“Right. But I feel like I’ve tipped the scales the other way. I have too much of a personal life and whittling the days away because I don’t know what I’m meant to do. I know there has to be something. Life has to be about more than just slaving away at a job you hate. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think I’m going to be able to spend the whole day making jokes or whatever and getting paid for that, and I’ve certainly taken jobs that I haven’t enjoyed to bring some money in, but I think there can be a healthy middle ground where I can find something that I’m good at and that I enjoy that I’ll be paid for as well.”
“Of course,” I agreed. “Life is too short to do something you hate. Does the paranormal world have comedians? It sounds like you’d enjoy that.”
Scarlett grinned. “I would, but I’m not that funny. I’d be the witch booed off stage every night. I do like telling stories and entertaining people.”
“What about going into the movies?” I suggested, looking over at Pawdrey. “There’s got to be a paranormal movie industry, right? Or TV? You’d be great at that.”
“I mean sure, it would be fun, but I don’t know,” Scarlett said. “I’m not sure I’m pretty enough. Or good enough.”
“Are you kidding?” I replied. “You’re hilarious and fun, and gorgeous of course. You’d be great on camera.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Sure I do,” I replied.
“So would I,” Pawdrey said from the windowsill, where she was busy eyeing some birds in the tree on the front lawn. “If Scarlett gets to go into the movies, then so do I.”
“I don’t know if there are a lot of roles for cats in the movies,” I replied, and Scarlett grinned.
“Let me guess, Pawdrey thinks the idea of going to Fairywood is a good one?”
“She does,” I admitted. “I think you should at least consider it.”
“I will,” Scarlett said. “Thanks.”
“Anytime. You deserve to be happy, and you deserve to find a job that you enjoy. After all, what’s the first rule of belonging to the coven of Venus? Love yourself first. Finding a career that suits you is a part of that, isn’t it?”
“It sure is,” Scarlett replied with a grin. “Look at you. You’re turning into a true Venus coven witch by the day. Now, what do you say I teach you a spell? What would you like to learn?”
“Well, after today, invisibility sure would come in handy,” I replied. “As would a spell to eavesdrop.”
“Two of my favorites,” Scarlett said. “Let’s do it.”
CHAPTER 24
I woke up early the following morning with my body still not quite having adjusted to West Coast time – it had only been a couple of days, after all – to find Scarlett was still asleep. I didn’t blame her. After the events of the last couple of days, I figured she’d be exhausted both mentally and physically.
Needless to say, Pawdrey was also dead asleep. Apparently “beauty rest” meant a solid eighteen hours a day of sleeping for my cat.
Figuring that I could surprise Scarlett with some coffee and pastries when she got up, I grabbed my purse and headed out to Charmed Coffee. I didn’t recognize the fairy working at the counter, but she smiled kindly at me as I perused the menu and admired the goodies in the display cabinet.
“Sorry for the dumb question, but is there anything magical that’s been added to any of this stuff?” I asked, checking to make sure there was no one behind me waiting impatiently to order while I took my time.
“Oh sure,” the fairy replied, fluttering her fuchsia wings behind her and heading behind the cabinet to help me out. “Most of the muffins are plain, no magical additives. But a lot of the stuff in here has magical potions to enhance your mood. The chunky monkey bread, for example, is a brioche bread pudding with bananas and chocolate ganache on top along with a potion to make you feel a bit giddy and silly. Great for days when you’re just feeling down.”
“I’ll take a slice of that for sure, then,” I replied. After all, Scarlett was naturally a pretty happy person but after the previous night’s news, I figured even she could use a bit of a boost this morning. “What about this slice here?”
I motioned to a blueberry slice topped with a gorgeous white glaze and lemon zest.
“Oh, yes,” the fairy replied. “We call that the brain-helper blueberry bread. It’s got a potion that will help you center your thoughts. It’s very popular around exam time at the Academy. It’ll prevent you from getting distracted when you’re studying and sometimes will even help you organize your thoughts and make connections you might otherwise have missed.”
