“Doping horses?” My jaw dropped. I’d never heard a like. Who on earth would hurt a beautiful horse? Now I was more interested in the horses then Mick.
“Yes,” Mick took a step forward. “As you know as a native Kentuckian yourself,” he looked at me as if I was hiding something. Which I was. My heritage, my witchy heritage. I was not born in Kentucky. I was born in the coven and Mom moved us to Kentucky when I was a small girl. “Horse racing is big business around here. Especially with the Kentucky Derby in our backyard. It seems that there are no limits to what these wealthy horse owners will do to secure their spot in the Derby.”
“You mean by killing off the competition?” I asked, dumbfounded.
The more of the mortal world I was becoming engrained in, the more I didn’t like it. My double shift at The Brew was looking pretty good.
“Sherry was Mick’s partner, but after a few checks on some of the people we are investigating, we found that Sherry had gone to high school with one of them and we just couldn’t take the chance of her being recognized,” Burt said.
“That’s where you come in.” Mick smiled, but it wasn’t one of the smiles that knotted my stomach. It was a fake smile that alerted me that the snide spy was back. “We need you to play my wife so I can get in there and do some looking around. Maybe you can get us into the circle by befriending the wealthy wives.”
“It would help if you had knowledge of horses.” Sherry’s nose snarled along with one corner of her lip.
“We need you to start tomorrow morning.” Burt grabbed a file off of his desk and held it out to me.
“Oh, sir, I’d love to but I can’t do that. Now that Lilith, that’s my sister, got her Wit. . .” I corrected myself, “Um. . .new job and so I’ve been working two shifts. Hers and mine until Auntie Meme hires a new employee.”
“Auntie Meme?” Burt questioned.
“Oh yes, sir. She’s the patriarch of our family, sir. And no one, not even SKUL is a match for Auntie Meme.” I shrugged.
Sherry rolled her eyes and chirped a chuckle.
“It’s true, sir.” Mick finally came to my defense. “I’ve met and seen Auntie Meme in action.”
Burt looked between us before he paced back and forth as we all stood in silence waiting for his reply.
He rubbed his chin. He looked up to the ceiling. He tapped his temple and spoke, “Sherry can work your shift. She’s worked undercover in diners many times. She’s an old pro.”
“Oh, I don’t think so, sir.” Sherry stepped up to the plate to give her best bat at getting out of this. “I have plenty of paperwork to catch up on and I’m just. . .”
Burt put his hand up to stop her from talking.
“Sherry will take over your shift first thing in the morning,” Burt’s voice was stern and non-wavering.
I swear Sherry looked as if she was going to throw a big hissy fit right there. I even prayed for it. I’d given anything to see her cry, in hopes she had one of those ugly cry faces. It would’ve been the best way to make my day, other than playing Mick Jasper’s wife! My insides jumped with glee.
“Well.” One thing popped up in my head when my pendant warmed my chest. “I’m not sure how well Auntie Meme will take this news and all. She doesn’t know Sherry and I just can’t leave my family high and dry.”
“That’s easy. Mick had mentioned that your family eats supper every night at 5 o’clock on the dot.” He pointed to Sherry. “Sherry will be your guest and you can introduce her then.”
“But, sir,” Sherry protested. I swear the water works were on the way. I bit my lip in anticipation. Somehow she recovered and fast. She shrugged her shoulders back and her body was straight as a line drawn with a ruler. “I’ll be over at your house at five.”
“That does it then.” Burt handed me the file. “Here are the particulars you need to know on the case. We look forward to working again with you, Ms. Parks.”
He ushered me out of the office, but kept Mick and Sherry in there. I took the elevator up to the undercover dental office.
“Here you go,” Patsy’s hand flung toward me when I walked back into the lobby, my new badge in her grip.
“Thank you, Patsy. I’m looking forward to seeing your smiling face every day.” I flicked my finger at her as if I was flinging off a booger.
Instantly her mouth widened into the widest smile you’d ever seen. It sort of reminded me of the Joker from the Batman movies. It was an instant smile spell that would happen to her every time she saw me.
