by Deanna Chase
“It’s not what you think.”
“Good. Now, would you please invite me inside? Or would you like to continue acting like you’ve both just escaped from the local nuthouse?”
“Come on in.” Gabe turned around and we followed. His bare backside leading the way.
Esmeralda walked directly behind Gabe, and she looked at his ass thoughtfully, like she was a USDA meat inspector grading beef. “Hmm. Bear ass naked. I like. Gertie was right, he does have a really nice ass.”
“Oh, really? I didn’t realize my boyfriend’s ass was a regular topic of conversation among my friends.”
“Guys with nice asses are always a good topic for conversation.” Her pinching hand inched its way to Gabe’s left cheek. “He wouldn’t mind if I gave it a squeeze.”
“But I would,” I chided her, so she pinched my bare butt cheek instead.
Once we got back inside, I was happy to see the house didn’t look bad at all, considering the dangerous way I dragged the burning blanket through it. Gabe and I quickly dressed. I figured it was the best time to spill the beans about my surprise visit.
“Gabe, I didn’t get a chance to tell you why I came. I’m hiding out because I may have accidentally cast a spell…I have no idea what it was. It could have been an attack on other witches, it could have been anything. The Witches Union is going to be coming after me. That’s why I didn’t call.”
“I’m glad you came here to hide out. I can protect you.”
“No. I can’t stay here. You’d get in huge trouble for hiding me.”
“Don’t worry about me, I can handle them. You have to stay with me, Kelly.”
Esmeralda patted Gabe’s arm. “That’s the spirit! Anyway, it’s foolish to think you can hide from the Union. At least here you have Gabe. A witch could be intimidated by a,” Esmeralda moved her hand onto Gabe’s chest and she patted it emphatically with each word, “big…wild…bear.” Esmeralda drew a small wand from her pocket. “Then of course, you have little ole me to lend a helping wand.”
“I suppose you have a point. I really appreciate your help, Ezzy. Plus, Gabe could do some real damage in bear form. If you both really think it’s better for me to stay here, I will.”
“Good, now tell me all about this wayward spell.”
“It was an accident. I had that old spell book open to a random page in the French language section. Without even thinking about it, I touched the open page with my wand and pulled the spell off the book, like I’ve seen you do. I tried to smash it back into the book, but it exploded. Now the spell book is nothing but a useless lump of charcoal.”
“Is there any way to find out if she actually cast a spell? And what kind of spell it was? Maybe reverse it?” Gabe asked.
“First of all, let me say that I’ve never heard of anyone putting a spell back into a book in such a careless way.” Esmeralda stretched out her arm. “All you had to do was drop your wand.” Her hand opened as she theatrically simulated how simple it would have been to avoid my predicament. “But from what you’ve told me, I’d say you cast a spell. To answer your question, yes. The spell is in the wand, not the book.”
“What do you mean? The wand?”
“You’re in luck. It’s not common knowledge, but every magic wand has a memory of the spells it cast. There’s a catch, every wand comes with a secret phrase to unlock its history. I know your wand’s phrase. After all, it used to be mine. I reset the phrase a few years ago. Where is the wand now?”
“In the trunk of my car,” I replied. Ezzy slipped her miniature broom from her pocket and with a quick utterance of a spell, she disappeared amid a green cloud.
“So, what is the deal with Esmeralda? You know, I thought she was only into girls.”
“Esmeralda rejects labels of any kind. She thinks society should discard labels like straight, gay, or bi. She describes herself as sexual, no hang-ups.”
It only took her a minute to return with my wand.
The wand rolled gracefully in Esmeralda’s fingers, and she beamed with the joy of being reunited with an old friend. “I’ve got a lot of memories here.”
“Come on already, Ezzy. You’re killing me. I really need to know what stupid spell I cast.”
“Let’s hope not.” She held the wand up. “Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives!” The cheesy passcode was made even more cringe worthy because she shouted it.
“What? Quit fooling around, Ezzy.” She gave me her most serious eyes. “Really, Ezzy? You’re joking, right?”
