by Ann Charles
“What about me?” Leon asked.
“Do some investigative work for me,” Bruno said, pausing at the tent flap. “Ask around and see if anyone else’s wishes are coming true—sort of. We need to keep track of how far this spell has spread.”
Leon left shortly after Bruno, leaving Hank, Marco, and me to wait for their return. Marco went to check on his brother. Hank followed, asking if he could play with the bunnies while we waited, to which Marco agreed. The tension between the two wereapes had apparently eased as quickly as it coiled.
I stayed where I was and paced the four corners of the tent, going through the screwy situation we were in again and again, trying to come up with a solution.
Marco was right to be worried about his brother. Time was running out for Donatello, and with Patooty off vacationing in Haiti, that left me as the go-to guru for voodoo spells. The problem was, I didn’t know much about voodoo. I’d grown up with a seer out west, far away from the world of the Haiti-based religion. Maybe I could log onto the internet in the monkey brothers’ office and see if there was some sort of local voodoo priest or priestess who could help us out of this bind.
Then again, maybe the interference of another voodoo envoy would make this screwy Wish spell even worse somehow.
I pounded the heel of my palm against my forehead. “Think, Nora,” I said, dropping into one of the chairs. “How do I fix this?”
If I didn’t come up with something soon, Donatello could end up in the hospital, drawing the attention of local authorities, which was the monkey brothers’ worst nightmare.
Not to mention that Eugene would be overrun with the local wildlife soon. With his luck, one of those critters would probably give him rabies by accident.
And then there was Leon. The poor werelion would have to put his nightly act on hold until he could focus on juggling chainsaws instead of Hank or else risk cutting off his paw. Or worse.
I blew out a breath, letting my hands dangle between my knees. Of course I couldn’t forget about Bruno, who was going to drive me stark raving mad with his over-thinking about our relationship. How long until his psychoanalysis of everything in our love life started interfering with his day job? The head of security needed a clear head to keep this circus in line. AC had a reputation for her lack of tolerance when it came to blunders from her immediate subordinates.
“Great balls of fire,” I said, scowling at the curtain leading to Donatello’s kip. “This is a fine mess you landed us in, monkey.”
What had the ape shifter been thinking? Didn’t he know better than to fiddle around with voodoo? Hadn’t anyone ever told him to be careful what he wished for?
Chapter Nine
By the time Bruno returned with Gigi, I had changed my mind about an earlier idea.
“How about we contact another voodoo priest and see if the Wish spell could be reversed somehow?”
Gigi got on board with my idea right out of the gate, pulling out her cell phone. “That sounds like a plan. Let me see if I can find someone online with an emergency voodoo phone number.”
Bruno, on the other hand, had a face lined with doubt. “Do you really thi—”
Before he could finish, I added, “If annulling the spell isn’t possible, then maybe they can supply another spell that overpowers the first.”
The doubt lines deepened. “Don’t you think we’ve screwed around with this voodoo shit enough for now? What if we make things even worse with another spell?”
There was that chance. “If you have a better idea, Bruno the Wise, I’d love to hear it.”
He stared at me for several seconds, his expression tightening into a stony scowl. “We’re playing with people’s lives here, Electra, especially Donatello’s. You of all people should know that dabbling with voodoo can lead to death—or something even worse, from what I’ve read.” He ended with a grimace.
“Since when did you start reading?” I teased with a playful smile, trying to reduce the friction building between us. “When I agreed to be your fated mate, I was under the impression that you were heavy on the brawn and light on the brains.”
His sudden grin broke the surface tension on his face. “Apparently, your crystal ball failed you during that particular scry, oh fortune teller.” His gaze traveled south to my cleavage. “Or some voodoo priestess sold you a bad-luck bag of gris-gris.”
Scry and gris-gris? That was jargon from my line of work, not his. “Why, Bruno dear. You’ve been studying.”
He winked. “Yes, I have. Up close and personal, especially late at night in the candlelight with the help of a very thorough tutor.”
