex with the guy in his car after knowing him for less than two hours, he was
hot
.”

If there was one thing
I
was absolutely sure of, I wasn’t going to admit she was right. “Please, forget about the magician.”

She jumped up as if the bed were on fire and paced across the carpet. “Have you tried to conjure anything?”

It was my turn to roll my eyes. “I’ve been pretty occupied with trying to turn Matt back.”

“Ugh, Matt.” She shook her head, waving as if swatting a bug. “He deserves what he got. I’m talking about something good. Like…” Chloe ran to my closet and came back with the black garbage bag containing my destroyed Ralph Lauren boots. She dumped the boots on the floor in front of me. “There.”

I held my nose as the smell wafted toward me. “There what? They’re toast.”

“That’s what I’m talking about, genius.” She planted her hands on her hips and raised one carefully arched eyebrow. “Fix them.”

“Fix them
how
?”

Chloe let out a groan. “Do I have to spell it out for you?” She giggled. “Get it?
Spell
?” She hesitated, obviously waiting for me to laugh. I didn’t. “You’re a witch. You turned a man into a
dog
.”

“A skunk,” I interrupted. A minor detail, but I was nothing if not a stickler for details.

“Well, he’s a dog now, and I’m pretty sure you were the one who did that. If you can turn a skunk into a dog, you can surely get mud, manure, and—are these claw marks?” She inspected my ruined boots more closely.

I lifted one shoulder in a weak shrug. “Hoof marks.”

“Right.” She bit back a grin. “Well, I’m sure a witch who can turn a man into a skunk and a skunk into a dog can fix a silly little pair of Ralph Lauren boots.”

Chloe had a point. I had managed a few different transformations already. Maybe I could restore my boots.

“Hey, it can’t hurt to try,” she said.

“It might. I have no idea what I’m doing. I could accidentally turn the boots into a crocodile and it could bite your toes off.” I had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the entire situation. Chloe laughed along with me, but I heard a subtle tremble in her voice.

“Okay, I’ll give it a try.”

“Excellent!” She took several steps backward to get out of my “spell range” and shrugged. “Just in case.”

I nodded then turned my attention to the boots.

I tried to remember the sensation I’d felt when I initially turned Matt into the skunk—the heat that flowed through me, the static tingle of the electricity—and the sensation I felt when Jack had been in the kitchen and the blue light sparked from my fingers. I tried to tune into that feeling and focus my energy on restoring my favorite boots.

“It’s not working,” I whispered.

“Should you say something? Like a spell?” she asked.

“I don’t know any spells.”

“Just make something up.” She was quiet for a second. “Oh, and it should rhyme. Spells
always
rhyme.”

“Because you know so much about spells all of a sudden?”

“Just think of something.”

I thought back to some of the spells I’d found in my Google search. Chloe was right; the spells were written like creepy nursery rhymes. “What rhymes with boots?”

“Toots?”

I turned to gape at her. “Toots? Really? That’s all you could come up with?”

“Hey, I’m not the kindergarten teacher. You are.” Chloe motioned for me to turn around to the task at hand.

“Okay. Okay.” I rubbed my temples, racking my brain for the perfect words.
Boots, scoots, loots, hoots… roots!
“I think I have something.” I drew in a jagged breath. “Drawing my powers from earth, plants, and roots, I channel my energy to restore these boots.” I stared down at the boots.

Nothing
.

“They still look like crap.” Chloe huffed. “Maybe that wasn’t the best spell. You’re not trying hard enough.”

I grunted. I felt a slight tingle in my fingertips. Nothing like what I’d felt before, but still something. I reassessed the information I’d discovered in the past twenty-four hours. I had to be missing something.

“Get the cat!” I pointed to the sleeping ball of fur curled up on my bed. “According to everything I’ve read, cats are supposed to reflect energy into the spell. If we’re going to try this, we need to do it right!”

Chloe scooped up Karma. “He’s a hefty one, isn’t he?”

“Trust me,” I snorted, “it’s a good thing he’s so well fed. He tried to eat Matt yesterday.”

Chloe barked out a laugh. “That would have solved a lot of our problems, wouldn’t it?”

“Hardly! His
fiancée
is already convinced I killed him and hid the body. If I don’t change him back soon, someone might believe her.”

Chloe sobered up and shoved the cat into my arms. “Right. Try the spell again.”

I hugged Karma with one arm and extended the other, fingers outstretched toward the ravaged boots. Directing all of my attention into drawing the energy into myself like I’d done before, I closed my eyes and visualized the zigzagging current rushing away from the outlets and into my body. I took a deep, cleansing breath and opened my eyes.

The tingling started deep inside my core. I felt it coursing through me quickly, like a million tiny ropes pulling toward my fingers. Concentrating on what I was trying to accomplish, I switched up the words a little, letting my voice drift out with the incantation.

“Drawing the power

from the earth, plants, and roots,

I channel my energy

to restore youth to these boots.”

Karma squirmed, a low growl emanating from his chest. The lights dimmed and a bluish glow extended from my fingers down to the floor. The boots shimmered in and out of focus for a quick moment then everything returned to normal.

Almost everything. I still heard Matt scratching on the bathroom door.

The boots I’d been ready to toss in the trash were nowhere to be found. In their place was a pair that looked brand new—as if I had just pulled them out of the box. My fingers hummed with the remnants of the power, and my head spun. The cat struggled until I released him, and he hurried out of the room.

“Holy crap!” Chloe seized my arms, her fingers digging into my flesh. “Can you make a purse? The buttery leather one from my dream?”

I heard what she said, but at the same time, her words didn’t register. I was too absorbed in the pristine pair of Ralph Lauren riding boots.

I tugged away from her and crouched down to run my fingers along the shaft of one, feeling the supple softness of the Italian calfskin leather. They were perfect. I could even see my reflection in one of the gold tone buckles. They were the very same boots I’d purchased over two years ago.

I mean… the. Exact. Same. Boots.

Chloe snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Hello? Anyone in there?”

“Shh.” I waved her away. “I’m thinking.”

“Think purse, Ivie.
Think
.
Purse
.”

“Later,” I muttered, still distracted by the boots.

Chloe couldn’t contain her excitement. “You did it! You did magic! On purpose this time. Snap out of it.” She grabbed my shoulders, shaking me until she practically knocked me to the floor. “If you can fix your boots, you can change Matt back!”

That brought me out of the spell I was under, and I beamed up at her shining face. “I can change Matt back.”

“That’s right. Think positive.” She pulled me up. “You think up a spell; I’ll go get the dog. Oh, and Ivie?” she added as she practically bounced to the bathroom.

“Hmm?”

“Don’t look in the mirror just yet. I need you to stay focused.”