“Goodbye.” Patsy’s lips tried to jerk down. Her teeth gritted, her jaw tensed, her brows formed a V as she used her hand to try to pull the now slightly deranged smile down.
I walked out of the office with the file tucked in my arms.
“Well?” Vinnie asked when I got inside my familiar and he drove out of the parking lot.
“What can you tell me about Churchill Downs, horse doping, and pretending to be a wife?” I put the file down on the seat.
I nearly went head first through the windshield as Vinnie skidded to a stop.
Chapter Four
Living in Old Historic Louisville was Mom’s way of having us blend in with the mortals. Specifically Belgravia Court. Belgravia Court was old. The houses were old and in the historic register. The tree-lined courtyard in the middle of Belgravia Court was amazing. Especially this time of the year. We were very lucky to have seasonal changes in Kentucky and fall just so happened to be the prettiest. The mums planted along each side of the sidewalk were vibrant colors of orange, reds, and yellows. Of course Mom had the flower boxes that hung outside the windows and on the railing of the porch filled with pansies, garden pansies, and ladies delight.
“Don’t you just love how the white seems to frame the purples, yellow, and reds as if they are the only thing that matters to the delightful flower?” Mom’s face lit up as she talked about her gardens.
Recently, Mom had planted bushes along the sides of our walkway leading up to our house and that threw the garden club up in a tizzy. In fact, tomorrow night there was going to be an emergency meeting held in the courtyard over what was acceptable and not acceptable.
Mom moved us to Kentucky shortly after I was born. I didn’t know the coven from which we came nor did I know what it was like outside of the mortal world. The only thing I knew was what Mom and Auntie Meme had taught me about my powers and how it had to be kept a secret.
It was a lot of fun to play pretend and hold secrets as a child, but it was much harder as we’d become more and more engrained with the mortal world. Going to school was a lot of fun because I was around other children. But every so often I’d be called into the principal’s office because I’d let a little slip of the wrist punish another kid for not picking me first at the game four-square or dodgeball. It was a cruel world for us witches. Well, it was a cruel world for me. Mom had expected me to be home every night for supper at five o’clock on the dot, not a minute late.
Unfortunately, my time at SKUL had made me five minutes late and the look on her face told me of her distaste.
“Something smells good,” I said when I walked into the kitchen.
Mom was standing by the stove and Auntie Meme and Lilith were already sitting at the table. I kissed Mom on the cheek. She swung around with the casserole in her hands and glided over to the table, putting it down in the middle.
“Oh.” I tried to be as chipper as I could. “All the decorations look nice.” I pulled my shoulders to my ears. “Our favorite time of the year.”
True southerners loved to decorate with the seasons and a true southern witch was no different. Mom had exchanged the bright sunny window treatments with brown valences. The summer rugs had been switched out to rugs and throws with colorful floating leaves. The candles had gone from beach smell to pumpkin spiced and the tablescape had changed from pinks and greens to oranges and deep reds. Mom didn’t stop there; even the bed linens were switched out. The comforters were a little heavier and the sheets wer
e no longer silk, they were plaid and flannel.
Lilith lifted a perfectly plucked brow when I sat down.
“Okay,” I finally gave in. “I’m sorry for being late.”
“I understand that you are an adult.” Mom began her scolding and I just had to sit there and take it. “You can do whatever it is you please.” She scooped out some of the casserole and flung it on each plate. Everyone bit their lips. “But you have shamed our family by not showing up for your afternoon date with Abram.” Mom twirled her hand in the air. A bread basket floated down in the center of the table. “So, when I called Auntie concerned about your whereabouts,” Mom’s face tightened, her eyes dropped. One brow lowered while the other cocked up. “She informs me that you had a visitor today. A visitor that you told us was no longer in your life.”
She planted both hands on the edge of the table and eased herself down.
“I . . .” I tried to speak, but she lifted a hand.
“I was so upset that I couldn’t even work on my gardens and barely got the house in order with all the fall decorations.” She glared at me. “I had to use magic to prepare this meal and that is not acceptable.”
“Mom, Mick showed up this morning.” I grabbed a piece of bread and ripped it in half before sopping up some of the casserole. “I had no idea he was coming by. He wanted to meet with me and discuss what has been going on in his life.”