“Here’s one!” Gigi said, interrupting our flirting match. She held up her cell phone. “Queen Zabette. Voodoo has been in her blood for five generations.”
Bruno’s scowl returned. “Shouldn’t we have a more thorough vetting process than a quick internet search?”
“She’s averaging 4.6 stars out of five with over 700 reviews,” Gigi added. “That’s an impressive score.”
“Does she have a phone number?” I asked.
Bruno walked away, shaking his head.
“Yep. It’s toll free. You want me to call it now?”
I glanced at Bruno, who stood with his back to us. “Yes.”
Gigi tapped the screen and held the phone out for me to take.
“For the record,” Bruno said, turning to face us, “I think this is a mistake.”
“Duly noted,” I said and took the phone.
“Queen Zabette’s Voodoo hotline,” a wheezy voice answered, the woman on the other end sounding five generations old herself.
I took a deep breath and spilled our story.
Ten minutes later, I hung up the phone.
“Well?” Gigi bounced. “Did she give you a new spell?”
“No.” I handed her back the phone.
“Did she know the last line of our Wish spell?” Bruno asked.
I shook my head, frowning toward the room where Donatello sat on his haunches waiting for us to rescue him.
“What did she say?” Bruno pressed, returning to my side.
“Basically, we’re screwed.”
“Oh, no.” Gigi covered her mouth.
“She said that the only way to fix this was to finish the Wish spell. When I asked about her giving me a new line to replace the part that’s burned, she said that she couldn’t do that. Only the original spellmaker can supply that line. Otherwise, the spell would be a mutant of the first and could result in even more chaos, possibly even death.”
“Son of a bitch.” Bruno dropped into one of the armchairs, muttering under his breath, “Damned meddling monkey.”
“So now what?” Gigi asked, picking up her doctor’s bag. “I mean, I can give Donatello fluids intravenously, but that’s only a bandage. If we can’t snap him out of this soon, I’m going to have to take him to a hospital.” Her brow pinched. “You know how that will end for a shifter in a nearly vegetative state, right? At best, he’ll be put in a facility and strapped to a bed for the rest of his life as his muscles atrophy and he slowly dies. At worst, he’ll end up in an experimentation lab. The exact kind of place his mother worked so hard to free him and Marco from.”
“Shit,” I said. The weight of what had seemed so amusing at first sat heavy on my chest. Time was running out.
Bruno stood. “I need to go help out at the front gates. We open in ten minutes.”
I sighed. I’d forgotten that we all had a circus to run. “Who’s going to start the show?”
“I am,” Marco said from the threshold to the other room. He wore his magician’s cape and hat. “Donatello would agree that no matter the situation, the show must go on.”
I walked over and gave him a hug. “I’ll figure something out.”
He patted my back as he held me. “You’ve done your best, Electra. Remember, this was not your doing.” He pushed me back, staring down at me with watery eyes. “If Donatello’s fate is to end in a lab, so it shall be.
You’ve tried to help, and for that he and I are forever grateful.”
I blinked the tears from my eyes and stepped back. “I’m not giving up yet.”
Bruno took my arm. “Come on, sweetheart. It’s time to go to work.” He led me outside under the warm sunshine, but I shivered anyway.
We walked back to my tent in silence as the circus hustled and bustled around us, our coworkers preparing to deliver another night of mystery and awe.
My mind churned, trying to come up with a solution. “There has to be something I can do to help.”
Bruno pulled me to a stop outside of my tent flap. “I need to go to work, Nora, but I feel like I need to stay with you and talk about all of this.”
I patted his chest. “While I appreciate the gesture, talking about your feelings is not your cup of tea.”
“Tell me about it, yet here I stand at your service.” He scoffed. “I think this stupid Wish spell pumped me full of estrogen.”
“That’s a sexist thing to say.” I tried to lighten things a little.
His mouth drooped at the corners. “You’re right. Now I feel bad about that.”