“Why would you say that? I heard it somewhere. I liked it. Deal with it. Gabe? Could you please scrounge up some blank paper? A notebook perhaps?”
Gabe walked over to a small computer desk and grabbed a few sheets of printer paper. Esmeralda carefully arranged them on the table. “Now that the wand is unlocked, I simply say a couple of Latin words.” She pointed the tip of the wand at the paper. “Memoria transduco!” Red ink slowly bled out of the wand, forming handwritten text on the paper. Before long, a complete French spell was legible. “There you go, kids. That’s how it’s done.”
Gabe leaned over both of our shoulders. “What kind of spell is it? Can you tell?”
It was in French all right, a very old French beyond my limits. The handwriting was also a very unfamiliar and hard to read style. “Okay, I’m out. It’s up to you, Ezzy.”
“Interesting.” Her glossy black nail traced the ornate handwriting. “This spell is very old. From what I can tell, it’s what we used to call a jailbreak spell. Those spells were typically used to help a prisoner break free.”
“Great. So what kind of maniac did I just put back on the streets?”
“Not just a maniac, an entire group of…I’m not sure of what, though. Whatever it is, the spell refers to it as a circus act. It mentions dancers, but much of this spell is written in riddle and code. Only the witch that wrote it could use it.”
Gabe dismissed my concerns with a shrug. “I don’t think this is anything to worry about. After all, how many circus acts need to be set free? None, I’m guessing.” Gabe casually glanced at the spell. Suddenly, his head recoiled back. “This spell is also about bears!” His finger jabbed at a word. “Ursus? That’s Latin for bear, isn’t it?”
“Very good, werebear. You’ve got a brain as big as your dick.” Ezzy gave me a nudge. “Are you sure you wouldn’t share him?”
I ignored Ezzy’s sassy suggestion and focused on the spell. “A captive circus act, hmm. And something about bears. Could this be about one of those circus bear acts? Is that what this is about?”
“Oh…shit,” Esmeralda deadpanned. Her eyebrows arched over her widened eyes, the wand fell to the floor. It took her a few seconds to consider the consequences. I knew she wanted nothing to do with this spell when I saw the way she mimicked washing her hands. “Thank you both for the nude acrobats on fire show. It was as entertaining as it was bizarre. Goodbye and good luck, it’s been nice knowing you.”
“Hold on, Ezzy! Please.”
“Argh.” Esmeralda returned the broom to her pocket. “I probably wouldn’t have really left.” She thought about it for a few seconds. “Although I should run away from this.” She slowly rubbed her forehead. “Run like a Kenyan track star on speed.”
“Thanks for helping out, Esmeralda. It’s true! You actually do have a heart.”
Esmeralda’s smirk showed how much she appreciated Gabe’s effort to keep it light with a little humor. “Of course I have a heart. It’s a shriveled up little thing, but a heart all the same.” When it comes to gratitude, Esmeralda absolutely abhors being thanked, just as much as she hates having to apologize. She’d rather move on than to wallow in any sort of emotion.
“Yes, thanks for sticking around, Ezzy. Why are you spooked by this spell?”
“This is going to sound strange because one doesn’t normally associate witches with traveling bear circuses. Believe it or not, I know of a witch named Ursula that actually owned a real l
ive bear circus. She was from a French noble family and a long line of witches. In the early 1600s, they had a dispute with a rival family. Get this, they were a clan of bear shifters.”
Gabe pulled out a chair and sat down. His hand stroked his forehead. “Hold on! There are other werebears out there? I always wondered.”
“Yes, there are all kinds of shifters in the world. Kelly, you really need to drag your man out of his den more. Anyway, it was Romeo and Juliet from hell. Ursula broke a serious witch’s taboo when she fell in love with a young werebear. So not only did these families hate each other, you have an illicit romance. The witch’s family declared open season on the werebears. Surprisingly, Ursula’s young lover turned out to be a real jackass when he chose to dump her. You know the drill, loyalty to his family over the witches, blah, blah, blah. Ursula was deeply hurt and seriously angry. She placed a hex on the entire werebear family. They would forever remain in bear form, never again to walk the earth as humans. She had them all captured, then she forced them to perform in a traveling circus act.”