“I’ll take three slices,” I announced. “Is there a limit to how much one person should eat?”
After all, I realized if I was going to get three slices of the cake that would help me focus, it would be pretty embarrassing if I accidentally overdosed on it.
“Well, for witches and wizards half a slice is the recommended dosage.”
Seriously? Half a slice? That was like how Oreo packaging recommended that a serving size was two cookies. Nobody opens a packet of Oreos and only eats two cookies. Nobody.
“You can eat a whole slice without any adverse effects, you’ll just feel the impact more. Elves and shifters are able to eat a whole slice without issue. Fairies and vampires aren’t supposed to eat more than a quarter slice at once. I wouldn’t recommend eating more than one slice in a day, though.”
“Alright, maybe just make it two slices, then,” I replied. One for me, and one for Scarlett. Who knew if magic and focus potion could help me solve the case, but I was willing to give it a shot. “And a couple of lattes, please. All of it to go.”
“Sure thing,” the fairy said, ringing up my order. “Let me just pack those in a box for you.”
A few minutes later, I left the coffee shop with my box and a tray of coffees sitting on top. Curiosity got the better of me, and I opened the box, grabbed the blueberry slice, and began munching away. It was delicious, the sweetness of the blueberries mingling with the slight tartness from the lemon glaze. I couldn’t taste any potion at all, and I wondered if it was easy to make potions that didn’t have a taste when baked. I was going to have to ask Victoria how it all worked when I saw her next.
About ten seconds after my first bite of the slice, I began to feel its effects.
“Woah,” I said quietly to myself. Was this how people in the human world felt when they ate pot brownies? It was a strange feeling, unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It was as though all of a sudden I saw and felt everything more strongly than I did before. Rather than seeing a tree in front of me, my eyes focused on each of the individual leaves. Then the next thing I knew, my eyes were looking at individual cobblestones on the street. My brain seemed to move from one thing to another at a much faster pace than normal, but as soon as it focused on something, it focused hard.
Where on earth were these potions when I was pulling all-nighters trying to study for exams back at Harvard?
I began walking back home, thinking about the case once more. What was the story behind Simon? There was something weird there, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
I was about a block away from home, however, when everything clicked. I stopped in my tracks, almost dropping the coffee and cake where I stood. I knew who had killed Renee.
This blueberry slice really was magical.
Now I just had to prove it.
I began rushing home, the food forgotten. I had to wake up Scarlett and let her know what I had figured out.
I turned the corner onto the street where Scarlett and I lived, and my mouth went dry. Athan, the vampire who had hired Ali to find Oliver, was sneaking around the side of the building.
And I knew he was the killer.
This time, I did drop the food and coffee. He couldn’t be here for anything good, especially since he hadn’t knocked on the front door. I quickly pulled out my wand, grateful that Scarlett had taught me the invisibility spell the night before.<
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I pointed the wand at myself and muttered the words I’d learned.
“Venus, goddess so beautiful, with all your power, make me invisible.”
I gasped slightly as I looked down and saw I’d completely disappeared. It was still strange, getting used to magic. But I didn’t have time to be used to things; I had to find out what Athan was up to. I didn’t like this at all, knowing he was a killer.
I ran toward the house and followed him around the corner. Athan was at one of the side windows, and he’d just managed to pry it open. He climbed carefully inside, and a sinking feeling coursed through me. There was no way this was good.
Running to the window, I jumped up and managed to grab the ledge. I certainly wasn’t a tall, agile vampire, and while Athan had managed to elegantly climb through the window, I struggled to pull my body up.
“Why are my arms so weak? It’s like I did that push-up last year for nothing,” I muttered, quoting Liz Lemon, one of my favorite sitcom characters.
No, this wasn’t working. And I had to do something fast; I had a sneaking suspicion Athan wasn’t here for a casual chat.