“His life? You mean your life’s journey?” Mom wasn’t buying it. “I can accept that you have an attraction to this man.”
“Who wouldn’t.” Lilith grinned. “He is hot.”
Mom shot her a look.
“What?” Lilith shrugged and took a bite of her bread. “He is,” she muttered around a mouthful.
“Regardless of his outward appearance, there is danger that surrounds him and I’m sure that’s not your life’s journey.” Mom lifted her chin. “Auntie’s Spell Circle has graciously accepted my offer for them to come tonight to do a special ceremony for you.”
“But…,” I protested, only to be shushed again.
The back screen door flung open. Pixie, Flora, Charmary, and Glinda walked through the back door in a single file line. Each of them had a leather handled oversized cloth bag with a zipper across the top. Pixie stood four feet tall and four feet wide. I was never sure of her hair color because she kept it in a buzz cut so close to her head, it shimmered different colors depending on the light.
Flora stood five feet, five inches, but five-foot-seven if you included her hair that was long, brown and uncombed. It was how she always wore her hair, so I assumed it was her style. She was average and if I saw her on the streets, I’d probably think she was homeless.
Charmary was altogether different. She was a little freakier than the rest. She was six feet tall and very thin. Like two-dimensional thin. She had grey hair, a long face, and wrinkly neck. Her arms were longer than the average woman and her hands were built like a man. She was kind and nice, but out of all of Auntie’s friends, she scared me a little.
Lastly, there was Glinda. She was the grandmother type of the group. She had the middle age spread, caring eyes, and kept her hair cut nice and neat above her shoulders. She kept it parted down the middle and every time I saw her I wondered what it would look like if she parted it to the side.
All of them had on long black cloaks, pointy laced-up boots, and a pointy hat. They were, after all, witches that didn’t live in the mortal world. They still lived in covens. Auntie rounded out the Spell Circle of five.
“Maggie,” Pixie spoke in a soft tone. “We have a very bad feeling about this man and the positions we feel you are going to be in if you choose him as your mate.”
“But I. . .” For a second I was about to come clean, but then there was a knock on the door.
All of us turned.
“Blondie,” my stomach dropped. Not because I’d forgotten she was coming over to meet the fam, but because she was as white as a ghost, mouth nearly scraping the floor, eyes blank as she took in the Spell Circle in their full regalia.
“Who shall you be?” Charmary flung a finger at Sherry.
I jumped up and pushed her hand to the ground. A collective gasp filled the room. No one touched the Spell Circle women, including me.
“Sherry,” I ignored the major boo-boo. “Everyone,” I grabbed Sherry by the shoulders. Her appearance still a shell of who she really was. “This is my friend Sherry. She is going to be taking my job at The Brew starting tomorrow because I have a new job at Churchill Downs.”
Auntie Meme levitated above the chair. She lifted her arms.
“Oh, shit.” I hung my head in fear of what was going to happen. I took my hands off of Sherry’s shoulders and let my arms fall to my side.
“Virook, dremdee, jinxiel.” Auntie chanted as the sparks left her fingers. “Virook, dremdee, jinxiel,” her voice accelerated to rise above the thunderclap. The Spell Circle turned and they all chanted, “Virook, dremdee, jinxiel.”
Sherry’s body lifted into the air. Her eyes closed and her arms hung down along with her hair as she floated out of the kitchen and down the hall.
“Let’s eat. I’m starving.” Auntie floated down to the chair and brushed her hands over the table, magically creating more food.
“This looks delish.” Glinda took the seat next to mine.
“I’m starving too,” Flora scurried to the open chair across the table from Glinda. “Fae, I love the fall decorations.”
“You are so talented when it comes to decorating.” Pixie scooped two helpings of casserole on her plate. “I wish I was as creative as you.”
“Can you pass me a piece of the bread?” Charmary asked.
“Wait!” I walked over to the table, my finger pointing toward the hall where Sherry had floated down. “What just happened?”
“Dear,” Mom said in her sweet southern voice, “we don’t have time for tom-foolery.”