“That was one seriously pissed off witch! So you think this spell was written to free the werebears?”
“Yes, I do think it has to do with Ursula’s bears. And if she could curse a family like that, I don’t want to find out what she would do to the witch who reversed it.”
The ringtone on Gabe’s phone blared from across the room. Ezzy and I heard concern in his voice from the moment he answered the call. We listened, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Hold on, did you say bears? Bears in Caldron Falls’ town square?” Gabe jotted something down. “Twelve bears? I’ll be right there.” After the call, he immediately turned towards us. Flabbergasted is the only word that could describe his face. “That was the sheriff. Twelve bears are in the town square.”
“Oh my God, it’s the bears in the spell.” I knew this was the start of something bad.
“Looks like I might need your help before Kelly will, Esmeralda. For now, I think you two should stay here.” Gabe zipped around the house, gathering his things. “Once I find out what this is about, I’ll call.” Gabe kissed me and took one last item from his gun cabinet. “Tranquilizer gun. I hope I won’t need it.” He jogged out the door and off the porch. A minute later, his truck roared down the driveway.
“Stay here? My ass. Let’s go, Ezzy.”
“For the record, Kelly, I’m only going along to satisfy my curiosity.”
Chapter 5
By the time Gabe’s truck sped down Main Street, we were already watching the bears. Thanks to Ezzy’s broom, we appeared on the sidewalk across the street from the town square. A conveniently parked car kept us hidden. I counted twelve large bears. They weren’t black bears like Gabe shifts into. These were huge, fierce looking beasts, perhaps grizzly bears. A few bears were kicking a soccer ball, a couple rolled and tumbled in the grass, and the rest just milled around restlessly.
Gabe passed the sheriff’s hastily prepared roadblock, parking a block away from the square. He stepped cautiously out of his truck and looked over his shoulder, with more concern about the people watching him than with the bears in front of him. That doesn’t mean he wasn’t prepared, he took the tranquilizer gun with him. “Ezzy, look at Gabe. See how he’s making sure nobody can see him? I think he’s trying to hide so he can talk to the bears, or maybe shift.”
“Twelve on one? Say goodbye to Gabe. I can’t bear to watch.”
“Not funny, Ezzy.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll be his backup.” Ezzy stroked my wand.
Gabe leaned the gun against a lamppost and crawled behind a large bush. When he reappeared, he was in bear form. Even though Gabe’s form is the smaller and peaceful North American black bear, he was hardly undersized. His paranormal ability changes him into a bear that’s three, or perhaps four, times the size of any normal black bear.
He approached the group, rose up on his hind legs, and bellowed what must’ve been a common bear greeting. The other bears rushed at him.
“Oh shit! Ezzy! Stop them.”
“I think they’re just excited to see him.”
“That, or they’re about to kick his ass. Freeze them, Ezzy!”
“I’ll try. That’s a pretty long shot, even for me.” Esmeralda steadied her wand on the hood of the car and adjusted her stance in a series of little movements. Knowing Ezzy, she was trying to show off her ability to mimic a sniper fixating on a target. Before she could get off a shot, the bears stopped in their tracks, startled by a screaming siren.
A sheriff’s squad car reeled around the corner, skidding sideways into Gabe’s truck. A young deputy leapt from the car and ran halfway to the square. She scanned the field of bears, looking for any sign of Gabe. Forming a megaphone with her cupped hands, she shouted, “Gabe! Gabe! Are you okay?” Her hands dropped to her sides when she spotted Gabe’s tranquilizer rifle. “Oh my God! They ate him!” The deputy bolted for the rifle, picked it up, and took aim at the bears. She advanced slowly into the grassy park. “Hold on, Gabe! It’s Candy! I’m coming to get you!”
“Who the fuck is Candy?” I couldn’t help myself from feeling a bit threatened by the young deputy. She was an unquestionably beautiful brunette. Her ponytail hung down from under her ball cap, and her uniform was purposefully too small, every curve of her perfect shape was on full display.
“And why is she heroically walking into a herd of grizzly bears to save your boyfriend? Hmm? Isn’t that your job?”