I laughed, which felt good for the few seconds it lasted. I kissed him. “Go to work, big dog. We can ‘talk’ later.”
Without a backward glance, I slipped inside my tent and headed for my private quarters. It was time to change into Madam Electra’s peasant blouse and long velvet skirt and get busy telling fortunes. As Marco had said, we had a show to put on for paying guests. No matter how dire things were behind the scenes, one thing all of us shifter freaks were good at was pretending.
It was nearing midnight by the time I made it to the end of my line of customers. My tip jar overflowed with gratuities. For whatever reason, tonight had been themed with happy endings for those whose futures I sought. Too bad the same couldn’t be said for Donatello.
I started to put away Ol’ Blue and then stopped, putting it back on its stand and lowering into my chair again. I had to try one more time for the monkey brothers. Clearing my thoughts, I hovered my fingers over the blue sphere, waiting until the moment felt right to make contact. I opened my mind, ready to receive, but before I laid my hands on the ball, I heard Queen Zabette’s wheezy voice speak in my head loud and clear:
You must finish the Wish spell …
I lowered my hands to the table.
That was it!
Of course, now it seemed so simple.
I stood and stuffed Ol’ Blue in its lockbox, tucking it under the parlor table until tomorrow night.
Holding up my long skirt, I rushed out of my tent and ran toward the monkey brothers’ tent.
I passed Eugene and his entourage on the way, doing a double take at the sight of a four-foot-long alligator zigzagging along behind the rest of the werebear’s crew of critters.
“Where’s the fire?” Eugene called after me.
“I think I know how to save Donatello,” I yelled over my shoulder.
“Can I help?”
“Yes. Find Bruno.” I paused long enough to add, “Tell him to meet me at the monkey brothers’ place.”
Upon reaching their tent, I jogged inside without waiting for an invitation. Marco was pacing between the two armchairs while Gigi prepped a bag of clear fluid that I figured was for Donatello. They both looked at me in surprise.
“I know … what … to do,” I told them between gulps of air.
“To help Donatello?” Marco asked, his eyes wide, hopeful.
I nodded and held up a finger as I waited for my lungs to catch up with my feet. I really needed to stop sitting on my butt so much in my parlor chair and do some exercise. Bruno went for a run every other morning. Maybe I could join him. I thought about how nice it was to crawl back between the sheets after I did my daily sunrise greeting. Then again, maybe I’d ease into exercising with a walk around the big top tent periodically.
Bruno showed up just as I was ready to explain my idea. The brute wasn’t even winded, dang it. “Eugene said you figured out how to end this spell.”
“It’s obvious, really,” I told him and the others. “I need to make a wish.”
“No.” Bruno didn’t even take a moment to think about it.
“I know what to wish,” I assured him.
“It’s a bad idea.”
“At least hear me out.”
“I don’t like it.”
I growled, crossing my arms. “Bruno, stop being so damned stubborn and listen.”
He huffed, but nodded once, giving me the go-ahead.
“Queen Zabette told me that to fix this mess, we needed to finish the Wish spell. I understood her to mean that we needed that last line to finish it, but we don’t.”
“We don’t?” Marco asked.
I shook my head. “All I have to do is make a wish that will nullify all of the previous wishes.”
My idea was met with silence for several ticks.
Marco was the first to speak. “You really think something that simple will bring Donatello back to us?”
“Maybe,” I said with what I hoped was a positive smile.
“Maybe?” Bruno grimaced at Gigi. “Maybe, she says.” He growled and dropped into one of the armchairs.
“What if it doesn’t work?” Gigi asked, setting the fluid bag on the arm of her chair.
“Well, then we aren’t any worse for wear, are we?”
“You could be,” Marco said.
“Especially if your wish goes sideways like everyone else’s,” Bruno added.
“If it does,” I returned, still smiling, “then we’ll figure out how to get hold of Patooty.”
“That could mean taking a side trip to Haiti,” Gigi said.
“So be it.”