“Who is Tom Fullery?” Glinda asked in her sweet voice. “I thought she was Sherry.”
“Tom-foolery is an expression.” Auntie reached across the table and patted Glinda’s hand. “It means we don’t have time for Maggie’s fun and games.”
“Oh, it’s not fun and games.” I stalked over to the table and stood over Auntie Meme. A bold move, but somehow I’d mustered up enough courage to do it. I flinched when she looked up at me. “I am not going to be able to work at the diner in the morning. I’ve taken a part-time job at Churchill Downs and tomorrow I have to go for orientation. I invited my friend over for supper so you could meet her. She has work experience in diners and you are looking for someone to hire.”
The silence spread over the room like a heavy fog.
“Enough!” Mom smacked the table and in an instant all the food was gone along with all the plates.
“I was hungry,” Pixie squeaked. She looked at the piece of bread in her hand. Mom snapped and the bread was gone.
Charmary gulped and stuffed the piece of bread she had in her hands into her mouth. She looked like a chipmunk.
“It’s worse than we thought.” Mom talked as if I wasn’t even in the room. “There is no time to spare. You can eat on your own time.”
The basement door flew open and everyone stood. There was a purple haze oozing up from the basement steps. Everyone got in a line, prepared to go down the steps, leaving me and Lilith last.
“You’ve done it this time.” Lilith’s brown eyes haunted me. “I don’t know what you are up to, but you need to figure it out.” She dragged her hand down her shoulder-length black hair and drew it down to the floor. Just like that, she had on her black cape and witch’s hat with our family crest on it.
“It’s my life’s journey,” I whispered, swiping my hand down my body, changing into my black cape and witch’s hat with the same family crest.
“Then you need to convince them of that,” she whispered in my ear as she walked down the steps behind me.
“How do I convince them that I’m supposed to work
with SKUL as an undercover agent?” I asked over my shoulder.
The sound of Lilith’s pointy toe boots stopped. I looked back. Something had come up behind her eyes that I didn’t recognize from her. Scared. Fearful. And fright held deep within, an emotion I didn’t know Lilith had.
“Boom, cha, ka, la, ka. Boom, cha, ka, la, ka.” Auntie Meme, Mom, and the Spell Circle chanted as they took each step down into the basement. “Boom, cha, ka, la, ka.”
Mom glanced over her shoulder when she realized Lilith and I weren’t chanting. She glowered at us and turned back around.
“Boom, cha, ka, la, ka.” Lilith and I joined in. The twinkling lights lit up the staircase and it reminded me of the sparkling nighttime stars.
Miss Kitty flapped her wings, creating a wind as she flew down the steps landing on Auntie’s shoulder. Riule slid past our feet as he scurried next to Mom. Gilbert squawked signaling Lilith to put out her forearm for him to land. Then there was me, with no animal familiar to comfort me. Everything was different about me.
My insides knotted. Not with the excitement I’d had the last time I’d come down, but with a gurgling of uneasiness. The last time I’d come down to the sacred basement was when my two worlds had collided and my Witchy Hour was upon me and my life’s journey was about to be revealed.
At the time I had no idea that my life’s journey included my little hiccup spell with Mick Jasper and SKUL and truly wasn’t certain of it until just now. A terrifying realization washed over me, stopping me in my tracks.
There was nothing wrong with me. What I had just said to Lilith was the truth. My life’s journey was to help SKUL with investigations. I might not have been a trained spy or know how to use self-defense the way the SKUL academy had taught Mick, but I did have a mean finger that could trump any of those moves. And my familiar was direct proof of it. I needed Vinnie to get me around, keep me safe, and spit out all the information about the investigations I would be on. Vinnie was a perfect familiar for my life’s journey.
At the end of the steps, we stopped at the cobblestone walkway. The basement wasn’t just any old basement; it was a portal that held all the secrets of our coven and our family. We walked in a single-file line with Auntie Meme leading the way. Once we started to walk down the cobblestone walk, the twinkling lights disappeared and gas-lit sconces that were spaced three feet apart on the wall showed us the way.
spies and spells 02 - betting off dead Page 4