I dropped back down to the ground and sprinted to the front door. It would be more of a risk walking through it when I was invisible, and I’d be more likely to be spotted, but I had to risk it.
Opening the front door carefully, I entered and shut the door behind me, putting my ears on high alert. I could feel the potion working. I felt like a bat as every little creak in the house reached me.
I snuck down the hall, and as I passed the exposed fireplace in the main hall, I grabbed a vase sitting on top of it, shoving it beneath my shirt so it wouldn’t be visible floating around.
I stepped into the living room to find it was empty, and I knew Athan had to be going to the bedrooms. I rushed as fast as I dared and saw the door to Scarlett’s room was open. I gasped as I peered inside and saw Athan dropping liquid into Scarlett’s mouth.
He was poisoning her!
I immediately grabbed the vase back out from under my shirt.
“Leave her alone!” I shouted, and he stepped backwards in shock as I clonked him over the head with the vase, which shattered into a million pieces. I expected Athan to collapse, since any human would have, but instead he just looked dazed, taking a few staggering steps next to me.
“Where are you?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “I know you’re there.”
He began to sniff the air, trying to smell me out. I had no idea if it would work or not, so I went on the offensive once more. I ran towards him, tackling him at the waist, sending him right into the bedroom wall.
The shock knocked me backwards as well, but before I had a chance to recover, Athan lunged toward me, and I didn’t manage to get completely out of the way in time. He fell to the ground, his arm wrapping around my left leg. I was off-balance and fell backwards, pain shooting up from my backside as I landed on the carpet.
I kicked up with my foot and got him right in the jaw. A crack sounded, and Athan swore.
“Where the hell are you?” he snarled. “I’ll show you for trying to hurt me.”
Athan lunged forward, and this time I rolled over to the side, so all he hit was carpet. I reached around and punched him in the nose as hard as I could, and he howled in pain.
Blood poured from his nose, but after a second of getting himself together, Athan jumped toward me again with speed I didn’t know he had, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground and he was hitting me in the face.
Pain coursed through me as I raised my arms, trying to defend myself, but I knew it was no use. He was on top of me now, and even though he couldn’t see me, he could feel me, and I was trapped beneath him.
I was going to die, about to be beaten to death by a vampire. This wasn’t exactly how I had expected my life in the paranormal world to go. I just hoped Scarlett would be ok.
Suddenly, a tremendous howl sounded from the doorway, and I opened my eyes just in time to see Pawdrey flying through the air above me, claws bared. She bore them deep into Athan’s face, and he screamed, hands flailing around as he tried to get the cat off him, but Pawdrey held tight.
“Pawdrey, no! Run! Save yourself!” I shouted to my familiar as I scrambled out from underneath Athan and tried to ignore the searing pain in my face.
“And miss all this drama? Not on your life,” Pawdrey replied, managing to keep her claws deep in the vampire’s face. She pulled out one of her front claws and scratched him across the eye, and he howled in even more pain as I ran over to the dressing cabinet and found a bottle of perfume.
“Close your eyes, Pawdrey,” I ordered as I rushed over, the bottle at the ready, and sprayed it as hard and fast as I could at the vampire.
His screams got even louder; I knew the alcohol in the perfume would sting more than anything.
“Use a spell!” Pawdrey shouted at me. “You’re not going to be able to stop him for good without magic.”
Right at that moment, Athan managed to grab a hold of Pawdrey. He hurled her away from him, but like a miracle, my familiar landed on her feet in the hallway like nothing had happened.
I suppose the saying about cats always landing on their feet was an accurate one.
Pawdrey was right. I knew I had to cast a spell of some sort. But what could I do? I knew so little magic. I had learned an eavesdropping spell the night before and the invisibility spell, but most of the other spells I knew were super basic. Things like changing the color of an object or making them smaller.
I had no choice, here. I was going to have to make one of them work.
I pointed my wand at Athan, struggling under pressure to think of the words of the spell. But the focus potion in the blueberry slice came through for me once more, and the words slipped off my tongue as naturally as if I’d grown up here in the paranormal world.