“Electra,” Marco said, “I don’t want you to risk yourself for Donatello. He wouldn’t want that either.”
“We’re a family here,” I told him. “This is the sort of thing you do for those you care about and want to help.”
He frowned, but then nodded. “Okay. I trust you with Donatello’s life.”
Whoa, that was a heavy weight. I adjusted my shoulders to carry the burden.
“I’ll help however I can,” Gigi volunteered with a warm smile.
I looked to Bruno. “And you?”
He blew out a breath, his dark gaze steady on mine. “You really believe this could work?”
“I do.”
“Then I have your back, babe.”
After I blew him a kiss, I headed for the other room where Donatello stood in the trunk.
Marco followed, hovering near his brother. Gigi joined us next to the trunk, her doctor’s bag in hand, ready to help if the wereape finally snapped out of his catatonic state. Bruno stood in the doorway with his arms crossed, his legs in a wide stance.
“Everyone cross your fingers,” I said, straightening my shoulders.
“You’re not exactly inspiring confidence,” Bruno teased.
“Have faith in the seer, Sir Skeptic.” I took a deep breath, blew it out, and closed my eyes.
After several beats of silence, I was ready. Keep it simple, I thought, and said, “I wish to negate all effects from Patooty’s incomplete Wish spell.”
I waited with my eyes still closed for a sign that something had changed.
“I wish to abolish the Wish spell’s existence,” Gigi added, surprising me into opening my eyes. She shrugged at my raised brows. “I thought maybe we could use some added insurance.”
“Was that wise?” Marco asked, frowning down at Gigi. “We don’t know if Electra’s wish worked yet.”
“Electra’s wish for what?” came a rusty voice from the box.
I gasped.
“Donatello?” Marco stepped toward his brother, who was kneeling in front of the box in his naked human form except for the black circus jacket he’d still been wearing. “Are you okay?” He pulled a black magician’s cape from one of the magic trunks and draped it over his brother’s trembling shoulders.
; The other monkey brother rubbed his throat. “I’m dying of thirst.”
“Yes, you were,” Gigi said, rushing over with her bag.
“Gigi,” Donatello said, blinking at her. “I dreamed about you.” He looked beyond her, his gaze landing on me. “And you, too, Electra.” His thick eyebrows drew together when they landed on Bruno. “And that somebody kept poking me in the cheek.”
Bruno raised his hands. “I’m innocent.” At my narrowed look, he added, “Well, I was, until Electra wrangled me into submission.” He grinned at me, a wicked glint in his eyes.
In that glint, I saw a glimpse of good old Bruno, the alpha version, who hated to talk about his emotions.
While Marco and Gigi tended to Donatello, I walked over to Bruno, lowering my voice for his ears only. “How are you feeling?”
He cocked his head to the side, taking a moment to answer. “I’m not sure.”
“Do you want to go somewhere alone with me and talk about our relationship?”
He cringed. “Hell, no.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “But I wouldn’t mind going somewhere alone with you and practicing a little ‘seeing’ of my own.” He leaned closer. “We can start with you getting naked while I do some intense ‘readings’ of your body with my palms and fingers.” His hands slid down over my hips, pulling me closer. “Then, if you open up to me about your deep feelings, I’ll show you what I foresee in your immediate future.”
I chuckled. “It’s good to have you back and trying to sex me up.”
“Bruno,” Gigi interrupted. “We need your help moving Donatello to his bed so I can examine him further and give him a dose of fluids. He’s pretty dehydrated.”
“What happened to me?” Donatello asked.
“That’s a good question,” Bruno said, crossing the room to help Marco lift his brother. “One that Electra and I will be stopping by in the morning to talk to you about after you’ve had some rest.”
Chapter Ten
Bruno and I waited in the monkey brothers’ tent for another fifteen minutes while Gigi gave Donatello a quick checkup. After Marco told us all was as well as could be after the ordeal, we strolled through the dark, quiet circus toward our tent.