“No. No. I’m overreacting. She’s probably doing what any deputy would do, considering the circumstances.”
“Maybe. Candy’s pretty damn hot, though. By the way, do you call a group of bears a herd? Or is it a pack?”
Gabe stopped running at the same time as the other bears. When he saw Candy with the rifle, he waved his paws in the air, fell to all fours, and ran in her direction. Candy didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. “THWACK.” A large tranquilizer dart hung from Gabe’s shoulder. He rolled over and swatted his paws at it. The drug must have been injected upon impact because his swings were awkward and feeble. He slowly laid his head down and his tongue hung uselessly from his slobbering mouth. The rest of the bears ran full speed in the opposite direction, out of town.
“Gabe! Oh my God!” I sprinted to the snoring pile of fur. “Gabe?”
“Get away from that bear! He could still hurt you.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand that bear was about to attack me. Now, please, get out of the area. It’s not safe.”
Other deputies arrived on the scene and pulled me away. That’s when I really lost my cool and started swinging. The next thing I knew, I was cuffed and stuffed in the back seat of a squad car. Ezzy was still observing the scene, her red hair occasionally popping up from behind the hood of the car. I hoped she had a plan to break me free.
A flatbed pickup truck hauling something like a huge piece of culvert, backed up to Gabe’s limp bear body. Large letters painted in red spelled out a warning. “Live bear trap. Stay away.” The truck had a hoist on the back, which was used to quickly lower the trap down. A group of uniformed officers attempted to drag the sleeping bear inside.
The deputy in the front seat seemed amused with the operation unfolding in the square. He had smartass written all over his face when he turned around. “So, why is a pretty city girl like you getting all worked up over a big fat bear? You one of those bear lovers trying to stop bear hunting?”
“Animal lover? You have no idea. Do you know where they are taking him?”
“Who knows? I’d have him skinned and made into one hell of a rug, but that’s just me. See that guy in the blaze orange vest and purple glasses? He’s some fuzzy-brained egghead from the university. Been studying bears up here. He must be creaming his jeans over this shit. My guess is that he’s gonna have the beast hauled down to some science lab.” The deputy turned around and shook his finger. “At taxpayer expense. You know what? It’s a goddamn
bear. Where the hell do they find people who have to go to college to know what a bear is? Waste of good money right there.”
Another deputy leaned against the open window. “Hey Brian, Candy said the big bear ate Gabe. You know Gabe, the local warden. About a dozen more bears took off. The sheriff is calling up reserves and volunteers to hunt them down.”
“Jesus! See lady? That’s why we hunt bears up here. Man-eaters and a public nuisance, that’s what they are.”
“Holy smokes! Get a load of that hot chick you have back there.” The man stuck his head inside and leered at me. “How ya’ doin?”
“How does it look like I’m doing? I’m locked up in the back of a squad car. Let me ask you this? Do you have to be a special kind of dumbass to become a cop in Caldron Falls or can any asshole get the job?”
“Hey there, boys.” Esmeralda strolled up to the squad. “Take a look at what I have.” She twirled her wand like it was a miniature baton. The deputies were mesmerized by the shiny wand spinning like a pinwheel. “You will now let the girl in the back seat go. You’ll forget that you’ve seen either of us.”
The driver stepped out and opened the back door. He unlocked the handcuffs, instantly freeing me. “Keep control of them, Ezzy. I want to add something.” These guys were jerks, and I was itching to dish out a little Karma. “Both of you will now strip naked. You will be convinced you are chickens. I want to see you squat down while you walk, flap your arms like wings, and crow like roosters…for the rest of the day.” I winked at Ezzy. “That should keep them out of our hair for a while.”
I sprinted toward the bear trap just as the truck pulled out of the town square. Gabe’s hind paws dangled out of the back of the cage. Apparently, he was too big for the trap, so they could only close the trap door part of the way. Ezzy caught up with me and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. My eyes desperately scanned the park as I considered my next move.
“Ezzy, we need to find out where that bear scientist is taking Gabe.”
“We need a local we can trust. We need to talk to Morgan.”