“Venus, goddess so beautiful, turn this vampire in front of me little.”
I focused all of my magic on Athan as he began to shrink. He sunk down to my size and then to my waist, my thighs, and then my knees, the entire time complaining about what was happening. When he was finally only about four inches tall, I broke the connection, ending the spell, and he shouted at me.
“What did you do to me?” With his reduced size, his voice came out as a tiny squeak. He would have been a shoo-in to be a voice actor in the next Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. Athan lunged toward me, but before he got the chance to do anything, I grabbed an empty mason jar off Scarlett’s cabinet and plonked it right over him, trapping him inside.
“Oooh, he looks fun to play with,” Pawdrey said, coming over and batting at the jar.
“Not right now, Pawdrey,” I told the cat as I looked around for a piece of cardboard or something. I eventually grabbed a book and tore off the cover, grimacing as I did so and secretly apologizing to the book for defacing it, but I was sure magic would be able to fix it up later, no problem. I slid the thick paper cover under the mason jar like I was picking up a spider to put outside.
“Let me out of here!” Athan shouted, pounding on the glass, but it was no use. I took him to the kitchen and left him on the table, grabbing some duct tape and solidly taping the jar to the counter so he wouldn’t be able to move until I let him out, then I ran back to Scarlett.
“Wake up,” I shouted at her, my eyes welling with tears as I dropped next to her on the bed. What had Athan given her?
CHAPTER 25
I reached over for Scarlett’s wrist and felt for a pulse. It was weak, but there.
Crap. What could I do?
I grabbed my phone from my pocket, but I couldn’t see the screen.
“Stupid spell,” I practically shouted. I quickly reversed the invisibility spell then pulled out my phone and dialed Victoria. She was the only person I could think of.
“Hello?”
“It’s Mina. A vampire poisoned Scarlett with something. Please, come over and fix her.”
“I’ll be there in three minutes,” Victor
ia said, and a second later the phone clicked dead. I paced around, three minutes feeling like forever. Soon I saw Victoria running down the street, not even wearing shoes, a giant leather-bound book tucked under her arm. I opened the door and guided her straight to the bedroom.
“Tell me what happened,” she ordered.
“Athan, the vampire, poured something into her mouth.”
“Do you know what it was?”
“No.”
“Where is he now?”
“In the kitchen in a mason jar.”
“I’m guessing it’s not possible to get a sample.”
“You’d have to do it,” I replied. “I shrunk him because it’s one of the few spells I know how to cast. Can you save her?”
“I hope so,” Victoria said. “This might be faster.”
She pulled out her wand as I shifted my weight from side to side behind her, watching with bated breath. I didn’t want Scarlett to die.
After a moment, Scarlett’s mouth glowed a light blue that quickly changed into an emerald green.
“Alright, I know what it is,” Victoria said. “There is an antidote, and I can make it easily. Where’s your potion station?”
My mouth went dry, and I shook my head. “I wouldn’t have a clue.”
“Kitchen?”
“This way.” I led Victoria into the kitchen, ignoring Athan’s shouts from inside the glass. Finally, I lost it on him.
“If you killed her, not only will I never forgive you, but I’m going to let you loose from this jar and ‘accidentally’ squash you,” I threatened with air quotes.
He shut up pretty quickly after that.
I turned my attention back to Victoria who had somehow found a cauldron and opened what I thought was a pantry but was actually filled to the brim with small ingredient bottles like the ones at The Love Shack.
“Scarlett is the least organized person I’ve ever met,” Violet told me. “These are all out of order. Come and help me. I need you to find dried basil and tears of joy.”
I immediately did as Victoria ordered, my eyes scanning the bottles. After two minutes, I’d found them both and watched as she added a couple of other ingredients next to her on the table. She took a deep breath as she grabbed the book and flipped through the pages, finally stopping on the one she wanted.
Hex Over Heels: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Fairy Falls Mystery Book 2) Page 14